Devotional: Psalms 42

To the chief Musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah. As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God? When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. PSALMS 42:1-5

Many of you may be familiar with the old chorus that is written based on the first few verses of this Psalm. "As the deer panteth for the waters, so my soul longeth after thee. You, Oh Lord, are my heart's desire and I long to worship thee...." I always loved the sweet, soft peace in the atmosphere of that song, but this song is not as soothing sounding. The words of these first five verses are a cry of a heart in desperation.

This Psalm has been a favorite of mine through many a difficult time period in my life. Times when my world seemed to be crashing down all around me, and depression grabbed me, gripping me by the throat so that my very life felt like it was fading. The enemy comes in like a flood sometimes, he tries to convince us our hope is gone. Even our friends may ask us as Job's friends did, what is our secret sin? When we stand in faith, believing that the trials are temporary, they will ask, "Where is your God?" Our hearts and minds may know to trust in God, but it may become very difficult when faced with pain, disease, or lack; particularly if you have to watch a child or a loved one suffer. Sometimes there are no answers for those who question our trust in God. All we can do is persevere. Our hope is in God.

I have had conversations with Father God much like the words in this Psalm describe. I've done everything, I am praising you in the midst of the fiery furnace, yet the enemy mocks YOU! And he mocks my faith in You. Yet again God's grace reminds me of Job and his words. "I know my Redeemer lives!" "Though He slay me, yet I will trust in Him." It is good to remind myself that whatever I am going through, Jesus understands. He suffered and experienced everything we ever could, and He promises to never leave us nor forsake us. There is suffering in this world. We cannot know God's heart if we don't experience suffering. Sin and it's consequences doesn't make God as angry as it does cause Him to suffer and grieve. His Holiness and Righteousness produce the wrath but His Love shields us in Mercy.

So this Psalm intermingles grief and despair with hope and faith. We can speak to our own souls and tell them to hope in God, because all tears will be forgotten in the light of His Countenance. We can answer those who question, where is your God? He is right here with me. He is pouring His strength into me, because I have no more of my own. He is giving me joy and hope, when there is no tangible reason for these to exist in me. I will seek my God, not because He has an answer to stop my suffering, but because He is everything to me. If He would forsake me, I could not breathe another breath. He holds me in the palm of His Hand. By Him the stars are held in their places. He brings the sunshine and the rain, when the earth is parched. He floods me being with the warmth and light of His Love and His Presence. I desperately need Him, He is all I need.

Devotional: Psalms 18

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, the servant of the LORD, who spake unto the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul: And he said, I will love thee, O LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. The sorrows of hell compassed me about: the snares of death prevented me. In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears. Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under his feet. And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind. He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals of fire. The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire. Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them. Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils. He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong forme. They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the LORD was my stay. He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me. PSALMS 18:1-16

This is the beginning of a song, or Psalm, written by King David after his victory from a very low point. He himself had been anointed as the new king of Israel by the Prophet and Seer Samuel. Yet King Saul, whom David had faithfully served, was still the king and he was chasing David through the desert to kill him. Can you imagine all the thoughts that might have gone through David's mind? It would certainly be difficult in his situation not to question God. David was the least in his father's house and had no aspirations for leadership. It was all God's idea! He has submitted to God, submitted to the authority of Samuel, and even the authority of the King, Saul. His reward is a death sentence. He finds himself running for his life to the desert.

David was probably well acquainted with survival in the deserts of the Judean hills were he had kept his father's sheep. Scripture tells us he had also slain a bear and a lion with his bare hands, so we know that it was not the desert itself that David feared. Yet we know that the desert place symbolizes a dry, difficult place where we begin to feel like we are alone. We seem to loose our perception and wonder if perhaps God himself has forsaken us. Even though we may know that God has promised in His Word never to leave or forsake us, and there is no place we could hide from God's presence even if we tried, we can forget these things in the face of extreme distress. Other Psalms written by David describe every "feeling" we could ever experience in the desert place, from fear to depression, from absolute loneliness to exaltation in the presence of God's nearness as we view the night sky in wonder.

In this Psalm David has just been delivered from death by the hand of God. What a victory! David sees God as having moved heaven and earth on his behalf! David is my personal hero because whether he is facing fear or victory his FIRST thought is always God. Though he is a mighty warrior himself, he ALWAYS gives God ALL the credit. This Psalm is no exception. David joyously sings of God's deliverance and then reminds himself, and us, that God has done this because because "He delighted in me". God's infinite love for us is the reason He walks with us through the valley of the shadow of death and brings us to victory. It isn't because David had earned God's favor, David believed in, and expected God's favor. The Bible says that God considered David His friend. What an honor to be called a friend of the Most High God.

Do you know that Father God delights in you? Every time you acknowledge His blessings in your life and give Him glory, He delights in YOU. Yes, He created the stars and all the wonders of this earth and in the universe, and yet He delights in our recognition, our dependence, our obedience, our love for Him. We are so blessed to have the Bible as we go through our desert places and come under the attack of the enemy. We can read through the Psalms and allow the Holy Spirit to remind of God's faithfulness, even when we are weak and fail. How grievous it is to hear someone say, "Oh, I am in a desert place and the Word is so dry I cannot read it." This is like refusing life saving water because your throat is too dry to swallow. Don't give into the enemy's lies!

