April 24, 2024

Ayin Adonai

July 4, 2014 by

SeekingHimLogo

Behold, the Lord’s eye <Ayin Adonai> is upon those who fear Him,
who wait for Him and hope in His mercy and loving-kindness.
Our inner selves wait [earnestly] for the Lord; He is our Help and our Shield.
For in Him does our heart rejoice, because we have trusted in His holy name.
Let Your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, be upon us,
in proportion to our waiting and hoping for You.

Psalms 33:18-22

Such a comforting thought—that our Father has His ‘eye on us!’  Of course, our heavenly Father does not have actual, physical eyes!  But, if He did, they would be awesome, magnificent, never-missing-anything eyes, wouldn’t you say?  And, figuratively, that IS the truth!  Almighty God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and all that is upon this earth AND us, He DOES see us—everything around us, everything about us, everything we do, everywhere we go.

When human characteristics or attributes are placed on God it is called biblical anthropomorphism.  Anthropomorphism basically means ‘the form of man.’  A synonym for anthropomorphism is ‘personification’.  There are many examples throughout the Scriptures of both God referring to Himself and the writers of the Bible referring to God in “anthropomorphic” terms.  One purpose to do so would be to describe God in terms more understandable to humans.  Since God is invisible and has no form, we would not have a framework on which to understand Him.  (Here is a great article which explains this in detail.)

Doing a simple search for the phrase, ‘eyes of the Lord,’ came up with over 100 Scriptures on Biblegateway.com.  Here is a link  if you would like to go and read them all yourself!!!  Many refer to a person doing either what is right and good, or doing evil.  Here are a few passages which I particularly love (hope you do, too)!

But Noah found grace (favor) in the eyes of the Lord.
Genesis 6:8 AMP

And Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as David his father had done.
1 Kings 15:11

For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth
that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.
2 Chronicles 16:9 NASB

For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord, And He watches all his paths.
Proverbs 5:21

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer,
but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.
1 Peter 3:12

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May the end of Psalm 33 be the prayer of our hearts!

Our inner selves wait [earnestly] for the Lord; He is our Help and our Shield.
For in Him does our heart rejoice, because we have trusted in His holy name.
Let Your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, be upon us,
in proportion to our waiting and hoping for You.

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You Are A Shield — Psalms 33:18-22

February 8, 2014 by

SeekingHimLogo

Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him,
On those who hope for His lovingkindness,
To deliver their soul from death
And to keep them alive in famine.
Our soul waits for the Lord;
He is our Help and our Shield.
For our heart rejoices in Him,
Because we trust in His holy name.
Let Your lovingkindness, O Lord, be upon us,
According as we have hoped in You.

Psalms 33:18-22

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He is Our Help and Our Shield

February 5, 2014 by

SeekingHimLogo

 

Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy,
To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.
Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield.
For our heart shall rejoice in Him, because we have trusted in His holy name.
Let Your mercy, O LORD, be upon us, just as we hope in You.
Psalms 33:18-22

In November I started studying for my Master’s degree.  And, knowing this would not be the easiest task I set out to accomplish, I began to pray and seek God in this decision because it would be a commitment from myself and my family. I turned to the Psalms because of the message it speaks to the hearts of God’s children. I needed hope, I needed reassurance, and I needed to feel God’s love in all of this.

There are many aspects of David’s Psalms that I truly enjoy! Not only do I enjoy the words, but thrive on them when I go to read them. His soothing words are filled with love and peace, while also reminding me of the realness of the world we live in. The beauty of his songs helps to remind us that what we’ve been looking for our entire lives—hope, security, and joy—are actually gifts given to us by God. Gifts that we haven’t had to search for…gifts that we are entitled to because we are sons and daughters of the Most High.

He IS our Help and our Shield. For our heart shall rejoice in Him.

So many changes happen in our lives on a daily basis that the reassurance of these words is almost necessary, and the great thing is that we don’t have to look far. We simply need to open up the manual He gave us and read. Soak in the words He gave to David and allow the hope, security and joy that flow from the pages.
On the nights when I am up writing papers while my house sleeps peacefully, I remember that He is right next to me, {He is my Help and my Shield}. When I am at the grocery store figuring out what to make for dinner, along with all of the other moms in the city, {He is my Help and my Shield}. When I am at work, and the tired feeling sets in, {He is my Help and my Shield}. There isn’t any area of life where He isn’t present.
In the tougher times, as well as on great days, remind yourself {He is my Help and my Shield}.  Open to this Scripture passage and remember that God is always present and always on our side.

Let’s pray: Lord, the things You do for us cannot be counted.  The love You give and the hope and security You provide can never be duplicated by anyone or anything.  Thank You for Your hope and Your love.  Thank You for being our Help and our Shield.  In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

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Hope For All

February 4, 2014 by

SeekingHimLogo
But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear Him,
on those whose hope is in His unfailing love,
to deliver them from death
and keep them alive in famine.
We wait in hope for the Lord;
He is our help and our shield.
In Him our hearts rejoice,
for we trust in His holy name.
May your unfailing love be with us, Lord,
even as we put our hope in You.

Psalm 33:18-22

These verses are like a salve to soothe the hurt each of us have endured over time. We never feel like it will at that moment…but it does.  One summer a friend of mine had a visit from her sister, brother-in-law and their three boys.  It was a very sweet time of fellowship and new friendships were developed during the three week visit. It soon came time for them to return to their home and they were sorely missed.

By October, the middle boy became gravely ill.  My friend left everything and went to be with her sister.  Her nephew stayed in the hospital until the middle of November when, by God’s mercy, he succumbed to the disease.  There was a webpage that was dedicated to having others offer prayer and support for this child and his family.  People from all walks of life and from all over the world were praying for his recovery, but God knew better.

Through all of this my friend, whose faith had always seemed to be unshakable, began to question God’s.  Why did He allow this to happen to her nephew, why didn’t He heal him, why are some healed and others die.  What was different in his case?  Did they not pray enough?  Did they allow doubt to enter their hearts?  Did they not ask the right church leaders to offer prayer?  My heart hurt for my friend.  I prayed for healing, but as they cut away the limbs of the child, I knew he might be better off in heaven where he could run and play with his dinosaurs.

1 Peter 5:7  says, “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.”  We may never understand why God chooses to heal one over the other.  But we have to trust that He knows infinitely better than we.  Our hope in these situations is that we will see each other in heaven, with our bodies whole—not scarred or broken—but made whole.  Sometimes all we can do is pray and listen.

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Father, we love You and praise You.  Give us the wisdom to know when to encourage, and when we just need to listen.  There are questions we will never know the answer to until we see You in heaven.  Help us to know when we need to question and when we just need to have a child-like trust that You are in control. Help us not to be angry with You, when things do not make sense in our limited human knowledge.  You have a bigger plan that we cannot see.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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