Psalm 6 to Psalm 10

Often we hear the Psalms one by one, but today we offer you the chance to hear a group of Psalms read as a collection!

Psalm 6

For the director of music. With stringed instruments. According to sheminith. A psalm of David.

1 Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger
or discipline me in your wrath.
2 Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am faint;
heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony.
3 My soul is in deep anguish.
How long, Lord, how long?
4 Turn, Lord, and deliver me;
save me because of your unfailing love.
5 Among the dead no one proclaims your name.
Who praises you from his grave?

6 I am worn out from my groaning.
All night long I flood my bed with weeping
and drench my couch with tears.
7 My eyes grow weak with sorrow;
they fail because of all my foes.
8 Away from me, all you who do evil,
for the Lord has heard my weeping.
9 The Lord has heard my cry for mercy;
the Lord accepts my prayer.
10 All my enemies will be overwhelmed with shame and anguish;
they will turn back and suddenly be put to shame.

Psalm 7

A shiggaion of David, which he sang to the LORD concerning Cush, a Benjaminite.
1 LORD my God, I take refuge in you; save and deliver me from all who pursue me,
2 or they will tear me apart like a lion and rip me to pieces with no one to rescue me.
3 LORD my God, if I have done this and there is guilt on my hands –
4 if I have repaid my ally with evil or without cause have robbed my foe –
5 then let my enemy pursue and overtake me;
let him trample my life to the ground and make me sleep in the dust
6 Arise, LORD, in your anger; rise up against the rage of my enemies.
Awake, my God; decree justice.
7 Let the assembled peoples gather round you,
while you sit enthroned over them on high.
8 Let the LORD judge the peoples.
Vindicate me, LORD, according to my righteousness,
according to my integrity, O Most High.
9 Bring to an end the violence of the wicked
and make the righteous secure –
you, the righteous God who probes minds and hearts.
10 My shield is God Most High, who saves the upright in heart.
11 God is a righteous judge, a God who displays his wrath every day.
12 If he does not relent, he will sharpen his sword;
he will bend and string his bow.
13 He has prepared his deadly weapons; he makes ready his flaming arrows.
14 Whoever is pregnant with evil conceives trouble and gives birth to disillusionment.
15 Whoever digs a hole and scoops it out
falls into the pit they have made.
16 The trouble they cause recoils on them;
their violence comes down on their own heads.
17 I will give thanks to the LORD because of his righteousness;
I will sing the praises of the name of the LORD Most High.

Psalm 8

For the director of music. According to gittith A psalm of David.
1 LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
in the heavens.
2 Through the praise of children and infants
you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?[c]
5 You have made them[d] a little lower than the angels[e]
and crowned them with glory and honour.
6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
you put everything under their feet:
7 all flocks and herds,
and the animals of the wild,
8 the birds in the sky,
and the fish in the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
9 LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Psalm 9

For the director of music. To the tune of ‘The Death of the Son’. A psalm of David.
1 I will give thanks to you, LORD, with all my heart;
I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.
2 I will be glad and rejoice in you;
I will sing the praises of your name, O Most High.
3 My enemies turn back;
they stumble and perish before you.
4 For you have upheld my right and my cause,
sitting enthroned as the righteous judge.
5 You have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked;
you have blotted out their name for ever and ever.
6 Endless ruin has overtaken my enemies,
you have uprooted their cities;
even the memory of them has perished.
7 The LORD reigns for ever;
he has established his throne for judgment.
8 He rules the world in righteousness
and judges the peoples with equity.
9 The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.
10 Those who know your name trust in you,
for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.
11 Sing the praises of the LORD, enthroned in Zion;
proclaim among the nations what he has done.
12 For he who avenges blood remembers;
he does not ignore the cries of the afflicted.
13 LORD, see how my enemies persecute me!
Have mercy and lift me up from the gates of death,
14 that I may declare your praises
in the gates of Daughter Zion,
and there rejoice in your salvation.
15 The nations have fallen into the pit they have dug;
their feet are caught in the net they have hidden.
16 The LORD is known by his acts of justice;
the wicked are ensnared by the work of their hands.[c]
17 The wicked go down to the realm of the dead,
all the nations that forget God.
18 But God will never forget the needy;
the hope of the afflicted will never perish.
19 Arise, LORD, do not let mortals triumph;
let the nations be judged in your presence.
20 Strike them with terror, LORD;
let the nations know they are only mortal.

