You made it!  One week down.  I hope it has been as refreshing for you as it has been for me.  Today one of our five psalms is one of my favorites, Psalm 37, so I’ll spend almost all of our time with this psalm.

Psalm 37

Verses 4 & 5 are verses I memorized years ago and have clung to through the years: verse 4: “Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart.  What a wonderful promise!  Teach us Holy Spirit, empower us to “delight ourselves in Him.”  verse 5: “Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him…”

Verse 7 is one I am constantly “working on” (but to be honest, I am not seeing the progress I’d like to see!).  “Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for Him.” 

Verse 17b “The LORD upholds the righteous.”  I love that.  I love knowing that He is holding on to me and “holding me up, helping me to stand.”

Verse 24  I memorized this verse from the Living Bible as a teenager and have held on to it throughout my life, “Though you fall, it will not be fatal, for the LORD upholds you with His strong right hand.” (Living Bible)   Through the years I have stumbled.  I have failed, but this verse has brought great encouragement and strength for me to “get back up on my feet” and follow  Him. We may be down, but by His grace, we’re not out! Nothing can separate us from the love of God!

Verse 25 has taken on special significance in recent years as I find myself in the 60’s approaching 70: “I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.”  Amen!  He is faithful!

Verse 28b “The LORD will not forsake His faithful ones.”  This is another verse I have clung to, and He has been faithful. Aren’t you thankful that He will never, never, never, NEVER forsake us!

Verse 34a “Wait for the LORD”.  There He is again reminding us to wait!

Psalm 97

Just one verse from this psalm, verse 9 “For you, O LORD are the Most High over all the earth; You are exalted far above all gods.”  Sound familiar?  We sing it quite frequently in Sunday worship.  (Now you know where it comes from!)  I think we’ll add it to our songs of worship this morning, as a gift of worship to Him from those of us who are on this adventure reading through the psalms together.

Here it is “for your listening pleasure.”

See you in church!  Let’s make it our goal to bring Him pleasure with our worship!  It’s communion Sunday.  May He impart His gifts of grace to you in a special way. You are loved.

Pastor