Thursday
Evening Bible Study
July
6, 2017
Introduction
Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel
preached? Does it address the person who is: Empty, lonely, guilty, or afraid
to die? Does it speak to the broken
hearted? Does it build up the church? Milk – Meat – Manna Preach for a decision
Is the church loved? Target 3300 words
Video = 75 wpm
The English word psalm comes
from a Greek word that means “a poem sung to musical accompaniment”, or in
particular, “stringed instruments”.
The Hebrew name is tehillim,
which means “praises.”
The book of Psalms is the hymnbook of God’s people.
It’s also the “Him” book as well. It’s all about Jesus.
The writer of Hebrews quotes from
Psalm 40:8 when he writes,
(Hebrews 10:7 NKJV) Then I
said, ‘Behold, I have come— In the
volume of the book it is written of Me— To do Your will, O God.’ ”
The author was talking about Jesus.
We’re going to see a lot of Jesus
in the Psalms.
Soul Music
Music touches the soul. It’s
“soulish” in nature. It touches the emotions.
We’re going to find every kind of
emotion possible expressed in the Psalms.
For every sigh there is a Psalm.
For most of us, this is what makes
the Psalms so wonderful. We can identify. We can relate.
If we were honest, even darkest
most depressing Psalms describe the very things we go through day by day.
It is my prayer that as we continue
on this journey through the Psalms, we won’t just look at these songs
academically, with our mind, but that we may also grow as worshippers.
For most of us, this is what makes
the Psalms so wonderful. We can identify. We can relate.
If we were honest, even darkest
most depressing Psalms describe the very things we go through day by day.
It is my prayer that as we continue
on this journey through the Psalms, we won’t just look at these songs
academically, with our mind, but that we may also grow as worshippers.
This is the second of the “Hallel” psalms (Ps. 146-150). In the Hebrew, each psalm starts with hallelujah and each psalm ends with hallelujah (“praise the Lord”).
If you were to compare the chapter
numbers of the book of Psalms with the Hebrew Bible, you would find that it
would get confusing from Psalm 10 through Psalm 148. That’s because in the Hebrew Bible Psalms
9,10 are combined into a single psalm, and then when you get to Psalm 147, it
is split in two after verse 11.
Just in case you were wondering.
147:1-6 Who God helps
It has been suggested that this psalm and the previous (Ps. 146) were
written after the Babylonian captivity when the people had returned to
Jerusalem and had finished rebuilding the walls of the city.
The Psalm can be divided into three sections, each section starting with a
call to give God praise.
vs. 1-6; vs. 7-11; vs. 12-20
:1 Praise the Lord! For it
is good to sing praises to our God; For it is pleasant, and
praise is beautiful.
:1 For it is pleasant, and praise is beautiful
pleasant – na’iym –
pleasant, delightful, sweet, lovely, agreeable
This is the word used to describe David as the “sweet psalmist of Israel”
(2Sam. 23:1)
(2 Samuel 23:1 NKJV) Now these are
the last words of David. Thus says David the son of Jesse; Thus says the man raised up on high, The anointed of the God of Jacob, And the sweet psalmist of Israel:
It’s also the word used by Solomon’s wife in the Song of Solomon to
describe her husband:
(Song of Solomon
1:16 NKJV) Behold, you are handsome, my beloved! Yes, pleasant! Also our bed
is green.
beautiful – na’veh –
comely, beautiful, seemly
David wrote,
(Psalm 33:1 NKJV) Rejoice in
the Lord, O you righteous! For
praise from the upright is beautiful.
Though a different Hebrew word is used (tiperets),
it reminds me of the garments that the priests were to wear as they served the
Lord:
(Exodus 28:2 NKJV) And you
shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty.
You could make a case that there’s nothing more beautiful
before God when we come before Him than when we come with praise instead of
complaining.
Our word (na’veh) is also used
four times in the Song of Solomon including what Solomon says to his wife:
(Song of Solomon
4:3 NKJV) Your lips are like a strand of scarlet, And your
mouth is lovely.
Your
temples behind your veil Are like a piece of pomegranate.
It is interesting that many Bible teachers find a parallel
between Solomon’s love for his wife with Christ’s love for the church.
In that light, isn’t it interesting that the wife (like
the church) has a beautiful “mouth”, the place where words (and praise) come
from?
