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   A Musician Looks at the Psalms
   Devotion for Friday , November 06, 2009
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Selection Taken From:
A Musician Looks at the Psalms: 365 Daily Meditations by Don Wyrtzen

This devotion is like a "modern-day psalter, written by one who has grappled with the hard realities of life in the workplace, at home, and in the secret sanctuary of his own heart. Like the psalmists, he does not offer pat answers to complex problems. Rather, he strips away the superficialities he encounters in daily living and probes all one hundred and fifty psalms for the light they shed on his spiritual pilgrimage." Copyright 2004 by Don Wyrtzen, published by Broadman & Holman Publishers

PRESENT BLESSINGS

How happy is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in His ways! You will surely eat what your hands have worked for. You will be happy, and it will go well for you. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house, your sons, like young olive trees around your table. In this very way the man who fears the LORD will be blessed (vv. 1- 4). - Psalm 128

Blessed (supremely happy) is the person who has meaningful work and a fruitful family." This paraphrase of Psalm 128 reduces the abundant life to its simplest terms. Yet many in our contemporary society, including Christians, take such humble gifts for granted and expect more!
Solomon, in all of his brilliance and wisdom, takes us back to the basics. Fearing God (reverencing and obeying him) will bring blessing, he states, Then he enumerates the gifts of grace that follow: food to sustain life, productive work, and family. The wife and mother is depicted as a "fruitful vine"; the children, “like young olive trees" (v. 3). This metaphor of a bountiful table is God's true picture of prosperity and happiness, not material wealth.

Personal Prayer
Lord, help me to fear you and walk in your way today.
Give my wife and children a special touch of your grace so they
may bask in the happiness of your presence with them.

A Gospel Song
Count Your Blessings
Count your blessings-name them one by one;
Count your blessings-see what God bath done;
Count your blessings-name them one by one;
Count your many blessings-see what God hath done.
When you look at others with their lands and gold,
Think that Christ has promised you His wealth untold:
Count your many blessings-money cannot buy
Your reward in heaven nor your home on high.
Words by Johnson Oarman Jr. Music by Edwin O. Excell.

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