Often in life we ask the question "Why?"

Why do we so often find ourselves in testing, trying, and troublous times? We are angry. Disappointed. Despairing. Why would God allow something like this to happen to us? We worship, honor, and have a heart for HIM, yet events still swirl out of our control, enveloping us in gloom and doom.

WHY?

A verse from Esther really spoke to my heart today. "Perhaps you were born for such a time as this.” (Esther 4:14)

Just imagine Esther - actually Hadassah, named Esther due to a fear of her heritage being found out - finding out that the King whom she so recently married is planning to wipe out her people.

It's an evil trick devised by Haman but the King does not know this. He hears the lies of Haman and believes that the Jewish nation is truly a terrible nation with the sole intent of overpowering the Kingdom of Babylon.

Esther is faced with a terrible dilemma. Tell the King or save her head and not say anything?

Her Uncle Mordecai comes to her and tells this profound and beautiful statement. “Perhaps you were born for such a time as this.”

 We all know what happens next. Esther fasts for three days with her servants and then walks right into the inner court proceedings of the King. The King must have been startled, since palace law mandated that the Queen should never come before the King unless summoned. In the end, the Jewish nation was saved and Esther remained Queen. But it took guts for her to do what she did – and it took a very different outlook on life. An outlook that looked beyond the temporal and more towards the eternal.

Could it be that the whole problem in our lives is that our outlook on life is rudely distorted and so temporarily inclined that all we see is injustice, sadness, and misery?

What would happen if we changed our perspectives and thought of this terrible event as maybe a way for God to shine HIS peace through us, touching a life that we would never have been reached had we been angry and despondent?

It takes guts to stand up to adversity and meekly say, “God must have a purpose behind all this. I may not see it now, but someday, or maybe even on “the other side” I will understand.”

That takes faith, courage, and fortitude. When everything is going good and life is balmy we can easily have peace. But what about when things are not going so smoothly? Can we leave everything with God and say “Lord, YOU made me for, yes, even such a time as this. Let your NAME be glorified!”

My prayer is that we will try to re-examine our attitude.

Because, maybe – just maybe – we were put on this little world for “such a time as this”.

Did you know that hummingbirds are so brilliantly colored due to their wing feathers refracting the light in a very highly sophisticated way due to prisms within each individual feather? Did you know that hummingbirds literally “die” every evening – in what is called Torpor – and waken in an instant the next morning to resume their little lives?

I didn’t know either of these facts until I watched “Refracted Glory – Marvels in every way” film/documentary. Produced by Benjamin Owen, Hosted by David Rives, and featuring Ken Ham, this documentary is filled with information on hummingbirds, the tiny little wonders of God’s Creation.

First we were taken in the film back in time to the North American Aboriginals and how they worshipped these little creatures because of their ability to “die” and then “revive” themselves, as well as for their bright colors.

Many cultures in history worshipped hummingbirds and were considered omens and life-givers. However, these amazing birds’ unique little mechanisms to function all point to an intelligent design.

For a hummingbird to function correctly all of its mechanisms would have to be intact during the evolution process. If one part were not in synch the whole bird would have gone extinct!

However, we see that God created birds on the fifth day! Yes, they were certainly intact and fully formed. Trees and plants were created on the third day and the fruit were ready for picking. However by the time hummingbirds came along we would have seen flowers – just in time for everything to work in perfect harmony!

Hummingbirds are certainly amazing little creatures. Did you know that these little birds can see a wider color spectrum than humans can? This means that they have more rods and cones in their eyes. Hummingbirds can see ultraviolet light, which we refer to as “black light” because we cannot see it!

Additionally, although hummingbird eyes are on the side of their heads, they have additional features in their eyes that allow them to see binocular and monocular vision. This means that although they do have eyes on the side of their heads they can all angles including straight on. Just to give an idea of how important their eyes are, hummingbirds’ brains weigh less than their eyes!

Hummingbirds are efficient little creatures in flight. They fly different from all other birds, moving their wings in a figure eight in a specialized motion that only hummingbirds can do.

Scientists are looking into how they can create flight machines that resemble the hummingbird’s flying pattern and efficiency but none have been found yet and it highly unlikely they will ever be able to reach the complexity of these little birds while maintaining the efficiency.

