A Life Worthy

Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. (Psalm 42:5)

What, you never talk to yourself?

Sure you do.

That’s what the Psalmist is doing here. He’s giving himself a pep talk, looking in the mirror and saying “Suck it up, Boyo! God is still God, and you’re gonna praise him, come what may!”

Kinda one part cheerleader, two parts drill sergeant.

I love this. I love that the Psalmist is not giving in to despair, nor is he letting his emotions rule the day. He is making a conscious decision that he will praise God.

And it is a matter of will.

Lord, let me hope in you, even when I see no hope. Let me praise you even when I don’t feel like it. 

Happy Friday, Beloved.

My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” (Psalm 42:3)

When life is hard, the world is watching.

When you are at your lowest, they wait and wonder how you will respond.

Perhaps they mock, or taunt, or ridicule.

Perhaps they simply stand back to see how you handle this dark day.

You see, though they may not show it, they want to see how real God is to you

for  you

in you. 

This is your chance, Beloved.

This is your witness.

When the tears pour out

let your heart hold firm

that the world may see

and know

that you are Beloved.

Not so the wicked!  They are like chaff that the wind blows away.  Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous (Psalm 1:4-5).

I forget.

Sometimes I look at the nonbelievers around me, and I envy their “freedom.”

I forget.

I forget their destiny.  I forget that, without Christ, they are like chaff that the wind blows away.  Ever wonder why chaff blows away, while the wheat (that would be you) remains?  It’s because chaff has no substance, no weight. There is nothing solid to it, nothing to keep it from drifting away on the breeze.

So…it does.

What the world calls  “freedom” is often just the aimless drifting of an empty soul.

One day they, like we, will stand before the Father.  They will not be clothed in the righteousness of Christ—they will be naked in their sin.  They will not stand firm in the armor of God—they will be crushed under the weight of their own well-earned guilt.  They will not rejoice in the fellowship of the saints—they will be ever, forever alone.

Father, sometimes I forget.  But when I remember, let me rejoice in your grace, and let me remember never to envy the lost, but ever to pity them, to pray for them, to reason and wrestle and reach for them.

But for God’s grace, we are chaff.

Happy Thursday, Beloved.

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the council of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.  (Psalm 1:2).

Do you delight in God’s word?

No guilt here—it’s an honest question.

Frankly, I ask myself the same question.  I mean, I read his word, I study his word, on occasion I even commit his word to memory…but do I delight in it?  Do I meditate on it?

Do I even really know what that looks like?

I know I’d like to.

I know that biblical meditation is different from what they’ll teach you at yoga class—and what are you doing at yoga class, anyway?  They’ll teach you to empty your mind, and allow the void to be filled by narcissism and demons. 

OK, they probably won’t say it that way, but that’s what it amounts to.  

Biblical meditation is about filling your mind with Scripture, sort of letting a particular verse roll around in your head.  You pray that God would illuminate the passage for you, and help you to see what he wants you to see in it.

Let’s experiment today.  Pick a passage of Scripture—it could be this passage, or yesterday’s, or just your favorite verse—and ask God to help you meditate on it.  Ask him to help you delight in it. Let it roll around your head today, and see what he has to show you. 

C’mon, trust me—it’ll be fun.

Happy Tuesday, Beloved.