Praise God

The Lord brought to my mind these words this morning:

Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye host;
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

I was thanking Him for my three little pooches, my remote car starter (yes, I thank Him for that a lot!), safety in the rain on the road to the groomer and just because...

I couldn't remember the second line correctly so I checked it out when I got home and discovered that those words are the last stanza in a much longer hymn written by Puritan, Thomas Ken (1637-1711). In typical Puritan fashion it has 11 verses (when sung, I bet that all 11 were sung, not just 1, 3, 5...heh).

The Lord has a sense of humor. If I had known the first verse of the hymn, I might have been singing something else...heh

Awake, my soul, and with the sun
Thy daily stage of duty run;
Shake off dull sloth, and joyful rise,
To pay thy morning sacrifice.

You can check out the other verses here. The tune is unfamiliar to me, but it refreshes my mind since I am over-familiar with the tune with which I usually sing it.

Psalm 10:12-18

Psalm 10

12 Arise, O LORD!
O God, lift up Your hand!
Do not forget the humble.
{Isaiah 66:2b
2b "But to this one I will look,
To him who is humble and contrite of
spirit, and who trembles at My Word."}

13 Why do the wicked renounce God?
He has said in his heart,
"You [God] will not require an account."
{Psalm 2:1-2
1 Why are the nations in an uproar
And the peoples devising a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth take their stand
And the rulers take council together
Against the LORD and against His
Anointed, saying,
"Let us tear their (the LORD and His anointed) fetters apart
And cast away their cords from us!"}

14 But You have seen, for You observe trouble and grief,
To repay it by Your hand.
The helpless commits himself to You;
You are the helper of the fatherless.
{James 1:27
27 Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God
and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their
distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.}

15 Break the arm of the wicked and the evil man;
Seek out his wickedness until You find none.
{Psalm 11:4-6
4 The LORD is in His holy temple;
the LORD's throne is in heaven;
His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men.
5 The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked,
And the one who loves violence His soul hates.
6 Upon the wicked he will rain snares;
Fire and brimstone and burning wind
Will be the portion of their cup.}

16 The LORD is king forever and ever;
The nations have perished out of His land.
{Isaiah 2:12
12 For the LORD of Hosts will have a day of reckoning
Against everyone who is proud and lofty
And against everyone who is lifted up,
That he may be abased.}

17 LORD, you have heard the desire of the humble;
You will prepare their heart;
You will cause Your ear to hear,
{Matthew 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit (i.e. humble, those with humility),
for theirs in the kingdom of heaven.}

18 To do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,
That the man of the earth may oppress no more.
{Isaiah 1:17
17 Learn to do good;
Seek justice,
Reprove the ruthless,
Defend the orphan,
plead for the widow.}

Psalm 10:1-11

A Psalm of confidence in God's triumph over evil.

1 Why do you stand afar off, O LORD?
Why do You hide in times of trouble?
{Have we as Christians not asked that over and over the last several decades, as we have seen both the church and our country "going down the tubes"?}

2 The wicked in his pride, persecutes the poor;
{We see that daily.}
Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised.
{I pray for their salvation first and being "caught in the plots which they have devised" second. Bernie Madoff is a good example of being caught in his own greedy plot.}

3 For the wicked boasts of his heart's desire;
He blesses the greedy and renouces the LORD.
{ Renouncing the LORD is the current national pastime.}

4 The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God;
God is in none of his thoughts.
{"The fool has said in his heart, there is no God." Psalm 14:1, Psalm 53:1}

5 His [the wicked] ways are always propering;
{At least for the time being.}
Your [God's] judgments are far above, out of his [the wicked's] sight;
As for all his enemies, he sneers at them.
{He certainly does!}

6 He [the wicked] has said in his heart, "I shall not be moved;
I shall never be in adversity."
{Talk about delusional!}

7 His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and oppression;
Under his tongue is trouble and iniquity.
{All we ever hear today is filthy language, cheating and trying to get ahead of the other guy.}

8 He [the wicked] sits in the lurking places in the villages;
In the secret places he murders the innocent;
{Abortion.}
His eyes are secretly fixed on the helpless.
{TV/Internet scams of all kinds.}

9 He lies in wait secretly, as a lion in his den;
{New senator in the old lion's seat, PTL.}
He lies in wait to catch the poor;
He catches the poor when he draws him into his net.
{Fanny Mae, Freddy Mac.)

10 So he crouches, he lies low,
That the helpless may fall by his strength.
{"Bailouts" that make matters worse.}


11 He [the wicked] has said in his heart,
"God has forgotten;
He hides His face;
He will never see."
{Na na na na na na...}

Next ~~ Psalm 10:12-18

Haiti needs our prayers and gifts

I've added a new link under Missions, the International Partnership Ministries, Inc. The site is following a national missionary family and the challenges people are facing in the devastated area of Haiti.