I remember the days of old; I meditate on all Your works; I muse on the work of Your hands. I spread out my hands to You; my soul longs for You like a thirsty land. Selah Answer me speedily, O LORD; my spirit fails! Do not hide Your face from me, lest I be like those who go down into the pit. Cause me to hear Your lovingkindness in the morning, For in You do I trust; cause me to know the way in which I should walk, for I lift up my soul to You. Psalm 143: 5-8, NKJV.
Gracious God, how wonderful it is to be in Your presence! In Your presence we are reminded of Who You are – our Deliverer – and our soul rejoices! In the blessed name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen!
As we continue with the topic of deliverance, I will submit for your consideration a plan of action that I have found to be very helpful during the time you are waiting to be delivered – remembering, and even journaling. I have mentioned this plan of action before. Let us look at it again today. Our Scripture begins with the psalmist remembering, “the days of old.” He is considering the “work of God’s hands.” I am so thrilled at that thought! For the moment I felt as if I was re-living, some of my own moments, when I sat in meditation, and considered the “work” of God’s hands.
But there is an aspect of his meditation that we cannot afford to miss: David is considering all of God’s work! He is not caught up only with what is happening in his life now; He is seeing the whole picture. This is so important! It is like leaving the text in its context. If you take it out and put it somewhere else, where it was not meant to be, the text loses its integrity. You have made it say something that was never intended. We do the same with life’s experiences. We take them out of the whole picture and make them stand alone, where they were never intended to be. Life is a whole, designed by God, and outside of God’s perfect plan for our lives, these experiences make no sense!
Is it any wonder that people make comments, and ask questions, like the following: This was not supposed to happen! Or, This makes no sense whatsoever! Why is this happening to me? It is because we are making the experience “stand alone.” We have taken it out of its context, the whole. This argument needs some more work. Tomorrow I will try to expand, using as the foundation, Romans 8: 28, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
There is a time for questions, however. While we are waiting to be delivered it could be helpful to think about some of our actions and ask ourselves some questions with a desire to learn from them. This exercise could lead to some interesting discoveries: Did I make the right choices? Could I have done something differently? Then comes these other questions: Where does this experience fit in with other experiences in my life? How can I learn from it? What areas in my life can experience growth and be enriched by it? Asking the right questions can be a wonderful eye-opener. It educates us. It facilitates our seeing cause and effect – in motion. It can also lead to praise!
David not only meditated on, but also “mused,” on the work of God’s hands. He was absorbed in the memories of what God had done for him in the past. He was in deep thought. If he was anything like me, I can just hear him shouting to himself: Praise the Lord! Thank you Jesus! This is the kind of reaction that contemplating God’s deliverance in the past can produce in you; it can lead you right into a praise session!
We will continue.