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The Spirit of Wisdom & Revelation in your Wilderness
Mummy Blue – from Musing to Amusing
It all started with me laughing out loud.
I’m sitting at home alone this morning holding a cup of tea and contemplating the weekend. I’m trying a new creamer – a blend of cashew and almond. It’s wonderfully creamy, packs 10g of protein, and has a decent taste. I just can’t look in my cup. It looks like it’s curdled, but just a little shake and all is back to normal. It’s the wierdest thing to have to get past the initial reaction to dump the whole cup. I’m over that now. Just don’t look in the cup, Hannah.
It’s misting steadily outside though I can tell the sun is trying to poke through the clouds. Boy those windows could use cleaning. I never notice dirty windows. I don’t know why anyone would notice dirty windows. Don’t look at the dirt, look past it. It’s so much better to look past the dirty windows than at them. The sheep are lying down in the pasture. Imagine wearing a heavy wool coat and lying down on wet grass in the misty rain. Then again, I imagine that sheep don’t imagine much.
I watch the traffic in the distance. It transports me to sitting with dad on the front porch, God rest his soul. We’d sit there and wonder where that car was going. And that one? Well maybe they’re not going somewhere, maybe they’re coming from somewhere. True but that doesn’t make sense; just because you’re coming from somewhere does not mean you’re not going anywhere. That is true. That’s a big truck, what do you think it’s carrying? I don’t know but I like how they come in waves and then the highway is quiet.
I miss that guy. I haven’t mused with him for a year and half now. Sigh. We will again. Last time we talked he was in the hospital fighting Covid. We didn’t know it would be the last time. At least I didn’t. Did you know, dad? He was having trouble getting a deep breath, so we didn’t talk for long. He told he was just resting and that he was going to be alright. To be good. He called me Mummy Blue. I didn’t say much. I was crying and didn’t want him to know. I love you Mummy Blue. I lost it. I love you Daddy Blue. Rest.
Within a day he was gone. The damage to his heart and lungs was extensive. He died on the operating table. Rest Daddy Blue. I’m so sorry, said Dr. Ngunga. Thank you for your efforts, doctor. Yes, he was an amazing man.
Death sucks! Grief is a bear…
Next thing I know I’m watching myself reading a eulogy virtually. I don’t want to be here. I want to be there. What am I doing here?
Well, right now I’m sitting here sobbing as I write this. But I can tell it won’t be a long sob. Just deep and intense heaving. I dreamt of him the other day. He was walking. That was so great. He was walking really fast which isn’t like him. He generally strides. Majestically. He had a limp in the dream. And he walked fast. But it was him. I really need to start on that book about him. But I need to finish this other one first…
The reason I grabbed my computer to blog in the first place was because I had just finished laughing out loud. And that made me think I hadn’t blogged in too long. I really should replace the missing button in my shirt. But not now. I was watching birds in the pond across the field and enjoying the clouds gliding across the sky. Sometimes they move really fast, those clouds. This time they were. I wonder where they’re going.
All of a sudden, I saw my bald eagle. He did a swoop towards the water, but it was a gradual swoop, not a fast one like he was catching something. I lean forward quickly to see what he’s doing, and I catch the funniest sight I’ve seen all morning. A tiny bird is chasing him off. This bird is smaller than his massive white head and he’s doing everything he can to get away from it.
That made me so happy I jumped to my feet to see how it would end. They dip behind the trees and I’m left to my imagination…
That was good. So here I am alone at home. Laughing. Crying. It’s going to be a good day.
Contemplating Intermittent Fasting?
Intermittent fasting (I.F.) might be one of the world’s most popular fitness trends today. Fasting entails eating little or nothing at all. The vast majority of diets focus on what you do or do not eat. I.F. focuses on when you eat.
I started I.F. because I realized that I was having breakfast in the morning, though I wasn’t even hungry.
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A different eating pattern: Most people do not eat through the night. In the morning they therefore eat a meal called ‘break-fast.’
