Stevemidkiff's Blog

We may feel weak.

We might feel worthless.

But really, if we don’t have a pounding in our hearts

of how undeserving we really are,

we should question our sanity.

The fact is we are unfit & unworthy.

But God is rich in mercy.

And even though our troubles & stresses

appear higher then Mount Everest.

And even though all we can see

is our total inability & utter lostness.

And even though all we taste in our mouth

is the ashes of our failures.

And even though our body staggers

from the poison others want us to swallow

We need to let this thought swell in our minds,

when aging & rejection grinds us down

We have rest in this hope:

GOD ’s gentle faithful love never runs out,

His merciful love never dries up.

Every day God has new possibilities for us.

Every day there are new supernatural miracles

His touch revives our lives through His recreative mercy.

His faithfulness is exhaustless!

His reliability surpasses our wildest imagination!

If He’s all we’ve got left

Then praise God that’s the greatest position to be in.

“[God] has stripped from me my glory & taken the crown from my head.

He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone & my hope has He pulled up like a tree.”

Job 19:10-11

Stripped, broken, uprooted. These are difficult words to read,

though they’re a strange comfort to those enduring such pains.

Job’s confession resonates in us, as he put into words what we failed to speak,

not by choice, but because we simply did not know how.

In the darkness of suffering, which looks different for everyone,

we are faced with the uneasy, painful reality of having to die to ourselves.

Our confessions: we still don’t fully understand what that means.

Yet, day by day, God is teaching us.

This dying-to-self comes from feeling that God is far away when we need Him most,

and that there is nothing we can do but keep believing that He will help us trust Him.

We lean on earthly glories & we boast in our crowns—until they are stripped from us.

We then realize that they were crummy gods & stupid idols

They were unable to give us life, meaning, or joy.

They couldn’t bear the weight of our soul’s greatest need,

which is to be satisfied in Jesus alone, forever.

They couldn’t provide what we were searching for & it is good when they are “gone.”

God strips earthly glories from us so we will learn to treasure Jesus.

Yet, to be broken down on every side is painful.

In our pride, we thought that physical pain might be enough to teach us how to die to ourselves;

but God is not finished yet, nor will He be until he takes us home.

There is more dying to be had, more of Jesus to know, until we see Him face to face.

Stripped & broken is the place where God builds us up again,

It’s for His glory, that He gives the crown of life to all who look to Jesus for salvation.

“Taken from” and dashed of hope is when Jesus actually gives us more than we deserve

He gives us what we truly need. To be “gone”—to lose our will, our desires, our plans,

To lose our understanding—is to live because then Christ’s life upholds us,

Then we treasure Him more sweetly.

We cannot live for Christ if we are too busy living for ourselves & asking Him to serve our desires.

We cannot fully hope in Him if our hopes are rooted in this world.

God takes away our crowns of control, so we will learn to trust Him.

He breaks us down, so we will learn to depend on Him.

He uproots our earthly hopes, so we will learn to hope in Christ.

And that Hope will never disappoint.

“For we know that our Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth.

And after our skin has been thus destroyed, yet in our flesh We shall see God,

whom we shall see for ourselves & our eyes shall behold, and not another.

Our heart faints within us!”

Job 19:25-27

Kristen Wetherell

Oh that we knew where we might find Him!’

He that comes to God, must believe that He is,

Give us a sense of Your personal presence

Show us how You O God are a rewarder of all who diligently seek Jesus

Give us an assurance of Your personal friendship Lord Jesus!!!

Make us like Abraham; As a prince to have power with God.

Genesis 32: 28

You Lord Jesus are our object. You are our intense desire.

As we seek You, let us receive You as our all.

Never let us leave weeping.

As we pray, as the words of supplication pass out from our lips,

Please give command that Your presence flies swiftly to us.

We, in our heart lie prostrate, so touch us bodily, talk with us audibly

and assure us that our desires have been given to You.

Make us like Jacob wrestling with You Lord for Your blessings— we say with him

‘I will not let You go until You bless us;’

Make us like David ‘panting’ & ‘pouring out Our soul’ —‘who cried day & night;

Cry through us As David, who said my throat is dry with calling upon my God;’

Give us the importunity of the Syro-Phoenician woman,

who you couldn’t resist when she reasoned

‘Yes, Lord, but the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs;’

Give us the persistency of Bartimaeus, crying out ‘the more’

weeping a great deal,’ ‘Have mercy on me;’

Give us the strong crying & tears of You Lord,

‘If it be possible —if it be possible!’

‘Not my will but Yours be done’

Keep us believing

Make us believe everything we have faith in.

