A Life Worthy

Category: Psalm 22

  • Trust One-a-Day Tuesday 7/23/19

    Trust One-a-Day Tuesday 7/23/19

    In you our fathers put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them. They cried to you and were saved; in you they trusted and were not disappointed (Psalm 22:4-5).

    It follows as naturally as weeping follows the alarm clock. 

    David stops to remember who God is, and that leads to considering what he has done, and that leads to a reminder of God’s faithfulness. God has shown himself faithful throughout the generations. Over and over again, God has proven himself worthy of the trust of his people.

    And speaking of that word, Trust–do you think maybe David had a poor vocabulary? I mean, he used it three times in two sentences. Perhaps he couldn’t come up with another word to describe how God’s people put their faith in him? Or could it be that David was reminding himself.

    And those who would follow.

    God’s people have a long history of trusting him.

    God has zero history of bailing on his children.

    Happy Tuesday, Beloved.

  • Who He Is One-a-Day Monday 7/22/19

    Who He Is One-a-Day Monday 7/22/19

    Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the praise of Israel.  (Psalm 22:3).

    Oh yeah,

    He’s God.

    When we feel down, depressed, stressed, panicky, despairish, it’s easy to forget.

    He’s God–with all that entails. 

    And, he’s on our side.

    Look, I don’t know what stressers your Monday holds–but it is Monday, so….

    Let’s you and I follow David’s lead and remind ourselves who it is we cry out to.

    The Praise of Israel

    The Praise of Michael

    The Praise of….

    Happy Monday, Beloved.

  • Crying Out One-a-Day Friday 7/19/19

    Crying Out One-a-Day Friday 7/19/19

    Oh my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, and am not silent (Psalm 22:2).

    David calls.

    God is silent.

    Well, that’s a bummer.

    Now, David could take this several ways. He could give up on God and assume that he is a myth, and that David is entirely alone. He could become angry with God, raging at God’s injustice in allowing his child to be in such a place of pain. He could become sullen and resentful and show God that David doesn’t really need him; David will be just fine on his own, thank you very much.

    Or, he can persist, knowing that his relationship with God is more than this moment, and the truth of God is more than this circumstance.

    On Wednesday, just after I posted, my son and I hiked to the top of Mt. San Gorgonio. This, by the way, is why there was no post yesterday, as we didn’t get home until late Thursday afternoon. I am not a very experienced hiker, and I’m in only mediocre shape. These factors put climbing such a mountain in the “What are you thinking?” category. I thought of today’s verse as I limped my way up the last four miles of mountain. I felt, in those endless hours, as if the torture would pretty much be forever. Seems silly now, comfy in my chair with a good night’s sleep behind me and half a bottle of Ibuprofen coursing through me, but in that moment I think I got a glimpse of what David was feeling.  And I marvel at David’s persistence in crying out to the One who has delivered him time and again.

    Cry out, Beloved. 

    He is listening.

    He is near.

    He will answer.

    Happy Friday

  • Where Are You? One-a-Day Wednesday 7/17/19

    Where Are You? One-a-Day Wednesday 7/17/19

    My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?  (Psalm 22:1).

    And yet he isn’t far, is he, Beloved?

    I mean, we’ve been around long enough to realize that God is with us, even when we can’t feel his presence. He promised that he would never leave us, never forsake us, and we believe him.

    But

    that doesn’t change the way it feels.

    I feel your pain, David my brother.

    So I don’t know where you are today, emotions-wise. You may read this verse and think, “Wow, yeah, I remember feeling that way. So glad that’s over!”

    For now

    For someone out there, this verse is the echo of your own cry, of the pain and the sorrow and the terror of the “What if.”

    As in, “What if I really am alone?”

    “What if God really isn’t coming back?

    or worst of all,

    “What if he was never really there in the first place?”

    If that’s you, all I can tell you is you’re not the first to feel this way, and you won’t be the last. You are not forgotten by the One who loves you.  If you can hang in and hang on, it will absolutely get better

    in just a couple of verses.

    Happy Wednesday, Beloved

    Oh, and just so’s you know–I will be out of internet range tomorrow, so we’ll resume Friday! God bless you!

  • Forsaken One-a-Day Tuesday 7/16/19

    Forsaken One-a-Day Tuesday 7/16/19

    My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?  (Psalm 22:1).

    Forsaken

    Deserted

    Left utterly alone

    David felt this. He looked around at the enemies arrayed against him and figured that God just wasn’t coming to the rescue this time. Maybe he was angry with David, or maybe he was too busy elsewhere. Whatever the reason, David was alone.

    Beloved, I hope that you never feel that depth of aloneness. I hope your heart never tells you that you are abandoned by God, left to fend for yourself in a world that is against you. 

    But, chances are, you have. 

    Or you will

    Or…you are

    But

    Your heart is mistaken.

    You are not forsaken.

    Jesus was forsaken for you. On the cross, Jesus was truly and completely separated from the Father as he took the punishment that we deserved. He took David’s words as his own as he cried out. He who had never in all eternity been alone suffered complete desolation

    so that you will never have to.

    You are not forsaken. Whatever your emotions or your circumstances or your chemistry tells you this morning, you are not forsaken.

    You are remembered.

    You are surrounded.

    You are beloved.

