Psalm 111:4 says of our great God: “He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered.”

Three “key” Hebrew words appear in this divinely inspired Sentence. They are “asah,” then “pala,” followed by “zekar.”

The verb translated “have made” depicts an action of God in which He “fashions, prepares, performs, keeps” and even on occasion “maintains” something. This clearly shows God as Creator and Sustainer of the universe, of all matter. Of all energy, of all light, whether visible or invisible, Colossians 1:16. In a word, “everything!”

Then the noun “works” is spelled “pala” and usually means things done that are “wondrous, marvelous,” but five times in the Old Testament the word means “hard!” The implication is “miraculous” things!

Then the infinitive (in English) “to be remembered” is written as a noun in Hebrew, “zekar.” Presenting God as an (the) Artist and His works as His Memorial, His Testimony! The world (all creation) as God’s Gallery!

Now … believing that Verse with all my heart … I recall Passages of Scripture that blend the Beauty of God’s WORD with the Bounty of God’s WORKS, leading to sincere WORSHIP of our amazing God.

Psalm 19 is a classic in this area. It balances (basically half and half) Truth about God’s WORKS (Verses 1-6) with Truth about God’s WORD (Verses 7-12) … then ends with a few Lines about living right!

Now here’s a little suggestion for us all … let’s invest some time today (or tonight) pondering a few of God’s Great Works (Creation, the Flood, the Nation of Israel, the New Testament Church, the Virgin Borth, the Empty Tomb, Jesus’ Ascension and Intercession, just as starters) … then realizing we’d know little of each of these Miracles apart from the Word of God!

Here they are again, in tandem … WORKS and WORDS!

Amazing!

Next time I can’t sleep, I shall start counting, not sheep … but the mighty WORKS OF GOD!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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Just One Line, it being from Psalm 109, claimed my attention a little while ago! It simply reads: “O God of my praise.” Not even a complete Thought, but divinely inspired nonetheless! In fact, not even a Clause, just a Phrase, and a short one at that!

“O God of my praise!”

It makes me want to thank the Almighty Lord Who is my Creator for giving me the very ability to praise.

I can praise a radiant sunrise!

Or glory in an equally magnificent sunset!

I can praise a lady’s ability to cook, especially raisin-oatmeal cookies!

I can extol a recent Sermon I heard, and perhaps rightly so!

I can even praise an automobile engine for its durability and efficiency!

But Psalm 109:1, this single String of words (5 in English, only 2 in Hebrew), represents the highest level of praise to which I can attain!

Now to be identified is the God of my praise!

It is not some Buddha!

Or any his other worldly competitors!

Animate or inanimate!

The God of my praise will be “Elohiym” (the Hebrew noun behind the King James Translation “God”) … in our Text.

He is the God of POWER, the root meaning of “El,” I am told.

He is the God of Tri-Unity, a paradoxical yet orthodox definition according to the Bible! He is Father, Son, Holy Spirit … the “Godhead” according to Paul’s terminology … Three in One!

He is the God of Many Other Names and Titles too, all found from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21.

The Living God!

Yes, He is MY PRAISE!

The Apex of my praise!

May I testify?

I could spend the rest of my life, however long He may yet give me, employed in my praise of HIM!

Do not many of you agree?

Yet in Psalm 109, basically all its 39 verses, presents a picture of battle, hatred, mistreatment … and ultimately imprecation!

In a Psalm that dark, that controversial, I find good David wanting to praise God! Not praise the royal orchestra, or the palace cook … but to call on the God of his (David’s) praise!

Wow!

What are you going to do with your praise today, my friend?

Many viable and noble subjects might come to mind. Praising a dear Brother in Christ for his faithfulness is an excellent idea, for example. Others could be given.

But when it comes to deity, to the Ruler of all … I trust you will agree with our Psalmist and call HIM … the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God and Father of our Lor Jesus Christ, the God Who so loved the world that He gave us Calvary … yes HIM …

“O GOD OF MY PRAISE.”

Glory!

I say Hallelujah, which is just another way of acknowledging “O God of my Praise.”

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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In ancient culture, except for the Israelites, every little tribe or city-state or loosely defined nation had its own gods (and/or goddesses).

These so-called deities were also culturally known as “territorial” gods. a term likely coined by some anthropologist.

Extreme Bible critics try to say that “El” (the Root of God’s Name “Elohiym”) is just an adaptation of one of those little gods! AN ACCUSATION I FLATLY DENY! The noun “El” means “Power, Strength” and our God carries that Name/Title because He is Omnipotent! The God of All Power!

My point today … GOD IS NOT A TERRITORIAL GOD, NOT AT ALL! He is (and will yet in the future more literally be) the … God of all the nations!

