gather and sing Psalm 81:
Sing praises to God, our strength.
Sing to the God of Jacob.
Sing! Beat the tambourine.
Play the sweet lyre and the harp.
Blow the ram’s horn at new moon,
and again at full moon to call a festival!
For this is required by the decrees of Israel;
it is a regulation of the God of Jacob.
He made it a law for Israel
when he attacked Egypt to set us free.
I heard an unknown voice say,
“Now I will take the load from your shoulders;
I will free your hands from their heavy tasks.
You cried to me in trouble, and I saved you;
I answered out of the thundercloud and
tested your faith when there was no water at Meribah.
“Listen to me, O my people, while I give you stern warnings.
O Israel, if you would only listen to me!
You must never have a foreign god;
you must not bow down before a false god.
For it was I, the Lord your God,
who rescued you from the land of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it with good things.
Verse 10 declares, “For it was I, Yahweh your God, who rescued you
from the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it with good
things.â€
The picture there is that of baby birds in a nest,
completely reliant upon God for everything! God is, in effect, saying, “I am El Shaddai,
God Almighty. All you have to do is learn to accept your position and open wide
and I will fill your needs.â€
Just a cursory look at Israel’s history bears out this
truth.
Slaves / Exodus
Hungry / Manna
Thirsty / Water
Attacked / Moses lifts
his arms and armies fall
Cold / Pillar of fire
Hot / Shadow in the desert.
At 6pm, as trumpets were blown, the Levites would sing Psalm
29, a song of the voice of God. The focus all day was to listen and hear God!
Paul tells us in Colossians 2:16 this feast was literally
fulfilled in Christ Jesus. John hears the voice of Jesus, Revelation 1:10, a
voice like a trumpet! In so many words, John declares: There is
the trumpet!
Trumpets said to wake up and realize who you are and how you
are to live … as light in the darkness (Eph.5:8 – ff).
Many years ago when Janice and I were newly married, we took
a Sunday afternoon nap on a rather warm, balmy winter day, about mid 60s temperature. When we woke up, the
temperature had dropped over 30 degrees and an ice storm had descended on North Alabama. It was
my first experience to see an ice storm and was indescribably beautiful! Crystals of ice covered everything, shimmering
reflections of light like millions of diamonds.
Trumpets reminds us we are to be that light to the world …
and to walk by faith in our King.
morning!
I love this part
All you have to do is learn to accept your position and open wide and I will fill your needs!
Isn’t that an Awesome feeling ,
Barb and I were having a discussion about how busy and tired we were. Your comment about the “nap” reminded me that when we were first married, we were far less busy and had plenty of time for naps than we do at this stage of our lives when we need those naps!
Ahem……………….I’m not sleeping away my retirement, but I do take some serious naps!! What a life!
Great thoughts in this post, Greg. I, too, love the part about accepting our position and opening wide and having our needs met (although that acceptance of posiiton is sometimes hard for us to do – at least for me).
The needs you mentioned were all physical, I think, having to do with hunger, thirst, protection, comfort from heat and cold. I’ve wondered about this before. I suppose a student of the Bible for as long as I have been should know this, but I don’t. Are there any instances you can point me to where God supplied specifically for emotional needs as clearly as He did the physical ones?
Thanks for the continuation of the trumpets post. I’ve been learning so much about all of these things and how they apply to Jesus. I just finished your series of sermons on dying, the resurrection and heaven and you mention some of these ideas in those sermons, as well, so it all correlates nicely.
Thanks, Greg! Dee
I forgot to tall you all that I have an interview with Cecil posted today over at “Finding Direction”, so y’all be sure to drop by and read his interesting interview.
I thought it was very good. Very thoughtful and insightful.
Check it out and leave comments for Cecil!
Greg -
I see you’ve had your usual rush to post comments on your educational and edifying post today! I’m afraid Cecil is beating you out with his interview over at Finding Direction.
The life of a preacher . . .
Dee
Sometimes… I really listen for trumpets