Daily Meditations

Psalm 2 A warning for rulers! If the first Psalm was a personal plea to choose the way of righteousness, Psalm 2 is addressed to the kings and rulers of this world.   From the beginning of time Satan has used them to further his purposes, to oppose God and to enslave vast swathes of the human race.  Before we go any further let us correct one common error here, Satan is not a proper noun or name.  In the Hebrew Scriptures he is referred to as “the Satan” because the word means “accuser” or “adversary”. He is depicted in the Scriptures as the prince of the power of the air and the prince of this world. He is described as a serpent, a leviathan, a roaring lion and probably represented, with his death , as taking the form of other wild beasts. In 2 Corinthians 11:14 we are told that “the Satan” masquerades as an angel of light and in Revelation 12:7-11 there is a description of a great dragon – the ancient serpent – who leads the whole world astray! This Accuser has spent centu

Psalm 1:6       The Psalm ends with a wonderful promise; “The Lord watches over the way of the righteous, yes the Lord watches over the way of the righteous.”  Of whom shall I be afraid? Everywhere I go, everything I do, every thought that I have, every word that I speak – the Lord watches over me. He is not some brooding, callous, judgemental tyrant but a loving kind and protective Father who cares about me and will guard me on this journey of spiritual discovery. He longs to open His treasures, to reveal His mysteries, to bring me delight and pleasure; all He asks is my compliance and my willingness to trust and obey! Dear Lord; You have set before us a stark choice, to listen to the voices of the evil ones or to listen to You.  We can choose to find our greatest fulfilment in You or waste our lives tampering with the delusions of the enemy.  You have given us Your Word to guide us and protect us; help us to read it, meditate upon it and understand it. We thank you that You watc

Psalm1:5       Our earthly journey will allow us, at times, to stand with the redeemed in holy awe and worship exhilarated by the presence of our Father.  In the Psalmists’ day these “assemblies of the righteous” would have been joyful times of worship at God’s sanctuary where music played, choirs sang and the people joined in the excitement and corporate wonder of being together in God’s presence. If our own church worship is anything, it should be a prelude to the time when we will join with a numberless throng and sing the praises of the Lamb and the One who sits upon the throne of heaven. Many go to events like Spring Harvest, Keswick Convention, New Day and the rest, primarily for this experience of joy and exhilaration.  Our earthly, joyful experiences are but a foretaste of what is to come and we are promised that we will join with heavenly choirs and our song will be “Worthy is the Lamb.”   Such music and exaltation can never be the experience of the wicked, their way leads

Psalm 1:4.   The one who drinks in God’s Word is the opposite of the wicked who will be blown away like chaff for they have no useful purpose. As a boy who spent a lot of his time on a farm, I am very familiar with chaff! It’s the left-overs when corn is “thrashed”. It is an irritant and seems to get everywhere, even under your clothes! It takes the slightest breath of wind to blow chaff away and when it is gone the ground is clean. In my boyhood the men used to talk about “cleaning the crop”, this took place when corn was “dressed” in a machine that removed all of the rubbish. Chaff is blown out of threshers and combine harvesters for it is of no use to anyone; even straw has its uses but chaff does not. In ancient times threshing would be done with a flail or alternatively animals would trample the corn on a threshing floor and the chaff would be the rubbish that is left. Threshing floors were often elevated so that the wind would blow the chaff away.  There is a fascinating story

Psalm 1:2-3 If for some, evil is a source of delight, then the converse is the man or woman who delights in the teaching of the Lord.  Such a one meditates on the Scriptures day and night.  As a younger man I confess that meditating on Scripture day and night seemed to be a bit of a chore! It’s not surprising therefore that my thoughts ran away with me, depression overwhelmed me at times, and I found that I had no antidote to the dark thoughts that sometimes filled my head. So, what occupies our thoughts?  What fills the subconscious when we awake in the early hours?  Where do we find delight and where does our mind go when an enemy spirit throws a dart?  This is where we start to identify our personal battle lines, all battles are won or lost in the mind.  V3        If we want to be stable, fruitful, successful human beings then we must drink from the Word of God for that is like being planted by a constant stream of water. An enterprising squirrel planted an acorn in our gar

Psalm 1 Spiritual stability The journey begins! It’s exciting isn’t it? Where will the Holy Spirit take us? What adventures await us? What discoveries will we make? One thing is certain, we will not be the same people at the end of this journey as we are at the beginning.  We are about to discover a world of delights but also a world that has a sinister side. This is not a walk in the park, this journey will take us through narrow ravines, up rocky mountain slopes and across desert landscapes. Thank God there will also be occasion to lie by still waters in green pastures and to dance with exhilaration and pure joy on mountain summits. Let’s get going shall we? V1       What an introduction to the adventure!  Most Christians would not dream of associating with the wicked, the sinners and the scornful of v1, would they? Who are these people anyway, are they mass murderers or tabloid celebrities or pagan worshippers?   Well, they may be all or some of these, but we are not look

Geoff's Musings! I hope that these regular postings will be a bit more than musings. Did you know that the Word of God, the Bible, is the only absolute truth available on earth? In our days of "fake news" and biased reporting it's a job to know who is telling the truth, so when we can have access to a book whose author knows everything and who dwells outside and beyond this planet, it's worth a read surely? The Bible is not just theology or doctrine although these kinds of studies are important to its understanding. No, first and foremost the Bible is a spiritual book and it can only be understood with the help of the Holy Spirit. That's why so much theology is dull, it comes from men's intellect not from the Spirit. So ask God to help you to understand what He is saying to us and how His Word can apply to us in the 21st Century. Our musings will begin with the Book that is central to the whole Bible, it's a collection of songs, praises and praye