Singing Psalm 48 for never ending guidance in a framework

He knows your frame. Weak. Fragile. Outside and in. You need guidance like you need air.
Can never ending guidance be found?
“But the anointing that you received from [the Holy Spirit] abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.” ~ 1 John 2:7
God’s never ending guidance is given to you within a framework that can be found in the full council of his word that you can apply by his Spirit. This mental framework keeps the Lord on his throne in every aspect of your life so that you don’t accidentally end up on it like Saul.
“So Saul died for his breach of faith. He broke faith with the LORD in that he did not keep the command of the LORD, and also consulted a medium, seeking guidance. He did not seek guidance from the LORD. Therefore the LORD put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David the son of Jesse.” ~ 1 Chronicles 10:13-14
“The sins of some are obvious, reaching the place of judgment ahead of them; the sins of others trail behind them.” ~ 1 Timothy 5:24
“Tomorrow’s rain will wash the stains away
But something in our minds will always stay.” ~ Fragile by Sting
When you have malice in your heart towards someone and you confess it, be careful to take it to God who is always available to you for never ending guidance. If you seek guidance from those who do not seek God’s presence, you might receive some of the worst advice in the history of guidance ever given as Haman did:
“‘Yet all this [honor] is worth nothing to me, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.’ Then his wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, ‘Let a gallows 50 cubits high be made, and in the morning tell the King to have Mordecai hang upon it. Then go joyfully with the king to the feast.’ This idea came in, and he had the gallows made.” ~ Esther 5:13-14
The Lord, in his never ending guidance, deprived the king of sleep that night and prompted him to ask for the book of memorable deeds to be read before him. That’s all it took for the tides to turn that set in motion a great exchange. Events unfolded where honor would be removed from Haman by means of his own prideful thoughts translated into words and given to Mordecai. And the death that was planned and prepared for Mordecai and the Jews landed on Haman and his family instead.
“Therefore they are before the throne of God,
and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.” ~ Revelation 7:15, ESV
God’s perfect shelter is extremely heartening for those moments when you are tempted and fall to the temptation. You desire to serve God more than you are able to, and yet he gives more grace as he guides you to endurance. You are awaiting a day when Jesus’ never ending guidance clothes you and erases every trace of physical, mental, and emotional stains by his blood. He completes every good work he began in you in spite of your failures and the failures of others. You are sheltered forever by his presence.
In contrast, see how those to whom Haman entrusted himself were there for him:
“But Haman returned to his house mourning, and with his head covered. And Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him. Then the wise men and his wife said to him, ‘If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of the Jewish people, you will not overcome him, but will surely fall before him.’” ~ Esther 6:12b-13
That’s it. Thus ended their guidance. What they predicted, came to pass. They could give him no grace, no mercy, no tender compassion, no hope. This is the result of seeking guidance from any place other than from the true God.
“He who sits on the throne will spread His tent over them.” ~ Revelation 7:15, EHV
“What we have heard of our God’s city,
We now have seen and know for sure,
The city of the LORD of Armies,
Which God forever makes secure.” ~ Psalm 48:8
Reading the short account about Haman in the book of Esther reinforces the Bible’s teaching on how pride comes before the fall, and how God humbles the proud and exalts the humble in due time directing you to cast your anxiety onto him in every situation. Because he cares for you he will therefore provide never ending guidance for you as you seek guidance from him.
The Lord teaches you how to listen for spoken and unspoken needs. You learn to listen with not only your ears, but with your responses in word and action, you are listening with your heart.
Whether you are confident with the competence that God has given you or tend to feel inadequate for the tasks at hand as I do, keep the Lord first in your thoughts. He will be tender with you and provide all that you need to either maintain confidence or to instill it in you. If you find that something is becoming so important that it’s crowding out your thoughts of God’s never ending guidance for you, heed your conscience’s warning, and run to Jesus. He will get your focus back where it needs to be lest you stop listening and continue down the path of unguided planning that leads to anxiety and not peace. Yet, even when you succumb to worry, you praise him for giving you more grace to overpower your sin. You come to your senses of who you are: a beloved bride resting in the bosom of her bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ, who laid down his life for his fragile bride, his church who is utterly dependent upon him.
