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Psalm 33:1-3

Published by S.M. Wibberley on September 20, 2016
Psalm 33
“Sing joyfully to the LORD, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise him.”
 
[And so it is Lord–it is so right for us to praise you! You are worthy for you are holy, you are great, you are wise, you are loving, you are just, you are firm, you are never fearful, negative, unbalanced, unjust, selfish, proud or evil in anyway.
 
You, Lord God, are Light, you are Life, you are Love. You are worthy of all praise, exaltation and glory.]
 
Psalm 33:2,3 “Praise the LORD with the harp; make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre. Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy.”
 
[You love beauty and music, Lord, and you have given these to us as a means of enjoying and exalting you. To sing and play instruments to give you glory is a wonderful privilege, it is a marvelous gift from you.
 
Thank you that we can come at any time through the Name and Blood of Jesus into your presence to praise you in song, to express the joy that we have in you–for you are the wonderful, marvelous, eternal, exalted Creator and Sustainer of the universe, full of goodness, devoid of evil, overflowing with grace, holiness and power.
 
May praise be the keynote of my life; may prayer be the foundation of all I do; and may whole-hearted obedience be the pattern of my days–all bringing honor to you, Lord Jesus.]
 
 
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Psalm 32:9-11

Published by S.M. Wibberley on September 20, 2016
Psalm 32:9 “Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you.”
 
[Lord, help us to be the opposite of this. Help us to move in quick and joyful obedience, with understanding of your Word, with the desire to honor you. Help us to act out out of kindness, care and love for others.
 
I thank you, Lord, for your provision in every way, meaning I can trust you fully. May I never need the bit and bridle and instead obey out of understanding and desire.]
 
Psalm 32:10 “Many are the woes of the wicked, but the LORD’s unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in him.”
 
[I praise you for your never-ending Love, Lord God–Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I praise you that your love always surrounds us. “As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his people both now and forevermore” (Ps. 125:2). “The angel of the Lord encamps round about those who fear him and delivers them” (Ps. 34:7).
 
Help us all to trust in you, to fear you (care deeply what you think and obey you) and to find refuge in you. “I will say of the LORD, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust” (Ps. 91:3).]
 
Psalm 32:11 “Rejoice in the LORD and be glad, you righteous; sing, all you who are upright in heart!”
 
[What a privilege to rejoice in you, Lord, no matter what our circumstances are. May we be glad in you in the midst of this present difficult time of much uncertainty. I give you praise and glory, honor and exaltation now, before there is a resolution to any of the multilayered problems surrounding me.
 
I choose, like Habakkuk, to rejoice in you, not my comfort: “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls [in the face of starvation and death], YET I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior” (Hab. 3:17,18).
 
You, Lord God, are good and worthy of trust and of glory in every way. I choose today to give you honor and praise in whatever comes. Amen.
 
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From the book EDIFIED!

Published by S.M. Wibberley on September 19, 2016
 
“I love the LORD, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy.” Psalm 116:1
 
Praise be to you, Heavenly Father, the Great I Am, the Creator of all and the Director of Life. You are the glorious One, worthy of praise, worthy of honor, worthy of love, for your ear always “is open to my cry and your eye is on the righteous.”
 
There is not a second when you are not focused upon each individual in the world, especially your children. “From heaven the Lord looks down and sees all mankind” (Psa. 33:13). No event escapes your notice, no happening comes without your permission.
 
You do not prevent every difficulty or trouble from coming to us, for in your wisdom you know that our growth comes in and through problems and hardships. And each uncomfortable, unwanted situation is another chance to honor you with faith and the sacrifice of praise. It is an opportunity to dance with joy on the stage of life, clothed in grace, energized with truth, surrounded by the light of your love.
 
My response should be the same as David’s in Psalm 116:1 “I love the LORD, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy.” Your love, O Lord, your care, your compassion for me in and through difficulty awakens in me more love for you.
 
To look away from our personal situation to the great context of your wisdom, your power and your grace frees us to reject self-pity, anger, rebellion and unbelief. As you did for Elisha’s servant, you open our eyes to see the forces of the Lord surrounding us: “The angel of the Lord camps around those who fear him and he delivers them” (Ps. 34:7).
 
