Tuesday 25 July, 2017

For the director of music. A miktam of David when he had run away from Saul into the cave. To the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” 1 Have mercy on me, God. Have mercy on me. I go to you for safety. I will find safety in the shadow of your wings. There I will stay until the danger is gone. 2 I cry out to God Most High. I cry out to God, and he shows that I am right. 3 He answers from heaven and saves me. He puts to shame those who chase me. He shows his love and that he is faithful. 4 Men who are like lions are all around me. I am forced to lie down among people who are like hungry animals. Their teeth are like spears and arrows. Their tongues are like sharp swords. 5 God, may you be honored above the heavens. Let your glory be over the whole earth. 6 My enemies spread a net to catch me by the feet. I felt helpless. They dug a pit in my path. But they fell into it themselves. 7 God, my heart feels secure. My heart feels secure. I will sing and make music to you. 8 My spirit, wake up! Harp and lyre, wake up! I want to sing and make music before the sun rises. 9 Lord, I will praise you among the nations. I will sing about you among the people of the earth. 10 Great is your love. It reaches to the heavens. Your truth reaches to the skies. 11 God, may you be honored above the heavens. Let your glory be over the whole earth.

Whether things are going well in life, or badly, life has a habit of just getting crazy.

I don’t know if it has been part of our human nature since sin entered the world, or whether it is a more modern phenomenon, but it just seems that the default position of modern humanity is to just keep doing doing doing doing doing as much as we can, either out of fear and anxiety, fighting to stay alive, or out of joyful exuberance, energised by the last success and striving for the next one.

I just love though, that as I stop. And read this.

A quiet psalm. Beautiful in its poetic language.

Focussed on the one true God.

I am able to appreciate His presence.

I am able to hear his true voice.

I am able to be still and know that He is God.

And that presence and peace gives me all that I need to know that having stopped, I will be all the more effective than if I had just kept running.

Written by Ps Justin Ware