DO 239610/86

SET YOUR LOVE UPON HIM!

1. I think we had gotten through Verse 13 in our former studies—can anybody tell me what the next verse says? (David: "Because he hath set his love upon Me.") Very good! It was always hard for me to remember the last verses of a Psalm, because in memorising the Psalm you always start with the first verse and you keep going over and over it. You repeat those first verses so many times they sink in permanently and you never forget them! But by the time you get to the last verses, you haven't gone over them nearly as much as the first verses, so you forget them easier. So that's pretty good, David, for you to remember that!

2. "Because he hath set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him." What does it mean to "set your love" on somebody? Girls are always falling in love with boys, and boys with girls. (Techi: To love them?) Right, but how about setting your love on them. What does it mean to set something? (Techi: Do you mean set something on the table, or set your watch?) (Maria: Like "set your affections on things above"?) To set your affections, to set your love. In this case the way the word is used, if you fall in love with somebody, what's the next thing you want to do?—You want to grab'm, right?—Lay hold on them, grab them‚ set your affection on them. In other words, really grab ahold!

3. "Because he hath set his love upon Me"—somebody that really loves the Lord and is really grabbing ahold of Him—"therefore will I deliver him." In other words, we don't just go to church on Sunday and sing a few pious hymns and say a few inane prayers and take off the rest of the week and forget about the Lord and church and everything else. Would you call that setting your love on the Lord?—No! Setting your love on the Lord is studying about the Lord and His Word and loving Him, praying, memorising, witnessing‚ loving others, winning souls every day, right? That's really setting your love on Him.

4. When I set this bottle of perfume down here, it's because I believe the table's going to hold it up, I have faith in the table to hold it up! When you sat down there on your seats, did you expect to fall through to the floor? You set yourself down with such faith and confidence, you just plopped yourself on the couch and you expected it to hold you up! (David: Like the story about the missionary.) Yes! The missionary was trying to find a good word for faith and trust, and this native came in and plopped himself down in the chair and said a word which meant, "I'm resting all my weight here."

5. So when you sit down on your couches, you're resting all your weight here, you're trusting the couch is going to hold you up. Before you sat down, you didn't look at the couch and worry, "I wonder if that can hold me? I wonder if I should trust that or not? It might be broken or I might fall through and land on the floor." Those are doubts! You had such faith in the couch you never even thought about it, you just plopped yourself down. It held you before and it's going to hold you now, and that's the way we should be about the Lord!

6. We never even doubt about it! Why should we doubt about it? He's always helped us before, He's always sustained us before, He's always held us up before when we've set ourselves on Him, so why not now? So it becomes automatic with us‚ a good habit to trust the Lord, to set ourselves down firmly on Him!

7. Now that's the only way you can use the word "set," S-E-T‚ with the matter of sitting down. "I sit now, I sat yesterday, I have sat before." Those are the three forms of the verb "to sit": Sit, sat, have sat. There's not such a word about sitting as set. You don't say, "I set down here." But you can say it transitively, meaning the verb "set," S-E-T‚ has to have an object. "I set the bottle on the table." And if you're the object, you can say, "I set myself down here." See‚ "set" has to have an object. (Maria: That means, if you're going to use the verb "set," you have to have a noun or pronoun after it.)—The object of the word set. "I set the bottle down here. I set it down here today, I set it down yesterday, I have set it down before, I will set it down in the future!" It's all set, S-E–T. When you're talking about something like that, then it's called transitive, it means the verb has an object. You say, "I set the bottle," not "I sat the bottle." You can only "sat" yourself! "I sit, sat, have sat and will sit."

8. So, in that way, you set yourself down on that couch and you really trust it, and here in this verse he's setting his love on the Lord. Love is the object of the word "set" in this case. "Because he hath set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him." In other words, your love, your trust and your faith in the Lord that He's going to deliver you because you love Him!

9. Hey, how about this! The next line says: "I will set him on high, because he hath known My name!" Good thing we studied that word "set"! If you set your love and faith on the Lord‚ He's going to set you where? (Children: On high!) (Maria: Like God taking you up in His hand like a bottle and putting you up!) Yes, He's going to set you on high‚ praise the Lord!

