For forty years I led you through the desert … yet your sandals did not wear out." Duet. 29:5
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Our God is a very present help in trouble. A God who is near, and not a God who is far off. This does not mean that we will not see trouble. It does mean that God will produce in us, through the trouble, more of a love for Him; more of a love for those around us who are trying to deal with troubles of their own.
Gird Your sword upon Your thigh, O Mighty One, with Your glory and Your majesty. And in Your majesty ride prosperously because of truth, humility, and righteousness.
The Mighty One is glorious and majestic because of His character. He is full of truth, humility and righteousness.
If we had forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a foreign god, would not God search this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart.
My God knows the secets of my heart. He knows its doubts and fears. Its aspirations and deepest longings. He knows and understands because He cares.
Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God.
I may not feel like it today. Or tomorrow. Or even the day after that. But I shall yet praise Him. The Holy Spirit will bring me to my senses, so to speak. My perspective will change for the better. He will put a smile on my face and a song in my heart. My God will do that.
Sing unto the Lord, all the earth; shew forth from day to day his salvation. Declare his glory among the heathen; his marvellous works among all nations. For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised: he also is to be feared above all gods.
We would all agree that our time of worship together is holy, i.e. it is a time set apart for God. And yet, it is not that we make this one hour something it is not already. Worship is an epiphany, a revelation that not only this hour, but every hour is holy. “I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth.” Every hour. Every day. For Jesus didn’t say, “I am the way, the truth and the hour”, but rather, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”
Thus all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the horn, with trumpets and with cymbals, making music with stringed instruments and harps.
As Christians, we should celebrate life. Rather, we should celebrate Him who is our Life. Our celebration ought to be more of an attitude than an action.
And David inquired of God, saying, “Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will You deliver them into my hand?”
This is what separated David from Saul. Saul was impulsive, self-willed. David held back, and inquired of the Lord first. What a lesson for us today.
And when they came to Chidon’s threshing floor, Uzza put out his hand to hold the ark, for the oxen stumbled. Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against Uzza, and He struck him because he put his hand to the ark; and he died there before God. And David became angry because of the Lord’s outbreak against Uzza; therefore that place is called Perez Uzza to this day. David was afraid of God that day, saying, “How can I bring the ark of God to me?”
This is a difficult passage, to say the least. The anger of the LORD was aroused. The LORD is not a static Being in the heavens, who does not really care one way or the other what we do, how we act, how we treat things that are sacred.
Uzza, along with all of the Israelites, knew (or certainly should have known) that their God was holy, and that the ark was holy. For a man to touch the ark—for whatever reason—without God’s instruction was deadly.
The LORD is in his holy temple, but He is also in our midst. Let all the earth keep silence before Him…
Then the Spirit came upon Amasai, chief of the captains, and he said:
“We are yours, O David; we are on your side, son of Jesse! Peace, peace to you,
And peace to your helpers, for your God helps you.”
Full of allegiance. Loyal. Self-sacrificial. Mindful of the work of God Almighty. These were the caliber of men whom David had around him.
Nevertheless David would not drink it, but poured it out to the Lord. And he said, “Far be it from me, O my God, that I should do this! Shall I drink the blood of these men who have put their lives in jeopardy? For at the risk of their lives they brought it.”
To David, to drink the water the warriors had brought to him would have been tantamount to drinking their blood, since they had risked their very lives in doing so.
When Jesus raised the cup at the Last Supper, he referred to it as the new covenant in his blood. I wonder if there is some parallel here…
