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Motions of Grace and Psalm 147 by Joseph Jagde
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Motions of Grace and Psalm 147 |
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Christianity,Current Affairs,Travel & Tourism
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Psalm 147 reads as follows from the NIV version of the Bible: Praise the LORD. How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him! 2 The LORD builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the exiles of Israel. 3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. 4 He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. 5 Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit. 6 The LORD sustains the humble but casts the wicked to the ground. 7 Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving; make music to our God on the harp. 8 He covers the sky with clouds; he supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills. 9 He provides food for the cattle and for the young ravens when they call. 10 His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of a man; 11 the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love. 12 Extol the LORD, O Jerusalem; praise your God, O Zion, 13 for he strengthens the bars of your gates and blesses your people within you. 14 He grants peace to your borders and satisfies you with the finest of wheat. 15 He sends his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly. 16 He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes. 17 He hurls down his hail like pebbles. Who can withstand his icy blast? 18 He sends his word and melts them; he stirs up his breezes, and the waters flow. 19 He has revealed his word to Jacob, his laws and decrees to Israel. 20 He has done this for no other nation; they do not know his laws. Praise the LORD. Prosperous or not, last in the race or first there is hope in the unfailing love of the Lord and the continued revelations of his delight in those who fear him. 10 His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of a man; 11 the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love. The fleet runner represents someone who is ahead rather than lagging behind and while this can be delightful and beautiful to the runner, the position and speed of the race is not what gets someone into the good pleasure of the Lord. It is a mystery, but often the pleasure of the Lord in the individual is found in the profundity of the stillness and this is beautifully stated in psalm 23. It would be a form of prosperity to be the fleet runner or one of the fastest which correlates to things like one of the wealthiest, most famous, and so on, all links to common day measures of prosperity that we all see and feel.. Prosperity preaching is out there, but can lead to a false impression. Someone may believe that the prosperity or lack of it is a barometer of the relationship with the Lord or that certain dealings with the Lord are contingent on the presence of prosperity and its seeming absence is an all so clear sign that the invitation of the Lord is also fading into the distance.. While this psalm does speak of types of prosperity and that is obvious in what it is saying, if someone is lagging behind in that area, their individual dealings with the Lord are not a contingency that depends on being fleet of foot in any given area. It can also be recognized that prosperity itself doesn't occur in a formless void, and there is a societal wide prosperity that may or may not be there that is important to the general idea of prosperity. I may want to get to the amusement park and enjoy some rides, but it is a part of an existing prosperity that the amusement park is there in the first place if what I want is an amusement park. The same goes for all forms of travel, one type of prosperity people enjoy. There needs to be some existing infrastructure towards this to go to. Verse 13 says, 13 for he strengthens the bars of your gates and blesses your people within you. This psalm seems to be addressed to the one individual, but the blessing of the Lord going towards this individual extends to the people around him or her and this means that that there is a form to the graces that go outward to the people you may encounter yet may emanate as a blessing of the Lord upon you as extended to others from the blessing gathering first upon you. The ideas that are behind this is that the Lord may bless the many for the few or even the one in maintaining an outer world of graces for the sake of the few. For the sake of the few, or even the one, he has mercy on many. The psalmist is saying that the Lord blesses you and your people, all of which either literally or symbolically are for you a strengthening of the bars of your gates. " Your gates" can in modern terms include friends and relatives, interests, dispersed all over the planet, yet the Lord will secure all this as part of his blessing and ongoing movements of grace towards you. The blessings riding in to your friend in the North Pole, as remote as that is, are still part of the Lord tending to "your gates." At the time this psalm was written, there were borders and gated cities, but the definitive idea of what is "your gates" is from the Lord's point of view and give wind to the preservation and upholding of all your concerns both near and far away. Verse 15 says, 15 He sends his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly. While the pleasure of the Lord isn't in the swift runner, from this verse his commands run swiftly through the earth and the phrase "run swiftly" applies ironically to the Olympic like runner who isn't necessarily in the realm of what pleases the Lord. The fleetness and the prosperity are from the Lord, who already has the prosperity and the fleetness. Even within looking at the idea of prosperity, it wouldn't be just a matter of whether you have your pockets full with money, as there is a vast umbrella of graces depicted in this psalm and the flow of the graces must be maintained to keep things going. You can't itemize prosperity to say one thing such as money when graces need to flow in many areas for a strong and rooted and ever flowing prosperity to exist. Verse 4 and 5 say 4 He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. 