    Happy Tuesday

  • Praise! One-a-Day Thursday    5/18/17

    Praise! One-a-Day Thursday    5/18/17

    I will praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, my God; I will sing praise to you with the lyre, Holy One of Israel. My lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you–I whom you have delivered (Psalm 71:22-23).

    Is your praise unfettered?

    Are you able to throw your hands up, throw your head back, and dance and sing and shout your praise to God with all your heart and absolutely no reservations?

    Me neither.

    I go to church, and the music starts, and people around me begin to stand up and  I start to stand up too but then I think that maybe I’m only standing because other people are standing and I want to look as spiritual as they are and not like some pagan who doesn’t stand during the happy clappy song and then I see a guy three rows up on the aisle who isn’t standing either and I think “Good! Someone else isn’t standing” but then I realize he’s in a wheelchair so I really can’t count him and now I feel guilty because I was happy about a guy being in a wheelchair and I still feel like a pagan for not standing but I also feel resentful that I’m supposed to stand like somehow you’re not connecting with God if you don’t stand and people are going to see me and think I’m deeply disturbed or thoroughly backslidden because I’m not standing and now it’s the power chorus and people are raising their hands but I’m still sitting and I can’t raise my hands even if I want to because I’m sitting and I might accidentally smack somebody on the bottom and that would be significantly uncool and besides if I raise my hands while I’m sitting people will think I’m having a cardiac incident and waving for help or worse yet that I’m mocking the guy in a wheelchair because he’s raising his hands and finally the song is over and I have the announcements and the say howdy to your neighbor time to get a grip before it starts again…

    But One Day, Beloved.  One Glorious Day…

    Happy Thursday.

  • One Day One-a-Day Wednesday    5/17/17

    One Day One-a-Day Wednesday    5/17/17

    You will increase my honor and comfort me once more (Psalm 71:21).

    It won’t always be so hard.

    Sometimes, you look at circumstances and you think, “This is lousy, and it’s always gonna be lousy, and it’s never gonna stop being lousy, and there’s nothing I can do to delouse it.”

    But it’s not forever.

    It’s just for now.

    If you belong to Him, then you have a future that includes honor and comfort and joy and love and peace and contentment and joy and exhilaration and delight and joy and fulfillment and reward and joy.

    Did I mention joy?

    Maybe today

    Maybe tomorrow

    Definitely One Day.

    Happy Wednesday, Beloved.

  • Up From the Depths  One-a-Day Tuesday    5/16/17

    Up From the Depths  One-a-Day Tuesday    5/16/17

    Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up. (Psalm 71:20).

    Sometimes life is hard.

    In case you hadn’t noticed.

    I’ve noticed recently that several people in my life are going through brutally difficult times.

    And I have a fairly small life.

    So much pain.  So much sorrow.  So much fear.  Sometimes I’m even afraid to pray for these people because I get caught up in it, swept up in it, and I feel like their pain will pick me up and carry me away.  And I want to help, but I know that there’s nothing I can do because I’m just Michael, and that’s really not so very much.

    But then I read this verse.  I think back on yesterday’s verse.  I remember the troubles, many and bitter, that God has brought me through.  I remember that I am restored.

    Redeemed.

    And I know that, as painful as these times are, they are not eternal.

    They may feel eternal…but that is a lie.

    What is eternal, Beloved of Christ, is you.

    And Him.

    And you and him.

    So remember that you are a child of promise.  And that promise is as strong and sure and certain as the One who made it.

    He will lift you up.  Believe it.

    If it helps…I’ll believe it with you.

    Or for you.

    Happy Tuesday, Beloved.

  • Name One-a-Day Monday    5/15/17

    Name One-a-Day Monday    5/15/17

    Your righteousness reaches to the skies, O God, you who have done great things.  Who, O God, is like you?  (Psalm 71:19).

    My name is Michael, in case you didn’t know.

    The name Michael means, “Who is like God?”

    Yeah, so, when I was a kid I thought the name was a statement, “The one who is like God.”  It did wonders for my ego. When I found out it was actually a question, it took me down a peg or five.

    But really—how cool is that? Every day, all the time, my own name reminds me that there is no one greater, no one stronger, no one with more authority over this universe than the One who loves me.

    The One, by the way, who loves you.

    Remember that as you head into your Monday.

    Walk in confidence, Beloved.

  • Through the Years One-a-Day Friday    5/12/17

    Through the Years One-a-Day Friday    5/12/17

    Since my youth, O God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds.  Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your might to all who are to come (Psalm 71:17-18).

    A life spent with him.

    Do you remember when you first came to Christ?  I was nineteen years old, living all alone in a cabin in the woods.

    Seriously

    For the first time everything made sense.  I read my Bible cover to cover within the first month of being saved. I felt a freedom and a strength I had never known.  I was off on an adventure, and I was coming home—all at the same time.

    Twenty-many years later, I see the power of his love working in and through me.  I’m not yet the man I want to be, but I have learned the wisdom of Popeye—I yam what I yam, and his grace has not been without effect.

    The day is coming when the salt will outweigh the pepper.  My body will be old, though I will probably still act like a six-year-old and make my daughter roll her eyes.  I trust that God will hold me tight even then.  I will get to look back on a life lived with him, and I will pass the torch to my children and theirs knowing that the One who has been faithful to me will continue to work long after he has taken me home.

    Kinda cool, when you think about it.  Sorta gives perspective.

    It’s Friday, Beloved.

    Enjoy the journey.