10. "He shall call upon Me and I will answer him." That doesn't need any explanation, does it? If you need the Lord, call on Him and He'll answer! "I will be with him in trouble." PTL! Last night He was with us in trouble, there was a great big spider in the bathroom! Thank the Lord we got there before you kids did! It was a mama spider, of all things, a great big black one! (Techi: A black widow?) No‚ just an ordinary house spider, but big!

MAMA & THE LIZARD!

11. Your Mama is a very brave woman, she's faced down monsters before and never even gets excited, never gets hysterical or screaming or anything like that! Mama's so cool, she just keeps her cool and keeps calm‚ like the time she faced that lizard on the stairway in Singapore! (Maria: I just call for Grandpa to slay the monster!) It's really almost funny how calmly she takes it. She tries not to frighten me or scare me or startle me because she knows that's hard on my heart.—Just the way it was with that lizard in Singapore!

12. It was a great big lizard, standing up on big long legs! His body was about two feet long, tail about three feet long, and then he had big long legs. He stood up on his legs about 6 inches high! I was out in the yard and apparently he thought I was chasing him and he ran up the stairs‚ and Mama was coming down the stairs and they both met on the landing! And what do you suppose happened?

13. She said, "Honey, there's a lizard in here." She said it so calmly you would have thought maybe it was a little baby lizzie! I don't remember exactly what I said, but I could have said something like, "What do you mean? There are lots of lizards in here!" She said, "Yes, but this one is different. You should come look at it." The lizard was on the landing, cornered, and she was standing on the upper stairs and I was down at the door.

14. So I walked up and looked at that lizard and I nearly panicked! But Mama was just standing calmly at the top of the stairs. (Maria: Lizzies don't hurt you.) Normally they don't, there are very few lizards in the World that bite you, or that are poisonous. But as long as any of them do bite and one out of a million might be poisonous, I stay shy of all of them!—Except that I know the little lizzies are harmless and they eat mosquitoes and bugs.

15. Anyhow, she was very calm about it, a lot calmer than I was when I saw that great huge lizard there! I was really excited, I said, "Grab a broom! Grab something quick!" I was standing right in the way of the lizard getting out and I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to leave your poor mother up there, but I was afraid if I came up I might chase him right past Mama. So I decided, "Well, I can't just leave her standing there helpless, unrescued!" What I was planning to do was go get the broom for Mama and chase him down.

16. But the dear lizard solved the whole problem for both of us! The minute I opened the door to start going up the stairs, he saw it was time to clear out and make his get-away. The gangsters used to call it‚ "take it on the lam," meaning to run away! So he came zipping right down past me and out the door and nearly scared me half to death! You should have seen him gallop across that lawn! I never would have dreamed a lizard could run so fast! He had big long legs! And he ran!—Not down on his belly, but ran across the yard and dove into a ditch!

SPIDER STORY!

17. Well, last night Mama said, "I'm going to the potty‚" and she went in and turned on the light in the bathroom. She said very calmly, "Honey, I think you'd better come, there's a spider in here." We'd seen lots of spiders around the house, so I said, "What is he? One of those brown house spiders?" She said, "No, it's the biggest one I ever saw here." So I didn't know what to expect!

18. I grabbed the fly swatter, my trusty weapon, and I went quickly into the bathroom! (Maria: David going to slay Goliath!) And there was your Mama still standing there facing that big spider right there in the bathroom! She didn't run out of the bathroom screaming like some women would have done! I said, "Where‚ where?" And right beside the washbowl was sitting this great big spider with a big black body as big as the end of my thumb, and underneath the body, a big white puff ball, egg ball of babies!—Only I didn't see that at first.

19. I would have expected your Mama to "take it on the lam" and me too‚ but I took it on the wham! I really prayed, "Lord help me!"—Because I knew if I didn't get it with the first crack she might run away and crawl into some hole and hide away. So I aimed and I went WHAM, real hard‚ to make sure I really got her! And all of a sudden‚ almost like a cloud, out came all these little bitty spiders running all over the counter there around the sink. And they were running fast! I really got her, she was crumpled up in a wad, but I had burst open the puff ball, her eggs, and there were all these little baby spiders! They were really small! (David: But they grow!) I hope we didn't miss any of them, because if they ever grow as big as she was, I'd hate to meet another one!

