Come into God’s Sanctuary

17 Thursday Aug 2023

Tags

affections, confession, honesty, humble, right perspective, sanctuary

Reading: Psalm 73:21-28
When my heart was grieved
and my spirit embittered,
I was senseless and ignorant;
I was a brute beast before you.
Yet I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will take me into glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.
Those who are far from you will perish;
you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.
But as for me, it is good to be near God.
I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge;
I will tell of all your deeds (NIV). *

A place of quiet rest — photo by David Kitz

Reflection
I love the brutal honesty of the psalmist. I always like to think I am the smartest one in the room, but the truth is I am very capable of pride and wrong-headed thinking. And wrong thinking often leads to hurtful words or unwise actions. Take a moment to consider the psalmist’s confession: When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.

That’s brutal honesty. Are we that honest with God when our reasoning goes off the straight and narrow rails? Or do we justify our thoughts and blame God or others when we are ticked off?

We need to come into God’s sanctuary to have our hearts and minds tuned into the LORD’s thinking. The LORD reminds us that He knows the big picture. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9).

When we are in God’s presence, we can have our affections adjusted. All too often I have my priorities all messed up. What about you? The amazing truth about God is He loves us despite our mess ups. The psalmist knows the power of that love. Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.

What a patient, loving God we serve! This should become our humble confession: Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Response: LORD God, I want to have your perspective. I want to see as you see. Set my thoughts on the right path. Remind me to take time to be with you. But as for me, it is good to be near God. Amen.

Your Turn: How do you get your affections in tune with God? What steps do you need to take?

* NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, COPYRIGHT ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 BY BIBLICA

Please pray for peace to return to Ukraine!

Volume I of Psalms 365: Develop a Life of Worship and Prayer won the Best Book of the Year Award from The Word Guild and Volume II has won the Best Devotional of the Year Award. For those who love God’s word, this three-book series is an ideal way to daily meet with the Lord. To purchase or for a closer look click here.

The photo of Jerusalem on the cover of Psalm 365, Volume II

Real Value

16 Wednesday Aug 2023

Posted by davidkitz in Psalms

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Tags

communion, idols, sanctuary, value

Today’s quote and prayer from
“Psalms 365: Develop a Life of Worship and Prayer”
by David Kitz.

Reading: Psalm 73:12-20

LORD God,
bring me to your sanctuary.
Help me to enter into communion with you.
Help me discern what is of real value
in a world filled with idols and shams.
Give me your understanding.
Amen.

* NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, COPYRIGHT ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 BY BIBLICA

Please pray for peace to return to Ukraine!

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Understanding Comes in God’s Sanctuary

16 Wednesday Aug 2023

Posted by davidkitz in Psalm 73

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

final destiny, perspective, sanctuary, understanding

Reading: Psalm 73:12-20
This is what the wicked are like—
always free of care, they go on amassing wealth.
Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure
and have washed my hands in innocence.
All day long I have been afflicted,
and every morning brings new punishments.
If I had spoken out like that,
I would have betrayed your children.
When I tried to understand all this,
it troubled me deeply
till I entered the sanctuary of God;
then I understood their final destiny.
Surely you place them on slippery ground;
you cast them down to ruin.
How suddenly are they destroyed,
completely swept away by terrors!
They are like a dream when one awakes;
when you arise, Lord,
you will despise them as fantasies (NIV). *

silhouette of a person under the beautiful northern lights

Photo by Pat Whelen on Pexels.com

Reflection
Psalm 73 is all about the envy we often experience when we look at the lives of the rich and famous. We live in a world of glitz and glamor. Glitz and glamor are pumped at us relentlessly through various forms of media. The common man or woman is just an insignificant nobody in light of the celebrity culture that pervades our society.

I find it fascinating that a psalm written more than 2,500 years ago is so relevant for us who live in the twenty-first century. The psalmist laments, “This is what the wicked are like—always free of care, they go on amassing wealth.”