With the psalmist, I can shout, “Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live” (Ps. 116:2). You, O God, are faithful, you are good, you are wise, you are wonderful. To come into your presence is a privilege, a joy, a grace.
 
I can rest in your goodness, I can rejoice in your power, I can exalt in your faithfulness, I can praise you for the unknown that is to come today, this week, this year, for what you bring will be used for good. Glory be to you forever and ever!
 
Prayer: “Lord God, King of the universe, help me to remember your greatness, your glory, your goodness so I can rest in your power, provision and protection in the midst of distressing happenings. Help me to do this so I may give you ever increasing honor and glory. Amen.”
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Psalm 32:7,8

Published by S.M. Wibberley on September 16, 2016
Psalm 32:7 “You are my hiding place;”
[In the midst of my problems, I can come to you with my fears, my anxiety, my dread and know that you will warmly receive me, help me and protect me. In you I am safe, in you I can be obedient to what you have told me is true.]
 
“you will protect me from trouble”
 
[Praise you for your power to protect and your commitment to my goodness. Thank you for the assurance that what you allow will be for my good and for your glory. Help me to therefore praise you for whatever comes today.]
 
“and surround me with songs of deliverance.”
 
[May my life be one long song of praise and honor to you, Lord, as I sing of your daily protection, your power, your deliverance.] Selah
Psalm 32:8 “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;”
 
[Praise you for your faithfulness and for your wisdom as you give guidance and insight in all: “turn left at the fork onto wisdom way, remembering my Word, ‘overcome evil with good;’ now turn right onto the path of trust, thinking truth, ‘forgive as God has forgiven you;’ wait here a bit in the place of restoration, ‘My soul, find rest in God alone;’ and remember the truth of Psalm 23, waiting quietly; ok, now you can proceed, but keep to the right side of the road, thinking my ways, ‘giving thanks in all things.’” With your instruction, I can proceed in the way I should go.]
 
“I will counsel you and watch over you.”
 
[Thank you for how personally and carefully you lead me, how specific your advice and commands are, how full of love and kindness your work is.
 
I praise you, Lord God for all that you will do in my life today–as you do every day–for you are my King, my Shepherd and my God. Praise you for how you will work all out. Help me to wait for your Word, to heed your counsel, to follow your instructions and to walk in your way.
 
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The God of Compassion and Graciousness

Published by S.M. Wibberley on September 16, 2016
 
I praise you, Lord God, for the beauty of your Character as shown in Psalm 86:15 “…you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.”
 
You lean over the side of heaven and in compassion follow carefully every aspect of my life, preparing each day in detail, providing protection, chastening, guiding and blessing.
 
In compassion you also take me through difficulties to break, shape and transform me. You are wholehearted and full orbed in your compassion.
 
You are gracious: kind and good in your dealings with me. You are richly generous, pouring out upon me blessing after blessing. You have given me health, strength, the ability to see, hear, walk and talk, you have given me a fine family, good friends, meaningful work, constant protection and many belongings. And even if I had none of these, I have you! I lack nothing because you are my Shepherd.
 
You are slow to anger: deeply patient, graciously patient, perfectly patient and therefore persistent in our relationship. I so often fail, especially in my thought life and in my motives, and in each sin grieve you, giving you pain.
 
Yet you do not respond in anger, but instead kindly correct me over and over. You start with very small alerts and if I don’t respond, slowly work your way up to larger rebukes, patiently giving me chance after chance to see, confess and repent of one sin after another. I praise you for your great, rich, comforting, healing patience.
 
You are abounding in love: you are an overflowing spring of grace with an endless stream of goodness that pours out of your rich person, for you are agape love itself.
 
Praise you that your love is unaffected by any of my failures, that your love flows deeply, widely and powerfully forever. It evokes from me an answering love, a desire to do what is pleasing to your heart. Your love transforms, cleanses, equips and leads us on, consistently, abundantly and graciously.
 
You are abounding in faithfulness: you are perfect, unchanging, unwaveringly consistent. You are faithful to your Character, to your Word, to your wisdom to your promises, to your plan. We can trust you wholly, wholeheartedly, totally and eternally. You are faithful when we are not; you are faithful when it costs you. You are faithful forever.
 
