National Disaster


Psalm 33
1Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous! Praise befits the upright.
2Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre; make melody to him with the harp of ten strings!
3Sing to him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.
4For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness.
5He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.
6By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.
7He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap; he puts the deeps in storehouses.
8Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!
9For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.
10The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples.
11The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.
12Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!
13The Lord looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man;
14from where he sits enthroned he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth,
15he who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds.
16The king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
17The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue.
18Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love,
19that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine.
20Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield.
21For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name.
22Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.

This week we’ve watched as yet another epic disaster has hit our shores. The flooding in South Carolina has gripped the nation as we’ve watched people’s homes be swept away in flooding we haven’t seen for a long time. This morning I heard a story on my drive into work about a woman who attributes the saving of her life to God Himself as her car was washed down the road after a dam broke that contained a lake. She and her grandson strapped themselves to a cross that they floated past, thus saving them from drowning. They clung to that cross for 5 hours. It’s a dramatic story (I’ve provided a link below) but the most striking part of the story is the fact that they spent much of those 5 hours in prayer and give God all of the credit for saving their lives. That is what today’s Psalm is about for all of us.

http://video.foxnews.com

“Psalm 32 stresses the deliverance of an individual from sin. Psalm 33 describes the protection of a nation from earthly peril. This psalm is not attributed to David. It may have been written to celebrate some special occasion when Israel had experienced deliverance from an enemy or from some disaster.”
Brug, J. F. (1989). Psalms 1–72 (2nd ed., p. 139). Milwaukee, WI: Northwestern Pub. House.

As we come before the Lord in prayer (no matter where you live) we simply must be mindful of bringing the nation before the Lord. I fear that far too many of us (myself included) do not lift up our country in prayer. For me, the sheer scope of the nation is too large for comprehension. What could my lone prayers do to uplift so many people? But that is lie based thinking. As a citizen it is my responsibility to pray for the nation as a whole. God cares about where I live, so I must bring that before Him and ask for His divine leading for all of the people. And if you watch the news for more than 10 minutes you will realize we have much that demands prayer. The world is a mess that only God can unravel.

This psalm encourages me to keep praying for my country even if I’m overwhelmed by the size of the problems. As we have read just this week in Exodus, there are no problems that are too big for God. And He is a Master at creatively dealing with everything we will ever face.

Dear Lord God, I life up my nation to You today. We are in dire need of Your intervention and Your help. I am particularly aware of the enormous problems we face and I seek Your face for rescue where we are so helpless to do it ourselves. Please Lord, bring us to our knees in repentance and lead us into Your will for our nation. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Excusez-moi

Image
2 Kings 23:31-37 31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 32 And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done. 33 And Pharaoh Neco put him in bonds at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem, and laid on the land a tribute of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. 34 And Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the place of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz away, and he came to Egypt and died there. 35 And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to give the money according to the command of Pharaoh. He exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, from everyone according to his assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Neco. 36 Jehoiakim was twenty-fiv
Read more

יהוה שָׁמַר--Yahweh Shamar (God Watches)

Image
Psalm 121 1 I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? 2 My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. 3 He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. 4 Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. 6 The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. 7 The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. 8 The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. There are numerous passages I cling to when stress takes over my life. I would be hard pressed to declare a favorite, but this psalm would come close. So this morning I listened to Psalm 121 about 20 times as I meditated through the verses. First, I want to point out that the word or idea of shamar appears in every verse expect 6. The NIV uses the word "watch" while the ESV uses "keep". The
Read more

Narrow Door

Image
Luke 13:22-30 22 He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. 23 And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them , 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ 26 Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ 27 But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ 28 In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out. 29 And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at tabl
Read more