I pray that today you will delight yourself in the Lord that He may delight in You. May you love, serve and glorify Him in ways that make Him sing, dance and rejoice over you.

New Generation of Kids

A Word 2/4/07 Albany, OR by Kim Clement

The Spirit of God says this year I am dedicating to the child. To the children of this nation and to the children of this earth because it is now time for retribution, it is time for Me to repay for the many who have been taken out legally by abortion, I'm going to repay. I will raise up a double portion and a double sound in your children for the gifts that previous generations had are nothing compared to what I'm about to do through your children. The Spirit of God says look at them these are but a few compared to what I'm going to do. I will not only baptize them with a Spirit at an early age but I will do it in the schools, I will do it in preschools. They will have no choice because my Spirit has been waiting for a moment to repay for that which they have done to the children of this generation. Therefore rejoice for tonight is the beginning of something that shall continue and continue and grow. Children will gather together and they will hear the voice of the prophet and they themselves will prophesy. God says the powers of hell will not be able to stand the sound of a child. No one will stop the sound of God in the child that I am raising up in this hour. They will not stop the sound of child-like faith. They will not stop the sound of child-like praise. They will not stop the sound of child-like wisdom. This is something that will continue throughout this country until the voice of God is heard in the preschools, schools, universities and colleges. My voice shall be heard says the Lord. http://www.kimclement.com

View this on LiveDigital

This new generation of children is arising in our midst. God is doing it. We can choose to cooperate or try to squash what He is doing. But He will do it. It is prophecied in Joel.

I challenge you to consider, God sees each of us as one of these little children. Whether we are 5 years old or over 80, whether we have been saved 5 minutes or for our entire lifetime. We remain as little children to our Abba, Father. Throw away the wordy explanations of your flowery prayers, seasoned with your doubts and thoughts of how God ought to answer your prayers and intervene according to our desires, and learn to pray these kinds of childlike prayers.

Abba, we need You. All we need is YOU!

Accoustic Prayer from the Gaza Strip

Palestinian/American missionary minstrel sings his original prayer for peace for Rafah/Gaza and all the Holy Land and all its peoples.

Devotional: Psalms 1

Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he does shall prosper....
Psalms 1:1-3

God's Word is full of promises of blessings. Great blessings for our families, even generations to come are promised. The greatest promise is fulfilled in Jesus, Yeshua the Messiah. His Blood and our belief and acceptance of its atoning work bridges the gap between man and God forever. The Bible is sometimes called the law of the Lord, and it is our guidebook. But even more amazingly it spells out the character of God and explains His infinite Mercy and Love for us. As you read the Bible you can meet the Almighty God Himself as a real, responsive, intimate person. It says in the Gospel of John that the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. Jesus is the Word of God in tangible form.

Psalms 1 begins with a blessing for a godly person. This does not mean we all must become religious and follow every letter of the law. It means that we hold God's Word above the logic of the world, and the opinions of man. But the key that I want to bring forth here is the phrase: "his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night."

What does it mean to delight in the law of the Lord? I know people who delight in Starbucks, or ice cream, or perhaps in their grandchildren. Things I could definitely delight in. I love reading the Word of God, to me it is always alive and relevant. But I have heard others, even pastors and leaders--godly men and women--who speak of seasons where the Word is dry and difficult to read. But that doesn't mean that they would place God's Word lower than other sources of counsel. There is simply a special blessing for those who have pursued God and find His law their delight.

I am one who delights in the law of the Lord, but have found myself in busy seasons where my day and my life is so full of other things that I am not meditating on the Word. I thank God that He has so imparted His Word to my heart that it is there at the tip of my tongue when someone is in need of encouragement, or wisdom--including myself. But again, this Psalm is promising a special blessing.

How can we attain God's richest blessings in our busy world? To begin with we must realize just how precious His Word is. Read Psalm 119, it gives the best overall picture of how valuable the Word of God is. There are many people in this world who don't have access to a Bible, yet they would consider it very precious if they could obtain one. Many of us have heard stories of those in China who have torn a New Testament into individual pages, so that they could share pieces among house churches. Others dedicate their lives to translating it into new languages, to reach more people. It seems to me those who have perhaps several Bibles are the ones who use it more for a reference book than as something precious. The people who read the Word regularly are those who seem to know the heart of God the best. Those who come to us and ask for prayer because they can't hear God and need his direction, are the ones who spend little time reading, let alone meditating on His Word.

The word for meditate is a word that indicates chewing, like a cow chews its cud. Bring it back into your mind as you drive or do chores, and turn it over in your mind. Pray and ask God for His Revelation on a subject or specific scripture. Perhaps you can begin by memorizing these 3 verses, or choose one that is your favorite from anywhere in Bible. Perhaps God would have you pray a portion of scripture for a season over a loved one, or yourself. These are different ways to bring the Word into the forefront of your mind. Your life will begin to change, because your perspective will begin to change. This isn't a formula, and you won't see results overnight. But God's promises are true. I would love to see more of God's people prosper so that the Gospel can go forth in greater measure.