Peace With the Psalms: Week Sixteen

 

Happy Friday, Friends!  If the Good Lord is willing, this morning I am in Ann Arbor fluffing a nursery.  Little Starling is keeping me very busy and she isn't even born yet!  

Full disclosure I'm writing this post on Tuesday evening because I have a full day tomorrow (Wednesday) before catching my flight to Detroit.  I might not get to respond to your comments right away (but I will via email), and I might not get to update the prayer requests until Sunday evening, so please check back in over the weekend and read all comments.  :)

I enjoyed this lesson.  I thought it was sweet about how we should bookend our day by thanking God for all the things, especially the small things.  Although does coffee actually qualify as a small thing?  I think not!  ;P

I read through the Bible annually, and have for several years.  I can't believe that this is the first time I've realized that Psalm 92 is the *only* Psalm specified as a Sabbath Psalm.  Because of that, I'm including the entire Psalm in the quote box below.

Psalm 92

A psalm. A song. For the Sabbath day.

1 It is good to praise the Lord

    and make music to your name, O Most High,

2 proclaiming your love in the morning

    and your faithfulness at night,

3 to the music of the ten-stringed lyre

    and the melody of the harp.

4 For you make me glad by your deeds, Lord;

    I sing for joy at what your hands have done.

5 How great are your works, Lord,

    how profound your thoughts!

6 Senseless people do not know,

    fools do not understand,

7 that though the wicked spring up like grass

    and all evildoers flourish,

    they will be destroyed forever.

8 But you, Lord, are forever exalted.

9 For surely your enemies, Lord,

    surely your enemies will perish;

    all evildoers will be scattered.

10 You have exalted my horn[b] like that of a wild ox;

    fine oils have been poured on me.

11 My eyes have seen the defeat of my adversaries;

    my ears have heard the rout of my wicked foes.

12 The righteous will flourish like a palm tree,

    they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;

13 planted in the house of the Lord,

    they will flourish in the courts of our God.

14 They will still bear fruit in old age,

    they will stay fresh and green,

15 proclaiming, “The Lord is upright;

    he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”

Have you practiced gratitude this week as suggested by the lesson?  Please share if you have!

Prayer Requests

• Pray for Rita's daughter Megan as she finishes her masters program this semester.  Pray that she will stay healthy, and that she will manage her time well for work/school/life balance.  
• Pray for my best friend Barbara who is battling cancer.  UPDATE:  Her scans were better than expected.  She will have about a month's break before her surgery.
• Carla would like for us to pray for the military build up at the door of Iran. Pray for our leaders to seek wisdom.  Continue to pray for our military, our young men and women who are at that door waiting what orders might be coming. May God protect them.
• Please pray for Kris's MIL because she has been having some heavy health issues, and Kris is currently her full time nurse.  Pray that God will help and bless Kris as she cares for her MIL.  Pray that other family members will step-up and will be discerning about what's best for her care.
• Rita's friend Pam needs our prayers because her cancer is stage four.  She is in palliative care, yet still trying to live.
• Please pray for my baby great-niece, Lundy.  
• Pray for Rita's neighbor Chris who is undergoing chemo treatment for her urethral cancer, and for her brother, Mike, who has esophageal cancer.
• Pray for Kris's son-in-law Tim.  UPDATE:  Things are going better at work.  Tim and Jen put their home up for sale. Pray for them as they prepare for this big move. 
• Pray for Carla's friend Alice who had plastic surgery on her nose due to skin cancer.  UPDATE:  Alice did not have a good outcome with the reconstructive surgery. They will be looking at doing another.
• Carla recently had to deal with a very bitter person.  She has been very bothered by this, and she does not want this person to steal her JOY.
• Praise God I'm still cancer-free!
• Carla has an extended family member stationed in Kuwait named Haley. She is her cousin Steve's daughter.  Please pray for her safety!
• Carla's Sam has several Wisconsin Guard friends stationed in Kuwait and Iraq.  Sam had an update for us from his teammates who are currently deployed in the war zone. Please be in prayer, they have been bombed several times. Continue to pray for safety.
• Continue praying for Kitty's son Mike as he continues on his journey of no pain meds.  Mike is requesting that we pray for his mental health.  
• URGENT:  Pray for Rachel who has just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
• PRAISE:  I am going to be a grandmother.  I am so excited!!!  Please be in prayer for Shanley Belle and Christopher as they prepare for parenthood, and pray for my little precious granddaughter.  I'm calling her my Little Starling!  
• Travel mercies for me as I am in Michigan helping Shanley Belle and Christopher with Starling's nursery.  I will return home to Alabama Sunday evening.

I love you all!

Until next time...

Blessings!
Ricki Jill