Fasting is reputed to have numerous benefits but can be daunting for most people. I.F can be quickly integrated into most people’s lifestyles. I started I.F. a few months ago because I realized that I was having breakfast in the morning, though I wasn’t even hungry. I had been trained to believe that breakfast was the most important meal of the day so I stuffed more food into the pipeline. Many people eat mindlessly or are emotional eaters. For spiritual reasons, I desired to gain control over food in my life and decided that I.F. would be a practical way to do that for health and spiritual reasons.
There are different types of I.F. I chose the most popular one which involves fasting for about 16 hours every day, also called the Leangains protocol. This prolongs the time between dinner and breakfast the next morning. It entails eating 2 meals instead of the regular 3 or more. The two meals are consumed within about 8 hours.
How long can I go without food? As a hospice worker, I marvel at how long the human body can sustain life without food. Did you know the body can go 8-21 days without food and water? It can go up to 2 months without food if it has water.
The human body can go 8-21 days without food and water
The 4 Soci0-emotional reasons for eating: We have more socio-emotional reasons for eating than we do physical ones.
- We eat because it’s associated with socializing and having a good time.
- We eat when we are bored, sad, angry, lonely, frustrated, and for so many other emotions.
- Institutionally, we are trained to eat at set times. As I mentioned before, we frequently eat when we are not hungry, just because it’s “time to eat.”
- We eat to nurture. From working with hundreds of dying individuals, one of the toughest struggles family members face is stopping feeding for their loved one at the end of life. They don’t want them “to starve to death.” But feeding and digestion can actually be painful and detrimental to a digestive system that is shutting down in the dying process. Chocking is a very high risk. The body sees to this by diminished appetite and reduced wakefulness.
What are the 9 benefits of fasting? Many people fast for spiritual and health reasons and it has numerous benefits.
- Fasting is a common practice in Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism. These religions have mandates to fast to sharpen one’s spiritual acuity and to gain power over situations that can’t be overcome in other ways.
2. Many people cite weight loss as a benefit of regular fasting as well as of I.F.
- The idea of I.F. is to consume fewer calories per day, not to stuff one’s regular eating quotient into a shorter period of time.
- Insulin levels drop and Human Growth Hormone levels rise dramatically, which bode well for burning fat and building muscle to facilitate weight loss.
- Noradrenaline or norepinephrine which aids in the burning of fat is increased when we fast.
- Fasting enhances the body’s stress response and increases metabolism.
3. Fasting can alter your genes and help you live longer.
4. Fasting lowers blood sugar and reduces insulin resistance combatting type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes.
5. Fasting may combat cancer as cancer cells depend on a regular intake, especially of sugar.
6. Digestion takes up a lot of the body’s resources. When we take a break from digesting by fasting, we trigger cellular restoration, including brain cells. Tattered cells are carted off and new ones are created faster than when coupled with the digestion process.
7. Fasting reduces belly fat which is associated with numerous disease processes. It reduces bad cholesterol (LDL.)
8. Fasting reduces inflammation throughout body systems.
9. Fasting simplifies our lives and rewards us with time and money otherwise spent on food prep.
In a future article I will outline how I have integrated intermittent fasting into my life and both positive and negative effects I’ve experienced. Fasting is not for everyone. Always consult your medical healthcare provider before engaging in significant life changes such as fasting.
There’s Something About Fire
There’s something about fire
Holy Spirit’s fabulous attire.
Flames flickering hither and yon.
There’s something about fire.
Familiar to us all,
Yet formidable, indomitable.
Evoking danger, invoking desire.
There’s something about fire.
It warms our frames and cooks our food,
Fuels tall tales as we gather around it, mesmerized, hypnotized.
It purges forest floors, – the ultimate purifier.
Freeing seeds that wouldn’t otherwise crack from their pods,
New life to acquire.
There’s something about fire.
And at life’s end, to watch a pyre,
Licking flames flying higher, higher,
Like the crescendo of a choir.
There’s just something about fire.
Scripture Meets Science in Music
A devotional of Psalm 149
1 Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of the godly!
Music is a powerful medium that God endowed us with. Novelty of any kind strikes fresh cords in our nervous system and causes shockwaves in our brains as neuronal activity gears up. We learn much more deeply when music is involved. So, it’s impactful to hear music; doubly impactful to sing the music yourself; quadrupled impactful to sing in a group, especially with people you love; and exponentially so when the music is new. Yet again, science lines up with scripture in confirmation.