But there is a turning point in this psalm. The light of understanding comes on for the psalmist; the truth dawns on him. When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.

Understanding comes in God’s sanctuary. When we enter that holy place, the Lord can give us His perspective. We can see as He sees. A man’s arrogant boasting is exposed for what it is—a breath of hot air. There is no permanence to human wealth or achievement. In the eons of time, all is swept away. Only what is built on the Christ the solid rock will endure for eternity. True value, true worth and permanence are found in our union with God in His sanctuary—in His sacred place. I pray you and I will be found there.

Response: LORD God, bring me to your sanctuary. Help me to enter into communion with you. Help me discern what is of real value in a world filled with idols and shams. Give me your understanding. Amen.

Your Turn: How do you enter God’s sanctuary? Does your heart need to be prepared?

* NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, COPYRIGHT ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 BY BIBLICA

Please pray for peace to return to Ukraine!

The photo of Jerusalem on the cover of Psalm 365, Volume II

You Are Awesome in Your Sanctuary

28 Friday Jul 2023

Posted by davidkitz in Psalm 68

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Tags

flesh, Jesus, Psalms, sanctuary

Today’s quote and prayer from
“Psalms 365: Develop a Life of Worship and Prayer”
by David Kitz.

Reading: Psalm 68:32-35

LORD God,
thank you for sending Jesus.
Thank you, Jesus, for coming in frail human flesh—
flesh like our own.
Thank you because now we can know you as one of us—
God with us.
Amen.

* NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, COPYRIGHT ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 BY BIBLICA

Please pray for peace to return to Ukraine!

B1P95Jv-LtS._SY300_

With God We Will Gain the Victory

14 Sunday Aug 2022

Posted by davidkitz in Psalm 108, Psalms

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

enemies, sanctuary, triumph, victory

I will praise the LORD!

Landestreu Church

Reading: Psalm 108:6-13

Save us and help us with your right hand,
    that those you love may be delivered.
God has spoken from his sanctuary:
    “In triumph I will parcel out Shechem
    and measure off the Valley of Sukkoth.
Gilead is mine, Manasseh is mine;
    Ephraim is my helmet,
    Judah is my scepter.
Moab is my washbasin,
    on Edom I toss my sandal;
    over Philistia I shout in triumph.”
Who will bring me to the fortified city?
    Who will lead me to Edom?
Is it not you, God, you who have rejected us
    and no longer go out with our armies?
Give us aid against the enemy,
    for human help is worthless.
With God we will gain the victory,
    and he will trample down our enemies.

* NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, COPYRIGHT ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 BY BIBLICA

Please pray for the people of Ukraine!

Volume I of Psalms 365: Develop a Life of Worship and Prayer has won the 2021 Best Book of the Year Award and for those who love God’s word, it’s an ideal way to daily meet with the Lord. For a closer look at Volumes II and III click here.

Rise up, O God!

30 Wednesday Mar 2022

Posted by davidkitz in Psalm 74

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

martyrs, sanctuary, spokesman, voice

Reading: Psalm 74:18-23
Remember how the enemy has mocked you, LORD,
how foolish people have reviled your name.
Do not hand over the life of your dove to wild beasts;
do not forget the lives of your afflicted people forever.
Have regard for your covenant,
because haunts of violence fill the dark places of the land.
Do not let the oppressed retreat in disgrace;
may the poor and needy praise your name.
Rise up, O God,
and defend your cause;
remember how fools mock you all day long.
Do not ignore the clamor of your adversaries,
the uproar of your enemies,
which rises continually (NIV).*

Photo by Taryn Elliott on Pexels.com

Reflection
Psalm 74 was born in a time of disaster and distress. The enemies of the people of God had triumphed. The sanctuary had been destroyed and God was openly mocked. If the LORD was all powerful, why didn’t He prevent this disaster? Why didn’t He shelter His people from this violent storm? There are no quick easy answers to such questions.

