Psalms 98, 114 and 139

There are many example of different types of Psalms. Here are three.

Psalm 114:
A Psalm of remembrance. It is good for us to remember the amazing things that God has done in the past. This Psalm depicts the time God rescued the Israelites by parting the Red Sea. God wants us to remember these biblical stories, but also to remember the times God has been there for us. Stop right now and think of when God protected you, comforted you and made a way for you. It is good to just stop and remember these things because it grows our faith and it draws us nearer to the Provider, Comforter and Protector.

                                                        Psalm 114:1-4
          When the Israelites escaped from Egypt, when the family of Jacob left that 
          foreign land, the land of Judah became God's sanctuary, and Israel His kingdom.
         The Red Sea saw them coming and hurried out of their way! The water of the
         Jordan River turned away. The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like sheep.


Psalm 98:
A Psalm of praise. Did you ever hear the birds singing? did you ever thing that their song is a song of praise to God? If the little birdies can sing praises to the Lord, what should prevent us from doing the same. Psalm 22 says that "God inhabits the praises of His people". Which means God lives in our praise! If you want to be closer to God.... praise Him.... sing to Him. He loves it!

                                                       Psalm 98:4-8
          Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music.
          Make music to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing.
          With trumpets and the blast of a ram's horn, Shout for joy to the Lord, the King.
          Let the sea resound, and everything in it, the world, and all that live in it.

Psalm 139:
A Psalm of thanksgiving. Nothing in this life is guaranteed. God is the provider of everything, including our next breath. God was there at the beginning. (While we were still in our mom's tummy) He created us with a purpose. He knows everything about us... and He STILL loves us! There is so much to thank God for. We can use the thanksgiving Psalms to show our gratiude for His love, His provision, His protection etc....

                                                       Psalm 139:13-18
                        You made all the delicate , inner parts of my body and 
                        knit me together in my mother's womb.
                        Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
                        Your workmanship is marvelous. How well I know it.
                        You watched me as I was being formed in seclusion,
                        as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
                        You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life
                        was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid
                        out before a single day had passed.
 

       

Manna from Heaven (Exodus16)

  Last time we left Moses, his brother Aaron and the Hebrews, they were all camped out near a lake that God had transformed into sweet drinking water for them. The Hebrews were happy. The next day, the cloud of God’s glory began to move, so the Hebrews got their belongings together and began to follow.
After about a month, they had eaten all the food that the Egyptians had given them when they were freed from slavery. The Hebrews were now getting hungry and began to moan to Moses. “We would have been better off remaining as slaves to the Egyptians, at least we were fed well.” The complainers grumbled. “Now we are going to die of starvation out here in the desert.”

Poor Moses. He had to listen to all the complaining. He knew that God had not freed them, just to let them die in the desert. He knew that the Hebrews had it very bad in Egypt. They were only remembering the food and forgetting about how they were told to kill their first born sons and how they were treated like dirt. Moses knew that God told him that He would take care of them, but poor Moses had to listen to all the grumbling. The Hebrews were acting like it was all up to Moses, like Moses led them out there and Moses was going to get them all killed.

Finally Moses had a talk with his brother Aaron." Tomorrow, I will stand before the cloud of God’s glory.” He said. “I want the people close enough to hear and to see God’s glory, then they will know who is in charge. Maybe then, they will quit grumbling and just trust in God.”
The next day, as Moses approached the cloud, Aaron gathered the people and told them to look way into the wilderness. When God spoke to Moses, the people were amazed at God’s glory.  God told Moses that He would give the Hebrews food every morning but there were some rules. God told Moses that every morning the ground would be covered with bread from heaven. The Hebrews were to pick up no more than 2 quarts for each person. (enough for one day) then on the 6th day, they were to pick up 4 quarts. (enough for 2 days) .

The next morning, after the dew melted, the ground was covered with white flakes. The Hebrews went out and gather 2 quarts, just as God had said. However a few Hebrews were worried that they would not get food tomorrow, so they gathered more. When they woke up the next day, the flakes smelled rotten and were covered with worms! On the sixth day, they gathered 4 quarts each. On the seventh day, some Hebrews didn’t trust God’s Word and went out to gather more flakes, but there were no flakes to be found! God was angry at the Hebrews that didn’t trust Him. And He told Moses that He was.

The flakes tasted like nothing the Hebrews ever had before. It was so delicious! God is a great Chef! No one knew what to call it, so they named it Manna. (Which means....What is it?) I guess you can say that I made Manna for dinner a couple of times, because no one knew what it was. ;o)
Every morning God would rain down manna from heaven and every morning the Hebrews would gather it up.  Moses was probably very happy that they weren’t complaining or blaming him any more.


