Psalm Study Thread

[Evie1980]

Psalm 142

A maskil of David. When he was in the cave. A prayer.

1 I cry aloud to the LORD;
I lift up my voice to the LORD for mercy.
2 I pour out before him my complaint;
before him I tell my trouble.
3 When my spirit grows faint within me,
it is you who watch over my way.
In the path where I walk
people have hidden a snare for me.
4 Look and see, there is no one at my right hand;
no one is concerned for me.
I have no refuge;
no one cares for my life.
5 I cry to you, LORD;
I say, “You are my refuge,
my portion in the land of the living.” 6 Listen to my cry,
for I am in desperate need;
rescue me from those who pursue me,
for they are too strong for me.
7 Set me free from my prison,
that I may praise your name.
Then the righteous will gather about me
because of your goodness to me.

I loved a song when I was younger by the Fugees called "Killing Me Softly". It is about a person listening to a song that seemed exactly like her own life. Reading this psalm, I am feeling the same. It is like David took a glimpse at my own personal struggles in this moment and wrote it down in psalm. However, that could never have happened so it is safe to say that I am not alone in my feelings. In fact most of the time we aren't the only ones who have and who will walk down this road (cue Toby Mac).

So what is this feeling that I am sharing with David? Simply put it is the feeling of being worthless and trapped with no one to help you. It is the feeling of beind imprisoned with no provision or refuge. This feeling can be consuming and a death sentence. It is the pure state of hopelessness.

However, in the midst of this feeling David changes his focus slightly. He reminds himself who is his friend in time of need. He wuestions who is that person at my right hand, ready to fight my battles? Who is my provision of hope, love, fellowship and strength in the time of need? Who can I trust with very core of me? Who is that person who I can cry to when all feels lost? No one in this world will be able to be all of that but God can. David knew this. I am learning it too.

God's goodness is the only certainty David and I have, It is the one thing that we have in common. David could sing my life song in a psalm because God is the refuge and strength for both of us. God is our pass out of prison and the One who is at our right hand. We are no longer sentenced to death within the pain and misery of our feelings because of God. This is God's promise to us and relying on that certainty is what will bring us to praise Him and thank Him all the days of our lives no matter what our circumstances may be.

 

[Evie1980]

Psalm 143

A psalm of David.

1 LORD, hear my prayer,
listen to my cry for mercy;
in your faithfulness and righteousness
come to my relief.
2 Do not bring your servant into judgment,
for no one living is righteous before you.
3 The enemy pursues me,
he crushes me to the ground;
he makes me dwell in the darkness
like those long dead.
4 So my spirit grows faint within me;
my heart within me is dismayed.
5 I remember the days of long ago;
I meditate on all your works
and consider what your hands have done.
6 I spread out my hands to you;
I thirst for you like a parched land.
7 Answer me quickly, LORD;
my spirit fails.
Do not hide your face from me
or I will be like those who go down to the pit.
8 Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love,
for I have put my trust in you.
Show me the way I should go,
for to you I entrust my life.
9 Rescue me from my enemies, LORD,
for I hide myself in you.
10 Teach me to do your will,
for you are my God;
may your good Spirit
lead me on level ground.
11 For your name’s sake, LORD, preserve my life;
in your righteousness, bring me out of trouble.
12 In your unfailing love, silence my enemies;
destroy all my foes,
for I am your servant.

When I was in the US I was staying with a good friend of mine and some of her firends. They lived near a very large and well known Military base. My friend and I had gone for a drive and where coming home late at night. We both didn't know the area well as she was from a different state and I was from a different country. So we relied on her GPS. Things weren't going to well. We were lost but the GPS said to keep going so we did. We turned the corner and the next thing we see is a military booth with a soldier standing in our way. He was not happy! After some apologies we finally got out of our awful situation.

In life you may think that you are heading in the right direction and you may have all the tools such as maps, GPS and personal experience to get you where you are gooing. However, you can end up in the wrong place at the wrong time really quickly. David knew about heading in the wrong direction and all the problems that it could lead to. There are plenty of pits we can find ourselves in and, having lived and worked in an opal mining town, you can't get out of some of those pits alone. David knew there was only one way to get the directions he really needed and that was by asking God.

Now I have spent a lot of time praying and thinking about where I am currently going with my life and how I am supposed to get there. I have been trying to do all that I can do the Lord's will in my life BUT I have finally realised that I was going about it the wrong way. I was thinking I needed to work out the way to go but I have been reminded twice today that it is God who directs my path. I am not saying that you wait until God before you do anything. However, God knows where you are and where you are going to.