2 Let Israel be glad in his Maker; let the children of Zion rejoice in their King!
Have you reason to be glad today? Many say no. Look at the state of the world. Look at the plight of my marriage or my bank account, my children or my health. Well, I propose to you an evergreen gladness that won’t depend of earthly matters. Rejoice in your king over your status or provisions. We deposit our gladness and joy in corrupt banks and marvel when we are robbed. Practice being glad in your Maker. The return is high and guaranteed.
3 Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre!
These commands seem flippant. They are not. Your Maker knows the power of music and its capacity to transform you. Add to that the power of movement. As an occupational therapist, I frequently teach that we actually have six senses, not five. Movement is the sixth sense. Through it we experience and interpret the world.
Wholistic teachers like Montessori believed that movement should always be paired with mental activity for maximum effect. In child development, there is intense motor activity with much mindful engagement. As we get older, we disassociate movement from learning. We are taught to sit still like good boys and girls. We get to go outside for a few minutes every few hours. This grossly robs the nervous system of the capacity for optimal learning. Children aren’t just “messing around” or “just playing” when they move in space. They are collecting vital information on the environment and how they can impact it, and it them. Some researchers call it “disembodiment of experience in relation to knowledge in western culture”. We do humanity a disservice when we cap that.
Research also shows, “that children make intuitively purposeful movement responses to music without encouragement. Building on these findings it is important to investigate the possibility of learning through movement to music, of gaining new knowledge, new representations to further musical learning…”
Yet again, the Lord has a prescription that compounds the experience. Put an instrument in the hand of the singer and dancer. It can be a “simple” instrument such as a shaker or tambourine that doesn’t need much skill. The body knows just what to do with it. It can also be a more sophisticated instrument that requires mastery. Either way, the Lord says to pick one up and move your body. “Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre!”
4 For the Lord takes pleasure in his people; he adorns the humble with salvation.
Isn’t it delightful to watch a roomful of children having a good time singing and dancing their hearts out? The Lord experiences similar pleasure in his people. I love how he calls us his people. What a sense of belonging and identity that endows us with. As we humble ourselves like children in his presence, he lifts us up, he delivers us, he gifts us, he restores us.
5 Let the godly exult in glory; let them sing for joy on their beds.
Because you seek after him and are affiliated with him, he calls you godly. Isn’t that priceless? That is your heritage and your identity. For that reason, he sets you apart and calls you saint. The word exult – alaz – means to jump for joy. This is to happen in abundance. Glory – kabod – means abundance, riches, reputation, but mostly it means weighty. It is repeated for emphasis kabod kabod. In other words you are to do some crazy fancy footwork. That’s your baseline. You just bust a move from time to time. A lot.
You are also to sing on your bed. The King James Version says we are to sing aloud on the bed. When he awakes you in the night hours, it is not to count sheep. It is no to lie there fretting and fussing. He has a great idea: sing aloud! Take this back to verse one and start over. Your melody is your weapon. Use it!!
6 Let the high praises of God be in their throats and two-edged swords in their hands,
7 to execute vengeance on the nations and punishments on the peoples,
8 to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron,
9 to execute on them the judgment written! This is honor for all his godly ones.
Praise the Lord!
Ancient Israelites went out to war led by choirs of singers. The importance of music in all spheres of life cannot be understated. I’ll soon be teaching on strongholds. There are invasive and native strongholds. This is one of your strongholds, believer. Music within you is as a war-time bunker loaded with ammunition. It is strategic in its view and position. When the enemy comes in like a flood, may he be met with a musical barrage. It will decimate his troops quick-stat. Whatever your two-edged sword is, soldier, its impact is amplified by high praise.
Your high praise beckons and deploys heavenly hosts to your side for back-up. It binds up enemy kings and battalions with chains and fetters of iron. It renders judgement upon the ungodly. This is your honor beloved, your – hadar. It is your splendor and your majesty, it is your beauty and your excellency. Open the eyes of your heart and ask Holy Spirit to give you a glimpse of this.
