Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, Who eat up my people as they eat bread, And do not call on the LORD? There they are in great fear, For God is with the generation of the righteous.

You shame the counsel of the poor, But the LORD is his refuge. Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When the LORD brings back the captivity of His people, Let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad.

There is no doubt that the salvation of Israel comes our of Zion. And no doubt that the Church has been grafted into Israel. Romans 11:17-20 “But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you.

Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear.

The Church is called into the fear of the LORD, God, the Almighty.

Reading

Morning Psalm 99, Noon Psalm 119:113-120, Evening Psalm 39

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart daily? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?

Consider and hear me, O LORD my God; Enlighten my eyes, Lest I sleep the sleep of death; Lest my enemy say, "I have prevailed against him"; Lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved.

But I have trusted in Your mercy; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, Because He has dealt bountifully with me.

A very fascinating Psalm, short but full of punch and specifically directed towards David's problem. He doesn't go into details; he goes straight to the one who already knows them and who has the power to address them.

Please note that David does not provide any instructions to the LORD about how to rectify the situation. Another significant point is that he goes straight to an appropriate conclusion. He praises the LORD and acknowledges His complete understanding and power to resolve it.

Shouldn't our prayers focus more on the power of the LORD, God, the Almighty to understand and rectify appropriately?

Reading

Morning Psalm 98, Noon Psalm 119:105-112, Evening Psalm 38

Let Your mercies come also to me, O LORD—Your salvation according to Your word. So shall I have an answer for him who reproaches me, For I trust in Your word. And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, For I have hoped in Your ordinances.

So shall I keep Your law continually, Forever and ever. And I will walk at liberty, For I seek Your precepts.
I will speak of Your testimonies also before kings, And will not be ashamed. And I will delight myself in Your commandments, Which I love. My hands also I will lift up to Your commandments, Which I love, And I will meditate on Your statutes.

Another section that focuses on the relationship between obedience and worship. It is a relationship of love expressed as adherence to our LORD's directions. As it often was with my earthly father; disappointment when I disobeyed but never surprised. Both heavenly and earthly father had a good understanding of the willfulness of their son.

Over time, 40+ years, I have grown in appreciation of this relationship. The Faith cycle continues to grow and flourish. Praise the LORD for His patience with a child of Adam.

Reading

Morning Psalm 97, Noon Psalm 119:97-104, Evening Psalm 37

The words of the LORD are pure words, Like silver tried in a furnace of earth, Purified seven times.You shall keep them, O LORD, You shall preserve them from this generation forever.

An interesting term “pure words.” Maybe I need to start by considering what “impure words” would be? Certainly untrustworthy, unreliable, loosely defined, not purified seven times. The words of the world are couched in misdirection and lies. Carefully constructed phrases intended to befog and build unrealizable expectations.

But the Words of the LORD? There's something that I can take to the market. They will fly. “I am the LORD, your God.” means precisely that the LORD, God the Almighty is my God. I can trust His Word. John 1:1-4 means precisely: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

Reading

Morning Psalm 96, Noon Psalm 119:89-96, Evening Psalm 36

If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?

The LORD is in His holy temple, The LORD's throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men. The LORD tests the righteous, But the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates. Upon the wicked He will rain coals; Fire and brimstone and a burning wind Shall be the portion of their cup. For the LORD is righteous, He loves righteousness; His countenance beholds the upright.

What can the righteous do? Trust in the LORD's righteousness for that is the most powerful weapon in our arsenal. Look at that final phrase, “His countenance beholds the upright.” In other words, the LORD, God, the Almighty smiles upon those who walk (live) according to His Word. I

It does not getting any better than basking in the smile of my LORD,

Reading

Morning Psalm 95, Noon Psalm 119:81-88, Evening Psalm 35

The LORD is King forever and ever; The nations have perished out of His land. LORD, You have heard the desire of the humble; You will prepare their heart; You will cause Your ear to hear, To do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, That the man of the earth may oppress no more.

Modern man, raised in a democracy, finds the concepts involved in Lordship and Kingship to be impossible to grasp, yet we must. We are called to acknowledge Jesus, the Christ as LORD and Savior. Both Savior and LORD. The phrase, King forever and ever helps a little, but the Western mind thinks of figurehead monarchies, eg, Queen Elizabeth and a slew of princes and princesses prancing about Great Britain, but without real power and authority.

But to the chosen, the title: LORD and Savior, is a double barreled title, containing a complete definition of the authority of Jesus Christ. He is a fully endowed member of the Trinity, with the power to forgive, to heal and to restore. We should not be able to read John 1:1-4, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” without shuddering in awe, breaking into tears, and falling to our knees in adoration.

Reading

Morning Psalm 94, Noon Psalm 119:73-80, Evening Psalm 34

The nations have sunk down in the pit which they made; In the net which they hid, their own foot is caught. The LORD is known by the judgment He executes; The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Meditation. Selah

The wicked shall be turned into hell, And all the nations that forget God. For the needy shall not always be forgotten; The expectation of the poor shall not perish forever. Arise, O LORD, Do not let man prevail; Let the nations be judged in Your sight. Put them in fear, O LORD, That the nations may know themselves to be but men. Selah

Surprise, surprise, the LORD will overcome the stuborn compulsion of Man to establish himself in the position of God. The lost, the least and the lonely will be counted among the favored of the LORD; they will be set out as those who fear Him and who seek His face. Praise Him, a loving Father.

