"Lift up your heads, O you gates! And be lifted up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in.  Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, The Lord mighty in battle.  Lift up your heads, O you gates! Lift up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in.  Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory. Selah "  (Psalm 24:7-10) 

Yesterday, a neighbor told me that another neighbor's home had been broken into and robbed by four men, at least one of which had a gun.  Only two have been arrested, as far as I know.  Needless to say, I became a little fearful and quite prayerful for safety.  Then this morning, I read this psalm.  (Pause and think about what you just read each time you come to a "Selah.")

"Deliver me, O LORD, from the evil man:  preserve me from the violent man; Which imagine mischiefs in their heart; continually are they gathered together for war.  They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders' poison is under their lips. Selah.  Keep me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from the violent man; who have purposed to overthrow my goings.  The proud have hid a snare for me, and cords; they have spread a net by the wayside; they have set gins for me. Selah.  I said unto the LORD, Thou art my God:  hear the voice of my supplications, O LORD.  O GOD the Lord, the strength of my salvation, thou hast covered my head in the day of battle.  Grant not, O LORD, the desires of the wicked:  further not his wicked device; lest they exalt themselves. Selah.  I know that the LORD will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and the right of the poor.  Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name:  the upright shall dwell in thy presence."  (Psalm 140:1-8, 12)

The LORD is my Shield (Psalm 3:3), my fortress and my deliverer (Psalm 18:2).  Hebrews 13:6 puts it this way:  "So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me."

"But know that the LORD hath set apart him that is godly for himself:  the LORD will hear when I call unto him. Stand in awe, and sin not:  commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah." (Psalms 4:3-4)

There are several things in this verse that cause me to think. 

I like to decorate!!  In fact, I really love searching for ideas in magazines and on-line, in furniture and antique stores, pausing TV shows to see the background rooms, moving things around in the house to see how to make the vignettes better, looking at color swatches, fabrics, etc.  The first part of this verse reminds me of that process.  From time to time, I share ideas with others that ask for advice in decorating their homes, but I tend to save the best ideas for me, the ideas that I love.  In fact, I have a design notebook where I keep magazine pages, and a bag where I keep folders for each room in my house for ideas, paint swatches and pictures.  These are the best ideas because they speak to me, would solve a problem in my particular space, or perhaps are color combinations that evoke a positive response in me.  I see the first part of this verse in this light:  godly people speak to the Lord, evoke a positive response in Him, or perhaps are ready for His service, so He sets these people apart for Himself!!!!!!

He sets these godly people apart for Himself!!!  He keeps them back for Himself, much like people who are serving potluck to a church and save a piece of Ms. Johnnie's special cake back for themselves!!! 

Then there is the colon!!  It is a great little grammatical device that tells us that what is following speaks to what was just said, or it defines the first statement.  After the first statement in this verse, there is a colon, and what follows is this:  The LORD WILL HEAR THE CALL OF THE GODLY!!!!

Soooo.....  1) stand in awe of Him; 2) sin not; 3) make sure your own heart is right before Him in the privacy of your home; and 4) be still so you can hear Him and feel Him.  That is how it seems to me. 
I want Him to choose me!!!!  He has!!! 

The First Time I Have Noticed a Middle-of-the-Sentence "Selah."

"O God, when thou wentest forth before thy people, when thou didst march through the wilderness; Selah" (Psalm 68:7a)

So, after my little revelation yesterday about verses, I come across this one, where the "Selah" is in the middle of a sentence, so I had to stop and think about what was so important in the first part of the sentence that it deserved a "repeat sign" (for all you musicians out there!).

This made me think of the verses I had just read in Numbers about how the pillar of cloud by day or pillar of fire would lift from the tabernacle and move to let the children of Israel know it was time to tear down the tabernacle and their tents and go to another location, with the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night moving before them to show them the way.  Numbers 9:23 sums it up; it says, "At the commandment of the LORD they rested in the tents, and at the commandment of the LORD they journeyed:  they kept the charge of the LORD, at the commandment of the LORD by the hand of Moses."  When the cloud moved, it was time to move.  They obeyed, but they could always see the will of the Lord visually. 

We, too, are marching through a wilderness.  We should always be on the look-out to see if our cloud is moving, praying and fasting to seek God's will for us, to see if it is time to step out into the unknown to follow the will of the Lord, or if it is time for resting in our tents, either marching forward or resting, never moving backwards!!  As long as we are following the Lord in obedience, we have comfort knowing we are in His will. 

That is a place I want to be!!

P.S.  The rest of that sentence tell us in verse 8, "The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God:  even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel."  God blessed them with His very presence!  (The rest of the psalm is FULL of wonderful promises!!!)

"Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands:  Sing forth the honour of his name:  make his praise glorious.  Say unto God, How terrible art thou in thy works! through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee.  All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee; they shall sing to thy name.  Selah" (Psalm 66:1-4). 

It hit me!  Sometimes I am a little slow to realize, but I finally did.  I was reading Psalm 66 and saw the word, "Selah," and stopped to consider what in that verse caused God to have the psalmist to tell us to stop and think.  That is when it hit me:  the Bible didn't originally have verse divisions, so it could have been anything previously written in this psalm.  Now, I have known for a long time that the Bible didn't have verses originally, but I had never thought about it for this blog, so today I am writing from that "new" perspective.

In the first part of this psalm, we find several options for praise:  making a joyful noise; singing about the honor of His name; gloriously praising; and telling God how amazing and awe-inspiring His works are, that the greatness of His power will cause His enemies to submit, and that ALL the earth will worship Him and sing to Him and His name.  I want to focus today on the second option:  singing about the honor of His name. 