Psalm 10

1 Why, LORD, do you stand far off?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?
2 In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak,
who are caught in the schemes he devises.
3 He boasts about the cravings of his heart;
he blesses the greedy and reviles the LORD.
4 In his pride the wicked man does not seek him;
in all his thoughts there is no room for God.
5 His ways are always prosperous;
your laws are rejected by him;
he sneers at all his enemies.
6 He says to himself, ‘Nothing will ever shake me.’
He swears, ‘No one will ever do me harm.’
7 His mouth is full of lies and threats;
trouble and evil are under his tongue.
8 He lies in wait near the villages;
from ambush he murders the innocent.
His eyes watch in secret for his victims;
9 like a lion in cover he lies in wait.
He lies in wait to catch the helpless;
he catches the helpless and drags them off in his net.
10 His victims are crushed, they collapse;
they fall under his strength.
11 He says to himself, ‘God will never notice;
he covers his face and never sees.’
12 Arise, LORD! Lift up your hand, O God.
Do not forget the helpless.
13 Why does the wicked man revile God?
Why does he say to himself,
‘He won’t call me to account’?
14 But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted;
you consider their grief and take it in hand.
The victims commit themselves to you;
you are the helper of the fatherless.
15 Break the arm of the wicked man;
call the evildoer to account for his wickedness
that would not otherwise be found out.
16 The LORD is King for ever and ever;
the nations will perish from his land.
17 You, LORD, hear the desire of the afflicted;
you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,
18 defending the fatherless and the oppressed,
so that mere earthly mortals
will never again strike terror.

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Partakers Bible Thought

19 May 2022

 Daniel 8 - Worlds In Conflict

We are looking today at an intriguing piece of Scripture - Daniel 8! In Chapter 7, the prophet Daniel had a dream of 4 animals, which were a winged lion, a bear, a winged leopard and a beast.

v1-4 In the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar a vision appeared to me, even to me, Daniel, after that which appeared to me at the first. I saw in the vision; now it was so, that when I saw, I was in the citadel of Susa, which is in the province of Elam; and I saw in the vision, and I was by the river Ulai. Then I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns: and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last. I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward; and no animals could stand before him, neither was there any who could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his will, and magnified himself.

v27 I, Daniel, fainted, and was sick certain days; then I rose up, and did the king's business: and I wondered at the vision, but none understood it.

Here in Daniel 8, we look together at the bear, which is described here as a ram, and a winged leopard that is described as a goat. Unlike his previous two visions which occurred at night, this one occurs during the day. Daniel was transported in the Spirit to Susa, a major city of the Babylon & Persian empires. He sat down beside the Ulai canal, nine hundred feet wide and connected two large rivers so that boats could easily pass from one to the other. Spiritually seated by the river, he lifted up his eyes. He saw a ram, a male sheep, that had two horns, and as he watched, one of its horns became larger than the other.

Grab your Bible, and listen to the podcast to find out more about this intriguing and wonderful piece of Scripture!

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Partakers Bible Thought

18 May 2022

17 He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak. (Isaiah 59:17)

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full Armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full Armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled round your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should. (Ephesians 6:10-20)

To help His people resist satan and to fight spiritual warfare, God has designed spiritual Armor for Christians to wear during our constant battle with sin & temptation. That’s what Paul talks about in Ephesians 6! This Armor is what God wears according to Isaiah 59:17, when He goes out to battle!

Today we explore the Christian in Spiritual Armor, answering questions including: What is “Spiritual Armor?” How is it used by God to help the Christian believer? How is the Spiritual Armor “worn” by the Christian?

Listen or download the mp3 podcast to find out more about the Christian and your Spiritual Armor!

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Psalm 28

1 To you, Yahweh, I call.
My rock, don’t be deaf to me; lest, if you are silent to me,
I would become like those who go down into the pit.
2 Hear the voice of my petitions,
when I cry to you,
when I lift up my hands toward your Most Holy Place.
3 Don’t draw me away with the wicked,
with the workers of iniquity who speak peace with their neighbours,
but mischief is in their hearts.

4 Give them according to their work,
and according to the wickedness of their doings.
Give them according to the operation of their hands.
Bring back on them what they deserve.
5 Because they don’t respect the works of Yahweh,
nor the operation of his hands,
he will break them down and not build them up.

6 Blessed be Yahweh,
because he has heard the voice of my petitions.
7 Yahweh is my strength and my shield.
My heart has trusted in him, and I am helped.
Therefore my heart greatly rejoices. With my song I will thank him.
8 Yahweh is their strength.
He is a stronghold of salvation to his anointed.
9 Save your people, and bless your inheritance.
Be their shepherd also, and bear them up forever.