As in Psalm 108. “God hath spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth. Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine; Ephraim also is the strength of mine head; Judah is my lawgiver. Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe; over Philistia will I triumph.”

Look at this list!

Several of these little nations (Moab, Edom, Philistia) historically claim one or more local gods and goddesses … BUT HERE IN OUR TEXT GOD HAS USURPED THEIR POWER, THEIR POSITION, THEIR HONOR! There is simply no god like our God!

Here in Psalm 108 Gilead, Manasseh, and Ephrain (all names regularly used for Israel, the Northern Kingdom) alongside little Judah … shamefully had their false gods at certain low points of their lives! BUT THE DAY IS COMING … AS PER OUR TEXT … THAT OUR GOD WILL BE THE GOD OF ALL THE NATIONS!

After the Tribulation.

After Jesus comes again.

After the antichrist and the devil are eternally banished.

Then Isaiah 45:23 will be realized … “I (the Lord God) have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.” Words directly quoted by Paul in both Romans 14:11 and Philippians 2:10.

“Every knee, every mouth?”

Yes!

And that necessarily includes every nation!

As in Revelation 15:4 … “Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for ALL NATIONS shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.”

And Psalm 22:27 … “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and ALL THE KINDREDS OF THE NATIONS shall worship before thee.”

Psalm 86:9 as well … “ALL NATIONS whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name.”

Zechariah 14:6 promises … “And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of ALL THE NATIONS which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.” During the Millennium!

Stated more generally … “And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall ALL FLESH come to worship before me, saith the LORD.” Isaiah 66:23 is quite clear, “all flesh!”

I rest my case!

Ample Scripture has been presented (though many Passages remain unmentioned) to prove the point.

Our great God is not merely a little, local deity of some kind.

He is Creator of all who live!

And Redeemer of all who believe!

He assuredly is “Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, the first and the last, that which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” Blending Revelation 1:8 and 1:11 and Revelation 21:6 and 22:13.

Wow!

Let us worship Him today!

He is worthy!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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I can almost hear my Mom testifying even now. Although she has been in Heaven for years!

Often somewhere in her (usually brief) declaration, she would add these words: “The Bible says for the redeemed of the Lord to say so!” And then that sweet, godly lady would “say so” for a few seconds, no more than a minute or two.

Well, as I read my Bible earlier this morning, I came to precious Psalm 107. Where in its second verse I read (just like I had been told again and again as a lad) … “If so, say so!”

Actually, “Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy.” (Psalm 107:2)

The noun for “redeemed” is spelled “gaal” in Hebrew. It’s that lovely word for “kinsman redeemer” in the Old Testament! (That being what Boaz was to Ruth, for example.)

Except here, it pictures what Jesus is to me!

“Gaal” can mean “to deliver, to purchase, to ransom.” And my dear Lord has done exactly that for me (and any other sinner who will come to Him believing). He accomplished this great Act of Love on the Cross of Calvary over two thousand years ago! Yes, the moment I believed in Him, accepted Him as my personal Saviour … it happened! I was saved, redeemed!

The “enemy” our Text pictures is none other than the Devil. From whom I am now safe. Another way “gaal” can be expressed (in the King James Verson of the Bible) is “to revenge, to avenge!” Jesus has already defeated Satan … and will some day sentence him (and his angels/demons) to an eternity of punishment. (That’s Righteous Judgment, for sure!)

It’s just “dawning” on me right now … I’ve just “SAID SO!”

Just like Mon did. Just like she and Daddy taught me, both by example and by their words.

“Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it!”

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Can anyone else “SAY SO” today?

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I suppose the most often given answer to that question is “Love.” He redeemed us because He loved us so. John 3:16 pretty much answers that question! “For God so LOVED the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Yet Paul, in Ephesians 4:32, seems to reveal yet another reason for God’s Plan of Salvation. “Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God FOR CHRIST’S SAKE hath forgiven you.” Here God forgave us, saved us, “for Jesus’ Sake!” God so loved His Son that He provided (at great Cost to His Son) eternal life to them who believe.

But then again (late last night) I found another Reason! Why did God save us? Psalm 106:8 informs … “He saved them for his name’s sake.”

Wow!

And my list may continue to grow.

But this much is obvious … our Salvation is not ONLY for our benefit. Not only to save me from Hell. Not only to bring me to Heaven. Not only to give me daily victory over evil!

Salvation, at its very Core, involves the Godhead too.

I am saved, for Jesus’ Sake!

I am saved, for God the Father’s Names’ Sake!

Point being, amid all these technicalities of doctrine … I have been washed in the Blood of Jesus!

I can commune with my Saviour daily.

I can (and do) experience “joy unspeakable!”

Looks like … all to the Glory of the ineffable Love of God!

Hallelujah!

Are YOU saved?

If not, you can be.

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Quoting the Apostle Paul in Romans 10:9-10

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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