psalm 4

tonight was fantastic.  thursday nights have quickly become one of my favorite things.  to top it off i had an awesome time with leah kathryn just sharing about what God is teaching us and wondering and dreaming about Him.

already in verse 1 david is saying GOD C’MON answer me already…please answer me…i’m desperate.

at the end of the verse we see david’s prayer…give ME relief from MY distress…be merciful to ME and hear MY prayer.  i don’t think praying that stuff is bad…i think that we’re supposed to lift up our troubles and pleas and requests to God.  the Bible tells me so.  but i do wonder about praying prayers like this.

i wonder if praying prayers like this keeps us from receiving the blessing of praising, glorifying, and worshiping God.  i don’t know about you but when i’m praying stuff that sounds like oooh help me, i’m so bad off, help me, teach me, give me, me, me, me i don’t always leave that time of prayer or worship feeling blessed…in fact, when i spend time in prayer like THAT i tend to leave broken, sad, wallowing in self pity, frustrated, and certainly without much hope that things will look up.  i forget which one of us is God and which One of us is in control.  and to top that all off…i leave mad at myself for spending time in worship worshipping myself.

but when i lose myself in praise of God, i come away not only feeling good, but KNOWING that the God on my side is BIG, HUGE, AMAZING, POWERFUL, WONDERFUL, BEAUTIFUL, LOVING…my problems seem much smaller compared to the size of the God that i know.  it’s losing myself in worship of HIM and who HE IS that reminds me that He will never fail me, and that nothing is too big for MY God.  when i can withdraw from my surroundings, turn off my distractions, and allow JESUS to captivate my thoughts i feel like i really CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST. nothing seems out of reach because when i spend time in prayer PRAISING AND WORSHIPPING El Shaddai i am ready to strip off every weight, thought, and sin that holds me down.

so why do i spend time praying about poor pitiful me?  right now that seems so silly…

so what do we do instead?!  because it says CRY OUT TO THE LORD…and He will hear. but maybe our cries should be for Him to show Himself so that we can be released from the grip of ourselves.  i believe it is scriptural to cry out…to be emotional…and present your requests and cries to the Lord.  but maybe, like david did here in psalm 4:1 it should be short…and sweet…and move onto the part declaring that the Lord HEARS His Beloved, praise Him, and allow our hearts to be filled with great joy (4:7).

this is a short psalm.  it starts off with david clearly crying out for relief…but just 8 short verses later he will lie down in peace.  he knows.  david is confident.  this has been consistent in the first 4 chapters…his hope, his comfort, his safety rest not in his army, but in the arms of the Lord that are not too short to save.

i feel like i can’t quit without focusing on verses 4 and 5 too.  in verse 2 he clarifies that he is talking to the men. (he does that by saying how long O, MEN…) so at least these 4 verses are talking to them.  but i have to wonder if david is declaring to them or himself, or possibly both that God has set apart the godly for Himself.  is he telling the men or HIMSELF don’t sin in your anger, go be still, make sure your prayers, worship, sacrifices, acts are all blessing the LORD.  it’s like he’s giving himself a little pep talk too maybe, “ok david, i know you’re angry, scared, mad, exhausted…don’t do anything you’re gonna regret in the morning.  GOD IS IN CONTROL. TRUST HIM.”

Our Father, who art in Heaven

hallowed by Thy Name

Thy Kingdom come,

Thy Will be done,

on earth as it is in Heaven

(Will You) give us this day our daily bread

(Will You) forgive ME as i forgive those who sin against me

(Will You) deliver me from the evil one

for Thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory forever and ever.

let us remember the words of Jesus…this is how you should pray.  i don’t want to pray this prayer as a memorized recitation…but i want to pray this way, with passion, hope, and thanksgiving KNOWING the One i’m praying to.  knowing that His Will IS the best way and BELIEVING that i KNOW the One to whom all power and glory belongs forever and ever. in prayer i don’t want to focus on my woes…i have them…and i fall into them a lot of the time. i fail miserably at losing myself in worship.  i am selfish and ask for what i want too much, but today i’m going to choose to praise Him for all that He’s done and all that is still to come.  i want to tap into the POWER that belongs to Him…

what if we prayed like that…

psalm 3

yup…i skipped psalm 2.  that’s because last night i was too tired to type and tonight i’m on psalm 3.

i love this. so far this psalm thing has been really great.  one comment on psalm 2 since i’m skipping it for now is that God is teaching me about being who He created me to be.  He’s also laying it on my heart to teach about it.  It seems to come up in all sorts of places, and it seems to be the root  of the struggles so many of our kids are going through.  it’s in psalm 2 too. i love that.

ok. psalm 3.

david is surrounded by this huge army.  the outcome may look pretty grim from where he’s sitting. everyone is telling him that God won’t even be able to rescue him from this one…but then he lays out his always present hope.  maybe that’s why he was a man after God’s own heart…he always says in the midst of his crying out that his hope is in God.

so here it is…and it’s beautiful.  he says

but You are a shield around me, O Lord, You bestow glory on me and lift up my head.

i see this picture of a little kid.  he’s fallen off his bike or something and his confidence fell off with him.  he’s sitting on the front porch all slumped down with his knees up and his face down.  he’s beyond bummed.  then his dad comes outside, wraps the little boy up in a big ol bear hug and takes his finger and lifts up his chin.