In the film Scientist Stuart Burgess was interviewed.  Burgess is working on designing a humming-bird inspired flying gadget worth half a million dollars in the UK. However, as he pointed out they would never reach the highly intelligent and effective design of the hummingbird!

The film went on to explain the migration of some hummingbirds and how the offspring know absolutely nothing on their destination or what they need to do for their journey and yet each year these young increase their weight by 100% and fly out ALONE to their destination – the same place their parents went before them! Many scientists believe these little creatures use the stars as compasses and have an inner guide, which is telling them where to go and where their destination will be. I wonder where they get this inner guide? No doubt from God himself!

The filmography in this documentary was phenomenal and watching hummingbirds in flight, slowed down by huge amounts, really showed the amazing complexity and uniqueness of these birds.

It is certainly a must watch. 

Get ready to be amazed! 

Get ready to be astonished at the works of our Creator. 

And get ready to realize the evidence of intelligent design.

According to various studies music has a powerful influence over the heart rate, speed of recovery, mood, and memory. Daniel Levitin, author of “This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession” and director of Levitin Laboratory for Music Perception, Cognition, and Expertise at McGill University in Montreal says that “a particular piece of music has the ability to evoke a similar emotion in listeners, although they may be separated by time and space.”

Chinese philosopher Confucius reportedly said of music, “Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without”.

However, music not only produces emotion but can be very stimulating for the body and soul as well, creating repercussions in the real physical world.

Napoleon Bonaparte said of music, “Give me control over he who shapes the music of a nation, and I care not who makes the Laws.”

As we contemplate all this, we can ask ourselves, “If music is so impacting, and has such power over our minds, bodies, and souls shouldn’t we be paying attention to WHAT we are listening to?”

As a Christian, I am compelled to answer, “Yes, it certainly matters. And it matters who is writing the music and what message is being told.”

In a famed song, “I write the songs” Bruce Johnson (the musician who penned the song) sang these words:

I’ve been alive forever, And I wrote the very first song

I put the words and the melodies together, I am music and I write the songs

I write the songs that make the whole world sing

I write the songs of love and special things

I write the songs that make the young girls cry

I write the songs, I write the songs

Many of us have heard stories of musicians who have “sold their souls to the devil”.

Read the next few lines of this song. If you read closely you will soon realize that the true writer may not have been Bruce Johnson at all.

My home lies deep within you

And I’ve go my own place In your soul

Now, when I look out through your eyes

I’m young again, even though I’m old

I write the songs that make the whole world sing

I write the songs of love and special things

I write the songs that make the young girls cry

I write the songs, I write the songs

Who else can be originator of this song, the true author of these words?

I’ll let you guess yourself.

Songs have been woven into our souls, our lives, our culture, and our world.

In Babylon, Daniel was told to bow before the huge idol in the plain of Dura to the sound of the musicians. In Canaan, hedonistic worshipers used music to elevate themselves to the point of moral abandon. And in Revelation 18, those who are partaking in Babylon’s destruction are sensuous musicians who helped her to lull humanity into a state of complacency.

And today, music glorifies violence, degrades women, leads to wrong unions, arouses hormones prematurely, confuses lust with love, promotes unbiblical theological themes, …. and the list goes on.

However, there is a sacred music that has been preserved through time. It  was sung by Miriam who led the praise team after the miraculous delivery from Pharaoh’s army, by King David when he penned scores of psalms to glorify his Maker, Paul and Silas when they were in a murky Roman prison, and finally will be sung in the New Jerusalem when the redeemed saints are finally brought home.

In the epistles we are told to minister to one another in “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs”.  God created this kind of music for us to receive his blessings and return our thanks. It is supposed to be a perfect gift that enlivens our senses and directs us to the Creator.

Sadly, most fall for the first kind of music and the enemy of our soul’s deceptive and destructive influence. From the music itself, which pumps up the heartbeat, stirs up the emotions, and influences our body in ways we yet do not understand to the lyrics which condone and encourage an immoral life, violent behavior, and twisted ideas of love they are swept away and find themselves one-day broken and ruined.

So the question of our heart should be, “Who is writing my songs?”

Good question. Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, “Whether therefore you eat or drink, or whatsoever you do, do it all to the glory of God”

Let God write YOUR SONGS!

Psalm 8:1-9 King James Version (KJV)

8 O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.

2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;

4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.

6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:

7 All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;

8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.