Reading

Morning Psalm 93, Noon Psalm 119:65-72, Evening Psalm 33

The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, A refuge in times of trouble. And those who know Your name will put their trust in You; For You, LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You.

Sing praises to the LORD, who dwells in Zion! Declare His deeds among the people. When He avenges blood, He remembers them; He does not forget the cry of the humble. Have mercy on me, O LORD! Consider my trouble from those who hate me, You who lift me up from the gates of death, That I may tell of all Your praise In the gates of the daughter of Zion. I will rejoice in Your salvation.

We are called to glorify and praise the LORD, God, the Almighty for His Goodness to His creation. Even though we, in our stubornness, have delibritately and malisciously descrated all His Hands have done, He, in His great grace, sent His Son to bear the penalty for our sins.

Yet we resist. How can we when the evidence is there to slap us in the face. The LORD loves us and cherishes us. Let our mouths be constantly filled with praise.

Reading

Morning Psalm 92, Noon Psalm 119:57-64, Evening Psalm 32

When my enemies turn back, They shall fall and perish at Your presence. For You have maintained my right and my cause; You sat on the throne judging in righteousness. You have rebuked the nations, You have destroyed the wicked; You have blotted out their name forever and ever. O enemy, destructions are finished forever! And you have destroyed cities; Even their memory has perished.

But the LORD shall endure forever; He has prepared His throne for judgment. He shall judge the world in righteousness, And He shall administer judgment for the peoples in uprightness. 

Even as the LORD fights for His people, He is glorified. He has, He does, He will judge the world in righeousness. All will be measured against His measuring rod, Godly uprightness.

Think of this in terms of man's judicial system with retrial after retrail as a cace is pursuded from local court to the Supreme Court. The LORD, God, the Almighty's judicial system starts with Him, the creater of the Universe. No retrials!

Reading

Morning Psalm 91, Noon Psalm 119:49-56, Evening Psalm 31

Teach me, O LORD, the way of Your statutes, And I shall keep it to the end. Give me understanding, and I shall keep Your law; Indeed, I shall observe it with my whole heart.

Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, For I delight in it. Incline my heart to Your testimonies, And not to covetousness. Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, And revive me in Your way.

Establish Your word to Your servant, Who is devoted to fearing You. Turn away my reproach which I dread, For Your judgments aregood. Behold, I long for Your precepts; Revive me in Your righteousness.

Our scribe of the 119^thPsalms pleads to be revived in the way of the LORD through the establishment of the Word in him, to bring about holy fear and a rejection of the LORD's reproach. He acknowledges the goodness of the LORD's judgments and for a satisfaction of a longing for and understanding of God's precepts and righteousness.

Should not my daily prayers take exactly the same format? I don't think they did today. As I review by prayer time with the brothers of the Fellowship of Ailbe this evening, my focus was directed towards specific goals that I was pleading with the LORD for His hand in satisfying.

Not unworthy ends in themselves, but certainly not pleading for a deeper relationship with Him.

Reading

Morning Psalm 90. Noon Psalm 119:41-48, Evening Psalm 30

To the Chief Musician. To The Tune of "Death of the Son." a Psalm of David. I will praise You, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will tell of all Your marvelous works. I will be glad and rejoice in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.

One of the most striking elements of this passage is that there is no time frame. No morning, afternoon or evening. No Sunday morning worship session or evening Bible study. No time set for a convocation of the saints; or “Now I lay me down to sleep time.” What to make of this lack of time stamps?

It is all the time! His praises must be ever in my mouth. (Psalms 71:8 Let my mouth be filled with Your praise And with Your glory all the day.) There is no time out. Not only must I always be in a state of praise, all my senses must be tuned and sensitive to signs of His glory.

ReadingReadingReadingReading

Morning Psalm 89, Noon Psalm 119:25-32, Evening Psalm 29

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,  What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, All sheep and oxen—Even the beasts of the field, The birds of the air, And the fish of the sea That pass through the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth!

What is man? The pre-Fall Man? To me; the answer is obviously, but not yet completely. Thee foundation was laid, but then flawed by Sin. Not just a little white lie, there is no such thing in God's eyes, but with the sin filled and erroneous conviction that Man was superior to God; that Man was the controller of his own destiny. Wrong!

Look at this from the phrase that begins, “And You have crowned Him,” through the last sentence. In between the LORD, God the Almighty names man as His surrogate; as the one with authority (dominion) over all the works of His hands. He names man as the ultimate accomplishment of His creation. Why? So that His name would be declared excellent in all the earth. It is our responsibility to execute that task fully and without blemish on the Name of the LORD.

Reading

Morning Psalm 88, Noon Psalm 119:17-24, Evening Psalm 28