The heading for Psalm 36 in my Bible says that it tells of the "miserable estate of the wicked and the excellency of God’s mercy."  When we think of the condition of the lost soul in hell, the word "miserable" does not even come close to describing it.  No one word in our language can adequately describe the eternal suffering of the unsaved soul.  In contrast, we look with excitement to the "excellency of God’s mercy" on the saved.  Psalm 36:8 just begins to describe the excellency that awaits us in God’s forever kingdom because of His boundless mercy.  Imagine the redeemed of all the ages enjoying the brilliance and beauty of Heaven.  Think of their sinless, diseaseless state.  Think of the "extras" that can only hint at the great multitude of blessings God will supply for His own.  Our verse for today shows just two areas of those abundant blessings.  First, the saved shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of [God’s] house.  The word fatness implies abundant goodness.  This description brings many mental pictures to mind.  We know that God’s house, Heaven, and our special mansion there, will be beautiful beyond our greatest dreams.  Often I have seen pictures of vast marble halls or elegant homes of the wealthy that look so stark, cold and foreboding in their richness that I know I would feel uncomfortable there.  Not so with God’s house.  It will be so warm, inviting and filled with goodness that we will be as those at a banquet of a gracious loving host, those who are abundantly satisfied with fatness.  Day after "eternity" day, the satisfaction will only increase, it will overflow.  All that our souls could crave will be abundantly met.  Our church should be that kind of house here on earth.  It should be a place where we can come, soul hungry, and be filled with the fatness, the sweet goodness of God’s Word.  When we enter God’s earthly house, we should immediately be struck with a feeling of satisfaction in its warmth.  We should feel invited to share in all that it offers.  Our own family homes should be as "little heavens on earth" to our family members and to all who would enter in.  It is amazing how God will fill our homes with fatness or abundant riches if we strive to make our home heavenly in its atmosphere and spirituality.  In one of our rural churches, one of the ladies remarked that her freezer never seemed to run empty, no matter how often she used the food or shared it with others.  I knew that her heart was to serve the Lord with the abundance that He had given to her through gifts of food and He was blessing that freezer with fatness!  For others it might be the abundant riches of other needs.  For all of us it can be found in the riches of family love.  Also, in our verse, God reveals one of the personal jobs that He will perform for the redeemed when He will make them drink of the river of [His] pleasures.  Just think of the glory, the joy, the sheer delight to be allowed to drink of THE river of God’s pleasures.  All the joys and pleasures of our life or imagination must certainly pale at the comparison with the reality of God’s own pleasures.  To think that He will take us to drink of that river, ever flowing, sparkling in His light, sweet to the taste.  If there be any question of our willingness, He will make us drink of it.  Now in Heaven, I do not believe we will hesitate at all, but here on earth, we often do.  Foolishly, we many times choose the pleasures of this world instead of drinking at God’s river of spiritual joy.  Even an animal will not drink of a dirty stagnant pond if a clear flowing river sparkles near by.  Why then would we ever choose to drink of the world’s dank, smelly waters when we can so easily quench our thirst with God’s pure, sweet pleasures.  We can be assured that there will never be an evil after taste from God’s river of waters.  O Lord, help me to choose today Your riches and pleasures.  Lord, if I falter or hesitate, please make me drink of Your river and bar my way to the streams of the world.  Help my home to be an example of your heavenly house and let all that dwell therein be satisfied.