I have found it helpful to choose a name of God for praising when starting my prayer time.  You can choose one, read what the Bible says about that Name, and praise God for that name, perhaps even using God's own words to praise Him!  It causes Him to inhabit that praise (Psalm 22:3), and to be very close to you in a tactile way:  you can actually feel His presence!!  It also helps you to know God better, which increases your faith in Him, as you know more about Who He is and What He can and cannot or will and will not do!!  That helps you pray more succinctly, thoroughly and boldly!!  There is no downside to this!!! 

For example, if I am praising God for His name, Jehovah Jireh, The Lord Will Provide, or according to www.bible.org, "The Lord Who Sees, or The Lord Who Will See To It,"my faith is increased simply by knowing what this name means!!!  Then I find verses like Romans 8:32, which says, "He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" and Philippians 4:19, which says, "But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus"; and stories like the one about God's providing a ram for Abraham to sacrifice in the place of his son Isaac in Genesis 22.  There is also Ephesians 3:20, which says, "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us".  I might praise saying, "Jehovah Jireh, I praise You because of Who You are!!  I worship You as Jehovah Jireh, The Lord Who Will See To It!!  You are able to do exceeding abundantly above all I ask or even think, and you will withhold no good thing from me!  (Psalm 84:11)   You have all power and are not only able to see all things but can work out all things, and I am so thankful You can see my life, my needs, my hearts desires and can even answer before I ask (Matthew 6:8).              
I could go on and on!!  There are so many verses that pertain to our Jehovah Jireh!  I am thankful for this "Selah," which caused me to stop and think about praising God for His Name.  Now, go find a song that celebrates a name of God, and sing!!  LOUD!!!

When we see the LORD for Who He is, one of the first reactions is that we see who we are in comparison.  In a small group setting recently, we explored this, and John Hafner reminded us of Isaiah 6:5; it says, "Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips:  for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts."  Exactly what had Isaiah seen?  The first four verses of chapter 6 tell us:  "In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.  Above it stood the seraphims:  each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.  And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts:  the whole earth is full of his glory.  And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke."  Isaiah was so awed by what he saw that his first reaction was how filthy he and his companions were. 

Then I came across the "Selah" moment in Psalm 39.  Verse 5 says, "Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee:  verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity.  Selah."  Every man at his BEST STATE is ALTOGETHER vanity, or a vapor.  The psalmist says it again a few verses later from a different angle.  "When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth:  surely every man is vanity. Selah." (Psalm 39:11)  We should stop and think about that.  Our best state and our beauty are a vapor, completely!  We think we are "all that," but the LORD really IS "all that!!" 

Isaiah compares us with the LORD in a few other categories:  our ways, our thoughts, and our righteousness.  Isaiah 55:9 says, "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."  Isaiah 64:6 says, "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away."

There are a few reasons why it is important for us to know how lowly we are compared to the LORD:  so we can keep our sins confessed and repented of, because "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall" (Proverbs 16:18), and so we can praise God for Who He really is!!!  He is so deserving of our praise!! 

The flip side of this is even though we are nothing compared to the LORD, we are everything to Him.  The Father sent His only Son to die for us, that we might live with Him for eternity!   Each of us is but a vapor, a dot on this huge Earth; which is a dot in our solar system; which is a dot in our galaxy, The Milky Way; which is a dot in the known universe; but He thinks we are pretty special, creating us in His very image, and caring about the things that matter to us. 

So, when you pray, see Him as the Word describes Him, and give Him the praise and reverence He deserves!!!

(Thanks to Jeff Lawson for helping me get the order right for the Milky Way thing!!)

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.  The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah." (Psalm 46:1-3, 7)

I know I have written about a lot of this before, but I will review a few things along with writing other thoughts regarding verses 2-3. 

In the Old Testament, the Israelites built cities of refuge in the Promised Land.  If you killed someone accidentally and were being sought for revenge by the next of kin, you could run to the city of refuge, crying, “Refuge!!!”  (Numbers 35:11-12 says, "Then ye shall appoint you cities to be cities of refuge for you; that the slayer may flee thither, which killeth any person at unawares.  And they shall be unto you cities for refuge from the avenger; that the manslayer die not, until he stand before the congregation in judgment."  You can read also Joshua 20.)  They would open the gates of the city to admit you but not your pursuer.  Now we don’t have to run to a city; we can run to our God Who is omnipresent!!  HE is our refuge in any situation in which we need Him to protect us from unwarranted assault. 

Now, re-read some of what comes next in the psalm and visualize it; verses 2 and 3 say, “Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah."  That sounds very scary, but if everything around us gives way, collapses, or is destroyed, if our very foundation is shaken, we still do not have cause to fear, but we have cause to pause and review what Psalm 46 says.  We are facing some of this in America:  some of our foundations are shaken, but we know the God Who is omnipresent (everywhere present), omnipotent (all-powerful), Jehovah Nissi (The LORD our Banner Who will fight for us and claims us as His own) and is so much more!!  Even if the very earth shakes beneath us, we can run to our omnipresent God, Who loves us as His children, but we don’t have to “run” far, since He is always right here. As the old saying goes, “He is as close as the mention of His name!” Just call on Him. We therefore have no reason to fear. 

One more point to review:  verse 7 says, "The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.”  The LORD of hosts, The Commander of the armies of heaven, Jehovah Sabaoth Himself, The One Who created the warrior angels and sends them to fight for us, He is the LORD Who is with us!!!  What have we to fear?!?!?!  HE is our refuge!!! 

So, when all around you is uncertainty, run to your God and cry, "Refuge!"  As the songs says, "I want to sit at Your feet, drink from the cup in Your hand, lay back against You and breathe, feel Your heart beat."  ("The More I Seek You" by Zach Neese.)