Scripture

Yahweh is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

~Psalm 34:18, LSB

Quote

God never despises the cries {Prayers} of His saints.

~Martin Luther

I go to bed at night thinking about my Psalm for the following day. I do love Psalm 34. There are a lot of great Psalms but if you are down and out, Psalm 34 is great medicine. It is one wonderful verse after another and of course I love verse 18. The NKJV reads, The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart,
And saves such as have a contrite spirit. The New Living is slightly different: The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed. I really like Dr. Kenneth Taylor’s paraphrase, The Lord is close to those whose hearts are breaking; he rescues those who are humbly sorry for their sins. I was convicted by that last phrase. I preached on pride yesterday morning and then in making the announcement I bragged on my green beans. After the service, someone pointed out to me that my comments on my green beans sounded prideful. That someone was right. It was prideful. My goal when I ascend to the pulpit is to stay in the Spirit and out of the flesh but the flesh is sneaky and it is deeply rooted in my nature. I drove home from Danville last night thinking, “Lord, I don’t know about either one of the sermons I preached today. I do hope that You can use them to help someone but I have my doubts.” It is fairly common for me to feel this way on Sunday night.

My sin gets me down. My repeated failure causes me deep contrition. Like David in Psalm 34, I cried out to the LORD and He answered me and delivered me from my fears. Actually, I can’t say that I am delivered, but I am certainly encouraged. Psalm 34 restores my soul. I do love God’s word and I love the Psalms especially. I don’t know how any believer can survive with a dose of Psalms each day. By the way, I am reading Martin Luther’s READING THE PSALMS WITH LUTHER and I am loving it. Thank God for the Bible and good books. Thank God for Kevin, Noah, Mandy, June and Joe David for ordering my books. I am not good at online shopping.

Remember, a Psalm a day will keep the devil at bay.

Extra

I think June has turned the corner. She has had three good days in a row. I think she might be able to make the Senior Adult Christmas this Friday. The last two weeks have not be normal for me and I am behind on all my visiting. I do believe I will be able to make some visits this week and I moved my books back to the office this morning. Someone gave June some beautiful flowers and I wanted her to put them on the kitchen table and she said, “How, the table is covered with books.” I do see us getting back to normal in a few weeks. When she gets to feeling better, she will run me out of her kitchen and laundry room and I will not be hurt.

Well the entire year as passed like a watch in the night, so why should November-December be any different. We have planned a schedule this year that allows us more down time. We have one more Sunday night message and then the rest of the year off. Hopefully, this will give me some time to catch up on my visiting and spend some time with the kids, grands and greats. We appreciate your understanding.

By the way, a team leaves tomorrow for Guatemala and Joe David is among them.

I hope you have a good day and thanks for reading the blog.