But don’t let our faith be too calm, too cool, too sluggish.

Give us a vision of trust that is clear & erect,

Make our grip on You strong through prayers inflexibility

Develop in us a great heart where deep calleth unto deep.

Give us the passionate earnest nature of the loved disciple John,

move us by Your Spirit

make every day the Lords Day with the spirit of the visions of Patmos.

Make the Psalms of David our natural expression of devotions.

Weave in our thoughts a culture of sensibility where these Psalms become our medium of utterance.

Cleanse & clear us as channels of Your Spirit

Make us worthy Lord to serve others throughout the world,

For in serving others we are serving You Lord Jesus

Touch our heart with all those who live & die in poverty & hunger.

Give them through our hands, this day, their daily bread

By Your understanding love give them Your peace & joy.

Lord, make us a channel of Your peace

That where there is hatred We may bring love,

That where there is wrong, We may bring the spirit of forgiveness,

That where there is discord, we may bring harmony,

That where there is error we may bring truth,

That where there is doubt we may bring faith,

That where there is despair We may bring hope,

That where there are shadows we may bring light,

That where there is sadness we may bring joy.

Lord, grant that we may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted,

To understand than to be understood,

To love than to be loved.

For it is by forgetting self that we find Christ’s life

It is by forgiving that we understand the depths of forgiveness

it is by dying that we awaken to eternal life.

Francis

“Jesus said, “Bring them all to me.

Then he had them sit on the grass.
He took the five loaves & two fish,

He lifted His face to heaven in prayer,
blessed, broke & gave the bread to the disciples.

The disciples then gave the food to the people
They all ate their fill.

They gathered twelve baskets of leftovers.
About five thousand were fed.

Matt. 14:18-20

we surrounded with needs?

we’re overwhelmed with difficulties, trials & emergencies?

These are all God provided vessels for the Spirit to fill!

When we understand their meaning, they‘ll become opportunities

This is God’s way for us to receive new blessings & deliverances
which we can get in no other way.

Bring these vessels to God.

Hold them steadily before Him in faith & prayer.

Keep still & stop stressing, Jesus is working.

Give Him a chance to work & He will do so.

The trials that threaten to overcome us in discouragement & disaster,

Are God’s opportunity for the revelation of His grace & glory in our life.

We will learn things of Jesus

We’ll learn things we have never known before.

“Bring them (all our needs) to Christ.”

A. B. Simpson.

“Our God shall supply all our need according to
His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

Phil. 4:19

What a source

“God!”

What a supply

“His riches in glory!”

What a channel

“Christ Jesus!”

It is our sweet privilege to place all our need over against His riches.

It is a remarkable advantage to lose sight of the stress in the presence of Him.

His exhaustless treasury is thrown open to us, in all the love of His heart;

We can come & draw on Him, in the artless simplicity of faith,

and we will never have occasion to look to a creature-stream, or lean on a creature-prop.

C. H. M.

“MY CUP RUNNETH OVER”

There is always something over,
When we trust our gracious Lord;

Every cup He fills o’erfloweth,
His great rivers all are broad.

Nothing narrow, nothing stinted,
Ever issues from His store;

To His own He gives full measure,
Running over, evermore.

There is always something over,
When we, from the Father’s hand,

Take our portion with thanksgiving,
Praising for the path He planned.

Satisfaction, full and deepening,
Fills the soul, and lights the eye,

When the heart has trusted Jesus,
All its need to satisfy.

O Christ, He is the fountain,
The deep, sweet well of love:

The streams on earth we’ve tasted
More deep we’ll drink above

And to an ocean fulness,
His mercy doth expand;

His grace is all-sufficient
As by His wisdom planned.

O we are our Beloved’s,
And our Beloved’s ours;

He brings a poor vile sinner
Into His house of wine!

We stand upon His merit;
We know no other stand.

We’re hidden in His presence
And held by His own hand.

The Bride eyes not her garment,
But her dear Bridegroom’s face;

We will not gaze at glory,
But on our King of grace:

Not at the crown He giveth,
But on His pierced hand;

The Lamb is all the glory,
And our eternal stand!

O Christ, in You our soul has found,
And found in You alone,
The peace, the joy we sought so long,
The blessings until now unknown.

Now none but Christ can satisfy,
None other name for us;
There’s love & life & lasting joy,
Lord Jesus, found in You.

We sighed for rest & happiness,
We yearned for them, not You;
But, while we passed our Savior by,
His love laid hold on us.

We tried the broken cisterns, Lord,
But, oh, the waters failed!
And as we stooped to drink they fled,
And mocked us as we wailed.

