I was very intrigued by Psalm 65:1 today.
The Holy Spirit revealed some things to us last night as the elders of the Spoken Word Church were involved in praise and worship. He said that every sound and every note has significance and that we should be bold and freely speak or sing those things out. Then He said that silence has sound to Him! I didn't understand it fully last night, but set it aside to meditate on later. Then I read verse 1 of Psalm 65 today and was amazed! The Bible Exposition Commentary says that the literal translation of verse 1 is: "To You praise is silence". Then I looked again at the Amplified Bible:
1TO YOU belongs silence (the submissive wonder of reverence which bursts forth into praise) and praise is due and fitting to You, O God, in Zion; and to You shall the vow be performed.
That tells me that we should take the time to be silent before Him in preparation for praise. We should be listening to Him as He speaks to our hearts, and then, with hearts fully engaged, sing out to Him with all we are! THAT is glorious praise! AMEN!!! Then verses 4-5:
4Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man whom You choose and cause to come near, that he may dwell in Your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, Your holy temple.
5By fearful and glorious things [that terrify the wicked but make the godly sing praises] do You answer us in righteousness (rightness and justice), O God of our salvation, You Who are the confidence and hope of all the ends of the earth and of those far off on the seas;
Realize that YOU are one who has been chosen to come near Him! You are "whosoever"! (John 3:16; Acts Acts 2:21; Romans 10:13) Come near Him everyday in praise, thanksgiving and worship and you, too, will be filled with joy for Who He is and who YOU are IN HIM! AMEN!
In Mark 9 we see Jesus taking Peter, James and John up on a high mountain alone. They see Jesus transfigured before them so that His clothes were shining very bright white. I like the Amplified Bible better for this in verses 2-3:
2Six days after this, Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John and led them up on a high mountain apart by themselves. And He was transfigured before them and became resplendent with divine brightness.
3And His garments became glistening, intensely white, as no fuller (cloth dresser, launderer) on earth could bleach them.
We won't talk about what happened next, who they saw, or what Peter said. (Let's give Peter a break, okay? At least he wasn't timid!) What I want to look at today is found in verse 15:
15And straightway all the people, when they beheld him, were greatly amazed, and running to him saluted him.
Have you ever meditated on this verse and asked yourself why the people were "greatly amazed" when they saw Him? Just because He was Jesus? Maybe there WERE a handful of people that hadn't yet seen Him in person. I don't think that's it, though. I got my answer when I read this verse in the Amplified Bible:
15And immediately all the crowd, when they saw Jesus [returning from the holy mount, His face and person yet glistening], they were greatly amazed and ran up to Him [and] greeted Him.
Now that makes so much more sense to me! Just as the face of Moses shone when he had spent time in the presence of God, Jesus, having been "transfigured" with the Glory of God, still retained some of that appearance when He came down from the mountain. Do you know what that tells me? When I spend enough time in the presence of God, it will show to the world! I plan on clearing some of my schedule so that I can spend more time being filled with his glory so that I can affect the people in MY world with the presence and power of the One, True, Most High, Living, Almighty God of the Bible! That is actually how Jesus, Who was still 100% God when He walked on earth even though He never operated AS God, was able to DO the "works" that He did! You know the ones. Those same "works" that WE are to do, now that He has gone to be at the right hand of the Father! See John 14:12:
12Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
Only by spending time daily in His Word and staying continually filled with His Spirit will we be able to DO those works! Let's DO IT! AMEN!
In Exodus 39-40 we see all the work of the Tabernacle being finished. I noticed three specific things as I was reading this today. First, I noticed that all that Bezalel and the others did, they did "skillfully". The KJV says "cunningly". This word is the Hebrew word, "chashab", which means: to think, to plan, to calculate, to invent, to imagine, to devise, to consider. Everything was made so precisely and according to God's specific plans. When I meditate on this, I see that God fully expects ME to use every one of the gifts and talents that He has blessed me with. He expects me to build on these by studying more, by practicing them, by doing them! He expects me to take the "talents" He has entrusted to me and make them more! He wants us to do EVERYTHING that we do with our whole hearts! Colossians 3:23:
23And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;
Second, I noticed that when Moses set up the entire Tabernacle exactly the way that God told him to do it, what we see in the layout of the "furniture" is a perfect cross! That didn't mean anything to those living at that time, but to US, it means EVERYTHING! God was foretelling the story of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth from the very beginning! Thank You, Father, thank You, Jesus, thank You, Holy Spirit! AMEN!
The last thing I noticed was that as soon as the work was complete, the Glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. From that time on, they didn't move unless the cloud of God's Glory moved, and they stopped where He showed them to stop. WE now have that same Glory of the Lord living INSIDE of us! We should be moving when and where He says to move and staying when and where He says to stay! Have YOU asked Him lately about where you are living, where you are working and especially about where you are attending church? If not, don't you think it's "high time" to do that? I DO! AMEN!
Shalom in Him!