A couple of weeks later, and a few miles later, the Hebrews were getting thirsty again because they hadn’t had any water for a couple of days.
 “Is God going to just leave us out here to die of starvation?” They grumbled. "We had enough water back in Egypt!” Poor Moses. Even seeing the glory of God and God providing them with food every day, hasn’t stopped their complaining, but now they were blaming God!
 “Why are you testing God’s patience with you?” Moses asked. Then the men began to threaten Moses. He ran to God and pleaded with Him. “Please God, the men are going to stone me if we don’t find water soon!”
" Take a few of the men that you can trust and you staff. I will lead you to a rock. I want you to strike the rock and water will pour out of the rock so that everyone will be able to drink.”God said.

 Moses did as God instructed and water poured from the rock as some of the men looked on. There was enough water for everyone. Moses named that area The Place of Testing and Arguing.

The Hebrews looked at Moses as the man who led them out of Egypt and as the man who was going to let them all die in the desert. God wants us to know that He is in control. He may work through men, but God didn’t want the people to depend on Moses and to blame him.  He wanted them to depend on Him. Just as He wants us to depend on Him and to come to Him with out hearts. There is a verse right in the very center of the Bible (Psalm 118:8) that says “It is better to trust in the Lord, than to put confidence in people.”
God also called Himself," God Who Provides”. It is good to remember that God (who takes care of the birds of the air  Matthew 6:26) provides all we need. Sometimes we WANT more than we NEED though.

The Red Sea (Exodus 14 & 15)

 Last time we were right in the middle of an amazing miracle! God had parted the Red Sea so that Moses and his brother Aaron could lead the Hebrews to safety. God had placed a cloud of darkness over the Egyptians so that they couldn’t go anywhere. God had also placed his light above the Hebrews so that they could see their way over the dry land where the Red Sea had parted. God is so amazing!

 It was just about morning and all 2 million of the Hebrews had just about crossed over to the other side of the Red Sea. Then God spoke to Moses again.
 “Now the Hebrews and the Egyptians will see my glory and know that I am God.” God told Moses.
God lifted the cloud off of the Egyptians and they saw that the Hebrews were just about across the Red Sea. The king ordered his men to cross through the Red Sea on the dry ground. The men followed his orders, although I’m sure they were a little nervous.

 While the Egyptians were in the middle of the Red Sea, God caused the wheels to fall off of some of the chariots! There were no ordinary chariots either. These were the best chariots that the king had! The Egyptians began to get scared and confused. Some of them started going in circles. “Let’s turn around!” Some of the king’s men said. “The God of the Hebrews if fighting against us!

Then God told Moses. “Now stretch your staff over the Red Sea!” Moses did as God had commanded and the waters began to flow back into the sea. The king and all his men were drowned that day. The Hebrews knew that God had truly freed them from the Egyptians that day! They stood on the other side of the Red Sea in amazement! They praised God and sang him a song. The Song is written down in Exodus 15:1-21.

Remember Moses’ sister Miriam? The one who watched as Moses was pulled from the Nile river by the king’s daughter. She shook a tambourine. Then led the singing and dancing and the praises to God.

That day the Hebrews began their journey to the promised land. God was still leading them with a cloud at day and a flame at night.  They traveled tree days through the wilderness, but couldn’t find any water. The Hebrews were getting pretty thirsty. Finally the saw a lake! They ran as fast as they could. But when they reached over and sipped some of the water from their hands, it was bitter! What a disappointment. The name of that place was Marah (which means bitter)
 Now the same Hebrews that were singing and dancing just three days earlier, were all upset at Moses and God. “What are we supposed to drink?” They complained.
 Moses prayed and God pointed out a stick lying on the ground to Moses."Go throw it into the lake.” He said.
 When Moses did as God had said, the water became sweet and the Hebrews drank till they were satisfied.

Sometime I complain when things don’t seem to be going my way. Instead, I should think about all the wonderful things that God has done for me.  The key word today is   REMEMBER. God constantly told the Hebrews to remember what He had done for them and who He is. We have to REMEMBER too. When we think about what we don’t have, we forget what we DO have. REMEMBER.

God Uses Moses to Part the Red Sea Exodus14

Last time we saw that the Hebrews left Egypt in a bit of a hurry. It was the middle of the night when the king’s son died and he finally let the Hebrew slaves go. Moses led the people out into the wilderness. Now what? God appeared as a pillar of fire to lead the Hebrews at night. When it got light out, God led the people as a cloud. This way the Hebrews could see God at night and during the day!  God led the people to the shore of the Red Sea.

Back in Egypt, the king and all the Egyptians had a change of heart.
“Wait a minute!” Said the king. “Now we don’t have anyone to do all the work!”

