A great warrior (who would be king)’s prayer

I am led to post this whole psalm 18 today to encourage the one who may be discouraged right now because of the series of bad news just as what David had faced after he was anointed to become the new king of Israel and was viciously pursued and persecuted by king Saul who tried to hang on to his failed kingship.
Psalm 18 (NKJV)
God the Sovereign Savior
A Psalm of David the servant of the Lord, who spoke to the Lord the words of this song on the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. And he said:
18 I will love You, O Lord, my strength.
2
The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer;
My God, my strength, in whom I will trust;
My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
3
I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised;
So shall I be saved from my enemies.
4
The pangs of death surrounded me,
And the floods of ungodliness made me afraid.
5
The sorrows of Sheol surrounded me;
The snares of death confronted me.
6
In my distress I called upon the Lord,
And cried out to my God;
He heard my voice from His temple,
And my cry came before Him, even to His ears.
7
Then the earth shook and trembled;
The foundations of the hills also quaked and were shaken,
Because He was angry.
8
Smoke went up from His nostrils,
And devouring fire from His mouth;
Coals were kindled by it.
9
He bowed the heavens also, and came down
With darkness under His feet.
10
And He rode upon a cherub, and flew;
He flew upon the wings of the wind.
11
He made darkness His secret place;
His canopy around Him was dark waters
And thick clouds of the skies.
12
From the brightness before Him,
His thick clouds passed with hailstones and coals of fire.
13
The Lord thundered from heaven,
And the Most High uttered His voice,
Hailstones and coals of fire.[a]
14
He sent out His arrows and scattered the foe,
Lightnings in abundance, and He vanquished them.
15
Then the channels of the sea were seen,
The foundations of the world were uncovered
At Your rebuke, O Lord,
At the blast of the breath of Your nostrils.
16
He sent from above, He took me;
He drew me out of many waters.
17
He delivered me from my strong enemy,
From those who hated me,
For they were too strong for me.
18
They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
But the Lord was my support.
19
He also brought me out into a broad place;
He delivered me because He delighted in me.
20
The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness;
According to the cleanness of my hands
He has recompensed me.
21
For I have kept the ways of the Lord,
And have not wickedly departed from my God.
22
For all His judgments were before me,
And I did not put away His statutes from me.
23
I was also blameless before Him,
And I kept myself from my iniquity.
24
Therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness,
According to the cleanness of my hands in His sight.
25
With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful;
With a blameless man You will show Yourself blameless;
26
With the pure You will show Yourself pure;
And with the devious You will show Yourself shrewd.
27
For You will save the humble people,
But will bring down haughty looks.
28
For You will light my lamp;
The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.
29
For by You I can run against a troop,
By my God I can leap over a wall.
30
As for God, His way is perfect;
The word of the Lord is proven;
He is a shield to all who trust in Him.
31
For who is God, except the Lord?
And who is a rock, except our God?
32
It is God who arms me with strength,
And makes my way perfect.
33
He makes my feet like the feet of deer,
And sets me on my high places.
34
He teaches my hands to make war,
So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
35
You have also given me the shield of Your salvation;
Your right hand has held me up,
Your gentleness has made me great.
36
You enlarged my path under me,
So my feet did not slip.
37
I have pursued my enemies and overtaken them;
Neither did I turn back again till they were destroyed.
38
I have wounded them,
So that they could not rise;
They have fallen under my feet.
39
For You have armed me with strength for the battle;
You have subdued under me those who rose up against me.
40
You have also given me the necks of my enemies,
So that I destroyed those who hated me.
41
They cried out, but there was none to save;
Even to the Lord, but He did not answer them.
42
Then I beat them as fine as the dust before the wind;
I cast them out like dirt in the streets.
43
You have delivered me from the strivings of the people;
You have made me the head of the nations;
A people I have not known shall serve me.
44
As soon as they hear of me they obey me;
The foreigners submit to me.
45
The foreigners fade away,
And come frightened from their hideouts.
46
The Lord lives!
Blessed be my Rock!
Let the God of my salvation be exalted.
47
It is God who avenges me,
And subdues the peoples under me;
48
He delivers me from my enemies.
You also lift me up above those who rise against me;
You have delivered me from the violent man.
49
Therefore I will give thanks to You, O Lord, among the Gentiles,
And sing praises to Your name.
50
Great deliverance He gives to His king,
And shows mercy to His anointed,
To David and his descendants forevermore.

Hebrews 12:12
AMPC
So then, brace up and reinvigorate and set right your slackened and weakened and drooping hands and strengthen your feeble and palsied and tottering knees,

Letter to my young friends: Get Solomon’s treasure

Dear young friends:

Today I am led to read Proverbs 1. King Solomon (reigned Israel 970–931 BC) was a very versatile, multitasking, talented and diligent man who authored 3,000 proverbs (1 Kings 4:32) amongst other famous art and scientific accomplishments. He received 666 talents of gold yearly (10:14). That’s about 730,000 ounces of gold per year. (10:14) At today’s gold price of $1252.08 per ounce, that means $914,018,400 yearly income from gold alone around three thousands ago! Why did he write Proverbs? What we can receive from reading this Book? Many ask. The answer I have received is “PLENTY” of especially practical wisdom, how to conduct one’s life wisely. The rewards are both material prosperity and beyond material wealth. The overall advice encourages a reverential fear of God, courage, kindness and piety living. In sum, the themes of Proverbs are neatly summed up in Eshet Hayil: “build a worthy family, stay on the path of virtue, and you shall be rewarded.”

