DAYS OF PRAISE PING"Days of Praise"
From the Institution for Creation Research (ICR)
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God bless you.
Posted on 08/25/2008 12:59:18 PM PDT by Sopater
"I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye." (Psalm 32:8)
The "instruction" of which this verse speaks is so important, the Hebrew word is incorporated in its very title. Psalm 32 is the first of the 14 psalms which are headed by the title Maschil ("Instruction"). These 14 psalms occur in the following symmetrical pattern: one of them in Book 1 of the psalms; four each in Books 2, 3, and 4; and one in Book 5.
This psalm (32) contains David's personal testimony of intense soul-searing conviction following his awful sin in the matter of Bathsheba, with whom he had committed adultery, and her husband (Uriah), whom he had arranged to have slain in battle so that he could have Bathsheba for his own wife. His bones had "waxed old" (literally "wasted away") and God's "hand was heavy upon me" (vv. 3-4), until finally "I acknowledged my sin unto thee," and "thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin" (v. 5). Once a sinning saint has come to God in confession and true repentance, there is indeed real forgiveness and cleansing, and the happiness of salvation is restored. Thus David could begin his psalm with "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven!" The word "blessed" means "happy," and this 32nd psalm is only the second one in the psalms to begin with "blessed" (the first was Psalm 1). The one and only way to relieve guilt and depression is by confession of sin, genuine repentance, and then by restitution to anyone injured by the sin, if possible.
This, indeed, is sound instruction! God desires his children not to be "as the horse, or as the mule," (that have to be guided forcibly (v. 9), but to be so in tune with His word and His will that He can guide them gently and quietly, like a mother who directs an obedient and loving child merely by the look in her eye (the word "teach" actually means "direct"). The happy life is one of obedience to the guiding eye of the Lord. HMM
DAYS OF PRAISE PINGYes, indeed!
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