\u201cThe eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous,
\nAnd his ears are open unto their cry.\u201d Psalm 34:15<\/p>\n
Frankly, I find the context of this Psalm a bit difficult to comprehend – the title tells us that it was when David “changed his behavior before Abimelech” – a euphemistic way of saying that he acted like a raving madman in order to convince his enemies that he was no threat to them, thus escaping the very imminent danger facing him. <\/p>\n
Hardly the behavior of a man trusting in his God – the dignified manner in which we might expect a king in waiting to behave! But then, how often do we act in self-reliance, how often fail to behave as sons of the King? <\/p>\n
The content of the Psalm is, by contrast, exquisitely simple and wonderfully encouraging. We can only speculate as to when David actually penned these lines, and whether it was with some embarrassment that he recalled his actions on that occasion, however what confidence he now expresses in Jehovah, the Lord!<\/p>\n
The Lord saves<\/strong> the poor man out of all his troubles (v6), He surrounds<\/strong> those that fear Him (v7), is sweet<\/strong> to the taste of those that trust Him (v8), and satisfies<\/strong> those who seek Him (v9-10).<\/p>\n In our verse, the Lord senses <\/strong>the need of his people – his eyes are upon them, watching from His heavenly vantage point and seeing each care in its proper context – and his ears are open to hear their heart-cries.<\/p>\n Though He sees as from afar, He is ever-near – present to succor<\/strong> the heart-broken (v18) and to save them – to strengthen<\/strong> them so that not one bone is broken (v20), no matter how difficult the trial.<\/p>\n If we were more mindful of these reflections of the Psalmist we would certainly be more dependant upon Him and less often behave as if completely out of our minds!<\/p>\n O what peace we often forfeit, \u201cThe eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, And his ears are open unto their cry.\u201d Psalm 34:15 Frankly, I find the context of this Psalm a bit difficult to comprehend – the title tells us that it was when David “changed his behavior before Abimelech” – a euphemistic way of saying that he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[24],"tags":[27,26,25],"class_list":["post-700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-malingaliro","tag-pain","tag-peace","tag-prayer"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/wpid-wp-1438933952526.jpeg?fit=350%2C233&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6pE8C-bi","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":526,"url":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/psalm-207\/","url_meta":{"origin":700,"position":0},"title":"Psalm 20:7","author":"Stephen","date":"21 July 2015","format":"quote","excerpt":"\u201cSome trust in chariots, and some in horses: But we will remember the name of the Lord our God.\u201d http:\/\/ref.ly\/r\/kjv1900\/Ps20.7 It's just two weeks now until the outreach team starts their respective journeys to Malawi. I enjoyed the encouragement of this Psalm this morning, remembering again the strength that is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Outreach 2015"","block_context":{"text":"Outreach 2015","link":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/category\/mgo\/mgo2015\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1468,"url":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/urgent-request-prayer-grace-croudace\/","url_meta":{"origin":700,"position":1},"title":"Urgent Request for Prayer – Grace Croudace","author":"Stephen","date":"11 September 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Dear friends, May I ask you to pray earnestly for our dearly beloved sister, Grace Croudace who has had a stroke and is hospitalised in Chitokoloki, Zambia. David and Grace have been the dearest friends to Gail, Philip and I over the years, and it was our joy to renew\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/wp-image-887322630jpg.jpg?fit=500%2C281&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1401,"url":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/dont-lose-your-head\/","url_meta":{"origin":700,"position":2},"title":"Don’t lose your head!","author":"Stephen","date":"10 August 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday we were at P.I.M., infamous as the home of the early 20th century political activist, Rev John Chilembwe, who became a national hero after decapitating one of David Livingstone's descendants and preaching a sermon with his head on the pulpit as a protest against the colonial powers. No one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/wp-image-1751139753jpg.jpg?fit=500%2C281&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":663,"url":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/open-air-preaching-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":700,"position":3},"title":"Open air preaching","author":"Stephen","date":"25 July 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Open-air preaching in Malawi seldom fails to attract a crowd. While some make a nuisance from time to time (mostly drunks)\u00a0 usually people listen carefully and reverently. A large crowd of people listened as we preached and have out Seed Sower texts at Thondwe market. A small boat was the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1011,"url":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/open-air-preaching\/","url_meta":{"origin":700,"position":4},"title":"Open air preaching","author":"Stephen","date":"7 November 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Please pray for the many who heard the Gospel preached and received tracts at Thondwe and Dzaone this morning.","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/wpid-wp-1446888757472.jpg?fit=359%2C202&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":720,"url":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/720\/","url_meta":{"origin":700,"position":5},"title":"Back to the bus depot","author":"Stephen","date":"11 August 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Today was our first day with the full team of workers in place. 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We have been working today in Zomba, first in the town centre by the bus depot, where\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/wpid-wp-1439301722816.jpg?fit=270%2C480&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":701,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700\/revisions\/701"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nO what needless passion we bear,
\nAll because we do not carry,
\nEverything to God in prayer<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"