Singing Psalm 48 for never ending guidance in your circumstances
The Lord is your shepherd guiding you, his sheep, in e v e r y t h i n g. In every little thing. In every big thing. There is nothing in which it is time to say, “I know what I’m doing. I can handle this without the Lord’s guidance.”
Whenever you are at a crossroads where you are unsure what to do, with whom, where, when, or how, you would benefit greatly to remember the never ending guidance of God. Ask. Seek. Knock. The Lord will show you the way to himself, the only way to peace in each
and every circumstance. He gives you the meaning, the why. Without that, why bother?
“We live in a world where funerals are more important than the deceased, [weddings are] more important than love, looks are more important than the soul. We live in a packaging culture that despises content.” ~ Sir Anthony Hopkins
Do you fancy the packaging more than what’s inside? The guitar more than relating to the one playing it? The show more than being changed on the inside after taking in words worth pondering? The food more than the company? Is the gift of more value to you than the giver of it? The talent to build or sing more than the one who gave the talent?
Even when the answer to those questions is yes, your God, with never ending kindness leads you to the better place. In his never ending guidance, he quickly led Mary to value learning from him while bringing her sister Martha along at a slower pace.
Which of you will be judged by whether or not you measure up to your neighbor— the things they said, the way they look, the things they do? Rather, in Christ, you will be judged by what you would have done if you could have done it, by your heart toward loving God with all that you are and loving your neighbor as Jesus loves you.
“And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’” ~ Matthew 25:40
God works in your circumstances to redeem you from the pit and set you on a new course. He alone does the redeeming and gives you the grace to walk with his never ending guidance as you do the good works that he has prepared in advance for you to do in the new life he has given you.
God does all the work to save you and then transforms your head, heart, and hands so that from then on, you work with God. You wonder at his great love. You are not saved by your works, but you are saved by Jesus’ blood to enable you to do good works out of your never ending gratitude for God’s gifts of salvation and never ending guidance that will bring you all the way home. This keeps you from boasting in or praising yourself and your accomplishments for, when you really understand this, how can you boast in or praise anything or anyone except the Lord?
“Within Your temple we have thought
Upon Your love, O God.
As is Your name, O God, Your praise
Is spread through earth abroad.
As is Your name, O God, Your praise
Is spread through earth abroad.” ~ Psalm 48:9–10
Singing Psalm 48 for never ending guidance in your heart
Whenever you give your heart away, you know that you are a recipient of God’s never ending guidance. Especially when it is not reciprocated back to you, a miracle happens. As newts’ limbs regenerate, the Lord regenerates and grows your heart such that there is more of it to give away.
And whenever your heart condemns you, know that God is greater than your heart and that his never ending guidance protects you in the citadel of Jesus. As you clothe yourself with Christ, you are enclosed within his protective walls. He forgives you and clears your conscience giving you confidence by the Holy Spirit of God that you abide in him and he in you.
Singing Psalm 48 reminds you to consider the protective walls of God‘s presence. Meditate on his never ending guidance, your citadel that protects you from not only enemies outside, but from enemies within. Enemies like oppressive self-consciousness, anxiety, unreasonableness, oversensitivity, or envy that threaten to undo you are invited or uninvited guests that will ultimately be driven out of you, out of God’s presence as Haman was escorted away from the king and queen to be led to his demise.
“Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” ~ Philippians 4:5-7
Going back to the beginning can help settle you on the inside in the midst of your journey all the way to the end, which is in a sense, the start of the “never ending ness” of God’s never ending guidance. If the Lord guided a single sperm cell to fertilize a single egg that grew to be you, and if he has guided you all the way through to the point where you now are, having survived countless near misses, can you not trust him to guide you now? How much more will he provide never ending guidance to lead you as your good Shepherd wherever it is he would have you go? Consider arguing from the greater to the lesser in this way to reorient yourself back to your senses.
Whenever your heart is moved to help someone, remember even there it is the never ending guidance of God at work. He moves the heart. He brings the harvest. In his perfect timing.
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ~ Matthew 6:25
It is the Lord that will enable you to value your body and your life as he intends you to. That there is a never ending guide providing never ending guidance to be relied upon is good news unparalleled. This is the kind of news you want to pass on.
“Thus you may generations tell,
For what a God is He!
He is our God forevermore,
Who guides eternally.
He is our God forevermore,
Who guides eternally.”~ Psalm 48:13b-14
November 25 – December 1, 2023
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