Category: Psalms

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

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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

Lord, through all the generations you have been our home!  Psalm 90:1

Why do we sell our souls to get the love we want?  Why would we consider prostrating ourselves, promising things we have no right promising, all for the prospect of someone’s affection?  As we speak, you may be caring for a parent and realizing the window of time is short for getting the love you’ve always craved.  If only you could figure out how to turn their hearts toward you.

These longings aren’t wrong.  We were made to belong, to be under the care of someone trustworthy.  We dream of sitting in their shade, satiated and content.  People may give us a taste of it but God promises to fully satisfy the longing.  He encourages us to lose our lives because He knows that if we willingly give them up to Him, we will find real love, real life.  And, there’s a bonus ~ if we abdicate our right to a self-proclaimed identity and blend into Jesus, we’ll find that our true selves emerge.

All this goes against the grain of our pride.  We don’t want to need anyone that badly.  It seems pathetic to a strong ego.  But there is a barrier that eclipses even pride.  It is fear.  I’m afraid that if I open up my heart completely and He rejects me, it will be unbearable.  To play it safe, I seal away my heart in order to protect it.  I use the pretense of religion to hide behind, but God wants my heart.  He’s constantly calling my name to come closer.  Proximity is safe, not dangerous.

Every single person alive, no matter their history, can go running home, even limping home, with confidence.

It takes years, Lord, but help us not be afraid anymore.  Amen

Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.   Psalm 34:19

The words of Jesus brought divided opinion.  He was righteous and he was afflicted, even among the religious.  Not many things are more heated than religious arguments.  Some were willing to consider that He was divine; others called him demonized.

Jesus predicted this kind of polarization.  “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth?  No, I tell you, but rather division.” Luke 12:51 It is better for people to be divided over Christ than for both parties to continue in sin and unbelief.

The chasm between a believer and unbeliever is wide.  And when it involves an intimate relationship, there are constant sparks when the ways of heaven and the values of the kingdom of darkness collide.  Clashes come numerous times a day.

Business partnerships can be at odds; divided on ethics, divided on styles of leadership.  Jesus promotes servant leadership.  This repels the one who seeks to use his power to further himself.

Marriages can be at odds; divided on financial priorities, divided on parenting styles.  Jesus asks parents to raise their children in such a way that when He calls them, they respond.  A parent who is obvious in his disdain for Christ is not willing to have his child serve a God who asks them to lose their life for Jesus’ sake.

Many of you who are reading this right now know the loneliness of walking beside a person where you share more differences than similarities.  At times, you may grow weary of speaking up so you cave in to behaviors that grate against your spirit.  Perhaps the lack of peace haunts you and you wonder if this can possibly be of God.  Jesus would answer with a resounding ‘yes’.  God’s children must not love peace more than they love truth or else we will relinquish our convictions for a sense of false harmony.  Peace at any cost is not Jesus’ way.

My natural bent is not to fight – but to cave to others’ pressure in order to gain peace.  You didn’t do that.  You were willing to be quiet and you were also willing to create heat so that people would have to choose truth or error.  Lord, I have a lot to learn from You.  Amen

Princes persecute me without cause, but my heart stands in awe of your words.  Psalm 119:161

Unfortunate is the adult who still has the magical thinking of a child.  He expects that life will always be fair and that there will always be a human being to make sure things go in his favor.  His parents, most likely, never taught him wisdom for how to live in this world.

My father was a public high school teacher, then principal, then guidance counselor.  Stories were told around our dinner table about parents who stood up for ‘little Johnny’ after he had acted out and had been sent to the office for discipline.  Consequences for his rebellious and disruptive behavior would have benefited him but his parents, indignant that their child could be guilty, interfered with needed justice.

David knew persecution, even by those who had the unlimited power to raise up an army.  They were the rich and powerful.  The reputation of the crown preceded them.  Yet, he was street smart in the midst of injustice.  Some years later, he would pass on such wisdom to his son, Solomon, as evidenced by his writing. “If you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice and righteousness, do not be amazed at the matter, for the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them.”  Ecclesiastes 5:8

David knew that there was such a thing as innocence, even if men in high places called you guilty.  He also knew that God, the higher authority, watched all matters and it would be a matter of time before His justice would prevail.

I remember that today.  Though it appears men get away with wielding the sword of abusive power, it is an illusion.  Their crimes will catch up to them and they will pay for all eternity if they do not repent at the foot of the cross.

How does this apply to me personally?  No one, not even a prince, should cause me to wear robes of shame if I am innocent, or if I have already repented and made restitution.

