Worship in WORD
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HOPE: Ps 31:1-8 31
In you, O Lord, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame; in your
righteousness deliver me! 2 Incline your ear to me; rescue me
speedily! Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me! 3 For you are my rock and my fortress; and for your name’s sake you lead me and guide me; 4 you take me out of the net they have hidden for me, for you are my refuge. 5 Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God. 6 I hate those who pay regard to worthless idols, but I trust in the Lord. 7 I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love, because you have seen my affliction; you have known the distress of my soul, 8 and you have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy; you have set my feet in a broad place.
HELP: Ps 31:9-15 9 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in
distress; my eye is wasted from grief; my soul and my body also. 10
For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails
because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away. 11 Because of all my adversaries I have become a reproach, especially to my neighbors, and an object of dread to my acquaintances; those who see me in the street flee from me. 12 I have been forgotten like one who is dead; I have become like a broken vessel. 13 For I hear the whispering of many— terror on every side!— as they scheme together against me, as they plot to take my life. 14 But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, “You are my God.” 15 My times are in your hand; rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors! 16 Make your face shine on your servant; save me in your steadfast love! 17 O Lord, let me not be put to shame, for I call upon you; let the wicked be put to shame; let them go silently to Sheol.18 Let the lying lips be mute, which speak insolently against the righteous in pride and contempt. HAIL (Praise or Bless): Ps 31:19-23 19 Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of the children of mankind! 20 In the cover of your presence you hide them from the plots of men; you store them in your shelter from the strife of tongues. 21 Blessed be the Lord, for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me when I was in a besieged city. 22 I had said in my alarm, “I am cut off from your sight.” But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cried to you for help. HEART: Ps 31:23-24 23 Love the Lord, all you his saints! The Lord preserves the faithful but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride. 24 Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord! ESV
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I’ve sat down one more time in hopes that I may mine one more gem
from the walls of God’s shelter found in Psalm 31. Instead of the normal grid I
have used, which contains parallel versions from the passage I am
contemplating, I have chosen instead to follow another. Using the ESV, I have
divided the whole psalm into parts and placed each section under the main
headings of the outline I have followed through ought this psalm. This will
enable us to read the psalm one more time in its entirety and capture the
complete flow of David’s thoughts and feelings throughout Psalm 31.
In this psalm, I find a fitting pattern for us to pray in times of stress and tribulation. First, in hope, we enter His protecting presence and prevail upon Him in prayer for help and deliverance. Then we praise Him for His past mercies and even His future grace. Finally, we pray for a courageous heart, remember His promises, and seek His power to persevere in faith, hope, and love.
Worship in Witness
In such a time of stress and tribulation, I find myself at
the moment. I’m in the middle of my five-day quarantine because I have covid. I
also have a mild case of Shingles as well. It gives me more time to be aware of
the turmoil in this country and worldwide. All the evil that is taking place.
All the attacks on our Judeo-Christian values. Values that have undergirded and held
our country together for over 200 years. There is now an increasing divide and animosity between the
sacred and the secular. As I was reading the magazines from various mission
organizations and a devotional called “I Am N” this week, I became more aware of the
persecution of Christians worldwide (persecution that is far worse than we
experience here in the states). The Lord promised this would take place in
these last days.
Matt 24:4-12
4 Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many. 6 You
will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise
against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and
earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of
birth pains.
9 "Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but he who stands firm
to the end will be saved.
NIV
The Apostle Paul
issues this prophetic warning as well:
2 Tim 3:1-5
But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.
NIV
It saddens me to
see this happening to some who were prominent leaders in the pastoral,
theological, and musical fields of ministry. They have claimed that they have
“deconverted” from historic Christianity and are now “progressive Christians”
or atheists. They have chosen to walk by sight rather than by faith. They have
valued the strength of their minds or yielded to their emotions when faced with
difficult questions or suffering. I find when I am being pulled in that
direction to seek the Lord’s shelter and pray as David did in the pattern
outlined above. And He is faithful to hide me in His sheltering presence and
reassure me by His faithful word. If only they had availed themselves of these
things and the encouraging fellowship of other believers, some I am sure would
claim they have done so. But it also calls for more than these things. It also
calls for patient waiting and hope. As I have said before, it means keeping our
eyes on the Lord, not the storm. For some, it may mean wrestling with the Lord
until they receive His touch that disjoints them from their doubts. Unfortunately,
too many have run away rather than wrestled. I pray this will not be so with
you or me.
Let us also take
heed of the exhortations at the end of the verses quoted above:
Matt 24:13
But he who stands
firm to the end will be saved.
