There is a lot of anticipation of heaven in these psalms today. Obviously these were written years before the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus so the faith evidenced in some of these verses is outstanding.
But God will redeem my life from the grave; he will surely take me to himself. Psalm 49:15
How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty!
My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
Psalm 84:1-2
Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. Psalm 84:10
The Lord will write in the register of the peoples: "This one was born in Zion". Psalm 87:6
I wonder if we'll actually get to see the list? To see our names written in the register?
I haven't finished reading it yet, but the book Heaven by Randy Alcorn is simply an amazing book. There is a lot more written about heaven in the Bible than I previously thought, and there's a lot of misconceptions and downright myths about heaven that even Christians believe (you know, like that heaven will be a neverending church service). There's also Heaven for Kids which is a great book even for adults to read first to wrap your head around all the concepts.
God has placed eternity in the hearts of each one of us. We long for our intended home. These psalms reflect a bit of that longing and I think it's incredible especially since the writers did not have our 20/20 hindsight with the entire OT and NT at our fingertips.
Tomorrow's reading: Psalm 1-2, 10, 33, 71, 91
4 comments:
Well, you probably know my story about that book. If you don't...i'll tell ya:)
We went throught the kids one with my kids after their Papa passed and it was SO healing to them, and us as a family. I cannot second your recomendation enough but then, you know, I'm an Alcorn fan all the way.
BTW, did you know you can have him on your FB page? I don't know, maybe you do all ready. I love to read his tid-bits.
"No man can by any means
redeem his brother
Or give to God a
ransom for him--
For the redemption of his soul is costly,
And he should cease trying forever-- "
This verse stood out to me. Sometimes our hearts can really hurt for those we love to come to salvation but it reminded me that work is completely God's. I cannot pray anyone into heaven so though I pray for them, I cannot wear guilt that I don't pray enough. There is no meter that is hit when my prayers have been plenty enough, my prayer does not wear God down to give in to what I desparately want. If my efforts were to work at some point, it would make Christ work a joke. As the verse says, I could go on and on forever. So praying or working at this with the attitude that I just need to try harder is a waste of my time. This may apply to my children one day too (though I hope to be spared that of course!). I can pray again and again for them to keep myself in humble submission to the perfect will of God whether it goes my way or not. Trusting God fully and praying for the motivation of HIs will only will keep my heart and mind in peace along the way. I can pay no ransome for the soul of anyone. It's a good verse against praying someone out of purgatory!
"All my springs of joy are in you."
Well...I just loved that.
Why is it in quotes though in the text? Do you know?
Oh, my goodness, I just wrote this long comment with thoughts on the passages and it's lost. I don't have time to pull it up from my brain again. Maybe I'll come back later.
Those books are awesome. That was part of what I said too. You probably knew I liked them though:)
Two verses really stuck out for me:
Psalm 48:14 ~ "For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end." I need to remind myself of this a little more often and remember to RELY on it!
And Psalm 49:20 ~ "A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish." I'm thinkin' wisdom is important, especially where money is concerned! Finding out how and for what God wants it used need to be our priority.
Alicia - "all my springs of joy are in you" - which psalm is that from?
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