Partakers Christian Podcasts

Psalm On Demand - Psalm 54

 

(as read by Anne A)

 

For the Chief Musician. On stringed instruments. A contemplation by David, when the Ziphites came and said to Saul, Is David hiding himself among us?

54:1 Save me, God, by your name.
Vindicate me in your might.

54:2 Hear my prayer, God.
Listen to the words of my mouth.

54:3 For strangers have risen up against me.
Violent men have sought after my soul.
They haven’t set God before them.

Selah.

54:4 Behold, God is my helper.
The Lord is the one who sustains my soul.

54:5 He will repay the evil to my enemies.
Destroy them in your truth.

54:6 With a free will offering, I will sacrifice to you.
I will give thanks to your name, Yahweh, for it is good.

54:7 For he has delivered me out of all trouble.
My eye has seen triumph over my enemies.

 

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Psalm On Demand - Psalm 42

Psalm 42

1 As the deer pants for the water brooks,
so my soul pants after you, God.

2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?

3 My tears have been my food day and night,
while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”

4 These things I remember, and pour out my soul within me,
how I used to go with the crowd, and led them to God’s house,
with the voice of joy and praise,
a multitude keeping a holy day.

5 Why are you in despair, my soul?
Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God!
For I shall still praise him for the saving help of his presence.

6 My God, my soul is in despair within me.
Therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon, from the hill Mizar.

7 Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls.
All your waves and your billows have swept over me.

8 Yahweh will command his loving kindness in the daytime.
In the night his song shall be with me: a prayer to the God of my life.

9 I will ask God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”

10 As with a sword in my bones, my adversaries reproach me,
while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”

11 Why are you in despair, my soul?
Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God!
For I shall still praise him, the saving help of my countenance, and my God.

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Psalm On Demand - Psalm 114

Psalm 114

(Read by Heather)

114:1 When Israel went forth out of Egypt,
the house of Jacob from a people of foreign language;
114:2 Judah became his sanctuary,
Israel his dominion.
114:3 The sea saw it, and fled.
The Jordan was driven back.
114:4 The mountains skipped like rams,
the little hills like lambs.
114:5 What was it, you sea, that you fled?
You Jordan, that you turned back?
114:6 You mountains, that you skipped like rams;
you little hills, like lambs?
114:7 Tremble, you earth, at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the God of Jacob,
114:8 who turned the rock into a pool of water,
the flint into a spring of waters.

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New Year 2024 Bible Thought - Prayer of Joy Psalm 66

Psalm 66 - A Prayer of Joy

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In the podcast today, we look together at Psalm 66, which is a prayer of joy. The reason for this is, because where ever hope can be found, there is always joy. This is particularly true of the Christian life. As christians, our great hope is knowing that through the Lord Jesus Christ we will have salvation. Salvation is freedom. Freedom from injustice, freedom from sin. It is freedom from our prison of looking after our self, to a new life of entrance into self-forgetful worship & service to God. It is freedom from the limits of pain, decay, death, and entrance into a new world of life, immortality, beauty and joy without end. That is the hope of the Christian, and that is why we can have joy as Christians. But joy, is not just for the future. Joy is also for the present, for the here and now.  What is joy, and what place should joy take in our life today? Let's look into Psalm 66, and see where joy fitted into the life of the Psalmist.

1. Psalm 66 and joy

a. Joy and the Earth (vs. 1-4) 

b. Joy and the nation of Israel (vs. 5-12).

c. Joy and the psalmist (vs. 13 -20)

2. Applying it to ourselves.

As we have just seen the psalmist's joy involved sacrifice, testimony and praise, So how can we apply these things to ourselves?

a. Sacrifice

b. Testimony

c. Praise

Conclusion

Now that is all very well you may be thinking, but just what is joy? Is joy happiness, or is it more?

Here are what some people have said of joy. "We are all strings in the concert of God's joy" - Leon Bloy.

"The joy that Jesus gives is the result of our being at one with Him" - Oswald Chambers.

Many people, including some Christians confuse joy with happiness, however there is a vast difference. As C.S. Lewis once wrote: "Joy is never in our power, and pleasure is. I doubt whether anyone who has tasted joy would ever, if both were in his power, exchange it for all the pleasure in the world."

As humans we only feel happiness or pleasure depending on our circumstances, while joy is always separate from our circumstances. Happiness is a surface emotional response to good things; while joy is a deep-down heartfelt response that endures whether good or bad things happen to us. The world says happiness is looking out for number one and negotiating your personal good in all you do. The greatest good is their own happiness, however the happiness doesn't last long so the search for happiness continues in its circle. Joy however, is the result of sacrificial love. It is for the good of others, not for ourselves, which is to be our judge of joy. When we give away our will, for the sake of others, we receive the joy that Jesus desired for us. Happiness and joy are radically different.

