The Plumbline

1   Count yourself lucky, how happy you must be—you get a fresh start,   your slate's wiped clean.     2   Count yourself lucky— God   holds nothing against you   and you're holding nothing back from him.   3   When I kept it all inside,  my bones turned to powder,   my words became daylong groans.   4   The pressure never let up;   all the juices of my life dried up.     5   Then I let it all out;   I said, "I'll make a clean breast of my failures to   God ."  S uddenly the pressure was gone— my guilt dissolved,  my sin disappeared. (Psalm 32:1-5) I could have inserted this entire Psalm this morning to share the awesomeness of our God in his absolute forgiveness, but I wanted to share just these first five verses because they speak volumes in themselves.  David says, "Count yourself lucky."  We often use this phrase, "I am so lucky", often without realizing what it mean...

6-7  Blessed be  God —he heard me praying. He proved he's on my side; I've thrown my lot in with him.  Now I'm jumping for joy, and shouting and singing my thanks to him.    8-9   God  is all strength for his people, ample refuge for his chosen leader; save your people and bless your heritage.  Care for them; carry them like a good shepherd.  (Psalm 28:6-9) David had been through a rough stretch in his life.  Companions had turned against him, conspiring to destroy him and keep him from the role as leader of the kingdom.  The constant running, the immediate danger, had caused David to cry out to God for help.  In his cry, he says he has "thrown his lot in with God" - in other words, he has abandoned his own way of doing things and now completely relies on God to be all that is needed in the moment.  David exclaims with such joyful exuberance that god has heard him praying.  It is probabl...

1-2   Attention, Israel! This very day you are crossing the Jordan to enter the land and dispossess nations that are much bigger and stronger than you are. You're going to find huge cities with sky-high fortress-walls and gigantic people, descendants of the Anakites—you've heard all about them; you've heard the saying, "No one can stand up to an Anakite."     3  Today know this:  God , your God, is crossing the river ahead of you—he's a consuming fire. He will destroy the nations, he will put them under your power. You will dispossess them and very quickly wipe them out, just as  God  promised you would.  (Deut. 9:1-3) Israel, a nation chosen by God to be his people, was called out of slavery to be given a land flowing with milk and honey - a blessed land for a chosen people.  They had spent 40 years wandering around the small wilderness region between Egypt's border and the land of Canaan - they promised land.  Now, after many years ...