So he told his army to get 600 of his best chariots ready and bring back the slaves. The Egyptians set out with the 600 chariots, plus a lot more to bring back the Hebrews to Egypt. The Egyptians finally caught up with the Hebrews while they were camped along the Red Sea. The king happily thought to himself, “Hmmmm that Moses is not too smart! He has the Hebrews pinned in along the sea! They have no where to run!”

 One of the Hebrews saw the lights of the Egyptian army coming over the horizon. “Oh no!” The Hebrews shouted in horror! They were upset at Moses. “Weren’t there enough Cemeteries in Egypt? You had to lead us out here to the desert to die! We were better off as slaves in Egypt, than dead bodies out here in the wilderness!”

“Don’t be afraid.” Said Moses. “What what God will do. See all those Egyptians.... Take a good look at them because you’ll never see them again! God will fight the battle.... Now keep your mouths shut!”
Moses went to God and cried out and prayed. God told Moses to stop crying out and to cut his prayer short. “Get moving.” God told Moses. “Stretch out your staff toward the Red Sea. The water will separate and for a wall on two sides. You and all the people will be able to walk across on dry land”

Meanwhile, the God cloud that had been leading the Hebrews through the desert, was now between them and the Egyptians. God made it so dark for the Egyptians, that they couldn’t see anything. So they had to stay put. God lit the way for the Hebrews so they could see where they were going.

Moses stretched out his staff over the water, and the water began to part. The Hebrews had been witnesses to a lot of amazing things that God had done, and this was near the top[ of the list! The water parted and the land became dry as a bone! All 2 million Hebrews walked across the Red Sea on dry ground that night as God’s light guided them and his cloud held off the Egyptians!

Did God help the Hebrews because they were moaning and complaining? No, He already had a plan for them to escape. God doesn’t like complaining as you will see as the Hebrews go through the wilderness. They do a lot of complaining. Complaining all the time just gives us a bad attitude and makes us miserable. In Proverbs, the Bible says that the complainer’s days are hard, but the content (which means happy with what we have) person’s days are like a feast!  Next time you feel like complaining.... think of ALL the wonderful things that God has given you. (The Bible says that every good and perfect gift comes from God.) ... and thank Him. You’ll be amazed how much better your day is!  Besides, complaining doesn’t do any good anyway :o)

Moses’ Staff Turns into a Snake! (Exodus 4)

When we left off last time, God was talking to Moses through a burning bush. God had laid out His plan to Moses. He was going to use Moses to get the Hebrews out of slavery in Egypt. God answered all of Moses’ questions..... well not all of them.
 Next Moses asked,” What if they say”You did not talk to God!” “What do I do then?”
"What is that in your hand Moses?” God asked.
 “A staff.” He replied.
“Throw it on the ground” God said.
 Moses through his staff on the ground and it turned into a snake! He got scared and started to run.

“Moses! Pick up the snake by it’s tail!” God commanded.
Moses probably thought to himself. “Why did I have to ask so many questions? Now I have to pick up this huge snake!” But he did as God commanded, and the snake turned back into his staff!
 "Now put your hand inside your robe and take it out.” God said.
 Moses did it and when he pulled out his hand, it was gross and diseased.
“Now put it back in your robe and take it out.” God continued. Moses did it and his hand was restored to normal. I’m sure Moses was glad about that!
 God told Moses that the people would probably believe him after he did the snake thing and the diseased hand thing.... but if they didn’t... He had one more sign. He told Moses that if they still didn’t believe, to take some water from the Nile River and pour it on the ground and it would turn to blood.
“That will convince them.” God said.
 So now do you think Moses was convinced? Nope! Now Moses was trying to come up with excuses why he couldn’t go talk to the people and to the king.

“But God,” Moses said.” You know that I am not a very good talker. I get nervous and I stutter. Sometimes I forget what I was going to say and it comes out all wrong!
 "Moses, Moses Moses! Who created that mouth of yours?” God asked.
 “You did.”
 “That’s right, and I gave you those ears to hear and those eyes to see too. Now go use what I gave you and go talk to the people and to the king. I will be with you every step of the way, helping you and teaching you what to say.” God replied.
 Moses finally ran out of questions and excuses."Please God! Send someone else to do it.” he said.
God finally became angry at Moses. "You are going to do this! You can get your brother Aaron to go with you. He is a very good speaker. I will be with both of you and will teach him what to say for you. Now go and don’t forget your staff so that you can do those signs!”
 Moses FINALLY did as God said.

Does God ever talk to you?  Yes! He speaks to us through His Word. (The Bible)  God tells us in the Bible how much He loves us. He also says that if we love Him, we will do what he says. It is no use trying to come up with excuses as to why we can’t do as He asks, because God made us. He made our minds and our hearts. He would never ask us to do anything that we can’t do, especially with Him helping us. When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside us to help us, encourage us and teach us. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God.

