Psalm 109 Only God Could Do this

Daily Bible Study for Monday November 28, 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 trust this is helpful to you. If you are studying in another version, that is fine. I am studying from the KJV.

 ***Please note a change! We will look at everything for our basic study from the King James Version going forward. It is helpful to stay with one solid version as we study so as not to cause confusion. I may add other translations for specific scriptures as the Lord directs. 

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 Chronicles 16:8

Give thanks unto the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people.

Psalm 109

Only God Could Do This!

How many times have you caught yourself saying, “This could only be God!” In the recent presidential election in the United States, many are saying this very same thing, “This could have only been an act of God!” Most did not expect Donald Trump to win the election, however, prophecies had been given from the Lord years ago, stating that Donald would be the man to help turn America around, and NOTHING in heaven or earth was going to stop God’s plan. He is so amazing! Let’s pray…

Heavenly Father:

Thank You for Your great wisdom, power and authority! We can only depend on You when it comes to dealing with the enemy of our soul working through people. Thank You for sending Jesus, the Wonder of all wonders to give us the final victory over satan and every evil principality out there. Father, I ask You to speak through me and bring out the message of hope to Your children in this lesson. Lord, give us ears to hear and eyes to see along with hearts wide open and receptive to what You desire to say to us today. Father, I am asking for the utterance and the anointing to speak Your word with boldness, excellence and accuracy. Cause this to go out unhindered and unchecked by any outside force or my flesh. Thank You for always watching over Your word to perform it in our lives when we obey what You tell us. I ask You to water this seed sown and cause it to bring the harvest You desire to see come out of it. Thank You in advance for helping us, healing us, delivering us from pain and trouble. Thank You for being our very present help in time of need. We give You all the glory, honor and praise in Jesus name. Amen.

 When we first look at the Psalm, we see a person crying out to God for help, and quick. This has been a common theme throughout the Psalms. And in each and every case, we see how the Psalmist (led by Holy Spirit) shows that God alone is the one and only One who can and will come through for His people every time – we trust Him to, that is. Nobody can help us like our God when it comes to enemy attack. Remember, back in the Old Testament, they did not have Jesus’ finished work to depend on – yet, so they went straight to God. Those who were the seed of Abraham had the promise of God’s help when they were under attack from the devil.

In today’s Psalm, the chapter can be pretty quickly summed up in the following;

The enemy has risen up against God’s child

The person cries out for help from the Lord

The person states what the enemy(ies) should have repaid to them for their evil deeds

A statement of the evil deeds that were done against him

The person is stating the desperate condition he is in as a result of all his trouble

He is asking the Lord to deal with the enemy in such a way that it is obvious that it could only have been God

He is asking God to deal with the enemy which will cause him to rejoice

As a result of God’s help, he will praise the Lord openly and declare that God indeed helps the poor and saves them from the enemy

As we look at some of the things that the Bible shows us about how things could only have been done by God, please keep in mind that this is a brief list at best. The Bible is full of examples of how God stepped in to help His people and give them the victory again and again – praise His name forever! I will show you what He showed me today. As always, when I sit down to review the chapter, I have no idea where He will take me. Then, as I begin to read and pull out additional Bibles and open them, His message begins to become clear by Holy Spirit. And, I marvel at Him every time. I look at what He lays out before me each day and I know that only God could do this. I say to Him regularly, “Lord, I don’t know how You do what You do, but I stand in awe.”

Let’s look at the first example the Lord showed me today…

John 1:46-49

⁴⁶ And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see. ⁴⁷ Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile! ⁴⁸ Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. ⁴⁹ Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel.

Friend, what would you think if someone walked up to you whom you had never seen before in your life and said to you exactly what you had been doing maybe two hours ago, or yesterday or even three years ago? We would have to know it could only be God, right? Jesus knew exactly how Nathanael spent his time, and as soon as he heard Jesus tell of what he had been doing, he knew immediately that it was the Lord. There could be no other explanation. This is what happened in the election with Donald Trump. It could only be God!

The Lord had spoken through people and even to Donald himself years before this election ever took place. And after it happened, a lot of people had their tongues wagging on the floor in awe. They were shocked. People who do not know the Lord are still scratching their heads trying to figure out what just happened. But the Christian community knows that it was the Lord answering our cries for help for our hurting nation – the One they had been crying out to for a long time to bring in the right man to straighten all this evil out. Hallelujah!

God knows the end from the beginning and He uses people all the time to speak of the things that are yet to come. He did it in the Old Testament and He is still doing it today. There’s lots of people out there claiming to know what will happen in the future, but when it comes to pass just as the Lord said it would, and when it would happen to the precise date, we know that we know that only God could do this. Now let’s look at a joyous celebration that could have turned sour had it not been for the Lord…

John 2:1-11

2 And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there: ² And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage. ³ And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. ⁴ Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come. ⁵ His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.

⁶ And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece. ⁷ Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim. ⁸ And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they bare it.

⁹ When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew;) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom, ¹⁰ And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now. ¹¹ This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him.