Centuries ago, Ponce De Leon, the Spanish explorer, spent a lifetime searching for the mythical Fountain of Youth.  He had heard tales of such a fountain and, spurred on by personal desire for immortality, he saw the New World as the possible location for a fountain having waters to cure all physical ills.  Seeing Florida’s dense greenery, he was certain that it was there.  He spent years hacking through the unexplored land.  Indian legends heightened his search, but in the end he found only death.  The Fountain of Youth was a legend and did not really exist.  How sad that such a brave man wasted his life in fruitless search when the true Fountain of Life was so clearly mapped out in Psalm 36:9.  Its source and headwaters are found in the Lord God.  There is a city in Florida that has made quite a tourist trade out of calling one of their springs the missing Fountain of Youth.  Thousands visit the spot every year but they all come away the same as when they arrived.  Each year millions of dollars are spent on youth potions and remedies, even plastic surgery, only to prolong the inevitability of old age and death.  How much better to take God’s guaranteed remedy, already paid for at the cross of Calvary.  With the Lord is the Fountain of Life.  He is the only source of eternal life and of abundant, joyful, meaningful life here on earth.  There are people in this world who spend a lifetime, like Ponce De Leon, searching for an illusive dream that is always out of reach or around the next bend of myth and legend.  There are also those who make millions from the con games that cater to these people.  Praise the Lord, as Christians we have been brought face to face with reality.  Our God is real, real in our hearts, real in the world, real in eternity.  What a blessed joy to know we have been given to drink of the fountain of life.  All searching is ended.  Peace and purpose can rule our lives.  What a privilege to be able to lead others to the true Fountain of Life and invite them to drink.  Do you know someone whose life is filled with anxiety and fears about death, aging and illness?  Bring them to meet Jesus, who will tell them: If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living waters. John 4:10  Later, in verse 14, Jesus promises, ...whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.  Ponce De Leon thought he was on a great adventure, but we are on a greater one as Christians.  It is an adventure that has sure and eternal rewards!  The last part of Psalm 36:9 contains an amazing truth.  Only in God’s light can we see light!  How true that is.  Only when we are saved and then choose to see things through God’s principles and purposes can we really understand life.  Others may spend years of study or searching through a totally human point of view, and never be able to see truth.  We have had truth revealed to us and through us from the day God’s Holy Spirit took residence in our hearts at salvation.  Thank You, Lord, that through Your light of the Holy Spirit living in me, I can see and understand what many others cannot.  Even when the way looks dreary and the storm clouds of life darken my earthly skies, Lord, you can enable me to see the light of Your dear Son shining through those clouds.  Thank You, that when all would seem empty and dark, You let me see Your light still aglow.  Thank You for opening my spiritual eyes and that into their blindness You shone Your everlasting light.  Thank You, Lord, that I never have to walk in darkness again because You are the Light of my life.

The whole of Psalm 37 is like a recitation of the "proverbs of David."  It is our record of the inspired wisdom of God given through King David to the nation of Israel.  The king spoke as a wise father to his children, instructing them in the ways of life.  David had been a great leader, his example had challenged many to feel confident and excited about their future.  But David knew he would someday die and, with that knowledge, prayed that God’s people would go on in confidence, following the Lord.  David prepares them for that day as he gives the vital formula for success: Trust in the Lord, and do good.  Many times Christians follow a godly parent or a church leader, trusting in that other person’s spirituality to guide them and give them spiritual success.  If something happens to that person, there is the great possibility that the follower will falter unless he has learned to trust totally and supremely in the Lord.  Isn’t that one of the reasons why, after a church split or problems, some of the people so easily fall by the wayside.  Our earthly circumstances can change a hundred times over, but Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.  Human leaders and loved ones can let us down, but Jesus said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.  Beyond and above, behind and in spite of anyone or anything, we must come to a point in our lives when we decide to trust the Lord regardless of what others do or do not do.  As parents, we should want to teach our children to trust us because we trust the Almighty God.  We should desire to teach them that they should do good, not just to please us or out of fear of punishment, but because they are doing it as unto the Lord.  To help them to stand in time of trial, no matter what happens or who is involved, our goal is to teach them to learn to trust in the Lord.  One of the marks of a good teacher is whether or not the students in her class obey when she has left the room.  Our Lord is certainly a good God, He deserves our trust and obedience at all times, not just when others whom we would respect or want to impress, are around.  Above all else the Lord is trustworthy!  We can trust Him with the deepest needs of our lives.  We can be totally assured that His desire is for our success.  The Israelites’ need was to dwell safely in the land and David assured them that God would grant that need if they trusted in the Lord and did good.  God will provide our needs as a church today to dwell richly in the place God has chosen.  He has called out a body of His people to "inhabit" the land where the church has been planted.  We need to claim that habitation by faith and trust in the Lord to increase the harvest of the fields around us.  Pray that through your pastor, the members would be fed from the Word of God.  As a church member, don’t neglect to do good.   That will include your own personal life of holiness and separation, as well as doing good to those within and without the church, and using the talents and gifts you possess to serve in that body.  If all were to make those objectives a reality, then we would dwell peaceably in the church and be fed as sheep together.  As a physical family, trust and righteousness would result in God providing in abundance those things we need.  Under the one roof of our home there would be those that dwell with joy and victory together.  As individuals, God would grant us peace and feed our spirits each day as we turned to Him in complete faith.  Trust and do good.  Such a simple formula.  Obey it and the rewards will be more than you could begin to imagine!

