PSALM 23

This psalm is often read at funerals, but it is for the living.

v1: If the psalmist were dying, I doubt he'd have many wants.

v2: Dead people don't drink water, nor do they need to sleep or eat the vegetation found in a green pasture.

v3: Dead people don't have their souls restored and aren't concerned with becoming more righteous in order to be pleasing to Jesus Christ.

 v4: You get _through the valley of the shadow of death because the Lord is with you. The Good Shepherd uses his staff to fend off predators and His rod to discipline you, gently bringing you back on that straight and narrow way of salvation.

v5: You're on a table land in the wilderness so you can see your enemies coming and fight them. You are anointed to act in Jesus' name. You're life overflows with blessings, mainly spiritual but these blessings can also be material.

v6: You not only get to dwell in Heaven with the Lord for eternity but with Him living inside you here on Earth, daily experiencing God's goodness and mercy no matter what you have to go through.

NATURE NOTES: NEAR COLISIONS WITH BIRDS AND MORE

Recently, Mom took the hummingbird feeder out of its location in order to clean it. Just then, a hummer came in for a landing, looking for the feeder, and nearly collided with Mom's head.

Last week at her home, my aunt was nearly hit in the head by a hawk swooping after prey.

Last night, Mom was disturbed by a baby racoon climbing the lattice, attempting to get on the deck. 

PSALM 51

v1: Through Jesus Christ's shed blood, according to God's mercy and lovingkindness, don't Christians have their sins blotted out?

v2: Aren't we washed and cleansed from our sin and iniquity?

v10: Don't God's saints have new hearts and the Holy Spirit living within them?

v11: Didn't God promise he would in no wise cast us out?

v12: Don't we live in the joy of salvation and aren't we continuously held up by the Lord?

v14: Didn't Jesus take our guilt on the cross?

PSALM 29

David wrote this psalm to show that Yahweh is God, not Baal the storm god of the Canaanites.

v1-2: In the first few chapters of Revelation, we see the angels in the third heaven praise God all the time.

v3: Also in Revelation, waters symbolizes people. God is speaking to the people of Earth and all those who won't listen will spend eternity in Hell.

v4: The Lord is the one full of power and majesty, not Baal or any other so-called god man can come up with.

v5-6: Windstorm imagery.

v7: Lightning imagery.

v8: More windstorm imagery.

v9: The Lord causes fertility, strips the forests bare and God's people praise Him for it.

v10: The Lord rules over everything, even natural disasters and will never stop being king of the universe.

v11: This same God of all that is also cares enough about individual believers to strengthen us and give us that peace that passes all understanding when we're going through difficult times. His having strengthened and given us peace in past tough circumstances ought to enable us to more easily tap into those two things the next time we face a trial. 

PSALM 73

The psalmist saw the wicked prospering off the backs of the Lord's people and complained to God, one could even say violently, about how unfair it was that the wicked had everything they could ever want and no problems to boot. Yet, when the psalmist truly communed with God, he saw how ignorant and foolish he'd been and how wrong he was. For one thing, rich, ungodly people are constantly worried about losing their status and possessions. For another, God is going to judge those rich oppressors. (See the epistle of James.) People should desire to be like Jesus and live a life pleasing to the Heavenly Father, because, firstly, God is the ruler of the universe and, second, it is in Him we have our eternal reward.

PSALM 15

v1: Who gets to live with the Lord, both now and forever?

v2: Christians need to live lives of doing the right thing and perform specific acts that are the right thing. The way to obey these two commandments is to have a love of God's truth.

v3: Don't talk about people behind their back and don't commit any evil against your neighbour, which means everyone, according to the parable of the good Samaritan. Don't get all bent out of shape over something that was done to someone else to the degree that it is as if they had done it to you. In other words, don't spend an inordinate amount of time dwelling on wrongs done to others.  I think soul ties might come into play here.

v4: We should despise the vile in their current state but also see, with the eyes of the Lord, who they could be if they came to Acts 2 38 salvation. We shouldn't want to be like the vile, but we should rather look up to and whish to be like people who are further along in their walk with God than us. 

Also, if a Christian makes a commitment to someone or something, then a better thing comes along, the Christian should honour the first commitment they made.

v5: I really don't think interest is a good idea.

Followers of Christ shouldn't move up in the world at the expense of innocent people getting hurt.

Of course, the only way believers can obey these things and never stop doing so is by the Lord working within them.

PSALM 1

v1: It begins with you listening to the ungodly people you encounter in your everyday life. Then you're standing still, so you can listen closer. Then you're sitting down so you can listen and follow the unbelievers even more closely. 

v2: Rather than heeding the ungodly, scornful sinners, a Christian should learn and delight in God's laws and ways and think about them constantly. This isn't meant to be a legalistic requirement. The closer a believer gets to Christ, through studying God's Word, praying, and fellowshipping with other believers, the more he'll be inclined to mull over the things of God.

v3: The Christian who does this won't give up on their faith when persecution or temptation come along. (See the parable of the sower.) They'll also bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit (See Galatians 5 16-23.) Christians will live lives of spiritual strength and vitality, though there can certainly also be the blessing of physical strength and vitality in a believer's life as a result of obedience to God. Another result of this can be physical prosperity, but more importantly, God will reward the deeds done by that person of God when that man or woman gets to Heaven. (See Jesus' words in the Sermon on the Mount about laying up treasure in Heaven.)

v4: One day, those ungodly people you're listening to will be gone as if they were blown away by a good wind. Like chaff, they are worth nothing, so long as they continue in their sin.

v5: On that day, the ungodly are going to perish in the final judgment spoken of at the end of Revelation. They will not be where the righteous are. (See the story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16.)

v6: See Jesus' words in the Sermon on the Mount about "depart from me ye worker of iniquity. I never knew you."