If you Hear Nothing Else
A devotional of Psalm 148
Today we get to wear God’s polar glasses and try on praise from their perspective. We saw last time that he is a God who pans opposites so that no one falls outside his parameters. Young and old, male and female, free and slave, kings and subjects, heights and depths, multitudes and few, hot and cold, dry and wet, light and dark, the fruitful and the ornamental, the flying and the creeping, the tame and the wild.
God created all things. Jesus, “is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist,” Colossians 1:15-17. It is him we are to praise.
1 Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights!
2 Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his hosts!
3 Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars!
4 Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens!
5 Let them praise the name of the Lord! For he commanded and they were created.
6 And he established them forever and ever; he gave a decree, and it shall not pass away.
The first reason we are to praise him is that he is our creator.
7 Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all deeps,
8 fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling his word!
On our last study we saw that everything in creation exists to fulfill God’s word. We learned that his word “runs fast.” Isaiah taught that it shall not return to him void. We saw that it is as the rain that falls and unfailingly causes things to grow. His word is always on an errand, and it always achieves the purpose of that errand. Our God is always about power, promise, provision, and purpose. Those four words are as good as the four corners of a cash note that you can take to the bank.
Fold that note and put it in your wallet. Take it out and use it often: power, promise, provision, and purpose. The way to cash in the note is by the words of your mouth. Words are God’s agent for production of those 4 Ps. That is why you must carefully watch the words of your mouth. God created the universe with his words. We do the same things. Indeed, “From the fruit of a man’s mouth his stomach is satisfied; he is satisfied by the yield of his lips. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits. Life and death are in the power of the tongue,” Pr. 18:20, 21. Life and death, people. Did you catch that? Life and death are in the power of your tongue!
Your tongue is an agent. It is an armament. It is a tool or a utensil. Your mouth is like a loaded gun. Use it responsibly. Use it masterfully. Learn to use it to speak life where life is needed. Learn to use it where death is needed. Align it carefully with scripture and become a master at wielding that weapon. Ask Holy Spirit to teach you what that means in your life. May his creating and sustaining power, promise, provision, and purpose be fulfilled in your tongue and with your lips. May it be fulfilled in your life and in the lives over those who speak.
In this chapter, the focus is on praise. May you become fluent in the language of praise. The best way to learn a language is to immerse yourself in the culture, have a coach, and open your mouth to speak their words in context. Surround yourself with people who speak praise. Look for opportunities to speak praise in context – and every context is a praise context.
9 Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars!
10 Beasts and all livestock, creeping things and flying birds!
11 Kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all rulers of the earth!
12 Young men and maidens together, old men and children!
13 Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his majesty is above earth and heaven.
14 He has raised up a horn for his people, praise for all his saints, for the people of Israel who are near to him.
Praise the Lord!
The second reason to praise God is that he has raised up a horn for us. A horn – qeren – is a symbol and a mainstay of power. It is a beast’s defense and its highest peak. It’s root word – qaran – means to shine or send out rays. Your horn, believer, is praise. It is your strength, your defense, your high place. It is where you shine. It is where you bring forth light for yourself and for those around you. It is where you show off your God and showcase him. You have to be standing pretty close to him to reflect his light.
The closer you are to him the brighter you shine. The closer you are to him the more brilliant are his power, his provision, his promises, and his purposes for you. Cozy up to the Word of God as outlined in scripture by the power of Holy Spirit. His name is Jesus. “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit,” 2 Cor. 3:17-18.
I pray that this study of psalms this year has brought you closer and closer to him. Its precepts have been astounding and life changing for me, and I pray they have been for you too. As we draw to a close, the passages are distilling the most important parts. If you hear nothing else, hear this: praise, praise, praise. May that be your focus and your drive this week and in the new year. You can’t go wrong.
His Word Runs Swiftly
A devotional of Psalm 147
This song underscores a theme in my mind – Jah is is a God of opposites. His eyes have a micro and a macro lens.
1 Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting.
