For You have tried us, O God; You have refined us as silver is refined. You brought us into the net; You laid an oppressive burden upon our loins. Psalm 66:10-11 NASB Oppressive burden – Life is difficult. God is in control. Often those two sentences seem to be completely contradictory. If God is good and He is…
He rules by His might forever; His eyes keep watch on the nations; Let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah. Psalm 66:7 NASB Might – Okay, this is a victory poem. God will prevail over all His enemies. No one and nothing can stand against Him. Don’t be deceived, the wicked will perish. We get that, but after all…
Say to God, “How awesome are Your works! Because of the greatness of Your power Your enemies will give feigned obedience to You. Psalm 66:3 NASB Give feigned obedience – Imagine that you are really committed to your own agenda, but you’re confronted by an overwhelming adversary. You know that he can eliminate you at any…
Sing the glory of His name; Make His praise glorious. Psalm 66:2 NASB Sing – What to do after shouting. Sing. Ah, you remember? We started with rūaʿ (shout). We yelled out the battle cry of God and heard the earth echo our cry. We jumped on the tidal wave, undulated with the earthquake, sizzled…
Shout joyfully to God, all the earth; Psalm 66:1 NASB Shout joyfully – Did you know that this word (rūaʿ) is most typically used for a battle cry, an alarm in war? Oh, it’s also about praise, the shofar, exultation, and making a lot of noise, but most of the time it’s about war cries. …
I believe in twenty-twenty hindsight. It seems to work so much better than prediction. It’s so comforting to know that you’re right because whatever you claim to be true has already happened. No more “weatherman” mistakes. Of course, there’s always the problem with what things mean. Twenty-twenty hindsight is great for recalling what happened, but…
For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7 NASB Discipline – Now, it’s the day after. The Western world’s day of resolutions is over. Back to the routine. But the real resolutions that should govern our lives in this new (Roman) year aren’t like the…
In Parma, things move a bit slower. Maybe that’s one reason why we like it here. This is a picture of the main street at 10AM on New Year’s Day. Gives you an idea of what a day off is like in this part of the world. We took a nice walk (about 2 miles)…
When you are in distress and all these things have come upon you, in the latter days you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice. Deuteronomy 4:30 NASB All these things – The myth of eternal return is upon us. In the Western world, we start again. We finish the past cycle and hope for…