How many parties have you been to where they ran out of wine and someone was told to fill up a bunch of great big water jugs that, once poured, turned in to the finest tasting wine probably on the planet? We dare say none; that we know of anyway. God may have done the same type of thing somewhere else at some time and we just do not know about it right now. Do you ever wonder about all the amazing stories we will hear when we get to heaven about the great things that the Lord did in the earth that we knew nothing about? It will be so glorious! This miracle shows us how a simple act of faith in God and obedience could cause such a wonderful outcome.

When Jesus mother spoke up, it was really the Lord leading her on what to say. We can be sure she did not know what would happen next, but the word of command came straight form her mouth, and when the disciples acted on the command in faith, this wedding celebration that could have become not only dull, but a reproach for the bride and groom became as a sign and a wonder to the disciples who witnessed the water’s transformation. It would have been quite unacceptable in those days to not have enough to take care of the wedding guests who had come to celebrate with them. But Jesus, acting on what the Father had commanded Him to do, gave the disciples a word and their faith and obedience caused this celebration to be far greater than anyone could have possibly expected. Only God could do this! Hallelujah!

Our next example shows us how the Lord Jesus stumped the Jews in John 2 with a powerful statement about how He would be raised from the dead on the third day after His crucifiction. Because they were looking at the natural, they did not understand one bit of what Jesus was really saying to them…

John 2:14-22

¹⁴ And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: ¹⁵ And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables; ¹⁶ And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise.

¹⁷ And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. ¹⁸ Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?

¹⁹ Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. ²⁰ Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? ²¹ But he spake of the temple of his body. ²² When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.

Any time a person had been raised from the dead in the scriptures, we can be sure it was not by the power of a man or woman. The Jewish leaders would kill Jesus as the people would ask them to, but Jesus was already telling them on this occasion that though they would tear down the temple (His body) it would be raised up whole again in three short days. Only God could have done this! Staying in the book of John, next, let’s look at another very important scenario that occurred late one evening after all the Pharisees were home nestled in their beds…

John 3:1-10

3 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: ² The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. ³ Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

⁴ Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? ⁵ Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. ⁶ That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

⁷ Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. ⁸ The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. ⁹ Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? ¹⁰ Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?

We see Nicodemus ask a question that certainly seems to make sense in the natural realm, right? He wanted to know how Jesus could do all the miracles He had been doing in their midst. Jesus gave him the answer straightway. A person would not be able to see the kingdom of God unless they were born again. We see how this reply threw Nicodemus further into a “tail spin” so to speak. He was scratching his head wondering how a great big, grown up man could return to his mother’s womb and get born again.

This would really cause us to laugh because it sounds like a silly question. But it isn’t. There are a lot of people asking how they can see the things of God more clearly. Jesus gave him the only answer there is, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Friend, there’s a lot of people out there scratching their heads just like Nicodemus. They cannot understand why they are having difficulty reading the scriptures. 

They think the Bible does not make any sense. Many are not sure about Jesus or who He really is. But the Lord told us in this chapter and throughout the New Testament what it takes to be able to really “see” the kingdom of God. The spirit that lives inside each one of us has to be recreated. One cannot see the things of God in the flesh.

Can a man on this earth figure out how God takes the depraved spirit of a man and changes it them into a new spirit? Absolutely not. It can only be God who could make us a brand-new creation, alive unto God through Jesus Christ. It is a miracle that goes far beyond human comprehension, yet it is the greatest miracle of all. It can only be God! Thank You, Lord! Now let’s look in the book of Acts and see what the power of God did through His man Paul…

Acts 14:1-10

14 And it came to pass in Iconium, that they went both together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake, that a great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed. ² But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles, and made their minds evil affected against the brethren.

³ Long time therefore abode they speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony unto the word of his grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands. ⁴ But the multitude of the city was divided: and part held with the Jews, and part with the apostles.

⁵ And when there was an assault made both of the Gentiles, and also of the Jews with their rulers, to use them despitefully, and to stone them, ⁶ They were ware of it, and fled unto Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and unto the region that lieth round about: ⁷ And there they preached the gospel.

⁸ And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother's womb, who never had walked: ⁹ The same heard Paul speak: who stedfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed, ¹⁰ Said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked.

Here we see a healing miracle. This man never had been able to walk. But suddenly a man came by who knows God and the man hears the preaching about Jesus and has faith to believe that what was happening to others in the region could happen to him. This faith is the kind of faith that pleases God. Without faith, we cannot please Him. We know from scripture that faith comes by hearing. This was an example of hearing, believing and receiving. Paul preached the word of God, and the man heard it and believed it was for him…

Romans 10:17

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

If someone tries to do this without the direction of the Lord, they will fail miserably. Only God could do this. And that same healing power is available for you and me right here, right now. It didn’t stop working the day they finished writing the Bible. It is for all men and for all time. The question is, do you believe it? Recently I have injured my ankle to such an extent that it would have taken months to heal. Last weekend I hurt my back at the gym. Again, this was a very painful experience and it would have taken a long time to be back on my feet. 