This is perhaps one of the best known Scripture verses in the Bible.  The words are easily recited, but is the meaning really known to most Christians?  I heard a sermon on this verse years ago.  The preacher emphasized that one of the most important things a Christian should know how to do is to delight himself in the Lord.  Then he stated that sadly most of us do not really know how to go about it.  Each of us knows that secretly in our hearts we hold dreams of the true desires of our life.  If someone asked us what we would want more than anything else, we might laugh and say, "A million dollars."  But deep down, we know our real desires might be totally different.  Perhaps it would be the conversion of a loved one, a change in character or motivation of a spouse or child, the healing of a sick one, desires sometimes known only to God.  If there was anything we could do to allow those "wishes" to be granted, we would do it.  We would hike over the highest mountain, perform the hardest task, even suffer ourselves.  Yet God does not require those things because His blessings are all of grace.  He says simply, Delight thyself also in the LORD.  Did you notice the word also?  In the first verses of Psalm 37, God has reminded us that we must first trust in Him, choose not to sin, fret not because of evil doers, and do not be envious of them.  After those instruction, He says, also delight thyself in the Lord.  Our lives must be pure, our motivations and desires toward God, and our hearts at peace before we can delight in the Lord.  It would be like receiving a beautiful gift while all around you was chaos.  There would be no real joy and delight.  When we delight in something, we receive deep, overwhelming and abiding joy by concentrating on it.  One of the secrets of the word delight is that ability to concentrate on the object of our delight.  I have set and watched my grandchildren at play, concentrating on their every move and word, because they are precious to me.  God should be the object of our desire.  We should spend time concentrating on Him.  It was not a waste of my time to sit quietly concentrating on my grandchildren.  It was not a waste of time for Mary to sit quietly at the feet of Jesus.  We need to have a time each day when we will sit quietly concentrating on the Lord through His Word, through prayer and through meditation on Him.  In our busy lives, we need to pray for that level of concentration that will allow us to see Him working and to hear His Spirit’s urgings within our hearts.  Years ago I learned an acrostic for the word delight:

Daily

Everything

Laid

In

God’s

Hands

Triumphantly

Let us examine the words: are we delighting in God today and each day, regardless of the circumstances that day brings forth?  Is He the prime object of our affection?  Have we laid everything in His hands?  Everything?  Or have we placed it elsewhere on the shelves of our own workshops.  Have we laid those "everythings" in God’s hands triumphantly, not grudgingly, but with the spirit of victory and joy?  Let us stop for a few moments and consider our heart’s deepest desires.  Prayerfully consider, would you lay these willingly in the Lord’s hands today.  Only then does He promise to give thee the desires of your heart.  God lovingly waits.  He wants you to have real joy and delight.  He desires to grant you your deepest needs.  Learn to delight in Him today.

When we commit something, we are to give it totally into the care of someone else.  Perhaps you have heard of a family having a loved one committed to an institution.  The reason the decision was hard to make was because it meant the total handing over of the care and life of that person, no strings attached.  God wants us to do the same with our way, or the course of our life.  He wants us to give it totally to Him, no strings attached!  He wants us to so trust Him that we can say, "Lord, here’s my life, I lay it on the altar and give it totally into Your care and direction.  Lord, I promise I will not turn from my decision, I will not try to take things into my own hands.  I will let You lead and guide.  I will be confident in the direction You choose for me and not try to rebel or go another way."  To commit our way unto the Lord is not a light or easy decision.  At the time of our salvation, we not only accepted God’s payment for our past sins, but entrusted Him with our future destiny.  Some people only consider that destiny as the guarantee of a home in Heaven after death.  But it also includes every day that we live on earth after salvation.  Why it is easier for most folks to trust God with eternity, than trusting Him with their present, is an unanswerable question.  But think of it, is your heart calmly trusting Christ to take you home to Heaven when you die?  If you are saved, the answer should be a resounding, "yes."  Then, sweet Christian friend, are you calmly trusting Him with every area of your life today and with what may happen tomorrow?  Commit thy way does not just mean, "Give me your life."  It also means, "Trust me with every detail, every problem, every decision as you walk along your life’s way."  As your daily walk is laid out before you this morning, stop and deeply consider it with Psalm 37:5 in mind.  Is there some problem or relationship you are concerned about, some need that has you heavy hearted?  Commit it unto the Lord.  Is there some decision you are agonizing over or turn of events that has you confused?  Commit it unto the Lord.  We do not know what the future really holds for us on earth.  Next year to us is really an unknown, but so is next week and the next hour.  How often in life has the message of a phone call changed the course of your day or week or even some important area of your entire life?  As much as we would like to think that we could control our destiny, we can not even control our present.  Yet God, the Almighty ruler of all time, not only controls and directs, He knows every detail of our present and future.  One summer I could not physically dig or plant my garden due to recent surgery.  I had to commit that task and area of my life to someone much stronger than I, my husband.  I gave him my plans, walked with him around the plot of ground, and placed the seeds into his hands.  Then I watched as he dug deep in the soil, made furrows, pulled out the weeds and planted my seeds.  Each day we walked out to watch the plants break through the soil, flower and produce a crop.  The amazing thing is that I got to enjoy the process and, in the end, reap the harvest and enjoy the fruits.  My life is like that garden.  I need to give the Lord my plans, spend time "walking" with Him, and place all my seeds of care and concern for my family, my church and my personal needs and dreams into His gracious and mighty hands.  I need to totally commit all unto Him.  I need to realize I am not able to do it on my own, and if I do try, I will only end up more wounded or even crippled by my own efforts.  With my act of total committal, I will then be able to stand back and watch with joy as God brings His plan and way to pass, as the fruits of His labor come to bear in the garden of my life.  It might mean that He will have to dig deep within me to root out the rocks and weeds of self, but it will be worth it all.  Some rain will have to fall, but also there will be sunshine.  Then because it was His work, the harvest will be bountiful, rich and of eternal value.  O Lord, help me to so examine my life today that I will be able to commit every way unto You.  Help me to realize that if I clutch something to myself I will only end up with spoiled produce.  Lord, help me to lay it all into Your hands, trusting You, and, with joy, watch You bring it to pass in Your most gracious way.  Lord, be the husbandman of my life today, tomorrow and into tomorrow’s tomorrow.

