The Psalm
Psalm 20
Exaudiat te Dominus
1 May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble, *
the Name of the God of Jacob defend you;
2 Send you help from his holy place *
and strengthen you out of Zion;
3 Remember all your offerings *
and accept your burnt sacrifice;
4 Grant you your heart’s desire *
and prosper all your plans.
5 We will shout for joy at your victory
and triumph in the Name of our God; *
may the Lord grant all your requests.
6 Now I know that the Lord gives victory to his anointed; *
he will answer him out of his holy heaven,
with the victorious strength of his right hand.
7 Some put their trust in chariots and some in horses, *
but we will call upon the Name of the Lord our God.
8 They collapse and fall down, *
but we will arise and stand upright.
9 O Lord, give victory to the king *
and answer us when we call.
Read the Collect, The Old Testament reading, the Psalm, The Epistle – New Testament, and the Gospel appointed for next Sunday in those churches which follow a Liturgical Cycle of Readings.
All were useful for my soul, and in particular the fact that :
The Gospel
Mark 4:26-34
………..With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.
But what stayed with me was the message from the Psalm above.
Why? Because if we are not careful, and the temptation is great, because our needs are so great, and the national issues so challenging, including the strike by the taxi men about the “ demerit points system”, at least on the face of it, and also the international concerns in Gaza and Israel, if we are not careful, we would receive this prophetic Word and apply it to ourselves, and our situation, and our calling as disciples of Christ, to whom He explains everything in private.
5 We will shout for joy at your victory
and triumph in the Name of our God; *
may the Lord grant all your requests.
Verse five above was the caution. For only in Christ we have any kind of victory in this broken world. All honor and glory belongs to the Crucified and Risen One. Therefore the God who “ looks at the heart” and not the outward appearances, not at the fervor of our prayers even, will:
Send you help from his holy place *
and strengthen you out of Zion;…..only if you are in Christ. And in He alone will:
Grant you your heart’s desire *
and prosper all your plans.
And as I write into my heart comes this deep and profound prayer from the hymn writer. In context!
And now, O Father, mindful of the love
that bought us, once for all, on Calvary’s tree,
and having with us him that pleads above,
we here present, we here spread forth to thee
that only offering perfect in thine eyes,
the one true, pure, immortal sacrifice.
2 Look, Father, look on his anointed face,
and only look on us as found in him;
look not on our misusings of thy grace,
our prayer so languid, and our faith so dim:
for lo, between our sins and their reward
we set the Passion of thy Son our Lord.
Further, when the psalmist writes :
Some put their trust in chariots and some in horses, *
but we will call upon the Name of the Lord our God……into my mind comes the words I read and every every night before going to bed:
““Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.””
Psalms 91:14-16 NIV
This because the New Testament revelation of the Old Testament “ call upon the name of the Lord”, is “ Christ in you the hope of glory “. And victory. Over evil and Sin and the fear of death. Every kind of evil that comes against us in this life, and every weapon formed against us who are in Christ Jesus. Mercy!
I close with a song that came into my heart from a patient who sang for me in my office. To the glory of God and for the rescuing of this broken world filled with unruly taxi men, but who according to the Collective Prayer for this week, ought to have justice ministered with compassion.
The Collect
Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast faith and love, that through your grace we may proclaim your truth with boldness, and minister your justice with compassion; for the sake of our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
So too the people of Gaza, and the unruly chidren of Abraham in Israel. For whom our Savior died also but whose sacrifice for sins they have rejected . May the God of Jacob have mercy on us all in and through Christ Jesus.
https://youtu.be/yXd4gbVTLX4?feature=shared
May the God of Jacob take us from glory to glory more and more each day, in and through the shed blood of Christ our Savior, so that the church may be renewed and help to renew the nation(s) where people trust only in chariots and horses, in silver and gold, in bombs and guns, in human wisdom and strength, and so the land mourns as bloodshed follows bloodshed.
In obedience
Shalom
LWJ in a strange and cold in June land.
danielgodsurelywilldeliver 