255th Week, Psalms Chapters 102-106 (Click on Title for Video Introduction)

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 Click on Title for Video Intro


Monday, Psalm Chapter 102
Theme:  The cure for distress.  Because God is living, eternal, and unchanging, we can trust Him to help His people in this generation just as He helped His people in past generations. 
Author:  Anonymous
Psalm 102
Verses 25-27
Matt Strayer

Verses 25-27:  In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded. But you remain the same, and your years will never end. 

THOUGHT
Praise God that He never changes.  No matter how many times or how badly we fall short, God will not change His mind about the promises He has made to us as believers.

PRAYER
Thank You, God, for the sense of security it brings to know that You never change. Help us to put our hope completely in You and not in the shifting things of this world. AMEN


Tuesday, Psalm Chapter 103
Theme:  God's great love for us.  What God does for us tells us what He is really like.
Author:  David
Psalm 103
Verses 1-5
Matt Strayer

Verses 1-5:  “Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits---- who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with LOVE and COMPASSION, who satisfies your desires with good things so your youth is renewed like the eagles.”

THOUGHT
I pray these verses in daily for everyone.  This chapter is full of forgiveness and the love of God. In verses 8 & 9 we read His Love for us sinners. In verses 10-12, He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. With this verse I remember all the times that I had been hurt by someone’s words or deeds. I’d want to hurt them back in some way.  By reading this, God shows us that it isn’t the right way to do it. 

We should react like verse 11 says.  He does it for us.  “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him.”  If we truly feared the Lord, we would so want to please Him in every way we could with the Holy Spirit helping and showing us. 

I confess there isn’t a day I don’t mess up in some way or another. I NEED HIM TO HELP ME THROUGH HIS WORD DAILY AND IN PRAYER.  Verse 12 says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”  Wow, what love is that for us all.  Verse 17 says, “But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear Him, and His righteousness with their children’s children.”  That is His promise to us for our families.

Verses 20-22 sites praising the Lord from angels.  Next time when you are out walking, look at His handy work and see the trees bowing before Him and the flowers blooming for Him and the bugs and animals even making noise to worship Him. This is a great time for us to also praise and thank Him. We serve an awesome God.

Praise the Lord.

PRAYER
Father, forgive us daily our sins and truly let us always look to You to show and help us in everything even if we don’t understand sometimes. I thank You for moving this group to read the Word and do devotions on it. What a step of faith for them.  Bless us all, Lord, and all our families near or far.  
In Jesus Name.  AMEN


Wednesday, Psalm Chapter 104
Theme:  Appreciating God through His creation.  He not only creates, but maintains His creation.  The Lord's care is the source of our joy.  
Author:  Anonymous
Psalm 104
Delores Little

THOUGHT
This Psalm tells of God who created the world and all the things in it.
It starts out with Praise.  “Praise the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, You are very great; You are clothed with splendor and majesty.”  Verse 2 says, “He wraps Himself in light as with a garment; He stretches out the heavens like a tent.” As you all read this, try to remember how He had Moses have the people build His tent in the wilderness, which is all having to do with Christ. He is our light, and His robe of righteousness covers us.  

As I read this, I realize that if we had been obeying God as we should, all these beautiful things would still be flowing with blessing for us from His work on earth. But because we did not do what He said, rivers dry up, and there are fires and floods.  The earth trembles when He looks at it, and the mountains smoke when He touches them.  He is so much greater than His creation that with a look or a touch He could undo it.

We are to “Keep our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith.” Heb. 12:2

Living on a farm I saw good things happen and bad things. It all depended on the weather.  I saw it freeze all the corn coming up at the end of May by a storm that hit and froze everything. Farmers worked night and day to replant, and by fall many had successful crops.  The sad thing is as I look back, not one of them gave God glory for it. 

As we begin each day, may we not forget Our Creator and everything He has made for us.  

PRAYER
Father, thank You for how You made everything good.  We messed up. But by Your great love and grace, You gave us Your son, Jesus, so we could openly come to You every day of our lives. This week we are to really remember what Jesus did for us. Let us be thankful and raise our voices in Praise to You.  In Jesus Name we pray. AMEN


Thursday, Psalm Chapter 105
Theme:  God's mighty deeds in bringing Israel to the promised land.  Remembering his miracles encourages us to keep living close to Him. 
Author:  David
Psalm 105 
Verse 4
Delores Little

Verse 4:  Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.

THOUGHT
If God seems far away, persist in your search for Him.  God rewards those who sincerely look for Him.  The Psalmist suggested a valuable way to find God and become familiar with the way He has helped His people in the past.  The Bible records the history of God’s people.  In searching its pages we will discover a loving God who is waiting for us to find Him.  

We cannot read this ancient history without reflecting on how consistently God’s people failed to learn from the past.  They repeatedly turned from fresh examples of God’s faithfulness and forgiveness only to plunge back into sin.  God can use these psalms to remind us how often we do exactly the same thing.  Having every reason to live for God we choose instead to live for everything but God.  If we paid more attention to “His Story”, we wouldn’t make so many mistakes in our own stories. 

PRAYER 
Heavenly Father, take any rebellion out of us and let us be all You want us to be, to glorify You daily in our walk, talk, singing and actions.  As stated in verses 1-5,
“Let us be the light to others in this world who walk in darkness.  Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name; make known among the nations what He has done. Sing to Him, sing praise to Him; tell of all His wonderful acts. Glory in His holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always. Remember the wonders He has done, His miracles, and the judgments He pronounced. In Jesus Name we pray. AMEN


Friday, Psalm Chapter 106
Theme:  A song of national repentance as the people return from captivity.   God patiently delivers us. in spite of our forgetfulness and self-willed rebellion. 
Author:  Anonymous
Psalm 106
Verses 6-7
Delores Little

Verses 6-7:  We have sinned, even as our fathers did; we have done wrong and acted wickedly. When our fathers were in Egypt, they GAVE NO THOUGHT TO YOUR MIRACLES; they did not REMEMBER YOUR MANY KINDNESSES, and they rebelled by the sea, the Red Sea.

THOUGHT
This is the same recording that we read in Exodus to Deuteronomy. It starts out with praise and ends in thanks to God.  God performed many miracles for them.  They seemed to forget all the things God did.  They rebelled. We read where they are saved BY GOD AGAIN.  He dried up the Red Sea, and all their adversaries were drowned. 

We read all the things they did while in the wilderness and how Moses, God’s chosen one, stood in the gap before Him to keep God’s wrath from destroying them. This is what Jesus did for us. He stood in for us, so we could come before Him daily, not just at certain times of the year. Our offerings are our prayers to Him and how we reach out to others to help. 

These chapters are a good reminder that we can be in the very same place today.  If we take our eyes off of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, we will fall into sin just as in the readings of these chapters.  We see our world and how alive sin is through movies, TV, newspapers, social media, caring about Number One and saying things are OK if it feels good.   

We also remember how only 2 that were 20 or older got to go into the promised land, and all the rest were killed or died.  Moses did get to see it from a mountain top, but never got to go in.  Moses did not obey the Lord.  

We need to keep our Lord ‘first most’ in our hearts.

PRAYER
Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from the nations so that we may give thanks to Your Holy Name and Glory in Your Praise. Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Let all the people say, AMEN! PRAISE THE LORD.  In the Name of Jesus.  AMEN














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