1 O come, let us sing unto the Lord:
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving,
and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.
3 For the Lord is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth:
the strength of the hills is his also.
5 The sea is his, and he made it:
and his hands formed the dry land.
6 O come, let us worship and bow down:
let us kneel before the Lord our maker.
7 For he is our God;
and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.
To day if ye will hear his voice,
8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation,
and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
9 When your fathers tempted me,
proved me, and saw my work.
10 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation,
and said, It is a people that do err in their heart,
and they have not known my ways:
11 Unto whom I sware in my wrath
that they should not enter into my rest.
Comments by Joan Boney
They have not known MY ways ...
From the moment of birth, humans learn the ways of humans.
When does it change? Some people go all their lives and keep learning the ways of humans and seeking success by pleasing humans and by following humans and going by the wisdom of men.
Others go into their latter years following the ways of man, always seeking "prosperity" (seeking to succeed) but seeking though the ways of men.
What are the ways of God? When do we learn these ways? When do we stop seeking our way by the sayings of men of this world?
Success from God comes by following that which God speaks to us through HIS Spirit.
Man speaks of saving enough money for future when they have no idea how much money will be enough nor do they know what future brings or even if we will be here tomorrow.
But God has a sure and certain plan. Focus on today, not on tomorrow. Make our minds deal with today and think on the Word of God given us today by the Spirit of God and do that.
Most people seek the world and things of the world and people of the world. They make plans for tomorrow.
The way of God is the following way:
Mt. 6 ... 19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 22 The light of the body is the eye:if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. 23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
24 No man can serve two masters:for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
25 Therefore I say unto you (says Jesus), Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? 26 Behold the fowls of the air:for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? 27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? 28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow:for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
I have a desk calendar when shows the entire month. A few days ago, I looked at the calender and delighted to see nothing at all was scheduled for the entire month ... no people, no activities!
I can focus on living in peace today so I can read Bible properly. Then when I read Bible I can focus on that which I read today.
I have found I rarely think of tomorrow when I focus on today.
If my mind is troubled over someone or something, I can't focus properly on today. Therefore it is critical for me to settle matters to be able to be free to think on God and things of God.
Keeping in peace is critical.
I can't afford to pick up phone and call some people for to do so would cause me to grieve over that which they will say to me. Thus I couldn't live in peace because of their words. So often I avoid those people.
Few people live in peace and make peace a priority as I am trying to do. It takes a lot of thought and effort to go in the way of peace.
It is critical to go in the way of peace if we are to read the Bible with a pure heart and mind.
Certainly we must do as Paul said and work out our own salvation in fear and trembling. Phil. 2:12
If we are bound up with someone or in something where we cannot live in peace, we have to diligently seek God and HIS way of deliverance. Sometimes I have had to plead with God for many days for that deliverance before HE showed me what to do to achieve deliverance. So we might have to wait, but as we wait we keep pleading with God. In time, HE has always delivered me one way or another.
But we cannot constantly live in strife for we will not be able to live in strife and peace. Neither can we deliver ourselves by our own plan. But when it is just too much for us, we can plead with God for HIS way and HIS help. And keep on pleading until we are shown by God the way.
In time, I always know God will show me, and HE does!
At the moment that I write this, I have just worked through a series of human bondages through prayer and action based on what I believe God showed me.
In one case, I was convinced not to call my cousin whose husband had just died. It would seem necessary to call her to try to comfort her. But what God showed me to do was to focus on two dreams HE had given me about this cousin. In the first dream, I was shown I could not go out through her house. In the second dream, I was shown she will blame me and accuse me of wrong doing no matter what I do. She will not hear me. So to keep peace, I must not call her.
In another case, a woman who is not born again, but is very religious in a self-righteous way, kept calling me to go eat with her. This went on for years. I would usually go when she called. But she said many things contrary to the way of God and contrary to the way of peace, though she had no idea she was doing this for she does not have the Spirit of God.
It was strange for she was not interested in God. When I spoke of God she often flinched.
She just wanted an audience to tell of her own wisdom, which was actually a way of violence in dealing with people.
(She delighted in telling her many stories of how she had set people "straight". She delighted in getting her own way without regard for what it was doing to other people. This is God's definition HE gave me of "violence": going about to get what you want without regard for how your actions will affect other people.)
I reached the end of my rope and I knew it.
So I began pleading with God for deliverance. I had no idea how God would deliver me. I just kept pleading each time she would come to mind.
Finally, God gave me a message for this woman. The message said: "The way you are going is totally wrong and the time will come you will see this and when you do you will be so ashamed." (I also gave her Psalm 37 as instruction of the way to go that is of God.) I sent the message by email. She called me immediately saying she didn't understand the message. I told her only God could give her understanding. She even called a second time saying she didn't understand. I told her I know she is not praying over what she does she just thinks she know what to do in everything. She grew very silent and then said, "No ... I'm not praying ..."
I had not heard from her again until this week. She called me to tell me her mother died last week. But she also told me an abominable story (she had no idea this was abominable) concerning what they had planned at Catholic church. I sent her another message telling her this plan was an abomination and I was sorry she told me about this. Hopefully this will cause her to stop calling me.
II Peter 2 ... 7 And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)
They do vex "our righteous soul" with their deeds because we are of God and know the way of God and when we see or hear a way opposite to God's way, we are grieved.
II Peter 2 ... 9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: