Friday, October 19, 2007

Psalm 27

I don't really have a "life verse" per say, but if I was going to pick one, this one would be in the top 3 for consideration. Actually, you could probably say this is my life passage, but there are too many good ones for me to pick, and my particular fondness lies in the last 2 verses. But anyway!

I have been meditating on Psalm 27 quite a bit over the last few weeks, and it seems increasingly over the last few days. In this psalm, David is declaring God as his light and salvation, right off the bat, and then instantly asks "of whom shall I be afraid?"

The entire passage he shows how God will save him from enemies, storms... and then he says something that has caused me to muse a bit.

"One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple." I think often times we seek after God, but we don't even think to ask that we may dwell in His house all the days of our lives. As in present tense. I think we usually look at this in a future tense way. If not anyone else, I know I have.

Verses 7-9 I have lived out and wrote about before, so I won't rehash that, but I'll now park on verse 13 for a minute.

"I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living!" A lot of times we sit around wondering why us and asking questions, almost not wanting answers for fear our delicious misery would be ended. But here, David, a man who knew what it was to be a man with a price on his head, is praising God even though people have/are (this non-scholar doesn't know when this psalm was written) just waiting to kill him. He was persuaded that he would see the goodness of God while yet alive, not just in heaven. I think at moments we think we won't see God's goodness until after we're dead (but I think that's more of our despairing moments). Me thinks we fail to see it even when things are going good. We lose sight and focus. Obviously... humans... the whole species is ADD. I'm convinced.

So, I end the way David did.

"Wait for the Lord: be strong, and let your heart take courage: wait for the Lord!"

1 comment:

Stephen Harder said...

Just having one life verse is seriously overated. Or having just one favorite hymn, book etc. So I'm glad to see you don't just park on one verse!

And you're right about getting so caught up in our misery that we fail to see God at work. Been there done that.