Psalm 18

Psalm 18

For the director of music. Of David the servant of the LORD. He sang to the LORD the words of this song when the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He said:

 2 The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
       my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.
       He is my shield and the horn ^[a] of my salvation, my stronghold.

He is our strength, rock, fortress, deliverer, one in whom we take refuge, a shield and horn(~strength) of salvation, stronghold

 3 I call to the LORD, who is worthy of praise,
       and I am saved from my enemies.

we can call out to Him at any time and be rescued, He is reliable

 4 The cords of death entangled me;
       the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.

 5 The cords of the grave ^[b] coiled around me;
       the snares of death confronted me.

 6 In my distress I called to the LORD;
       I cried to my God for help.
       From his temple he heard my voice;
       my cry came before him, into his ears.

He is accessible, listening, omniscient

 7 The earth trembled and quaked,
       and the foundations of the mountains shook;
       they trembled because he was angry.

 8 Smoke rose from his nostrils;
       consuming fire came from his mouth,
       burning coals blazed out of it.

 9 He parted the heavens and came down;
       dark clouds were under his feet.

 10 He mounted the cherubim and flew;
       he soared on the wings of the wind.

 11 He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him—
       the dark rain clouds of the sky.

 12 Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced,
       with hailstones and bolts of lightning.

 13 The LORD thundered from heaven;
       the voice of the Most High resounded. ^[c]

 14 He shot his arrows and scattered the enemies ,
       great bolts of lightning and routed them.

 15 The valleys of the sea were exposed
       and the foundations of the earth laid bare
       at your rebuke, O LORD,
       at the blast of breath from your nostrils.

He is omnipotent, rules over all of earth and creation, Most High

 16 He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
       he drew me out of deep waters.

 17 He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
       from my foes, who were too strong for me.

 18 They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
       but the LORD was my support.

He is our rescuer, holds power over deepest depths and strongest foe, supporter

 19 He brought me out into a spacious place;
       he rescued me because he delighted in me.

He shows us grace, bestows blessings upon us, is loving and compassionate

 20 The LORD has dealt with me according to my righteousness;
       according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me.

 21 For I have kept the ways of the LORD;
       I have not done evil by turning from my God.

 22 All his laws are before me;
       I have not turned away from his decrees.

 23 I have been blameless before him
       and have kept myself from sin.

 24 The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
       according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.

He is righteous and just, gives us rewards and blessings

 25 To the faithful you show yourself faithful,
       to the blameless you show yourself blameless,

 26 to the pure you show yourself pure,
       but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd.

He is faithful, blameless, pure, shrewd, clever, wise

 27 You save the humble
       but bring low those whose eyes are haughty.

He is compassionate and just

 28 You, O LORD, keep my lamp burning;
       my God turns my darkness into light.

He is our fuel and source, the light and brightness in our lives

 29 With your help I can advance against a troop ^[d] ;
       with my God I can scale a wall.

He gives us strength and hope, is our fortitude and support

 30 As for God, his way is perfect;
       the word of the LORD is flawless.
       He is a shield
       for all who take refuge in him.

He is perfect and flawless, a shield to take refuge behind

 31 For who is God besides the LORD ?
       And who is the Rock except our God?

He is LORD and our Rock

 32 It is God who arms me with strength
       and makes my way perfect.

He gives us strength and guidance

 33 He makes my feet like the feet of a deer;
       he enables me to stand on the heights.

He refreshes us, lifts us up

 34 He trains my hands for battle;
       my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

He disciplines, trains and grows us

 35 You give me your shield of victory,
       and your right hand sustains me;
       you stoop down to make me great.

He is soverign, our sustainer, and full of grace

 36 You broaden the path beneath me,
       so that my ankles do not turn.

He leads the way, keeps us in safety

 37 I pursued my enemies and overtook them;
       I did not turn back till they were destroyed.

 38 I crushed them so that they could not rise;
       they fell beneath my feet.

 39 You armed me with strength for battle;
       you made my adversaries bow at my feet.

 40 You made my enemies turn their backs in flight,
       and I destroyed my foes.

 41 They cried for help, but there was no one to save them—
       to the LORD, but he did not answer.

 42 I beat them as fine as dust borne on the wind;
       I poured them out like mud in the streets.

 43 You have delivered me from the attacks of the people;
       you have made me the head of nations;
       people I did not know are subject to me.

He is the deliverer and blesses us beyond imagination

 44 As soon as they hear me, they obey me;
       foreigners cringe before me.

 45 They all lose heart;
       they come trembling from their strongholds.

 46 The LORD lives! Praise be to my Rock!
       Exalted be God my Savior!

He is living, our Rock, the Exalted One, and Savior

 47 He is the God who avenges me,
       who subdues nations under me,

 48 who saves me from my enemies.
       You exalted me above my foes;
       from violent men you rescued me.

He is just, our avenger, ruler, and rescuer

 49 Therefore I will praise you among the nations, O LORD;
       I will sing praises to your name.

He is praiseworthy

 50 He gives his king great victories;
       he shows unfailing kindness to his anointed,
       to David and his descendants forever.

today's weather

i am freee

You Belong in San Diego

Laid back and friendly, you were meant to live most of your life on the beach. You usually think everything is "all good"... except when the weather dips under 60F. You stay classy - especially when you're in Tijuana!

