Psalm 9:1-8 — God’s Grace and My Gratitude

1 I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart;
I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.
2 I will be glad and exult in you;
I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.
3 When my enemies turn back,
they stumble and perish before your presence.
4 For you have maintained my just cause;
you have sat on the throne, giving righteous judgment.
5 You have rebuked the nations; you have made the wicked perish;
you have blotted out their name forever and ever.
6 The enemy came to an end in everlasting ruins;
their cities you rooted out;
the very memory of them has perished.
7 But the Lord sits enthroned forever;
he has established his throne for justice,
8 and he judges the world with righteousness;
he judges the peoples with uprightness.

Psalm 8:5-9 — The Heights From Which We Fell

5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
7 all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Kidsnippets #1

Maisy

To Becky as she was getting dressed this morning (in a confused semi-critical tone): “Mom, why are you always wearing black and pink and and white (**Becky puts on green shirt**) … and green. Is it because you’re trying to be all nature-y?”

To me: “I love you, Daddy. And I even like the way you do your hair. It makes you look very style-y.”

Psalm 8:1-4 — Nothing Without God

1 O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?

Psalm 7:12-17 — Pride and Self-Destruction

King Saul falling on his own sword

12 If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword;
he has bent and readied his bow;
13 he has prepared for him his deadly weapons,
making his arrows fiery shafts.
14 Behold, the wicked man conceives evil
and is pregnant with mischief
and gives birth to lies.
15 He makes a pit, digging it out,
and falls into the hole that he has made.
16 His mischief returns upon his own head,
and on his own skull his violence descends.
17 I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness,
and I will sing praise to the name Psalm
of the Lord, the Most High.

Blueberry Bushes and Simplicity

Blueberries are awesome. Everybody loves blueberries, and we were lucky enough to have them growing on our property when we moved into our house. But we learned that for blueberry bushes to really produce, they have to have other blueberry bushes nearby to cross pollinate with. So we bought 3 more blueberry bushes to be planted right around the first one.

Psalm 7:6-11 — A Just Judge, But Also a Patient Father

6 Arise, O Lord, in your anger;
lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies;
awake for me; you have appointed a judgment.
7 Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you;
over it return on high.
8 The Lord judges the peoples;
judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness
and according to the integrity that is in me.
9 Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end,
and may you establish the righteous—
you who test the minds and hearts,
O righteous God!
10 My shield is with God,
who saves the upright in heart.
11 God is a righteous judge,
and a God who feels indignation every day.

Spiritual Amnesia and the Purpose of Life

Excerpt from a book I’m reading now, called “The Purpose of Man: Designed to Worship” by A.W. Tozer…

Psalm 7:1-5 — Innocence = Confidence

1 O Lord my God, in you do I take refuge;
save me from all my pursuers and deliver me,
2 lest like a lion they tear my soul apart,
rending it in pieces, with none to deliver.
3 O Lord my God, if I have done this,
if there is wrong in my hands,
4 if I have repaid my friend with evil
or plundered my enemy without cause,
5 let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it,
and let him trample my life to the ground and lay my glory in the dust. Selah

Whiskey and Worship

I had the rare treat of getting a guys night out tonight, after worship team rehearsal. Kent Robinson, Todd Meislahn, Randy Lehman, Matt Simpson and myself all gathered in Matt’s “man cave” to sample some some Scotch and rye whiskeys.