THE LOVING KINDNESS OF THE LORD GOD

THE LOVING KINDNESS OF THE LORD GOD

PROCLAMATION

“I will tell of the kindnesses of The Lord, the deeds for which He is to be praised, according to all The Lord has done for us …”  Isaiah 63:7 (NIV)

EXPLANATION

These are the words of The Lord God which were spoken to the people of Israel through the prophet Isaiah.  In the beginning of chapter sixty-three, Isaiah sees, in a vision, The Messiah returning in triumph after a conquest of His enemies proclaiming victory and stating that He alone had crushed His enemies. (Isaiah 63:1-6)  Then He changes his tune and tone and recounts how, in days of old, The Lord God had chosen Israel to be His people, how they had rebelled against Him, were taken into captivity, and how He sent Moses to free them.  He even parted the Red Sea for them. (Isaiah 63:8-12)  But they had fallen on hard times again and urged Him to look down form heaven and see their plight. (Isaiah 63:15-19)

APPLICATION

The Lord God is good, merciful, and His loving kindness knows no limits.  We, His people, have messed up thousands of times and He still loves us.  He has blessed us with His grace and mercy an untold number of times in the past and we seek new mercies every day. (Psalm 51:1)  We have been blessed in so many ways, not to mention our birth, life, and our very existence, (Acts 17:28) there is also our election, redemption, and sanctification.  We have so much to be thankful for until His praise should continually be on our lips.

PRAISE THE LORD ALL YOU NATIONS AND ALL YOU PEOPLE

Proclamation:

“Praise The Lord, all you nations; extol Him, all you people.  For great is His love towards us, and the faithfulness of The Lord endures forever.  Praise The Lord.”  Psalm 117:1-2 (NIV)

Explanation:

The name of the human author of this psalm is unknown, however, it is clear that it was written under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God.  This is another one of the “Hallelujah psalms” (Psalms 112 through 118) which was sung during the feasts celebrated by the children of Israel.  This psalm is the shortest of all psalms and is only two verses in length.  It calls upon all people of all nations to praise The Lord.  It begins and ends with the phrase, “Praise The Lord.” 

Application:                                                                                                                                

Saying, or singing, “Hallelujah” is the highest form of praise that we can offer The Lord God.  Unfortunately, there are no nations today which praise The Lord.  It is also unfortunate that all of the people alive today do not praise The Lord.  However, there will come a time when all the earth will praise Him.  Currently, He is still gathering “us” His people from among the Gentiles.  The point here is that God’s redemptive purpose was a global, worldwide one. (Psalm 117:1 and repeated by the Apostle Paul in Romans 15:11)  The invitation was extended to all people but all did not accept it.  When the day comes that He has gathered up all of His people, the remaining nations will praise Him. (Zechariah 2:11 and 14:16)  The question is, will you be in the group that He gathers, or will you be one of the ones left behind? (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)  Believe, and praise The Lord.

GREAT IS THE LOVING KINDNESS OF THE LORD GOD

Proclamation:

“I will praise You, Lord, among the nations; I will sing of You among the peoples.  For great is Your love, higher than the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.”  Psalm 108:3-4 (NIV)

Explanation:

The words of this psalm were written by King David under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God.  This psalm repeats some of the inspired passages from the fifty-seventh psalm (Psalm 57:7-11) and from the sixtieth psalm. (Psalm 60:6-12)  David was steadfast in his love of The Lord God and he was going to sing and praise Him in front of the congregation of the righteous and before the unsaved world.  He knew that God’s love for him bigger than anything on earth.

 Application:

We all need to change our perspective on life and present a much more positive outlook.  We need to be joyful regardless of the situation.  Whatever it is that we are going through, we ought to count it all as joy. (James 1:2)  When we think of the things which He has done for us, we ought to praise Him.  We ought to be thankful for the blessings which we have already received, and we should continually praise The Lord.  His loving-kindness towards us exceeds our capacity to understand it or comprehend it.  “With God we will gain the victory …” (Psalm 108:13) and “All things work together for good to them that love God …” (Romans 8:28) so we should praise His Holy Name.

