{"id":5138,"date":"2023-11-09T01:38:47","date_gmt":"2023-11-09T07:38:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nazareneblogs.org\/pastorscott\/?p=5138"},"modified":"2023-11-09T01:38:47","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T07:38:47","slug":"devotional-on-the-psalms-44","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-the-psalms-44\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on the Psalms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure style=\"width: 1600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-7x9IvuakvRo\/X0gAXYZ2WHI\/AAAAAAABF_g\/1ftLGSVlko8VXMDIZBQSs0pA-fTrdPhtACPcBGAsYHg\/s1600\/IMG_20190906_201231.jpg\" width=\"1600\" height=\"901\" class=\"size-large\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">2019 &#8211; Night Balloon Glow &#8211;  Debonn\u00e9s near Geneva, OH<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nThe favorite Psalm<br \/>\nPsalm 23: God, my shepherd!<br \/>\nSome portions of the Bible are like the peaks of a great mountain range.  It\u2019s all awesome, but there are passages that take our breath away.  There are the beatitudes and the Lord&#8217;s Prayer; in fact, the whole Sermon on the Mount.  Then there\u2019s John 3:16 and 1 Corinthians 13. Also, there\u2019s the great Hymn of Creation of the opening pages of our Bibles.  And there\u2019s the 23rd Psalm.  Here we find such beauty and such comfort and encouragement that we return again and again, especially in times of pain or fear or grief.  I\u2019m reminded today that David wrote it as God, the Holy Spirit, carried him along.  The words are those of an experienced shepherd.  The concepts are inspired by the Lord.  This favorite Psalm is, then, the result of a cooperative effort between God and man.  This mountain peak Psalm is not simply a product of David&#8217;s creativity and it\u2019s not the result of the Lord acting unilaterally as he did in Creation (in other words it isn&#8217;t a result of &#8220;God said &#8216;let there be a Psalm&#8217; and there was a Psalm!&#8221;).  As surprising as it is, the Almighty forms a partnership with a man and the result is Psalm 23.  In this I see not only how God desires to work in this world, but also the great potential in such a partnership.  As I cooperate with God in my life he works with me to bring about wonderful results.  What happens may not be exquisite poetry like Psalm 23, but it will be something of value to the Lord and to me.<br \/>\nTake Away: It\u2019s an unlikely and wonderful partnership \u2013 the Lord working with, in, and through human beings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The favorite Psalm Psalm 23: God, my shepherd! Some portions of the Bible are like the peaks of a great mountain range. It\u2019s all awesome, but there are passages that take our breath away. There are the beatitudes and the Lord&#8217;s Prayer; in fact, the whole Sermon on the Mount. Then there\u2019s John 3:16 and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1527,7],"tags":[148,219,804,953],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5138"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5138"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14786,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5138\/revisions\/14786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}