DO 242411/86

PSALM 100!

1. We finished the 91st Psalm‚ now I've got to find my next favourite! Guess what it is after 91? Go up the numbers & see if you can guess the next number! (Techi: Psalm 100.)—Right! PTL!

2. (Verse 1:) "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands." I think you know this so well you probably don't have to have any explanation. I used to tell folks in church when I was leading the singing, "Even if you can't sing, at least you can make a joyful noise!"

3. (Verse 2:) "Serve the Lord with gladness!" The Lord likes a cheerful giver! "Come before His presence with singing." You know what I was just thinking? Every night, to get us calmed down for prayer we ought to sing a song or a hymn first. Let's remember that! Because it takes you a little while sometimes to get settled down.

4. (Verse 3:) "Know ye that the Lord He is God; it is He that hath made us, & not we ourselves." That's why Evolution is a big lie! "We are His people & the sheep of His pasture!" We're not the goats of the Devil's pasture!

5. (Verse 4:) "Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, & into His courts with praise; be thankful unto Him, & bless His name!" What's this Psalm all about?—Doing what? (David: Praising the Lord!)—Praising the Lord! From a joyful noise, all the way through the gates with thanksgiving & courts with praise!

6. You know what gates are, but what are His courts? Well, I guess they're where He holds court sometimes, His various courtrooms. Also it means the various places where the King works & holds court. It's called "holding court," & the people there are called courtiers.

7. "Be thankful unto Him & bless His name!" This is all about praising the Lord! (Verse 5:) "For the Lord is good, His mercy is..." (David: Everlasting!) Good for you! I should have tested you more as we went along! "And His Truth endureth to..." (Children: All generations!) PTL! Hallelujah! TYL! That was a nice short one! Guess what my next favourite Psalm is? Count from 100! (Children: 101, 102, 103‚ 104, 105...) How could you pass up 103 when the 103rd Psalm is such a wonderful Psalm!

PSALM 103!

8. (Verse 1:) "Bless the Lord, O my soul!" What's a soul? (Children: Body & spirit.)—Right! A body & a spirit when they're together make one soul. So it means bless the Lord with both your body & spirit, because your body & spirit together make a soul!

9. "And all that is within me, bless His holy name!" What does it mean to bless God's name? Isn't He already blessed? How can you bless the Lord? Isn't He the One Who blesses us? (David: By thanking Him?)—Right, He considers that a blessing when you praise & thank Him! Isn't that wonderful? We can actually bless the Lord‚ think of that!

10. (Verse 2:) "Bless the Lord, O my soul, & forget not all His benefits." We used to have an old song: (Sings: ) "Count your blessings, name them one by one! Count your blessings, see what God hath done! Count your blessings, name them one by one! Count your many blessings, see what God hath done!" So that's what you do when you "forget not all His benefits"! Okay, don't forget His benefits, count your blessings!

11. (Verse 3:) "Who forgiveth all thine iniquities." What are iniquities? (David: Sins.) "Who healeth all thy diseases." If He heals all our diseases, how come we get so many? (Techi: To teach us.) That's true‚ that's for sure! Sometimes it's a spanking! Spankings are also child-training, chastening is child training.

12. (Verse 4:) "Who redeemeth thy life from destruction." What does that mean? (Techi: He saves your life from destruction.) Right! For one thing, He saves us to begin with. And He not only saves our spirits‚ what some people call souls, but He saves our bodies, too, from destruction.—Many times!

13. "Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness & tender mercies." How can He crown us with lovingkindness & tender mercies? How can you make a crown out of that? (Techi: He blesses us.)—Yes, & what is a crown for? (Techi: For good deeds.) You're telling me what a crown is, but what is it for? Why do kings wear crowns? (Techi: Because they're royal.) It shows that they're a king! It displays their authority & how important they are. Queens also wear crowns. So if God crowns you, it shows you're pretty important!

14. How do you know you're a king & queen? (Techi: Because you wear a crown.) That's right, that shows it, but how do you know you're a king‚ can you think of any explanation? What made you a king or a queen? (Techi: Because your father & mother were king & queen.) Exactly right! Jesus is King of kings & we're His children, so that makes us royal princes & princesses, kings & queens!

15. That tells you what a crown is & what it's for, but how can it be made out of lovingkindness & tender mercies? (David: It's a spiritual crown, it's symbolic.) It's spiritual, yes, He's using a crown as a symbol. In other words, if you're a king or a queen, prince or princess, you'll show it with what? (David: Love!) Right, with love & mercy. That'll be your crown that everybody will see, because you're loving & merciful.

