Psalm 33 One Nation Under God

Daily Bible Study for August 12, 2016

By: Hanny Lynn Stearns

Fish N Loaves Ministries, Inc.

“Multiplying God’s Word Around The Globe”

Chapter Reading for Today: Please read in your Bible before proceeding. Note that most translations are considered paraphrases. The Young’s Literal Translation provides a more accurate translation since he is the one who authored a concordance. Others are helpful for seeing a different perspective, but we cannot always depend on their wording. I hope this is helpful to you. If you are studying in another version, that is fine. I am studying from the KJV, but for the purpose of this study, I will keep it with the New King James Version.

One final note: I will put the scripture in italics to differentiate from my own writing. I am adding red to the letters when it is Jesus talking – just like the Bible. Thank you.

Bible Gateway Verse of the Day

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

Psalm 100:4

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,

and into His courts with praise.

Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

Song:  One Nation Under God    By: Al Denson

Look at the You Tube Video – It’s Great! 

Psalm 33

One Nation Under God

The earth really is full of God’s goodness! Can you see it? It is all around us! He created so many good things for us to enjoy during our lives here – from wonderful people to beautiful creatures of every size, shape and color. Our nation – America was founded on the goodness of God. He made it possible for a nation to set it’s hope and purpose on Him. He made it possible for a nation to be wholly devoted to Him and give Him praise in every aspect of life. In this year’s election we are certainly believing God to bring in the person He has anointed to be our next president. We look forward to seeing the answers to many prayers that have gone up to the only One who can do anything about them – our God, the Lord God Jehovah! Let’s pray…

Heavenly Father;

We as Your people are so grateful that You see us and know our hearts and hear us when we pray. Thank You for being the only One we can truly trust in. Lord, we cannot place our trust in any man’s so called strength, no matter what level they are at – but we can always trust in You! Show us today how we can apply this message to our own hearts as You lead us by Holy Spirit. Make Your message clear to us and send it out through my mind, heart and hands, unhindered and unchecked by any outside force or my flesh. Bring more people to read and receive what You want to say to us individually, as Your church corporately, and as a nation. Bring glory to Yourself in us. Father, we will be obedient to Your command by making up our hearts to be doers of Your word and not just forgetful hearers. Thank You that Your word never goes back to You void when we trust in it and apply our faith to it. You are so good and we thank You for the abundance of Your goodness in the land of the living. In Jesus name. Amen.

The majority of the people in our nation are looking to the leaders to bring about positive changes in the upcoming elections. And there’s nothing wrong with having such an expectation. After all, it is God who places people in authority in the first place. He was the one who initially established a government and a panel of people to judge matters that arise between humans – and they do. Back in the day when this nation of America was established, it was begun by a group of people who wanted to have a real relationship with God – not participating in religious rituals established by men. 

In England, there was such a group and they were called the Puritans. It is an extremely interesting thing to study.A movie that my husband and I have found to be so helpful in understanding the true facts that brought this nation to be was called, “Monumental” with Kirk Cameron as the host. It is a very well done documentary that explains the gruesome details of what those precious people suffered in order to bring themselves to a place where they could worship the Lord the way God wants us to. Praise is a beautiful thing for God’s people. Our chapter today even says it. When God sees us shouting and praising Him with passion, lifting our voices, playing skillfully on the instruments, He thinks it makes us beautiful and it certainly blesses His heart.

When the Puritans got here, many of them died. They never made it past the first winter. But those who survived came through with a new song in their hearts – a hymn of praise to God who alone could and did save them – hallelujah! That’s what serving God will do. He gives us a new song of praise to sing. No longer do we need to sing the blues. We have reason to rejoice loudly and passionately when we place our hope in and rely on God to help us. Look at this Psalm…

Psalm 40:1-3

I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined to me, and heard my cry.
He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps.
He has put a new song in my mouth—Praise to our God; many will see it and fear, and will trust in the Lord.

From the time the remaining Puritans came through the trial of all trials by coming to this new world, they had a song of praise. From that, many would see it and fear and put their trust in the Lord. They were bold about their faith. If you haven’t seen the movie “Monumental” I highly encourage you to. It will give you some clear insight about how our nation really was established, and how godly our initial leaders really were – regardless of what the current day text books have been altered to say.

