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December 18: He remembers us.
Psalms 115:1-14:
Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to Your name give glory, because of Your mercy, because of Your truth. Why should the Gentiles say, “So where is their God?” But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak; eyes they have, but they do not see; they have ears, but they do not hear; noses they have, but they do not smell; they have hands, but they do not handle; feet they have, but they do not walk; nor do they mutter through their throat. Those who make them are like them; so is everyone who trusts in them. O Israel, trust in the Lord; He is their help and their shield. O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord; He is their help and their shield.
You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord; He is their help and their shield. The Lord has been mindful of us;
He will bless us; He will bless the house of Israel; He will bless the house of Aaron. He will bless those who fear the Lord, both small and great. May the Lord give you increase more and more, you and your children.
Psalms 116:12-19:
What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits toward me? I will take up the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of all His people. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. O Lord, truly I am Your servant; I am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant; You have loosed my bonds. I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of all His people, in the courts of the Lord’s house, in the midst of you, O Jerusalem.
Like most psalms, these two psalms we are studying today are declarations of full trust in the Lord.
Psalm 115 makes a contrast between the living God and the other gods of the other nations. The other gods are represented and designed with different materials such as stone, clay, wood, metal such as gold and silver. Their figures are formed with "imaginary" figures that the same human being has given to each of the gods that they profess to worship.
As we have already said before, each element of the earth is represented by a God: water, rain, sun, love, war and peace, etc. Each civilization has adopted its own "god", worshiping several but choosing their favorite.
In contrast, the people of Israel worshiped a God who appeared to them through a dark cloud and fire on Mount Sinai when they were freed from slavery in Egypt.
The Lord was clear with them that He did not show them any image, animal or human figure, so that they would not make an idol to represent Him.
That is why the people of Israel were different from the others because they did not have a specific image that represented the God of Israel, but they had a temple and an ark that they transported wherever they went and in that ark that glorious cloud of God was manifested when they worshiped the Lord.
That is the God we worship today. Although God manifested Himself as a man and died on the cross of Calvary, we still don't worship Him in front of an image but we close our eyes, kneel and talk with Him because we understand that He is God who fills the heavens and the earth. Every time you call the Lord in prayer invoking the name of Jesus, He makes Himself present there.
The 116 is the psalm of someone who felt death closely, was in a critical moment and thought that he was not going to get out of that circumstance, but he cried out to the Lord and God delivered him. For this he feels grateful and does not know how to pay the Lord, and he can only make a toast, not of wine but of salvation, proclaiming in public that God saves and delivers from death.
That is why the death of those who love...