Daily Lesson for Sunday 14th of January 2024

Creation plays a crucial role in the Psalms, in upholding God’s sovereignty. The heavens, which are “His handiwork,” proclaim His glory and power (Psalms 19:1-4, Psalms 97:6). God’s name is majestic in all the earth (Psalms 8:1,9).

Image © Lars Justinen at Goodsalt.com

The Lord has created everything; He has no beginning (Psalms 93:2) and no end (Psalms 102:25-27). He is everlasting and superior over the gods of the nations, which are only “the work of men’s hands” (Psalms 115:4), nothing more. The idols “have hands, but they handle not” (Psalms 115:7); as for the Lord, “in his hand are the deep places of the earth . . . and his hands formed the dry land” (Psalms 95:4-5).

Several psalms portray God’s power over the forces in nature that other nations believed to be divine (e.g. Psalms 29:1-11, Psalms 93:1-5, and Psalms 104:1-35). These psalms reassert the claim that the Lord reigns over all creation and is supreme in power and dignity. Psalms 100:3 strikes one subtle form of idolatry—self-reliance, stressing that God made us, “and not we ourselves.”

Creation also testifies to God’s love. Everything that exists owes its existence to God, who also sustains life (Psalms 95:7, Psalms 147:4-9). Notice that God not only granted people existence but He also made ancient Israel “His people and the sheep of His pasture” (Psalms 100:3, NKJV). The notion of “His people” and “His sheep” reveals God’s desire for a close relationship with His people.

Only the Creator has the power to bless and cause His people to increase, and thus, He is the only One worthy of their worship and trust. Numerous psalms call everything that has breath, all the earth, the sea, and everything in it to shout for joy before the Lord.

The glory of God is seen in the creation, even in the fallen earthly creation, and the Psalms point us to God alone as worthy of worship.

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/24a-03-the-lord-has-made-us/

Daily Lesson for Saturday 13th of January 2024

Image © Pacific Press

Read for This Week’s Study

Psalms 8:1-9, Psalms 100:1-5, Psalms 97:1-12, Psalms 75:1-10, Psalms 105:7-10, Galatians 3:26-29, Psalms 25:10.

Memory Text:

“The Lord reigns, he is robed in majesty; the Lord is robed in majesty and armed with strength; indeed, the world is established, firm and secure” (Psalms 93:1, NIV).

The Psalms unswervingly uphold the foundational belief in God’s sovereign reign. The Lord created and sustains everything that He had created. He is the Sovereign King over the whole world, and He rules the world with justice and righteousness. His laws and statutes are good and bring life to those who keep them. The Lord is a just Judge who ensures that the world remains well ordered, and He does so by rewarding the righteous and punishing the wicked, but in His time, not ours.

God’s covenant with Israel plays a special role in securing the world because it heralds the Lord’s salvation. The Lord adopted Israel as His prized possession, making Israel, of all the nations, His people. The Lord is faithful to His covenant and continues to care for His flock despite their unfaithfulness and, at times, open rebellion.

The Lord’s sovereign rule thus renders the world firmly established and secure. The psalmists want the reader to understand this foundational truth. With this worldview as their lighthouse, the psalmists seek to thrive and to serve God with undivided devotion.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, January 20.

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/24a-03-the-lord-reigns/

True or False: God does not always answer prayers about our troubles. Join us as we discuss Lesson 2, Teach Us to Pray.

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Inside Story for Friday 12th of January 2024

By Andrew McChesney

Radostin disliked his life. His friends did not exert a good influence over him. He dabbled in illegal drugs and petty crime. The constant cry of his heart was, “I want to change, I want to change, I want to change.”

Growing older, Radostin got married and had two sons. Times were tough, and he left his homeland of Bulgaria in search of work. As he worked in Western Europe, he made new friends. He longed for truth. He wished that his new friends would reveal the truth to him. Now, the constant cry of his heart was, “How can people who know the real truth find me?”

After some time, he moved again in search of a better job. But in six weeks, he hit rock bottom. He found himself living in a small, rented room with no money and no food. He was very, very hungry.

In desperation, his heart cried out to God one night.

“God, help me,” he said, praying for the first time in his life. “Send me someone.”

In the morning, someone knocked on his door. It was a man in a suit. In his hand was a Bible. Radostin understood that God had sent the man in answer to his prayer.

The man, Paul, brought food for Radostin to eat. He invited him to church. Radostin went and was surprised. He had never been to a house of worship where he sensed God’s love. His heart was touched, and he wept.

Returning to Bulgaria, he told his family repeatedly about meeting God and experiencing His love at Paul’s church. He longed to return to the church, but he wasn’t sure that his wife would agree to even move. Like himself, she had been raised in another world religion.

He prayed, “God, if it is Your will, if You are God, help. If Paul’s church is Your true church, send my family and me there. I want to have a complete change in my life.”

One day, Radostin’s wife abruptly announced, “I don’t want to live in Bulgaria. I want to live in the city of Paul’s church.”

With those words, Radostin realized that it was God’s will for his family to move. He also realized that his wife wanted to know God. The family moved. Today, Radostin is an active member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and goes to Paul’s church every Sabbath.

Times still can be tough, but he is no longer worried. “We don’t pray for God to give us everything, but we pray that He will protect us from evil,” he told Adventist Mission. “We ask that He helps us to live through trials.”

He has no doubt that God hears his prayers. “I was not a good person as a young man,” he said. “But, praise God, He really has changed my heart!”

Thank you for your support of Adventist Mission, whose Global Mission Centers help people better understand how to share the good news of salvation with precious people from other world religions. For more information, visit globalmissioncenters.org.

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/24a-02-inside-story-cry-of-radostins-heart/

Daily Lesson for Friday 12th of January 2024

Read Psalms 42:8 and Ellen G. White, “Poetry and Song,” pp. 159–168, in Education. How are prayer and song related according to these inspired texts?

Ellen G. White describes David’s penitent psalms (e.g. Psalms 51:1-19) as the language of his soul and prayers that illustrate the nature of true sorrow for sin (see Steps to Christ, pp. 24, 25). She encourages believers to memorize texts from the Psalms as the means of fostering the sense of God’s presence in their lives and highlights Jesus’ practice of lifting His voice with psalms when met with temptation and oppressive fear. She also remarks: “How often by words of holy song are unsealed in the soul the springs of penitence and faith, of hope and love and joy! . . . Indeed, many a song is prayer.”—Education, pp. 162–168.

When we pray and sing the Psalms, we assume the persistence, boldness, courage, and hope of the psalmists. They encourage us to continue our spiritual journey and comfort us that we are not alone. Other people, like us, have gone through dark times and yet were triumphant by the grace of God. At the same time, the Psalms reveal to us the glimpses of Christ’s fervent intercession on our behalf, as He always lives to pray for us (Hebrews 7:25).

Engaging psalms in prayer and worship makes the believing community aware of the full range of human experience and teaches the worshipers to engage in the various facets of that experience in worship. The Psalms are divine-human prayers and songs. For that reason, including psalms consistently in worship brings the believing community to the center of God’s will and powerful healing grace.

Discussion Questions

1. Why is spontaneous, unguided prayer not the only way to pray? How can our prayer life benefit from the Psalms, the biblical prayers?
2. How can the Psalms enrich our communal prayer experience? Discuss some practical ways your local church can foster the use of the Psalms in its worship services.
3. What do the Psalms reveal about the complexity of the human pilgrimage of faith and the power of God’s healing grace?

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/24a-02-further-thought-teach-us-to-pray/