God will reveal a path that you are to start heading in. He will reveal to you something that He wants you to do. Then an opportunity will arise. It may be a job or a relationship or a circumstance. You start doing things, reading things, searching things, seeking things and slowly you can see the steps taking place in your life. A path that you didn't see before starts taking shape in font of you and you can look back to see where you have come from.

There are times you may think it is no use. David had those moments too and it was in those moments he turned to the word of the Lord. He searched for the Lord and found Him in the works of God's hands through the past. This gave David hope for the future.

This is my prayer for today:
6 I spread out my hands to you;
I thirst for you like a parched land.
7 Answer me quickly, LORD;
my spirit fails.
Do not hide your face from me
or I will be like those who go down to the pit.
8 Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love,
for I have put my trust in you.
Show me the way I should go,
for to you I entrust my life.

 

[SplendidTree]

Wow, I have missed a lot of these but just read the last 2.

The way David pours his heart out is just so very deep. So many moments I can relate and feel just like he does as well.

Thanks for continuing to do these, sister. Such a blessing.

 

[Evie1980]

Psalm 144

Of David.

1 Praise be to the LORD my Rock,
who trains my hands for war,
my fingers for battle.
2 He is my loving God and my fortress,
my stronghold and my deliverer,
my shield, in whom I take refuge,
who subdues peoples under me.
3 LORD, what are human beings that you care for them,
mere mortals that you think of them?
4 They are like a breath;
their days are like a fleeting shadow.
5 Part your heavens, LORD, and come down;
touch the mountains, so that they smoke.
6 Send forth lightning and scatter the enemy;
shoot your arrows and rout them.
7 Reach down your hand from on high;
deliver me and rescue me
from the mighty waters,
from the hands of foreigners
8 whose mouths are full of lies,
whose right hands are deceitful.
9 I will sing a new song to you, my God;
on the ten-stringed lyre I will make music to you,
10 to the One who gives victory to kings,
who delivers his servant David.
From the deadly sword 11 deliver me;
rescue me from the hands of foreigners
whose mouths are full of lies,
whose right hands are deceitful. 12 Then our sons in their youth
will be like well-nurtured plants,
and our daughters will be like pillars
carved to adorn a palace.
13 Our barns will be filled
with every kind of provision.
Our sheep will increase by thousands,
by tens of thousands in our fields;
14 our oxen will draw heavy loads.
There will be no breaching of walls,
no going into captivity,
no cry of distress in our streets.
15 Blessed is the people of whom this is true;
blessed is the people whose God is the LORD.

Training is the easy part of it. Then the real work begins.

The Israelites lived 40 years in the desert. Moses was 80 when he returned to Egypt. Joseph was 30 when he went to Pharoah. Jesus was 30 when he entered His ministry. David was 37 when he officially became king over Israel and Judah. Everyone in the Bible had a time of training and development. Everyone had a different story. Some took longer than others but all made it to where God wanted them to be.

There is no limit to the amount the Lord wants to do in your life and in other people's through you. David understood this and that is why he cried out "who am I that you think so much of me? Why do you care about my days? Why did you prepare my life for me before I was born? Why do meet my daily needs met?"

We live in a world that advertises retiring young and live out your days doing nothing but that is not what God calls us to do. He calls us to live with abundance all the days of our lives. Now, I know that not everyone knows what they are getting trained for. David knew at a young age he was going to be king but Moses and Aaron got a last minute call to God's will. God had trained them and equipped them all the days of their life without them knowing.

There is a glorious and blessed life in the Lord for all of us. God is mindul of us and is working in our lives. It may not seem like it somedays. We may just be in training for when the real work begins. That is ok. Without God's training we would have surely failed but with it we will live out our days with the strength to overcome each battle.

 

[Evie1980]

Psalm 145

A psalm of praise. Of David.