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God - so what?

Ezekiel 36v22-28

1. A God who is holy (Ezekiel 36v22-23)

²² "Therefore say to the house of Israel, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone. ²³ I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I show myself holy through you before their eyes.

God is holy!  God's holy name is set apart because of its uniqueness, distinctiveness and power!  The nation of Israel was to be God's representative to the pagan nations and to the world! But, Israel had disobeyed and now God's name was a laughing stock amongst the nations!  So God was going to act, so that all nations of the world would recognize his sovereign power because of what He would do in them and for them. This illustrates how bad a job, Israel as a nation had done at being God's chosen representative. 

So God Himself would perform the function Himself by revealing Himself so that the world would know that He is the sovereign God over all.  He would do this for the sake of His name. They, and we, deserved nothing. They had failed Him in every direction, and they had failed themselves. But far more important than them, and us, is that God should be known and revealed to the world. Without that there could be no salvation, no deliverance. Without that the saving purposes of God would fail. So by their own folly Israel had ceased to be important except as a means by which the world could see the glory and love of God, for they had forfeited their right to any privilege. That is why the concentration had now to be on redeeming the situation by using them as a means to reveal that love and glory.

2. A God who gathers (Ezekiel 36v24)

36v24 "For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring you to your own land."

This gathering of the people of Israel back to the land began as a relative trickle on the decree of Cyrus (Ezra 1), and continued over a long period, with more and more people returning from all over the known world, until Israel was a recognised nation again established in its own land with its own capital city, relatively free from idolatry and worshipping in its own way

3. A God who cleanses (Ezekiel 36v25) and operates (Ezekiel 36v26)

²⁵ I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. ²⁶ I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

Ezekiel would have had images of Leviticus in his mind at this point. So when the priestly Ezekiel spoke of ‘clean water' he had in mind water that had been cleansed by sacrifice. And indeed this was the only kind of water that was ever sprinkled. In Leviticus the cleansing of a defiled house required sprinkling with a mixture of blood and ‘living' water, the bird having been slain over the water (Leviticus 14.51), and in Numbers 8.7 and 19.2-22 the ‘water of separation' (19.9, 20 - this was also called ‘living water' - 9.17) is mentioned. It was water that had been sprinkled with the ashes of a red heifer (Numbers 19.2), and was kept aside for the purifying by sprinkling of those who had touched a dead body. Thus in both cases the water had been cleansed by sacrifice and the shedding of blood. The cleansing was to be through the blood of sacrifice, applied through the sprinkled water.

But this water was here to be sprinkled by God Himself acting as the high priest. Before anything else the people need to be cleansed, by the divine water of separation sprinkled on them by God, from their defilement brought on them by their sinful ways and their idolatry. There is no cleansing without the shedding of blood. This pointed forward to the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness (Zechariah 13.1), and its efficacy depended on the One Who would be slain as a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, Whose benefit reached backwards to ‘sins done aforetime' (Romans 3.25). Then they were to receive a new heart and a new spirit, indeed God's Spirit (verse 27). The heart included the mind, the will and the emotions, it was the whole of the inner man. The spirit was the life principle within, the inner impulse, and while it could include the activities of heart, mind and will, it was also that which was Godward (Ecclesiastes 3.21; 12.7), and was affected by God's Spirit.

So the idea here is of the renewing of the whole inner man, and of awakening towards God. Its effect is then described. ‘And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.' Instead of hardness there would be tenderness, instead of obduracy there would be yielding, instead of coldness there would be warmth; instead of disobedience there would be obedience. The law would be put in their inward parts and in their hearts, and they would ‘know Yahweh' individually through the new covenant.

This process of cleaning we know now as Sanctification or cleansing!  We have been sanctified (Hebrews 10v10); washed clean (1 Corinthians 6v11) and have perfect holiness (2 Corinthians 7v1) and are being transformed into the very image of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 3v18) and conformed to His likeness (Romans 8v28-29).  We are to be living sacrifices, transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12v1-2). 

This holiness is the pursuit of moral excellence, not just obeying the law, and is by necessity a high standard (1 Thessalonians 4:3) This process of sanctification is where God the Holy Spirit transforms us into the likeness of Christ (2 Corinthians 7-18).  As we walk and live in the Spirit, led by the Spirit (Galatians. 5:16; Romans 8:13), the fruit of the Spirit, "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control", is produced in the life of the Christian Disciple (Galatians. 5:22-23). Our condition before God if we are His follower is now:

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