In the meantime, let’s look at another group of people who were bold. They had put their trust in God – like we see in the scriptures today. Verse 21 today says the people rejoiced because they put their trust in the name of the Lord. We know that anyone who puts their trust in the name of Jesus will see things happen. Miracles happened when people called on the name of Jesus, and they are still happening today! Hallelujah! It is the name above all names…

Philippians 2:9-11

Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Like the Puritans who deeply desired to honor God, Peter and John were doing the same thing – telling people about the Lord, and risking their very lives to do it. They wanted to be used of the Lord to establish a new nation too; a people that belong to God…

Acts 4:1-22

Now as they spoke to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them, ² being greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. ³ And they laid hands on them, and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. ⁴ However, many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.

⁵ And it came to pass, on the next day, that their rulers, elders, and scribes, ⁶ as well as Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the family of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem. ⁷ And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, “By what power or by what name have you done this?”

⁸ Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders of Israel: ⁹ If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, ¹⁰ let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. ¹¹ This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ ¹² Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

¹³ Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus. ¹⁴ And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it. ¹⁵ But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves, ¹⁶ saying, “What shall we do to these men? For, indeed, that a notable miracle has been done through them is evident to all who dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. ¹⁷ But so that it spreads no further among the people, let us severely threaten them, that from now on they speak to no man in this name.”

¹⁸ So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. ¹⁹ But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. ²⁰ For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” ²¹ So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way of punishing them, because of the people, since they all glorified God for what had been done. ²² For the man was over forty years old on whom this miracle of healing had been performed.

Like our leaders today, both in (many) churches and in the government, folks do not want to hear about Jesus anymore. But He is the cornerstone upon which this great nation had been built. When Peter and John preached to the crowds, many souls were saved. They said about 5,000. What a harvest! Praise God! We can be sure that the Puritans had led many to salvation when this nation first began. The government always began their sessions with prayer and depended on the Bible to assist them in making their decisions.

The people who started this nation stood strong on their convictions and God was the true leader that most folks in those days depended on. Today’s chapter highlights the fact that there is nothing on this earth that has enough strength to help us. A horse may have great strength, however it is absolutely null and void compared to our great and awesome God. The same is true with the government. Without God, nothing they do will be able to really help the troubles of this nation, now so deeply entrenched in debt and surrounded by troubles on every side.

Back in the Puritan days, there was a passion and a fire for God. The people knew they could call on God to deliver their souls from the pit, and keep them in times of famine. Like the verses today, it causes any heart to rejoice when one calls on and truly relies on the Lord to be their strength and help in need. Over time, as our country began to develop and the original founders died off, people began to grow cooler toward God and looked more and more to the government. And, over time, laws and rules were established to try to help everyone.

The problem with that was twofold. First, it was sign that the people began to trust more in the strength of men than the Lord. And also, they began to remove the church from the government – that silly and unreasonable statement we hear all the time, “separation of church and state”. It is hideous. When we take God out of anything, we are doomed to failure. We saw it over and over in the books and chronicles of the Kings of Israel and Judah. One wicked leader after another came into leadership, and as they failed to submit to God’s laws and ways of doing things, they failed, miserably! They also took a lot of people down with them. Very SADD-U-CEE!

Little by little, people became more complacent – lukewarm about their faith. Folks were more interested in maintaining the “status quo” than standing up for the things of God. As election after election took place, we see in history that our nation continued to turn like a very large ship, ever so slowly away from the right course to one that would bring certain destruction, like the Titanic heading for that gigantic, albeit partially recognizable iceberg!

The leaders that Peter and John were dealing with were greatly disturbed about what was happening as a result of preaching about Jesus. What they disliked the most was that it threatened their own standing in the community – or so they thought. And to them – perception was everything. 

They wanted to be the ones in control and were not willing to make room for another leader. That was the same thing that started the whole “kings” mess for Israel in the first place. Instead of trusting in God, the Lord, to lead the people through His chosen officials, they wanted to have a king like the unsaved world. God gave them what they asked for and it caused tremendous sin, heartache, loss and devastation to many thousands upon thousands of people.

In the chapter in Acts today we see Peter standing boldly before the leaders telling them that the miracle of the healing they had just witnessed was because of Jesus – the one they had just put to death – or so they thought. They wanted to be done with Jesus and move on with their evil ways. But little did they know that Jesus was only gone from the earth for a few short days before God raised Him up as the true King of all kings. It was by His name that the man was healed and they could not deny it. It was obvious and they admitted that it couldn’t be denied. They were perplexed. They had a real situation that seemed to threaten their positions of authority. They debated long and hard over how to deal with these so called “trouble makers.”

