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About-Him.Com Devotional 08-29-2009
http://about-him.com/ Put Not Your Trust in Princes Psalms 146:1 ¶ Praise ye the LORD. Praise the LORD, O my soul. 2 While I live will I praise the LORD: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being. Psalms 146 is considered to have been written after Judah had returned from exile. While they were not treated harshly in Babylon, they still were strangers in a strange land (Ps. 137.4). They learned some hard lessons while in captivity. Never again would they bow to idols. This Psalm has a very prominent place in Jewish worship today. We were created to be worshippers of God. He wants to walk and talk with each of us, just as He talked with Adam in the cool of the day in the garden of Eden (Gen. 3:8). If we fail in this we are operating out of our assigned element. God delights in hearing our praise. It opens the door of communication between God and man. God inhabit’s the praise of His people (Ps. 22:3). When Jehoshaphat went into a battle where it surely looked that Judah was doomed, he put singers at the front of the troops and God fought the battle for them (II Chron. 20:22). 3 Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. 4 His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish. Over the centuries rulers have come and gone. It is said that Alexander the Great wept because there was no more territory for him to conquer. He died at a very young age and his kingdom was divided in four parts, which simply resulted in four warring factions. Whatever plans Alexander may or may not have had for his kingdom were nullified when God determined that it was his time to die. Likewise Napolean met His Waterloo, because God had set a barrier that he could not cross. The Kingdom of God is everlasting (Ps. 145:13; Da. 7:37). No scheme or program that man can devise, whether good or bad, will succeed if it does not fit into the plans that God laid out, even before creation. There He determined to gather everything together as one in Christ (Eph. 1:11). We must pray “Thy Kingdom come” rather than be caught up in the affairs of mortal men. President Hoover campaigned on the slogan, “A Chicken in every pot,” and the great depression followed. Other presidents gave us the Square Deal, the Fair Deal, the New Dealand and the Great Society. They conducted wars on poverty and hunger, yet, the problems still remain. While some good may have come from these programs, the men who promoted them are all dead. Right now we are hearing many claims and promises concerning healthcare reform and many promises are being made. For various reasons the promises of men cannot be relied on, but the promises of our God never fail. 5 ¶ Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God: 6 Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever: Note the phrase, “The God of Jacob.” Prior to exile, God is referred to in the Old Testament as the God of Abraham and Isaac. Both were considered much more holy than Jacob who was a bit of a scoundrel. Perhaps the people recognized that God blessed Jacob when he earnestly sought the Lord at Bethel. In fact heaven descended to meet him as he lay on a pillow of stone and poured out his heart to God (Gen. 32:6) . God blessed Jacob in spite of his failings and He offers full and free pardon and salvation to all of us (Rev. 3:20) who in our sinfulness (Ro. 3:23) identify more closely with Jacob than Abraham or Isaac. Our God is alive and active in all the affairs of men (Rev. 1:18). He spoke the world into existence by the power of His word. He hung the sun and the moon in their places and assigned the limits of their orbit. He even calls all of the unknown stars of the heavens by name (Isa. 40:26). He knows when we are hurting and when we’ve fallen. In His earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus demonstrated the care that God has for all of His people. He told us that the hairs of our heads were numbered (Lu. 12:7). God takes note of a fallen sparrow (Mt. 10:29) and feeds the raven who has neither storehouse or barn (Lu. 12;24). The lilies of the field who don’t toil or spin are arrayed with a glory that exceeds that of Solomon (Mt. 6:28-29). If God did all this for the birds and flowers, how much more will He do for those who are created in His image? 7 Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The LORD looseth the prisoners: Jesus never turned down an earnest cry for help. In Like 4:18 Jesus claimed the anointing of the Spirit to preach the gospel to the poor; to heal the brokenhearted, preach deliverance to the captives, open blind eyes (both physical and spiritual) and to set at liberty them that are bruised. 8 The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind: the LORD raiseth them that are bowed down: the LORD loveth the righteous: Jesus healed several blind men (Mk. 10:51; Lu. 18:35; Jo. 9:1) and raised up a woman who had been bent over from affliction for eighteen years (Lu. 13:11-12). 9 The LORD preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down. Israel and Judah were strangers during their captivities, but the Lord preserved those who put their trust in Him. We are pilgrims and strangers (I Pet. 2:11) in an unfriendly world and He will do the same for us. In eastern cultures widows were oppressed. In some places, even up to fairly modern times, they were forbidden to remarry when their husband died and also forbidden to work. God sees their plight and sends deliverance to those who call on Him, just as He did for the widow of Nain (Lu. 7:11-18). 10 The LORD shall reign for ever, [even] thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise ye the LORD. God does and will reign forever. He reigns in Zion, of which the church is now a part. His purpose and plans were set in place in eternity past (Ro. 8:28; Eph. 3:11; II Tim. 1:9). His word is forever settled in heaven (Ps. 118.89). Jesus said that not even the smallest punctuation marks of His word would be removed until all was fulfilled (Mt. 5:18). So let us not depend on the promises of man. Nor should we despair over current conditions. Let us put our wholehearted trust in our eternal God who loved us so much that He shed His own blood for our salvation (Acts 20:28). Keep Looking Up! Don and Marie Spooner About Him! Ministries Your thoughts and Inquiries Contact@about-him.com Subscribe to this devotional? Subscribe@about-him.com The purpose of About-Him.Com is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ whom we preach as the Almighty God manifest in the flesh. It is our desire that everything presented on these pages increases your faith in our God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Home About Us About His Word Bible Studies Flash Movies Guest Writers Humor Links Midi Music Songs of the Church Thoughts on the Life of Christ Weekly Devotions Audio Devotionals Topical Studies Contact Last modified: 09-04-2009 Contact us About Him! Ministries |