THANKS BE TO GOD FOR HIS LOVE AND HIS LOVING-KINDNESS

Proclamation:

“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.  He will not always accuse, nor will He harbor His anger forever; He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.”  Psalm 103:8-10 (NIV)

Explanation:

The words of this psalm were written by King David under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God.  The psalm begins by stating and repeating the phrase, “Bless The Lord, O my soul …” (Psalm 103:1 & 2) and ends by repeating “Bless The Lord ...” (Psalm 103:20, 21, and 22)  David told the people of God to praise and glorify The Lord.  They were not just to offer and repeat rituals during worship, giving Him lip service, but to praise Him with pure and honest feelings from the depths of their hearts.  They should be grateful that He does not treat them as they treat Him.

Application:

We should not only praise and worship The Lord, but we should be thankful for His love for us.  Because of His goodness and mercy, God does not treat us as we deserve to be treated based upon our behavior, our willful disobedience, and our sins, but He does so out of His abounding love.   

MAY THE LORD CONTINUE TO BLESS US WITH HIS LOVING-KINDNESS

Proclamation:

“How priceless is Your unfailing love, O God!  People take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.  They feast on the abundance of Your house; You give them drink from Your river of delights.  For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light.  Continue Your love to those who know You, Your righteousness to the upright in heart.”  Psalm 36:7-10 (NIV)

Explanation:

These words were written under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God by King David.  He begins this psalm with a description of the sinfulness of the wicked. (Psalm 36:1-4)  The he changes his focus to describing the love and righteousness of The Lord God. (Psalm 36:5-10)  David reveals the provisions which The Lord has for those who take refuge in the shadow of His wings.  Then he prays that The Lord will continue to bless all believers.

Application:

Only those who believe are blessed with protection under the wings of The Lord.  The provisions of The Lord are available to those who know Him.  (Psalm 36:8 and Matthew 5:6)  The Lord God is the giver of life (Genesis 2:7) and He is the light of the world. (John 8:12)  He has blessed us and our prayer should be that He will continue to bless us, to have mercy on us, and to shower us with His loving-kindness.  We should also pray that He will create within us a clean heart and a right spirit. (Psalm 51:10)  Pray that He would remove all sinful unrighteousness from us (1 John 1:9) so that we may enjoy the abundance of His love and protection. (Psalm 36:10-12) 

LET'S DEMONSTRATE GOD'S PERFECT LOVE

Proclamation:

"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God ... Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.  This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins ... since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another ... but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us ... If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is The Son of God, God lives in him and he in God ... God is love ... There is no fear in love.  But perfect love drives out fear ... If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar.  For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.  And He has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother."  1 John 4:7-21 (NIV)

Explanation:

These words were written under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God by the Apostle John.  Here John offers a description of what perfect love, Godly love, is and tells how we can achieve it and demonstrate it.  The Spirit of God within us imparts to us the will to love each other.  This is how love is mad complete among us so that we will have the confidence to say that we are like Christ. (1 John 4:17)

Application:
God loves us and He has proven it.  If we love God, we will love our fellow man because God is love and God is within us.  We cannot love God and hate one another.  We should pray that God will help us to love each other.  We must learn to demonstrate the love of God in our daily interactions with our fellow man.  By our doing this, the world will know that we are believers in Christ. (John 13:35)  By performing random acts of kindness for one another, and for non-believers, we demonstrate the love of God that is within us.  Love in not just a spoken emption, it requires action in order to be manifested.

BE MERCIFUL TO ME HEAL ME DELIVER ME

Proclamation:

"O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger or discipline me in Your wrath.  Be merciful to me, Lord, for I am faint; O Lord, heal me, for my bones are in agony.  My soul is in anguish.  How long, O Lord, how long?  Turn, O Lord, and deliver me; save me because of Your unfailing love."  Psalms 6:1-4 (NIV)

Explanation:

These words were written by King David under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God.  While in the midst of an apparently stressful bad situation, David assumed that God was punishing him.  He asked God not to punish him while He was angry with him and then he asked God to have mercy on him.