Lesson
A Love Relationship
Both words (pleasant, beautiful) are words that come from the great love
poem, The Song of Solomon.
In any healthy love relationship, there needs to be a flow of words
expressing love from one to another.
We know that Jesus loves us (the church) with His words.
Paul told husbands they ought to follow Jesus’ example:
(Ephesians
5:25–27 NKJV) —25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and
gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by
the word, 27 that He
might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or
any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.
Jesus uses His word encourage, challenge, cleanse, and
guide us.
He reminds us that He’s for us, not against us.
In my own marriage, it’s something that that I have to
constantly work at, learning new ways to express my love to my wife, not only
through my words, but my actions as well.
The problem is that sometimes I don’t exactly come across
loving in my words…
Video: Energy Online New Zealand
Talking Door Knocker
Yet God doesn’t speak to us like that evil “door knocker”
speaks to people. God speaks to us with words
like this:
(Jeremiah
31:3 NKJV) The Lord has appeared
of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore
with lovingkindness I have drawn you.
So how do you respond to someone who loves you like this?
We work at expressing our love back to Him.
We ought to be growing in the ways to express our love to
Jesus.
The Psalmist goes on to talk about this God he loves.
:2 The Lord builds up
Jerusalem; He gathers together the outcasts of Israel.
:2 He gathers together the outcasts
This was fulfilled when the Jews were allowed to return from the Babylonian
captivity.
It is interesting that Zechariah prophesied during this time period after
the Babylonian:
(Zechariah 10:8–9
NKJV) —8 I will whistle for them and gather them, For I will
redeem them; And they
shall increase as they once increased. 9 “I will sow them among the peoples, And they shall remember Me in far
countries; They shall
live, together with their children, And they shall return.
The Jews would once again be scattered throughout the world when Rome
leveled Jerusalem in AD 70.
Since the rebirth of the nation of Israel in 1948, there has been a steady
immigration of Jews from around the world back to the land of Israel.
More than 3 million Jews have returned.
The act of return is called making “Aliyah”, or “the act of going up” –
going up to Jerusalem.
There are now more Jews in Israel than in any other country in the world.
In more recent history, the United
States used to have the most, but now the continued growing Jewish immigration
to Israel has finally surpassed the numbers in the United States.
Of the more than 14 million Jews
around the world, 44%, or more than 6 million live in Israel. There are more than 5 million living in the
U.S.
Lesson
Rejects
People that the rest of the world rejects, God gathers.
He’s like one of those people who finds treasure tucked away in other
people’s garages.
A
few months ago a piece of art was discovered gathering dust, unwanted in
someone’s garage in Arizona.
Now believed to be the work of Jackson Pollock, it is
thought to be worth $15 million.
That’s what David did early in his life when he was running from King Saul:
(1 Samuel 22:2
NKJV) And everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in
debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him. So he became
captain over them. And there were about four hundred men with him.
It’s just the kind of people that Jesus tends to use.
The apostles weren’t known for their great intellect or education. When Peter and John stood on trial before the
Sanhedrin…
(Acts
4:13 NKJV) Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived
that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized
that they had been with Jesus.
Their only claim to fame was that they had been with
Jesus.
Illustration
Clueless
A University
of Texas football player
was visiting a Yankee relative in Boston
over the holidays. He went to a large party and met a pretty co-ed. He was
attempting to start up a conversation with the line, “Where does you go to
school?” The coed, of course, was not overly impressed with his grammar nor his
southern drawl, but did answer his question. “Yale,” she replied. The University of Texas student took a big, deep breath
and shouted, “WHERE DOES YOU GO TO SCHOOL?”
Paul wrote to the Corinthians:
(1 Corinthians
1:26–29 NKJV) —26 For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. 27 But God has
chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has
chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are
mighty; 28 and the base
things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the
things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, 29 that no
flesh should glory in His presence.
God wants to use people who will not get in His way when
He works.
God doesn’t want the church to influence the world in such
a way that the world comes to put their trust in a preacher, or you, but in
God.
You may feel at times that you too are an “outcast”. Yet you are just the kind of person that God
wants to use.