Reading the Proverbs daily one chapter following the calendar date is a lifelong habit of many successful people. The Holy Spirit is in every born again Christian and we can read and ask the Lord to speak to us the verse(s) he wants us to pay specific attention.

There are 31 chapters (915 verses, or 15038 words) in the Book of Proverbs, an average of 29 verses or 500 words a day. For a person with basic English reading speed of 100-200 words you can finish reading your chapter in less than 5 minutes.

A testimony: I know of a young Christian child who wanted to be wise and do well in her study. She prayed and asked how to do that. Then she was led to read and copy the Proverbs (written by the wisest man in the world) one chapter daily. She truly became wise and excelled in her academic pursuits. She has since recommended this to other young people who are similarly struggling with their studies. From what I know she can study any subject and do just as well within a short span of time. Her uncle once told me that during a brief interval of her visit she had measles. So she studied insurance and passed her exam within the brief grounded period! They have never seen anything like this. Many youth find it hard to study but this one finds a way to help herself. Once she told me that to learn Chinese she was reading the Chinese dictionary (like a text book) from beginning progressively based on the number of Chinese characters’ strokes starting with the single stroke, and by then she had progressed to the words with six strokes. I had never seen anything like this but I was not surprised.*

Proverbs 1:1-9 New Living Translation (NLT)
The Purpose of Proverbs
1 These are the proverbs of Solomon, David’s son, king of Israel.

2 Their purpose is to teach people wisdom and discipline,
to help them understand the insights of the wise.
3 Their purpose is to teach people to live disciplined and successful lives,
to help them do what is right, just, and fair.
4 These proverbs will give insight to the simple,
knowledge and discernment to the young.
5 Let the wise listen to these proverbs and become even wiser.
Let those with understanding receive guidance
6 by exploring the meaning in these proverbs and parables,
the words of the wise and their riddles.
7 Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and discipline.
A Father’s Exhortation: Acquire Wisdom
8 My child,[a] listen when your father corrects you.
Don’t neglect your mother’s instruction.
9 What you learn from them will crown you with grace
and be a chain of honor around your neck.

Proverbs 31:25-31 (of a wise successful business woman)
25 She is clothed with strength and dignity,
and she laughs without fear of the future.
26 When she speaks, her words are wise,
and she gives instructions with kindness.
27 She carefully watches everything in her household
and suffers nothing from laziness.
28 Her children stand and bless her.
Her husband praises her:
29 “There are many virtuous and capable women in the world,
but you surpass them all!”
30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last;
but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised.
31 Reward her for all she has done.
Let her deeds publicly declare her praise.

I pray you too be encouraged to read and copy down the wisdom the Lord uses through this Book of Proverbs to speak to you. How do you apply the words? By faith put into action. You will harvest just as Solomon had advised three thousands years ago.

Your watchman friend

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~“
About Chinese characters
“Far from being complicated drawings, Chinese characters are made out of simple single strokes, all of them variations of only eight basic ones. All strokes have their own name and are written according to a few rules. It’s very important to learn to recognize them, since the number of strokes in a character is often the easiest way to find it in an index… but this will become clear after learning radicals and the use of dictionaries.” (Online source)

BTW: What happened to the young person? She became conversant in several professions. No worry about employment and enjoys the flexibility of choosing what she likes to do and where. 

Daily Word：Ecclesiastes 111 Send your grain across the seas, profits will flow back to you

All about Christian (and Jewish) economics and finance today. In another word, how to persistently and sustainably prosper the Bible way?
Advice from the richest man in history. Ecclesiastes 11 New Living Translation (NLT) Investment and disbursement
11:1 Send your grain across the seas,
and in time, profits will flow back to you.
2 But divide your investments among many places,
for you do not know what risks might lie ahead.
3 When clouds are heavy, the rains come down.
Whether a tree falls north or south, it stays where it falls.
4 Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant.
If they watch every cloud, they never harvest.
5 Just as you cannot understand the path of the wind or the mystery of a tiny baby growing in its mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the activity of God, who does all things.

6 Plant your seed in the morning and keep busy all afternoon, for you don’t know if profit will come from one activity or another—or maybe both.

Isaiah 28:23-29 Listen to me;
listen, and pay close attention.
24 Does a farmer always plow and never sow?
Is he forever cultivating the soil and never planting?
25 Does he not finally plant his seeds—
black cumin, cumin, wheat, barley, and emmer wheat—
each in its proper way,
and each in its proper place?
26 The farmer knows just what to do,
for God has given him understanding.
27 A heavy sledge is never used to thresh black cumin;
rather, it is beaten with a light stick.
A threshing wheel is never rolled on cumin;
instead, it is beaten lightly with a flail.
28 Grain for bread is easily crushed,
so he doesn’t keep on pounding it.
He threshes it under the wheels of a cart,
but he doesn’t pulverize it.
29 The Lord of Heaven’s Armies is a wonderful teacher,
and he gives the farmer great wisdom.