Who is God in Psalm 9

Today is a beautiful fall day full of sunshine with the cool, crisp air we have here in California. I love reading God’s Word as I feel the warm sunshine coming through the window. Time spent with God in His Word fills the needy cracks and crevices of my soul. Today I am reading in Psalm 9. The first time through it might seem there would be little I could identify with. I don’t have enemies chasing me, or at least not physical enemies. We all know by reading Ephesians 6 that we will have spiritual enemies that God is fighting as we live our lives. I am not being oppressed and I am not being persecuted. When I read through this Psalm to see what it tells me about God it is as if a window is thrown open and fresh air streams through that refreshes and renews. What I see is this:

• Verse 1 – He shows us His wonders
• Verse 4 – He upholds our right and cause and He judges righteously
• Verse 5 – He rebukes nations and destroys the wicked and blots out their name forever and ever
• Verse 6 – He brings endless ruin to the enemy, uproots their cities and removes even memory of them
• Verse 7 – The Lord reigns forever; He has established His throne for judgement
• Verse 8 – He will judge the world in righteousness; He will govern the people with justice
• Verse 9 – The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble
• Verse 10 – He is trustworthy for those who know Him because He has never forsaken those who seek Him
• Verse 11 – He is enthroned and we should proclaim the things He has done
• Verse 12 – He avenges blood and remembers; He does not ignore the afflicted
• Verse 13 – He sees and has mercy and lifts up
• Verse 14 – He saves
• Verse 16 – He is known by His justice
• Verse 18 – He will not forget the needy and gives hope to the afflicted
• Verse 20 – He can strike terror and men will know they are not God

I love God’s Word and how He makes Himself so clear. What do you see that I missed? When you open the Word of God are you reading to see what you can learn about what God will do for you or are you reading it to see what He tells you about who He is? The scripture is good for both. Let your study be balanced and be sure you are growing in knowing God. Blessings my dear friends! Enjoy these beautiful fall days and I will be back to study with you soon!

Who is our God when things are tough?

I know! The last post said I would be back in about a month. Life sometimes throws us a curve or two. I did return in July and had barely gotten unpacked when I got news my dear sweet Mom, Clarice was in the hospital and then a few short weeks later she went to be with the Lord. I was back on a plane and out-of-state for the next 5 weeks. This has been a really tough summer to say the least. Though I have been home for almost a month I am just beginning to get moving again. I have spent this month vegging in front of the TV or a book and taking naps. That is something new for me.

So, in this really long summer that included a month out-of-state helping my parents move into town to a two bedroom duplex from their 15 acre place in the country with very little help but the two of them who were 89 years old and a bit of help a few times from my sisters, my husband having an avocado sized tumor removed from his prostate (it only had a bit of cancer in the center), my Mom spending 26 days in the hospital with a relatively simple ailment and then passing away when she had just been transferred to rehab, and finally spending 5 weeks with my dear sweet father who is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s as he grieved the loss of a second wife of over 30 years and had to learn he was going to lose even more of his independence that he feels is slipping quickly away, (talk about a compound sentence, really?) who do I see my God being? Well, let me tell you!

He is my awesome God who got me through an almost month of moving my parents while struggling with a bladder issue that was not just annoying but painful and extremely hard to deal with due to some medication I was given. As I drove from their place after getting them moved to start for Colorado to meet my husband tears flowed and I just kept saying, “Dear God, how did I do that?” I knew it was only in His mighty power and strength.

He was my awesome God who comforted me as my sweet Mom was hospitalized and finally reached a place where she just wanted to leave this earth and go home. Yes, to her home would be heaven and as sad as I am to no longer have her here I am trying to do what my Pastor brother, Brian asked us to do when he did our Mom’s funeral, to not focus on what we lost but to focus on what she has gained. I have not one doubt she is in the awesome place that the Lord had prepared for her. I so look forward to seeing her again when its my time to go “home.”

He was my awesome God whom I praised when the Dr. told my husband and I that the cancer in the tumor was so small it had not spread and he would not need chemo, radiation or any further treatment.

He was my awesome God who allowed me to read a book club book on prayer that spoke to my heart while I was at my Dad’s and so down from grief at losing my Mom and concern and anxiety for my grieving 89-year-old Dad in the early stages of a horrible disease that gives little hope for many more years with him as he is now. The same book that when our club met many there didn’t like and felt it contained too many untruths and heresies.

He was my awesome God who has wrapped me in His loving arms and graced me with His presence as I spent days so sad I thought the world would always be shaded with gray. My God that I know allows me to pour out my heart and ask Him the hard questions because He knows me through and through and loves me anyway.

He is and always will be my awesome God that takes me through each and every day, through the wonderful, shining, bright days and the really tough, hard and struggle days. Yes, through this really tough summer my God has only proven the promise He gives in His Word that He will never leave me or forsake me. Tough times only prove even more that He loves me. He has been the lifter of my head and the lover of my soul as He carried me in His arms when all I wanted to do was crumble and fall.

Thank you my dear Lord! I love you so!!! What has God been showing you about who He is? I would love to hear about it. We will be digging into His Word again really soon. I am grateful to have you on this journey with me. I am praying that God will reveal Himself in new and exciting ways to you. Be watching for it! It is going to knock your socks off!!!