Psalm CXXXIX

O LORD, thou hast searched me and known me...

I love this Psalm. It is such a comfort to me, because I do not know myself! I think I do, but I don't. It does not take much to realize that I need a shepherd - "bigtime"! And I have one - the LORD!

"Such knowledge is too wonderful for me - it is high, I cannot attain unto it."

I am overwhelmed at the revelation of God's omnipresence and omniscience - especially as it relates to me as a individual. I am undone by it - like a log in a fire is finally consumed by the flames so that is disintegrates into nothing more than dust and ashes.

"Marvelous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well."

I will let that last quote speak for itself. Bye for now.

Daniel

Psalm LXXXIX

In summary, the Psalmist recalls God's magnanimous promises to David, and then says, "But that is not what we see coming to pass at the present time..." Somehow, notwithstanding the testimony David held to the end, of being a man after God's own heart; and the faith he had to the end, in God's unfailing promises to him - there was to be some severe testing. It simply did not seem like God had remembered his promises. The psalmist (Heman the Ezrahite, if my memory serves me correctly), rightly reminds God of those promises. For that matter, so do I! Lord, please remember thy promises to bless my going out and coming in from this time forth, and for evermore! In Jesus' name, amen!

God WAS hungry... and IS!

"If I were hungry, I would not tell thee..." Psalm L (Roman Numeral for "fifty"). I was just pondering this Scripture, and realized something: God WAS hungry - and I think he still is today! How do I know this? Later in the Scriptures, we read, "Jesus was an hungered". Well, Jesus was and is God, was and is he not? And Jesus was hungry! And, true to form, he did not tell another person about his hunger. He even resisted the temptation, to satisfy his hunger by himself. He quoted the Scripture, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

We also read, however, in Matthew chapter XXV, where Jesus foretells of a day when he will say to the sheep as well as the goats, "I was a hungry..." And what will their response be?... "When!" "When saw we thee an hungered". In a word, both sheep and goats will say, "But thou didst not tell us!" Exactly. As we know from Psalm chapter fifty, if he were hungry he would NOT tell us!

It is a sobering reminder to me that - though God, represented by the "least of these" of today, IS hungry, he will NOT tell me! He IS, however, watching and waiting for me to give them (i.e. "him") something to eat, and will reward me when I do so.

One final thought is that if WE hunger, then WE become the least of these, with whom God so closely identifies himself. WE hunger as HE hungered, and Jesus therefore says in the beatitudes, "Blessed are ye that hunger..."

Daniel

P.S. I also note that Jesus said in Matthew chapter six, that when we fast, we should not make a public show of it (in other words, if WE are hungry (particularly, due to fasting), WE should not necessarily tell others that we are). In so doing, we will be imitating God who, indeed, "keeps it to himself" when he is hungry.