He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.
Psalm 147:4
Today it is more difficult to write than I anticipated. My heart is heavy, struggling for a response to the executions, in separate states, of two death-row inmates. One garnered national attention, prayer, and protest. One did not. Two victims, whose names are now footnotes in our modern history; their memories’ resigned to waiting in the wings of controversy. Four families, two suffering for decades and two just beginning their descent therein, marred and changed forever.
It is hard to think that in light of this, my little hurts and concerns are of any consequence to God. There are days, when all the world’s suffering is too overwhelming, and I feel like my petty needs are nothing more than a lost button, an insignificant part of the pocket lint on God’s nightstand. However, this is not truth. God is intimately concerned with each and every individual person He has created. Jesus illuminates this truth for His disciples in Matthew 10:28-31:
Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
God has concern even for lower members of His creation: sparrows, which in1st century Jerusalem were sold two for a penny. But Jesus tells us that God numbers the hairs on each person’s head. Every individual hair. How much more does He care about my heart, my spirit, than my hair?
If God knows each and every star in the sky, of which our estimation is daily increasing, and calls each one by name, how much more important are the concerns of my heart to Him?
Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
~ Psalm 37:4
As His beloved child, He is concerned about what concerns me. He is also concerned for every heart He has ever made, or has yet to make. Every person, in every situation. There is nothing too small or too big for God. Bring your concerns to Him; lay your troubles, your triumphs, your fears or heartbreaks at His feet. Let Him determine their worth. Let Him define yours. Therein, lives the awesome.
Psalm 147
1 Praise the LORD.
How good it is to sing praises to our God,
how pleasant and fitting to praise him!
how pleasant and fitting to praise him!
2 The LORD builds up Jerusalem;
he gathers the exiles of Israel.
3 He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
4 He determines the number of the stars
and calls them each by name.
5 Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
his understanding has no limit.
6 The LORD sustains the humble
but casts the wicked to the ground.
he gathers the exiles of Israel.
3 He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
4 He determines the number of the stars
and calls them each by name.
5 Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
his understanding has no limit.
6 The LORD sustains the humble
but casts the wicked to the ground.
7 Sing to the LORD with grateful praise;
make music to our God on the harp.
make music to our God on the harp.
8 He covers the sky with clouds;
he supplies the earth with rain
and makes grass grow on the hills.
9 He provides food for the cattle
and for the young ravens when they call.
he supplies the earth with rain
and makes grass grow on the hills.
9 He provides food for the cattle
and for the young ravens when they call.
10 His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,
nor his delight in the legs of the warrior;
11 the LORD delights in those who fear him,
who put their hope in his unfailing love.
nor his delight in the legs of the warrior;
11 the LORD delights in those who fear him,
who put their hope in his unfailing love.
12 Extol the LORD, Jerusalem;
praise your God, Zion.
praise your God, Zion.
13 He strengthens the bars of your gates
and blesses your people within you.
14 He grants peace to your borders
and satisfies you with the finest of wheat.
and blesses your people within you.
14 He grants peace to your borders
and satisfies you with the finest of wheat.
15 He sends his command to the earth;
his word runs swiftly.
16 He spreads the snow like wool
and scatters the frost like ashes.
17 He hurls down his hail like pebbles.
Who can withstand his icy blast?
18 He sends his word and melts them;
he stirs up his breezes, and the waters flow.
his word runs swiftly.
16 He spreads the snow like wool
and scatters the frost like ashes.
17 He hurls down his hail like pebbles.
Who can withstand his icy blast?
18 He sends his word and melts them;
he stirs up his breezes, and the waters flow.
19 He has revealed his word to Jacob,
his laws and decrees to Israel.
20 He has done this for no other nation;
they do not know his laws.
his laws and decrees to Israel.
20 He has done this for no other nation;
they do not know his laws.
Praise the LORD.
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