1 I will exalt you, my God the King;
I will praise your name for ever and ever.
2 Every day I will praise you
and extol your name for ever and ever.
3 Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise;
his greatness no one can fathom.
4 One generation commends your works to another;
they tell of your mighty acts.
5 They speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty—
and I will meditate on your wonderful works.
6 They tell of the power of your awesome works—
and I will proclaim your great deeds.
7 They celebrate your abundant goodness
and joyfully sing of your righteousness.
8 The LORD is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and rich in love.
9 The LORD is good to all;
he has compassion on all he has made.
10 All your works praise you, LORD;
your faithful people extol you.
11 They tell of the glory of your kingdom
and speak of your might,
12 so that all people may know of your mighty acts
and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and your dominion endures through all generations.
The LORD is trustworthy in all he promises
and faithful in all he does.
14 The LORD upholds all who fall
and lifts up all who are bowed down.
15 The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food at the proper time.
16 You open your hand
and satisfy the desires of every living thing.
17 The LORD is righteous in all his ways
and faithful in all he does.
18 The LORD is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.
19 He fulfills the desires of those who fear him;
he hears their cry and saves them.
20 The LORD watches over all who love him,
but all the wicked he will destroy. 21 My mouth will speak in praise of the LORD.
Let every creature praise his holy name
for ever and ever.

Reading through 2 Kings you get an understanding of all the kings and the story that their lives told. Each king had a different family, different political climate and different choices to make yet, at the end of the day, all that mattered was whether they lived according to the will of the Lord or not. 40 years of reigning can summed up in the simple sentence "he did the will of the Lord all his days" or "he did not follow the will of the Lord all his days." Simple sentence for a complicated life.

We face the same complicated life. We all have different choices, different families, different political circumstances yet we will all end up with the same simple sentene to our life. That one simple sentence will tell others the story of our lives. David knew God's love and mercy in his life was amazing. He knew that when it all came down to it his life would be a story with one simple ending: "he lived for the Lord all the days of his life" David was happy with that. He was willing for God's story to be told through him not that his story would be told through God.

This is amazing comfort for all of us who struggle through the ups and downs of life. Whilst we are still living we should be pursuing that one sentence for our lives. We don't need to be doing anything but pursing God. Everything else will be completed through the Lord's promises in our lives that will testify of the Lord for future generations.

 

[Evie1980]

Psalm 146

1 Praise the LORD.

Praise the LORD, my soul.
2 I will praise the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
3 Do not put your trust in princes,
in human beings, who cannot save.
4 When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing.
5 Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD their God.
6 He is the Maker of heaven and earth,
the sea, and everything in them—
he remains faithful forever.
7 He upholds the cause of the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets prisoners free,
8 the LORD gives sight to the blind,
the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down,
the LORD loves the righteous.
9 The LORD watches over the foreigner
and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
10 The LORD reigns forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the LORD.

How much advice do you really need? I hate asking for advice. I don't like being told what to do especially after I have planned to do something! But with a family like mine you can't avoid it. I have 2 loving parents, a sister who is an accountant (enough said) and an elder brother who likes to psycho-analyse my every move I make when given half an opportunity. My sister-in-law has also shared some advice (which I will never be able to repeat in pleasant company), my brother-in-law likes to ask to give his 2 cents wrth every now and then, and a group of friends who will . If they weren't enough I have Dr Phil, Joyce Meyer and a host of other Christian and non-Christian advive books (some even in audio). In fact my younger brother may be one of the only people who never gives me advice but I give it to him!

We get advice on how to get the right job, overcoming bad habits, financial planning, marrying the right man, keeping a positive attitude... the list goes on. Successful people give us advice on how to change our lives. It doesn't seem so bad (unless you are strong willed person like me) but a problem arises when we start trusting in man over God. We trust the advice of strangers and celebrities over the Holy Spirit. We seek out people who can answer our questions before bringing them to the feet of the Lord. Then we start to follow a path that others have constructed rather than the one the Lord made for us.

You see, we are not supposed to be conformed to this word but to live wholly in the Word and works of God. It is through His calling we will be to achieve all that we need for lives. I am not saying to through out and ignore all advice given. After all God tells us to seek wise counsel but how will we ever know what is wise for us if we are not first led by the Spirit? How can we keep living in the Spirit when we don't have Him to begin with? How can we know God's calling on our lives when we don't seek Him first?

I have been blessed by a lot of wise advice of late. From my pastor to family to my wonderful Joyce Meyer audio books but at the same some advice I have been given is best to be ignored or filed in the "I will use it later" file. However, I won't trust the people giving me the advice over the One who gives me a discerning spirit, who created me and enables me to live on this glorious day, I, like David, know that it is God who is the center of me being and is worthy of all praise.

