Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Psalm 106:1-2; 107:1, 9 NASB

Praise the LORD!  Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; for His lovingkindness is everlasting.  Who can speak of the mighty deeds of the LORD, or can show forth all His praise?  ...Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; for His lovingkindness is everlasting...For He has satisfied the thirsty soul, and the hungry soul He has filled with what is good.

Psalms 106 and 107 are a recounting and listing of many of the failures and unfaithfulness of Israel with God over the years.  How about that for a special time of meditation:  "For this morning's devotional time, we're going to go over every failure and unfaithfulness in Hubert's past". Praise God!  Uggg!  That wouldn't be any fun.  But the first phrase, "Praise the LORD!" has nothing to do with glorifying the past sin.  It has everything to do with glorifying the God who would still seek to deliver a people steeped in sin.  Martin Luther, the great reformer, once said, "If I had been God and had been treated the way the world treated God, I would have kicked the world to pieces."  The greatest thing about God toward man is His lovingkindness that keeps Him from kicking the world to pieces.  As a writer in the New Testament put it, "He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance".  And in that God loved the world, and in that Jesus died for the whole world, we need to reach out to that whole world with the same lovingkindness He showed toward us.  That includes everyone!  Everyone!  This doesn't make God soft.  The Psalmist sees it another way:  "Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good".  Amen!  We who are on the other side of this know what the Psalmist is talking about when he says, "For He has satisfied the thirsty soul, and the hungry soul He has filled with what is good".   Now that is worth meditating on!

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