Gary Gleans

The sovereignty of God is a truth that should both comfort and concern us.  Unfortunately, it also often confuses us.  David makes it very clear to us that God is sovereign and explains very clear to us what God’s sovereignty implies in our lives.  In theological terms we would say that God is omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent or that God is all knowing, always present and all powerful.  These are precious theological truths about God that are full of implications in each of our lives that should change the way that we live. GOD KNOWS EVERYTHING: There is nothing that we can hide from God.  He knows everything that we do.  He knows every thought that we have.  He knows every word that comes out of our mouth.  He knows the words that almost come out of our mouths.  He knows the motives behind all that we do and say.  He knows every emotion that we feel.  There is nothing about us that God does not know.  What is more c...

Gratitude is the sentiment that fills the heart of the man who is faithfully following and serving the Lord.  No matter what our position and circumstance, God’s faithfulness and loving kindness are always realities that should fill our hearts with praise and thanksgiving for all that He has done and all that He is.  There will be times when our circumstances are not conducive to seeing God’s love and faithfulness.  These are the times when we must focus on the Word of God and all that we know to be true concerning God so that we do not allow gratitude and praise to be replaced by bitterness, doubt, fear and complaint.  Thanksgiving to God is like a salve to our souls that heals our hurts and restores the health of our worship. GOD HEARS THE PRAYERS OF THE NEEDY: God does not have any needs.  He is complete within Himself.  We, on the other hand, are far from being complete in ourselves.  We face many needs in our lives that require the help of th...

Mockery is a terrible thing to endure.  Mockery of God is simply not acceptable.  God will NOT be mocked!  The children of Israel have been captured as a judgment of their mockery of God as a nation.  However, as is almost always the case, the godly were judged together with the unjust.  Jerusalem has been destroyed and the followers of God have been taken captive together with the idolaters that brought on this judgment in the first place.  The nation that has captured Israel has no fear of God but they are being used as an instrument of judgment by God.  However, in their minds they have conquered God’s nation.  They think that they have overthrown God.  They are sorely mistaken!  They now mock those who are faithful to God and chide them by telling them to sing their “silly songs of worship.”  They are making fun of God and those who love and follow God.  This was not wise. MOCKERS ARE BLASPHEMING GOD: These wicked men ...

The Love of God is unchanging and everlasting.  All twenty-six verses of the Psalm end with the declaration that “His steadfast love endures forever.”  Love is a strange combination of emotion and will that is difficult for us to define exactly because we are not comfortable simply calling love an emotion nor are we inclined to take all the emotion out of love and simply call it an act of the will.  Our love seems to be very volatile.  We love someone very deeply but with the passage of time that love seems to fade away, lose intensity or even turn to indifference or hatred.  God’s love is not like that at all.  He never “falls out of love.”  God’s love is also eternal, so it will always be true.  We need not fear that God’s love for us will somehow run out.  God’s love has always been and always will be.  This truth should cause us to be exceedingly grateful and to express that gratitude to God in our prayers and in our worship.  ...

We are called to praise the Lord.  All who desire to please God with their lives and have the privilege of knowing Him and serving Him are to use their lives to praise Him.  There are many reasons that we have to praise Him.  Certainly He is worthy of our praise but in addition to that, it is pleasant to praise the Lord.  The call to worship God is an act of obedience, but it is one in which we should take great delight.  Worship is pleasing to God and pleasing to us.  This Psalm points to several reasons that we should praise the Lord and outlines the content of our worship. HIS SOVEREIGNTY: God is the creator of the heavens and the earth and is in control of all that happens on the earth.  He is self-sufficient and does according to His desires.  He has not limits and there are no gods who can compete with Him.  Wind, rain, storms and all that exists is in His hand.  Certainly God is worthy of our praise and worship for His greatn...

Blessing the Lord is a concept that, quite honestly, sounds foreign to me.  I understand completely the idea of receiving blessing from the Lord, but I feel very inadequate to think that there is some way that I could bless the Lord.  The problem lies in our understanding of blessing.  We tend to equate blessing with providing some need in the life of another.  Since God does not need anything it seems like it would be impossible to bless Him.  However, if we define blessing as speaking highly of as in an act of worship; we can clearly see our ability to bless.  In reality the word “bless” caries both the idea of praising and providing. WE PRAISE HIS NAME: The call of this Psalm to: “Come, bless the Lord” is a call for all those who love and serve the Lord to raise their voices and their hands before the Lord and worship Him.  This act of praising the Lord does not provide God with anything that is lacking in His life, but it does delight His hear...

Unity within the body of Christ is a wonderful blessing to experience but is very difficult to achieve.  Unity requires that we consider the well-being of the whole over our own.  We are, by nature, selfish and far more concerned about our individual desires over the needs of those who God has placed around us.  The problem is that selfishness is a recipe for unhappiness, frustration, anger and strife.  When we live for ourselves we will be constantly disappointed because our personal desires are never satisfied.  Unity allows us to live for something larger than ourselves and helps us to find purpose and satisfaction even in the midst of personal loss or suffering.  Unity divides our grief and multiplies our joy. UNITY BRINGS SPIRITUAL BLESSING: The Psalm compares the result of unity to oil that was used to anoint the head of Aaron, the high priest.  It is a symbol of consecration to the Lord and spiritual blessing to men.  Aaron was the spi...