9 O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

This Chapter was the theme of my family’s Bible Study last week. One evening shortly after our study I sat reading through my Bible and came across the chapter once more.

It struck a cord in my heart, which inspired me, and I turned it into a short story; a story about a special Psalm.

Below is that story.

His name was David. He had been raised in a God-fearing home that honored the Creator of the Universe. His father was Jesse, a kind honest man who lived in the countryside with his family. Several boys blessed this household, all handsome and tall.

However, there was something about David that made him special, although it couldn’t be said he was fairer than his brothers. He was a quiet lad, a shepherd boy, who tended to his father’s sheep. Gifted on the Kinnor (Hebrew for lyre or harp) he could be found in the fields on a balmy summer day skillfully playing on his Kinnor, composing and singing to the Creator of heaven and earth.

We follow him into the fields one evening, as he tends to his sheep before darkness falls. He’s especially quiet tonight after an eventful day, and much is on his mind.

The last few nights had been rare gems of beauty. Each one had been perfectly clear with the starry heavens exploding with glory and color all around. This night promised to be no different. The soft rich hues of a fading sunset told of another glittering star-spangled night.

As the last lamb was found, tended to, and brought back to the flock, David sat down under a huge sycamore and lifted his harp from where he had left it at the base of the ancient tree.

As he did so, he lifted his head towards the heavens. Wispy soft clouds drifted by, as the moon shone down on earth amid the glittering stars bathing the whole scene with a heavenly light.

A sense of wonder swept over David’s heart and the words seemed to pour from it. All his worry of the future fades in comparison to this splendor.  A psalm, or a song, formed in his mind and he began to sing. “O Lord, our Lord”   “Yes”, he thought, “Our God, our Master!”

All the nations round about Israel in those days were known for their many gods, but it was only Israel’s one God who was God, Master, Lord, Maker, and Savior.

“How excelled is thy name in all the earth” – above all gods, above all idols, the Lord’s name, Elohim, was above all.

“Who hast set thy glory above the Heavens” continued David.

He looked up at the stars and moon, and even as he did so a shooting star went by. God’s glory was all around!

“Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.”

David was no doubt contemplating his day. Samuel had come, on a mission from the Lord. David had been away in the fields, but his older brothers and father had all been there.

Samuel asked for each son, looked him over, and said, “Nay, he is not the chosen one”. When the last of David’s brothers had gone before Samuel, the old prophet turned to Jesse with a questioning glance. “Have you no other sons?”

So David was brought and to his utter astonishment had been anointed as future King of Israel. The quiet, unassuming, shepherd boy had been chosen by God himself.

He no doubt was thinking of this and many other instances in his life where God had chosen “babes and sucklings” to overcome and fulfill His perfect plan. God had used the young, the inexperienced, and the innocent to work His mighty works!

Years later, Jesus Himself would quote this verse from David’s psalm saying, “Yea, have ye not read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?’

This was when Jesus had just finished cleansing the temple and the small children had come with palm branches to praise Him.

“When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;”

David had plenty of time to contemplate and consider God’s works in the hills, the valleys, by the streams, by day, or by night. Thus he must have considered many time the works of God’s fingers.

“What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?”

In light of his day, David was amazed and baffled that God would want anything to do with so small creatures as the human race. That God would take the time to commune with man was something infinitely higher than he could comprehend. David’s own ancestors had talked with God – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – all mere humans and yet the Creator of Universes was mindful and talked with them.

“For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:”

Each and every day David saw how the sheep were trained and followed him wherever he went. He knew of ruling animals and how having dominion over them was a gift from God.

“All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;

The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.”

This was a continuation of David’s previous part of the psalm. He envisioned far, far back to the Garden of Eden when Adam named the animals and became caregiver, not dictator, of all creatures. He was in-trusted with a special charge and David could relate to this as a shepherd.

“O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!”

David ended with the same astonished and glorified exclamation.

A cool chilly wind blew through the valley, and David wrapped his outer robe around his shoulders.

As he set down his Kinnor, David pulled out a parchment scroll and carefully wrote the sentences that had been given to him as a gift from God.

Finally, after penning the last line David rolled up the scroll and slipped it into the leather pouch at his side.

And so began the writing of the NATURE PSALMS. 

Psalms which would be passed down through the ages to our own time - to be read, to inspire, and to instil into the heart a sense of grandeur of Creation and the infinite power and love of the one true God.

THE END