Daily Meditations

Psalm 146:10 Taunting, railing and cursing!  Teasing, spiteful and cruel remarks are being bandied around, with our victim the object of the sneers and derision. It’s a very lonely place when the world takes against us and the airwaves are filled with ridicule and mocking. I’ve seen this in office situations when the air becomes poisoned against someone, and they have no way of vindicating themselves.  The taunts grow louder, they are full of condemnation, they are personal and there is no respite. Eventually, the very name of the accused becomes a curse, people heap insults upon him and call down judgement and retribution on his head! They say, “May you become like him”, (him being the one named.) I find it hard to imagine that my life and my reputation could be so derided that others could say as an insult, “May you become like Geoff Abbott!” To be a curse is effectively to be abandoned and rejected by the community, this is the point where a life has no value or purpose....

Psalm 146:9 The foreigner, the fatherless and the widow In Deuteronomy 10:17-19 we read,  “ For the   Lord   your God is God of gods   and Lord of lords,   the great God, mighty and awesome,   who shows no partiality   and accepts no bribes.   He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.   And you are to love   those who are foreigners,   for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt .” It was possible, in Old Testament times to live as a foreigner amongst the Jews and to become integrated into their culture and society. One of the most famous examples is Caleb who was a Kenezzite (Joshua 14:6), the Kenites were one of the clans of Edom, therefore not descendants of Jacob but of Esau. Caleb was one of the 12 spies, sent by Joshua to view the Promised Land, he became the leader of a tribe. Even harbouring refugees is good Biblical practice, (see Deutero...

Psalm 146:8 The Lord loves the righteous Here are three more examples of the compassion and mercy of the Lord: - 1.       He gives sight to the blind 2.       He lifts up those who are bowed down 3.       He loves the righteous. Once again, we can easily find examples of how Jesus fulfilled these characteristics of the Lord God. Numerous blind people received their sight from Him, others who were bowed down, He lifted up. Luke 13:10-13;  “O n a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues,   and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years.   She was bent over and could not straighten up at all.   When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her,   “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.”   Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God .” The problem of the righteous is a little more complex. There we...

Psalm 146:7 The hungry and oppressed There are three statements here that we have encountered many times before, concerning the compassionate and merciful character of our God: - 1.       He upholds the cause of the oppressed 2.       He gives food to the hungry 3.       He sets prisoners free. We could easily find examples of how Jesus Himself fulfilled all these qualities, indeed that is what made Him popular with the masses. And here is the first point, that in His time in Israel, it was the poor and the hungry and the oppressed, in other words the needy, who flocked to Him. The rich, well-educated and powerful in the land had no time for Him at all, nor He for them! Those who are self-sufficient and proud of their achievements and positions are highly unlikely to seek help and protection from the Lord. Listen to these words of the Lord as He spelled out His mission in Luke 4:18-19; “ The Spirit of the Lord is...

Psalm 146:6 Faithful forever The psalm-writer here ensures that we do not lose sight of exactly who this “God of Jacob” is. Amidst all the gods of the world and the religions, cults and philosophies of men, there is one over-riding and supreme Being. As the previous verse informed us, He is the God of Jacob and the One who gives blessings and hope to all who trust in Him.  The nations of the world may pursue their gods, but Israel’s God is far greater, He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea and everything in them. In other words, nothing compares to Him, nothing is as powerful and authoritative as Him, He is supreme, the rest are as nothing by comparison. Let us never forget this, Israel’s God is the only true God, Israel’s deliverer is the only true Saviour of the world, He rules and reigns in corridors of power that all other gods would not dare to even enter. They must all bow before Him, all rulers and leaders must bow before Him, He is the supreme One; all life, all...

Psalm 146:5 Our God is the God of Jacob The first question that this verse prompts is why does our help come from the God of Jacob, why not Abraham or Isaac or even Noah? Presumably, because the Israelites all identified with their common link to the father of all tribes and families, they were all related through Jacob who was the natural progenitor of every one of them, without Jacob’s 12 sons Israel would not exist. In addition, Jacob and Israel were synonyms, as we all know Jacob was actually renamed Israel by the Lord. After Jacob had spent the night wrestling with an unidentified man who turned out to be the Lord, the man said to him, “ Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and overcome.”  Genesis 32:22-32.  There are two lovely blessings in this verse; we are blessed if our help is the God of Jacob. If the Mighty One who wrestled and conversed with the ancient patriarch is with us, then we have no reason to fe...