16. (To the chirping birds outside:) Now listen, you just mind your own business! I know you might want to hear the Bible, & you hear my voice, but nevertheless, this is Bible time & you little sparrows aren't supposed to be playing around out there interrupting our Bible study!

17. (Verse 5:) "Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things." How does He do that? (Techi: By supplying our food.) What are you doing right now? (David: Eating breakfast.) So therefore He satisfies your mouth with good things, right? It really looks good too, yummy! Those scrambled eggs really look good! So He even satisfies our mouths.

18. "So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's." After you eat, you feel stronger, don't you? If you go a long time without eating‚ you kind of feel weak, right? So He renews your youth, your youngness, your life & your energy like an eagle's. Do you think an eagle has very much strength & youth? He can take off from the ground & fly way up in the air very high, so he must have a lot of strength!

19. (Verse 6:) "The Lord executeth righteousness & judgement for all that are oppressed." What does "oppressed" mean? What does the word sound like? (David: Pressed down.) Right, exactly!—Pressed down with heavy burdens!—Usually by their enemies & even by governments, which press the people down. But what does the Lord do for them? "He executeth righteousness & judgement," He spares them & delivers them from oppression.

20. (Verse 7:) "He made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel." How did He do that? (Techi: His judgement.) Yes, sometimes they got "the axe" too!—Not just "His acts"! How did He make known His ways? (David: By telling them.) Yes, by telling them, talking to them through Moses. (David: And His Word.) By His Word & how else? How about the acts? (David: His chastisements?) Well, some was chastisement, yes. (Techi: He protected them.) Yes, He protected them‚ He fed them, He did miracles for them‚ all kinds of good acts. The word used in this Bible passage is A-C-T-S, not A-X–E‚ dear! That was just a joke Grandpa made‚ called a play on words. (Techi: Oh! Acts!) Ha‚ ha! You really did think it was an axe! Language is funny, isn't it?

21. (Verse 8:) "The Lord is merciful & gracious, slow to anger, & plenteous in mercy." What's gracious? Full of...? (Children: Grace!) Right! And He's "slow to anger," He doesn't get mad in a hurry. It takes a lot to get Him provoked, but finally when He gets provoked, that's the only time when the Lord moves fast! He usually moves very slowly‚ carefully, prayerfully & cautiously like we should move, but once He gets angry, He can really move swiftly then! (Techi: Like that quote about "the wheels of His judgement.") Yes, they move exceedingly slow but they grind exceedingly fine! They move very slowly, but they grind very small, very fine flour.

22. And He's plenteous in mercy! He has how much mercy? (David: A lot!) (Fam: Plenty!) Always try to parallel the word that's given in the verse if you can, if you can find a simpler word that means the same thing. If He's plenteous in mercy, that means He has plenty of mercy! Has He got enough for all of us? (Children: Amen!) Enough for the whole World!

23. (Verse 9:) "He will not always chide: neither will He keep His anger for ever." What does "chide" mean? (Techi: Chastise?) Well, sometimes it takes the form of chastisement. When you do something naughty, what's the first thing your parent does? (David: Gives you a gentle rebuke.) Rebuke, right, but what's a simpler word? One little syllable that ends with D. Starts with S..C...& ends with D. (Dad shakes his finger.) (Children: Oh, scold!) All I had to do was wave my finger at you & you knew it meant scold! Usually when mamas & daddies are scolding their children they wave their fingers at them! "He will not always scold, or chasten, neither will He keep His anger for ever."—Why? Why won't He be mad at you forever? (Techi: He'll forgive you.)—Right, if you say you're sorry.

24. (Verse 10:) "He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities." Does He really give us what we deserve? Does He spank us that hard? (Children: No.) He's pretty gentle with us. He doesn't punish us nearly as bad as we really deserve!

25. (Verse 11:) "For as the Heaven is high above the Earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him." How high is the Heaven above the Earth? (David: Really high!) We don't even know how high it is, do we? Some scientists say it's millions of light years! I don't believe the stars are that far away, but space goes out & out & on & on, & who knows, maybe there's no limit to space! (David: I thought when God talked about the Heavens, He meant the atmosphere.) When He's talking about the Heavens, He's talking about space & everything that's in it, & as far as we know, there's no limit to the Heavens! So how high are His ways above our ways?—There's no limit, it's limitless! "So great is His mercy toward them that fear Him." God has how much mercy? It's as big as what? (Techi: The Heavens!)—Right, the Heavens, space!

26. (Verse 12:) "As far as the East is from the West, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us." What are transgressions, first of all? (David: Sins!) And how far has He put them away from us by forgiving us & saving us? (Techi: As far as space goes!) As far as the East is from the West. Even in space, East & West are just limitless, so far away we'll never find them!