When you raise your hands in devotion; when you open your mouth in adoration, when you raise a melody to God oh you look good, Beloved. It fits you like a flattering garment and shows off the best of you. You should wear that more often! We saw in Ps. 133 that not everything that is good is pleasant and not everything that is pleasant is good, but those two attributes came together regarding harmony, and here they come together regarding praising God.
2 The Lord builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the outcasts of Israel.
3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
4 He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names.
The micro lens of God causes him to see the downcast and brokenhearted. The dejected and disconsolate are bent down. They are drawn downward and inward themselves in their misery and pain. They may curl up into the fetal position in self-preservation. Jehovah rapha restores and mends the breaks. He thoroughly makes them whole. He firmly wraps and compresses their injury. He does the same with their sorrows and their hurts. He thus stretches them into shape as one sets a broken bone. His goal is to restore them to a state of praise as in verse one.
The macro lens of God pans out to the mysterious grandeur of our known universe and beyond. There he sees clearly a billion trillion stars and tracks each one. With our most sophisticated scientific instruments, we behold but a bucketful in an ocean of them. To determine – manah – means to weigh out, to allot officially, or to enumerate. He knows intimately the identity and character of each one.
5 Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.
When my oldest son was a few years old, he learned the first part of this verse. I told him that whenever he was in trouble, he could say those words and God would rescue him by strengthening his soul no matter what happened. I remember well his little hands clasped tightly together, saying, “Great is the Lord and mighty in power.” May he remember and say them to his dying day. Truly God’s understanding – tabun (intelligence, reason, knowledge, insight, skillfulness, and wisdom, all of which constitute the soul/heart/mind of God) is beyond calibrating. Adopt that lovely verse for yourself and may it be your final breath as well.
6 The Lord lifts up the humble; he casts the wicked to the ground.
Our God of opposites has a plan for the humble as we’ve seen throughout the psalms and he has a sure plan for the wicked.
7 Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; make melody to our God on the lyre!
8 He covers the heavens with clouds; he prepares rain for the earth; he makes grass grow on the hills.
9 He gives to the beasts their food, and to the young ravens that cry.
10 His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man,
11 but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.
What tender care he proffers to his creation: clouds for the heavens, rain for the earth, grass for the hills, food for the beasts and the ravens. Yet his humble heart is not easily impressed by what impresses us. The power of a steed or the strength of a man are lost on him while we ooh and aah. But O, he has one the delights and pleases him. It is he who fears him and hopes in his love. Rare is that man or woman or child who trembles at the mention or the thought of Jah. So great and mighty and powerful that we shudder. So majestic and beyond description yet attending to mere man that we marvel at his goodness. “The Lord has remembered us; he will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron; he will bless those who fear the Lord, both the small and the great,” Ps. 115:12, 13.
12 Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion!
13 For he strengthens the bars of your gates; he blesses your children within you.
14 He makes peace in your borders; he fills you with the finest of the wheat.
Here is a 4 “S” stand of God.
- Security for our dwellings
- Succession by blessing our children
- Succor in our land and homes so we enjoy his gift of peace
- Sustenance in his faithful provision.
15 He sends out his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly.
What a mysterious verse this is. God unleashes or sows or shoots forth his imrah – speech or utterance. This is his talk, what he says, promises, declares, and determines. This word – or dabar – is synonymous with the aforementioned imrah but adds the concept of an associated errand or action. It is word and action wrapped in one and entails power, promise, provision, and purpose. It is to say a thing or to word a work.
There is a lovely passage that we should all memorize, “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it,” Isaiah 55:10-11.
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We just learned that he forms clouds for the heavens, rain for the earth, grass for the hills, food for the beasts and the ravens. That precipitation does not need to return to him. It comes down on an errand of God’s choosing. It comes down on an errand and it accomplishes that mission. It comes down like an arrow shot by a skillful warrior. It is rightly aimed, swift, and always hits its target dead on. It bolsters the soul and all its functions.
His is not just imrah but dabar. The spoken word is the agent. The mission is the radical transformation of the individual soul as well as ministry on earth, meeting the needs of men, women, and children. It shoots straight into the heart of man and transforms it, aligning one’s will (desires, passions), intellect, and emotions with those of God. It provides security, succession, succor, and sustenance for the individual and for those that the speaker declares these things over.
