"David Thanks God"

PSALMS 144  [A Psalm of David.]

  Whether or not you believe it, God is in total control. Things might not appear that way, with all the unjust things that are happening throughout the world; but the world is still ultimately under the ownership of God: He created it, He owns it, and He gets to remake it, any way and any time that He chooses. If you are looking for some sort of utopia or world peace to happen, you might be very disappointed by what you see; but if you are, as you should be, looking for the Lord to come for His church, then what you see should make you excited and expectant for His coming! The previous four Psalms were most likely written during or about the time before David was actually king; during the times when he was being pursued by Saul, or the times when he was hiding out and wondering what to do next about his situation. This Psalm is different, in that David is king; yet his troubles are not over, they have just taken on a different appearance and a level of responsibility. Not sure if I have shared this before, but having owned a business for the last thirty years, I have had the chance to see and live out a little bit of what David might be feeling. The carefree experience of just working for someone and just being told what to do, it is something you lose when you have your own business. The grass is always greener on the other side; but once you get on that other side, your find out how hard it is to keep your grass green. There is no such thing as 9 to 5 when you are working for yourself or running a business. That said, David is now experiencing life on a whole new level. This is where we need to start, restart, and continue with, all the days of our lives: by giving thanks to God! Not only is God in control, but everything that we have is His; nothing we have belongs to us, it is all on loan from God. As this is the case, the more stuff the Lord allows for you to manage, the more responsibility you have in your life; that includes people, such as family and employees, and even friends and enemies. We must acknowledge the fact that this is how it is; appreciating God's goodness, no matter what anyone else might have, we have enough; because what we have is really not our property, but God's. If God wants you to have more, than God will allow you to obtain it; but we must remember that it still will always belong to God. That is pretty much the motivation behind a cheerful giver; he is not giving away his money, it is God's in the first place; he is just cheerful that God has blessed him with it, so he is happy to give some back. Anyhow; I hope you can see where David is coming from, because his responsibilities in life have taken on a whole new set of troubles...

"O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit. Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods? Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is The LORD." (Jeremiah 16:19-21)