Sunday- Guest Post By Alicia

Today's reading in One Year Bible Chronological Reading Plan is Psalm 42-46.

Two tid-bits I had to comment on before I really get started:
As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?

Started reading and found myself in a familiar place, a lovely place, one of the best word pictures of Psalms. The panting deer, the water we long for. Over and over, we've heard it quoted and sung but the last line is new to me! I'm sure I've read it before but not noticed it enough. "When can I go and meet with God?"
There is such longing in that line and I want it to sink down in my soul. There is a relationship longing there, not a religious practice. There is a response to God that he must so take delight in, what he created us for.
I think I'll write the verse down fully to include that because it seems to add so much more to it.

My soul is downcast within me;
therefore I will remember you ...

In times of sorrow, trial or depression I have to make a conscious decision to remember God, and therefore my hope in Him. The "therefore" tells me what I ought to do when I'm overwhelmed with these feelings. It's a "because of this, do this". It's a solution, a real one, open and always avaliable through the grace of Christ to me.

Send forth your light and your truth,

let them guide me;

let them bring me to your holy mountain,

to the place where you dwell.

Your "light" and your "truth" are parallels to the word of God. "Your word is a lamp unto my feet and light to my path."
Still, I wanted to focus on the truth more here. In speaking of the important armor of God the belt of truth is mentioned first and it really is the most important. Without the belt, the whole armor falls apart (besides the helmet of salvation). The belt heald the breastplate in place, carried the sword and allowed for mobility with the garmets below. I found this pop out to me because I've noticed how many times in our OT reading the phrase "gird up your loins" was used by God. I always liked that line but wanted to find out more about it. It turns out, it's the same really as God saying "put on your belt of truth!" Paul uses it in Eph 6:14 when he says "having your loins girt about with truth"
To gird up the loins in putting on armor (or even for others not wearing armor but doing the same with thier clothing) was to pull the fabric of the lower garmet that would otherwise hang about possibly tripping up the runner or getting caught and snagged along the way. In a spiritual sense this would mean to get rid of anything that would stand in the way of the race with the goal of arriving at the "the holy mountain, the place where you dwell".
Truth is the stabalizer for the Christian, and it comes from the light of the word of God. It keeps us from getting tripped up in false teaching, and keeps us in a frame of mind of running the race.

Here are some excerpts from a John Piper sermon that goes very well with this verse as well as these segments of the Psalms because they talk about focusing on HOPE.
The Sermon is: Girding the Mind to Guard Your Hope

The first one is "gird up the loins of your mind." Turn the robes of your mind into running shorts. Pull them up between your legs and tuck them into your belt. But what does that mean in real life? Well, we know that girding the mind is a means to hoping fully in grace. "Having girded up the loins of your mind, hope fully . . . " That's what our minds are running for. But what are they running in? What are they active in? What is the mind to be doing so actively that it produces hope?
The answer is TRUTH. Hope happens when our minds are girded up with truth, and active in truth.
I think Peter means for the mind to be active and running in truth is that this is exactly what Paul says when he uses this very same metaphor in Ephesians 6:14, "Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth." And I think it would be completely faithful to Paul's meaning there if we said, "Stand therefore in hope, by having girded your loins with truth." Girding up the mind in truth and letting it be active in truth is the means of sustaining full hope in God's grace.
So Peter's first secondary command, "Gird up the loins of your mind," means engage the mind with truth in the service of hope. Especially the truth about grace found in the Bible. Run with the truth of Scripture. Work with the truth of Scripture. Live with the truth of Scripture. "Whatever was written in former times was written for our instruction, that by the steadfastness and encouragement of the scriptures we might have HOPE" (Romans 15:4).

The word, the word, the word. Let it guide us till we reach that holy hill where you are. Ironically it goes right along with the previous post when Tammy talked about memorizing scripture. I found that post very convicting.

With all these great Psalms, I'm sure there is so much more. What parts did God ring a little bell in your ear about?

Tomorrow's reading is Psalm 47; Psalm 48; Psalm 49; Psalm 84; Psalm 85; Psalm 87