The pleasures lost we sadly mourned,
But never wept for You,
Till grace the sightless eyes received,
You loveliness to see.

Now none but Christ can satisfy,
None other name for us;
There’s love & life & lasting joy,
Lord Jesus, found in You.

Lord, if You will, You can make us clean Lk 5:12

My little daughter lies at the point of death:

I pray, come lay Your hands on her,

that she may be healed & she will live.

Mk 5:23

We’re blind, We’re sitting by the wayside,

hear us Lord as You pass by

We cry out to You

We’re pitiful & We’re despairing,

Jesus, son of David, have mercy on us

Lk 18:38

You know how we don’t know how to pray

You know our ignorance in asking:

show us how pray & enable to express what we should ask

Have compassion on our weakness,

Empower us to depend

Be merciful & give us those things we need

We’re unworthy, we’re ignorant & blind

We ask through the worthiness of Jesus

As the earth brings forth her bud,

as the garden cause to the things that are sown in it to spring forth;

so the Lord God will cause righteousness & praise

to spring forth before all the nations

Isaiah 61:11

The symbol of a seed which is dry & lifeless

being placed in the ground in this position of death

Then springing up into a plant.

Is also taught by Jesus in John 12:24

Agronomy is the science of soil management & crop production.

A seed is placed in the ground & the hard protective shell around

what’s on the inside falls away in deterioration.

What is taking place after the outer shell dies completely is a seed that

produces new life.

The Lord helps us along at times in this process

He surrounds us with others who have shovels.

They dig a hole & then throw dirt on us.

God says we can fight the dirt. We can throw it off.

But if we walk after the flesh we shall die.

But if we through the Spirit put to death our natural responses of our self life

We see the new life of God’s Spirit rising up

This is a picture of God’s victory which is very certain.

Righteousness & praise for God will eventually win out.

The seed under the dirt will rise & grow

God causes deplorable defeat & the evil of death to rise to life in Jesus

So we can sing for joy in God,

We can explode in praise from deeps in our soul!

We die & Jesus clothes us in His deliverance & salvation

He outfits us in a robe of righteousness,

For as the earth bursts with spring wildflowers,

And as our garden cascades with blossoms,

So Jesus brings righteousness into full glorious bloom

He puts His glory & praise on display before the nations.

In ‘The Flow of the Psalms’.

We shouldn’t treat the Psalms like Hershey’s Kisses –

As beautifully, individually wrapped treats that have no

relationship to one another.

There is a flow to the Psalter,

a very deliberate, sophisticated arrangement

and a logical progression over the course of

the 150 ancient songs that were collected together

over several centuries.

We confess our ignorance as to the origin of

the 5 book division,

Yet there is an overarching theme to each one,

Book 1 (1-41):

Confrontation.

In book 1 there are enemies all around as David

struggles to establish the kingdom.

Almost every psalm makes a reference to enemies.

This is the ‘already & the not yet’ of kingdom life –

the seed of the serpent warring against

the seed of the woman.

Book 2 (42-72):

Communication.

Confrontation is still present in book 2,

but there is a new element now –

a commitment by the psalmist to communicate

with his enemies.

They are invited to praise the Lord in book 2

in a way that they are not in book 1.

The way God is referred to in book 2

supports this idea.

In book 1 the covenant name of God (Yahweh)

is used 278 times,

whereas the generic word for God (Elohim)

is used only 48 times.

In book 2 the proportions are almost exactly the opposite:

Elohim comes 197 times, compared to Yahweh 32 times.

This is most clear perhaps in Psalm 67,

where the Aaronic blessing,

in which the name of God (Yahweh)

was set upon the people of God is adapted

and applied to the nations of the earth.

Book 3 (73-89): Devastation.

There are some bright moments,

but this book is full of the devastation of the kingdom,

particularly in four psalms: 74, 79

of the devastation of Judah 80

of the devastation of Israel in the north 89.

Book 4 (90-106): Maturation.

In book 4, after the exile, there is no King, no throne,

no temple, no priests, no land, no sacrifices.

Everything is in ruins.

How significant then that this book begins with the words,

‘Lord, you have been our dwelling place’.

That was one of the truths the exile had taught the Jews –

they could still be the people of God

even without the Promised Land.

Significantly there is a collection of ‘Yahweh Malak’

psalms in this book (92-100), which include this

Hebrew phrase meaning ‘the Lord is King’ –

in spite of all appearances to the contrary,

the Lord still reigns over all.

He hasn’t been defeated by the gods of the nations.

The phrase ‘over all gods’ is only found 4 times

in the psalter,

and it’s found in this fourth book and these

‘Yahweh malak’ psalms.