Paul said, “Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified…” 2 Thessalonians 3:1a. What exactly is this word? It is the Word, Jesus Christ himself. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made,” John 1:1-3. Verse 14 adds, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Heb 1:3, 4 teaches about Jesus, “who being the brightness of [His] glory and the express image of His person and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.” Both New Testament passages show that even as Jesus Christ, he was word and action wrapped up in one. It was creation work. It was salvation work. It was exposing the Father to us. In all three areas he accomplished what God pleased and prospered in the thing for which he was sent.
16 He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes.
17 He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs; who can stand before his cold?
18 He sends out his word and melts them; he makes his wind blow and the waters flow.
This Fall, the Lord has been teaching me about fire since we studied Psalm 104. He immersed me in verse 4 which says, “he makes his angels ministering spirits, his ministers flames of fire.” It is therefore catching to me that he focuses on cold in this section. We studied the function of fire.
What is the function of cold? There are plants that will not grow unless they lie dormant in cold temperatures for extended periods of time. Cold also kills off harmful pests during winter months. The cold season allows the ground to lie fallow and rest before becoming verdant in the Spring. Cold temperatures keep vast waterbodies frozen in ice as reserves for the whole earth. What other benefits of cold can you think of?
19 He declares his word to Jacob, his statutes and rules to Israel.
20 He has not dealt thus with any other nation; they do not know his rules. Praise the Lord!
God declares – nagad – his word to Jacob and Israel. Nagad means to announce, to inform, to proclaim, to confess, to affront, to predict, to manifest, and to show forth. All this is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. That is why he was the first priest to sit down, his work well accomplished. That is why as he breathed his last, he said, “it is finished,” John 19:30. Only for physical and spiritual Israel has he done those. This choosy God has not dealt thus with any other nation. Bow at the feet of the seated Christ and praise him for his finished work.
The Magnum Opus
Psalm 146-150 marks the grand finale of the psalms which crescendo in praise, upon mounting praise, upon high, high praise!
A devotional on Psalm 146
1 Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul!
2 I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.
The soul has no greater purpose than to praise the Lord. This is the ultimate in the concept of worship. My will, desires, passions, and motivations lift Jah up. My intellect with its focus, alertness, plans, problem-solving, humor, thinking, memories and recollections, wisdom and understanding, meditations and reflections, calculations and evaluations, words received and transmitted, and much more all are to lift Jah up. My emotions of joy and affection, fear and anger, excitement and anticipation, jealousy and hope are all to lift Jah up. Hallel Jah!
Determine to do this. Resolve to have this be your way of life during your few days here on earth, most of which may already be spent. Indeed, to praise is to live. If you are living and not praising, what are you doing that is of any worth?
3 Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.
4 When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish.
The most powerful men, princes, have influence and clout. But they are like the dancing dolls at sales car lots. No sooner is the motor that inflates them turned off, then their frail fabric flails to the ground and all their actions and animated dancing come to naught. The son of man, adam, means the ‘earth born.’ All men, even the loftiest, are here by the grace of a breath. A mere breath, beloved. In due time, the owner of the breath recalls it, the earth born lump of flesh returns to its earth and becomes a small pile of dust, and his plans know him no more. Truly his life is but a vapor.
Three weeks ago, a beloved family member went into the hospital coughing up blood. An avid hunter, he had had a wonderful Fall season. Yesterday, he breathed his last breath. The family is reeling from the shock of it. Right before Christmas no less. I wonder what his plans were… They are no more. Ps. 144:4, “Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.”
5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God,
The more your help is in the God of Jacob, the happier you are. The more your hope is in the Lord your God and less in man, the happier you are.
6 who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever;
Man can create grand schemes and even accomplishments, but he can only keep faith for so long. Who are you waiting on to help you? Who owes you help? Who are you paying to help you physically, emotionally, financially, mentally? Don’t put all your weight on that foot. He who trusts in man chews on a broken tooth and stands on a broken foot, Pr. 25:19. Stand instead on the solid rock that is Jah. He alone keeps faith forever.
