Psalm 18:7-10 “The earth itself shivered and shook. It reeled and rocked before him. As the mountains trembled, they melted away, for his anger was kindled on my behalf! Fierce flames leapt from his mouth, erupting with blazing, burning coals as smoke and fire encircled him. He stretched heaven’s curtain open and came to my defense. Swiftly he rode to earth as the stormy sky was lowered. He rode a chariot of thunderclouds amidst thick darkness; his steed was a cherub, soaring on outstretched wings of Spirit-Wind.” Today's episode talks about how God loves us individually. He hears each one of our prayers and reacts to each one individually. God does not have the same restraints we have. He knows all that is going on in your life and is ready to react as soon as you cry out. He loves you that much! Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
God’s Anger Was Kindled On My Behalf!
Psalm 18:7-10 “The earth itself shivered and shook. It reeled and rocked before him. As the mountains trembled, they melted away, for his anger was kindled on my behalf! Fierce flames leapt from his mouth, erupting with blazing, burning coals as smoke and fire encircled him. He stretched heaven’s curtain open and came to my defense. Swiftly he rode to earth as the stormy sky was lowered. He rode a chariot of thunderclouds amidst thick darkness; his steed was a cherub, soaring on outstretched wings of Spirit-Wind.”
In the last two episodes, I talked about Psalm 18. I explained that God is our rock and that we call on Him when we are in a time of need, and He is there for us. Yesterday, we talked about how our cries go right up to heaven and pierce the Lord’s heart. Today we are talking about how He responds to that cry.
The first line says, “The earth itself shivered and shook. It reeled and rocked before Him. As the mountains trembled, they melted away, for His anger was kindled on my behalf!” Can you imagine that? Close your eyes and imagine the whole earth shaking and shivering. Imagine the mountains trembling and then just melting away. Can you picture it? Now, imagine that all happened just because you cried out to the Lord. His anger was kindled on your behalf. There are billions of people on this earth, and the Lord hopped in a chariot of thunderclouds because you cried out to Him. That is pretty amazing!
I think the fact that the Lord cares for each one of us individually escapes us a lot of the time. We think of how big God is and how many people there are in the world, and we think that God loves us in a general way. Kind of like how a priest might say he loves his parishioners. He probably does love the people who attend the church. He would also probably help anyone that came and asked for it. However, the priest probably does not know every detail of every person’s life. This is how we can think of God sometimes. Yes, He loves us. He is our heavenly Father, and also, he has billions of children, so he can’t possibly know me personally. The reason we think this way is because the reality of God is so far beyond anything our mind can comprehend. His vastness is too much for us to understand truly.
God created you. He knit you together in your mother’s womb. (Psalm 139:13) He knows every hair on your head. God acts for each one of us at the same time. He can be solving your problem at the same time He is helping someone else on the other side of the world. He is not bound by the same things we are. He doesn’t have to obey the rules around time and space. He made time and space. There was nothing before God; He created all of it, so He is in control of all of it.
One line in the verse above that I really like is the one that says, “He stretched heaven’s curtain open and came to my defense.” I like this because it gives me a good visual. The whole verse is pretty easy to visualize, actually. It is a pretty descriptive verse today. However, I love thinking about there being a curtain to Heaven. Kinda like in Wizard of Oz, when the Great OZ was behind a curtain. I like to think of a curtain that God can just pull back to come to our defense. It’s not a wall, it’s not a door, it’s a curtain. A curtain isn’t hard to pull back. It isn’t hard to get through. A curtain provides pretty easy access.
I have never seen God, but I like the thought of Him getting so angry on my behalf that he would do half the things listed in the verse above. I think this verse shows us how powerful our prayers are. We call out to God, and He acts on our behalf. This is also a good reminder that we don't have to seek revenge; we can turn that over to God, and He will do what is right. God knows all that is going on in our lives. He knows all that has gone on in the past. He knows when someone offends us or does something bad to us. It angers Him when His children are hurt or mistreated. All we need to do is call out to the Lord, and He will come to our assistance.
This verse is a great reminder that we can call on the Lord and that He responds. It is a great reminder that He cares about each of us individually. Yes, God loves us all, and also He loves each one of us. He cares about all the little things in our lives. He knows all about those things you didn’t want Him to know about. He saw that thing that happened to you that you were too ashamed to tell Him about. He sees you, and He loves you. He wants to be there for you. He wants to take care of you. He just needs you to let Him. He just needs you to cry out to Him, and He will come running! That is how much God loves you! I will reread the verses above again. Close your eyes and imagine the verse is talking about you and what God is doing for you.
“The earth itself shivered and shook. It reeled and rocked before him. As the mountains trembled, they melted away, for his anger was kindled on my behalf! Fierce flames leapt from his mouth, erupting with blazing, burning coals as smoke and fire encircled him. He stretched heaven’s curtain open and came to my defense. Swiftly he rode to earth as the stormy sky was lowered. He rode a chariot of thunderclouds amidst thick darkness; his steed was a cherub, soaring on outstretched wings of Spirit-Wind.”
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we thank you for caring about us so much. We thank you for getting upset when we are wronged in some way. We thank you for responding so immediately at times. We thank you for responding so individually. Lord, we ask you to remind us to call out to you. We ask you to give us the strength when we don’t have it. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!
The Word of the Lord for today is, “I am an emblem on your heart. Don't forget you are branded by my love from birth. I have marked you as mine. Give me permission to fill you with my divine presence. I need you, children. The harvest is many the workers are few.”