27. (Verse 13:) "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him." You haven't been a father yet, although with your kitties you're sort of a father, & you're a mother. Do you pity them? What does this kind of pity mean? (David: To feel sorry for them.) Just feel sorry for them & do nothing about it? (Techi: Compassion.) Pity is like compassion, very good‚ Honey, that's smart. (Techi: Pity is feeling sorry, but compassion is doing something about it!) Yes, that's right! But this kind of pity‚ God's pity, includes compassion! He is compassionate. "So the Lord pitieth them that fear Him."

28. (Verse 14:) "For He knoweth our frame, He remembereth that we are dust." He doesn't expect too much of us‚ does He? He knows that we're only humans‚ we're just made out of mud. And He made us, so He doesn't expect too much of us. He doesn't expect more than we're able to do.

29. (Verse 15 & 16:) "As for Man, his days are as grass: As a flower of the field‚ so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, & it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more." Your Uncle Aaron used to sing that song & it always made me cry. It must have been the Spirit, because the Lord knew he wasn't going to be here much longer. How long do the grass & the flowers last? (David: Not very long.) They bloom & then soon they wither & they fall off. Comes Summer the grass turns all brown & looks like it's dead.—Only sometimes we've found it wasn't dead‚ all it needed was water, thank the Lord! The dry wind passes over it & it withers up & it's gone, right? "And the place thereof shall know it no more."

30. (Verse 17:) "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him." He's saying that Man is so small & weak & doesn't last very long, except in the Heavenly City. On this Earth men don't last very long‚ do they? But the mercy of the Lord is everlasting! How about that! There's a certain battery called Eveready, & that implies that they're going to last a long time, always ready. Well, they're not as everlasting as they're supposed to be & they really don't last very long, do they? They're not really ever ready, are they? That shows you how men lie in their advertising. "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him." How long does God's mercy last? What is everlasting? (Techi: Always lasting.)—For ever!

31. "And His righteousness unto children's children." My Mother & Father loved the Lord, so He caused their righteousness to fall on me, & now it's fallen on you! Praise the Lord! Some day you'll have children of your own & the Lord's righteousness keeps right on flourishing.

32. (Verse 18:) "To such as keep His covenant‚ & to those that remember His commandments to do them." Every promise has conditions. There's only one way the righteousness keeps on lasting, & that's if you keep His what? What's another word for a contract between two people? (David: Covenant.)—Right! "To such as keep His covenant," your contract with the Lord. He promises to take care of you & do all these nice things for you, providing you do what He wants you to do! "And to those that remember His commandments to do them."—If you keep His covenant & remember to do His commandments, to obey! Keeping commandments can be summed up in one little word, & what is it? (David: Obey!)

33. (Verse 19:) "The Lord hath prepared His throne in the heavens; and His Kingdom ruleth over all." Well, all of a sudden He started talking about His Kingdom & His throne, but He just got through talking about what? (David: Obedience.)—Obeying! So He's explaining why you should obey, because God is a what? (David: A King!) So He's also a ruler & you're supposed to obey Him. Where is His throne? (Techi: In Heaven!) Right, "and His Kingdom ruleth over..." (Techi: All of Space!) You guys never memorised this 103rd Psalm, did you? You should tell your teachers to make that one of your assignments to memorise this Psalm. His Kingdom ruleth over what? (Techi: All generations.) All! A, double L! That includes everything! There's nothing that's not under the Kingdom of God!

34. (Verse 20:) "Bless the Lord!" Here we go back to blessing Him again! We started off this Psalm blessing the Lord, & now we're going to bless Him some more! "Bless the Lord, ye His Angels, that excel in strength, that do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His Word!" You mean that you even have to tell the Angels to bless the Lord? Here's King David telling the Angels to bless the Lord! How about that! Even Angels are supposed to bless the Lord and praise the Lord!

35. (Techi: Why did He have to tell the Angels?) He's just reminding them, like He's reminding us. Why does He have to tell us? Angels aren't exactly perfect. They have a will of their own, they even make mistakes. You've seen these funny movies about funny Angels on probation & whatnot & they make funny mistakes. They make mistakes & have to come back to try to straighten things out. So even Angels make mistakes!

36. A third of all the Angels fell with the Devil & followed the Devil!—Rev.12:4 & 9. That was a big mistake, right? And instead of Angels, they became demons & devils! Think of that! (David: God only has two-thirds left, but that must be a lot!) It's plenty, Honey, twice as many as the Devil has! And God can make more any time He wants them! He's already got ten thousand times ten thousand!—Rev.5:11. (David: Do you think the Prophet was saying He has that exact number, or did it just mean He has so many?) Well, that's what he's saying, that He's got almost unlimited numbers, ten thousand times ten thousand, & thousands of thousands! What is a thousand thousand? (David: A million.) So if He's got ten thousand times ten thousands, that's hundreds of millions! Do you think that's enough? Do you think God has enough Angels? You're not worried about God running out of Angels, are you? (Children: No!) Well, I'm not either! He can make more if He wants to!

