Today’s Bible Study, Authored by M.T. Clark. 02/18/2024
Listen to our Bible
Study Discussion at: The Garland of Prayer & THe Traveler’s Psalm Podcast
Or watch the Video Zoom Session of our Study on YouTube:
The Garland of Prayer & The Traveler’s Psalm
Through our walkthrough of Gracia Grindal’s 40Day Journey
with Martin Luther, we discovered the “Garland of Prayer”, a process that
Martin Luther used in his prayer life to meditate on The Ten Commandments or
the Lord’s Prayer – and presumably other passages of scripture in which he
stated that he would:
“…take
one part after another and free myself as much as possible from distractions in
order to pray…. (and)…divide each Commandment (scripture)…into four parts,
thereby fashioning a garland of four strands. That is, I think of each commandment
(portion of scripture ) as, first, instruction, which is really what it is
intended to be, and consider what the Lord God demands of me so earnestly.
Second, I turn it into a Thanksgiving; third, a confession; fourth, a prayer.
Upon reflecting on Luther’s garland of prayer, I realized that
it was a logical, sound, and quite frankly natural process that Luther was
describing. This is how the Lord causes
us to respond to His voice – His revealed will in His word. We are to engage with scripture and:
·
consider it as instruction
– asking the Lord what He would have us do with our lives
·
let it bring us to a place
of thanksgiving – knowing we are loved by God, that we are not alone, and that
He is good.
·
let it convict our hearts
with the revelation that we will fail in keeping our instructions perfectly thus
causing us to realize our need for Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Which will cause us to:
·
Pray, that the Lord be
with us to help us, strengthen us, and to guide us to always follow Him.
Well, this morning as a replacement for our normal Bible with
the Cincotti’s, which I canceled because of logistical and family concerns, -we
are on vacation at Disney World and that sort of throws off our normal schedule
of programming, I have decided to do a
short Bible Study where I use Martin Luther’s process to walk through what
other’s have called the traveler’s psalms.
And so let’s do it.
Psalm 121:1-8 (NKJV)
1 I will lift up my eyes to
the hills– From whence comes my help?
2 My help comes from
the LORD, Who made heaven and
earth.
3 He will not allow your foot
to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, He who keeps Israel
Shall neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The LORD is your keeper; The LORD is your shade at your right hand.
6 The sun shall not strike
you by day, Nor the moon by night.
7 The LORD shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve
your soul.
8 The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in From
this time forth, and even forevermore.
My comments will be off the cuff after I read through the psalm
and invite you to listen to the podcast or watch it on YouTube to see how putting
the Traveler’s Psalm through Martin Luther’s Garland of Prayer goes.
I pray that this message finds anyone reading or listening well,
and hope you celebrate this first Sunday during the Lenten Season to draw close
to God and to enjoy some fellowship with the body of Christ.
God bless you all,
MT Clark
—–Join us for another Bible Study Next Week ——-
or
Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage Breaker”,
“Freedom in Christ” series of Discipleship Classes via the
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to be encouraged.
My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian encouragement via her
Ask Seek Knock blog (https://tammylynask.blogspot.com/ ), her Facebook Group: Ask, Seek, Knock (https://www.facebook.com/groups/529047851449098 ) and her podcast Ask, Seek, and Knock on Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)
“The views, opinions, and commentary of this publication are
those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to reflect the
opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries, or other
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Encouragement for the Path of
Christian Discipleship
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