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Lord’s Prayer

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. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.

Prayer for the Morning

The night has passed, the sun shines its light upon us, and the day lies open before me. As I rejoice in the gift of this new day, so may the light of your presence fill me with love for you and my fellow man, holy God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Abide with me, I pray, now and forever.

Prayer for Those Suffering from Addiction

Dear Lord, we come to you and we pray for all those who are struggling this day. We ask in the name of Jesus, that you be with each person who is struggling with addiction, whether it be alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling, food — sometimes it’s more than one at a time.

Lord, you are our deliverer. We can do anything through Christ who strengthens us, if we will only take the first step. I pray that you will give every addicted person the courage to face up to their problems and to have a strong desire to change.

I pray that you will remove all outside influences that hinder them from coming clean and which (or who) perpetuate their addictions. We ask in Jesus’ name that you will bind the enemy and that you will put your angels about each person to protect them tonight from themselves and from the things that keep dragging them down.

Lord, I know many self-medicate so they won’t have to deal with the pain in their lives. I pray that you will give them the courage and strength to face down their demons and hurts, and to clean out the wounds once and for all, so they can be free to be the person that you’ve called them to be, to be free from the sickness and pain that keeps them in bondage.

We ask for healing in families torn apart by addiction. We ask for protection for those family members that are in harm’s way because of a loved one’s addictions. Lord, everyone suffers in a family where there is addiction. Please pour out your grace, mercy and healing power on each person who has been affected by someone with an addiction.

May the chains be broken today, Lord. Set the captives free and begin the healing that only you can bring. Bring hope, mighty God: Give each a vision of what life can be like for a person freed from pain and addiction. Lord, for every need spoken or unspoken, we ask for your provision.

unk 10/2020

Benediction

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify us completely, and may our whole spirits and souls and bodies be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Mason Barge2/2024

(~ 1 Thessalonians 5:23)

Think of the day ahead in terms of God with you, and visualize health, strength, guidance, purity, calm confidence, and victory as the gifts of His presence.

Psalm 103:15-22 (NKJV)

The Love of God (Part 2)

(The italicized verses are 103:1-14, from yesterday.)

Just as a father has compassion on his children,
So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.
For He Himself knows our frame;
He is mindful that we are but dust.

As for man, his days are like grass;
As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
When the wind has passed over it, it is no more,
And its place acknowledges it no longer.

But the lovingkindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him,
And His righteousness to children’s children,
To those who keep His covenant
And remember His precepts to do them.
The Lord has established His throne in the heavens,
And His sovereignty rules over all.

Bless the Lord, you His angels,
Mighty in strength, who perform His word,
Obeying the voice of His word!
Bless the Lord, all you His hosts,
You who serve Him, doing His will.
Bless the Lord, all you works of His,
In all places of His dominion;

Bless the Lord, O my soul!

Notes on the Scripture

King David, from
Macclesfield Psalter (c.1320)

We have reprinted the entirety of the psalm here, so that we can look at the overall structure of it. Once the entire psalm has been read in detail, and we understand what the verses say, it is time to step back and look at the psalm as a whole. The first thing one might notice is that the first and last lines are identical. This is a clue! The second line is a developments of the first (“. . . and forget not all His benefits”), and the lines before the last line are also variations on the opening/closing line.

Look at the section, “But the lovingkindness of the Lord . . . .” The theme is God’s faithful and eternal love for us, if we keep His word and live in awe and respect of Him. This is a treatment of the same general theme as the third section: “The Lord executes righteousness, And justice for all who are oppressed. . . .” The theme and tone of the second and next-to-last sections are similar, just as the first and last lines are identical.

Like the device of parallelism in pairs of lines, the psalmist has created an overall arrangement of ideas. If we divide the psalm into five parts, the first and last parts are similar; the second and fourth are similar, etc. The structure of Psalm 103 is either A-B-C-B-A or A-B-C-D-C-B-A, depending on how you want to look at it. “A” is a single identical line, “Bless the Lord, O my soul,” “B” is a description of the Lord’s power and “C” develops the idea of how He uses this great power in his love for us. The correspondence is not exact, but the structure is clear enough for us to appreciate that it is intentional and meaningful.

The middle of the psalm consists of four wonderful and well-known lines beginning, “As for man, his days are like grass;” Thus, the psalm moves continuously downward from praise of an eternal God, through intermediate stages describing God's eternal might, His love for humanity, ending in a description of the temporary and futile nature of earthly life. It then reverses direction and moves back through the same stages until we end where we began, praising the eternal God.

The structure has a technical name: chiasm. It was common in early epic poetry, and the Bible is full of it. It is very easy to see sometimes, as in Isaiah 6:10 — “Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts.”

The chiasm in Psalm 103 is more than a clever rhetorical device; it actually gives the psalm its primary meaning, because it encompassed the relationship of God and man, both in time and in holiness. It is a synopsis of the entire Bible. In the beginning was the Word (A); God created Adam as a holy being in His image (B), and loved him (C), but Adam sinned and death overtook him (D). Yet the Lord loved his creation still (C), and sent Christ to redeem him, reversing the process by remaking a man in His image (B); and the world will end in the holiness of God, just as it began (A).

Seeing this, we can truly appreciate how the psalmist uses structure to give the psalm not only beauty, but also enormous power.

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“Terrors In The Night”

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