November 9
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MAN WILL PERISH BUT GOD ENDURES FOREVER
He has broken my strength in the way;
He has shortened my days.
24 I say, “My God, do not take me away in the middle of my days,
Your years are throughout all generations.
25 In time of old You founded the earth,
And the heavens are the work of Your hands.
26 Even they will perish, but You endure;
All of them will wear out like a garment;
Like clothing You will change them and they will pass away.
27 But You are the same,
And Your years will not come to an end.
28 The children of Your servants will continue,
And their descendants will be established before You. -PSALM 102:23-28
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The psalmist ends this psalm declaring how disposable our lives are but God is everlasting. In verse 23, he humbly recognized that our lives are in the hands of God. We are at God’s disposal. In verse 24, he pleads God not to shorten his life and gives God praise for watching over His people throughout many generations. In verse 25, he brings glory to the only creator of the whole earth and the heavens which are all still in existence based on God’s plan. In verse 26, he gives praise to the truth that all of creation can be snapped out because God is sovereign and all-powerful. He can do anything He wished with it. It shows that all things are fleeting and only God can decide which ones He wants to keep long. In verse 27, it declares God’s unchangeable nature and His infiniteness. In verse 28, the psalmist promises continued service to the Lord with the descendants of His people.
What a humble way the psalmist ends this psalm! He declares God’s limitless being and that all creation will be at God’s disposal. Many people think that they are in control of their lives and do everything they can to prolong their lives. This psalm is a reminder to us all how fleeting our lives are and God will do what He needs to do to make his plan come to fruition. We humans become so preoccupied with the way we see things when we need to be able to see God’s perspective in our life here on earth. We need to be able to focus on being used by God to make His plan be realized.
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REFLECTION
• How can we be able to maximize the life God gave us?
Monthly Archives: November 2020
GOD HEARS THE GROANING OF THE PRISONER ILMA’S VLOG
November 8
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GOD HEARS THE GROANING OF THE PRISONER
For the LORD has built up Zion;
He has appeared in His glory.
17 He has turned His attention to the prayer of the destitute
And has not despised their prayer.
18 This will be written for the generation to come,
That a people yet to be created may praise the LORD:
19 For He looked down from His holy height;
From heaven the LORD looked upon the earth,
20 To hear the groaning of the prisoner,
To set free those who were doomed to death,
21 So that people may tell of the name of the LORD in Zion,
And His praise in Jerusalem,
22 When the peoples are gathered together,
And the kingdoms, to serve the LORD. – Psalm 102:16-22
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Commentary on these verses on the psalm from enduringword.com states that God’s goodness will be written for the generations to come: God’s goodness to Zion and the whole earth is a testimony for the future, so that a people yet to be created may praise the LORD. Poole writes “This wonderful deliverance shall not be lost nor forgotten, but carefully recorded by thy people.” Spurgeon on the other hands says that “Registers of divine kindness ought to be made and preserved: we write down in history the calamities of nations – wars, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes are recorded; how much rather then should we set up memorials of the Lord’s lovingkindnesses!”
The psalmist pictured God bending down low from heaven. In verse 19, God sees the people he created and in verse 20, the psalmist recognizes that God hears the complains of those who are in bondage. Once, I was in so much bondage and strongholds, and deep inside me, I knew God was listening to my groanings during those times. In verse 20, the psalmist echoes Isaiah 61:1 which says: “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, Because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners”. What wonderful promises God has given his people!
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REFLECTION
• Why is depression and hopelessness not an option for a true believer?
YOU, LORD, REMAIN FOREVER ILMA’S VLOG
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November 7
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YOU, LORD, REMAIN FOREVER
My enemies have taunted me all day long;
Those who deride me have used my name as a curse.
9 For I have eaten ashes like bread,
And mixed my drink with weeping
10 Because of Your indignation and Your wrath;
For You have lifted me up and thrown me away.
11 My days are like a lengthened shadow,
And I wither away like grass.
12 But You, LORD, remain forever,
And Your name remains to all generations.
13 You will arise and have compassion on Zion;
For it is time to be gracious to her,
For the appointed time has come.
14 Surely Your servants take pleasure in her stones,
And feel pity for her dust.