But I trusted that Jesus has already healed me by His stripes and I placed my faith in the power of God to heal me. Today, my ankle and my back are completely healed. It could only be God. If a Dr. had looked at my condition in either situation, they would have predicted a far different outcome than what I experienced. Praise His name forever!

One day I wrote what God was saying to me on a little 4x6 card. I do this regularly and then I rejoice when I pull them out at a later time and reflect on how good God has been to me. I had a dream one night this past summer. It was the morning of July 26, 21016. I was struggling to hit my final weight goal that I knew the Lord wanted me to reach. I was exercising regularly and eating pretty well on my food plan, but I just wasn’t getting there. 

The dream showed me in a little bathroom and it was a mess. I was in there a really long time trying to get cleaned up. The supplies in there were not adequate for the job. I made a comment in the dream that our Café will not be like that. We have plans in the works on this. More on this perhaps at another time. I said, “Our café will not be like this.”

I wanted to get out of there so I could connect with my children and other people I was with. When I asked the Lord to show me what this dream had meant, this is what He showed me. He said, “You can’t clean yourself up. You don’t have what it takes. Only I can do that. You admitted today on July 28 that you can’t. Now I can.” Glory to God. It took me two days to get the revelation on the meaning of the dream. I was so blessed. Praise the Lord. That was 4 months ago. Since then, I not only reached my goal, but I even exceeded it. He made me to be “more than a conqueror.” Hallelujah! Look at this…

Zechariah 4:6-7

⁶ Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. ⁷ Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.

As I stand here today, having lost over 95 pounds, (it goes up and down from day to day depending on water weight, activity level, etc.), I know that I know that only God could do it. My addiction to sugar and even to some regular foods was completely out of control. I was just the same as an alcoholic who could not stop drinking. I could not put down the sugar. It has been noted that sugar is 8 times more addictive than cocaine – and I fully believe it. I have been down the drug lane and used more than my share (any is bad!) of cocaine, but I was able to walk away from that a whole lot easier than the sugar.

Even giving up the drugs was an act of God. One would have to see my full testimony to hear about the many miraculous things that the Lord has done for me. I know it wasn’t my power. I know that it could only be God. Look at this passage…

Ezekiel 34:27

²⁷ And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand of those that served themselves of them.

I was yoked to the enemy so tightly that it could only be God who could break the bands of that yoke and set me free. This is why I am alive today. I cried out to Him for help. He came to my rescue, putting my enemies to shame through Jesus death, burial, resurrection and blood on the mercy seat in heaven on my behalf (and yours!). As the Psalm closes with a verse that well states my sentiment exactly, I will praise Him greatly in the multitude of people for all He has done for me. 

I know that I would not be here today were it not for the mercy and power of our great God. He stood at the right hand of this spiritually poor girl and saved me from the devil who tried to condemn me. I have a lot to shout about when it comes to God. I look back at the many ways I have seen Him work in my life. I see the countless dangerous situations that He rescued me from, and I am 100% certain that it could have only been God!

What About you? What has He delivered you from that causes you to rejoice and proclaim it to the multitude? What are you facing maybe right this minute that only God can save you from? Will you place your trust in His word and His power to deliver you? Will you stand in faith and praise Him, even through the tears? Will you believe in His promises and His faithfulness to set you free from the yoke of the enemy? I can testify that when I started placing more faith in God – in His word and His power, I was getting set free. I started speaking His word over my life in the areas where I needed deliverance. There is power in His word. Look at this…

Hebrews 4:12

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

God is our only Deliverer from trouble. We can’t go to a man for the answers. We cannot seek family members or friends to find the solutions that only God can give us. Today I believe He wants to remind you and me just how powerful He is and how much He can help us. We all have several enemies. His name is satan, and all the wicked principalities and wicked demons that work for him. 

His main goal is to destroy us – but God has a much better plan. I am living proof that when the mountains seem so tall and the valley looks so low, the changes that come out of placing our faith in the power of God and His word to do what He sends it to do will work. His word never fails to return to Him without accomplishing the purpose for which He sent it.  

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

Only God can deliver us

When the Lord helps us, others will know that it could have only been Him

We can openly declare to others what the Lord has done for us – it brings Him glory

Questions:

What has God done for you to cause you to shout it to the multitudes?

What in your current situation do you need to place your trust in God for?

How has this lesson changed your thinking?

What will you do differently as a result of today’s study?

Who can you share this study with?

What do you need the Lord to deliver you from right now?

Let’s pray…

Heavenly Father:

Thank You for Your mighty power. You have been faithful to step in on my behalf and deliver me from great trouble. Because of all You have done for me, I want to tell others that they too can place their trust in You. Lord, whatever I am facing right now I will look to You for the help I need. When others see what You have done in my life, I will gladly rejoice and tell them that it could only be God! Thank You Lord in Jesus name. Amen.

And God Said… You fill in the blanks.

                   

Ezekiel 17:22-24

²² Thus saith the Lord God; I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon an high mountain and eminent:

²³ In the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it: and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar: and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing; in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell.

²⁴ And all the trees of the field shall know that I the Lord have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish: I the Lord have spoken and have done it.