Life IS Hard and Very Often Filled with Sorrow…

I have been reading and rereading Psalm 146 over the past couple of days. This morning I was going to write on it but found that I already had. It was a blessing for me to read and by God’s grace I pray it is to you as well.  

Ps 146 begins and ends in the same way...Praise the LORD!  Verses 1 and 2 speak to the psalmist commitment to praise. What stopped me here...as silly as it might sound...were the words, “O my soul”.   You hear that a lot in the Psalms.  Sometimes I can read a phrase again and again and really not think about its meaning.  This was NOT one of those times.  The Psalmist is exhorting himself to practice what he preached!  Sometimes that is soooo hard.  My soul this morning was not in a place that lends itself easily to praise...a place of sorrow and grief.

Truth be told there IS much ongoing heartache and sorrow in my life that I am powerless to remedy.  The underlying song and background melody of my heart is joyful gratitude for all my God has done, but often my immediate presenting emotion is grief. In the past I have fought hard against this grief allowing myself to be deceived into thinking it wasn’t a big deal...that my grief wasn’t really that hard or even that sad...that I was just being a baby.  Condemnation is from the enemy.  Life IS hard and very often filled with sorrow.   There are and will be seasons where“Sorrow and Suffering” will be constant companions.   We ALL will face sorrows here on this earth...the difference is whether we face them with Him or without Him. I am so grateful that by His grace, I face my sorrows with Him!   AND THAT is where I began praising my God this morning. 

Beloved...Sing praises to God!  Sing praises to JAH...JEHOVAH!  He is the self existent One, who derives His being from none, but gives life to all.  Beloved, we serve an all powerful, all knowing, and everywhere present God who is so great that He rides on the clouds, but also so very very kind that He condescends to help the weakest among us.  REJOICE!  Our God is the One described in Psalm 146.  

—He keeps truth forever,

—He executes justice for the oppressed,

—He gives food to the hungry.

—He gives freedom to the prisoners.

—He opens the eyes of the blind;

—He raises those who are bowed down;

—He loves the righteous.

—He watches over the strangers;

—He relieves the fatherless and widow;

—He turns upside down the way of the wicked.

The God of Israel is He who gives comfort, strength and power to His people.  Blessed be God!