"A Cry for Help"

PSALMS 86 [A Prayer of David.] (Verse 1:) "Bow down thine ear, O LORD, hear me: for I am poor and needy."
You can't tell me that there is not some kind of link from Psalm to Psalm, because there surely is. Even if Ezra was not the one who put these Psalms in order, the Holy Spirit did, no matter who was the man that worked on putting them in some sort of order. It was pretty obvious that David was not the author of the previous Psalm, but that does not does not mean a Psalm that was written some 500 years before could not follow after it. If you wondered why I changed my pattern of starting each Psalm, it is all about timing; that's all that I will say about that for now, so don't dwell on it. As we left off yesterday, there was the need to be connected with God's mercy; not just as the receiver of His mercy, but as someone who lives God's mercy. The King James version of Galatians 2:21, says, "I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." It's pretty close to the NLT, but as with most translations, there is something lost in the way that new translations interpret what is being said. The point that Paul is making speaks much more than making God's grace 'meaningless,' because the point has more to do with accepting His grace, and then adding works to it; which is why "frustrate" is a word that better suits for that particular application. On the other hand, you could accept the term "meaningless" as the way to interpret what "grace" might represent; because if grace needs to stand alone by itself, adding anything to it would count it as meaningless; if that makes any sense to anyone out there. However, in the context of what Paul is actually saying, none of that actually makes any sense, because we are dead in Christ; so what we do or don't do, doesn't really matter, it's all about Christ living in us. In other words, it is grace, not that God's grace is only His merciful kindness that brings us to exercise Christian values; but His grace is the spiritual condition that we are in, with Christ living in us, that we might be governed by the power of His divine grace and not by the law. The law is only there to remind us how needy we truly are of God's mercy and grace. Moving on, prayer requires that those lifting up holy hands to a Holy God, actually have a right to get His attention. What better way do we have than to be poor and needy...
"Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ's death was made as clear to you as if you had a picture of his death on the cross. Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of Course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. How foolish can you be? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort? Have you experienced so much for nothing? Surely it was not in vain, was it? I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ." (Galatians 3:1-5) NLT