 

[Evie1980]

Psalm 147

1 Praise the LORD.

How good it is to sing praises to our God,
how pleasant and fitting to praise him!
2 The LORD builds up Jerusalem;
he gathers the exiles of Israel.
3 He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
4 He determines the number of the stars
and calls them each by name.
5 Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
his understanding has no limit.
6 The LORD sustains the humble
but casts the wicked to the ground.
7 Sing to the LORD with grateful praise;
make music to our God on the harp.
8 He covers the sky with clouds;
he supplies the earth with rain
and makes grass grow on the hills.
9 He provides food for the cattle
and for the young ravens when they call.
10 His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,
nor his delight in the legs of the warrior;
11 the LORD delights in those who fear him,
who put their hope in his unfailing love.
12 Extol the LORD, Jerusalem;
praise your God, Zion.
13 He strengthens the bars of your gates
and blesses your people within you.
14 He grants peace to your borders
and satisfies you with the finest of wheat.
15 He sends his command to the earth;
his word runs swiftly.
16 He spreads the snow like wool
and scatters the frost like ashes.
17 He hurls down his hail like pebbles.
Who can withstand his icy blast?
18 He sends his word and melts them;
he stirs up his breezes, and the waters flow.
19 He has revealed his word to Jacob,
his laws and decrees to Israel.
20 He has done this for no other nation;
they do not know his laws.Praise the LORD

How awesome is it to praise God? How amazing is it to call upon His name and sing to Him? Many times we forget how wonderful it is to have the Lord with us. We forget how wonderful it is to sit in His presence and we forget just how amazing He is. For He has created all things and enables us to do all things. He sustains us, heals us and provides for us. There is nothing going on in this world that the Lord doesn't have His hand in. From the movement of the wind and the depth of the ocean, from the clouds in the sky and the snow on the mountain peaks, it is all done through Him.

Yet, we get caught up in our daily lives. We follow the will of the world and listen to others advice. We compare our lives with the standards we see on the television and in magazines. We underachieve or overachieve but rarely settle for what the Lord requires of us. God doesn't care about the money we have in the bank or assets we have, for "He delights in those who fear Him and put their hope in His unfailing love." He has revealed to us His law and His word. He has made us able to be in a loving relationship with Him as long as we want it.

On a daily basis it is sometimes hard to find the words to praise God especially when we are too busy looking at our lives and not at God. What He has done and is able to do is far more than we can ever imagine. We fail to grasp the simplest of truths: God made us and He loves us that way. We praise God for the life and with world He created for us not the way it has become.

Praise the Lord!

 

[Evie1980]

Psalm 148

1 Praise the LORD.

Praise the LORD from the heavens;
praise him in the heights above.
2 Praise him, all his angels;
praise him, all his heavenly hosts.
3 Praise him, sun and moon;
praise him, all you shining stars.
4 Praise him, you highest heavens
and you waters above the skies.
5 Let them praise the name of the LORD,
for at his command they were created,
6 and he established them for ever and ever—
he issued a decree that will never pass away.
7 Praise the LORD from the earth,
you great sea creatures and all ocean depths,
8 lightning and hail, snow and clouds,
stormy winds that do his bidding,
9 you mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars,
10 wild animals and all cattle,
small creatures and flying birds,
11 kings of the earth and all nations,
you princes and all rulers on earth,
12 young men and women,
old men and children.
13 Let them praise the name of the LORD,
for his name alone is exalted;
his splendor is above the earth and the heavens.
14 And he has raised up for his people a horn,
the praise of all his faithful servants,
of Israel, the people close to his heart. Praise the LORD.

Is God worthy of praise? Why is He worthy of praise? If a friend asked you this questions could you answer them truthfully and honestly? Most of us could but could we also answer the following question: have you praised the Lord today? I am not talking about reading your Bible, praying for your needs or muttering "praise the Lord." I am talking about true praise where you recognised the amazing things that God has done.

Many times we struggle with praising God because we are unsure of who He is and who He is to us. We have read the Bible and know what others think about God but rarely do we honestly refelect upon God in our lives and in our world.

When I had recently graduated from University I moved to a small country town. It was a remote location with no MacDonalds, no cinema and only a pub for after hours entertainment. The nearest big town was 3 hours drive away and going to that town was a big deal to all the students in the school. So my students were surprised when I said I was moving to a much bigger city called London. They had no idea where it was or what it was like. I would explain and they would get really excited but they could never fully grasp where I was going and why. They just couldn't get it as it wasn't personal enough for them. They were relying on me and my knowledge. The same can happen to us as Christians. We never really get who God is to this world and who He is to us. We read books and the Bible. We get excited about God when we go to worship centres and concerts. We listen to sermons and feel the rush of excitement. But when we come down from our high, we find it hard to praise God. You see we can't make it personal for us.

