vs. 8-9    Praise and exultation to our Great Everlasting Lord who will rid the earth of sin.

Praise because God is most high forever.

Forever- From before He created “time” and the “In the beginning” which He designed for us to exist in, He was and is and will always be. It’s hard to wrap my head around this, because I am a creature of time and space.

Most High– Greatest and most powerful.  Controller of everything and the orchestrator of all wisdom.  His power and promises, His plans and His Person shall never be broken.  He has authority, ownership, and the ability to accomplish all He desires, and there’s nothing that can stand in His way.

I must praise this Almighty One that chose to love and care for me.  He has showered me with His favor and special blessings no one else could understand, and time and time, again rescued me (sometimes even from situations I caused), only because He chose to…I don’t deserve Him.

vs 7  When the wicked and the workers of iniquity flourish, the world nurtures and encourages them, but we must come together to to be encouraged in righteousness.  More needful, however, we must come together to pray for families of children killed at school by schoolmates, or daycare centers attacked, or even other so-called Christians desecrating funerals.  We must come together to pray!

Here it says, “they shall be destroyed forever.”  That is God’s decree.  I do not say we should pray for people’s destruction, but we must pray for people’s salvation.   God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)

vs. 6  We need to get together with our brothers and sisters in Christ who understand these things.

We walk everyday with those God calls foolish, not stupid; a fool is one who doesn’t perceive God or accept His hand in the working of their life.  A fool says, “there is no God” (Ps 14:1).  The world outside the church door is filled with brutish people – uncivilized and irrational.  When  I see naked heinies,  brawls, and women using filthy, foul language at their children, they are uncivilized; and if we cannot ‘reason together’ as Isaiah invites us to do, people are irrational.

We need to come away, apart, to our church family, where we find civility, reasonable people without foolish perceptions, that are on the same page – and it’s a page out of our Good Book!

vs. 5  The Lord’s works are so great and amazing.  It also says the way He thinks is “very deep”.  We can only stand in awe when we glimpse or get a small taste of His wisdom and orchestration- His sovereignty.

First, to think that YOU are concerned for me, and the things YOU do are specially specific to me and my life right now and are connected with the lives, and specific to the lives of all the people around me that YOU love, too; that is awesome, but then to know YOU are also keeping the universe together.

“By him all things consist.” (Col. 1:17)  The universe is spinning, from the smallest atom to the grandest galaxy, in synchronized, scientific perfection, to laws calculated so we can notice them and know HE is in control. He can do all this free from the “laws of science” (He is not bound by them as we are) he created the laws to show mankind that he is there.

Lord, You are so  GREAT and Your thoughts truly are very deep. You are WONDERFUL!

vs.  4 …is still the psalmist testifying why we get together for – Thou, LORD, – and the the psalmist is now talking directly to God, telling Him that he is certain that what God has done in his life will give him the victory, and how happy he is to have the Lord working in his life.

Many of the psalmists experienced hard life lessons. I can relate to the painful, Christian muscle-building, character strengthening and testing times when God, as a true and faithful, loving Father does what’s right and needful and “hurts Him more than it hurts hurts me”.  But I can also attest to God’s overflowing blessings as a result!

vs. 3 We need  to get together to make music to God. (vs 1 ) God says “a solemn sound” which, to me, speaks of peaceful and respectful, but not a funeral dirge, because elsewhere we are told to “make a joyful noise…come into His courts with singing and praise” (ps. 100).

If music in church is to be to GOD’s liking (and it should), then it must be solemn, peaceful, and respectful, filled with joyful voices.  That removes the harsh rhythms and shiny metal-flake electronics that please PEOPLE.

Let’s be real disciples and allow GOD to tell us what He likes or does not.  He says it in His Word and in our hearts if we will not push His truth (and His Spirit) from us when we want something different; or stopping our ears and saying “La-La-La” all the while we pray for His wisdom, guidance, leadership, and protection – Oh, sister!

The Bible gives this psalm the title “a song for the Sabbath day”.  For the Christian, we celebrate The Lord’s Day.  What is it about?

vs 1  It is a good thing to give thanks and sing praises.  We get together to thank and praise GOD, the Most High.  It is good and pleasant to do this together, and God likes it.

vs 2  The purpose is to declare God’s goodness to us – His lovingkindness and faithfulness to us!  This is an encouragement to our heart…Praise Him often – every morning and night.  The early church got together much more than we do today.  We should be quick to give testimony of what God has done for us recently.  The psalmist is so certain that God is busy in our lives that he knows we’ll have praises to shout out every morning and night in joyful testimony and to give thanks; that’s the psalmist’s own testimony here, written down and preserved forever! ( and he didn’t just go to the ‘Morning Service’)

vs. 14  I just need to wait on God’s perfect timing.  God even grants that waiting on Him will require courage.

Good Courage – steady, honest, based on trust in GOD,  filled good works and good choices on my part as I wait.

God promised to strengthen my heart (exercise ?!?) as I wait with good courage.  He repeats the instruction to wait.  A warning that insisting to go ahead – on my own – is a move to disaster.  The LORD is strength.      Wait Courageously!