We start today with a prayer of the afflicted.
The writer starts off by being awfully demanding, he wants a speedy response. He then seems to blame God for his situation 102:10. He goes on to somewhat taunt God saying basically "what do you care, you'll be here forever anyway" 102:12
103: This is my new favorite.
104 is like God's resume.
2 comments:
David is feeling very forlorn in 102. He's feeling abandoned and forsaken...truth is he's mistaken. God never forsakes us. We all do this. It's difficult to have faith in the face of crisis. Everyone gets discouraged and quickly begins sending out invitations to the pity party. But as we see if we stay in faith, we will get through. Our troubles have come to pass not stay. We pass through the valley of the shadow of death. We don't dwell there. Even secularists describe problems as, somethings they're going through. But it's normal, for even the most faithful to get discouraged. That's the challenge...can you praise God even in the bad times? Can you be thankful for what is right in your life, instead of dwelling on what is wrong? Many times in our adversity is when other people are made perfect (through Christ) in their response. This is one reason Christians believe why God allows people to be born with defects. Dr. Wayne Dyer gives a tremendous example of this in some of his speeches. I didn't take that the author was taunting God here. It seemed to me that he was saying that heaven and earth will pass away, but God's greatness and glory, and those of us made perfect in that will live forever, punctuated in vs. 28. The author shows us here that it's ok to expect a quick deliverance. Many people who pray for help automatically assume they'll have to endure a certain amount of adversity before their prayer is answered, and sometimes that's the case, but no always. There are also testimonies of immediate help.
103 is great. The Lord will and wants to bless those who: "..remember His commandments to do them [imprinting them on their hearts].", and hearken "..to the voice of His word."
104 vs.21 & 22 talks of the behaviour of lions. Crystal and I talked about his briefly on the phone. This point is debatable, but I would wonder how they would know that lions hunt at night and sleep during the day. Did people observe lions scientifically then? I wouldn't think so. Who would purposefully go out into the wilderness where a lion pride might be and observe them back then [without a gun and tranquilizers and a vehicle]? I cant imagine that. Crystal brought up the point that it could be through casual observance, but for people to be in that close a proximity on a regular basis and to observe instead of run away seems unlikely to me.
Tomorrow, 2 Sam.5:10; 1 Chron. 11-12; Ps. 133, 106-107
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