Application:
Sometimes bad things happen to good people.  Whatever happens to us is all part of God's permissive will because He is in control of everything.  Remember, all things work together for good to them that love God. (Romans 8:28)  The spankings that we received as children were for our good, even though they hurt and we did not enjoy them at the time.  Not all of the bad things that happen to us are punishment, sometimes they are just tests of our faith.  Remember what happened to Job. (Job 1:1- 2:10)  Sometimes things happen to us to remind us that God's grace is sufficient to see us through whatever it is.  Remember the thorn which was in Paul's flesh that he prayed and asked God three times to remove. (2 Corinthians 12:7-9)  It is always okay to ask God for mercy and help in the midst of our storms and our negative situations.  However, instead of always asking God to remove our mountains and our problems, maybe we should ask Him for the strength to climb and endure them.

GOD IS MERCIFUL AND KIND TO US

Proclamation:

"Praise The LORD, all you nations; extol Him, all you peoples.  For great is His love toward us, and the faithfulness of The LORD endures forever.  Praise The LORD."  Psalms 117:1-2 (NIV)  

"O praise The LORD, all ye nations: praise Him, all ye people.  For His merciful kindness is great toward us; and the truth of The LORD endureth for ever.  Praise ye The LORD." Psalms 117:1-2 (KJV)

Explanation:

The unknown author of this psalm packed a lot of power into this, the shortest of all the psalms.  This global invitation to praise The Lord is followed by a truthful explanation and justification for doing so.  He says that God is merciful and kind to His people and that His Truth and His Word are both eternal.

Application:

The Lord, our God, is worthy of all praise, honor, and glory.  He is so great, so good, and so awesome that we ought to praise Him continuously. (Psalms 34:1)  The only time that we should not be praising Him is when we are thanking Him.  In more than 42 verses, the Bible encourages us to thank God, and the most frequent justification for giving God thanks is that He is good, and His love endures forever. (Psalms 136:1-3)  God shows His loving merciful kindness to us everyday, multiple times each day. (Psalm 68:19)  We ought to praise Him and thank Him multiple times each day.

Thank The Lord And Praise Him

"In You, O LORD, I have taken refuge...deliver me in Your righteousness...Since You are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of Your name lead and guide me.  Free me from the trap that is set for me, for You are my refuge.  Into Your hands I commit my spirit; redeem me, O LORD, The God of truth...I will be glad and rejoice in Your love, for You saw my affliction and knew the anguish of my soul...Be merciful to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and my body with grief.  My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning; my strength fails because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak...I have become like broken pottery...But I trust in You, O LORD; I say, 'You are my God.'  My times are in Your hands...Let Your face shine on Your servant; save me in Your unfailing love...How great is Your goodness, which You have stored up for those who fear You, which You bestow in the sight of men on those who take refuge in You... Praise be to The LORD, for He showed His wonderful love to me...You heard my cry for mercy when I called to You for help.  Love The LORD, all His saints!  The LORD preserves the faithful...Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in The LORD."  Psalms 31:1-24 (NIV)

This psalm of King David is a song of encouragement.  In it he acknowledges who God is, and what He has done for him.  Then he praises God and exhorts all of the saints of God to love and praise The Lord also.

David acknowledged that he was in trouble, he called upon the name of The Lord to ask for mercy, and God saved him.  Believers know that what ever the situation, God is the solution; what ever the affliction, God is the answer; what ever the distress, God is the deliverer; and what ever the condition, God is the comforter.

Praise The Lord For He Is Worthy

 "Praise be to The LORD, for He showed His wonderful love to me when I was in a besieged city."  Psalms 31:21 (NIV)

King David told the people that he praised The Lord because He showed His wonderful love to him many times in the past when he was in trouble.

David was grateful for God's marvelous loving kindness which He had shown to him in the past, and because God had shown him favor and taken care of him in the past, he was confident that God would continue to do so in the future.  We should praise The Lord for the same reasons.  We should praise The Lord because He is good. (Psalms 106:1, Psalms 135:3, and Jeremiah 33:11)  We should praise The Lord for the great things that He has done. (Deuteronomy 11:7, 1 Samuel 12:24, Psalms 126:3, and Luke 1:49)  We should praise The Lord for His mighty acts. (Psalms 106:2 and Psalms 150:2)  We should praise The Lord because He alone is worthy of praise. (1 Chronicles 16:25, Psalms 48:1, Psalms 96:4, and Psalms 145:3)  We should praise The Lord because He loves us, and there is no greater love than His love for us. (Psalms 117:2)   Praise The Lord!!!