Psalm 81:7
You called in distress and I delivered you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah
Last year I told am amazing truth to one of my best friends. Having being rejected from medical school I told her "if I don't get in this year, I'm not sure I'll be around next year." It was that bad. It was that scary in my mind. But God. You talk about someone in distress. Hello, my name is Phil and I was suicidal about not getting into medical school. Honestly it was less about medical school and much more about who I am. I'm smart. Though my friends would tell you all these great things about me and I put a lot of effort into being those things, I don't value them. The thing about me that matters to me is that I'm smart. Failing to get into medical school was just that: failing. Failing at the one thing I've never failed at. Failing at being the only thing I valued in myself. However, God knows me. He made me and molded me and knew my heart couldn't take much more. My dad had always said "You only need one" and I quite literally only got one. Apparently, God really wanted me to stay.
Psalm 81:13-14
Oh, that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways!
Speedily then I would subdue their enemies and turn My hand against their adversaries.
Sometimes the thing you're battling wouldn't even be in your path if you turned to God. I've asked the Lord a bunch of times to change something but sometimes its me not listening. I honestly reconciled a relationship that's so sweet in my life because I listened to the Lord. He'd told me a long time ago that this person was being sent to me by Him and after they hurt me I was in a place of No. Absolutely not. Never. But He brought that back to me and I slowly and surely let them try and get this thing back together and its amazing now. People fail. God still has purpose for things, even things you think are dead and gone.
Psalm 82:3-4
Do justice to the weak (poor) and fatherless; maintain the rights of the afflicted and needy.
Deliver the poor and needy; rescue them out of the hand of the wicked.
This verse tells me that Democratic party practices with regard to those in need are far closer to how God feels about these people. The Lord doesn't cast out the poor and the meek and He literally says DO JUSTICE unto them. Did y'all think this was a joke? Its so funny to me how the GOP claims Christianity solely on the basis of abortion but that fail to treat the people they can actually see well. All children need to eat but you want to defund free and reduced breakfast and lunch? You're so worried about the uterus of a person you don't know but you don't want to give a free sandwich to a kid standing in front of you? That ain't God.
Psalm 83:1
Keep not silence, O God; hold not Your peace or be still, O God.
Sometimes God is silent. Sometimes He's really not telling you what you want to know. I've had God answer prayers I prayed months ago and say nothing about the prayers I'm praying now. I get tidbits. I'll get a sentence here, a thought there. A song will drop into my spirit. But I've also found that sometimes the silence can be better. God has told me stuff or confirmed stuff for me that I wasn't really ready for and walking around wit that truth is rough. You talk about a faith walk? Knowing something that hasn't manifested in the natural can sometimes make you crazy. I have a mentor I talk to about these kinds of things and its crazy to think back about the things I've told her I thought God was saying to me and see them come to pass. I'm so glad she doesn't think I'm crazy. She knows Him like I know Him. I say all this to say, sometimes when God's silent, its because you ain't ready.
Psalm 83:18
That they may know that You, Whose name alone is the Lord, are the Most High over all the earth.
By His name alone. God is. I'm so blessed to know Him and to know the power of name. I'm so blessed to know freedom in God and to be blessed by His love and favor. He is my God and I am His beloved. His name alone do I call in distress and He is the lifter of my head. I love Him. I love Him. I love Him.
Psalm 84:4
Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are those who dwell in Your house and Your presence; they will be singing Your praises all the day long.
The presence of God is like nothing else. It just makes me smile a big goofy love smile. Let me tell you about dwelling in His house and singing His praises. I get in my car ready ok. Ready for my praise and worship session to begin. I've got a couple pandora stations, CDs, and albums on my iPhone. Right now I'm really into old hymns like Blessed Assurance and Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross. Its the words of the old hymns that will wash over you like fresh anointing. Also, the baby I'm keeping loves him so All Night. That's a country song with a strong beat under it. He closes those little eyes immediately. You talk about seeing an 11 week old worship God? It will slay you every time.
Psalm 84:8
O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob!
I'm still praying great big prayers. I'm praying audacious prayers. I'm praying prayers for things that could only be God when they come to pass if they are His will. If it be His will, watch my God do some things no one was expecting. The thing about my great big faithful God is that He hears little ol' fragile me. And He cares. You know how you have that friend that ain't really listening. That's not God. God is really listening. Not just to what you're saying with your mouth but what you're saying with your heart. He's listening to the things you're scared to say to Him too. He's waiting.
Psalm 85:2
You have forgiven and taken away the iniquity of Your people, You have covered all their sin.
We have no right to a relationship with God. Through the suffering and death of Jesus Christ on the throne we have been redeemed and made right with our Creator. Think about that. God wanted you so bad that He took His presence from His own child to be with you. I don't have a kid but I do spend a whole lot of time with one and the answer is no. A few days ago I had a dream while taking a nap with Baby on my chest that some member of my baby's family wanted to take him from me while we were sleeping. Yes I had a dream about sleeping while sleeping. Anyway, I was literally fighting in my sleep. You know when you're sleep and your body won't let you wake up but your mind is woke. That was me. You talk about angina upon actually waking to find baby boy safe, sound, and asleep on my chest. GIRL! And all I did was dream it. God literally walked away to have us. Us? Ungrateful, unloving, ever failing, fragile, no account folks. God wanted us and was willing to give everything.
Psalm 85:6-8
Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?
Show us Your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, and grant us Your salvation.
I will listen [with expectancy] to what God the Lord will say, for He will speak peace to His people, to His saints (those who are in right standing with Him)—but let them not turn again to [self-confident] folly
When I started moving towards God in deeper and more profound ways starting with college and continuing in Nebraska, He's stopped me from doing a lot of things. Many churches talk about back sliding but I don't really think much about it. I don't do certain things because they just don't line up with my faith practice. Its not that I think my salvation is at risk but I do think my relationship can be. My relationship with God is one I protect fiercely. Its not fragile because of God, its fragile because of me. I think protecting this relationship looks different for different people. For me it means I have to make a concerted effort to seek Him daily. It means I need to write these devotionals. It means I need to listen to gospel to start my day. It means lots of things. Its means being accountable to people who's relationships with God I trust. <---That last thing is real. Kleenex with lotion real. You have to know people who you believe really know Him and really seek Him and trust Him. They help you stay accountable to the things you're doing in your own relationship and to help you discern and consider what God's saying to you. That person for me......the same person God told me about years ago that I almost didn't let back into relationship with me. God is faithful. Don't be foolish enough to thing that what He said is suddenly no longer true. If He told you already, walk that out. I surely am.
Psalm 85: 10
Mercy and loving-kindness and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other
If I could explain to you how giving a perfect effort towards being righteous brings me so much peace you'd sign up RIGHT NOW for this relationship I've got with Him. But you've got to get your own to get that peace. Nevertheless, its true. The pursuit of God gives me so much peace because I know what I'm pursuing. I'm after a love that loves me perfectly. I'm after a faithfulness that surpasses time. I'm after a God who guides my every step. I'm after Him because He so tenaciously chased my heart so long ago and continues to today.
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