20. Then we started yelling, "Quick, Henry, the Flit!"—Or‚ "Quick, boys, the spray!" (Techi: What's "Quick Henry the Flit"?) That used to be a very popular advertisement when I was a kid, when insect sprays first came out. It really was nothing but kerosene, and we used to use kerosene like that. We had a spray gun that had a round can of spray on the end‚ you poured your kerosene or your Flit or whatever it was in there, and then you pumped it like this and sprayed the insect.

21. So the first commercial insecticide that ever came out in the United States for average home use was called "Flit!" And it always had a cartoon of this woman screaming or something because she'd met this big insect, whatever it was. Sometimes it was a big giant mosquito or a big fly or a big bug of some kind, and she'd scream, "Quick, Henry, the Flit!" And here comes Henry running along with his pump gun with the Flit! (Techi: Who was Henry?) He was her husband. It was just an imaginary couple to advertise this insect spray. But it got very popular until it became a common saying. If you got in any kind of an emergency you said, "Quick, Henry, the Flit!" In other words, "Quick, help give us the answer!"

22. So we said‚ "Quick, boys, the spray!" And one of the boys came running in with the spray bottle! All these little spiders were running all over and I was afraid they were going to flee into every little crevice and get lost and not show up again until they were as big as their mama! So one of our dear boys was inserting this long tube into the top of the spray bottle and getting it ready, and I thought, "My Lord, will he ever start spraying!" He was trying to do it just right. I said, "Hurry up! Spray'm quick before they get away!" And he just baptised the whole counter there around the washbowl and everything with spray, including our toothbrushes and the drinking water glasses and everything else! He had to, they were just running all around between'm! So they had to take out all the glasses and wash'm real good after that, and replace all the toothbrushes.

23. But your Mama is the bravest woman I ever saw! I don't know where the spider came in, but she probably came in like a cat for refuge somewhere to have her babies, & brother, she really had'm! One of the boys said he thought they were premature, they were so small. See, I caused her to have a miscarriage. (To Techi: ) Honey, I don't mind it at all. Spiders are one of the things I like to kill! (Techi: I'm not sad, I'm just concentrating.) Okay. I thought you were feeling sorry for dear mother spider! (David: It's good that they're premature, because then they probably won't make it without their Mommy.) I hope so.

24. But anyhow, there are some things I like to kill, like flies & mosquitoes & cockroaches & bedbugs, &, if they get a little too numerous and in our way, spiders! I don't like spiders around my bed or hanging on the ceiling above my bed, & I don't like them in the house. If they want to horse around building nests and catching flies outdoors, that's fine, but I don't like them in the house. Although the Bible does say spiders dwell in king's houses, meaning spiders are everywhere.—Prov.30:28. (Techi: Because when the mama spider has her babies, or any animal, it takes months for them to come out.) Well, it didn't take months last night, she had them right there on the sink and they were running all over the place, all these little tiny black specks!

25. At first I thought she was dead because she didn't move when I came in. I lifted up the fly swatter and the shadow of the fly swatter fell across her, and normally even a shadow will scare them. But apparently she was kind of half-dazed by the light or from dragging that sack full of babies around, and when I lifted it up ready to aim—"Ready, aim, fire!"—she never made a move! That was her last!

26. I don't think I've ever seen a spider that big outside of Texas tarantulas. Texas tarantulas are as big as my hand when my fingers are outstretched! Their long legs are hairy and thick! But they're very slow, they used to just walk along slowly. I didn't know how fast this one was, but it had awful long legs. It looks like she could have been real fast! But she was at least that big around, kind of black and grey. I didn't really take time to study her designs, because I had designs on her—boom! And thank the Lord we got her, as well as most of the baby spiders.