Joy, unlike happiness, is never an end in itself. It is only as we make Christ our overwhelming first priority that joy, almost without our knowing it, comes. If we seek joy, we will lose it, because it cannot be caught. People of the world seeks happiness not joy. Joy is given only by Christ and serving him.

Jesus had the endurance to go through the pain and suffering because he had the end in view. He was affirming his purpose for the redemption of the world, and so he never lost sight of the joy that was set before him. Joy would come to him out of suffering because he gave himself for the redemption of mankind. Jesus prayed that his disciples would have joy: "I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they (his disciples) may have the full measure of my joy within them." (John 17:13).

The joy of Christ is transferred to us as we go about the task of serving him in this world. Joy is the second fruit of the Spirit. Joy is to be a quality about us just as it was a quality of the Lord Jesus Christ. However, sometimes we don't feel as if joy is part of us. We begin to ask ourselves if we have lost the joy of our Christian lives. We look around at the world we live in and see all the misery and injustices; we see the waste of human life in cancer and HIV Aids, and we don't feel very joyful. But when we do that, we are confusing happiness and joy. If we have lost the joy of our Christian life, we need to put back into perspective what God is calling us to do and consider if Christ is still truly first in our lives. Joy is Jesus Over Yourself. We can never truly lose joy, but we can misplace it if our priorities get out of line. Joy is not something to be worked at or toward. It is not a goal to be reached, nor is it an end in itself. Joy is the result of our relationship with Christ. A relationship of Jesus Over Yourself. Joy was sacrifice, testimony and praise to the Psalmist. It is for us too in the last days before His coming again.

Go out with joy, today into the New Year of 2024!

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Psalm On Demand - Psalm 21

Psalm 21

(as read by Richard A)

For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David.

1 The king rejoices in your strength, Yahweh! How greatly he rejoices in your salvation!
2 You have given him his heart’s desire, and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah.
3 For you meet him with the blessings of goodness. You set a crown of fine gold on his head.
4 He asked life of you, you gave it to him, even length of days forever and ever.
5 His glory is great in your salvation. You lay honor and majesty on him.
6 For you make him most blessed forever. You make him glad with joy in your presence.

7 For the king trusts in Yahweh. Through the loving kindness of the Most High, he shall not be moved.
8 Your hand will find out all of your enemies. Your right hand will find out those who hate you.
9 You will make them as a fiery furnace in the time of your anger. Yahweh will swallow them up in his wrath. The fire shall devour them.
10 You will destroy their descendants from the earth, their posterity from among the children of men.
11 For they intended evil against you. They plotted evil against you which cannot succeed.
12 For you will make them turn their back, when you aim drawn bows at their face.
13 Be exalted, Yahweh, in your strength, so we will sing and praise your power.

 

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Psalm On Demand - Psalm 50

Psalm 50

A Psalm by Asaph.
50:1 The Mighty One, God, Yahweh, speaks, and calls the earth from sunrise to sunset.
50:2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.
50:3 Our God comes, and does not keep silent. A fire devours before him. It is very stormy around him.
50:4 He calls to the heavens above, to the earth, that he may judge his people:
50:5 “Gather my saints together to me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”
50:6 The heavens shall declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge.
Selah.
50:7 “Hear, my people, and I will speak; Israel, and I will testify against you. I am God, your God.
50:8 I don’t rebuke you for your sacrifices. Your burnt offerings are continually before me.
50:9 I have no need for a bull from your stall, nor male goats from your pens.
50:10 For every animal of the forest is mine, and the livestock on a thousand hills.
50:11 I know all the birds of the mountains. The wild animals of the field are mine.
50:12 If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.
50:13 Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?
50:14 Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Pay your vows to the Most High.
50:15 Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”
50:16 But to the wicked God says, “What right do you have to declare my statutes, that you have taken my covenant on your lips,
50:17 since you hate instruction, and throw my words behind you?
50:18 When you saw a thief, you consented with him, and have participated with adulterers.
50:19 “You give your mouth to evil. Your tongue frames deceit.
50:20 You sit and speak against your brother. You slander your own mother’s son.
50:21 You have done these things, and I kept silent. You thought that I was just like you. I will rebuke you, and accuse you in front of your eyes.
50:22 “Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you into pieces, and there be none to deliver.
50:23 Whoever offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me, and prepares his way so that I will show God’s salvation to him.”

 

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Psalm On Demand - Psalm 99

Psalm 99

As read by Sarah

 

¹ The LORD reigns, let the nations tremble;

he sits enthroned between the cherubim, let the earth shake.