15 So the nations will fear the name of the LORD,
And all the kings of the earth, Your glory. – Psalm 102:8-15
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In verse 8, according to enduringword.com, the psalmist’s affliction came from more than poor health; he had enemies set against him. They opposed him with constant disapproval and rejection. In verse 9, he seemed to be in constant mourning. The marks of mourning such as ashes and weeping were as familiar to him as food and drink. In verse 10, the mourning was all the more bitter because of the sense that this affliction came as some kind of punishment from God. Spurgeon comments on verse 10 says that “He felt that God was treating him as wrestlers treat one another, when a man deliberately lifts up his opponent in order that he may give him the worse fall.” In verse 11, the psalmist was overwhelmed with a sense of divine rejection; he felt that his life was short and had little meaning. In verse 12, the psalmist’s tone changes. We note the contrast between the first 11 verses, which were filled with personal references (I, me, and my) and verses 12 and following. With the words, but You, the focus changes and is set on God. What a difference it makes when we change our focus from ourselves to God!
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REFLECTION
• Why do we need to focus on God’s infiniteness instead of our fleeting lives?
LIKE AN OWL OF THE RUINS ILMA’S VLOG
November 6
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LIKE AN OWL OF THE RUINS
Hear my prayer, LORD!
And let my cry for help come to You.
2 Do not hide Your face from me on the day of my distress;
Incline Your ear to me; On the day when I call answer me quickly.
3 For my days have ended in smoke,
And my bones have been scorched like a hearth.
4 My heart has been struck like grass and has withered,
Indeed, I forget to eat my bread.
5 Because of the loudness of my groaning
My bones cling to my flesh. 6 I resemble a pelican of the wilderness;
I have become like an owl of the ruins. 7 I lie awake,
I have become like a solitary bird on a housetop. – Psalm 102:1-7
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This psalm is entitled “A Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed and pours out his complaint before the LORD.” According to a commentary from enduringword.com, this afflicted one borrowed his tone and some of his phrasing from Job, who is the Old Testament’s greatest example of affliction. Many phrases also match others in the psalms.
This psalm describes Jerusalem (Zion) in a state of ruin. If this is taken as literal ruin, the psalm may have been written by those in exile who mourned over both their personal and national affliction. Adam Clarke followed this thinking and suggested the author could be Daniel, Jeremiah, or Nehemiah. However, it may be that the ruin of Zion described is more poetic in nature and the psalm is pre-exilic. In traditional Christian liturgy, this has been regarded as one of the seven penitential psalms (along with Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 130, and 143).
In verse 5, as in Job 19:20, he was so weak and thin that there seemed to be nothing between his bones and his skin. He felt like a lonely and restless bird. According to Spurgeon, the psalmist likens himself to two birds (pelican and owl) which were commonly used as emblems of gloom and wretchedness.”
Being overwhelmed is the state of the author of this psalm. When we allow the world to run our whole being, we become confused and discouraged, we resort to complaining. It is interesting how the psalmist compares himself to the owl in the ruins.
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REFLECTION
• Why is it okay to complain and run to God rather than to men?
THE NEARNESS OF GOD IS GOOD FOR ME ILMA’S VLOG
November 5
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THE NEARNESS OF GOD IS GOOD FOR ME
When my heart was embittered
And I was pierced within,
22 Then I was stupid and ignorant;
I was like an animal before You.
23 Nevertheless I am continually with You;
You have taken hold of my right hand.
24 You will guide me with Your plan,
And afterward receive me to glory.
25 Whom do I have in heaven but You?
And with You, I desire nothing on earth.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
27 For, behold, those who are far from You will perish;
You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to You.
28 But as for me, the nearness of God is good for me;
I have made the Lord GOD my refuge,
So that I may tell of all Your works.- Psalm 73:21-28
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In this psalm, Asaph continue with his confession to the Lord. In verse 21, he repents of bitterness that actually pierced him inside and in verse 22, he admits being foolish and compared himself to an animal before God. We tend to be savages when we forget how God has created us. He made us in His own image. In verses 23-24, he turns around with giving God credit for his faithfulness to Him, despite all his natural tendencies to sin. He looks up to the promise of being with the Lord when he is faithful. Verse 26 declares his submission to God. He declares that God is the source of all his strength and that he is his portion. In verse 27, he cautions those who are turning their backs on God and who is far from him. Destruction is the consequence of such rejection of the Lord. The highlight of the whole psalm lies in verse 28. He declares that abiding in God is the only way we can receive our salvation. He made a decision that he will only serve God and that He will rely on Him for his safety. He will shout to all of God’s goodness and all that He has done for His people.