			2 Corinthains 12:9-10

It's all about You, Jesus
And all this is for You
For Your glory and Your fame
It's not about me
As if You should do things my way
You alone are God and I surrender
To Your ways


this time, i'll get it

update since MM

Memories... and more part I

take a breath

so as i'm sure you've all read from everyone else's blogs, we're back in the LA area for a little bit; arrived last night and had practice today. we'll be leaving tomorrow afternoon for EFC Southbay in torrance, and then from there we're hitting up nor cal.

i suppose a little recap of what we've been up to would be appropriate:

since my last (and first) blog, we've taken about a week and a half through texas and arizona. we drove for two days out to EFC Nasa in Houston, had performances at Nasa and Houston, and got to spend some time with Nasa people. we visited the space center, learned the texas two step, and ate delicious texan food ^__^

then we headed off to Arizona bright and early in the morning. Pheonix was a pretty crazy weekend; we had performances friday at gpccc and saturday at efc pheonix, and then did Sunday service for pheonix. four people came to Christ that weekend (Praise God!), and i think we caught the attention of the enemy. there were some bumps he threw at us that weekend, but i think through that, the team really took a step in supporting and caring for each other spiritually. we were reminded that our team was truly on the line for Christ, and that the battle was seriously real. it's more encouraging than intimidating to me that our team is taking hits, because it means that we're doing things big enough for Satan to notice. and i'm not afraid of what he's gonna try to do because we know we've got God on our side, and that the battle has already been won. ^^

then from phoenix, we left for Flagstaff to meet up with a missionary, Mike Hendricks. We stayed at a Bible college out there for the night with two other groups, one from Mexico and the other from Long Beach. We had a really good night of fellowship at that place; it was awesome to be able to worship the same God with people from so many different background; i think it's so easy to get used to compartmentalizing your worship with your own church, which tends to be of your own ethnicity, and then you forget about all the other brothers and sisters you have out there int he world. we got to share visions between the groups and worship and pray together, something, as p david reminded us, that is very similar to how it will be in heaven- all nations and ethnicities worshiping God all together.

so the plan was originally to help out with a building demolition on the Indian Reservation, but we had a change of plans and didn't get to do it; rather, we drove out to lake powell and spent most of the day swimming and tanning in God's beautiful creation. you guys should check out the pictures, really ^^

so as i mentioned earlier, we didn't get to do the building demolition as we had looked forward to so eagerly, but we did get to witness something that i think is pretty much once in a lifetime for us city/suburban dwellers. the first stop we made on the reservation was at somebody's house, where they were preparing to slaughter a sheep. this is something normal for these people; its their means of obtaining meat. but for us, we were like... oh cool! or aww so sad! and then p david reminded us that this was the process that the Israelites went through to sacrifice blood for their sins, and ultimately this is essentially what Jesus went through to wash away our sins. it was a very profound moment when they slit the sheep's throat and spilled the blood, because the winds kicked up, the dark clouds overhead spilled fat drops of rain, and lightning and thunder clapped in the distance. and afterwards, when we talked about it, we were maybe not so coincidentally reminded of the moment our Lord was sacrificed for us. truly a once in a lifetime experience.

we spent the night at a Native Indian church, which was cool because they had an outdoor chapel (where most of our team slept). the other team from Long Beach, called New Life, slept on the roof of the chapel! anyhoo, in the morning, after we took showers under the sun with water from the well pump, we went to look a canyon that one of the families owned. and got a flat on the way. so a few guys stayed behind to fix it and the rest of us rode the back of a pickup to see the canyong ^^ it was really really beautiful-- we hiked down about a mile down the canyon to see the view closer up, and despite the heat and deyhdration i'm sure we all went through, it was worth it. i really don't know if i could adequately describe the place in words, so i'm just gonna say, go look at our pictures when they come up and you'll get an idea of how magnificent the place was. it's one thing for you to see it in the pictures, but its a totally different thing to be standing there, in the midst of it all, feeling so tiny, wondering how the same God that created all of this also created us small humans. truly magnificent.

so along with the theme of changing plans, we decided to head back to LA a day early to maximize our time in practice, so we arrived at HLA around 1 am, and then, here I am now sitting in Joan's house, waiting for laundry to finish, team members snoring around me. and tiff reading over my shoulder waiting for me to finish so we can go to sleep =)

and here ends my recount of our two week long saga, which is to be continued. updates to come in the near future (hopefully). take care everyone, please try to keep us in your prayers, and stay tuned

the calm before the storm

hey all!

so we're counting down to three days before we hit the road; we've got these few days left to spend with beloveds before we wave goodbye for a month. but seeing how i'm not at home (well, irvine home as opposed to LA home) and my family isn't home either, i shall take this time to reflect a little bit on the past few weeks of harcore MM craziness.

as many of you may already know, ever since school has been out, MM practices have been in full gear-- without a doubt we've racked up manyfold more hours in the church's worship hall than any other place. we've been on our respective instruments for long music practices and drilling scenes of the drama over and over again. we've been eating fast food too many times and have made a habit of visiting life plaza, and sinbala. we've been seeing more of each other than our own families for nearly a month. and we've been having fun =D

it's been very much like training on a sports team or something- the you-like-it-but-dread-it-but-enjoy-it-but-get-drained-by-it-but- i-wouldn't-want-to-be-doing-anything-else type of thing. the hours have been long and, i'll admit, frustration great, but that's what it takes to build up a team. i think the hours that we've put in for each other has helped a great deal in our growth as a team, and working and practicing together has taught us how to work as a team as well. and while there is always room for improvement, i do see a great deal of progress, so props to the team for that ^^

so as i was saying, these next few days are very kick back, very little practice/rehearsals, so we can unwind a little before the madness begins again, to the third power. even as i'm coming up with words for this blog, my eyes are drooping and my body is drained from today's carwash, so i'm going to end this little blog right here. tune in for more later! =)