{"id":3600,"date":"2020-07-16T09:47:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-16T16:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/?p=3600"},"modified":"2020-07-16T09:47:06","modified_gmt":"2020-07-16T16:47:06","slug":"hobart-herd-devotional-psalms-69","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/?p=3600","title":{"rendered":"Hobart Herd Devotional – Psalms 69"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hobart Herd Devotional \u2013 Psalms 69<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

   Have you ever felt like you were\ndrowning?  I remember as a kid jumping\ninto  pool and seeing how far I could\nswim under water without coming up for air. \nA lot of it was a mind game as you told your lungs that you could go a\nlittle further.  Then finally you would\ncome up for air and breathe that precious air into your lungs with gasps of\nrelief.  David felt in this Psalm as if\nhe was drowning in the undeserved hatred and disdain of his enemies.  Even King Saul, who he loved and longed to\nserve, was so jealous of God\u2019s obvious favor and grace on David that he threw a\nspear at David.  All throughout David\u2019s\nlife he faced \u201cfriends\u201d and \u201cfamily\u201d who would turn on David and lead the people\nto turn against their king.  David felt\nthat he would have died if God had not rescued him and saved him.(vs. 1-4)  David feared that those who associated with\nhim as followers of God would be brought down by their relationship with\nhim.  Even his own family was ashamed to\nassociate with him.(vs. 8)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

   We are taught how to pray during these\ntimes: 13 But I pray to you, O LORD, in\nthe time of your favor; in your great love, O God, answer me with your sure\nsalvation.  Our prayer of faith should\nrecognize God\u2019s timing of grace and favor, His unfailing love, and His sure\nsalvation.  This is the foundation of our\nprayer to the Lord as we cry for His lovingkindness and tender mercies to\nrescue and save us.(vs. 16)  Our\nconfidence and trust in the Lord allows us to hold our breath as long as it takes\nfor the Lord to bring us to the surface and provide us breath again.  We are reminded in verses 19-21 that God sees\nand knows our troubles and the unfair and terrible treatment of our enemies.  We can trust in the fact that He will bring\njustice and righteousness back into our lives through His judgment on those who\nreject Him and bring harm to His loved ones.(vs. 21-29)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

   I pray that my response will be one of\npraise, glory, and thanksgiving. \nPsalms  69:30-32, 30       I will praise God’s name in song and\nglorify him with thanksgiving.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

31     This will please the LORD more than an ox,\nmore than a bull with its horns and hoofs. 32    The\npoor will see and be glad– you who seek God, may your hearts live!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(NIV)  The real answer to the overwhelming drowning\nin depression, despair and frustration is to pray and then praise the Lord for\nHis rescue and salvation, even when it seems that He hasn\u2019t acted on our\nbehalf.  We can trust in His timing and\nHis grace, mercy and lovingkindness even when the waters are over our head!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

   Father, I must admit that during this time\nof struggle in our nation, I have felt like I am drowning in the hatred and\nlies of the enemy.  Forgive me for not\nremembering that You have always been there for me and will continue to rescue\nme in Your perfect timing and grace.  May\nthe meditation of my mind and the worship of my lips be totally Yours.  In Jesus Name, Amen!  Pastor Rob<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hobart Herd Devotional \u2013 Psalms 69    Have you ever felt like you were drowning?  I remember as a kid jumping into  pool and seeing how far I could swim under water without coming up for air.  A lot of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[142],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3600"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3600"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3601,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3600\/revisions\/3601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}