:3 He heals the brokenhearted And binds up their wounds.
heals – rapha’
– to heal, make healthful
broken – shabar
– to break, break in pieces
hearted – leb –
inner man, mind, will, heart, understanding
binds – chabash
– to tie, bind, bind on, bind up, saddle, restrain, bandage, govern
wounds – ‘atstsebeth
– pain, hurt, injury, sorrow, wound
:3 He heals the brokenhearted
After Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, He headed up north to
Nazareth. He went into the synagogue on
the Sabbath and read from Isaiah 61:
(Isaiah 61:1 NKJV) “The Spirit
of the Lord God is upon
Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me To preach
good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim
liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
After reading this, Jesus told the congregation that He has come to fulfill
these prophecies.
Luke tells one of my favorite stories about Jesus.
(Luke 7:36–50 NKJV)
—36 Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to
the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat. 37 And behold, a woman in the city who
was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the
Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, 38 and stood at
His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her
tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet
and anointed them with the fragrant oil. 39 Now when the Pharisee who had
invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, “This Man, if He were
a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is
touching Him, for she is a sinner.” 40 And Jesus answered and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say
to you.” So he said,
“Teacher, say it.” 41 “There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five
hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave
them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon
answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.” And He said
to him, “You have rightly judged.” 44 Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this
woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has
washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. 45 You gave Me
no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came
in. 46 You did not
anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil.
47 Therefore I
say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much.
But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.” 48 Then He said
to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 And those who sat at the table with Him began to say to themselves,
“Who is this who even forgives sins?” 50 Then He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”
The woman came to Jesus broken sinner.
She left forgiven.
He heals the broken hearted.
:4 He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name.
:4 He counts the number of the stars
Isaiah wrote,
(Isaiah 40:25–26
NKJV) —25 “To whom then will you liken Me, Or to whom shall I be equal?”
says the Holy One. 26 Lift up your eyes on high, And see who has created these things, Who brings
out their host by number; He calls them all by name, By the greatness of His might And the strength of His power; Not one is missing.
The last time I taught through Psalms (about fourteen years ago), the
scientists were saying there were something like 40 billion galaxies in the
universe.
Now
they say there are roughly 10 trillion
galaxies.
We may be still “counting” them, but God already had them all counted. And named.
When you multiply that by the roughly 100 billion stars that there are in
our own Milky Way galaxy, you get a very large number of stars – a “1” with 24
zeros after it.
God not only knows how to count that high, He actually knows them all by
name.
Our God is awesome.
:5 Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is
infinite.
:6 The Lord lifts up the
humble; He casts the wicked down to the ground.
:6 The Lord lifts up the
humble
humble – ‘anav
– poor, humble, afflicted, meek
(Psalm 147:6 The Message) God puts the fallen on their feet again and pushes the wicked into the ditch.
God is all powerful and He knows everything. He could spend His time doing anything He
wants, but how does God spend His time?
Caring for broken people like us.
Isaiah wrote,
(Isaiah 57:15 NKJV)
For
thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in
the high and holy place, With him who has a contrite and humble spirit, To revive
the spirit of the humble, And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
When you are proud and haughty, you
don’t really care who God spends His time with.
In fact, you probably think that
you deserve a little of God’s
attention. He ought to be glad to have
you.
When you are broken and humble, you feel like God could never care about
you.
Yet you are the very one He cares about.
Lesson
Who does God help?
He helps the outcast, the broken, and the humble.
147:7-11 Who pleases God
:7 Sing to the Lord with
thanksgiving; Sing praises on the harp to our God,
:8 Who covers the heavens with clouds, Who prepares rain for the earth, Who
makes grass to grow on the mountains.
:9 He gives to the beast its food, And to the young ravens that cry.
:9 He gives to the beast its food
The Psalmist gives a few examples of the way that God takes care of His
creation.
Lesson
The Care-taker
Sometimes there are more than a few things that we “worry” about. We have lots of “cares” in life.
(Matthew 6:25–34
NKJV) —25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you
will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is
not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the
birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your
heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you
by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? 28 “So why do you worry about clothing?
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I
say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of
these. 30 Now if God
so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into
the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little
faith? 31 “Therefore
do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What
shall we wear?’ 32
For
after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that
you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all
these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry
about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Did you notice how God takes “care” of His creation?
Is God your “care” taker?
I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be out working a job and just stay at home
eating bonbons.
The Bible encourages us to be good workers.
The issue I’m talking about is the actual anxiety that comes from feeling
like it’s all up to you.
God knows how to take care of us.
If we keep our eyes on Him, seeking His kingdom, He will
guide us and take care of us.
:10 He does not delight in the strength of the horse; He takes no pleasure
in the legs of a man.
