Category: Psalms

His delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.
  Psalm 1:2

When God’s Word feels like a feast, I linger over it. I underline, I savor, I whisper, “Oh yes, Lord,” and I truly mean it. But what about the days when my heart is seized with worry?  Do I delight in the commands that tell me not to fear? When I’m heavy with regret, do I rejoice in the promises of fresh mercy? When I’m quietly nursing a grudge, do I love the words that call me to forgive? I can be like a child who is thrilled with the rules that fit my mood, yet resents the ones that confront what I don’t want to surrender.

Every day brings a new set of circumstances that tests my love for God’s ways. I will not naturally delight in the parts of His Word that correct me, expose me, or nudge me out of my emotional comfort zone. When Jesus invites me to step out of familiar feelings that have become my default, (though they fit like my favorite old shirt and pair of jeans), I need to recognize what they really are.  Grave clothes. They belong to a life still wrapped in the tomb. Jesus calls every child of God out of the darkness and into resurrection life. It sounds beautiful and stirring until His light actually exposes my shadows. Then I discover how resistant I can be, how easily offended when He touches the places I’d rather keep hidden. Part of me would rather stay in the tomb I know than risk the freedom I don’t.

The ways of the flesh are the ways of death. I know this. I can say it, teach it, write it, and still find those old ways woven deeply into my fallen nature. So I have to speak truth to my own soul, sometimes many times a day: Choose His way. Trust His heart. Move toward the light. As I lean into obedience and push through my initial offense, my reluctance, my fear, I begin to taste something different on the other side. I realize I am breathing more freely. And in that space, delight is no longer forced; it begins to flow.

When David promises to “delight” in God’s statutes, it is both tender and courageous. Yes, it is the language of affection, but it is also the language of faith before the feeling fully blooms. He is saying, in essence, I will love what You love, even when my heart has to grow into it.

I need Your grace to desire You.  Keep my heart alive and straining for the Light. In Jesus name,  Amen

Your testimonies are righteous forever; Give me understanding that I may live. Psalm 119:144

When are the Psalms normally read? When I’m hurting. Whether sickness, betrayal, danger, or the pain of being falsely accused, I can be sure that there will be a Psalm that correlates. But if a Psalm is read only to gain comfort and validation, I am missing out on a goldmine of instruction.

Let me speak more personally. The honesty of the Psalms can scare me. I have historically been afraid of extreme complaint. I’m shy of being called a drama queen if I join David in exclaiming that ‘my tears have been my food day and night’, even if it’s been true. Many of us have been raised in environments that frown on this kind of emotion. We’ve been told that we are spiritually unstable if we moan, if we ache, when the effects of the fall touch our personal lives. But I would do well to read the Psalms out loud when I’m in distress to train myself to speak with gut honesty to God. The Psalms show me how to well order the expressions of grief, anger, and hopelessness.

But that’s only the beginning of the value I’ll gain by living in the Psalms. They will not only encourage me to own my feelings but they will also instruct me on how to think in the midst of them. How should my faith be expressed when I’m in pain? What kinds of things should I praise God for when I need to worship yet don’t feel like it? As someone who was raised in a stoic home, my praise is often stilted. To abandon myself to worship is often a stretch. What kind of catalyst does it take for me to be able to genuinely pour out praise without any restraint? When I experience divine deliverance and life-saving revelation! I have lived long enough to fall on my knees, literally, in gratitude for God’s answers to desperate prayers. I have praised God profusely for speaking to me after years of deafening silence. I have exclaimed with tears, “I know now that You are mighty. You are a deliverer. You have been with me all along.”

The Psalms challenge me to be balanced. If I lean toward reading them for intellectual enjoyment, they will challenge me to also have a heart response. If I lean toward a cathartic release of my heart, they will challenge me to espouse theology and to risk faith beyond my tears. Ever balanced, they instruct me on how to think, and how to feel, like Jesus.

Make me balanced. Shape my thoughts and free my heart to beat like Yours. In Jesus’ name, Amen

The LORD is my strength and my shield.  Psalm 28:7 

Shields used in battle pre-date Israel. Sometimes the soldier carried his own. Other times he had a shield bearer, one who walked beside him and shielded him as he fought.

