Want to Live a Blessed Life? Psalm 40 Tells You How! Episode #195

The Burt (Not Ernie) Show

Well hey there, hello to you and welcome to this episode of the podcast.

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And just as a quick FYI, my second podcast The Prayer Podcast is being retired in just a few days. Turns out hosting two shows is a lot, and I feel it has hindered my writing and this podcast, to be frank. So I am sunsetting The Prayer Podcast but will share episodes from that show occasionally here on TBNES, sort of bonus episodes. Thanks for the support of all the listeners to TPP, and also, a very special shout out to the slew of recent listeners to both of the podcasts in the country of China. You are on my mind, and I am praying for you. May the Lord’s good promises to you prove true in every circumstance and situation, and I truly believe that they will because it is impossible for God to lie, and so all He has promised will come to pass. May you be richly blessed as you walk with Him, and again, thank you so much for listening. I don’t take it for granted!

You’re listening to The Burt (Not Ernie) Show, part of the Spark Network on the Edifi app. Today’s episode is sponsored by the book “E.M. Bounds on Prayer”, a resource that has encouraged and blessed me time and time again, year after year. A link to this book on Amazon is in the show notes, and I do not receive any sort of compensation for linking to Amazon - I share this resource solely based on how it has blessed me. Again, that’s E.M. Bounds on Prayer. Now, let’s jump into some of God’s promises for us. This is episode number 194.

Today I’m going to share several promises from the Psalms with you. If one of these promises is super encouraging to you, maybe you can write it down on a sticky note or make a note on your phone. Seeing the Word of God written out in your own handwriting or popping up via an alarm on your phone can really be encouraging for the long term, and that’s a lot better than a one-off kind of encouragement, ya know?

Psalm 10:14 - You, O God, do see trouble and grief. You consider it to take it in hand. (This verse reminds me of the promise God gives to be near, to never leave us or forsake us, and knowing that He is so close to us that He sees our trouble and our grief, that’s enormously comforting. Beyond that, though, it says He considers trouble and grief and He takes it in hand. That simply means that He takes control of it. Think of a new person in the role of CEO of a company, and there is a problem area; the CEO takes it in hand, as the boss now, with the aim of correcting or improving the situation, developing it into something better. He takes your trouble and your grief in hand. Believe God is going to do this exact thing!_)

Psalm 10:17 - You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted. You encourage them, and You listen to their cry. (Please don’t forget that the Lord hears the desire, the heart cries, of the afflicted. What’s afflicting you? Talk to God about it, like really talk to Him, cry out from your heart, tell Him the truth about how this is afflicting you, and then listen for what He might say to encourage you. He promises in this verse to listen to your cry, to hear you, and to encourage you. But if you never talk to Him, if you never take time to be still and know that He is God and listen to Him, you are likely going to miss much of the promise in Psalm 10:17). Also, I have to say, there is a lot of encouragement in the tenth psalm. So maybe add that to your reading sometime soon and simply by faith receive all that’s promised in Psalm 10, and you’ll find yourself encouraged!

Now let’s look at a couple of promises in Psalm 40.

Verse 2b, second half of that verse, says - He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.

Yes and amen to this!

Anybody else look back at their life before Jesus and remember what it was like to live with your feet on mush? On sinking sand? When we remember what He has already done for us, and give Him praise and honor, we in turn encourage ourselves to believe for what He is going to do for us now and in the future.

And I do want to remind you that the future is not all that far away. Today is a great moment in time to believe and appropriate God’s promises and to make the decision to simply believe that what God says, He means. And He means for His children, individually and as a whole. Don’t let another day go by without choosing to believe that God will keep His promises, and He will keep them for you.

