Shalom,

Psalm 9:1-2 says:

¹I WILL praise You, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will show forth (recount and tell aloud) all Your marvelous works and wonderful deeds! ²I will rejoice in You and be in high spirits; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High!

I really like using the Amplified Bible for study as it usually has the word meaning right there, but I also really enjoyed these two verses in the Message Bible:

^1-2 I'm thanking you, God, from a full heart, I'm writing the book on your wonders.
I'm whistling, laughing, and jumping for joy;
I'm singing your song, High God.

Doesn't that just give a very REAL feel to this verse?

In light of the things that are currently happening in this country and around the world, I REALLY like verse 20:

²⁰Put them in fear [make them realize their frail nature], O Lord, that the nations may know themselves to be but men. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!

AMEN! Remind yourself that the things that are being planned right now are being planned by mere men who are being used by an already defeated devil! The ONLY way these plans will come to pass is if and when they line up with God's plan! As long as God's people, who are called by HIS name, will humble ourselves and pray, God will continue to provide for us through anything that takes place on this Earth! Be continually filled with the Spirit and continually feeding on the Word of God and you will NOT be kept in the dark about what GOD has planned! Remember that one of the things that the Holy Spirit lives inside of us to do is to show us things to come (John 16:13)!

In reading through Matthew again I have been amazed at how many "new" things I have become aware of that I hadn't thought about before! I know that part of that is having been to Israel where all of these things took place! We saw where the pigs went over the cliff, from yesterday's reading! These things REALLY did happen. They are not fairy tales or works of fiction! As I was reading today I realized that no sooner had the people chased Jesus away after the pig incident, but others were waiting for Him as soon as He returned "home" to Capernaum. Every individual person had there own story, need, desire. They all came to Jesus, sometimes all at once, and He cared for every one with the same attention and compassion! How do I measure up when it seems like "everyone wants a piece of me"? Don't tell me you've never felt like that! Jesus was never hurried or anxious. He KNEW Who He was and what He would do! I remain fascinated by Him! Aren't you? Then verses 37-38 reveal more of His heart towards the people:

³⁷Then He said to His disciples, The harvest is indeed plentiful, but the laborers are few. ³⁸So pray to the Lord of the harvest to force out and thrust laborers into His harvest.

We need to remember why we, as believers, are even here! We COULD be walking the streets of gold and swimming in the River of Life! We are here because it is more needful for THEM! Let's be asking the Lord of the Harvest for laborers and then obeying when He says "I send you"! AMEN!

I have read some commentaries on Ecclesiastes and many of them just don't get it! One of them said this:

while Solomon is doing his utmost to prove that life is futile and not worth living, the Holy Spirit is using him to show that these conclusions are the tragic effect of living "under the sun"--ignoring the Lord

They have the idea that Solomon is STILL in a "backslidden" condition. If you really read this, you see that Solomon has realized that he has wasted his life and God-given wisdom that he had as a young man. He says things like this in Ecclesiastes 7:5:

⁵It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools.

Solomon knows that he should have listened to the rebukes of his friends earlier on and he is wiser now! Then in verse 12:

¹²For wisdom is a defense even as money is a defense, but the excellency of knowledge is that wisdom shields and preserves the life of him who has it.

and then verse 19:

¹⁹[True] wisdom is a strength to the wise man more than ten rulers or valiant generals who are in the city.

He realizes one of the errors he made in verses 23-24:

²³All this have I tried and proved by wisdom. I said, I will be wise [independently of God]--but it was far from me. ²⁴That which is is far off, and that which is deep is very deep--who can find it out [true wisdom independent of the fear of God]?

In verses 25-26 he realizes the root cause of his turning from God and His wisdom:

²⁵I turned about [penitent] and my heart was set to know and to search out and to seek [true] wisdom and the reason of things, and to know that wickedness is folly and that foolishness is madness [and what had led me into such wickedness and madness]. ²⁶And I found that [of all sinful follies none has been so ruinous in seducing one away from God as idolatrous women] more bitter than death is the woman whose heart is snares and nets and whose hands are bands. Whoever pleases God shall escape from her, but the sinner shall be taken by her.

And then I go to the Message Bible for verse 29:

Yet I did spot one ray of light in this murk: God made men and women true and upright; we're the ones who've made a mess of things.

Amen to that! God is GOOD!

Shalom in Him!