:10 the strength of the horse
The Psalmist could be talking about military strength.
God isn’t impressed by the size of a nation’s cavalry or infantry.
He could simply be talking about human abilities and strengths.
In reality, our biggest strengths are nothing compared to Him.
(Isaiah 40:15 NKJV)
Behold,
the nations are as a drop in a bucket, And are counted as the small dust on
the scales; Look, He
lifts up the isles as a very little thing.
:11 The Lord takes pleasure
in those who fear Him, In those who hope in His mercy.
takes pleasure – ratsah –
to be pleased with, be favorable to, accept favorably
:11 fear Him … hope in His mercy
Lesson
Who pleases God
The Psalmist gives to qualities of those with whom God is please.
Fear and hope.
We need to balance fear of Him and hoping in His mercy.
These two qualities are like two wings of an
airplane. We need both to fly.
In heaven, the 24 elders worship
God saying,
(Revelation 4:11 NKJV) “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.”
The word “will” (thelema) carries the idea of desire or
pleasure. The Old King James says, “And
for thy pleasure they are and were created”
You and I were
created for God’s pleasure, to bring delight to Him.
And what can we do
to fulfill God’s will or “pleasure”?
Paul talks about fear and hope being things that motivate him:
(2 Corinthians
5:1–11 NLT) —1 For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down
(that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in
heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. 2 We grow
weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new
clothing. 3 For we will
put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies. 4 While we
live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to
die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our
new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. 5 God himself
has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit. 6 So we are
always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies
we are not at home with the Lord. 7 For we live by believing and not by seeing. 8 Yes, we are
fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for
then we will be at home with the Lord.
Paul had “hope” that one day he would be with the Lord.
9 So whether
we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him. 10 For we must
all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve
for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body. 11 Because we
understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade
others. God knows we are sincere, and I hope you know this, too.
For Paul, the “fear” of God involved knowing that he would
one day stand before Jesus and rewarded for what he’s done with his life.
This wasn’t an issue of being afraid he wasn’t saved, it
was an issue of being afraid he wasn’t doing what God wanted him to do with his
life.
Paul wanted to be faithful in telling people about Jesus.
We please God when we have a balance of a healthy fear of God with a hope
of our future with Him.
147:12-20 Who God speaks to
:12 Praise the Lord, O
Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion!
:13 For He has strengthened the bars of your gates; He has blessed your
children within you.
:13 strengthened the bars of your gates
Jerusalem’s walls had been rebuilt after the Babylonian captivity.
The bars are what keep the gates closed at night, protecting the city
against attack.
God is the one who has strengthened the gates.
Solomon wrote,
(Psalm 127:1 NKJV) Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor
in vain who build it; Unless the Lord
guards the city,
The
watchman stays awake in vain.
:14 He makes peace in your borders, And fills you with the
finest wheat.
:14 fills you with the finest wheat
If this song was written after the return from the Babylonian captivity,
then there was a lot of mess in the city of Jerusalem for quite some time.
There were probably still lots of rubble in the streets. But that’s not what the psalmist notices.
Lesson
Seeing the blessings
Do you see the blessings around you, or are do you only see what’s wrong?
(Proverbs 15:15
NKJV) All the days of the afflicted are evil, But he who
is of a merry heart has a continual feast.
I’ve always looked at this as a choice.
You can choose to be among the “afflicted”, and you will
find that there’s something wrong in everything.
Or you can choose to have a merry heart and find that
every day is a joy.
Illustration
The Optimist
There is a story of identical twins. One was a hope-filled optimist.
“Everything is coming up roses!” he would say. The other twin was a sad and
hopeless pessimist. He thought that Murphy, as in Murphy’s Law, was an
optimist. The worried parents of the boys brought them to the local
psychologist.
He suggested to the parents a plan to balance the twins’ personalities. “On
their next birthday, put them in separate rooms to open their gifts. Give the
pessimist the best toys you can afford, and give the optimist a box of manure.”
The parents followed these instructions and carefully observed the results.
When they peeked in on the pessimist, they heard him audibly complaining,
“I don’t like the color of this Gameboy . . I’ll bet this phone will break . .
. I don’t like the game . . . I know someone who’s got a bigger toy car than
this . . .”