Moses gets out of Egypt in a hurry! (Exodus 2)

 Last time we saw that Moses was pulled from the Nile River by the king’s daughter.  He was 3 months old. He was raised like the king's son. Moses had the best of eveyrhing, but he was sad for the Hebrews.
When Moses grew up, he went out to visit his people, the Hebrews. He saw how they were forced to do hard labor. He even saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people.  Moses looked all around, and when he saw that no one was looking, he killed the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand. 

The next day he went back and saw two Hebrew men fighting. He said to the one who was in the wrong, "Why are you beating up a fellow Hebrew?” The man answered, "Who made you our ruler and judge? Are you going to kill me just as you killed that Egyptian?" Then Moses was afraid and said to himself, "Oh No! People know what I have done. When the king finds out, he'll have me killed!" Moses was right. When the king heard about what had happened, he sent orders to have Moses arrested and killed, but Moses got out of Egypt quickly and went to live far away, in a land called Midian. 

One day, when Moses was sitting by a well, seven daughters of Jethro, the priest of Midian, came to get water for their father's sheep and goats.  But some shepherds drove Jethro's daughters away. Then Moses went to their rescue. He chased the bad shepherds away and got some water for their animals. When they returned to their father, he asked, "Why have you come back so early today?”                                                                                    

"An Egyptian (they thought Moses was an Egyptian) rescued us from the bad shepherds," they answered, "and he even got water for us and watered our animals." "Where is he?" he asked his daughters. "Why did you leave him out there in the desert? Go and invite him to eat with us."  So Moses came to dinner. He must have liked the cooking, because he decided to live there. Moses ended up marrying one of Jethro's daughters. Her name was Zipphorah which means "bird”.  



 Years later the king of Egypt died, but the Israelites were still slaves and still groaning. They cried out to God for help. God heard their cries and prayers. He remembered the promise that He had made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  He saw how badly they were treated. God had already planned on using Moses to fufill His promise....but not until the timing was right.


 Sometimes we keep asking God over and over for something good. God has already planned on answering our prayers, but He makes us wait for a couple of reasons.
1: God wants us to keep asking. The more we come to Him, the better we get to know Him. God does not want to be our magic genie... he wants a relationship with each of us.
2: God wants us to learn patience. Waiting for something makes us a better person.
3: God has perfect timing. Sometimes if we get what we want right now, it may not be as good as if we get it later. Would you rather get an egg, some flour and oil now....or a cookie later?  I'd rather wait for the ingredients to be mixed and baked. See waiting on God is good!

The Birth of MOSES (Exodus 1-2)

 We just finished the story of Joseph, and even though he lived hundreds of years before Moses, the stories are connected. Joseph brought all of his relatives over to Egypt because it was the only place that had food. The king at the time loved Joseph because of all that he had done for him and for Egypt and he didn’t mind all the Israelites living in Egypt. The Israelites had many children. Their children had many children. Many years after Joseph had died, a new king forgot all about Joseph and how he helped Egypt. He was just worried that there were too many Israelites, and that they might start a war and take over Egypt. So he  used his army and forced the Israelites become slaves to the Egyptians. The king wanted to build a huge city, so he used the Israelite slaves to make bricks out of hay and mud. The Israelites were not treated very well.

 The Israelites kept having children and the king was getting more nervous than ever. He told the Egyptian nurses to kill the baby boys as soon as they were born.  Months and months later, the king noticed that there were still many Israelite boys being born so he called the Egyptian nurses before him. “Didn’t I order you to kill all the slave boys right after they were born? Then why am I seeing all these little slave boys everywhere?” He scowled.

 “Yes my king, we tried to follow your orders, but the Israelite women have babies so fast, that the babies are born and already in their mother’s arms by the time we arrive.” Said one of the nurses.

The nurses knew that it was wrong to kill the babies, so they purposely took their time getting to the Israelite women when they were having their babies.  God was pleased with the nurses and blessed them with many children of their own.


The king was getting angry.  He made it a law, that all slave boys, born from this day forward, must be thrown in the Nile river! The baby boys would drown if the crocodiles didn’t eat them first. The Israelites hated being slaves and they hated the kings laws. They prayed that God would free them.

An Israelite woman had a baby boy. Her and her husband hid the baby for three months. When they knew that they could hide him no longer, they mad a difficult decision. The baby’s mother made a basket out of papyrus (which they used to write on. It’s where we get the word paper) and his father coated it with tar so it wouldn’t sink.








They wrapped the baby in a blanket, placed him in the basket, set him in the Nile river and prayed. The baby’s older sister, Miriam, ran along the banks of the nile and watched as the current carried the basket with the baby further and further from his family. Wow! That must have been so hard for the family!  The baby didn’t have a name yet, but we know him as Moses. Next time we’ll find out if the crocs got him! What do you think?