5 Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit. These verses relate in that the number of stars from what we can see is endless or approach infinite and the Lord's understanding is infinite. He counts the stars and counts the hairs on your head according to the gospels. The Lord's supply of graces, graces appropriated with surpassing understanding, are also therefore infinite and immeasurable to us, yet measurable to him. We couldn't count the hairs on our head, or at least it would be a nearly impossible task, yet the Lord has his measures intact for us. He also has measured and very specific revelations that he gives to his people. 19 He has revealed his word to Jacob, his laws and decrees to Israel. He reveals in his word and in specific revelations to people. The irony is, how much we subject ourselves to measurements, but when seeking grace the measures of the graces may only come in outline form, the true precise content and measures are not known to us The Lord gives various and wondrous graces, but there will never be a way to devise a tracking system of the graces of the Lord, how and when they appear and in what exact measure. Generally, the one who is interceding in prayer does not know the graces that are set in motion by that prayer, unless they have witness of the Holy Spirit which is sometimes the case. However as a source of encouragement to keep going to the intercessor, their prayers may be answered with awesome demonstrations of grace that are clearly linking to the prayer to the demonstration of grace.. These specific demonstrations should be kept in mind as good reason to go forward in the good work of the intercessory efforts, although visibility will not be given towards every grace set in motion through the prayer of intercession. The graces and actions of graces coming through in this psalm are coming through in specific fashion with intended purpose and design and the Lord is giving a broad outline of what he is doing, and the details must be trusted to the continued manifestations of grace as they arise in motion. . While you want to thank and praise the Lord for specific graces, also thank and praise the Lord for all his graces and all the designs of his graces and for the continued flow of his graces and also seek not only specific graces but also broader graces that will later touch in on specifics that we trust the Lord will be supply in as well.. For example, if rain is what you want, you wouldn't get as specific as thanking the Lord for a raindrop, you would more so count the blessing in the more general form of thanking the Lord for the nice and cozy late night storm to sleep to, yet each raindrop is part of the blessing of rain. The design of the situation is more towards the whole of what is happening. The graces are streaming in from many different directions, in many different ways and will varied ways of forcefulness. If the Lord is counting the stars, he can certainly keep track of the finite graces and blessings he is sending your way. You might have difficulty getting a handle on things, but the Lord as your source of grace handles the measures of all things including the counting of all the stars. When it says the Lord delights in those who fear him in verse 11, part of this delight takes form in giving additional graces to those who fear him and in the rendering of graces in a motion or flow that continues. . Everybody gets graces, but those who fear him are the Lord's delight and he brings upon them additional graces which can be along the lines of those mentioned in this psalm or take any a possible form. You can see how swiftly the motions of an approaching storm can be and the graces of the Lord might arise with a swiftness that is like the sudden appearance of a storm. Approaching angels can be within the movements of grace for you. Here will be the broken trails of the brokenhearted but the Lord's commanding graces will extend to these individuals and these situations and circumstances of brokenness. The grace that binds is for wounds of all types such as hurts, disappointments, discouragements, as well as physical wounds. Sometimes hurts can have a long time effect that resonates into the far future and this is the cause for the healing graces of the Lord. The "finest wheat" provided by the Lord is symbolic of the Excellency of his graces. The young ravens do call out of right instinct and to go against calling is going against proper instinct among other things. Regarding the infinite understanding mentioned in this psalm, stay with it, don't roam from infinite understanding. The secret of this psalm is praise within the movements of grace. This way you can begin to flow and go with the movements of grace even at there outset. Because the graces are moving with great force and motion, you can practice advance praise, praise at the beginning and praise in the midst. If the surfer goes to the beach and the waves are coming in oh so sweet, then he or she can praise the Lord for the ride on that first mint wave, even while seeing the motions of grace where even more of these beautiful waves are mounting towards the shore. Praise the Lord as the first winds arise upon the sails of your hopes. There may be periods of grace for things in your life and you can praise the Lord in advance and right at the beginning of these moments of grace. The time to get started on praise is now because the strong currents of grace are arriving. Right now an event in nature is the eruption of a volcano in Iceland. This might not be considered an event of grace by many, but it does correspond to the instances of great happenings in nature depicted in this psalm. This praise is not only for you, but for others you meet in graced moments and indeed in a wider vision for the people of the world, It may and probably will continue to erupt but if it is considered a motion of grace the praise can be given right at the first eruption. At the first eruptions of grace, you can praise and thank the Lord and even before that you can praise the Lord in advance as the winds of grace are approaching and soon you will be in the midst. In the final verse where it says that the Lord has done this for no other nation, it is symbolic of the Lord having special graces that are manifest in his dealings. When looking at graces and what they are, bring about a raised or elevated level of insight as to how the Lord is dealing with you. This can be further understood as you praise the Lord and acknowledge the ways in which he is dealing with you in special, specific and quite personal ways. Praise the LORD. How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him!
Related Articles -
grace, praise, motions, Iceland, volcanoes, eruptions, storms, peace,
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