Glory be to you, Lord God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. You are totally worthy of worship, of honor, of exaltation. I bow before you today in awe, I rise up in surrender to obey in praise and thanksgiving. May you be lifted up, glorified and honored in my life today, in my motives, thoughts, words and deeds.
 
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Psalm 32:6

Published by S.M. Wibberley on September 15, 2016
Psalm 32:6 “you forgave the guilt of my sin…Therefore let everyone who is godly pray to you while you may be found;”
 
[In every situation this is what we have the privilege of doing: running to you in prayer, seeking you and your help first. I praise you that you can always be found by your children, for you are consistently with us, always watching, always ready to help: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Ps. 46:1).
 
Praise you that this is a partnership you have called us to, where we must seek you, come to you in prayer, and then you will answer. It is a relationship: wonderful, positive and powerful. It is a responsibility: we must reject the desire to fix things ourselves and instead come first to you. Praise you for the possibility of entering into your presence at each moment and finding help. “In the day of my trouble I will call upon you, for you will answer me” (Ps. 86:7).]
 
“surely when the mighty waters rise, they will not reach him.”
 
[This danger is not an “if” but a “when.” Floods of trouble will come, but you will set us high upon a rock and keep us safe. “God is our refuge and strength…. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof” (Ps. 46:1-3).
 
This is true today and forever. I praise you, Lord, and give you glory and honor, praise and exaltation, because, whatever might come, you are there in power, love and grace. “My soul, find rest in God alone; my hope comes from Him” (Ps. 62:5).
 
Help us rest in you and your greatness today, Lord Jesus, rejecting worry, fear and anxiety, instead embracing love, joy and peace, trusting in you.
 
“May the God of hope, fill you with all joy and peace AS YOU TRUST IN HIM, so that your lives may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 15:13).
 
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Unbelievable Goodness

Published by S.M. Wibberley on September 13, 2016
I praise you, my Heavenly Father, for your steadfast, unwavering love and goodness. I am so much the opposite: my emotions are up and down, my sense of achievement and worth waver, and my happiness with myself fluctuates with what I perceive to be success or failure. My feelings change with how people interact with me, with how well I sleep and even with my dreams.
 
But you, Lord God, have made yourself my Rock, my Protector, my Fortress, my Forgiver, my Cleanser and my Father. I praise you for the whole-hearted, deep and full acceptance you have given me in Christ. I thank you for the gracious correction, the loving help, the continual support from your glorious riches, from your constant presence, your protection and provision.
 
In you I am forgiven, in you I am being transformed, in you I am on the upward journey to heaven. In you I have worth and meaning and unfailing love.
 
Lord Jesus, my wonder at you grows as I consider what I am in myself: selfish, proud, weak, unstable, lustful, lazy, impatient, unbelieving and rebellious. And then grows mare as I consider what I deserve: rejection, punishment, suffering, failure, death and eternal separation from you.
 
In the light of this, I am more and more amazed at your unending, rich, powerful and enthusiastic love, poured out me every day. You are too good to be true, too wonderful to be real, too positive to be grasped–you are beyond human conception.
 
Yet, your love is real, demonstrated at the culmination of history at the cross and resurrection–and then repeatedly affirmed in my life each day by your forgiveness, patience, kindness and grace.
 
What a privilege to bask in your love, to revel in your acceptance, and to rejoice in your forgiveness. May I never take any of this for granted, may my wonder at your great goodness ever increase and spill over into ongoing revival, seen in worship through obedience, praise through faith, and rejoicing through surrender.
 
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Psalm 32:3-5

Published by S.M. Wibberley on September 12, 2016
Psalm 32:3,4 “When I kept silent,
[not confessing, not acknowledging my sin]
my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
[this is your love, moving us towards repentance.]
my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Selah”
Psalm 32:5 “Then I acknowledged my sin to you
[may I ever do it quickly, immediately!]
and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD’—and you forgave the guilt of my sin.”
 
[Because you are Love, Lord Jesus, because you are Faithful, because you have paid the great price and you love to forgive, we can eagerly and boldly come to you to confess. We are safe in you, we are protected in you, for “The Lord is good and ready to forgive and abounding in mercy to all who call on you” (Ps. 86:5).
 
Why hold back, why prolong the painful resistance? And for what? A little more indulging in anger or resentment or lust? We only end up with a mouthful of gravel!
 
