The Psalm for today, Psalm 117, is really short and to the point!
1O PRAISE the Lord, all you nations! Praise Him, all you people!2For His mercy and loving-kindness are great toward us, and the truth and faithfulness of the Lord endure forever. Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)
The words for praise here include "halal", which means to rave about, boast about, to be clamorously foolish over, and "shabach", which means to boast, laud, to commend, to address in a loud tone. Nothing quiet about what we are commanded to do here! And this commandment is addressed to all nations and all people! WHY? Because He is worthy of ALL praise and honor and glory, that's why!
1 Corinthians 5:9-10 says this:
9I wrote you in my [previous] letter not to associate [closely and habitually] with unchaste (impure) people--10Not [meaning of course that you must] altogether shun the immoral people of this world, or the greedy graspers and cheats and thieves or idolaters, since otherwise you would need to get out of the world and human society altogether!
Paul wanted the people to stay pure in their own thoughts ("As a man thinks in his heart, so is he" Proverbs 23:7) and lives so that they would be in tune with the Holy Spirit in order to minister Life to those in need. Notice that he didn't say to stay away from the needy people in the world. Jesus didn't! We need to stop all fellowship with believers that are involved in unclean and impure things so that we can be ready to minister to those in the world that are! The believers aught to know better! The heathen don't know HOW to know better! That's where WE come in! NOT preaching condemnation or judging them for their sin, but in sharing the Good News of the Gospel that there IS a better Life!
My favorite part about the Jericho story in Joshua 6 is verse 20:
20So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. When the people heard the sound of the trumpet, they raised a great shout, and [Jericho's] wall fell down in its place, so that the [Israelites] went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.
They went into the city, "every man straight before him", NOT "over the walls", because the walls fell down INTO the ground and they were level! What an amazing and interesting God we Love and serve! There is never a dull day when you spend it getting to KNOW Him! (Philippians 3:10 - Amplified). AMEN!
I'll add more later!
Shalom in Him!