In this psalm, the psalmist is trying to make it personal. He is outlining who God is to this world and who God is to us. We may never understand the intricate workings of our Lord and Maker but that shouldn't stop us from praising Him. We need to recognise His worthiness. We need to see who He is and be able to praise Him in the midst of everything else that is going on. God needs to be worthy for you to be able to praise Him. Otherwise you are just giving Him lip service. If you are unsure of who God is to you, ask Him to reveal it you. Just as I taught my class about England, He will teach you about Himself (though He will be able to do a much better job than I ever could!)

Why praise Him:
Are you unemployed, single, penniless, lost in this world? Praise Him because He provides for the birds and all living creatures and He will provide for you.
Are you unsure where your future is? Are you overworked and overstressed but unsure what to do? Praise Him because He is a light unto you path and He provides rest for the weary.
Are you scared there is no hope for you? Praise Him because He will make you path straight and provide the help you need.
Are you suffering from low self-esteem and think that you are worthless? Do you think that you have no strength to do anything and would rather hide from life than take on the challenges? Praise Him for you are wonderfull made. That you were created by Him, for Him and are able to achieve all things through Him who gives you strength.

 

[Evie1980]

Psalm 149

1 Praise the LORD.

Sing to the LORD a new song,
his praise in the assembly of his faithful people.
2 Let Israel rejoice in their Maker;
let the people of Zion be glad in their King.
3 Let them praise his name with dancing
and make music to him with timbrel and harp.
4 For the LORD takes delight in his people;
he crowns the humble with victory.
5 Let his faithful people rejoice in this honor
and sing for joy on their beds.
6 May the praise of God be in their mouths
and a double-edged sword in their hands,
7 to inflict vengeance on the nations
and punishment on the peoples,
8 to bind their kings with fetters,
their nobles with shackles of iron,
9 to carry out the sentence written against them—
this is the glory of all his faithful people. Praise the LORD.

Ever wanted to be a true warrior for the Lord? Ever wanted to fight the good fight? Movies and booke always have a recurring theme: good vs evil. We know the heroes and villains. We know what is right and we believe, of we were in their positions, we would make the same decisions. We show empathy towards the hero and we love the happy endings. The story is told a million ways over and we still love it: the warrior hero/heroine saves the day.

But warriors aren't just in the movies. They are around us and part of us. We were born to be warriors and fight. We may not have an army or some weird guy with an axe trying to physically kill us but we all have our battle fields. And, when we go to battle, we have a double edged sword and we have words of praise for our God to lead us into battle.

Now I have seen enough battle scenes in movies to know that praising God is not usually what is done before a battle. People do many things before they enter a fight and usually it is begging for mercy or praying for success. Rarely is it a joyous occasion when someone says "thank you Lord for bringing us here to carry out your will and obtain the victory in Your name." But that is excatly what the psalmist is asking us to do.

There will be times when we have to battle and have to chose a side to be on. We need to know where our allegance is. We need to make sure that the side of the battle is God's side and if we are not praising Him in it, how would we ever know Who we are fighting for? And, more importantly than that, how would we know that God is bigger than battle if we are always focusing on the battle rather than Him?

There have been a series of battles I have faced in my life. They all start the same way and they end the same way too. They say that one of the signs of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Maybe the same can be said about our battles. What if I entered the battle this time with praise rather than hurt, pain, discouragement, resentment or anger? What if I stopped praying for the end of the battle and started praising God for the opportunity to fight? Maybe this time the battle will be won properly and death will come to my enemies so I don't have to keep fighting them every time I find myself in the same situation.

Praise God for knowing what is right for me!

BTW: I used to praise God with a timbrel. It is a lot of fun. Maybe I should start doing it again.

 

[Evie1980]

Psalm 150

1 Praise the LORD.

Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens.
2 Praise him for his acts of power;
praise him for his surpassing greatness.
3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise him with the harp and lyre,
4 praise him with timbrel and dancing,
praise him with the strings and pipe,
5 praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals.
6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD.

David says to praise and Paul says to rejoice (Philippians 4:4). They both mean the same thing and that is to reflect on the Lord's goodness in all things. God has brought us to this time, to this life, to this moment so that we are able to know Him. There is nothing more in life that we need.

