Trivia:
Good job everyone, the Beetles were the group who sang the hit song "Hey Jude."
Which celebrity is related to Abraham Lincoln? Tom Hanks; Jimmy Fallon; Tom Cruise; Clint Eastwood.
Challenge:
Psalm 89:38-45 "But now you have rejected him and cast him off. You are angry with your annointed king. 39 You have renounced Your covenant with him; you have thrown his crown in the dust. 40 You have broken down the walls protecting him, and ruined every fort defending him. 41 Everyone who comes along has robbed him, and he has become a joke to his neighbors. 42 You have strengthened his enemies and made them all rejoice. 43 You have made his sword useless and refused to help him in battle. 44 You have ended his splendor and overturned his throne. 45 You have made him old before his time and publicly disgraced him."
As we move forward in this Psalm we must remember that this Psalm was written by Ethan the Ezrahite and he is writing beyond David's reign, even beyond Solomon, and of the catastrophe that followed Solomon's son Rehoboam, who decided to tax the people so heavily that the ten northern tribes broke away from his rule and crowned their own king, Jeroboam.
Then Jeroboam commissioned golden calves to be place in his part of the country so that his subjects wouldn't feel they must worship in Jerusalem. Due to this breaking up of the kingdoms and the failure to worship the true and living God, this resulted in the nation becoming unsteady, and shaken.
Ethan is prophetically speaking of the many problems that the kingdom experienced in its future, due to the leadership the godless leadership that followed, the Assyrians, Babylonians, and finally, ultimately the antichrist.
Ethan could no longer see the promises the Lord had made to David being fulfilled. In the last third of the Psalm Ethan is compelled to pray to the Lord. Now that the nation was split he wasn't able to know of the promise/covenant that God had made. How that ultimately Jesus would come to rule and reign His people one day.
This section is describing him as though speaking of David, but he is speaking of the kingdom of man, when Solomon's sons turned their back on God and His commands. They became now just a kingdom like any other nation, and without God and His leadership they are weak men, who no longer follow after God and the spiritual leaders that He brings blessings too.
Because of these steps of disobedience the nation once strong and stable, have become weak and like all other nations. For without God as our leader, we are weak and susceptible to man's influences. This section of the chapter helps us see just how much we need God in our lives. For without His leadership and blessings we are limited, weak, and constantly changeable.
SO GO WITH GOD and we will rather than experiencing the common failures of life without God's blessings, we will find our lives no longer having the long term blessings that obedience to Him brings.
Eastwood