27. They were so small, at first I couldn't tell whether they were ants or spiders! I said‚ "Son, would you come look quick!" I thought maybe the spider was already dead, because she never moved, and maybe the ants were already devouring her. But they were little baby spiders. So, we got her‚ and all evening I was looking down at the floor before I put my feet down‚ and looking in between the covers before I got in bed! Be sure before you put your clothes or shoes on‚ you always shake'm out, that's a good lesson!

28. Ha, ha! This next verse is going to be a good one, listen to this one! Oh, I'm on the wrong Psalm! The page blew over. (Techi: What did it say?) Isn't it funny? My eyes fell right on this verse: "And I will beat down his foes before his face!" But that's in the 89th Psalm, 23rd verse. So He helped me to beat down my foes before my face. (Techi: That Psalm is about David, we memorised that part.) Good! Well, we're almost through the 91st Psalm, let's finish it, shall we?

FOUR THINGS THE LORD WILL DO FOR US!

29. Next to the last verse: "He shall call upon Me and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him."—Four things He'll do for us. What are they? You give me the answers: "He shall call upon Me and I will..." (Children: Answer him!) "I will be with him in..." (Children: Trouble!) "I will deliver him and..." (Children: Honour him!) Very good! What a lot of good promises! "With long life will I satisfy him, and..." (David: "Show him My Salvation!") You've got a good memory, Son! So have you, Sweetheart.

30. Anyhow‚ you'll live a long time and He'll show you His Salvation! I don't really know why anybody wants to live a long time in this horrible World! (David: Maybe it was back in the old times.) Yes, those were great times then, it was a pleasure and a joy to live a long time in the ideal conditions under which the World was then—beautiful agrarian economy‚ farms, people living civilly and civilised, etc. Of course, they had a lot of trouble then too, wars and whatnot. But anyway, it was a lot better than it is now‚ so people wanted to live a long time in those days and have a lot of children and grandchildren. So praise the Lord! Shall we pray?

31. (David: Thank You Jesus for this good Bible Study that we had, Lord, about Your protection. Thank You for protecting Grandpa and Mommy last night when the spider came‚ and for helping them to kill it!) Thank You for having her sit right there where I could, Lord, and for Mama's courage! (David: And thank You for Your protection, how You always protect us, Lord, and for Your guardian Angels that are always with us. We really thank You for that, Jesus‚ and we pray that as we go through this day that You will please protect us and help us to get a lot done. Help us to do things that will please You, and that will be edifying, and whatsoever things are good. Help us to have a good day in Your Word and doing jobs for You, in Jesus' name.) Amen, keep us all safely and thank You for such a beautiful day! As we pray together the prayer He taught us to pray: (Prays the Lord's Prayer.)

OX IN A DITCH!

32. Help us now and keep us safely while we clean up the yard so it'll look nice today, our ox in a ditch! Do you know what it is to have your ox in a ditch? Do you remember the story that Jesus told? He and His disciples were going through the corn field on the Sabbath picking corn, and then He healed a man as well. So all the religious self–righteous hypocrites, Scribes and Pharisees, started jumping on Him about it and saying, "You're breaking the Law! You're doing work on the Sabbath‚ healing people and feeding Your disciples‚ that's work!" So Jesus said, "Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath? Which one of you shall have an ox fallen in the pit and will not straightway pull him out on the Sabbath day!"—Luke 13:11-17; 14:5. In other words, some things happen and you've got to do a little work on the Sabbath whether you like it or not! Well, we're not under Sabbath laws any more.

33. See, the Christians have transferred all that law to Sunday now, and they even call Sunday the Sabbath. Well, the Sabbath is the seventh day, and Sunday is really the first day of the week! They still go by Old Testament Law and think they can't work on Sunday. The real particular Jews used to ask us to come over to their house on Saturday and turn on the light or light the stove for them, because they aren't even supposed to strike a match or flip a switch, it's considered work! Isn't that ridiculous? But then they cook the meal and serve it and do the dishes and everything else! That just shows you how self-righteous some people are!

34. Anyway, all that to explain that we have our ox in the ditch so we've got to go pull him out! Since we didn't get the yard cleaned up during the week, we've got to do it now. I don't like for it to be such a mess when it could be so nice and neat and pretty!

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family