My Father is my shield bearer. That’s almost more than I can take in. He is so good to me!  But here’s a question ~ Who hates me so much that I’d need someone to defend me? Who is my enemy?

Once corrupted by pride, Satan became envious and entitled. He wanted God’s throne and the worship that went with it. Because God would not share His glory with another, Satan led a rebellion and he, along with the fallen angels who followed his lead, were exiled to Earth and the war began. Anyone on God’s side became the enemy. He would hate all of God’s children because we belong to his arch-enemy.

Satan’s passion to kill and destroy has not cooled off. His anger is still white-hot and he sets out to destroy any good thing God desires to give me. He creates obstacles, making things so hard that I’ll be tempted to believe that my blessing has been nullified. I’ll want to throw up my hands and abdicate when, instead, I should be digging in, trusting God’s promises, and believing that He is actively shielding me as I walk by faith. He is not just my shield but my strength.

Over what should I be fighting with prayer and with scripture that I’ve declared hopeless?  Show me, Holy Spirit. Amen

From the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.   Psalm 61:2

Everything having to do with the Earth is in transition.  The sun, needed to bring the flowers to full bloom, can also have scorching qualities, causing the blossoms to shrivel and die.  Everything I hold in my hands is tenuous unless it is of the kingdom and will last forever.  Is my trust in God?  Should my wealth fail, will I spiral down into hopelessness or will my faith in God sustain me?  If the favor of others fail, will I be unshakable in my identity?

If my pleasant pastures turn into a desert, will I have stored enough spiritual food to sustain me?  If God should close the door to my place of employment, the place I find so fulfilling, will I languish for purpose?

The only One who offers true stability is God.  He is the Rock upon which my feet stand securely.  He is the Anchor when the waves hit.  He is the Fortress when the arrows are aimed at me.  Though favor, wealth, and pleasant pastures are mine to enjoy from time to time, they are not the source of my well-being.  The challenge is this ~ Each one of them gives a sense of security, but it’s a false one.  Will I be astute enough to trust today’s scripture and not be fooled?  That requires more than just passive belief.  It must be active and hard-working.

 Today:

• There are areas where I can experience God as provider.  I lean into that.
• There are areas where I can listen to God as a counselor.  I still myself to listen.
• There are areas of darkness where I need to experience the light of His love.  I open myself to that.
• There are areas of insecurity and fear where I can trust Him to face that which frightens me.  I welcome the challenge.

Life involves far more than just living what I am experiencing.  It requires being pro-active.  Planting my feet on the Rock of Ages will be my only insurance against transitory times.

I enjoy the peace of today, Lord.  I thank you for it but I am not fooled.  Tomorrow, the winds may blow.  I make knowing you, even in peaceful times, my priority.  In Jesus name, Amen

And you shall remember and thoughtfully consider that you were once a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you.  Deuteronomy 15:15

Steve Brown, in his book A SCANDALOUS FREEDOM, tells this story.

Abraham Lincoln went to a slave market.  He noted a young, beautiful African American woman being auctioned off to the highest offer.  He bid on her and won. He could see the anger in the young woman’s eyes and could imagine what she was thinking, ‘Another white man will buy me, use me, and then discard me.’

As Lincoln walked off with his ‘property,’ he turned to the woman and said, ‘You’re free.’  

‘Yeah.  What does that mean?’ she replied.  

‘It means that you’re free,’ he said.   

‘Does it mean,’ the young woman said hesitantly, ‘that I can go wherever I want to go?’  

‘Yes, it means you are free, and you can go wherever you want to go.’

‘Then, sir,’ said the woman with tears in her eyes, ‘I think I’ll go with you.’

Though she had been declared free, and though she sensed that she could trust her rescuer, she would have the mindset of a slave for years to come.  It would take years for her to process the freedom she was granted.  She would struggle to understand respect.  She would think twice before going in a restaurant or into a store to purchase goods.  

So it is with sanctification.  We each come with the baggage of our stories.  At our spiritual birth, the Good News of the Gospel changed everything.  We were declared innocent because of the blood of Jesus.  We were adopted out of darkness.  Yet the vestiges of slavery still haunt us.  

Every day, God must work in the unseen parts of us—the places where we still question whether Jesus’s love is as unconditional as He says it is. We are skeptics and accusers of the One who loves perfectly. We are afraid of the dark and insist on walking alone, while not understanding that God goes with us around every corner and on every detour.  