What a person can really appreciate in this chapter is how boldly Peter was used of God by Holy Spirit to stand before those leaders and tell them that they needed to determine what was right or wrong for themselves, but they weren’t going to stop speaking about what they had seen and heard.

So how can we apply this to our nation today? What can we do to make a difference in America – or whatever country you are living in. This Bible study is reaching people in China, Africa, Ukraine, Latvia, Russia, Germany, France, Ireland, Brazil, Thailand and the Netherlands. Glory to God! The answer is plain. We need to trust in God and stand up for what we have seen and heard Him do in our lives. We must stop allowing the threat of death frighten us. If they kill us we get to be with Jesus, which is far better than being here.

But to stay means to tell others and finish the work God has called each of us to do. There have been a few “loud mouths” in the United States that have been used of the devil to change this country from being one nation under God to being a nation that is split and fractured. Many Christians do not even take the time to vote, yet they will moan and complain about what has happened to our country. The moral decline has been so sharp it would be difficult to chart on a graph.

Yes, too many are depending on the people in the government to solve their problems - health problems, financial problems, even family issues. All of these matters are addressed by the Lord in His holy word. If we have godly leaders, we can have godly people and godly laws. Why? Because God’s word works. When people trust in it and apply it to daily life, it gets the job done, and done right…

Isaiah 55:11

So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

Our original government leaders knew this. But when new and ungodly people began to take office and things became more and more corrupt, we began to lose our identity as one nation under God. Now we look more like a bowl of mixed vegetables, and all of them overcooked! Let’s look at a man who interceded on behalf of the nation of Israel…

Daniel 9:1-22

In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans— ² in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.

³ Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. ⁴ And I prayed to the Lord my God, and made confession, and said, “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, ⁵ we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. ⁶ Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land. ⁷ O Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as it is this day—to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You.

⁸ “O Lord, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You. ⁹ To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him. ¹⁰ We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets. ¹¹ Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against Him. ¹² And He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a great disaster; for under the whole heaven such has never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem.

¹³ “As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth. ¹⁴ Therefore the Lord has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice.¹⁵ And now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made Yourself a name, as it is this day—we have sinned, we have done wickedly!

¹⁶ “O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us. ¹⁷ Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord’s sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate. ¹⁸ O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies. ¹⁹ O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”

²⁰ Now while I was speaking, praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God, ²¹ yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering. 

Daniel was crying out to God because the people had sinned and turned away from God. He had brought them out of Egypt and placed them in the Promised Land and had given them a wonderful inheritance. Yet, they turned on Him to their evil ways. It was no different with the Puritans. The Lord brought them over on the ship to the shores of this new world called America. He took them out of the bondage they faced under King James in England so they could inherit the promises of God and live free in Christ in a place that would be fully devoted to Him. Daniel was visited by an angel of the Lord and given a promise that God’s people would be rebuilt. He had taken the time to cry out to God in all sincerity for a wandering group of people. And God answered! Praise His name forever!

The Lord is calling us all in this great country of America to humble ourselves – just like Daniel did, and pray…

2 Chronicles 7:14

 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Friends, this prayer is for us today. It was not just for then – it is also for now. The Bible and what it says is to be applied to every generation and every nation and tribe. Did you notice in this verse that he addresses the people as “His people?” It is the people of God who need to hit their knees and humble themselves, asking God for forgiveness. It is the people of God who need to turn from sin. God wasn’t calling the unsaved people to pray. They are going to! It takes God’s people living right and praying the right kind of effective prayers as they are led by Holy Spirit to get things done. 

It is our responsibility to rise and be the people of God we say we are. We cannot waste another minute sitting around whining and complaining about the way things are or how terrible our leaders are. Friends, this is sin and God despises it! No Christian should ever be caught saying something negative about anybody – especially leaders and those who are in authority! We are supposed to be praying for them - unselfish, Spirit led prayers…

1 Timothy 2:1-4

Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, ² for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. ³ For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, ⁴ who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

We will be blessed when we pray God’s kind of prayers. I can honestly tell you that I do not know much at all about political things or what is going on in the government from day to day. I have been called by God to be a minister of His word. I have to rely on close friends who are aware of these things to counsel me so I can take it to the Lord and pray about who to vote for. We have to do our homework. If we are not able to spend the time for reasons such as I just stated, then find someone you know who is a godly man or woman who does know. Get the godly counsel from them on who they are being led to vote for. Get help so you too can have a voice. There is always a way.

