It doesn't get old

 This week in our "One Year Book of Psalms", three days were taken up with Psalm 136.  Each of its 26 verses ends with "For His mercy endures forever."  In the Amplified Bible, it's His lovingkinness (graciousness, mercy, compassion) and other translations say it's His love, His faithful love, His steadfast love, His loving devotion, His faithfulness, His lovingkindness, or His kindness that endures forever, or is everlasting, or is for all time, or is eternal, or never fails. This apparently was one of the antiphonal psalms, where half the verse was sung by one singer or choir, and the other half was a response from a second singer, or, more likely, choir.  I wondered if the second choir would have become tired of singing the exact same refrain 26 times.  I think, if they thought about what they were singing, the answer to that would be "no".

I don't know how many times, when Karl and I start to pray together, that "For the Lord is good and His mercy endures forever" comes into my mind.  I think we must never really get tired of that thought.  We who deserve nothing from our pure, perfect, holy, righteous God find ourselves the objects of His love, His mercy, His delight even! Such mercy!   And that never gets old.

From the psalm, my mind wandered over to the song in heaven where the four living creatures "do not rest day or night, saying:

     'Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!'"

And each time they say this, the 24 elders around the throne of God "fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying:

     'You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.'"

 There is this constant, never-ending chorus.  As they observe the One sitting on the throne, they are constantly filled with wonder, never able to stop themselves from exclaiming about His holiness and His worthiness in sincere, heartfelt adoration.

These are subjects that we need to forever and always remind ourselves of.  His mercy endures forever and He is completely holy and so worthy of all praise.  

This never gets old.

Shield and Defender

 Before I got out of bed this morning, I asked, "Lord, what specifically do You want to be for me today?"  And I asked that the answer would be something that wouldn't necessarily pop up out of my own store of likely suggestions.  The response that came to mind was "Your shield and defender."

Oh!  Yup, that was unexpected.  

So I immediately wondered if I would be facing something especially dangerous or challenging today.  Should I be worried?

It's true, there is this enemy of my soul who is constantly lurking around, looking for opportunities to take me down completely.  He is "as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8).  We are all at war, always.  That's why we have the armour of God (Ephesians 6:13-18).

But I should definitely not worry if God Himself is my shield and defender.

I found a lot of verses to that effect but I'll give just a few here (all from the New American Standard Bible).

Psalm 28:7 says, "The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped; Therefore, my heart triumphs, and with my song I shall thank Him.

Psalm 27:1…”The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?  The LORD is the defence of my life; whom should I dread?

2 Samuel 22:3…My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge; my Saviour, You save me from violence.”

Having grown up on hymns, they frequently come to mind, and with the verses I was reading, the grand anthem “O Worship the King” started singing itself in my head.  Here are just 2 of its stanzas:

O worship the King, all glorious above,

O gratefully sing His power and His love;

Our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days,

Pavilioned in splendour, and girded with praise.

Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail,

In Thee do we trust, nor find Thee to fail.

Thy mercies how tender, how firm to the end,

Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer and Friend.

Here's hoping that this will be a bit of encouragement for you to lean back and rest in the love and power of the God who is our shield and defender.  Not just today.  Always.