Fear No Fear

(All scripture from Lexham English Bible, Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software)

Praise Yahweh, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples. For his loyal love is mighty on our behalf, and the faithfulness of Yahweh is forever. Praise Yah!

Psalm 117

Faithfulness is keeping your word. It is remaining loyal and following through with the promises that you have made. It is HARD to be faithful because we say so many things. All the things. Imagine if every single word out of your mouth was a word you were held to. Everything was taken literally. No ‘just kidding’, no lies, no appeasement, no mostly true, no ‘white’ lies, no anything but 100% literal statements. Could you be faithful to that? Every ‘yeah, yeah, we’ll do/get that’ aside to the kids just to get them to shut up for a minute. Every statement about you’ll do something. Every single one. Could you be faithful to all that? I don’t know as ANY human can. That is the level of faithful that Adonai holds Himself to.

This psalm is the shortest chapter in the whole bible, but it contains truth that is almost bigger than any other chapter in the whole bible. It shows us Adonai’s place in existence. It shows us ours. It shows us His great love for us and the lengths that He has gone to in order to demonstrate it to us. It shows us the truth of the Word and how we can rely on it AS truth. It shows us Adonai’s consistency and constancy. It shows us our proper response to Him as He is. It shows us our proper response to Him for what He has done. If we understand Him AT ALL, this will be our response: praise. We can’t help it. It is the natural order of things. So if we aren’t praising Him regardless of our circumstances (Acts 16:25-26; Hebrews 13:15; James 1:2), we aren’t understanding Adonai in terms of those circumstances.

“Be gracious to me, O God, be gracious to me, because in you my soul takes refuge. In the shadow of your wings I will take refuge until destruction passes by” (Psalm 57:1). The psalmist often speaks of enemies surrounding him, slander coming against him, trials, and tribulations. In the vast majority of those psalms crying out to Adonai, you will also find MANY praises to Adonai. Not praising in order to get a response, but praising because He is Adonai Elohim. Period. Praising Him and also asking for help. Praising Him acknowledging He is Adonai Elohim over all. Praising Him because the psalmist is alive and everything alive should be praising Adonai. The psalms are a FANTASTIC tool to learn HOW and WHEN to praise Adonai. Whenever we find ourselves in need of praise to Him but are unsure of what to say, flipping through the psalms for inspiration or just praising the psalm to Him ALWAYS succeeds.

Ruach HaKodesh prays for us and through us when we do not have the words to say (Romans 8:26). But He cannot praise Himself for us. WE must praise. If we have breath, we have a requirement to praise Adonai (Psalm 150:6). Yes, animals make sounds in order to communicate, call out for mates, attract prey, etc. How much of their sounds, though, are praise to Adonai? Not singing with intent to praise, but singing (or calling/making sounds) because they CAN and doing what you are designed to do is a form of praise to Adonai? I wonder. The Word says that all creation praises Adonai – even inanimate objects – so there is a component of praise in every single created thing. We, however, are the ONLY ones who can do it with intent. Spirit to Spirit. It is US who needs to praise. No one and no thing can do it for us.

Ruach HaKodesh has a vital role in our praise, though. It is two-fold (at least). First, He brings to our minds the scriptures that will help us. He brings to mind the things Adonai has done for us. He brings to mind what Jesus has done, is doing, and will do for us. He is our reminder that shows us EXACTLY WHY we should be praising Adonai. It’s always good to know the why when we are giving thanks. As a family, we take communion daily. As part of our remembering Jesus (Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:18-20; 1 Corinthians 11:23-25), we state two unique things every day that He has done for us. A wound healed, a particular guidance, a victory, a good time of fellowship, etc. It can be anything as long as we are not repeating. So far we haven’t had a need to. Adonai does so much for us that we can acknowledge Him daily for what He has done. Remembering Him and Who He Is. It also helps breed an atmosphere of eager expectation for what He is going to do next – and how we can be humbly submitted in preparation for it.

The second thing that comes to mind about Ruach HaKodesh and our praise is that He RESPONDS to it. Only trust in Jesus has a greater ability to get a response from Ruach HaKodesh. When we move in praise to Adonai, He moves with us. He is a moving Ruach (Genesis 1:2). He encourages us to move as well. And together, we move before Adonai and with Adonai. Praise and worship is an interactive experience. “And the cloud covered the tent of assembly, and the glory of Yahweh filled the tabernacle” (Exodus 40:34). “And the priests were not able to stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of Yahweh filled the house of God” (2 Chronicles 5:14). “And when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in the same place. And suddenly a sound like a violent rushing wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. And divided tongues like fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them” (Acts 2:1-3). Ruach HaKodesh RESPONDS to us. When we praise He brings Himself as the Presence of the Living God into the same space we occupy. And with the Presence comes all the benefits of the Presence: hope (Jeremiah 29:11; Romans 15:13), favour (Psalm 5:11-12), joy (Psalm 16:11), protection (Psalm 91:1), and peace (Exodus 33:14; Isaiah 26:3; 1 Corinthians 14:33) – this is not an exhaustive list.

Our praise is helped by Ruach HaKodesh, guided or advised by Ruach HaKodesh, and responded to by Ruach HaKodesh. There is no limits to the benefits of praise. It brings us into fellowship with Adonai. It aligns our souls with His Ruach. It makes us receptive to the Word and the corrections of Ruach HaKodesh. It helps us put our lives and our circumstances into perspective. It is the foundation of our humble submission to Him. And it bolsters both our trust in Jesus and our belief in Adonai. We praise Him – and ALL the nations will come to praise Him – because of all that He has done for us, is doing for us, and will do in the future. His faithfulness is the reason we praise (among others). It is ALWAYS a reason to praise – even when we lose sight of the others. It should CALL us to worship Him. He IS faithful and He IS worthy of praise.

Daily Affirmation of the Goodness of Elohim: Psalm 26:8

“O Yahweh, I love the dwelling of your house, and the place where your glory abides” ‘There is a place that I like to dwell’ starts out one of my favourite Nathaniel Bassey songs. The presence of our Father is THE place to be. It is the ONLY place worth being. And we have been allowed to carry it with us, and to be connected to it, 24/7 year round. Oh, imagine if we would. If only we WOULD seek to be in His presence all the time. There is no reason NOT to. There is no reason we CAN’T. It IS possible. Jesus dwelt in the presence of His Father all the time. He had to go apart to fast and pray to remain in it (Luke 6:12), but that is the same for ALL men – and Jesus was fully man as well as fully Adonai. We need to do what He did. He went to church. He prayed. He fasted. He spent time alone. He sought His father before big decisions. He thanked Him. He shared everything with Him – celebrations and griefs. Jesus was CONNECTED to the Father. We can be CONNECTED too (John 15:5). Since Jesus is STILL connected, when we are connected to HIM we are connected THROUGH Him to the Father. We can praise Him at ALL times in ALL circumstances (Psalm 34:1; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). We can have Ruach HaKodesh responding to our trust in Jesus, our belief in Adonai, and our praise of Adonai all the time. No matter WHAT we are doing. Adonai MADE humans the way we are, so everything we do can be done in righteousness and godliness. We NEVER have to be without the presence of Adonai. That is how He designed us. To have fellowship with Him all the time. What a GREAT GIFT! What a GOOD God!

Your Daily Confession of Elohim’s Goodness:

I taste and see that Yahweh is good; I am blessed because I take refuge in Him.

Psalm 34:8