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Daily Devotion: Psalm 118:27-29

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Psalm 118:27-29    "God is the LORD, which hath shewed us light: bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.  (28)  Thou art my God, and I will praise thee: thou art my God, I will exalt thee.  (29)  O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth forever."

Perspective makes such a difference in our lives. We can have great peace when we see situations and circumstances in the correct light and then place them in proper perspective. The world in which we live is filled with spiritual darkness. We need the proper guidance and direction for our lives in order to maneuver our way through this world. The Psalmist tells us where that light, or guidance, originates and then what our proper response should be. Let's look at it for just a moment.

He speaks in verse 27 of binding the sacrifice and then in verse 29 he speaks of giving thanks. May I say that is the same action. Our proper sacrifice unto the Lord consists of these elements: thanksgiving, honor, and service.  In Philippians 4:6-7, Paul tells us to bind our thanksgiving to our requests. When we combine thanksgiving and requests, we are remembering past deliverances which have been given us and anticipating the Lord answering our prayers according to His will. When we bind them all together, there is a sweet peace that inhabits our hearts and minds because we know His love for us is unconditionally perfect for our lives. We have bound it to the altar of God and left it in His hands. That removes the pressure that we sometimes place upon ourselves.

When we look at today's verses in the light of God's mercy and grace, we can join with the Psalmist to say, "God is the LORD." That is one perspective, but it needs to go farther than that in our experiences of life. We come to the place of understanding, yes "God is the LORD" AND "You are my God."  You see, the things I wrote in the previous paragraph come to a reality in our hearts and minds as we realize the sweet relationship we have with the Creator of this Universe.  When we see that, then the child's prayer we used to pray at meals becomes the direction to all our enlightenment and strength: "God is great. God is good. Let us thank Him..."

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