6.20 Psalms 81-85

Psalms 81-85.

Transcript

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Hello, friends and neighbors. Welcome to the Sunny Side of Life Bible in a Year Experience. Join me each day as I read the Bible from start to finish. I'm reading from the Life Application Study Bible New Living Translation, published by Tyndale House Publishers. I pray this daily reading will bless you as much as it does me. So let's get started. June 20th, Psalms 81 through 85. Psalm 81. Sing praises to God our strength. Sing to the God of Jacob. Sing, beat the tambourine, play the sweet lyre and the harp. Blow the ram's horn at new moon and again at full moon to call a festival. For this is required by the decrees of Israel. It is a regulation of the God of Jacob. He made it a law for Israel. When he attacked Egypt to set us free, I heard an unknown voice say, Now I will take the load from your shoulders, I will free your hands from their heavy tasks. You cried to me in trouble, and I saved you. I answered out of the thundercloud and tested your faith when there was no water at Mariba. Listen to me, O my people, while I give you stern warnings. O Israel, if you would only listen to me, you must never have a foreign God. You must not bow down before a false god, for it was I, the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it with good things. But no, my people wouldn't listen. Israel did not want me around. So I let them follow their own stubborn desires, living according to their own ideas. Oh that my people would listen to me. Oh that Israel would follow me, walking in my paths. How quickly I would then subdue their enemies, how soon my hands would be upon their foes. Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him, they would be doomed forever. But I would feed you with the finest wheat, I would satisfy you with wild honey from the rock. He pronounces judgment on the heavenly beings. How long will you hand down unjust decisions by favoring the wicked? Give justice to the poor and the orphan, uphold the rights of the oppressed and the destitute, rescue the poor and helpless, deliver them from the grasp of evil people. But these oppressors know nothing. They are so ignorant they wander about in darkness while the whole world is shaken to the core. I say, You are gods, you are all children of the most high, but you will die like mere mortals and fall like every other ruler. Rise up, O God, and judge the earth, for all the nations belong to you. Psalm eighty three. O God, do not be silent, do not be deaf, do not be quiet, O God. Don't you hear the uproar of your enemies? Don't you see that your arrogant enemies are rising up? They devise crafty schemes against your people. They conspire against your precious ones. Come, they say, let us wipe out Israel as a nation. We will destroy the very memory of its existence. Yes, this was their unanimous decision. They signed a treaty as allies against you, these Edomites and Ishmaelites, Moabites and Hagrites, Gebalites, Ammonites, and Amalekites, and people from Philistia and Tyre. Assyria has joined them too, and is allied with the descendants of Lot. Do to them as you did to the Midianites, and as you did to Sisera and Jaban at the Kishon River. They were destroyed at Endor, and their decaying corpses fertilized the soil. Let their mighty nobles die as Oreb and Zeb did. Let all their princes die like Ziba and Zelmana. For they said, Let us seize for our own use these pasture lands of God. O my God, scatter them like tumbleweed, like chaff before the wind, as a fire burns a forest, and as a flame sets mountains ablaze, chase them with your fierce storm, terrify them with your tempest, utterly disgrace them until they submit to your name, O Lord. Let them be ashamed and terrified forever, let them die in disgrace. Then they will learn that you alone are called the Lord, that you alone are the most high, supreme over all the earth. Psalm eighty four. How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of heaven's armies? I long, yes, I faint with longing to enter the courts of the Lord. With my whole being, body and soul, I will shout joyfully to the living God. Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow builds her nest and raises her young at a place near your altar. O Lord of heaven's armies, my king and my God, what joy for those who can live in your house, always singing your praises. What joy for those whose strength comes from the Lord, who have set their minds on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem when they walk through the valley of weeping, it will become a place of refreshing springs. The autumn rains will clothe it with blessings. They will continue to grow stronger, and each of them will appear before God in Jerusalem. O Lord God of heaven's armies, hear my prayer. Listen, O God of Jacob. O God, look with favor upon the king our shield. Show favor to the one you have anointed. A single day in your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else. I would rather be a gatekeeper in the house of my God than live the good life in the homes of the wicked. For the Lord God is our son and our shield. He gives us grace and glory. The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right. O Lord of Heaven's armies, what joy for those who trust in you. Lord, you poured out blessings on your land. You restored the fortunes of Israel. You forgave the guilt of your people. Yes, you covered all their sins. You held back your fury. You kept back your blazing anger. Now restore us again, O God of our salvation. Put aside your anger against us once more. Will you be angry with us always? Will you prolong your wrath to all generations? Won't you revive us again so your people can rejoice in you? Show us your unfailing love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation. I listen carefully to what God the Lord is saying, for he speaks peace to his faithful people, but let them not return to their foolish ways. Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him, so our land will be filled with his glory. Unfailing love and truth have met together, righteousness and peace have kissed. Truth springs up from the earth, and righteousness smiles down from heaven. Yes, the Lord pours down his blessings. Our land will yield its bountiful harvest. Righteousness goes as a herald before him, preparing the way for his steps. That's it for today, friends. Feel free to read ahead on your own. Before I go, let's share the Lord's Prayer together. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever.

unknown 8:04

Amen.