A View From The Sycamore Tree: goodness of God

Showing posts with label goodness of God. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Thanking God for Who He Is - Psalm 136 (part 2)

"Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good;

for His lovingkindness is everlasting.

Give thanks to the God of gods,

for His lovingkindness is everlasting.

Give thanks to the Lord of lords,

for His lovingkindness is everlasting."

(Psalm 136:1-3)

We have MUCH to be thankful for. God's loving-kindness towards us is everlasting. His mercies are new every morning. His faithfulness is great. Bottom line - HE is great and therefore greatly to be praised!

In these first three verses of Psalm 136 the writer of this poetically repetitive hallelujah psalm points us to the character of God as one of the catalysts for thankful praise.

We are to give thanks to God not only for what He does but at an even more basic level for who He intrinsically is.

Friends, if God did NOTHING for us He would still be worthy of EVERYTHING from us. He is God! We are not. There is a great distinction between the Creator and the creature and we have been created by Him and for Him. Let us therefore give Him praise!

He is God - and He is a glorious God as the writer of psalm 136 will show us.

Hallelujah!! - Psalm 135 (part 1)

"Praise the LORD!

Praise the name of the LORD;

praise Him, O servants of the LORD,

you who stand in the house of the LORD,

in the courts of the house of our God!

Praise the LORD for the LORD is good;

sing praises to His name, for it is lovely.

For the LORD has chosen Jacob for Himself,

Israel for His own possession."

(Psalm 135:1-4)

Psalm 135 begins the final contextual group of psalms in God's hymnbook. The previous group (120-134) is known as the psalms of ascent. These (135ff) are the psalms of praise. Matthew Henry refers to them as the "hallelujah psalms" - I like that!

Each of these begins with a hallelujah and ends with a hallelujah and in between they are full of the reasons why we should shout hallelujah to our great God.

Henry says that hallelujah is the "alpha and omega" of each of these songs. How I pray that examining these hymns of Zion would move me to make praise the alpha and omega of my songs and of my life!

Bless the Lord / Be Blessed By Him - Psalm 134

"Behold, bless the LORD,

all servants of the LORD,

who serve by night in the house of the LORD!

Lift up your hands to the sanctuary,

and bless the LORD.

May the LORD bless you from Zion,

He who made heaven and earth."

(Psalm 134)

This morning I come to the final Psalm of ascent. I'll miss these. This last one is a short one, but it says plenty. It speaks of blessing God and being blessed by Him. Glance with me at these 3 short verses and at the three points I have derived from them.

1. The ascenting psalmist begins with a call for ALL of the servants of the Lord to bless the Lord.

"Behold, bless the LORD, all servants of the LORD,

who serve by night in the house of the LORD!"

In the cultural context it is a call to the Levitical priests who served during the night watches of temple time to bless the name of Jehovah. It encourages them to speak well of their God - is He deserving of any other type of speech?

Here We Go!

This is a blog about the goodness and grace of God, even amidst the angst of autism.

So ... how did this whole thing start?

Well, I said I'd never do this but obviously here I am. After being challenged, encouraged, goaded and double dog dared, several years ago I began to blog.

Near the end of 2008, I found myself with renewed passion for God's Word, Kingdom, and people and I was stirred, through nothing other than the simple means of grace, to a hunger and thirsting for righteousness unlike any other time in my 20+ years as a Christian.

During that period, I began typing out the things that were striking me the most in my quiet time each morning. Honestly, I started because I wanted to have a written record that I could pass along to my children one day - lettered Ebenezers reminding them of how much their Mom loves God and His Word.

While doing that I found myself so excited on certain days that I began to email my musings to some of my girl friends, hoping to encourage them even as Christ was encouraging me. Many of those gals challenged me to put these things online in a blog form so others could have access to them. That's how this site started.

Now, to shoot really straight with you, that personal "revival" of mine has pendumatically ebbed and flowed over the course of the days, months and years since 2008. For a prolonged period after that initial renewing surge I actually found myself in an utterly antithetical place. God, in His wisdom, was pleased to grant me a substantial season in the dark dungeon of "doubting castle" - those days were some of the hardest of my life post-Jesus but were providentially ordained days ultimately used for my good and for my God's glory.

"Through many dangers, toils, and snares I have already come" by nothing but the amazing grace of an amazing God.

I've learned that even in the midst of the darkest of days there's just something about the light of God's Word that is powerful. The Scripture has been an anchor for me in the storm surge of life. Even when my eyes have seemed to be rather veiled and my vision somewhat dimmed, there has still been a re-focusing force that has risen when I have gazed long and hard upon the Word of God. Thus, even as a saint who struggles, I continue to write of my God, my Redeemer, His promises, and His truth.

I'm not always very regular at posting here because there are many more important duties in my life right now than blog uploads - ie. being wife, mom, housekeeper, cook, taxi service, chief bottle washer, and laundry lady - along with that music thing I do as a side gig! But, as time allows I'll be cutting and pasting from Joshua and Elizabeth's future journal gift and sharing some of it with you as well.

Thanks for stopping by!

Who's Doing This?

Lori Sealy is daily amazed at the grace of God in her life. Adopted as an infant and raised in an evangelical church, she rebelled against the things of Christ during high school and considered herself an atheist. Upon entering college, the God who ordains our steps ordained that her path would cross with several students who loved Christ and loved His Word. During that first year of college, she set out to destroy the faith of these young Christians. They set out to pray for her salvation.

Knowing that "faith comes through hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ," six college students daily confronted her sin and challenged her with the truths of God's glorious Word. Their obedience in proclaiming the good news of the gospel of Christ bore fruit in August of 1988 when by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, she was adopted for the second time in her life - this time into the family of God.

Lori is now the wife of Phillip Sealy. They live in Sylva, North Carolina where Phillip has been called to plant a new church for the Presbyterian Church of America (PCA) - Redeemer Church Sylva. The Sealys have two children Joshua (14) and Elizabeth (12). Lori and Joshua both live with autism.

In her spare time (what little there is) Lori masquerades as a part-time songwriter/singer and performs on a limited monthly basis. Lori's newest CD, "The Strife is Over," has recently released. Hard copies of it, along with her last release "Begone Unbelief", are available through CD Baby and Lori's own website. Digital downloads are available through iTunes, Google Play, and Amazon mp3!

Be sure to visit http://www.lorisealy.com/ to learn more!

Why the Sycamore Tree?

Zaccheus, the wee little man, wanted to see Jesus and so he climbed into the sycamore tree in order to get a good look. Lori, the wee little wife and mom, longs to see Jesus as well. I realize that the place where I will catch a true glimpse of Him is in the pages of His Word.

The Bible is my sycamore tree and I find myself longing more and more to climb up into its branches that I might see Christ more clearly. This blog is simply a record of what God is teaching me as I spend time in "the tree" of His glorious Word. If anyone reads it I'll be amazed; if anyone profits from it I'll be humbled; and if anything good is found in it Soli Deo Gloria!

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Thanking God for Who He Is - Psalm 136 (part 2)

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Hallelujah!! - Psalm 135 (part 1)

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Bless the Lord / Be Blessed By Him - Psalm 134