Happy Wednesday everyone!
I'm going to be completely transparent here. I wrote an entire post and then deleted the whole thing.
Here's what's up in my brain. Psalm 63 speaks so much to me, but not in a comfortable way. David is going through a rough patch here. A very powerful man, a man whom I'm sure he looked up to, maybe even as a father figure, is hunting him down trying to kill him. King Saul has no right, and David even knows he's going to be the next king, so there is a certain amount of righteous indignation that David could have, but doesn't. He has every right to be so angry, to seek out and destroy King Saul. But he is any of this. Instead I see hurt and confusion. And in all of this, he goes first to God. In Psalm 54 is the prayer I would probably pray. 'Save me!' Help me! Yet in Psalm 63 the focus is totally on God and His abilities. I see praise in the place of hurt. I see rememberance of God's works, in the place of focusing on a temporal situation. I see a focus on the eternal instead of the present. It really is an uncomfortable psalm, to me. So often when I pray in hurtful or confusing situations my prayers are 'why me? Take them down! Get me out of this! I don't like this! I'm hurt.' It's a lot of prayer about me. Rarely do I think to even begin my prayers for help with 'O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek You.' How wise this prayer is! Where does our help truly come from?
Think on this line:
Because you are my help,What a beautiful word picture. Notice the wording, he says 'because you are my help', not 'because of your help' David praises the source of the help, not the help itself. Just like the people in the new testament, whom Jesus healed, they would eventually die. They might get sick again with something else, but the Lord would never change.
I sing in the shadow of your wings.
8 My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.
Because of who He is, we have the peace and freedom to sing in the care of our Lord.
And verse eight I get the image of a parent walking with a young child. My son is 2 and a half. He walks pretty well. Most of the time when he's out with me he'll hold my hand. I want him to, I can keep a better eye on him and keep him safe. Sometimes his footing slips and he begins to fall, but because he clings to my hand I can hold him up and keep him from falling all the way. I resettle him, make sure he's ok and we are on our way. I imagine it's much of the same with our heavenly Father. There will be times that we lose our footing, but if we are clinging to our Father in heaven He holds us up and keeps us from falling.
Sometimes it can be so hard to keep the Lord first in our lives, especially when we are hurting. It's so easy to focus on me. But in keeping our focus on the Lord we assure that our fall won't be quite as far or hurt as much. Something I need to remember right now.
Tomorrow's passage: 1 Samuel 24-27, Luke 23:1-25
5 comments:
"David praises the source of the help, not the help itself."
That is powerful right there Kathryn.
"There will be times that we lose our footing, but if we are clinging to our Father in heaven He holds us up and keeps us from falling"
Also loved that one. Such great reminders today. Thanks Kathryn.
And I agree - I think it's a universal human response to pray "help me" instead of focusing on God. And yet that's exactly what we need to do - focus on our God.
BEAUTIFUL post, Kathryn! So many powerfully encouraging words here ~ both in the Bible reading and in your thoughts. I really liked the first line that Tammy quotes above, too. So true.
I have found in my journey to developing a better prayer life, that talking to God is really about changing ME, not Him. I mean, it's obvious and yet not! The more I pray about a given situation, the more I find my attitude changing. My requests change from "God, why is this happening to me? I need this or please give me that." to, "God, I love you and I want to honour you in everything. Help me to listen and learn what you're trying to teach me. Please show me how to glorify you in and through this." It has amazed me so many times how prayer changes the heart.
We see that so many times in David's Psalms, too. He often starts with what's going on around him, the trouble he's in, but he almost always ends on a steadfast, positive note, detemining to praise God despite the circumstances.
Great post, Kathryn! I loved the picture of holding a little child's hand and keeping him or her from falling, even though they trip or stumble. So true. Thank you for pointing out that David praised the source of the help, not the help itself. Great reminder that it's all about God, not all about us.
Inspiring post. Thank you. I loved the illustration of the child supported by hanging on to their parent's hand. All to soon we grow up and think we can do it all on our own.
Very moving post Kathryn. I agree with the other girls points as well! Great illustration and touching points. Thank you for sharing.
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