God's greatness...
Psalm 121
"I will lift up my eyes to the mountains;
From where shall my help come?
Psa. 121:2 My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.
Psa. 121:3 He will not allow your foot to slip;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
Psa. 121:4 Behold, He who keeps Israel
Will neither slumber nor sleep.
Psa. 121:5 The Lord is your keeper;
The Lord is your shade on your right hand.
Psa. 121:6 The sun will not smite you by day,
Nor the moon by night.
Psa. 121:7 The Lord will protect you from all evil;
He will keep your soul.
Psa. 121:8 The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in
From this time forth and forever. "
Psalm 126
"When the Lord brought back the captive ones of Zion,
We were like those who dream.
Psa. 126:2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter
And our tongue with joyful shouting;
Then they said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
Psa. 126:3 The Lord has done great things for us;
We are glad.
Psa. 126:4 Restore our captivity, O Lord,
As the streams in the South.
Psa. 126:5 Those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful shouting.
Psa. 126:6 He who goes to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed,
Shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him."
I can't help but be reminded of Jesus's parable of the sower who sowed seeds in all kinds of ground which is recorded in the book Luke.
When I read verse 6, "He who goes to and fro weeping , carrying his bag of seed, shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him," I see it as a comfort that when I share the gospel with people and all I get is ridicule and hatred or simply brushed off, God is working in their hearts. His word never goes out for no reason or without effect, there will be a return even if I never see it.
I don't know that this verse is even vaguely related to the parable, but God certainly told His prophets:
Jeremiah 7:25-28
"Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have sent you all My servants the prophets, daily rising early and sending them.
Jer. 7:26 “Yet they did not listen to Me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck; they did more evil than their fathers.
Jer. 7:27 “You shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you; and you shall call to them, but they will not answer you.
Jer. 7:28 “You shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that adid not obey the voice of the Lord their God or accept correction; truth (lit. faithfulness) has perished and has been cut off from their mouth.
Jeremiah 5:4-12
"Then I said, “They are only the poor,
They are foolish;
For they do not know the way of the Lord
Or the ordinance of their God.
Jer. 5:5 “I will go to the great
And will speak to them,
For they know the way of the Lord
And the ordinance of their God.”
But they too, with one accord, have broken the yoke
And burst the bonds.
Jer. 5:6 Therefore a lion from the forest will slay them,
A wolf of the deserts will destroy them,
A leopard is watching their cities.
Everyone who goes out of them will be torn in pieces,
Because their transgressions are many,
Their apostasies are numerous.
Jer. 5:7 “Why should I pardon you?
Your sons have forsaken Me
And sworn by those who are not gods.
When I had fed them to the full,
They committed adultery
And trooped to the harlot’s house.
Jer. 5:8 “They were well-fed lusty horses,
Each one neighing after his neighbor’s wife.
Jer. 5:9 “Shall I not punish these people,” declares the Lord,
“And on a nation such as this
Shall I not avenge Myself?
Jer. 5:10 “Go up through her vine rows and destroy,
But do not execute a complete destruction;
Strip away her branches,
For they are not the Lord's.
Jer. 5:11 “For the ahouse of Israel and the house of Judah
Have dealt very treacherously with Me,” declares the Lord.
Jer. 5:12 They have lied about the Lord
And said, “Not He;
Misfortune will not come on us,
And we will not see sword or famine. "
It's frightening how much this sounds like our very own country. People want God only when convenient, when they see something in it for them, for their pleasure or satisfaction and that offends Him. We need to be praying and reaching out to those around us, and I'm speaking to myself. I chicken out or put it out of my mind because I'd rather not be mocked or disliked for speaking the truth, but I need God's help to make me bold and to make me love unbelievers enough that I want what's best for them and not myself.
Psalm 2
"Why are the nations in an uproar
And the peoples devising a vain thing?
Psa. 2:2 The kings of the earth take their stand
And the rulers take counsel together
Against the Lord and against His Anointed (or Messiah), saying,
Psa. 2:3 “Let us tear their fetters apart
And cast away their cords from us!”
Psa. 2:4 He who sits (or "is enthroned") in the heavens laughs,
The Lord scoffs at them.
Psa. 2:5 Then He will speak to them in His aanger
And terrify them in His fury, saying,
Psa. 2:6 “But as for Me, I have installed (or Consecrated) My King
Upon Zion, My holy mountain.”
Psa. 2:7 “I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord:
He said to Me, ‘You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.
Psa. 2:8 ‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance,
And the very ends of the earth as Your possession.
Psa. 2:9 ‘You shall break them with a rod (scepter, staff) of iron,
You shall shatter them like earthenware.’”
Psa. 2:10 Now therefore, O kings, show discernment;
Take warning, O judges (leaders) of the earth.
Psa. 2:11 Worship (serve) the Lord with reverence (fear)
And rejoice with trembling.