NIV
2 Tim 3:5b
Have nothing to
do with them. (i.e., those described in verses 1- 5a)
NIV
Worship in Promise, Poem, Prayer, and Praise
Take It All
Big or small
Take it all
Before Him fall
Faith install
Doubts stored
And all discord
To Him be poured
Who is the LORD
Heaven hears
Dries your tears
Calms your fears
Comforts and Cheers
When
Father,
When the enemy seeks to surround me
Please open my eyes to see
The heavenly host that surrounds them
And the fear within me, please stem
When my mind is besieged by Satan’s lies
Both from the foolish and the worldly wise
Guard it by Your helmet of salvation
Remove doubt by Holy Spirit ablation*
When pain and sorrow tempt me to run
To abandon my hope in Your blessed Son
Point me to Your path of abundant grace
Empower me to continue to run the race
V Amen
Shelter by Vertical Worship
The arrows fly, ten thousand fall
Still, You protect me through it all
The waters rise, the oceans rage
Still, You're the One the storm obeys
In the shelter of Your presence
In the shadow of Your wings
I am safe; I am safe
I will hold onto Your promise
You will not abandon me
I am safe; I am safe
To You, I run when mountains shake
You are my shield, my hiding place
Almighty God, I will draw near
Your perfect love casts out all fear
In the shelter of Your presence
In the shadow of Your wings
I am safe; I am safe
I will hold onto Your promise
You will not abandon me
I am safe; I am safe
There's nothing left to fear
There's nothing left to fear
There's nothing left to fear
There's nothing left to fear
In the shelter of Your presence
In the shadow of Your wings
I am safe; I am safe
I will hold onto Your promise
You will not abandon me
I am safe; I am safe
In the shelter of Your presence
In the shadow of Your wings
I am safe; I am safe
I will hold onto Your promise
You will not abandon me
I am safe; I am safe
I am safe; I am safe
I am safe; I am safe
Writer(s): Jason Ingram, Jonathan Lindley Smith, Andi Rozier
Lyrics: https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/verticalworship/shelter.html
With a few minor punctuation
corrections
Video: https://youtu.be/DVk4vAK3KU4
This is a beautiful and awe-inspiring video
– A must-watch video.
For Further Thought or Study
Psalms 31:24
24. Be of
good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD.
Your heart
is faint, but the Lord will put strength where now there is weakness; wherefore
“be of good courage.” Cowardice weakens, fear saps a man’s strength; so “be of
good courage,” for your strength shall be equal to your day, and you shall yet
win the victory, “all ye that hope in the Lord.”
(from
Spurgeon's Expository Notes. Biblesoft Formatted Electronic Database Copyright
© 2014 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)
Psalms 31:24
Ver. 24. Be
of good courage. Keep up your spirit, let no craven thoughts blanch your cheek.
Fear weakens, courage strengthens. Victory waits upon the banners of the brave.
And he shall
strengthen your heart. Power from on high shall be given in the most effectual
manner by administering force to the fountain of vitality. So far from leaving
us, the Lord will draw very near to us in our adversity, and put his own power
into us.
All ye that
hope in the Lord. Every one of you, lift up your heads and sing for joy of
heart. God is faithful, and does not fail even his little children who do but
hope, wherefore then should we be afraid?
(from The
Treasury of David, Biblesoft formatted electronic database Copyright © 2014 by
Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)
Psalms 31:24
If thou art not of good courage, what
will happen to thee? I would not have you deserve the coward's doom, and speak
of it as "retiring." No, get not into that class; be thou rather like
that soldier of Alexander, who was always to the front, and the reason was that
he bore about with him what was thought to be an incurable disease, and he
suffered so much pain that he did not care whether he lived or died. Alexander
took great pains to have him healed, and when he was quite well, he never
exposed his precious life to any risk again. Oh, I would rather that you should be stung into courage
by excessive pain than that you should be healed into cowardice! Christ ought
not to be served by feather-bed soldiers.
—
Spurgeon
(from The
Biblical Illustrator Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2006 Ages Software, Inc. and
Biblesoft, Inc.)
*I have taken extreme poetic license to
use this term metaphorically. A sense that I cannot find anywhere else. Even
when searching poetry websites, I only found two poems that use the word in
their title and not the poem itself. And even then, when used in these titles,
the word fits well within the definition of “ablation.” However, I felt that
using this word metaphorically was an apt way of using the word in my poem. And
once its literal meaning is understood, my symbolic use will become clear. Here
is the definition of the word from Wikipedia:
Ablation (Latin:
ablatio — removal) is removal or destruction of something from an object by
vaporization, chipping, erosive processes or by other means. Examples of
ablative materials are described below, and include spacecraft material for
ascent and atmospheric reentry, ice and snow in glaciology, biological tissues
in medicine and passive fire protection materials.
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