Psalm 40:4, 5b - Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust. ~ The things You planned for me no one can recount; were I to speak of them, they would be too many to declare. (Want to live a blessed life? Make the Lord your trust. Nothing else, no Jesus plus this or that. Just the Lord. Make Him your trust, and you will be blessed. That’s the promise God makes here. May it be true of you, and of me, I’m grabbing hold of this one for myself too, may it be said of you that the things the Lord planned for you are too good, too vast, to count or recount…but do try! Try and recount what He’s done for you, you’ll never be able to remember or recall everything He’s done while on this side of eternity, but give it a try! Thank Him. And know that they are too many to declare. Yeah, Psalm 40 verses four and five? Oh that’s a promise. It’s a good one.)

Psalm 40:11 - You do not withhold Your mercy from me, O Lord. May Your love and Your truth always protect me.

This is something of a prayer verse, if you will. Like, I literally prayed this just yesterday. Lord, do not withhold Your mercy from me or from my family or from those I am praying for (speaking of those I pray for, stay tuned at the end of this episode as I share a few words to some people I’ve been sent prayer requests by). Lord, may Your love and Your truth always protect me. Pray it and believe and expect it. God’s mercy will not be withheld from you, His love and His truth will always protect you. That’s a wonderful way to pray, maybe on those days when you don’t know what to say to God, what to ask Him to do in your life, in your children’s lives perhaps, someone has asked you to pray over a situation in their life and you’re not sure what to pray, well, keep Psalm 40:11 in mind, in your prayer arsenal. And trust that God will answer this prayer.

And from Psalm 100, verse 5 says: For the Lord is good and His love endures forever. His faithfulness continues through all generations.

Oh this is such good news for all of us who love the Lord. Every disciple of Jesus needs to hear this! I mean that, literally, I really do mean it. For the Lord IS good - right now, present tense. In your life, in your family, in your workplace, in your scary situation. The Lord IS good. And His love endures forever! Forever! That’s a word that bears so much weight in this context. His love for you in your current circumstances endures forever. That’s fantastic, hopeful news for all of us today! His faithfulness continues through all generations. While we are still here on this earth, while mankind is still here, God’s faithfulness is still here, as well. Man what a promise.

Psalm 130:3 is the final verse I’m going to share with you today. It says: If You, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?

God’s word tells us plainly that He remembers our sins no more, they are removed as far as the east is from the west. Once you are in Christ, this is a done deal for you. So says the very Word of God. Not so says Jan Burt. Who cares what I think, what I say? So says the Lord. Somebody may need to know that today, and maybe that somebody is you. No one could stand with God keeping a record of sins, and so don’t measure yourself by someone else. Measure yourself rightly, by your own degree of faith as it says in the New Testament, and then believe that for those who know the Lord, your sins are remembered no more. Huge amount of hope and encouragement in these verses from the psalms.

Now I mentioned that I wanted to say a few words to those who have either emailed me with prayer requests, used the text box feature on my website, maybe sent me something via the jotform prayer request that I’ve shared in several places, or replied to one of the emails I sent out recently. And, yes, I do send emails with a verse and a prayer and I invite people to reply with any needs I can pray about, and I do pray for every request I get. Now I want to say that on my jotform, I had a couple of people request that I follow up with them about their prayer requests and I wasn’t able to do that (I didn’t get the contact info to be able to follow up, maybe a glitch in that form, and hey I understand that sometimes sites like jotform might drop info that is personal for safety reasons, to prevent spam and the like, and I get that, so no complaints from me about protecting privacy).

If any of the listeners to this episode would like to be on my email list and get the verse and prayer emails, which I send a few times a month, the easiest way to do that is to go to Jan L Burt . com and scroll down a bit to where it says God’s Promises in Isaiah, enter your email and you’ll get an immediate reply email with verses from Isaiah that are promises God makes, and you'll be on the list for the next email I send out with a verse and a prayer and you just hit reply and send me your prayer request, those go to an inbox that I see right away, which is so nice for me to be able to quickly start praying. And that’s it, I’ll be praying. Jan L. Burt . com and I will be praying.

That’s it for this episode, and thanks for listening. Thanks again for all who listened to The Prayer Podcast. As I say goodbye to it, I’m not saying goodbye to praying for you, that’s for sure. See you back here next time. Bye bye.