Psa. 2:12 Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way,
For His wrath may soon (quickly, suddenly, easily) be kindled.
How blessed are all who take refuge in Him! "
Romans 1:16-32
"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Rom. 1:17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.”
Rom. 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
Rom. 1:19 because that which is known about God is evident within (among) them; for God made it evident to them.
Rom. 1:20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
Rom. 1:21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor (lit. glorify) Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Rom. 1:22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,
Rom. 1:23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures (or reptiles).
Rom. 1:24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.
Rom. 1:25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie (lit. the lie), and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever (lit. unto the ages). Amen.
Rom. 1:26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural (lit. against nature),
Rom. 1:27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts (lit. the shameless deed) and receiving in their own persons (lit. themselves) the due penalty of their error.
Rom. 1:28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper,
Rom. 1:29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips,
Rom. 1:30 slanderers, haters of God (or hateful to God), insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
Rom. 1:31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful;
Rom. 1:32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. "
Romans 9:15-33
"For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
Rom. 9:16 So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.
Rom. 9:17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed thoughout (lit. in) the whole earth.”
Rom. 9:18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.
Rom. 9:19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?”
Rom. 9:20 On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it?
Rom. 9:21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use (lit. for honor) and another for common use (lit. for dishonor)?
Rom. 9:22 What (lit. But) if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?
Rom. 9:23 And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory,
Rom. 9:24 even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.
Rom. 9:25 As He says also in Hosea,
“I will call those who were not My people, ‘My people,’
and her who was not beloved, ‘Beloved.’”
Rom. 9:26 “And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’
There they shall be called sons of the living God.”
Rom. 9:27 Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved;
Rom. 9:28 For the Lord will execute His word on the earth, thoroughly (lit. finishing it) and quickly (lit. cutting it short).”
Rom. 9:29 And just as Isaiah foretold,
"Unless the Lord of Sabaoth (i.e. Hosts) had left to us a posterity (lit. seed),
we would have become like Sodom, and would have resembled (lit. been made like) Gomorrah.”
Rom. 9:30 What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by (lit. out of) faith;
Rom. 9:31 but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law.
Rom. 9:32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by (lit. out of) faith, but as though it were by (lit. out of) works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,
Rom. 9:33 just as it is written,
“Behold, I lay in Zion a Stone of stumbling and a Rock of offense,
And he who believes in Him will not be disappointed (lit. put to shame).”
Romans 10:1
"Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. "
"I will lift up my eyes to the mountains;
From where shall my help come?
Psa. 121:2 My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.
Psa. 121:3 He will not allow your foot to slip;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
Psa. 121:4 Behold, He who keeps Israel
Will neither slumber nor sleep.
Psa. 121:5 The Lord is your keeper;
The Lord is your shade on your right hand.
Psa. 121:6 The sun will not smite you by day,
Nor the moon by night.
Psa. 121:7 The Lord will protect you from all evil;
He will keep your soul.
Psa. 121:8 The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in
From this time forth and forever. "
Psalm 126
"When the Lord brought back the captive ones of Zion,
We were like those who dream.
Psa. 126:2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter
And our tongue with joyful shouting;
Then they said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
Psa. 126:3 The Lord has done great things for us;
We are glad.
Psa. 126:4 Restore our captivity, O Lord,
As the streams in the South.
Psa. 126:5 Those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful shouting.
Psa. 126:6 He who goes to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed,
Shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him."
I can't help but be reminded of Jesus's parable of the sower who sowed seeds in all kinds of ground which is recorded in the book Luke.
When I read verse 6, "He who goes to and fro weeping , carrying his bag of seed, shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him," I see it as a comfort that when I share the gospel with people and all I get is ridicule and hatred or simply brushed off, God is working in their hearts. His word never goes out for no reason or without effect, there will be a return even if I never see it.
I don't know that this verse is even vaguely related to the parable, but God certainly told His prophets:
Jeremiah 7:25-28
"Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have sent you all My servants the prophets, daily rising early and sending them.
Jer. 7:26 “Yet they did not listen to Me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck; they did more evil than their fathers.
Jer. 7:27 “You shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you; and you shall call to them, but they will not answer you.
Jer. 7:28 “You shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that adid not obey the voice of the Lord their God or accept correction; truth (lit. faithfulness) has perished and has been cut off from their mouth.
Jeremiah 5:4-12
"Then I said, “They are only the poor,
They are foolish;
For they do not know the way of the Lord
Or the ordinance of their God.
Jer. 5:5 “I will go to the great
And will speak to them,
For they know the way of the Lord
And the ordinance of their God.”
But they too, with one accord, have broken the yoke
And burst the bonds.
Jer. 5:6 Therefore a lion from the forest will slay them,
A wolf of the deserts will destroy them,
A leopard is watching their cities.
