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Psalm 115 is another “Hallelujah” Psalm written after the Babylonian captivity and was sung after the Passover meal. It is the hymn that Jesus and His disciples sang after partaking of the bread. The Achilles heel of the Jews was idolatry: they loved to worship images. They struggled with the worship of an invisible God but during the Babylonian captivity, they were delivered from the worship of idols. I think Babylon was so pagan that it was sickening to the Jews and God used the utter foolishness and futility of their pagan worship to turn the Jews away from such practices. God has a way of destroying our idols and He is to be praised for His ability to do it. One by one, I have watched Him crush my idols. Things I once loved, I now despise and I know that it is His grace at work and so I praise Him.
When Israel’s pagan neighbors visited their Temple, their first question would be, “Where is your God?” The Jews had a Temple but no graven image of a god. The first thing a pagan would look for was the idol. I like their answer to the question, “Where is your God?” The Psalmist said, “Our God is in heaven and He does what He pleases.” The pagan idols had mouths but couldn’t speak, eyes but could not see, ears but could not hear: they were dumb inanimate object made by human hands. There were inferior to their creators. They had to be carried if they were to move and they were nailed down to keep from toppling over. Doesn’t it seem ridiculous to worship something that is inferior to you, yet pagan worship idols that were helpless and worthless. They have no life, no brains: they were simply pieces of wood or metal that had been fashions by a craftsman.
Our God is the real God. He is not only living, He is the life giver. Their gods were created: our God is but He is not created and He created us, not we Him. He has always been and He is the giver and sustainer of all life. Not only does He give life, He governs all that He has created. He is sovereign which means that He can do as He pleases. Our God cannot be seen, not even imagined. He cannot be contained, restrained, challenged, threatened, manipulated, deceived and He certainly cannot be defeated. Our God is worthy of praised. We can fathom His love nor comprehend His works.
- We become what we worship[v.8]. If we worship something that is vain, useless and dead–we become vain, useless and dead.
- The heavens are the Lord’s heavens, but the earth He has given to human beings.[v.16] God has given us dominion for a time but there is a day of reckoning coming.
- The dead {spiritually} cannot praise the LORD. [v.17] Just as an idol cannot speak, so a spiritually dead person cannot praise God. This explains why so many are unable to praise Him. They are void of spiritual life. Perhaps your defense is that you don’t sing: then shout, clap your hands, smile, make a joyful noise, exhibit some life, don’t sit there that a piece of wood or stone. Do you clap and cheer at ball games?
Noah sent me this one…Check it out!
- Pray for Larry Garner. They carried him to HH this morning. He is very weak. We need a miracle folks.
- God is good. I had a busy day yesterday and an entertaining night. I went to see Josie play ball and the special Olympic teams were playing on the field beside her. Kim has three on the team, Clara was playing for the opposing team. Anyway, Jarvis comes up to bat, bases loaded and he jacks one to deep center field, he runs to first and stops. He just stood on first talking to the helpers and I am hollowing at the top of my lungs, “run, Jarvis, run.” I had not noticed that the folks in front of him could not run that well and by the time they got to third, they were all in a bundle. About the time this group waddled past third doing about 1/100 of a mile per hour, Jarvis must have heard me and he took off like a shot out of cannon. He flew around the bases like his rear end was on fir and headed for home. He was coming down the line toward home like a bowling ball going down the lane. The helpers and the three runners were congregated and celebrating at home plate and here comes Jarvis doing 30 miles per hour. Bodies began flying in all directions. Thank goodness no one was hurt because Willard was watching the whole thing and he blamed me. He said, “See what you did, you almost got some people killed.” [No one got hurt] I laughed until I cried and then I laughed some more. When Willard chewed me out, that made it worse, I could not stop laughing. I laughed until my head began to hurt. I’m laughing right now. I may not miss another game.
- Pray for my ROCKYFORD “Meet Your Neighbor” Block Party, October 21 at 4:00 pm.
- October is now booked: I’m preaching somewhere every Sunday. Thank You Jesus! Lord willing, I will be preaching at DBC this Sunday night.
- Good article by Mollie Hemingway in this months IMPRIMIS. Her subject is “Fake News,” and the Clinton conspiracy to sabotage the Trump presidency. The democrats are relying on the power of propaganda. It is a good article and you can read it on line. Just google IMPRIMIS.
- I’m an Indians fan but I am afraid of the Yankee’s. I think they will be hard to beat.