I am living example of how things can and will go wrong in life and the truth of it is that it doesn't really matter. Today is tomorrow's yesterday and after that it will be forgotten but God never is. He is with us in this moment and He will be here in the next moment just like He was there in all the forgotten ones. When I look back now at all the missed opportunities I have had to praise the Lord it saddens me. I can see clearly now where God has been in my life, yet, I still struggle to praise Him.

Whenever you forget the resons to rejoice, when ever you think that there is nothing to give praise for, when ever you think that the mountains are higher than Him who made them, reflect on this psalm. Carry this psalm within your heart and enable it to speak through your life about the wonderful, glorious God we have. This is the moment God called you to live, so live it giving praise to the Lord.

 

[Evie1980]

I just would like to say thank you to all the people who came on this journey with me. It has been going for a while now (much longer than I had imagined) and has seen me through soom interesting changes in my life. I hope that you will continue to study and read the words of psalms and allow it to open the doors of your heart. I am so glad that I had your encouragement to keep going along the way. It is a bessing to finish and start something new!
Many blessings!

 

[Evie1980]

Psalm 1

What do High School, American Idol and Facebook all have common? They all go after the popularity vote. We live in a world that is obsessed with measuring how much we like something. From the television ratings to political candidates, our society relies on the opinions of the majority. In living the “majority” lifestyle we often get confused about who we are and what we actually want from our lives. There are always paths and choices we have to make as individuals.

You see we are not always good at choosing the right things for our lives. Many times we go along with things that we know are wrong for us. God has been showing me some of these things in my life of late. As always it started with a line from a song. It was a song by Need To Breathe and it said “Just ‘cause I’m wrong it don’t make you right.” This statement is true about a lot of things in this world. The reverse is also true. Just because you’re wrong, doesn’t make me right. You see sometimes, when we fall into sin, we want to place the blame on ourselves or on others. We will vindicate the other person by saying I was the one in the wrong or we vindicate ourselves by saying they were in the wrong. The truth is both of us can be wrong. Both parties need forgiveness. The judgement of sin doesn’t automatically fall on one person. We judge ourselves, others judge us and the judgement of the popular crowd lead us to a confusing state to live our lives.

In world full of judgement there is only one judgement that really counts. It is not the selection committee for American Idol or for the job you always dreamed of. It is the judgement of the one you love or your friends and family. It is the judgement of the living God. Many times following the popular path can lead to places God never wanted us to be. Trust me when I say this, hanging around the wrong people gets us on that path a lot quicker than we could ever imagine. We all want to be picked first for the soccer team even if we don’t like soccer. So we make the compromises that make us better, more attractive and available for anything, even the soccer game that we may not want to play.

If only it was just soccer that we had problems with. Life would be a lot simpler if joining the in crowd and making the right friends led only to harmless game. Unfortunately there is more at stake. So leads us into the first psalm. It is a psalm about making the right friends and about growing strong by a stream of righteousness. It is about living a God centred life through the circumstances and friendships of our daily lives so we don’t end up withering away on the day judgement.

However, the psalmist doesn’t just talk about making the right friendship but also growing the right fruit. We all know the fruit of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). We have the fruit of the Spirit that lives within us but we also have the fruit of our hands. The sowing and reaping that is often talked about in the Bible refers to the works of our hands. The Lord had a time of sowing and a time of reaping but He also had a time of rest. Every 7 years the land was called for a time of rest and rejuvenation. It was very important. Our lives are supposed to be like that.

After the rest, there are more nutrients in the soil to feed the tree which the tree uses to produce the fruit. It is a cycle. If we spend our lives too busy making fruit, the rest of us will die because all that is good and nutritious within us is used up. Our tree will die. Likewise, if we constantly stay in rest we will never produce any fruit. The same is said for your relationship with God. There will be times in your life that you may not be able to produce fruit to share with others. There may be times when God is calling you to reflect, to spend time with Him, and to stand still so that you can see His glory in your life.

Fruit may come and go with the seasons of our lives but if we if allow for God’s will to radiate in our lives our tree will grow strong and produce leaves all year round (in Australia this is very common in native trees due to the hotter climate). Our leaves show our health, vibrancy and love for God. Sometimes you will have to wait for the fruit.

How do you grow a healthy, vibrant tree in your life?
1. Walk closely with God (Micah 6:8)
2. Choose wise counsel and good friends
3. Allow time to rest and seek God’s word
4. Allow your life to bear fruit to share with others
5. Plant your life next to a river of righteousness so that you are strong when the winds come you will not be blown away