- O you who love the Lord, hate evil! He preserves the lives of his saints; he delivers them from the hand of the wicked. Psalm 97:10 – The first sentence in our verse is what captured my attention. That those of us who claim to love the Lord are supposed to hate something. Yes, the strong word of hate, and we are commanded by scripture to hate evil. Of all things for scripture to tell us to hate, evil at least makes sense, but where would we begin? Let’s begin with a topic the other verses in our psalm speak about, idols. This week I took my family to a Chinese buffet, and immediately as you walked into the restaurant was a large golden buddha statue with a place in front of it where offerings were being placed. Likely most everyone there didn’t think twice about it, all that was on their mind was crab rangoons, but what if it was something different welcoming the customers? What if it was a giant swastika or what if it was a flag to some terrorist organization. If that was what welcomed people into the restaurant we’d see a very different reaction from the customers. Why? For there would be a hatred towards those symbols for we know what they represent. As believers then, people who love the Lord, let’s begin to have evil by hating idols. Idols represent demonic forces pulling people away from the Savior and pulling worship away from the only true God who deserves all worship. Idols may come in the shape of golden statues to green paper in our wallet to those electronic rectangles we keep in our pockets. Whatever is in our life that is taking our focus off of God and causing us to give it more of our life than we give the Lord…hate it for it has become an idol. Treat it then as something you hate and reposition God to the central place of your worship. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 3511
- Fire goes before him and burns up his adversaries all around. His lightnings light up the world; the earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth. Psalms97:3-5 – What a powerful scene that is being given here concerning God. Such majesty and such grandeur. This same God is the God who left the ninety nine to rescue you. Who allowed His Son to die on a cross so that you could finally find peace with Him. Don’t take all that though as a message to exalt yourself, hear it to help you understand the true nature of God’s love for you. This simply tells us we are valued and special to this powerful God. Not as a result of anything on our part, but because He chose to love us. When we think of who we are and compare that to all that God is, let that vast difference create in us such a gratefulness for what He’s done. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 1160
- The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad! Psalm 97:1 – I’m not a big soccer fan, but I do know the World Cup is happening this year. While I wouldn’t care to go to watch the game, it would be awesome to go to the championship game of the World Cup. Why if I’m not wanting to watch the game? Because of the atmosphere of the stadium. I’ve seen videos of these passionate teams and fans literally shaking the foundations of the massive stadium with their cheers. Because their team is winning, because their team reigns. What we see in those stadiums is only a mere drop of the rejoicing that will happen on earth when Jesus returns and it doesn’t even come close to the rejoicing in Heaven right now because the Lord reigns. Rejoicing is happening in Heaven, rejoicing will happen all over earth one day, is rejoicing happening in your life today? Remember the Lord reigns over all and our enemy has been defeated. We have life everlasting with God. We have every reason to rejoice today, let’s give God our best. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 2057
Daily DEVO 