Tag: war

TODAY: When Words to Pray Cannot be Found, Believers Pray the Psalms & Hymns: Psalms 11 & A Mighty Fortress is Our God

Dear God, together in heart and unified in mind, we pray aloud Your Word, we speak Your truth back to You. Hear our desperate prayers and cries:

Psalm 11

The Lord Is in His Holy Temple

 To the choirmaster. Of David.

  In the Lord I take refuge;

how can you say to my soul,

“Flee like a bird to your mountain,

   for behold, the wicked bend the bow;

they have fitted their arrow to the string

to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart;

   if the foundations are destroyed,

what can the righteous do?”

  The Lord is in his holy temple;

the Lord’s throne is in heaven;

his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man.

  The Lord tests the righteous,

but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.

   Let him rain coals on the wicked;

fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.

   For the Lord is righteous;

he loves righteous deeds;

the upright shall behold his face Psalm 11.

Today is the day to turn to Jesus, Lord God, Savior. He is the One who saves. He is Redeemer.

Today is the day to call on His name, God of heaven and earth. His dwelling place is in a heart who praises Him in spirit and truth.

Today can be the first day of the rest of your eternal life when you call on the name of Jesus.

Who will join me today, to gather in heart, unified, to praise and march on with Martin Luther’s hymn, A Mighty Fortress is our God from 1529:

A mighty fortress is our God,
A bulwark never failing.
Our helper He amid the flood
Of mortal ills prevailing.
For still our ancient foe
Doth seek to work us woe.
His craft and power are great,
And, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide,
Our striving would be losing,
Were not the right man on our side,
The man of God’s own choosing.
Dost ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is He.
Lord Sabaoth, his name,
From age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.

And though this world, with devils filled,
Should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed
His truth to triumph through us.
The Prince of Darkness grim,
We tremble not for him.
His rage we can endure,
For lo, his doom is sure.
One little word shall fell him.

That word above all earthly powers
Not thanks to them, abideth.
The Spirit and the gifts are ours
Through him who with us sideth.
Let goods and kindred go,
This mortal life also.
The body they may kill,
God’s truth abideth still.
His kingdom is forever. ( A Mighty Fortress is Our God, Martin Luther, 1529.)

Who will agree our hearts are changed and infused with increased faith and hope by taking time to speak God’s Word and an old hymn?

“Dear Lord, help us walk in Your truth and allow You to be our strength and our song throughout this entire day,

in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Put on Praise
Today we speak together in psalms and hymns and we are changed by God’s indwelling Spirit

If you are not sure you have ever received Jesus’ love and salvation, simply talk with Him now. Pour out your heart to Him. Let Him take your sin and failure and receive His forgiveness and power to new life in Christ. Tell someone you have become a new creation in Christ today. (2 Corinthians 5:17.)

I share children’s voices ringing in God’s truth of becoming a new creation with “Everything New” by the Kanagy girls:

In restlessness – He is peace.

Where is God in all this “restless-ness?” Wars going on outside and in. The struggles, the hardships, the anger, the hate. The words that go back and forth without restraint.
A prophet of old wrote in his letter: O LORD, “How long?” “How long, … must I call for help,” Habakkuk 1:1. This is how Habakkuk felt, yes, open it up – God’s word, and see for yourself.
“Why?” you might ask. Because, today, we “feel” the same way.
Habakkuk writes freely his complaints: “Oh LORD, are you not from everlasting? My God, my Holy One, …” (emphasis added), “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil, your cannot tolerate wrong. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are You silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves? …”(1) Questions, questions – these are the same questions we daily ask ourselves.
We’re fighting for some peace, we’re yearning for a song.
And for me, in my house – (that is, in my heart and mind,) He came to rescue. He came to my help. He gave me His Song, Psalm 23:1.”The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.”
But in great need, and stress and fret, I spoke the full Psalm, from beginning to … “and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord, forever,” the end. And I thought, “forever” is a very long time.
Then the question, “Where am I dwelling, right now, in this moment? Am I dwelling in His house, or have I let “faith” walk out His Door?” “Without faith, it’s impossible to please God.”(3) Was this the lesson for Habakkuk as well?
He invited me in, to come into His house, that I am “forever to dwell.” But He knows, I go astray, each and every day. But He offers “peace” unlike the world, “His peace,” He so graciously gives, even though I mess up, and sin …
so very often.
A song, an old hymn came to my mind just then, “What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”(4) 
It can’t just be “God” and “heavenly thoughts.” I called and I cried to “Our Father in heaven,” and He drew near to me, and reminded me “hallowed be His name.”
He can’t be what my small brain makes Him, He must be Who He is. And “Holy is His name.” But more amazing still, His “grace is sufficient.”(5).
So, to conclude this whole matter of restlessness and stress, and my mind running in circles, (can anyone relate?) May I learn from God’s help that He “presently” sent. And remember as Habakkuk had learned as well) …
I put some breath on the strings, that He, Himself has given (to each of us, no less), and I made the choice to sing, …
to sing praise for His glory, as I was (and seem to be always), in a battle of wills to trust God, it seems.  I sang and I prayed, and a “present” peace I received. But “today”, and “tomorrow” (if God will’s be mine) may I remember to put sound on the strings He designed.
Let us humble ourselves and praise His name “forever.”
“After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the LORD and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: “Give thanks to the LORD, for his love endures forever.” 2 Chronicles 20:21.
(1) Habakkuk 1:12,13.
(2) Psalm 100.
(3) Hebrews 11:6.
(4) Hymn: Nothing but the Blood of Jesus.
(5) 2 Corinthians 12:9.
 

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