{"id":5160,"date":"2023-11-20T03:21:44","date_gmt":"2023-11-20T09:21:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nazareneblogs.org\/pastorscott\/?p=5160"},"modified":"2023-11-20T03:21:44","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T09:21:44","slug":"devotional-on-the-psalms-54","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-the-psalms-54\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on the Psalms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure style=\"width: 1600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-dGbZjrd64NI\/X1Qda5dlT3I\/AAAAAAABGIM\/apyFt-gpMTIE_6Si_YTIonVeZNwdCvYHwCPcBGAsYHg\/s1600\/IMG_20200718_203353.jpg\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" class=\"size-large\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">2020 &#8211; Dickinson, TX<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nTelling it like it was<br \/>\nPsalm 78: He&#8230;commanded our parents to teach it to their children.<br \/>\nAsaph&#8217;s longest psalm tells the story of Israel&#8217;s failure and God&#8217;s faithfulness.  In the opening part of the psalm he states that its purpose is to tell their story so that the next generation will learn to trust God.  Honestly, from Israel&#8217;s point of view this isn\u2019t a very flattering story.  Each verse of the song describes a failure of Israel and how God responds with compassion to rescue them from some mess they\u2019ve gotten themselves into.  I don&#8217;t know about you, but when I\u2019m telling the &#8220;next generation&#8221; about God I usually skip the &#8220;I failed&#8221; part and jump straight to the &#8220;God helped&#8221; part.  Maybe that\u2019s a mistake.  It might be that I\u2019m unintentionally saving face instead of teaching others to trust God more.  Of course, there are things in all our pasts that must be told carefully and at the right time, but there\u2019s likely a time for the telling.  If I\u2019m not careful I give the impression that I wised up and decided to give my heart to the Lord.  In doing that, I make God into a concerned bystander in my story, wringing his hands, hoping I\u2019ll turn it all around and then pleased that I\u2019ve done so.  It really isn&#8217;t that way.  It\u2019s God who graciously reaches down into the mess I\u2019ve made, bringing redemption.  Yes, I have to cooperate with him, but he\u2019s the one who ought to get all the credit.  I need to be sure that &#8220;my story&#8221; is truly &#8220;God&#8217;s story.&#8221;  A part of that is my, at the appropriate time and place, honestly admitting my failure.  That gives God the glory and also gives hope to that one in the &#8220;next generation&#8221; who already has some spiritual failures of his or her own.<br \/>\nTake Away: It\u2019s God who graciously reaches down into the mess I\u2019ve made, bringing redemption.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Telling it like it was Psalm 78: He&#8230;commanded our parents to teach it to their children. Asaph&#8217;s longest psalm tells the story of Israel&#8217;s failure and God&#8217;s faithfulness. In the opening part of the psalm he states that its purpose is to tell their story so that the next generation will learn to trust God. [&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":[148,172,198,336,411,518],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5160"}],"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=5160"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14806,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5160\/revisions\/14806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}