- araratchurch
- Apr 27, 2022
- 3 min read
“The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein. Lift up your heads, O you gates! Lift up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory. Selah”
Psalms 24:1, 9-10 NKJV
It’s interesting to me to observe how people deal with other people’s property. For example, I have seen people occupying someone else’s property—whether that be hotel, motel, rental house, rental car, and so on—treating the property with great carelessness and leaving destruction behind them.
Beyond that, we have recently seen graphic reminders that there are some people who have no respect for other people’s property. It seems they think they have a right to steal, burn, tear down, and treat with utter contempt what does not belong to them. Additionally, they revile and abuse those who attempt to thwart their destruction.
Jesus told a parable about some evil vineyard keepers who felt entitled to keep all the fruit of another man’s vineyard and doing with his property as they pleased. They went so far as to abuse and kill representatives sent by the owner of the vineyard. They ultimately killed even the son of the vineyard owner sent to represent his father.
“Finally, the owner sent his son, thinking, ‘Surely they will respect my son.’ But when the tenant farmers saw his son coming, they said to one another, ‘Here comes the heir to this estate. Come on, let’s kill him and get the estate for ourselves!’ So they grabbed him, dragged him out of the vineyard, and murdered him.”
Matthew 21:37-39 NLT
Jesus was speaking of the leaders of Israel. They took what the Lord had given them—authority and prosperity—and decided that they wanted to keep it all to themselves. And as we know, they killed Jesus, the One sent from the Father.
Everything, everywhere, belongs to the Lord.
“This is what the Lord says: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Could you build me a temple as good as that? Could you build me such a resting place? My hands have made both heaven and earth; they and everything in them are mine. I, the Lord, have spoken!”
Isaiah 66:1-2a NLT
After having created all things, the Lord entrusted man with taking care of the creation and ruling over it FOR HIM.
“Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.””
Genesis 1:28 NKJV
We know how that turned out: man rebelled against his maker and chose to deal with the creation as he desired.
Then the Lord’s chosen people did the same thing! They did with what God had entrusted to them as they pleased.
Sadly, even now I see those who call themselves Christians, denying that the Kingdom of God has a coming King Who will rule and reign over the earth. Rather, they have chosen to be rulers themselves and unto themselves, using the name of the King, but not desiring His rule.
In our portion from Psalms today we see David—as he did many other times—recognizing the fact that God owns everything; there is not anything that He does not own. He is the creator. As an extension, David acknowledged that the rule, the ultimate authority of God, should be met with open arms and open hearts.
For today let us know and understand what David knew:
Everything belongs to the Lord and His rule should be respected and welcomed.
- araratchurch
- Apr 26, 2022
- 3 min read
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.”
Psalms 23:1-6 NKJV
As I was meditating on Psalms 23 today, the Holy Spirit brought an odd scripture to my mind. Now, I have read this scripture before; but it is definitely not one that just comes up in my mind. Here is the scripture:
“Thus says the Lord: “As a shepherd takes from the mouth of a lion Two legs or a piece of an ear, So shall the children of Israel be taken out Who dwell in Samaria— In the corner of a bed and on the edge of a couch!”
Amos 3:12 NKJV
Obviously, I understood that the Lord is using the actions of a shepherd to explain the terrible fate of His people who were committing idolatry: what/who would be saved would be a pitiful remnant. But what does this have to do with a good shepherd?
The Lord then directed me to this passage where—in explaining to Saul why he could defeat Goliath—David says this:
“But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep his father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it.”
I Samuel 17:34-35 NKJV
There it is. A good shepherd doesn’t just let the predator get away with snatching the sheep. Even if the sheep is in the predator’s mouth, even if the sheep is already torn apart, the good shepherd gets the sheep back…even if it’s in pieces!
Look what Jesus said about Himself:
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.”
John 10:11-14 NKJV
This is so powerful! Our Lord, our Good Shepherd, put Himself in the mouth of the enemy to retrieve us back to Himself! Not only that, tho He was torn in the process, He shook it off! He emerged victorious to hold our broken souls in His bosom where He makes us whole again!
Don’t you see it? David—a good shepherd—knew that there was a greater Good Shepherd Who watched over him. This Good Shepherd could do more than pull him out of the mouth of the destroyer, He could RESTORE his soul!
For today let us know and understand what David knew:
The Lord is our Good Shepherd.
Day 42 with David: One day we will live happily ever after in the Kingdom of God w/ our forever King
- araratchurch
- Apr 26, 2022
- 2 min read
“All the ends of the world Shall remember and turn to the Lord, And all the families of the nations Shall worship before You. For the kingdom is the Lord’s, And He rules over the nations.”
Psalms 22:27-28 NKJV
Castles, knights, courts, Royalty, etc., make up the fabric out of which many a fairytale has been sown. Let’s give it a try:
“Once upon a time, in a far away kingdom there was a wonderful king who was very sad. Now, he was sad because his subjects had been taken captive by a deceitful monster who made them believe a lie. Not willing to give up on them, the king sent messengers to them and showed them great signs and wonders. But nothing worked to free the people from the rule of the evil one. No matter how hard they might try, they always fell back captive to the lying one.
One day the king did something unthinkable; he sent a representative who the people would surely embrace: his perfect only son. His wonderful son would explain to the people who their king really was. He would tell them that he would set them free from the evil kingdom’s control.
Well, the wonderful son came to the place ruled by evil; he came without all the trappings of his royalty; he came as a servant. Sadly, the leaders of the people hated him and had him killed. But—what they did not know is that his kingdom could not be destroyed. And then—as he was dying—he spoke the words that would bring their release from the bonds of evil. He said, ‘Father, forgive them. They don’t understand what they’re doing!’ With that, the evil spell was broken for those who looked on this dying man, who also happened to be a king.
Happily, because his kingdom could not be destroyed, he came back from the dead and went back to his Father’s Kingdom to prepare for the subjects’ return. And—sure enough—when he comes and gets the formerly vanquished subjects, he’ll take them to his forever kingdom where he will be their forever king.
And they’ll all live happily ever after!”
The End (of sin and suffering)”
“And the Lord shall be King over all the earth. In that day it shall be— “The Lord is one,” And His name one.”
Zechariah 14:9 NKJV
In our portion from Psalms today we see David speaking at once in the place of the suffering messiah, and also praising Him for the work He has done, then forecasting His future glorious rule.
David, even though he was a king, understood that his authority came from—and was subservient to—another. He saw the day when the King’s representative would suffer and he also saw the day that the King’s representative would be King of kings and Lord of lords!
Thankfully, David understood that none of this is a fairytale. It’s all true. It is also true that the Lord will be King forever and our suffering will be over.
For today let us know and understand what David knew:
One day we will live happily ever after in the Kingdom of God with our forever King.