Thank You, Jesus
Thank You, Jesus
For this day
And our food
And our many blessings
And our many blessings
Amen
Amen
Amelia sang my Timothy and Ezra echo blessing over our lunch today. It’s my choice for asking a blessing when kids are very small. Their little tummies are short on patience so I sing as I’m buckling them into their seats and placing their food on their tray or into their little hands. I doubt she remembers it from when she was small but she has picked it up as I sing it to her baby brother and cousin. She’s usually singing as she plays independently, songs she’s heard in church or in the car. I try to pay attention to what she’s saying and sing along.
Similarly, Psalms were intended to stick with the hearer. The words of the psalmist came to represent the plight of the people, but not simply to make them feel seen or understood. The psalms are real conversations with God. The Passion Translation attributes Psalm 144 to David, attaching a specific historical point to his pondering. Rescue Me: King David’s poetic psalm as he stood before Goliath.
“There is only one strong, safe, and secure place for me; it’s in God alone who gives me strength for the battle.”
Psalms 144:1 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/psa.144.1.TPT
Reading David’s thoughts with the fabled giant in view puts a name and a face to the dark powers wielding the fatal sword while breathing out lies, but David’s imagery also fits the devil, the enemy of our eternal souls perfectly. Picturing young David’s ruddy frame silhouetted against the armored giant could accurately depict how we feel in the face of the enemy, but David’s next question is not meant to instill doubt. It is reverential wonder at the providential care of God.
“Lord, what is it about us that you would even notice us?
Why do you even bother with us?
For man is nothing but a faint whisper, a mere breath.
We spend our days like nothing more than a passing shadow.”
Psalms 144:3-4 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/psa.144.3-4.TPT
We know with certainty the Source of David’s confidence on the day he faced Goliath. His confidence can be ours by faith in almighty God through His one and only Son, Jesus.
““Don’t worry about this Philistine,” David told Saul. “I’ll go fight him!”
“Don’t be ridiculous!” Saul replied. “There’s no way you can fight this Philistine and possibly win! You’re only a boy, and he’s been a man of war since his youth.”
But David persisted. “I have been taking care of my father’s sheep and goats,” he said. “When a lion or a bear comes to steal a lamb from the flock, I go after it with a club and rescue the lamb from its mouth.
If the animal turns on me, I catch it by the jaw and club it to death.
I have done this to both lions and bears, and I’ll do it to this pagan Philistine, too, for he has defied the armies of the living God!
The Lord who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear will rescue me from this Philistine!”
Saul finally consented. “All right, go ahead,” he said. “And may the Lord be with you!”
David replied to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies—the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.
Today the Lord will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head.
And then I will give the dead bodies of your men to the birds and wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel!
And everyone assembled here will know that the Lord rescues his people, but not with sword and spear.
This is the Lord’s battle, and he will give you to us!”
So David triumphed over the Philistine with only a sling and a stone, for he had no sword.”
1 Samuel 17:32-37, 45-47, 50 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1sa.17.45.NLT
David described God’s defense with images of violent storms and erupting volcanoes, powerful forces that even nine foot giants cannot withstand, but his prayer that rounds out Psalm 144 reminds me that too often, my estimation and my expectation of the One true God is far too small. It’s definitely time for me to begin praying through the psalms again.
“Let our sons in their youth be like plants full grown, And our daughters like corner pillars fashioned for a palace;
Let our barns be full, supplying every kind of produce, And our flocks bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our fields;
Let our cattle bear Without mishap and without loss, And let there be no outcry in our streets!
How blessed and favored are the people in such circumstance;
How blessed [fortunate, prosperous, and favored] are the people whose God is the Lord!”
Psalms 144:12-15 AMP
https://bible.com/bible/1588/psa.144.12-15.AMP
Pop up thunderstorms persist after two days of heavy rain. Amelia asks why it’s raining again. She wants to go outside to play. I answer honestly. I don’t know but God does. Maybe the earth needs a drink of water. Maybe we need to be reminded.
““He is the God who made the world and everything in it.
Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples, and human hands can’t serve his needs—for he has no needs.
He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need.
From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth.
He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries.
His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us.”
Acts of the Apostles 17:24-27 NLT
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