Sir Francis Thompson |
1 On the holy mountain stands the city founded by the LORD.
2 He loves the city of Jerusalem more than any other city in Israel.
3 O city of God,
what glorious things are said of you!
4 I will record Egypt and Babylon
among those who know me-
also Philistia and Tyre, and even distant Ethiopia.
They have all become citizens of Jerusalem!
5 And it will be said of Jerusalem, "Everyone has become a citizen here."
And the Most High will personally bless this city.
6 When the LORD registers the nations,
he will say, "This one has become a citizen of Jerusalem."
7 At all the festivals, the people will sing,
"The source of my life is in Jerusalem!"
Thinking back to what I had read in the book of Matthew, chapter 1, which lists Jesus' earthly father Joseph's genealogy and verses 4-6 of this Psalm, Egypt, Babylon, Philistia, Tyre and Ethiopia - these were all pagan nations that contributed to some of the most painful history in Israel's existence. Yet God promised to count them all as citizens of Jerusalem!!!
Jehovah was/is/always has been a merciful God who included the repentant - the wicked, the prideful, the sinful, the forgotten, the leprous lives and the foreigner - in his son's earthly family tree so that the entire world may come to know the LORD as a merciful, loving, and forgiving father! A God who gives second chance(s)!! A God who welcomes with open arms the ones who seek him. Isn't he the father in the parable of the lost son?
Jehovah was/is/always has been a merciful God who included the repentant - the wicked, the prideful, the sinful, the forgotten, the leprous lives and the foreigner - in his son's earthly family tree so that the entire world may come to know the LORD as a merciful, loving, and forgiving father! A God who gives second chance(s)!! A God who welcomes with open arms the ones who seek him. Isn't he the father in the parable of the lost son?
The God of the Old Testament and the Savior of the New Testament, - he is the same yesterday, today and forever! A God who loves his creation, man created in his own image, that his own breathe gave the first life in the garden of Eden. Sir Francis Thomson, a poet, a drug addict, wrote of this God and his pursuit of the sinner's heart in his poem - The hound of heaven! He will pursue you to the ends of the world to have you in his arms again. Will you stop running from him and give him a chance?
A Good... Good Father - House fires II
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