Psalm 103

Psalm 103

Of David.

1 Praise the Lord, my soul;
    all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
2 Praise the Lord, my soul,
    and forget not all his benefits—
3 who forgives all your sins
    and heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit
    and crowns you with love and compassion,
5 who satisfies your desires with good things
    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

6 The Lord works righteousness
    and justice for all the oppressed.

7 He made known his ways to Moses,
    his deeds to the people of Israel:
8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
    slow to anger, abounding in love.
9 He will not always accuse,
    nor will he harbor his anger forever;
10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve
    or repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
    so great is his love for those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
    so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

13 As a father has compassion on his children,
    so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;
14 for he knows how we are formed,
    he remembers that we are dust.
15 The life of mortals is like grass,
    they flourish like a flower of the field;
16 the wind blows over it and it is gone,
    and its place remembers it no more.
17 But from everlasting to everlasting
    the Lord’s love is with those who fear him,
    and his righteousness with their children’s children—
18 with those who keep his covenant
    and remember to obey his precepts.

19 The Lord has established his throne in heaven,
    and his kingdom rules over all.

20 Praise the Lord, you his angels,
    you mighty ones who do his bidding,
    who obey his word.
21 Praise the Lord, all his heavenly hosts,
    you his servants who do his will.
22 Praise the Lord, all his works
    everywhere in his dominion.

Praise the Lord, my soul.

Tweet

The Story - Chapter 12 - Bored...

I stood in the kitchen... Gazing into the refrigerator with the door hanging wide open.

I really wasn't hungry...
I was bored.

Ever been there?

Most of the trouble I got into as a kid I got into because I was bored.  We got bored playing in the field beside Grandma and Grandpa's house... and the creek was just right there... We got bored going around the block on our bikes... so we crossed the street...  We got bored with merely throwing the ball back and forth... what fun it would be to kick it...

Bored.

So I settled on a cheese stick (that I didn't need) and closed the refrigerator door and walked away... 80 calories to fill a hole in my mind that calories from a cheese stick couldn't fill.

I have often thought that was what led David into one of his biggest blunders in the Bible.  "In the spring of the year, when kings normally go out to war, David sent Joab and the Israelite army to fight the Ammonites. They destroyed the Ammonite army and laid siege to the city of Rabbah. However, David stayed behind in Jerusalem." 2 Samuel 11:1 NLT. 

In our day and age of instant communication, it would be odd for the President of the United States to be in the battlefield with the troops.  But in David's day, that was where David should have been... "when kings normally go off to war..."  But where was David...?  "staying behind in Jerusalem..."

Bored.  

And what is waiting for David in his boredom?  Sin.  "Late one afternoon, after his midday rest, David got out of bed and was walking on the roof of the palace. As he looked out over the city, he noticed a woman of unusual beauty taking a bath." 2 Samuel 11:2 NLT. 

Bored. 

Ever been there? 

• Done checking my email, Facebook, Twitter... Just a couple of taps to that one website...
• Kissing and handing hands just isn't enough anymore... what if we...
• My relationship with my wife doesn't have the same fire... but this lady at work... 
• We've run out of things to talk about from our day... so we begin to gossip about that one girl... 
• Nothing is on TV... flipping through the channels... oh, this looks interesting... 

Bored.  

If only David would have remembered God's words to Cain in Genesis 4:7... "You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master."


Be careful of the open refrigerator door.  That cheese stick won't help.  Boredom has a way of increasing your waistline and capturing you in something you never intended to be in in the first place. 

JC 

Tweet

The Story: Chapter 11 - David's Heart

One Saturday afternoon when I was in middle school, I came home from a youth group trip to an empty house.  I didn't think much of it... I knew how to get in... so I did.  Nobody was at home so I went about my normal "I'm home by myself" routine.  After about 15 minutes, a knock came at the front door.  It was my youth pastor, who had just dropped me off, and a friend of our family.  (This was in the day before cell phones and instant communication.)

He told me that my Grandpa had died of a heart attack that morning while we were away.

While we were gone all day... my family had been dealing with this tragedy and I didn't even know it.  See, my Grandpa had had some trouble with his heart... he had high cholesterol and ate foods he shouldn't and smoked a pipe and eventually it caught up with him.  That's part of the reason why I began to run over 3 years ago... I know that family history is there and I want to avoid it.

There are times when I wish I could take my heart out of my chest and check it over.  You know... make sure that it's okay.  Clean out the corners like I clean out my son's humidifier.  Unfortunately, I can't just pop it out... I would die.

Spiritually, there are times when I wish I could pop out my heart and have a look at it too.

This week in the Story, we read about David's heart.  And we get an opportunity to see his heart from God's perspective.  Did David have sin?  Absolutely... next week we'll read about the greatest of his sin with Bathsheba.  Were there things David wished were different about his heart?  Sure.  Was David's heart messed up in some areas?  It must have been to do what he did.

But yet... what does God say David's heart?  Look again: "⁷ But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7.   A little bit later in Acts we read more about what God looks for: ²² After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’ Acts 13:22. 

See... I know my sin (as Scripture says... it's always before me) and I know my dark places.  And I know God knows those places too.  I'm sure David knew his places as well as God did.  Yet God still called him a man after His own heart.  Does he see my heart that way too?  

JC



Tweet