Scripture
Praise the Lord, God our Savior, who helps us every day. Our God is a God who saves us; the Lord God saves us from death.
~Psalms 68:19-20, NCV
Quote
Monarchy in the best form of government if you have a perfect King.
~Ya’akov
Psalm 68 in a hymn of triumph. Some think David wrote it when he conquered Jerusalem. It is a beautiful portrait of Jesus, our Warrior King. Paul quotes from verse 18 in the Epistle to the Ephesians when he speaks of Jesus ascension. The Psalm pictures the return of a triumphant king and it list the benefits of having such a king. Study this list and be encouraged:
- He defeats our enemies, drives them away like smoke {He is our High Protector} [v.1-2]
- He gives us joy and gladness with His presence [v.3-4]
- He is a father to the fatherless and He takes care of the widows [v.5]
- He is a home to the homeless [v.6]
- He is our Forerunner [v.7 and Hebrews 6:19-20]
- He renews the worn out land with rain [v.8-9]
- He provides for the poor [v.10]
- He gives us a message of Victory [v.11]
- He shares the spoils [v.12]
- He fights our battles while we sleep [v.13]
- He rewards us with gifts [v.13]
- He bears our burdens daily [v.19]
- He defeats all our enemies, even death [v.20]
- He scatters our enemies like snow flakes in a storm [v.21]
Remember the story in I Samuel where the Israelites demanded a king. Samuel was heartbroken over their request but the LORD told Samuel to give them what they wanted. He told Samuel to tell them first what the disadvantages to having an earthly king were and Samuel gave them a list of things that could go wrong with an earthy king but they refused to listen. Lets pick up on the conversation at this point…
In spite of what Samuel said, the people refused to listen to him. “No!” they said. “We want a king to rule over us. Then we’ll be like all of the other nations. We’ll have a king to lead us. He’ll go out at the head of our armies and fight our battles.”
Samuel gave them a king by the name of Saul and he went nuts. He was as crazy as a run over dog. He looked good on the outside but he had a bad heart. He was just the beginning of a long line of horrible kings. In the entire history of the kings, Israel had on one good king and that was David. After the kingdom split, Judah had only three good kings and a couple of honorable mentions. If you do the math, nine out of every ten kings were sorry. But let’s be honest, did the Israelites really want a king to rule over them and to lead them or were they simply wanting a king to bail them out when they got in trouble, a king to fight their battles?
The Good News is that Jesus is the perfect KING we really want and need. Jesus can do everything on David’s list above. David could not refresh the earth with rain, nor could he defeat our enemy death. David wrote Psalm 68 but it is about JESUS, our Triumphant Warrior King. There is no foe He cannot defeat; no battle He cannot win or any need that He cannot meet.
We talked about Mary Magdalene last Sunday. She and the other followers of Christ were devastated by his death. When Jesus died, their hopes died and their dreams were shattered. They could not imagine a life without Jesus. Life itself, became and intense struggle for them. How could they possibly go on without HIM? What could God possible do to fix their broken hearts? There seemed to be no hope, no way out of this despair but when they had lost all hope, God gave them a new hope in the resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus changed everything. You may be battling some issues that seem to have no solution or staring at shattered dreams that cannot be mended but you keep one thing in mind: there is a new day and a new world ahead. It is not too late for your dream to come true. Jesus can make it happen and He has an eternity to do it.
Think about this for a moment: Was Jesus what Israel expected? NO! He is infinitely more than anything they could imagine, they just haven’t realized it yet. A day is coming when they will. No one is going to be disappointed with heaven.
- BLOCK PARTY week begins tonight at 6:00. If I can get three more to help me, we can pass our flyers at the 4-way stop. We are not soliciting, we are giving something away and we do not need permission to do such on public property. If we are not careful, we will miss a blessing.
- My 16-8 diet did not work last week: well, only in one way. When it comes to weight lose, I gained 2 pounds. So this idea of eating what you want during your 8 hours is bologna. You see, I love pizza and I can eat an entire 10 inch pizza by myself. So this week, I am watching the carbs: no pizza, sandwiches, burgers, etc. I will be eating chicken, fish, meat skins and the like. Fasting for 16 hours is not hard when you eat all you want during the 8 hours but I could really tell a difference when I cut out the carbs. Last night was a struggle.
