When life turns out the lights

Image: Pixabay

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Ezekiel 40-44;  Psalm 43

TO CHEW ON:
“Oh, send out Your light and Your truth!
Let them lead me
Let them bring me to Your holy hill
And to Your tabernacle.” Psalm 43:3

Have you ever tried to walk a footpath—even one you know well—in the dark? Without the benefit of light how easy it is to stumble on subtle unevenesses, to miss obstacles, to run into things, or “see” things that aren’t even there!

Such walking in darkness is bad enough in the physical, but we can also experience it spiritually. That’s what the psalmist seems to be going through in today’s reading.

His distress has several sources. In the verses preceding our focus verse he speaks of an “ungodly nation” and an “unjust man” who trouble him. In Psalm 42 (which commenters believe was originally joined to Psalm 43 as one psalm—note the common refrain in Psalm 42:5,11; 43:5) he speaks of cynics who mock him in his grief (Psalm 42:3) and a personal sense of depression and loss of hope (Psalm 42:5,6; 43:5).

And so he prays for light—a light that will lead him back to God and His house (“Your Tabernacle”), where he dreams of joining others in worship (Psalm 42:4).

It’s easy to identify with the psalmist in his cry for light. Life throws many surprises at us too. Loved ones get sick, or we get a bad diagnosis. Natural disasters wreak havoc with our surroundings and our lives. Money problems are the wreckage of marketplace storms. We often find ourselves asking why, what next, where to from here? We may feel left in the dark, as if God has abandoned us.

At these times, let’s pray, with the psalmist, to get back to Him:

“Oh, send out Your light and Your truth!
Let them lead me”

For He is the source of light (“… God is light and in Him is no darkness at all” - 1 John 1:5). With our hand in His, we can walk any dark path.

PRAYER:
Dear Father, uncertainty is so much a part of the human condition—of my condition. Help me not to stew about what I can’t see ahead, but to seek You, to join other believers in Your house, and in faith to enter into praise and worship no matter what my circumstances. Amen.

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 43

 *********
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Are you an eager Sunday pilgrim?

St. Joseph's Langley, BC

TODAY'S SPECIAL: 1 Samuel 21-24; Psalm 84

TO CHEW ON: "My soul longs, yes even faints
for the courts of the Lord,
My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God." Psalm 84:2

Today is Sunday. It's the day many of us will go to our version of Zion—our place of worship be that a church building, community hall, rented classroom, or someone's living-room. Do we have the gut longing to be there that the writer of Psalm 84 has?

Underlying the strong desire to go to Zion may be an even deeper want.

"This psalm expresses the author's deep longing for the presence of God …. The psalm gives voice to the yearning and happiness experienced in Christ's nearness" - Psalm 84 entry in the Reformation Study Bible, accessed through biblegateway.com's "Study This," emphasis added.

On a scale of 1 to 10 how would we rate our eagerness to go to our Zion today (10 being the most eager)? If our rating is low to medium, why might that he?

• Perhaps our "heart" and "flesh" cry out for someone or something other than the "living God" (Psalm 84:2).

• Perhaps we don't spend any time with God the rest of the week and this feels like an awkward outing to meet with a stranger (Psalm 84:4).

• Perhaps we've been overwhelmed by and waylaid in the dry place of sadness, the "Valley of Baca," and our focus is on our troubles (Psalm 84:6).

• Perhaps we'd rather be somewhere else, even "dwelling in the tents of wickedness" (Psalm 84:10).

• Perhaps we're skeptical that He has good things in store for us; we're not convinced "No good thing will He withhold…" (Psalm 84:11).

• Perhaps, and I think this is key, we don't really expect to meet Him there, to have a sense that we are seen, we are known, that He is gazing straight at us, into us with His all-knowing, all-loving eyes (Psalm 84:9).

As we prepare for church today, and any Sunday, let's expect to actually meet with Him. If we believed that the God of the universe, our Saviour and Redeemer, will meet us there, I think we'd be as eager to attend our Zion as the psalmist was to go to his.


PRAYER: Dear God, help me to prepare myself to meet You in church today. As You seek me out, may I recognize Your presence and hear Your voice. Amen.

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 84

*********
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Living with God

Image: Pixabay

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Psalm 84:1-12

TO CHEW ON: “Blessed are those who dwell in Your house …
Blessed is the man whose strength is in You …
Blessed is the man who trusts in You!” Psalm 84: 4,5,12


This is one of my favorite psalms. I love its exuberance over spending time with God. I love its let’s-be-in-this-for-the-long-haul encouragement (Psalm 84:5-7). Today I realized there are three “blesseds” in it: “Blessed are those who dwell in Your house…  whose strength is in You… who trust in You.”

Of course the picture of dwelling in God’s house is a metaphor. So how can we do that in reality, and find strength in God and trust in Him in a living-with-Him kind of way, every day,  multiple times throughout the day?

One aid I’ve discovered recently that helps me with this is an iPad app called PrayerMate. What I love about this app is that I can easily add prayer requests to it and upload pdf files of, for example, my church’s monthly prayer requests. I’ve also added to it Scripture prayers, like this “Praying the Bible Prayer for Writers” that I cobbled together some time ago.

Earlier this year during our church’s prayer emphasis, our associate pastor gave some excellent teaching on prayer. I’ve begun using the simple template he introduced:

• Thanksgiving: Begin prayer time with giving thanks—for things related to your request, for things you’re thankful for generally.

• Ask: Tell God everything about the issue. Spill it out onto Him in your own words.

• Agree: Find, in the Bible, what God says concerning your issue and agree with Him in prayer, praying Scripture words back to Him. 

I’ve written a Thanksgiving-Ask-Agree prayer for the writing project I’m currently working on and I plan to apply this way of praying to many more requests. If you and I did this about every anxiety and challenge that came up during the day, wouldn’t we be one of those "Blessed" ones, dwelling in God’s house, getting our strength from Him and trusting Him?

And the nice thing about having this prayer aid on my iPad is that I can open it any time I have a minute or two, and, instead of playing Solitaire or Scrabble, spend a little time “dwelling” with God.

PRAYER: Dear Father, help me to experience the joy, contentment, security, and hope of living with You expressed in this psalm. Amen. 

MORE: What does the Bible say?
Need some help finding scripture verses about your issue? Here are a few online lists that will give you a start:

89 Bible Verses About Life

23 Encouraging Bible Verses

20 Key Bible Verses for Everyday Problems 

 *********
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.