Everyone who goes out of them will be torn in pieces,
Because their transgressions are many,
Their apostasies are numerous.
Jer. 5:7 “Why should I pardon you?
Your sons have forsaken Me
And sworn by those who are not gods.
When I had fed them to the full,
They committed adultery
And trooped to the harlot’s house.
Jer. 5:8 “They were well-fed lusty horses,
Each one neighing after his neighbor’s wife.
Jer. 5:9 “Shall I not punish these people,” declares the Lord,
“And on a nation such as this
Shall I not avenge Myself?
Jer. 5:10 “Go up through her vine rows and destroy,
But do not execute a complete destruction;
Strip away her branches,
For they are not the Lord's.
Jer. 5:11 “For the ahouse of Israel and the house of Judah
Have dealt very treacherously with Me,” declares the Lord.
Jer. 5:12 They have lied about the Lord
And said, “Not He;
Misfortune will not come on us,
And we will not see sword or famine. "
It's frightening how much this sounds like our very own country. People want God only when convenient, when they see something in it for them, for their pleasure or satisfaction and that offends Him. We need to be praying and reaching out to those around us, and I'm speaking to myself. I chicken out or put it out of my mind because I'd rather not be mocked or disliked for speaking the truth, but I need God's help to make me bold and to make me love unbelievers enough that I want what's best for them and not myself.
Psalm 2
"Why are the nations in an uproar
And the peoples devising a vain thing?
Psa. 2:2 The kings of the earth take their stand
And the rulers take counsel together
Against the Lord and against His Anointed (or Messiah), saying,
Psa. 2:3 “Let us tear their fetters apart
And cast away their cords from us!”
Psa. 2:4 He who sits (or "is enthroned") in the heavens laughs,
The Lord scoffs at them.
Psa. 2:5 Then He will speak to them in His aanger
And terrify them in His fury, saying,
Psa. 2:6 “But as for Me, I have installed (or Consecrated) My King
Upon Zion, My holy mountain.”
Psa. 2:7 “I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord:
He said to Me, ‘You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.
Psa. 2:8 ‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance,
And the very ends of the earth as Your possession.
Psa. 2:9 ‘You shall break them with a rod (scepter, staff) of iron,
You shall shatter them like earthenware.’”
Psa. 2:10 Now therefore, O kings, show discernment;
Take warning, O judges (leaders) of the earth.
Psa. 2:11 Worship (serve) the Lord with reverence (fear)
And rejoice with trembling.
Psa. 2:12 Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way,
For His wrath may soon (quickly, suddenly, easily) be kindled.
How blessed are all who take refuge in Him! "
Romans 1:16-32
"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Rom. 1:17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.”
Rom. 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
Rom. 1:19 because that which is known about God is evident within (among) them; for God made it evident to them.
Rom. 1:20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
Rom. 1:21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor (lit. glorify) Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Rom. 1:22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,
Rom. 1:23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures (or reptiles).
Rom. 1:24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.
Rom. 1:25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie (lit. the lie), and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever (lit. unto the ages). Amen.
Rom. 1:26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural (lit. against nature),
Rom. 1:27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts (lit. the shameless deed) and receiving in their own persons (lit. themselves) the due penalty of their error.
Rom. 1:28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper,
Rom. 1:29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips,
Rom. 1:30 slanderers, haters of God (or hateful to God), insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
Rom. 1:31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful;
Rom. 1:32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. "
Romans 9:15-33
"For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
Rom. 9:16 So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.
Rom. 9:17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed thoughout (lit. in) the whole earth.”
Rom. 9:18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.
Rom. 9:19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?”
Rom. 9:20 On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it?
Rom. 9:21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use (lit. for honor) and another for common use (lit. for dishonor)?
Rom. 9:22 What (lit. But) if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?
Rom. 9:23 And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory,
Rom. 9:24 even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.
Rom. 9:25 As He says also in Hosea,
“I will call those who were not My people, ‘My people,’
and her who was not beloved, ‘Beloved.’”
Rom. 9:26 “And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’
There they shall be called sons of the living God.”
Rom. 9:27 Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved;
Rom. 9:28 For the Lord will execute His word on the earth, thoroughly (lit. finishing it) and quickly (lit. cutting it short).”
Rom. 9:29 And just as Isaiah foretold,
"Unless the Lord of Sabaoth (i.e. Hosts) had left to us a posterity (lit. seed),
we would have become like Sodom, and would have resembled (lit. been made like) Gomorrah.”
Rom. 9:30 What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by (lit. out of) faith;
Rom. 9:31 but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law.
Rom. 9:32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by (lit. out of) faith, but as though it were by (lit. out of) works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,
Rom. 9:33 just as it is written,
“Behold, I lay in Zion a Stone of stumbling and a Rock of offense,
And he who believes in Him will not be disappointed (lit. put to shame).”
Romans 10:1
"Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. "