Tag Archives: psalm 145

Presidential Prayer Team

Presidential Prayer Team; A.W. – Whose Longing Is It?

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King David wrote 73 psalms. Some were prayers or offers of thanksgiving, but Psalm 145 is a psalm of praise. In it, David praises God for His power, personality, provision and presence. In verse 19, David praises Him for fulfilling his desires and hearing him.

He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them.

Psalm 145:19

How could David say God fulfilled his desires? After all, David desired revenge on Nabal (I Samuel 25), and he desired the life of his baby with Bathsheba (II Samuel 12), but God didn’t fulfill David’s wishes…or all of yours. Why? Some desires are sinful or not good for you. Others are outside of His bigger purposes. A desire is something you long for. God meets them when they are in accordance with His will, so the question becomes a matter of your heart. A holy heart only wants what a holy God can give. This is why David wrote Psalm 51. He needed a clean heart so his desires would affirm God’s.

Are you longing for something but wondering why the Lord isn’t answering? Examine your motives, then ask God to cleanse your heart so your wishes will match His. Pray, too, for the hearts of the nation’s leaders to be purified and to fear God…so He might hear and save them, too.

Recommended Reading: Psalm 51:1-12

 

Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley – Does God Love Me?

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Charles Stanley

Psalm 145:7-9

Life can hit us with unexpected and undesirable circumstances. When that happens, shock and pain can make us wonder, Does God really care about me?

First of all, Scripture tells us, “God is love” (1 John 4:8), which means His very nature is characterized by compassion and concern. Love originated with the Lord, and He is our greatest example of how to express it. This truth, combined with His holiness, means His love is perfect—He’ll never make a mistake in the way He loves us.

Second, we know God loves us because He calls us His children. “To those who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,” writes John in his gospel (1:12 niv). Sadly, some people don’t have a mother or father who shows them love. But God is the perfect parent. It would go against His character to treat His children with anything less than unconditional love.

Finally, the Lord gave the supreme demonstration of His love at the cross. We were all dead in our sins, but Christ went to the greatest lengths possible to give us life: He came to earth as an expression of His Father’s infinite love, and in giving His life on our behalf, did what no one else was able to do.

After considering these facts about God’s love, how could we not expect Him to take care of even the smallest details of our life? Look for ways He is expressing His love to you, and remember Jesus’ own words on the subject: “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends (15:13).

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Our Daily Bread — Golden Eagle

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Psalm 145:1-7

I will meditate . . . on Your wondrous works. —Psalm 145:5

My son Mark and I were leaving the Clyde Peterson Ranch in Wyoming to head back to Michigan. In the distance we spotted a huge bird sitting in a solitary tree overlooking a steep canyon. As we approached, the golden eagle leaped from the tree and soared out over the canyon, the golden streaks in its feathers shimmering in the morning sun. Its immense size and beauty filled us with wonder. We felt privileged to witness this magnificent demonstration of God’s awesome creativity.

Creation displays God’s “wondrous works” (Ps. 145:5). And when we stop to meditate on those works, we can’t help but be awed as our minds and spirits are moved to reflect on the character of the God who created them.

That golden eagle told my son and me a story of the creative genius of our mighty God. So does the flitting songbird, the doe with her playful fawn, the pounding surf, and delicate little flowers such as bachelor’s-button and spring beauty. In the most unexpected moments and out-of-the-way places the Lord shines His glory in this world in order to reveal Himself to us. Those serendipitous moments are opportunities to “meditate . . . on [His] wondrous works” (v.5). —Dave Egner

This is my Father’s world,

I rest me in the thought

Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas—

His hand the wonders wrought. —Babcock

Always be on the lookout for wonder. —E. B. White

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The Church’s Special Privilege

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And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray.    Luke 18:1

Jesus has sent His Church into the world on the same errand upon which He Himself came, and this mission includes intercession. What if I say that the Church is the world’s priest? Creation is dumb, but the Church finds a mouth for it. It is the Church’s high privilege to pray with acceptance. The door of grace is always open for her petitions, and they never return empty-handed. The curtain was torn for her; the blood was sprinkled upon the altar for her; God constantly invites her to bring her requests. Will she refuse the privilege that angels might envy? Is she not the bride of Christ? Can she not approach her King at any hour? Will she allow the precious privilege to be unused?

The Church always needs to pray. There are always some among her who are declining or falling into open sin. There are lambs to be prayed for, that they may be carried in Christ’s bosom; the strong, lest they grow presumptuous; and the weak, lest they become despairing. If we kept up prayer-meetings twenty-four hours a day all the days in the year, we might never be without a special subject for supplication.

Is there ever a time when no one is sick or poor or afflicted or wavering? Is there ever a time when we do not seek the conversion of relatives, the reclaiming of backsliders, or the salvation of the lost? With congregations constantly gathering, with ministers always preaching, with millions of sinners lying dead in trespasses and sins—in a country over which the darkness of religious formalism is certainly descending—in a world full of idols, cruelties, devils—if the Church does not pray, how will she excuse her neglect of the commission of her loving Lord? Let the Church be constant in supplication; let every private believer give himself to the ministry of prayer.

Family Reading Plan    Amos 2       Psalm 145