Psalm 147 is a great Psalm, especially for the people of Israel! Verse 2 says:
2The Lord is building up Jerusalem; He is gathering together the exiles of Israel.
He has indeed been doing that! Jewish people from areas all over the world have been returning to Israel since they became a nation again in 1948! God is SO faithful! Then verses 12-14:
12Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion!13For He has strengthened and made hard the bars of your gates, and He has blessed your children within you.14He makes peace in your borders; He fills you with the finest of the wheat.
What great promises! And then in verse 20:
20He has not dealt so with any [other] nation; they have not known (understood, appreciated, given heed to, and cherished) His ordinances. Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)
Don't ever let anyone tell you that God is done with Israel! He has only just begun to fulfill all that He has promised to do for them in these last days! What a glorious song/psalm! AMEN!
John 7:5 says:
5For [even] His brothers did not believe in or adhere to or trust in or rely on Him either.
How could the brothers of Jesus not believe in Him? They grew up with Him and you would think when you lived with someone who never sinned, you would begin to see that there was something different about Him! When He began His ministry with the miracles and healings what did they think? There is probably a key to that in verse 17:
17If any man desires to do His will (God's pleasure), he will know (have the needed illumination to recognize, and can tell for himself) whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking from Myself and of My own accord and on My own authority.
The Wuest Translation says:
17 If anyone is desiring to be doing His will, he shall know experientially concerning the teaching, whether it is out of God as a source or whether I am speaking from myself as a source.
That tells me that if someone is genuinely seeking God and wanting to serve Him, they will KNOW the Truth about Jesus when they hear it!
Reading 1 Samuel 20-21 again reminds me of watching a favorite movie that you wish would play out in a different way this time! Jonathan is such a loyal and trusted friend, you wish you didn't already know what would happen to him shortly! Then there is Ahimelech whom David goes to see. When you read that Doeg, the Edomite, is lurking around, you just KNOW that no good will come out of that! (stay tuned, it's coming up!) Can you just imagine this played out as a movie? Just remember that these things are ALL written for our benefit. We can learn by observing the mistakes of others (wisdom) or we can ignore the warning and have to learn things the hard way - experience! I LOVE the Word of God!
Shalom in Him!
