Where does our help come from?

These days when I look at everything that is happening in the world, I do sometimes wonder "where will our help come from?"  The world is falling apart bit by bit everyday.  Daily there are reports of hunger, war, violence, corruption, natural disasters, illness etc... enough to make us look around in fear and uncertainty.  I am sure the Psalmist felt like this when he wrote psalm 121.  Not only does He say that our help is from the creator of the universe, but also gives the assurance that God will not allow our feet to be moved, that our God does not sleep nor slumber, that He is at our right hand side, that He is our keeper in all and every natural circumstances, but above all that He Himself will keep us from evil, preserve our soul and watch over our coming in and going out - forevermore!

What an assurance that we have the God who created heaven and earth, mountains and sun and moon - He himself will preserve us and keep us from evil!

Psalm 121

A Song of Ascents.

121 I will lift up my eyes to the hills—
From whence comes my help?
² My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.

³ He will not allow your foot to be moved;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
⁴ Behold, He who keeps Israel
Shall neither slumber nor sleep.

⁵ The Lord is your keeper;
The Lord is your shade at your right hand.
⁶ The sun shall not strike you by day,
Nor the moon by night.

⁷ The Lord shall preserve you from all evil;
He shall preserve your soul.
⁸ The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in
From this time forth, and even forevermore.

 I lift my eyes up (Brian Doerksen) 

How much does God love you and me?

Romans 5:6-11 really made me stop and think about how much God loves us.  I do not think we can even comprehend the answer to that question.  He loves us even though we are sinners, rebellious and disobedient to him.  He loves us even when we are still His enemies.  Jesus the Son of God's life was more valuable than the accumulative value of all the people in all of the history of mankind. In other words His life was more valuable than all the lives of all human beings that lived in the past, are living at present and will still live in the future added all together.  He could pay the price for all of human kind, trading places with us when He took our sin upon Him and gave us His righteousness.  When He said 'It is finished' on the cross everything that needed to be done so that we could be reconciled with God was done.

Now there is only one thing left for us to do.  We need to respond to this love.  We need to accept the gift of reconciliation so that we can have a new life in and through Christ.  He is waiting for your and mine answer.  He waits with abated breath because more than what He already did for us He cannot do.  We have the choice to accept or reject.  What is your answer?   How do you respond to a love like this? 

  Romans 5:6-11 NKJ

⁶ For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. ⁸ But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹ Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. ¹⁰ For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. ¹¹ And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

 No one ever cared for me like Jesus - Stephany Gretzinger

Great is our Lord and greatly to be praised!

In the last couple of weeks I have just realized how much I miss the corporate worship celebration of God during this pandemic where we are often not able to go to church and share fellowship with the body of Christ.  This psalm and this song brings back some wonderful memories but also just help me to focus again on the greatness of our God and the fact that He is greatly to be praised - especially in a time such as this!  

A Song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.

48 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised
In the city of our God,
In His holy mountain.
² Beautiful in elevation,
The joy of the whole earth,
Is Mount Zion on the sides of the north,
The city of the great King.
³ God is in her palaces;
He is known as her refuge.

⁴ For behold, the kings assembled,
They passed by together.
⁵ They saw it, and so they marveled;
They were troubled, they hastened away.
⁶ Fear took hold of them there,
And pain, as of a woman in birth pangs,
⁷ As when You break the ships of Tarshish
With an east wind.

⁸ As we have heard,
So we have seen
In the city of the Lord of hosts,
In the city of our God:
God will establish it forever. Selah

⁹ We have thought, O God, on Your lovingkindness,
In the midst of Your temple.
¹⁰ According to Your name, O God,
So is Your praise to the ends of the earth;
Your right hand is full of righteousness.
¹¹ Let Mount Zion rejoice,
Let the daughters of Judah be glad,
Because of Your judgments.

¹² Walk about Zion,
And go all around her.
Count her towers;
¹³ Mark well her bulwarks;
Consider her palaces;
That you may tell it to the generation following.
¹⁴ For this is God,
Our God forever and ever;
He will be our guide

Even to death.

 City of Elohim  - James Block

Clap you hands all you peoples...

This morning I am just full of thankfulness for who God is - He is Sovereign, He is good, He is the ruler of the universe, We belong to Him and His Kingdom and no power of darkness can change that!  What an amazing thought.  So let us sing with the sons of Korah this morning a joyful praise song to our God.  Let us give Him praise for who He is and for who He chose to make us.  

 

 Psalm 47 - Praise to God NKJV

Praise to God, the Ruler of the Earth
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.

47 Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples!
Shout to God with the voice of triumph!
2 For the Lord Most High is awesome;
He is a great King over all the earth.
3 He will subdue the peoples under us,
And the nations under our feet.
4 He will choose our inheritance for us,
The excellence of Jacob whom He loves. Selah

5 God has gone up with a shout,
The Lord with the sound of a trumpet.
6 Sing praises to God, sing praises!
Sing praises to our King, sing praises!
7 For God is the King of all the earth;
Sing praises with understanding.

8 God reigns over the nations;
God sits on His holy throne.
9 The princes of the people have gathered together,
The people of the God of Abraham.
For the shields of the earth belong to God;
He is greatly exalted.

 

(This song is not available in English and it is the song that is in my head this morning since I got up out of bed - Hope you enjoy it with me!)

 

 Alle volke klap julle hande - Willie Joubert