7 who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free;
8 the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous.
9 The Lord watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
“All our various kinds of hunger are doors for God to come into our spirits.” Maclaren. Our great, mighty God cares for us, mere lumps of clay. In his grandeur, he is full of compassion, and tender kindness towards us. He ministers to us and oozes love for us. He advocates for us, frees us, feeds us, guides us, uplifts us, guards us, and provides for us. And he knows how to take care of the wicked to boot. Lift up your hands and let him in.
10 The Lord will reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the Lord!
Blessed!
A devotional on Psalm 144
1 Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle;
2 he is my steadfast love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer,
my shield and he in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.
This section of this marvelous psalm reminds me of Psalm 18. I will outline many parallels in the two passages. The latter is a most comprehensive song of the desperate plight of a man in the hands of his merciless enemies and the Lord wrighting an incredible deliverance for him. It starts much like Ps. 144, “I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold,” vs. 1 and 2.
“For who is God, but the Lord?
And who is a rock, except our God?—
the God who equipped me with strength
and made my way blameless.
He made my feet like the feet of a deer
and set me secure on the heights.
He trains my hands for war,
so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.” Ps 18:31-34.
3 O Lord, what is man that you regard him, or the son of man that you think of him?
4 Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.
A male house fly lives for 15 days and female for 25; a hummingbird about 4 years; a dog about 10 years; a horse about 25; an elephant about 65 years; and a human, about 80 years. To the Lord, that is about as long as from the moment you took your last breath till now. From the last one till now. And it’s over.
Despite the relative brevity of man’s life, God has extremely high regard for him. Of course, we are talking about all aspects of the human body, soul, and spirit. We know that the soul and spirit live on after the body passes away. Historically, man has despised the body in various ways and held it in very low esteem. The creator God values even the body so much that after our death, he will renew it and give us a new one. God loves bodies. It is no wonder then that the world bombards us with messages that criticize it mercilessly and attempting to modify it. Scripture teaches that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made,” Ps. 139. He likes variety in the body. Our body is the playground or the canvas on which our faith plays out.
God not only inhabits our bodies, but our bodies embody him. He personalizes this so much with your body, and with the bodies of others as well. When you feed or cloth or visit someone in need, that you do unto him! This embodiment means that whatever you are using your body for today, Christ is doing that today. Listen in on Paul in 1 Corinthians 6:12-19:
“Some of you say, “I have the right to do anything.” But not everything is helpful. Again some of you say, “I have the right to do anything.” But I will not be controlled by anything. Some of you say, “Food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for food. And God will destroy both of them.” [in other words, eat all you want.] But the body is not meant for sexual sins. The body is meant for the Lord. And the Lord is meant for the body. By his power God raised the Lord from the dead. He will also raise us up. Don’t you know that your bodies belong to the body of Christ? Should I take what belongs to Christ and join it to a prostitute? Never! When you join yourself to a prostitute, you become one with her in body. Don’t you know this? Scripture says, “The two will become one.” (Genesis 2:24) But whoever is joined to the Lord becomes one with him in spirit.
Keep far away from sexual sins. All the other sins a person commits are outside the body. But sexual sins are sins against their own body. Don’t you know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit? The Spirit is in you, and you have received the Spirit from God. You do not belong to yourselves. Christ has paid the price for you. So use your bodies in a way that honors God.”
5 Bow your heavens, O Lord, and come down! Touch the mountains so that they smoke!
“He bowed the heavens and came down; thick darkness was under his feet. He rode on a cherub and flew; he came swiftly on the wings of the wind. He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him, thick clouds dark with water. Out of the brightness before him hailstones and coals of fire broke through his clouds,” Ps. 18:9-11.
6 Flash forth the lightning and scatter them; send out your arrows and rout them!
Psalm 18:13, 14 continues, “The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice, hailstones and coals of fire. He shot his arrows and scattered our enemies. He sent great flashes of lightning and chased the enemies away.”
7 Stretch out your hand from on high; rescue me and deliver me from the many waters, from the hand of foreigners,
“He reached down from heaven. He took hold of me. He lifted me out of deep waters. He saved me from my powerful enemies. He set me free from those who were too strong for me,” Ps. 18:16, 17.