Today many of God’s people are living the reality of Psalm 74. Throughout the Middle East, the birth place of Christianity, churches have been destroyed. Young Christian men have been martyred. Women and girls have been raped and sold into slavery. The pleas expressed in this psalm are an urgent reality. Do not hand over the life of your dove to wild beasts; do not forget the lives of your afflicted people forever.

But we need not live in a land ravaged by jihadists to feel the sting of the LORD’s enemies. Daily at our universities and through various media the Christian faith is mocked. Believers are treated as imbeciles and those who stand for righteousness are ridiculed. We are not being thrown to the lions, but the wisdom of the ages is being tossed on the dung heap, so the godless can pursue their sin without the voice of conscience nattering in the background.

Over all this dissonance the voice of the psalmist—the voice of the martyr—the voice of the believer—cries out: Rise up, O God, and defend your cause; remember how fools mock you all day long. Do not ignore the clamor of your adversaries, the uproar of your enemies, which rises continually.

The help of man, though it has value, falls short. We need the help of God. The whispered voice of God has more power than the most eloquent spokesman. Know this child of God: The day will come. The LORD will arise.

Response: LORD God, defend the helpless. Arise and save your people here in our nation and abroad. Show yourself strong by turning back the enemies of the cross. Our hope is in you. Amen.

Your Turn: Are you confident God will arise and defend His people? Why is our hope in Him secure?

* NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, COPYRIGHT ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 BY BIBLICA

Our Land Has Been Invaded

28 Monday Mar 2022

Posted by davidkitz in Psalm 74, Psalms

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Asaph, dwelling place, God's sanctuary, sanctuary

Reading: Psalm 74:1-8
A maskil of Asaph.
O God, why have you rejected us forever?
Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?
Remember the nation you purchased long ago,
the people of your inheritance, whom you redeemed—
Mount Zion, where you dwelt.
Turn your steps toward these everlasting ruins,
all this destruction the enemy has brought on the sanctuary.
Your foes roared in the place where you met with us;
they set up their standards as signs.
They behaved like men wielding axes
to cut through a thicket of trees.
They smashed all the carved paneling
with their axes and hatchets.
They burned your sanctuary to the ground;
they defiled the dwelling place of your Name.
They said in their hearts, “We will crush them completely!”
They burned every place where God was worshiped in the land (NIV).*

brown and green grass field during sunset

Photo by Jonathan Petersson on Pexels.com

Reflection
This is a psalm born in a time of disaster and distress. The enemies of the people of God had triumphed. In reality Psalm 74 begins as a lament as the psalmist calls out to God with these words. Turn your steps toward these everlasting ruins, all this destruction the enemy has brought on the sanctuary.

Foreign armies had invaded the land. Not only had they attacked the people of God, they had desecrated God’s sanctuary. They burned your sanctuary to the ground; they defiled the dwelling place of your Name.

It may be hard for many of us to imagine the destruction of war and the invasion of our country by foreign forces. But on the spiritual level our land has already been invaded and the attacks on the sanctuaries of God are unrelenting.

Take a walk or a drive about any large city in Canada and you will see abandoned church buildings. Some have been turned into concert halls or night clubs. Today, this statement describes our present reality. Your foes roared in the place where you met with us; they set up their standards as signs.

Sadly, in many places the standard of the cross has been replaced by standards of hedonism and human pride. This would be easier to fathom if this was the work of some sinister foreign power, but in reality our own people have turned their backs on God and have instead embraced the gods of this world. God have mercy on our land.

Response: LORD God, help us to become agents of change in our land. We want people throughout this country and the world to turn to you in repentance and faith. Open their eyes to their need and your reality. Amen.

Your Turn: What will it take to awaken your nation to God? What conditions bring about renewal?

Understanding Comes in God’s Sanctuary

24 Thursday Mar 2022

Posted by davidkitz in Psalm 73

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Tags

God's sanctuary, idols, sanctuary, value