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REFLECTION
• Why is the knowledge of God being near to you essential in our lives?
UNTIL YOU ENTER GOD’S SANCTUARY ILMA’S VLOG
November 4
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UNTIL YOU ENTER GOD’S SANCTUARY
Therefore his people return here,
And abundant waters are drunk by them.
11 They say, “How does God know?
And is there knowledge with the Most High?”
12 Behold, these are the wicked;
And always at ease, they have increased in wealth.
13 Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure
And washed my hands in innocence;
14 For I have been stricken all day long,
And punished every morning.
15 If I had said, “I will speak this way,”
Behold, I would have betrayed the generation of Your children.
16 When I thought of understanding this,
It was troublesome in my sight
17 Until I entered the sanctuary of God;
Then I perceived their end.
18 You indeed put them on slippery ground;
You dropped them into ruin.
19 How they are destroyed in a moment!
They are utterly swept away by sudden terrors!
20 Like a dream when one awakes,
Lord, when stirred, You will despise their image.– Psalm 73:10-20
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In this psalm, Asaph seemed frustrated with how the ungodly were prospering and continuing in their ways. In verse 11, the psalmist was bothered by how God was quiet and allowing these wicked people to mock Him. They think God can’t know or see what they are doing. We hear Asaph’s shallow view of life when he envied those who are wealthy and uncaring with the world. In verse 13-14, we hear his remorse and repentance. In verses 16-16, Asaph showed reliance on his own understanding but in verse 17, he realized how different his view changed when he went to the house of the Lord. His view of this life became eternal. He prophetically saw how it will all end.
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REFLECTION
• Why do some people tend to miss seeing life in an eternal perspective?
GOD IS GOOD TO THOSE WHOSE HEARTS ARE PURE ILMA’S VLOG
November 3
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GOD IS GOOD TO THOSE WHOSE HEARTS ARE PURE
God certainly is good to Israel,
To those who are pure in heart!
2 But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling,
My steps had almost slipped.
3 For I was envious of the arrogant
As I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4 For there are no pains in their death,
And their belly is fat.
5 They are not in trouble like other people,
Nor are they tormented together with the rest of mankind.
6 Therefore arrogance is their necklace;
The garment of violence covers them.
7 Their eye bulges from fatness;
The imaginations of their heart overflow.
8 They mock and wickedly speak of oppression;
They speak from on high.
9 They have set their mouth against the heavens,
And their tongue parades through the earth. – Psalm 73:1-9
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In this verse, Asaph compares the wicked with the pure. In verse 1, he acknowledges the goodness of God who blesses and favors those who are pure. In verse 2, he confesses that he was tempted to sin and in verse 3 he admits the envy he had over those who were prosperous and proud. In verses 4-5, he continues to admit his jealousy over the seeming conveniences and easy lives these wicked people live. In verse 6-7, he enumerates his observations of the proud people. They show off their arrogance as if it were a jewelry to boast about. In verse 7, he exposes how you can clearly see their lusts of the belly and how they feed so much on their own imagination. In verse 8 Asaph adds on to the character of the wicked. They love to put down and belittle others and put themselves high up on a pedestal. In verse 9, he exposes how they blaspheme God and rebel against all that God represents. It is important to recognize the ways of the wicked, so we can examine our lives and guard against impurities from them.
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REFLECTION
• Why is it important to stay pure as a believer?
MY TONGUE SHALL PROCLAIM YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS ILMA’S VLOG
November 2
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MY TONGUE SHALL PROCLAIM YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS
Do not let them say in their heart, “Aha, our desire!”
Do not let them say, “We have swallowed him up!”
26 May those be ashamed and altogether humiliated who rejoice at my distress;
May those who exalt themselves over me be clothed with shame and dishonor.
27 May those who shout for joy and rejoice, who take delight in my vindication;
And may they say continually, “The LORD be exalted,
Who delights in the prosperity of His servant.”
28 And my tongue shall proclaim Your righteousness
And Your praise all day long. – Psalm 35:25-28
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David Guzik comments on this part of Psalm 35 on verse 26 that David simply and powerfully asked God to be his defense before his enemies. Spurgeon comments on the second part of this verse as “He will shame them for shaming his people, bring them to confusion for making confusion, pull off their fine apparel and give them a beggarly suit of dishonor, and turn all their rejoicing into weeping and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. Truly, the saints can afford to wait.”