Jehovah Mekaddishkem woos us to keep trusting and keep believing until every part of our scared hearts are won over by a Gospel that is ‘so good it must be true.’  

You sanctify me in all the messy places of my heart.  You untangle the webs that still hold me captive.  This doctrine is very personal, and I’m in awe of how you love me.  Amen

Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Psalm 24:7

God spoke to His people and commanded them to lift their heads. He went out to battle on their behalf and assured them that He would come back victorious.  Raising a hopeful countenance to their Deliverer took faith and the waiting was difficult no matter how beautiful the promise.

I recall when Joseph told the Pharaoh’s cupbearer, who was falsely accused, that Pharaoh would lift up his head in three days. The Hebrew idiom paints a beautiful picture. It is when the one shrunken in shame is restored to his position of honor. It’s also used other places in scripture that expand its beauty.  King David, on the run from Absalom with just the clothes on his back, turned to God for vindication. He climbed the Mount of Olives, covered his head, wept, and said, “You, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high.” Psalm 3:3  As king, David could have formed an army to get back his throne but he abandoned such ideas. He recognized that God was his rescuer.

Who has stripped you of your honor?  No matter what the context, the experience is gut wrenching. Your mind runs tapes of the accusations made against you as your body language turns inward.  Perhaps you have accepted this as your fate.  I hope you are not a fighter who has vowed to take revenge, to get back what you’ve lost no matter who has to pay. It’s easy to turn against your Redeemer to take up your own cause.

The hardest thing for any of us to do when betrayed is to wait on God to move. He always will; we just don’t know when. In the meantime, the waiting is never wasted. God draws near, comforts us with just the right words framed with compassion, and then shares with us what He suffered under the same circumstances.  Each disclosure is a treasure upon treasure, the kind only found in the darkness. He is our King, the One who rules righteously, and He is the lifter of our heads.

Satan offered you a way out of waiting when he offered you the kingdoms of the world in exchange for worship. Thank you for not caving. Everything would have been lost. So teach me to wait! Amen

Save

The directions of Yahweh are pure, enlightening the eyes.  Psalm 19:8

The Hebrew word for light means ‘to illuminate.’  When I finally understand a subject under the teaching of someone gifted, I’ll say he ‘shed some light on the topic.’  At creation, when there was darkness and chaos, God said, ‘Let there be light.’  He shed some light on the world and brought order. 

Do you have a situation in your life that lacks clarity?  Have you been asking God for understanding?  Once He chooses to bestow the gift of light, His influence over darkened, confused, and oppressed minds is pervasive.  He illuminates what is cloudy.  He puts a magnifying glass over the twisted strands of thread, and suddenly, we can see the steps we need to take to untangle what is knotted. 

For years, I may have struggled with a situation that seems wrong.  I’m not at peace.  I am in conflict when I think about it.  But I don’t have clarity on what it is that’s wrong.  Yesterday was one of those days that will go down in personal history.  God shed light on things that lived in the shadows.  Illumined, I could see everything clearly; today, there is a roadmap.  Yesterday, I was lost in the fog.  Today, I have discovered God’s plan.  Yesterday, I was grasping at spiritual straws.  Today, I have what I need in my hands.  Yesterday, I had faith but no enlightenment.  Today, I have hope because my prayers are precise.

The Word of God gives light to the eyes.  Today, God is going to be the Light-giver across this dark landscape.  For someone, He will cure spiritual blindness and allow them to see the light and glory of Jesus.  For someone else, He will turn the light on a concept that correctly diagnoses what has been spiritually infirmed.  For a teacher, He will enlighten a passage and give spiritual understanding for Sunday’s lesson.  For a mother, He will enlighten the spiritual condition of her child so that she can apply spiritual cures.  For a business owner, God will enlighten the discord within his company and lead him to replace worldly business strategies with scripturally based principles.

Light is a life-saving thing.  When I need it, and God gives it, I fall on my knees in gratitude.  And when He gives it, I am responsible for taking the light to the darkness and exerting spiritual rule in favor of the kingdom.

Show me what to do with what You’ve shown me.  I am Your city on a hill.  In Jesus’ name, Amen