Tiptoeing across the corridor, the parents peeked in and saw their little
optimist gleefully throwing the manure up in the air. He was giggling. “You
can’t fool me! Where there’s this much manure, there’s gotta be a pony!”
from Brian
Cavanaugh's More Sower's Seeds
What are you focused on? The pain of
life or the blessings of God?
Illustration
Count Your
Blessings – the hymn by Johnson Oatman Jr.
When upon life’s
billows you are tempest tossed,
when you are
discouraged, thinking all is lost,
count your many
blessings—
name them one by
one,
and it will surprise
you what the Lord hath done.
Are you ever
burdened with a load of care?
Does the cross seem
heavy you are called to bear?
Count your many
blessings—
ev’ry doubt will
fly,
and you will be
singing as the days go by.
When you look at
others with their lands and gold,
think that Christ
has promised you His wealth untold;
count your many
blessings—
money cannot buy
your reward in
heaven nor your home on high.
So amid the
conflict, whether great or small,
do not be discouraged.
God is over all;
count your many
blessings—
angels will attend,
help and comfort
give you to your journey’s end.
Count your
blessings—
name them one by
one;
count your
blessings—
see what God hath
done.[1]
:15 He sends out His command to the earth; His word runs very
swiftly.
command – ‘imrah
– utterance, speech, word
word – dabar
– speech, word, speaking, thing
swiftly – meherah
– haste, speed
:15 His word runs very swiftly
Lesson
God’s Timing
We live in a day and age when everything happens so quickly.
We have a question about something, we take out our phone and ask
Siri. I can even do it on my watch. And
get an answer right away.
I was at a pastors’ conference last week and when one of the fellows in a
workshop mentioned a book that was helpful to him, I opened up my Amazon app
and ordered the book before he finished talking about it.
In the ancient days, a command from a king could take weeks to get from the
throne to the people it affected.
In ancient times when there were no phones, internet, or text messaging.
Yet even Jesus was able to do things instantly.
When a centurion’s servant became ill, he went to Jesus and asked Jesus to
heal him … by simply commanding it even though he wasn’t with the sick servant.
Jesus was amazed at this Gentile’s faith.
(Matthew
8:13 NKJV) Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go your way; and as you have
believed, so let it be done for you.” And his servant was healed that
same hour.
But not all of Jesus’ works happened instantly.
When Jesus found out that His friend Lazarus was very sick, Jesus delayed
two days before leaving to visit His friend.
When Jesus arrived, Lazarus had been dead for four days.
Jesus got rebuked by Lazarus’ sister Martha:
(John
11:21 NKJV) Now Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother
would not have died.
Lazarus’ other sister Mary said about the same thing to Jesus.
You know the story.
Jesus would go to Lazarus’ tomb and raise Lazarus from the
dead.
Why did He wait?
He wanted to show a greater miracle than just healing
Lazarus. Jesus wanted to show that He
could raise the dead.
Beloved, God knows what He’s doing.
He’s not in a hurry. He’s never
late.
Your requests haven’t fallen on deaf ears.
He will do what is right when it is right.
:16 He gives snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes;
:17 He casts out His hail like morsels; Who can stand before His cold?
:18 He sends out His word and melts them; He causes His wind to blow, and
the waters flow.
word – dabar
– speech, word, speaking, thing
:18 He sends out His word and melts them
All God has to do is “send out His word”, and things will change.
:19 He declares His word to Jacob, His statutes and His judgments to
Israel.
word – dabar
– speech, word, speaking, thing
:20 He has not dealt thus with any nation; And as for His judgments,
they have not known them. Praise the Lord!
:19 He declares His word to Jacob
Lesson
Privileged
The Jews are an incredibly privileged people.
They alone are the nation that God picked out to give His written word to.
God spoke to Moses,
(Deuteronomy
4:7–8 NKJV) —7 “For what great nation is there that has God so near
to it, as the Lord our God is
to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him? 8 And what
great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous
judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day?
It is to the Jews that God also gave His Living Word as well.
Jesus came from the Jews and to the Jews.
We as Gentiles are privileged that God would open the door
that we might be saved as well.
While God sends out His word and all of creation responds, God’s word
impacts men in a little different way.
To men, He declares His word.
The problem comes in that we don’t always respond like creation does, in
obedience to His commands.
If we could only learn the amazing truth that we have been given God’s
word, and we ought to take it seriously and obey it.
(2 Timothy 3:16–17
NKJV) —16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness, 17
that
the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.