Book 5: Consummation.

How does Psalm 106, the last song of book 4, conclude?

With a prayer that God would gather His people

from the nations.

How does the first psalm of book 5 begin?

With thanksgiving that God has gathered his people!

All the key themes of the psalter find their climax

and consummation in book 5.

There are several climactic elements in book 5:

1. The pairing of Torah & Messianic psalms

climaxes with psalms 118-119,

a major dividing point of book 5.

2. The ‘Messianic focal’ psalms climax

with psalms 110 and 118.

3. Psalms 146-150 form a Hallelujah finale of praise

to the psalter, where each psalm begins & ends

with the Hebrew word Hallelujah,

anticipating the final hallelujah chorus

at the end of history in Rev 19

when Babylon & all the enemies of the kingdom

are destroyed & the King returns

to take his bride to Himself.

As well as tracing out this thematic development

in the psalter,

We discern many sophisticated literary patterns

which help to orientate us in the psalter.

There are too many of these to describe here,

so we have a taster to whet our appetite.

• Each book is introduced by two psalms

that belong together

(except for book 5 which is introduced by 1).

Psalms 1 & 2 introduce the whole psalter –

psalm 1 begins with a blessing on those

who love the Lord’s teaching

psalm 2 closes with a blessing

on those who trust the Messiah.

• There are 8 acrostic psalms in the psalter:

9/10,25,34,37,111,112,119,145.

There are four in book 1 and four in book 5.

These are the two longest books

and the acrostics are positioned

in such a way as to divide the books

into roughly equal portions.

• There are 3 creation psalms (8.24,33),

and each one comes before an acrostic psalm.

• There are repeated pairs of Torah & Messianic psalms

(law & gospel) throughout the psalter:

1-2, 18-19, 118-119.

• Psalms 20-24 are kingship psalms,

following on from the Messianic psalm 18.

Psalms 20-21 are about the Messiah’s kingship,

23-24 are about Yahweh’s kingship,

and the central psalm 22 is about

both the Messiah & Yahweh’s kingship.

• Psalms 34-37 are 4 psalms of the innocent sufferer,

followed by 4 psalms of the guilty sufferer.

• Book 2 contains four ‘quads’ of psalms:

45-48 are kingship psalms;

49-52 are psalms of judicial summons & their respondents;

61-64 comprise ‘the cry of the king’

and 65-68 are the response of God.

• Psalms 54-60 deal with seven specified enemies –

although as we’ve seen in book 1

enemies are very common in the psalter,

nowhere else are enemies specified in this way.

• Psalms 77-83 describe the devastation & deliverance

of the southern & northern kingdoms,

with Psalm 80 as the central psalm, a

psalm that speaks about the Son of Man

who would be humbled & exalted.

• Psalms 104-106 form the first Hallelujah triad

in the Psalter.

Psalm 104 ends with it,

105 ends with it & 106 begins & ends with it.

The Psalter is moving towards its final climax in book 5.

• Psalms 111-117 form 2 more hallelujah triads,

with psalm 114 in the centre.

• You know that the songs of ascents form a major
collection of the psalter (120-134),

but did you realise that the central psalm of the series,

psalm 127, is all about building a house,

which for the author of psalm 127,

Solomon, especially meant building a house for God?

And that God had promised David that he would build

a house for him comprising his sons?

Did you know that there are two Davidic psalms

on either side of psalm 127 & five unattributed psalms?

That there are 24 occurrences of ‘Yahweh’

on either side of psalm 127!

Isn’t that interesting, given that these songs

were sung by pilgrims going up to the house of God

where the priests would bless them

by setting the name of God, Yahweh, upon them?

Convoluted?

Forced?

Possibly in places,

but the overwhelming cumulative force of observations –

especially when you see them set out

Are highlight with patterns all the more clearly –

there is indeed a flow to the psalms,

a beautiful, sophisticated structure

to this inspired praise book of the people of God.

And it’s not just a pretty picture,

or ornament for ornament’s sake –

it’s meant to help us to see how the psalms

fit together & relate to one another,

to help us memorise them more readily,

and to enable us to choose the best psalm

for every circumstance of life.

So when we study a psalm,

We consider the whole Psalter

O. Palmer Robertson

Who Is Like The LORD Our God—

The One Who Sits Enthroned On High,

Who STOOPS DOWN To Look

On The Heavens & The Earth?

Psalms 113:5-6

How Often I’ve Wanted To Gather

Your Children Together

As A Hen Protects Her Chicks Beneath Her Wings..

Mt23:37

He Stoops For Us! Let Him Gather us!