Be Encouraged by the Psalms

​I am trusting you are having encouraging time with your family and with Jesus. I trust the Holy Spirit is illuminating the Word in fresh ways that are filling your soul, mind and heart.
 
I have been listening to the Psalms being read through my phone as I walk each day. It has been refreshing. Our family has been praying and enjoying each other. I have been really busy trying to figure out how we will shift from a face to face church family to an electronic church family.
 
One Psalm I keep coming back to and letting Jesus anchor me with is Psalm 46. I hope you are familiar with it. I shared an outline about it last night in our first Zoom Prayer Encouragement meeting. It was wonderful to see so many faces, hear your voices, see your confidence in Christ through the Zoom technology.
 
Psalm 46 is a true worship Psalm. We can see the chorus being repeated in v 7 and v 11.

We can see the Psalmist proclaim four powerful characteristics of God in v 1.
 
The Psalmist helps us imagine the worst case scenarios that could happen to us through Natural Disasters and Warring Nations in v 2-6. This allows us to enter into both the worship song and personal wrestling with God as we face whatever bad circumstances that lie before us.
 
We see in v 8 and v 10 how we are to shift our attention off our bad circumstances and focus on the Living Lord by...
-Remembering what great things God has done
-Being still in His Ever-Present Characteristic
-Thinking through, talking through, praying through the amazing six characteristics this Psalmist writes about...
 
1. Elohim
2. God our Refuge
3. God our Strength
4. God our Ever-Present
5. The Lord Almighty
6. The God of Jacob
 
Which of those names of God are feeding your soul right now?
Which of those characteristics are peaking your interest?
 
The Lord Almighty in Hebrew is Jehovah Tsaba.
Jehovah means self-existing, always existing, God is always, never a beginning and never an ending.
Tsaba is hosts, armies, warriors.
God is our Warrior God. God is the God of the Heavenly Army.
 
What does Elohim mean? I'm leaving that one for you...
 
Why did the Holy Spirit inspire the Psalmist with “The God of Jacob”?
Jacob, the heal grabber. The schemer. The liar. The sinner.
Aren't we all just like Jacob, a selfish sinner in need of a Savior? God is communicating to the world that He is a God who loves the world. He is a God that loves each person no matter who we are or what we have done. God is the God of Jacob who is seeking to wrestle with each person until they say "Yes" to Jesus' overwhelming, personal love for them.
 
What a God!
Let's remember the great things “The God of Jacob” has done in our lives.
Let's be so encouraged that we cannot help but watch for opportunities to share this characteristic of God, along with the other five characteristics, with the people we encounter today, this week and all the time.
 
Let's keep coming back to Psalm 46. Let's learn to sing it in our hearts and minds. Let's be encouraged by it, so that we become fearless and wise as we face this pandemic.
 
Psalm 46ing it together,
Pastor Chris