now the boy is postured so that he is looking directly into his daddy’s face.  the daddy says it’ll be ok…i’m here now.  i’ll help you.  i won’t leave you alone to fall again. NOW the little boy has hope again.  his face shines proudly as his dad helps him back onto his bike. what he couldn’t do on his own is now possible because his dad is there to be strong enough for him.

to the Lord i cry aloud and He answers me from His Holy Hill.

in his fear, when all odds were against him david just cried out to God.  it’s where his hope was.  it was what he knew would connect him to the power of the Almighty.

then he goes to sleep.

so this huge army is after him.  david cries out to God because he’s surrounded and knows that he stands no chance outside of the miraculous intervention of God. so he prays…then he sleeps.  when he’s being surrounded by this huge army!!!  he doesn’t run, or get his weapons, or summon his giant army…he sleeps. WHAAAT?!?

later in psalms he declares that he cries out to God because he knows that He listens.  proverbs 15:29 …God hears the prayers of the righteous.  what makes someone righteous? hebrews says that it’s faith so does james. by his (abraham) FAITH it was counted to him as righteousness (james 2:23)

so when we come to Him in FAITH which means our hope is in Him…He hears us.  hallelujah!

so he sleeps because he knows 3 things.

1. God is in control.  david is not.

2.  he knows that God heard his cry.

3. he knows where his victory lay…whether or not he wins this battle his hope is in heaven.

the last verse declares that. from the Lord comes deliverance. from the Lord comes deliverance.  from the Lord comes deliverance. when i cry out in faith…knowing that He hears me, i can declare that no matter what the outcome of the situation is my hope , my deliverance, and my victory stand in the Lord alone.

psalm 1

yep it’s “psalm 1” not “psalms 1”. crazy i know.

“blessed is he…who delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on it day and night.”

deuteronomy 6:7 tells me that the “law” is to love the Lord God with all my being; then love others.

it says to impress this law on my children and meditate on it while sitting at home, walking around, lying down, and getting up.

blessed is he…who delights in loving God and others and meditates on it day and night.  blessed is he who doesn’t allow the other stuff to get in the way of thinking and loving God.  blessed is he who is anxious about nothing; prayerful in everything; and thankful in anything because his thoughts are on the Lord and loving Him.

that’s a big commitment.  this is just psalm 1!

this psalm doesn’t just say blessed is he who thinks about God…but it says blessed is he who delights in the law of the Lord.  it makes me question myself.  was loving God my delight today?  all day?

i know that walking on the greenway today i was filled with awe and gratitude to Him.  while i was there loving Him was my delight.  2 hours later my thoughts had wandered away from loving Him to being totally distraught and sold into lies from satan.  i fell back into the all too familiar place of feeling forgotten by God.  HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?

::this is where i bunny trail::  the big theme God is getting me to TEACH right now is that we are all ADORED by Him.  that we’re all uniquely, perfectly, beautifully created by a God who loves us more than we could ever even think to imagine.  Psalm 139, Jeremiah 1, Song of Solomon…just to mention a few talk about how we are God’s beautiful Beloved.  He ADORES the girls i’m teaching.  i can preach it, pound it into them, pray it over them…because i am so desperate for them to hear how God loves them.  i’m so desperate for them to be free  from the pressures that high school, media, culture, america, us, their parents, bob jones and sparkman put on them.  i’m desperate for them to know that their worth is not in some boy, or a grade, or act score (seriously i hate the act), or which college they go to. i’m DESPERATE for them.  words can’t express how much i love them and want them to know what REAL love is…how much i want them to know the One who pours out that love so lavishly on them.  it’s the greatest challenge i’ve ever been given.  it’s giant and i know that it’s from the Lord…because it’s something i can’t do.

ok off the bunny trail, but i had to say that because it’s RIDICULOUS that i can preach that all day long and BELIEVE it to the core of my being, fight for those precious girls to KNOW it way down deep in them…and forget that it applies to me too.  amazing.  somehow satan won that fight last night.  but i hope that that fight is coming to an end and that God is about to write the big W in His column but only He is able to help me have victory over satan.  i hate that guy.  gah.

back to that blessed is he thing…

and he will be like a tree planted beside a stream of water, that yields fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.  whatever he does prospers.

when our delight is in loving God we’re like david fighting goliath.  who cares that all we’ve got is a little pebble and we’re fighting against this 9 foot giant guy with machine guns and tanks.  when our delight is in God we win.  satan loses. and of course God gets the glory which is kinda the point anyway.

this was fun.

the psalms

blog huh…i have to say that i have never actually wanted one of these.

i’m on this journey through the Psalms.  I want to get to know the Person of God.  my goal here is to find Him, reconnect with Him and fall in love again. yesterday, the first day we’ve really tasted spring yet this year, i was out walking on the greenway.  i was so amazed and touched by the beauty of the day and my surroundings that i almost cried.  i heard God speak and say “i did this for you to enjoy”.  later i felt almost like it was Him saying, “I was hoping you’d notice Me and how much I love you”.  i lost it.  i cry a lot…Jesus moves me. He’s so amazing, and beautiful, and incredible, and awesome…i don’t know how i ever “forget” it.

i’m inspired by david…the man after God’s own heart.  the psalms are such an interesting collaboration of praise, cries, hopes, fears, sorrow, joy, and so much more.  it’s where i always go if i don’t know where else to find help in a circumstance…there is pretty much one for anything.  but i’m not here this time for anything…i’m not looking for comfort, or help in a crisis, i’m solely looking for One thing.  i’m looking for the heart of God…