In verses 27-28, Guzik says that David is asking that the people of God take joy in his vindication. Through the psalms in general, we see that David did not think of himself as perfect in a sinless sense. Yet in many of the disputes with his enemies, he had no problem seeing that he was on God’s side and they were not. In many of these conflicts, we don’t sense that David was troubled by self-doubt.
In verse 28, Poole writes “Mine enemies’ great design is to magnify themselves, but my chief desire is that God may be magnified.”
This psalm is focused on asking God for defense and yet it also pleads God so that the glory will be to praise and glorify God for his faithful defense of those who are faithful to serve Him.
How often do we ask God to stand up for us and defend us? In our current world, we automatically defend ourselves and fight for our rights. Then we wonder why we never have victory. The enemy wants us to forget our dependence on God who is the only one who can deliver His people from any form of evil or schemes of the enemy.
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REFLECTION
• Why do we need to speak of God’s righteousness often? What does that do to us?
DO NOT LET MY ENEMIES REJOICE OVER ME ILMA’S VLOG
November 1
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DO NOT LET MY ENEMIES REJOICE OVER ME
Lord, how long will You look on?
Rescue my soul from their ravages,
My only life from the lions.
18 I will give You thanks in the great congregation;
I will praise You among a mighty people.
19 Do not let those who are wrongfully my enemies rejoice over me;
Nor let those who hate me for no reason wink maliciously.
20 For they do not speak peace,
But they devise deceitful words against those who are quiet in the land.
21 They opened their mouth wide against me;
They said, “Aha, aha! Our eyes have seen it!”
22 You have seen it, LORD, do not keep silent;
Lord, do not be far from me.
23 Stir Yourself, and awake to my right
And to my cause, my God and my Lord.
24 Judge me, LORD my God, according to Your righteousness,
And do not let them rejoice over me. – Psalm 35:17-24
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In this psalm, we hear David asking God to vindicate him from his enemies It sounded like he was confronting God to take action and not have a passive stand on what is going on in his life. In verse 17, he mentions lions which probably represents the fears he was facing and how fierce his enemies were at eating him up with fear. In verse 18, he faithfully promises God that he will thank Him publicly and among His people. In verse 19, we hear David confidently requesting God to not allow his enemies to mock and make fun of him nor any of those who plot evil against him triumph over him. In verse 20, he exposes further what these evil people do, they destroy peace and seek conflict amongst those who are God’s people. Verse 21 further declares what was done to him, they have seen his weaknesses and exposed it. In verse 22, David kept pleading God not be silent anymore and to come to his rescue. In verses 23-24, he confidently call on God to defend him and to examine him according to His righteousness, reminding God to not allow the enemy to trample on him.
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REFLECTION
• Why is it important to come to God to defend us? Why can’t we fight on our own?
MY SOUL SHALL REJOICE IN THE LORD ILMA’S VLOG
October 31
________________________________________MY SOUL SHALL REJOICE IN THE LORD
So my soul shall rejoice in the LORD;
It shall rejoice in His salvation.
10 All my bones will say, “LORD, who is like You,
Who rescues the afflicted from one who is too strong for him,
And the afflicted and the poor from one who robs him?”
11 Malicious witnesses rise up;
They ask me things that I do not know.
12 They repay me evil for good,
To the bereavement of my soul.
13 But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth;
I humbled my soul with fasting,
But my prayer kept returning to me.
14 I went about as though it were my friend or brother;
I bowed down in mourning, like one who mourns for a mother.
15 But at my tumbling they rejoiced and gathered themselves together;
The afflicted people whom I did not know gathered together against me,
They slandered me without ceasing.
16 Like godless jesters at a feast,
They gnashed at me with their teeth.- Psalm 35:9-16
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In verse 9, David promised that his soul would be appropriately happy in the LORD. Spurgeon comments on this verse as “We do not triumph in the destruction of others, but in the salvation given to us of God.” Smyth (cited in Spurgeon) suggested several reasons why God might allow such a sorrowful trial.
· To humble His people.
· To cause them to seek Him in urgent prayer.
· To prevent them from pursuing the very thing falsely accused of.
· To test whether His people will rely upon Him in all things.
· To teach them how to behave toward others when they are falsely accused.
· To warn them against making false accusations against others.
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REFLECTION
• How can David still rejoice in the Lord despite all the plots of the enemy and how all these people have gathered against him?