Category: Weekly Word of Encouragement

“The Lord be exalted, who delights in the well-being of his servant.”Psalms 35:27 (NIV). God delights in our well-being; he has joy when we are blessed. Like a good father, God is happy when we are well. He is emotional about it; he feels delight, joy. He is pleased when we embrace the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings (Phil. 3:10), for our sake and for others. But I don’t think he delights in how we are feeling when we suffer. Rather, he is forming us so that we can experience complete well-being. He gives us tastes of that now. And God delights in our well-being of walking in the Spirit and experiencing joy and peace. He is like a good father who is just happy to watch his child enjoy playing in the park. He made us to experience well-being, and he is happy when he accomplishes his goal. When we Continue Reading →

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted;he rescues those whose spirits are crushed. Psalms 34:18 (NLT) Although we are citizens of heaven, we still become brokenhearted at times. Our spirits still get crushed at times. But God encourages us that he is close to the brokenhearted. He doesn’t say that we shouldn’t be brokenhearted, as if we are always triumphant, but rather he is with us. This reminds us of Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:4: “blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” But God doesn’t just remain close to the brokenhearted; he also rescues us when we are crushed. (Note: there is no real difference between “brokenhearted” and “crushed spirit” in this verse. It is Hebrew poetic parallelism; the writer states the same idea twice with different words.) There are many ways in which he may rescue us. Under the New Covenant, he may not rescue us Continue Reading →

“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!” Psalms 34:8 (ESV). When we taste God we find sweetness for our souls. The word “good” might be the best word to describe God’s nature. What does it mean to be good? Here are a couple of definitions from biblical resources. Strong’s dictionary uses these words to define it: beautiful, best, better, bountiful, cheerful, fine, glad, graciously, joyful, kindly, kindness, loving, merry, pleasant, precious, sweet. The Brown Driver Briggs Hebrew dictionary uses these words to define good: kind, acceptable, joyful, vigorous, be pleasant, delightful, delicious, sweet or savoury. These words do a great job of describing God. This is what we “bite” into when we taste God. We also find this idea in 2 Pet. 1:3 which says that we are partakers of the divine nature. The Lord’s Supper is an experience of tasting the good flesh and blood of Christ. Continue Reading →

Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. Psalms 34:5 (NIV). Those who keep their gaze on the Lord will find that their lives will shine with the Lord’s radiance. In other words, we shine our light, reflect God’s beautiful light, when we keep our focus on him. This is a privilege he gives to his people. We find a vivid illustration of this gift in the life of Moses. When he went up on Mt. Sinai and beheld the Lord, his face began to shine so much that when he came back down the people were afraid of the radiance (Exodus 34:30) so he ended up putting a veil over his face. 2 Corinthians 3:18 draws on this story and explains that believers “with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of Continue Reading →

But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him,on those whose hope is in his unfailing love,Psalms 33:18 (NIV) Being invisible, we often wonder what God is doing around us. We hope that we are pleasing him. We hope that he is looking down on us with approval and keeping a watch on our lives. This verse promises that if you fear him (respect his divine power) and hope in his love, then the eyes of the Lord are on you. We might know this in our head, but it is important to meditate on it until it becomes a living reality in our hearts. The eyes of the Lord are on you as you read this. His attention is focused on you. This may not be so hard to believe during periods of our life when we can easily feel his presence. But are we willing Continue Reading →