Psalm 144 - Proverb 14: Flourishing tree or dead stump?

- Encouragement:  "God gives a fresh start to those ready to quit" (Psalm 145:14).
- Shepherd of the stars:  "He counts the stars and assigns each a name" (Psalm 147:26).
- Do animals know there's a God?  Love this one: "let every living, breathing creature praise God!" (Psalm 150:6).
- I'm ready for wisdom.  Eugene Peterson writes that "wisdom is the art of living skillfully in whwatever actual conditions we find ourselves." Writers of the Proverbs include Solomon, Hezekiah, Agur (an Arab), and Lemuel (another non-Israelite). I love that God's love and wisdom were already reaching out beyond Israel. God's plan for his people includes the Gentiles, too, and that's so clear from early on.
- Want wisdom?  "Those who look for me find me" (Proverb 8:12-21).
- Tree or stump?  "A God-shaped life is a flourishing tree...a life devoted to things is a dead life, a stump" (Proverb 11:28).
- Teach me:  "Fools are headstrong and do what they life; wise people take advice" (Proverb 12:15).
- A last promise:  "The homes of good people hold together" (Proverb 12:7).