Read Psalms 118:26  This week is a special week in our calendar.  It is called Passion week because it was when Jesus Christ demonstrated His love to us in giving His life for us on the cross of Calvary.  During the Jewish passover time, all of the Jews were supposed to go to Jerusalem for that special occasion.  Passover celebrated when the Children of Israel left their slavery in Egypt and headed for their Promised Land.  When Jesus came into Jerusalem to join in on the celebration, He was welcomed by all of the people as the coming Messiah.  The people shouted their happiness and threw down their coats and palm branches as a pathway for Jesus to ride into the city on.  That is why the Sunday before Easter Sunday is called Palm Sunday.  In Matthew, Mark, and Luke; the people were quoted as saying, "Blessed is He who cometh in the name of the Lord."  Isn't it interesting that that is exactly what was said in our verse here in Psalms 118!  But Psalms was written 950 years before the people welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem!  That is called prophecy - foretelling what would come to pass.  And it did!

Read Psalms 118:21&22  Our second verse also appears in Mark 12:10 where Jesus quoted it.  During His last week upon the earth, when Jesus taught the people in the Temple, the religious leaders were jealous of Him.  They wanted the people to like them, but they did not teach as good as Jesus taught.  This verse shows us a word picture of builders choosing the stones to put into the growing wall.  They would look at a hole and choose a stone that would fit.  But, the most important stone in the entire wall was the corner stone.  When the builders put the corner stone down, all of the other building stones had to fit up against the corner stone.  All of the wall stones had to line up with the corner stone so that the walls would be straight and tall.  Jesus, the person that the religious leaders didn't like, died for us and has become the main person in our salvation.  He is the most important person in our lives.  He is our corner stone that all of the other stones must line up with.

Read Psalms 118:8  Our verse says that it is better  to trust in God than to trust in man.  That is good advice. People can let you down and disappoint you.  But God will never let you down.  He will never disappoint you.  God will always do what He says He will do.  Of all of the verses in the Bible, this is the middle verse.  It is good to remember that God is trustworthy.  I love God, don't you?

Read Psalms 118:8  Our verse is talking about which side you are on.  When I was a little boy in the 4th grade, we usually played softball at recess.  There were about 20 boys in our class.  When we went outside the first thing was picking sides.  Usually the two most popular boys got to be the captains.  Then we had to decide who picked first. So the two captains took the bat and took turns grabbing hand over hand up the bat until only one could grasp the bat by the handle.  That one got to pick first.  I wasn't a very good player, so I didn't get picked very early in the choices.  But I didn't care as long as I got to be on Robert Domby's side.  He was quiet and not a leader, so he was never a captain.  But when he hit the ball,  he would smack the cover off of it!  He hit a home run every time!  So, even though I wasn't a very good player, I always won when Robert was on my side.  When we have God on our side, we will always win.  So we must try to decide what God likes and dislikes, and try to be on His side.  Then we will be a winner!

Read Psalms 118:5  Distress is a hard word to understand; but is has a lot of meaning to it.  When a ship is out on the ocean and a strong storm blows up, that ship is in distress.  When a puppy gets lost and is far away from home, that little dog is in distress.  In our verse David said that when he was in distress, he called upon the Lord, and the Lord answered him.  God not only answered him, but God put David in a good place.  Not only a good place, but a large place with plenty of room and lots of green grass for David's sheep and plenty of cool water for David's sheep to drink and to be refreshed.  God heard David's distress and answered and helped him.  When you have a problem - a big problem - pray to God and He will hear, and He will help.  You can count on God to help you!

Read psalms 111:10 This verse begins with a scary word: fear.  You don't want to be afraid of anything.  But it is actually good to be afraid of some things.  For instance, electricity.  Electricity is used to cook our food.  Electricity is used to keep our milk cold in the refrigerator and to pop popcorn in the microwave.  We have lights on the ceiling and in the lamps so that we can see at night - all made to work by electricity.  But, if you put your finger into the electrical outlet, you can get burned really badly.  Electricity can hurt you, but it is intended to help you.  That is the way with God.  God is holy and can't allow sin.  But He has made a way for us to have our sins forgiven by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.  God punishes sin, but He also loves us and does many good things for us.  We should be careful with electricity.  Our verse says that if we fear God, we are beginning to be wise.  And that is a good thing.

Read Psalms 107:8, 15, 21, 31  Did you think that you had made a mistake?  Did your mother or father seem to be repeating themselves when they read these verses?  Well, that is because these four verses are exactly the same!  So why do you think God used up the space of four verses to repeat this one verse four times?  If God says something once, do you think it is important?  But what if God says the same thing four times?  Isn't that really important?  I think so.  So, what does God say in these verses?  God says that we should praise, or thank Him for two things: for His goodness and for the wonderful things that He does for us.  Do we thank God for all of the things that He does for us, or do we thank God for loving us and just being a good God to us?  Which is more important: the toys that our parents buy for us or our parents?  That's right, our parents.  If we didn't have parents, would we have the gifts that parents buy?  Well, no, of course we wouldn't.  If we wouldn't have God, we wouldn't have the gifts that God gives to us.  God is way more important than the gifts that He gives to us.  Let's stop and pray right now and thank God for just being our God.