37. (Techi: Grandpa, how does He make them? Does He take people from this Earth & turn them into Angels?) No, He had Angels even before He created Man. The Devil, who at one time was a good Angel himself, rebelled & fell in the beginning before Man was created. (Techi: Yes, but how can He make more?) Just the way He made the last ones! (Techi: He snaps His finger & there's an Angel?) We don't know, do we? When we get to Heaven we'll have to visit the Angel Factory & see how He makes them! So the Lord by His Spirit even tells the Angels to praise the Lord.

38. (Verse 21:) "Bless ye the Lord, all ye His hosts; ye ministers of His, that do His pleasure." What are the Lord's hosts? When He speaks of hosts, what does He usually mean? He says, "Hosts of heaven," "David came up with a great host." What is a host?—Besides the other meaning which means the fellow who owns a house where you're a guest, or if he takes you out to dinner, he's your host. (David: A whole lot.) A whole lot of what? (David: Of people.) Right, or it could be Angels. But usually it's a military term referring to a big what? (David: An army!) There you got it, an army! A host is a term usually meaning an army.

39. We are part of the forces of Heaven, we are part of His hosts! Right now we're His human hosts. He's got a big army of people on the Earth. But it's not big enough because too many of His army have retired & are sitting down on the job, like the church people! There are hosts & hosts & millions & millions of church people, but they're not fighting. Oh yes, they are fighting, but mostly amongst themselves. They're so busy fighting amongst themselves they don't have time to fight the Devil! There're a bunch of hosts who are fighting each other instead of the Enemy!

40. But even with a small army like our little Family, we're able to do a lot of fighting if we really fight! We help to influence whole countries! Mama's really been fighting & getting all these "Daily Food" articles written! Mama's the head of a host—a host of writers! They're wielding their best weapon, their pens! Actually, in our case it's mostly computers, those are our pens! And although it's not exactly a quotation from the Bible, God's Word as good as says that "the pen is mightier than the sword!" But He does say that God's Word is mightier than a sword!—Heb.4:12.

41. So Mama has a host of writers & a host of people helping her fight the Enemy, supplying weapons to the warriors!—Weapons of God's Sword! What's God's Sword of the Spirit? (David: The Word of God!) So actually‚ Mama's running an armory where they make weapons for the soldiers! She's manufacturing Words—Word–Swords for the army! That's the most powerful weapon they can have‚ better than machine guns or rifles or big cannons, guns, planes or anything!—Even missiles! God's Word is more powerful than anything! You may not appreciate that now‚ but you will some day. You know that because you've been told that, & sometimes you've seen it happen & seen it work. So, "bless ye the Lord, all ye His hosts!" Does that include you? Are you one of the Lord's soldiers? (Children: Yes!)

42. (Verse 22:) "Bless the Lord‚ all His works in all places of His dominion." What are God's Works? (David: The things that He created.) Right, the things that He does. This whole Creation is all the work of the Lord! We're a work of the Lord, He created us! Our Family is a work of the Lord! God's Army is a work of the Lord. So all of His works are supposed to bless Him and be a blessing to Him by obeying and fighting! And finally the last phrase, guess what He says?

43. "Bless the Lord, O my soul!" How about that? He tells his soul, his own spirit really‚ to bless the Lord! (Maria: That's sort of like the class we had against daydreaming‚ about telling your mind to keep itself on your work! You're telling your soul & spirit & mind to praise! That's a good addition to that!) TYL! So does somebody want to lead us in closing prayer & tell our souls to bless the Lord? PTL!

44. (David: TYJ! PYJ! Thank You Jesus for this good Bible class! We thank You how we learned that we should always praise You, Lord Jesus. We really pray that throughout this day that we're always thanking You and praising You, and that's what You consider blessing You, is if we thank You, Lord. So please help us to thank You this whole day for all Your many blessings that You have given us‚ and all the things that You have done for us! We pray, Lord, that we will have a good day the rest of the day, learning lots for You, Jesus, and getting our work done, but most of all spending time with You and Your Word, in Jesus' name. TYJ!)

45. As we pray together the prayer He taught us to pray: (Prays the Lord's Prayer.) Amen, keep us safely today, Lord, & give us wisdom in all of our plans & programs, that they may glorify Thee & be useful to Thee & Thy children! Give us wisdom & skill!—In Jesus' name, Amen! (—BLESS the LORD!)

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family