² Great is the LORD in Zion;

he is exalted over all the nations.

³ Let them praise your great and awesome name- he is holy.

⁴ The King is mighty, he loves justice- you have established equity;

in Jacob you have done what is just and right.

⁵ Exalt the LORD our God and worship at his footstool; he is holy.

⁶ Moses and Aaron were among his priests,

Samuel was among those who called on his name;

they called on the LORD and he answered them.

⁷ He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud;

they kept his statutes and the decrees he gave them.

⁸ O LORD our God, you answered them; you were to Israel  

a forgiving God, though you punished their misdeeds.

⁹ Exalt the LORD our God and worship at his holy mountain,

for the LORD our God is holy.

 

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Psalm On Demand - Psalm 8

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?
5 You have made them a little lower than the angels
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!

 

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Psalm On Demand - Psalm 57

Psalm 57

For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “Do Not Destroy.”

A poem by David, when he fled from Saul, in the cave.

Be merciful to me, God, be merciful to me, for my soul takes refuge in you.
Yes, in the shadow of your wings, I will take refuge, until disaster has passed.
I cry out to God Most High, to God who accomplishes my requests for me.
He will send from heaven, and save me,
he rebukes the one who is pursuing me.

Selah.

God will send out his loving kindness and his truth.

My soul is among lions.
I lie among those who are set on fire, even the sons of men,
whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.
Be exalted, God, above the heavens!
Let your glory be above all the earth!
They have prepared a net for my steps. My soul is bowed down.
They dig a pit before me. They fall into its midst themselves.

Selah.

My heart is steadfast, God, my heart is steadfast.
I will sing, yes, I will sing praises.
Wake up, my glory!
Wake up, psaltery and harp!
I will wake up the dawn.
I will give thanks to you, Lord, among the peoples.
I will sing praises to you among the nations.
For your great loving kindness reaches to the heavens, and your truth to the skies.
Be exalted, God, above the heavens.
Let your glory be over all the earth.

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Psalm On Demand - Psalm 35

Psalm 35

¹ Contend, O LORD, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me.
² Take up shield and buckler; arise and come to my aid.
³ Brandish spear and javelin against those who pursue me. Say to my soul, "I am your salvation."
⁴ May those who seek my life be disgraced and put to shame; may those who plot my ruin be turned back in dismay.
⁵ May they be like chaff before the wind, with the angel of the LORD driving them away;
⁶ may their path be dark and slippery, with the angel of the LORD pursuing them.
⁷ Since they hid their net for me without cause and without cause dug a pit for me,
⁸ may ruin overtake them by surprise- may the net they hid entangle them, may they fall into the pit, to their ruin.
⁹ Then my soul will rejoice in the LORD and delight in his salvation.
¹⁰ My whole being will exclaim, "Who is like you, O LORD ? You rescue the poor from those too strong for them, the poor and needy from those who rob them."
¹¹ Ruthless witnesses come forward; they question me on things I know nothing about.
¹² They repay me evil for good and leave my soul forlorn.
¹³ Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth and humbled myself with fasting. When my prayers returned to me unanswered,
¹⁴ I went about mourning as though for my friend or brother. I bowed my head in grief as though weeping for my mother.
¹⁵ But when I stumbled, they gathered in glee; attackers gathered against me when I was unaware. They slandered me without ceasing.
¹⁶ Like the ungodly circle of maliciously mockers; they gnashed their teeth at me.
¹⁷ O Lord, how long will you look on? Rescue my life from their ravages, my precious life from these lions.
¹⁸ I will give you thanks in the great assembly; among throngs of people I will praise you.
¹⁹ Let not those gloat over me who are my enemies without cause; let not those who hate me without reason maliciously wink the eye.
²⁰ They do not speak peaceably, but devise false accusations against those who live quietly in the land.
²¹ They gape at me and say, "Aha! Aha! With our own eyes we have seen it."
²² O LORD, you have seen this; be not silent. Do not be far from me, O Lord.
²³ Awake, and rise to my defense! Contend for me, my God and Lord.
²⁴ Vindicate me in your righteousness, O LORD my God; do not let them gloat over me.
²⁵ Do not let them think, "Aha, just what we wanted!" or say, "We have swallowed him up."
²⁶ May all who gloat over my distress be put to shame and confusion; may all who exalt themselves over me be clothed with shame and disgrace.
²⁷ May those who delight in my vindication shout for joy and gladness; may they always say, "The LORD be exalted, who delights in the well-being of his servant."
²⁸ My tongue will speak of your righteousness and of your praises all day long.

 

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