OzThoughts – Monday, 27th April, 2009.

OzThoughts – Monday, 27th April, 2009.

The Psalmist David looked around him and he saw people who were vicious and evil and he sought God’s protection from them.

This week, we will move amongst people. Some of will have contact and conversations with many people. Others of us will have contact with very few people and maybe meaningful conversations with even less.

Now, I don’t know if you will describe the people you are in contact with like David describes the people around him but I am reminded of the words of Jesus:

Jesus went on to make these comments:

If you're honest in small things,
you'll be honest in big things;
If you're a crook in small things,
you'll be a crook in big things.
If you're not honest in small jobs,
who will put you in charge of the store?
No worker can serve two bosses:
He'll either hate the first and love the second
Or adore the first and despise the second.
You can't serve both God and the Bank.

When the Pharisees, a money-obsessed bunch, heard him say these things, they rolled their eyes, dismissing him as hopelessly out of touch. So Jesus spoke to them: "You are masters at making yourselves look good in front of others, but God knows what's behind the appearance. (Luke 16:12-14 The Message)

So Jesus has no doubt about people around him. He is probably describing people around you. I notice that David is describing these people as he has a conversation with God. I love the assurance in the four l;ast lines of the Psalm. It is an assurance I can carry with me this week.

Psalm 140 (The Message)

1-5 God, get me out of here, away from this evil; protect me from these vicious people.
All they do is think up new ways to be bad;
they spend their days plotting war games.
They practice the sharp rhetoric of hate and hurt,
speak venomous words that maim and kill.
God, keep me out of the clutch of these wicked ones,
protect me from these vicious people;
Stuffed with self-importance, they plot ways to trip me up,
determined to bring me down.
These crooks invent traps to catch me
and do their best to incriminate me.

6-8 I prayed, "God, you're my God!
Listen, God! Mercy!
God, my Lord, Strong Savior,
protect me when the fighting breaks out!
Don't let the wicked have their way, God,
don't give them an inch!"

9-11 These troublemakers all around me—
let them drown in their own verbal poison.
Let God pile hellfire on them,
let him bury them alive in crevasses!
These loudmouths—
don't let them be taken seriously;
These savages—
let the Devil hunt them down!

12-13 I know that you, God, are on the side of victims,
that you care for the rights of the poor.
And I know that the righteous personally thank you,
that good people are secure in your presence.

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine;
O what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
Born of his Spirit, washed in his blood.

Chorus
This is my story, this is my song.
Praising my Saviour all the day long.

Perfect submission, perfect delight,
Visions of rapture burst on my sight;
Angels descending, bring from above
Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.

Perfect submission, all is at rest;
I, in my Saviour, am happy and blest.
Watching
and waiting, looking above,
Filled with his goodness, lost in his love.
Author: Fanny Crosby (1820-1915)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 310


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