Let us instead run to His open arms, eager to lay our sin at His feet, to be forgiven, cleansed and back into fellowship. This is wisdom, this is freedom, this is what He desires for us, restoring our joy in Him.
 
In speaking of surrender and obedience, Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11). And in such surrender, we give Him honor and love as He gives us joy.] Selah
Help me to walk in the light of your presence today, Lord, clearly, unreservedly accepting what you have to say to me about my sin and about your love. Help me to rest in the position of sonship that you have whole-heartedly given me.
 
Praise be to you, Lord Jesus, my great Shepherd, my Brother, My Lord, my King, my Creator and Sustainer, my God. You are worthy of worship, of honor, of glory and exaltation. May I give you these
through whole-hearted faith, quick repentance, immediate obedience and ongoing praise in all things.
 
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Psalm 32:1,2

Published by S.M. Wibberley on September 10, 2016
Psalm 32 Of David. A maskil.
 
“Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.”
 
[Praise you, Lord God, Triune Ruler, the Great Holy One, that you have provided forgiveness for my many sins, wiping clean the record of my multitude of transgressions, including the ones to come.
 
I thank you, with all my heart, that you took me from being a correctly condemned criminal to being a dearly loved son. I praise you for qualifying me to be a partaker of the inheritance of the Saints in the Kingdom of Light, when what I deserved was to be cast out into eternal darkness.
 
What a wonder to be cleansed, transformed, adopted, accepted and delighted in–all contrary to what I actually deserve! You are truly the God of Grace, the King of Kindness and the Lord of Love.]
 
Psalm 32:2 “Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit.”
 
[Lord, I praise you that you not only erased my guilt, taking it upon yourself, but that you consistently work in me to bring transparency, making my spirit one of truth, instead of deceit.
My soul certainly has deceit—I do not like being exposed even to myself and naturally seek to cover up. And there is much hidden there that I don’t even know about myself yet, but I do know that it is natural for me to be selfish, impatient, impolite and curt, proud and negative, thoughtless and overly focused.
 
Praise you, Lord, that your Spirit works in my spirit to change all this, making me aware of what is wrong so I can abandon it, and what is right so I can embrace it.
 
Help me to stand in ever-growing awe of your greatness and goodness, to fear you, not man. Help me today to follow the leading of your Spirit and to be wise and effective for you, basking in the truth that you will never count my sin against me and that you are ceaselessly at work to move me forward in sanctification. I thank you now for what you will do today.
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Psalm 31:23-24

Published by S.M. Wibberley on September 9, 2016
 
Psalm 31:23 “Love the LORD, all his saints! The LORD preserves the faithful,”
 
[There are an infinite number of reasons to love you, LORD Yahweh! Not the least of which is your faithfulness to your Word, to your promises, to your Character, to your love. We can be sure that whatever you allow into our lives, you have a plan, a purpose and will give provision.
 
Because you are faithful, Lord Jesus, you preserve, protect and deliver those who trust in you, who walk in awe of you, in obedience to your desires, living in the light of your great and holy presence. “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them” (Ps. 34:7).]
 
“but the proud he pays back in full.”
 
[You will act against those who are proud–including against me if I need it. I praise you, Lord Jesus, that as the Good Shepherd you do rebuke us, correct us, chasten us and punish us when needed to get our attention. I praise you, Lord God, for your working in every way, for your guidance in all things.
 
Thank you that you will deal with those who in pride act against your children, against your Word, against Truth. Help us to be humble before you, not listening to our hearts, but to you.]
 
Psalm 31:24 “Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD.”
 
[When our hope is in you, the Star-breather, the Dawn-bringer, the History-ender, we can be strong and encouraged, for you, Lord God, are powerful and good and wise. You are the One who can deliver, protect and guide, and you will do these things, because it is your nature to love.
 
When my heart is down, discouraged and disappointed, I can find my hope in you, the great and glorious God whose power is immeasurable, whose might is eternal, whose strength is unending, whose love guides all you do: “My soul, find rest in God alone, for my hope comes from him” (Ps. 62:5).
To hope in you is wisdom, to trust you is good, to obey you is freedom. Praise be to you, Lord God for what you will do today in the plans and events before me. I choose to trust you, honor you and worship you. Be glorified in my life today.]
 
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