What a fantastic verse demonstrating the way God works in our lives!  Jesus told the Pharisees when they questioned Him, that He had done nothing that was hidden, nothing in a dark place, but had done all things openly.  That is the way He continues to work in our lives even now.  Oh, He will work in the secret places of our hearts, root out the darkness of self and sin, but the results will be seen openly and His methods will be those declared for all to see and know in His Word.  He shall declare us openly as His own and defend us for all to see.  What a reassurance this verse is for godly living.  Many times we may think that no one realizes the truth of what we are doing or our true motivation, especially when we are attacked or come in conflict with someone who is not doing things God’s way.  The devil would have us discouraged and even fearful that evil will triumph or we will be made to appear in the wrong.  But God says that He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.  In the light of God nothing is hidden.  When we want to view a beautiful picture or piece of art, we place it in a good light so that all its details will be seen.  God’s righteousness living in us is a thing of supreme beauty.  He promises to place it in His clear, pure light so that all will see.  At noontime on a clear, shining day, is the only time of the day when there are no shadows.  How significant that God says our judgment will be brought forth as the noonday.  There will be no shadows then.  In His eternal day of judgment, we need have no fear, He has declared our eternal judgment openly, laid it on Christ (interestingly enough at the noon hour), and there will be no shadow of changing in that judgment.  What God has declared, when He reckoned you justified in Christ, will stand forever in God’s eternal light.  Not only is this verse true for our eternal judgment, but it is also true in our daily lives.  When my first born son was seven years old, he had a very dramatic illustration of the present truth of this verse.  Each day he had to walk quite a way to school.  The route took him through our neighborhood of homes, across a main road, past a horse farm and through a desert area before he reached his school.  It was a nice walk, even if sometimes he had to travel alone.  But one day that route held hidden danger for him.  The danger lay in the tricks and lies of several boys who had banded together into a little elementary school gang.  They decided to break into the fenced area of the horse farm, steal the padlock and set the horses free.  But, not only that, they had decided to put blame on my son.  Behind it all was the devil, trying to discredit my son’s testimony.  Everything looked bad for him when the school day drew to a close.  The padlock was found in his desk and everyone had seen him running when the horses had come down the street.  He was truly frightened when he came home that afternoon.  As he told me of his innocence and who he felt had done it, we turned to God in prayer, knowing only He could bring the truth to light.  I assured him to answer truthfully and that God would defend him.  After the police and principal’s investigation, all things came to light in a wondrous way.  The principal maintained from the first that my son was innocent, based solely on his testimony and past performance.  While Sean answered all questions in calm truth, the boys in the little gang contradicted each other and finally the "weak" one confessed to planting the evidence in Sean’s desk.  Then the hidden was brought to light.  The adult crossing guard had seen Sean trying to prevent the horses from running toward the highway.  She had seen how he had finally run to get adult help, while the others had fled the other way.  Sean and I need not have worried, God had brought forth his judgment as the noonday.  God had placed his righteousness under the Light of His dear Son.  While the other boys’ families had to pay a fine, we were blessed with a personal commendation from the principal regarding our son’s testimony.  Is there someone or some situation in your life that the devil wants to use for evil, when you know your heart was solely to do right?  Trust God to bring forth thy righteousness as the light.  Do not fear, trust Him who alone holds your judgment, let Him cause all shadows to flee in the light of His noonday sun.