Nowadays we can ask for a vote by mail ballot so none of us has an excuse to miss out on voting. We do not have to stand in line. We can be in the comfort of our own homes and make solid Holy Spirit led, educated choices on who the right people are to vote into office. God has shown us in His word that “if” we do our part, He will come through and do His – every time.

The Lord knows our hearts. When we are seeking Him and His will, He will help us with decisions like who to vote for, who to pray for, etc. Then we can listen for His voice. And when we obey it, things will happen, we can be certain. Even in our chapter today, as we looked at verses 4-11, we can clearly see that when God speaks, or even breathes, things happen – hallelujah! And we want Him to be speaking on our behalf and in our favor. We need Him to breathe His Holy Spirit across the hearts of this nation like never before!

We want this nation to do well. We want to see people be able to prosper and make plenty of money so they can have plenty left over to help others – not only in our country, but in others as well, as the Lord directs. He established America to be a great nation. He wants to use us to fund the going out of the gospel to every nation and every tribe because the end of all things is near. He wants men and women to stand up and be bold, just like Peter and John, so lives can be saved and nations can be turned back to the Lord.

He wants us praying and submitting ourselves to the Lord. The more others see us really living the Christian life, the more they too will want what we have. Today there is a prayer at the end of the chapter. It asks for the mercy of the Lord to be upon us (His people) as we hope in Him.

In other words, we pray “Oh Lord God, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen, hear us when we cry to You! This nation is in trouble Lord. We know we can cry out to You. Father, forgive us for our sins. Forgive us for depending on the strength of man rather than You. Forgive us for being weak kneed and not standing up for Your word and truth in this nation. Forgive us for fearing – we know that to fear is sin. Forgive us for thinking death is some big deal, bigger than spreading the truth of the gospel to our leaders and all mankind. Father, forgive us for not having our priorities straight. Forgive us for our selfishness, in our lives and in our prayers. Forgive us for the unkind things we have said about this nation and its leaders. Forgive us for trying to curse what You have blessed. Lord, give us revelation and light to see things the way You see them. Help us to be more like our Master by thinking through the lens of Your word in every decision we make, including who to vote for in the upcoming election. Show us who we can bless in this nation Lord, starting in our own back yard. Help us to believe in Your desire to prosper us so we can be a big blessing to others. Father, we desire to be Your shining lights in a very dark world. You said to work while it is still day because night is coming. As the end draws nigh, may we never forget that You value, treasure and deeply love every human being that was ever created. And just as You have never given up hope on us, help us to never give up hope on any other human being. Cause Your light to shine on us Lord as we place our trust in You and Your word. Help us to be humble, teachable, willing and obedient. Father, You can turn a heart like a watercourse, just as the king’s heart. We ask You to change the hearts of those who are in leadership positions in this nation so that the blinders are removed and they can see that we really are one nation under God.

Father, we ask You to raise up leaders from among Your people who love You and will not be afraid to stand up in the highest of offices to boldly proclaim the word of the Lord – even if their lives are threatened. Cause them to cherish You and Your purposes more than life itself. Father, like we learned in this Psalm today, our hearts can be ever rejoicing when we place our trust in Your holy name! We ask this in the name of Jesus – the name above every name, and we believe we have already received the answer by faith. We give You all the praise, honor, glory and thanks in Jesus name! And all God’s people said Amen!

Glory to God. He is looking for prayer warriors saints. Know this – warring in prayer is not acting wildly or crying loudly and shouting. It is crying out to him in genuine heartfelt trust by praying out His word over every circumstance that concerns us, our families, our churches, our nation and the world at large. Every time a Christian really does stand on the word of God, they have just won the victory over the devil. He cannot stand against the word of God or a man or woman who really trusts Him. It will not work. God’s word works, so let’s work His word! Hallelujah!

Questions:

What did you sense the most in your spirit as you studied this lesson today?

In what ways do you feel you can make a difference for the Lord in this country?

What does it mean to you to be bold?

How have you stood up for God and this country in the past?

Will you commit to praying for this nation on a regular basis?

Who can you share this study with?

There are three main points to consider from today’s study…

God’s people must stand up and be bold witnesses for the Gospel

God’s people must humble themselves, turn from sin and seek His ways

We can trust in God to help because when He speaks – things happen

Will you be a prayer warrior on the front lines for this country?

And God Said… You fill in the blanks.

Psalm 33:12

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He has chosen as His own inheritance.