How are you doing on your reading in the Psalms and Proverbs? Have you found a rhythm for some steady time with the Lord in these two “wisdom books” in the Bible? My routine may not be like yours but it works (mostly) for me and my schedule. And every time I sit with Worship & Wisdom, A Study of the Psalms and Proverbs, part 1 – well, I’m blessed. It’s true. There is a lesson or an unknown-to-me-until-today nugget in every reading; a hope-builder, a relief-inducer. A reminder I am rescued and redeemed. Often there is a delight, something that causes me to remember, “Yes this God I serve cares for me, wants to delight me.”
In Psalm 18.19 this week I read that God rescues us and brings us to a broad place, an open or spacious place, a place of safety. Why? Because He delights in me! (in us!) Now that is worth contemplating! God delights in me? Not because of anything I’ve done except to trust in Him. The author of Psalm 18 tells us that God delights in a person when they trust their safety and security, their future eternity, to Him alone.
Here’s another delight from this weeks’ reading … in Psalm 17 the author (again Israel’s King David) is crying out to the Lord for His action in two ways. For defeat of David’s enemies. For protection until the enemy is defeated. Here is how David describes the protection he is asking God to give him, in Psalm 17.8-9:
Keep me as the apple of your eye;
hide me in the shadow of your wings,
from the wicked who do me violence,
my deadly enemies who surround me.
Keep me as You keep Your own eyes, God! Guard me! Shield me!
God, hide me in the most secure place … under Your wings. Let me nestle-in and be safe, secure, comforted.
Just consider this kind of protection and security. Do hard things happen? Yes. Are we unable to change the results of some of the hard things? Yes.
But God is aware. He knows our aches, our loneliness, our desire for community or for a quiet moment. He will equip us for what is here now, what is coming, and how to respond with grace, kindness, and fortitude – because He delights in our trust in Him.
Read Psalm 17 and then 18. All of them. If you’ve already read them, go back and read (or listen) in a different translation than you usually read. Soak it up and refill your bucket of delights as you rely on God for teaching your heart to trust Him more today than yesterday. Then sprinkle a delight or two for somebody else today.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths. Proverbs 3.5-6
My friend, you are so so loved! Colleen