Lots of good stuff in today's reading, psalms that touched me heart and mind and soul like only a good song can.
"Blessed is he who has regard for the weak,the Lord delivers him in times of trouble."
God has a thing for the weak and so should we. Seeing the misfits and disenfranchised and "special" people my wife Mariana dated when she was single and those she befriended or brought home after church over the years, I always jokingly told her that she a thing for bringing stray animals home. Then I realized something. Ah, I'm one of the strays and misfits she decided to bring home. Lord knows.
"Send forth Your light and Your truth,let them guide me,let them bring me to Your holy mountain,to the place where You dwell."
Ok, so I have a thing for all the outdoor and nature imagery in the Bible. Think of all the mountaintop symbology in the Bible and all the mountaintop experience. The ark resting on a mountaintop. Abraham on the mountaintop to sacrifice his son. Moses on the mountaintop in smoke and fire with God or seeing the Promised Land from the mountaintop. The Transfiguration. The mount of Olives. Golgotha. And so it goes. Every time I walk to the top of Mt. LeConte in every kind of weather - hot, cold, sunshine, rain, snow, hail storms, lightning and thunder, fog and a crystal clear air, in spring flowering time or fall colors, slowly or lingering at every turn and vista. Each time I walk the mountain I feel I discover another side of God's personality and my own soul.
"Come and see the works of the Lord,the desolations He has brought on the earth.He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth;He breaks the bow and shatters the spear,He burns the shields with fire.Be still and Know that I am God;"
In the midst of the war and economic turmoil and natural disasters of floods and tornadoes and the whirl of activity that is modern society, the Lord calls us to be still and know Him. To cease all activity and worry and stress and chasing our own course and fighting our own battles and to have real knowledge in Him.
"I said, 'Oh, that I had the wings of a dove!I would fly away and be at rest --"
Hmmm. David tries his hand at country music.
"If an enemy were insulting me,I could endure it;if a foe were raising himself against me,I could hide from him.But it is you, a man like myself,my companion, my close friend,with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowshipas we walked with the throng at the house of God."
Wow, I wonder who this so-called friend of David's was that turned him and wounded David's heart? And could there be any greater betrayal than that which comes from someone close to you? Someone who you shared spiritual things with? Lord knows.
"Cast your cares on the Lordand He will sustain you;He will never let the righteous fall."
I have to admit. When it comes to the poetry of Psalms, there are times I actually prefer the language of the KJV. And this is one of them (along with the 23rd Psalms and most of Psalms and Proverbs for that matter).
"Cast your burden upon the Lord,and He shall sustain thee:He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved."
A more poetic language. I like that some venture that Shakespeare had a hand in translating a portion of the KJV. Probably not. But, hey, I'm a romantic at heart.
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