The mighty are little in Your universe.  Keep my perspective clean and focused.  Amen

The insolent smear me with lies, but with my whole heart I keep your precepts.  Psalm 119:69

David’s enemies were jealous of his reputation.  They were proud and felt that they deserved the attention and prestige.  They didn’t even blink when they conceived lies that would bring him to a place of contempt in the public’s eye.  They justified their sin because it would get them what they wanted – center stage.

Their plot didn’t cause him to sway off course.  He did not engage in name calling nor did he defend himself.  With his whole heart, he honored God’s precepts, namely – not taking revenge on those who deserved punishment.  He left such things to God.

Sooner or later, every child of God will experience a smear campaign.  It may be a coup d’etat over a place in the church; a position of leadership coveted by one who feels overlooked.  A carnal agenda can run rampant to discredit a godly leader by concocting untrue or exaggerated stories that will cast the good man in a bad light.  All in the name of self-advancement and entitlement.

If we have lost money, position, and places of leadership because of a smear campaign the likes of what David suffered, and if we have borne it patiently as he did, we must take courage.  We remember Joseph.  The time in the dungeon was temporary.  In it, God taught him wisdom, and while he was in his underground school, God was preparing all of Egypt for a new kind of leader.  God takes up the cause of His servants, whether now or later.  His redemptive purposes are never off course.  Though it may look like it, hindsight will reveal that even betrayal was part of heaven’s timetable.  The ticking of the clock is steady and under sovereign control.

 In betrayal and injustice, you have a plan for Your child and the tormentors are on your leash and on your time clock.  Help us take comfort in that.  Amen

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My soul is consumed with longing for your rules at all times.  Psalm 119:20

Being consumed with something is an experience common to each of us.  I know what that feels like.  So do you.  I was consumed with grief when our son died.  Consumed with dread when a cancer diagnosis was made regarding my father and mother.  The eventual losses filled my heart to such an extent that death was all I thought about.  I couldn’t enjoy holidays or the company of my favorite people for many months.  The ache in my heart was just forefront.

I’ve had my soul consumed by positive life experiences as well.  A song in the process of being written can arrest me.   Or one that I’m arranging for future recording can consume me round the clock.   Also, a new writing venture has consumed me.  The layout of the book, chapter divisions, and the dissection of the material were on my mind all hours of the day.  I was only physically present in other conversations.  I smiled and nodded but my mind was on my writing.

David admits that his soul is consumed with longing for God’s ways.

How many can say this?  Curious, perhaps.  Interested, of course.  But longing?  I find that I only ‘long for’ what is life-saving to me.  The only way I know if God’s ways are life-saving is by applying them.  Reading but not applying keeps me a dispassionate student.  The scriptures are kept at arms length.

If I come to the end of myself and pour out my complaint to God in search of answers, I am a good candidate to experience the longing David describes.  Consumed with need, I throw all my hope upon the scriptures.  Whatever God prescribes, I do.  I’ve no confidence left in myself.  When that occurs, God’s Word meets my places of need and there is combustion.  Hope, wisdom, and peace result.  I begin to have a new perspective about my life and feel that I am soaring in a spiritual realms.  Remembering how life used to be, and having tasted of what it means to dwell in the kingdom with Jesus, my soul develops a new kind of longing.

Ignite my spiritual appetite yet again.  I want ‘consumed’ to describe me.  Amen

Make your face shine upon your servant, and teach me your statues.  Psalm 119:135

When lovers walk into the same room after a long separation, there is a pregnant moment when their faces light up, wordless exclamations pour out, and then arms are open to embrace without any thought of restraint.  Sheer happiness causes their faces to shine.

One of the meanings of ‘shine’ in this text is what happens when the sun arises at daybreak.  The dark begins to abate with the glorious entrance of light on the horizon.  It is not just any light; it is a bit orange and golden.  Nothing resembles a sunrise because it has characteristics all its own.  Perhaps David is trying to convey that God is so warmed by His children that His countenance is transformed when He sees us.  It is like the dawning of a sunrise upon the heart.  What a beautiful picture.

To feel the warmth of His smile is to have the best of all gifts today. I can stand in any storm if I know His face is turned toward me. I can find endless reserves of strength if I know that His face is traced with tenderness.  David did not ask for more power, more wealth, or even more peace.  He asked for God’s smile.  In the radiance of God’s favor, David wants to be taught.  Instruction is never more effective than when one worships the Teacher.  David  is the star pupil in a class of one.  God is not a distant professor but a warm, engaging, and storytelling Father.

Bring to me the sunrise of your smile, Father.  Then let my face be radiant with all the effects of You.  Amen

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