8 whose mouths speak lies and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
9 I will sing a new song to you, O God; upon a ten-stringed harp I will play to you,
10 who gives victory to kings, who rescues David his servant from the cruel sword.
11 Rescue me and deliver me from the hand of foreigners, those mouths speak lies and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
“You saved me when my own people attacked me. You made me the ruler over nations. People I didn’t know serve me now. People from other lands bow down to me in fear. As soon as they hear me, they obey me,” Ps. 18:43, 44. Note the use of the term foreigner in Psalm 144:11. While Israel was the nation God chose to love, he has always included foreigners in his love plan. Any that love him he is quick to embrace into his fold. To be a true foreigner is to be one whose heart is turned away from God and holds little esteem for him. It does not acknowledge, recognize, or honor him. It ignores and rejects him. It is estranged from him. Isn’t it appalling to think we could warm the seats at church every Sunday morning and yet be in this state of heart?
12 May our sons in their youth be like plants full grown, our daughters like corner pillars cut for the structure of a palace;
13 may our granaries be full, providing all kinds of produce; may our sheep bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our fields;
14 may our cattle be heavy with young, suffering no mishap or failure in bearing; may there be no cry of distress in our streets!
My homeland of Kenya is coming up on an election year. Tensions are mounting between various political parties and pundits anticipate it may be a heated election. I am currently praying this section of scripture over my beautiful, beloved land, which has occasionally been embroiled in chaos as tribal clashes boiled over. Cries of distress accompanied blood shed on the streets. We don’t ever want that again. Please pray with me for Kenya.
15 Blessed are the people to whom such blessings fall! Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord!
Hallal Jah!
Loved Like Crazy
A devotional of Psalm 139
1 You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.
Our greatest need is to be sought after and to be known. Only God perfectly pursues us, understands us, knows us. Thank you Father for that marvelous truth. He sees us exactly as we are, he accepts and loves us, and draws us in for a hug. He does so even when we are the woman caught in adultery, or the prodigal son returning from a long stint of debauchery.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
Note the concepts of the soul/heart/mind of God here: he knows, he perceives, he discerns. His senses are focused on you. He sees you, hears you, feels you. He desires you. He is alert to you, focuses on you, fills your thoughts in divine intellectual intercourse. He is overjoyed by you, delights in you, is jealous for you. He loves you! He knows you in and out and is thrilled at his handiwork, his masterpiece that is ____________ (insert your name here.) He likes you a lot.
I cannot even begin to fathom God’s involvement in my life.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
God is love itself. Nothing can separate us from the love that is God. Even when we desire to disassociate ourselves from him, he, as it were, guides us in running away from him. We couldn’t even do that ourselves if we tried. All our vain and foolish attempts at separation from our life-giving, oxygen are thwarted by his love for us. Even when we reject and despise him, he remains our source, our all in all. We use his gift of strength to shake our fist at him. We use his gift of intellect to disprove him. We use his good gifts to distract us from him. The spotlight of his love is forever trained on us.
13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you.
God fashioned and designed you. As a knitter knits one stitch at a time and creates a marvelous garment, so God formed every cell in the secret place. He didn’t just start watching you either. He oversaw every step of every process from the formation of your father’s exact sperm, through its desperate journey to meet your mother’s exact egg and fuse into an explosion of life at just the right time on his calendar. He oversaw that with the mesmerized delight of a schoolboy following a swimming tadpole in a shallow pool.
Furthermore, God thinks of you a lot! He just won’t quit. If the angels didn’t like you, they’d tire of hearing about you and how special you are.
19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
20 They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.
We are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and all our soul, and all our strength according to Deuteronomy 6:5. The word strength means with everything we have and are; with vehemence; with muchness. The word offensive or wicked in verse 24 above is otseb, meaning pain or sorrow; an idol. God’s desire for us is intimate relationship. My idols I fashion cause offense and keep me from experiencing or understanding the fullness of his love for me. May I bare my heart to him that he may remove the stench of idolatry and teach me to pursue him, know him, love him – the lover of my soul.
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