Oh, how we need to learn the truth of this verse.  Its calming effects would do what no counseling, no medication, no tranquilizers could ever do.  America is filled with nervous, anxious people, many of them professing Christians.  Yet, God has given us His own answer to life’s difficulties in this simple prescription: "Rest, wait, and fret not."  In my illness, I had to learn the truth of this verse.  Always active, always doing twenty things at once, with several more in the planning stages, I had to suddenly learn to rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him.  It should not have to take a severe illness to teach a Christian that lesson, but it often does.  My little granddaughter, Gloria, is a good practical illustration of this truth.  I cared for her at seven weeks of age, when her mother became very ill.  Gloria awoke each morning with a soft cry.  After I had changed her, she smiled and stretched and then relaxed totally in my arms while I prepared to feed her.  Her total weight snuggled in my arms, totally trusting me to do what was needed in her life.  There was no way she could have provided for her own needs, and yet, because of the faithfulness of her mother, she had learned already that those needs would be met, she had only to wait patiently and rest in the arms of one who loved her.  She was happy and content even before her needs had been totally provided.  Her eyes were always focused on mine as her care giver, learning love and trust.  As God’s precious child, we need to rest totally in His care and wait patiently for Him to provide for our needs and desires in His own special way.  We need to lift our eyes of faith to Him and learn more love and trust.  As we do, we will learn more about our marvelous Lord.  So many times as Christians, we truly "mess things up" by trying to run ahead of God and doing things our own way.  We must know by experience that God’s way is always best, that His timing is always right, but still we rush ahead.  If we think there might be a scheme or some assistance from us that might make the plan turn out the way we want it to, we charge right in.  We are like Sarah, trying to fulfill God’s promise of a son for Abraham, by convincing him to go in to the maid Hagar.  God’s plan was already in motion, and it was much more wonderful than Sarah’s human mind could imagine.  God would work a miracle in her own body, a son was to be born to Sarah and Abraham of God’s own making.  She had needed a spiritual mind of faith to rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him.  Her devises brought conflict and hatred, God’s plan brought life and victory.  Each day, we are a little like Sarah.  We are women with eternal purposes, known only to God.  He desires to work miracles in our lives and to effect the lives of others for His eternal glory.  Yet, we try so often to take things into our feeble, human hands and the results can only be those that fall short of the glory of God.  Lord, make me learn to trust You so completely that I will act like the child of God You have chosen me to be.  Let me remember, lest I fall for the devil’s schemes, that Your way is always best and known only to You.  Help me to be a confident Christian, waiting patiently for You to work Your plan in my life, revealing it miraculously to me and to others as You do.  Then, Lord, I know that You will have the glory in my life and I will have learned to love You more.  Help me not to fret, or be anxious, about the circumstances of my life.  Even, Lord, if those that are evil and do not follow You are seen by the world to prosper, let me not fret.  I know, Lord, if I start to be anxious or even envious, I might be tempted to become like those others who would pervert Your ways.  I need to remember that while they may seem to gain things in this world, that in the reality of Your eternal plan, they are really failing.  Help me to keep my eyes on Christ, my purposes and desires directed solely unto Him.  Help me to keep eternity’s values in view.  Thank You, Lord, that You will always prove faithful and will never let me down.  Help me to be like that towards You.

As I looked over this week’s verses, I kept remembering a hymn and wanted to share its words so you can carry them through the week:

TRUSTING JESUS

Simply trusting every day, Trusting through the stormy way;

Even when my faith is small, Trusting Jesus, that is all.

Brightly doth His Spirit shine Into this poor heart of mine;

While He leads I cannot fall; Trusting Jesus, that is all.

Singing if my way is clear; Praying if the path be drear;

If in danger, for Him call, Trusting Jesus, that is all.

Trusting Him while life shall last, Trusting Him til earth be past;

Til within the jasper wall; Trusting Jesus, that is all.

Trusting as the moments fly, Trusting as the days go by;

Trusting Him what-e’er befall, Trusting Jesus, that is all.