Category: Psalms

Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. Psalm 37:5

I delight in the heart of Scripture, and I delight in the hearts of people. My life has been one long, ongoing conversation—learning my own soul, learning God’s character, and paying close attention to how He has wired others. Tools like Myers–Briggs, DISC, and StrengthsFinder have simply given language to what I love most: helping people see how they’ve been uniquely crafted, so they can bring their whole selves honestly before God.

Here’s the downside to knowing and understanding people. Not only do you discover their strengths, but you also come to know the depth of their weaknesses. When challenges come their way, you see 10x more pitfalls than most people because you know how they process life. The better you know them, the more you are tempted to worry.

This is my summer to more deeply address my lifelong battle with worrying, fretting, fussing, and anguishing. Though I teach Prayer Mapping and the language of faith, it continues to be my greatest struggle. Perhaps that’s why I’m so passionate to teach it. People who take the course can assume I’ve conquered it and have become some kind of expert. No, I’m living the challenge. Martin Luther said, “We teach best what we have had to learn most.”

I heard a bible teacher once say, “Faith is a filter.” That caught my attention because faith is the opposite response to anxiety. Faith reminds me that God is ruling when it appears mayhem prevails, God is watching when I fear He’s lost interest, God is active when I see no evidence of it, God is omniscient and I am not, God is sovereign over all surprises, God is redemptive when life seems full of wasted pain, God is fiercely protective when His children are vulnerable, God is just when evil temporarily prospers, God is a faith-giver when I’m running on empty, and God is a Father who is never fatigued, distracted, nor disinterested. “Let faith arise.”

Birth faith in new places. Deep places. Amen

My heart stands in awe of Your words. I rejoice at Your Word as one who finds a great treasure. Psalm 119:161-162

Twenty years ago, I dropped by Pier One on the day of their best clearance sale. I was going to shop for a very large salad bowl so I went straight to the dinnerware section. In front of me was a beautiful blue and white bowl. It was 75% off and a real steal. I was thrilled and made my purchase. This many years later, I still love it. Ron reminded me the other night that the bowl has quite a history and that got me thinking.

I’ve used it to serve a main dish kind of salad when I’ve fed a lot of people at our table. A salad for ten people is no problem.   The rest of the time, the bowl has graced the middle of our kitchen table, or has sat on the counter, or has been placed in the middle of our stove with lights overhead shining down on it. It’s always the focal point. What’s in it? Bananas, raisins, good chocolate, nuts, licorice, trail mix, apples and pears. It’s usually stocked fairly well and the contents are constantly switched up. Now, here’s the fun part. Our whole family heads straight for the bowl whenever they walk in the house. Adult or child, it’s calling their name. There’s a quick, ‘hello’, and then someone makes a beeline for the bowl.

When our grandsons were smaller, they would run to the counter and hold out their arms to us to be lifted up. They’d paw through the bowl to find what they wanted. Just say the words ‘blue bowl’ in our house and everyone feels happy.

While this feeds the flesh and pleases the senses, it is not unlike what happens to my spiritual senses when I approach the scriptures on a good day. When my spiritual hunger is engaged and my need is on my sleeve, I can’t wait to mine for gold. I never know what I’m going to find either. I have to keep digging until I’m given just the right ‘word’ for the day. God keeps His word stocked – full of surprises – and loves it when I love it.

I know it’s just a foretaste of the ‘pleasures forevermore’ that will be waiting for me when I step foot into my eternal home. Exhaling earth’s air and inhaling celestial air marks the moment when my appetite is completely satiated.

Feed me. Satisfy my cravings. Delight me. In You are pleasures forevermore. Amen

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