Blessed are all who take refuge in Him

My soul magnifies the Lord! for He is good and faithful to provide beyond my need and perceptions.

I went to my cousin's church last night where they are starting a Praying Through the Psalms study. We read aloud Psalm 2 and it was so powerful. The Psalm is broken into three focal points: the first three verses regard the world, the next three talk about God and the next three are from the man of God's standpoint and then the last three go back to the world. the last line "Blessed are all who take refuge in Him" is the chorus and was written to be repeated after every three verses. Something which, i had never heard before. It was so powerful to re-read the Psalm as it would have been sung in the Jewish church, with the chorus repeated. It completely drove home how important it is to abide in Christ, and the total focus of the Psalms changed from the wrath of God to the righteousness and goodness of God (not that the wrath of God doesn't communicate His goodness and righteousness, because it does as well!).

"Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord and against his
anointed, saying
"let us burst their bonds apart
and cast away their cords from us"
Blessed are all who take refuge in Him

He who sits in the heavens laughs;
the Lord holds them in derision.
Then he will speak to them in his wrath
and terrify them in His fury, saying,
"As for me, I have set my King
on Zion, my holy hill."
Blessed are all who take refuge in Him

I will tell of the decree:
The Lord said to me, "You are my Son;
today I have begotten you.
Ask of me, and I will make the nations
your heritage,
and the ends of the earth your
possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron
and dash them in pieves like a potter's vessel."
Blessed are all who take refuge in Him

Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
be warned, O rulers of the earth.
Serve the Lord with fear,
and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you perish in the way,
for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in Him"

-Psalm 2

anyways, it was very cool. He (my cousin) encouraged the body to pray through this Psalm and meditate on it this week (and he went in depth on the meanings of the Psalm- I'm not going to go into it now because i don't have the time and i have other things i want to talk about!) but you should all go check out his blog: www.cameronsandel.com ! he is so passionate about the Word and lives completely consumed by the Father's Love. I am so glad that he is in my family! :)

Another passage of scripture that God has placed on my heart recently is Acts 11:1-18 when Peter gets chastized for preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles and so he tells his brothers, "If then God gave the same gift to them as He gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?"(verse 17) Verse 18 goes on to say "when they heard these things the fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, 'Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.'" these verses are so convicting for me, because so many times i judge people before i share the gospel with them. And when i say, "judge" it's not like i'm consciously saying, "oh, you're not good enough to hear the word of God" but i think, "oh, there's no way i could get through to them" which is sooooooo completely wrong. so wrong. because then, i'm focused on my abilities instead of on the miraculous Love of Christ. He redeems people, who am i to stand in His way? Who am i to think that i can break through to people? i am called to act in obedience in telling others about God's love and the death and resurrection of Christ. i have no authority to decide who to tell and i certainly have no authority to deem their heart 'ready' for the gospel or not. When i am so self-centered (focusing on what i can do for the kingdom, rather than making sure i am aligning myself with what God is doing for His kingdom and then allowing Him to work through me to accomplish His will), i am limiting my relationship with Christ. For i have come to see that God asks me to share with others because in telling others of His love, then i take joy in His love and thus, i grow closer to Him while He also uses me to draw others to Him as well. It is not my responsibility to save people (good thing, cause there is no way that i could save people) but it is my responsibility to "tell of the decree"(Psalm 2). It's like in Esther chapter four, when she initially balks at the idea of going to the King to petition on behalf of the Jews, Mordecai rebukes her, saying, "Do not think to yourself that in the king's palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance wil arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish." (verses 13-14). it is not that God NEEDS to use me to reach others for Him, but that God desires to use us in order to have a deeper, more intimiate relationship with Him.

"Blessed are all who take refuge in Him" -Psalm 2:13