“Let the saints rejoice in this honor and sing for joy on their beds.”
~ Psalm 149:5
Hi James and Ellen,
How do you feel when a kid hits you when you have done absolutely nothing to the kid to make the kid want to hit you? How do you feel when a kid criticizes you when you have done absolutely nothing to the kid to make the kid want to criticize you? If you have not yet been tormented by a kid, there is a very good chance that you will be someday soon. Ask your dad when he was a kid if he was ever hit and/or tormented by a kid. Ask your dad how he felt when his bike was stolen from behind the house where he was living in Chicago with your grandmaa, grandpaa and Aunt Lynn. Your dad when he found out that his bike had been stolen was worried that the kid who stole his bike would get his pants caught in the bike’s chain – which would sometime happen to your dad. When you are being criticized by a kid or by your dad and/or ma or by a teacher, you are being arbitrarily informed that you have done something wrong or that you could have done something better than what you did or that the kid or your dad and/or ma or your teacher who is criticizing you thinks that he or she can do what you did better than what you did. How do you feel when you are criticized? Your grandpaa thinks that being criticized hurts worse than anything else especially when the guy or gal who is criticizing your grandpaa has no reason for criticizing him. Your grandpaa really has a hard time accepting criticism. Your grandpaa knows that he has criticized and does criticize guys and gals but . . . now that your grandpaa is an old guy, your grandpaa tries to focus on what the guy who he is talking to does and is doing well and not on what the guy has not done and is not doing well. Your grandpaa now tries to always encourage guys who he is talking to by reinforcing the things that the guys have done and are doing well. Your grandpaa really believes now that a guy or gal – such as one of the missionary guys or gals who is on his field missionary team, will do better in what he or she is doing if your grandpaa encourages that missionary guy or gal to continue to do well what he or she is doing well and that he is not to focus on trying to get the missionary guy or gal to change in order to do better in what he or she has not done and is not doing very well. Doing a written evaluation on each missionary unit who is scheduled to leave for the United States for a furlough break comes with the territory of being the Field Director for the Guatemala Equipo SEPAL field missionary team. A section that is part of the evaluation form that your grandpaa is required to use for each missionary unit – a unit being a guy and/or gal, who is scheduled to leave Guatemala to begin a furlough in the United States has questions asking about the strengths and weaknesses that your grandpaa has seen exhibited in the missionary unit. Ever since your grandpaa has had to fill out the evaluation form – with one exception, your grandpaa has lined out the side where your grandpaa is to note the weak areas that your grandpaa has observed in the life of the missionary unit who he is evaluating
There are times when it is necessary to take a hit that really hurts The Israelite people group’s guys, gals and kids – God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids, took a really hard hit from God when God had Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army take them away from the houses where they were living in in Jerusalem and in Judea to Babylonia to live. God’s specially chosen guys and gals had decided that instead of listening to their Father God, that they would talk to dumb, inanimate gods that were made from wood, stone and metal by guys who were living on planet Earth. Insolent disobedience to specific commands that God the Father categorically expects His specially chosen and elected guys and gals to always obey will invariably have these guys or gals who God specially chose and elected before He created planet Earth to be harshly disciplined by Him.
Psalm 149 is a psalm song that was written after God’s specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group’s guys and gals, had returned to their houses in Jerusalem and in Judea after having lived for seventy years in Babylonia. God’s specially chosen guys and gals learned a lesson while they were living in Babylonia. The lesson that God’s specially chosen guys and gals learned was that as they trusted in God that God would help them. As God’s specially chosen guys and gals learned to trust in God, God’s specially chosen guys and gals began to sense more and more Who God really is and how God sees them. When this psalm song was written – which was probably somewhere around 2500 years ago, God was seeing His specially chosen guys and gals as saints. God sees His specially elected guys and gals today as saints. Verse 5 says, “Let the saints rejoice in this honor and sing for joy on their beds.” When God’s specially chosen people woke up to sensing having God’s grace in their lives – and the salvation that He had crowned their lives with, God’s specially chosen guys and gals wanted to honor God’s glory and majesty by singing a new song to Him. As God’s specially chosen guys and gals worshipped God through this liturgical song of prayer and praise, God filled their lives with joy – which had God’s specially chosen guys and gals singing to God when they went to bed and as they lay in their beds. Do you sing to God when you go to bed? This psalm song does not end with God being praised by His specially chosen guys and gals for having saved them from their enemies; this psalm song ends with God’s specially chosen guys and gals thanking and praising God for His bringing vengeance and retribution or payback on the enemy people group’s guys and gals who had hurt them. Your grandpaa is learning that God through avenging for him will deal with the guys and gals who hurt him with words.
Your grandmaa and grandpaa hope that you are learning from God to always let Him stand up to your tormenters.
Psalm 149 (308)