SOME THOUGHTS ON PSALM 63
During my daily readings today in Psalm 63 I had several thoughts come to mind, and since it has been a long, long time since my last post, I thought that it would be a good time to fire up the old blog and begin to share what the Lord gives me during my daily readings.
This whole Psalm is simply beautiful, and I would encourage you to read the whole Psalm, but here are just a few portions, along with my thoughts.
Psalm 63:1 "O True God, You are my God, the One whom I trust. I seek You with every fiber of my being. In this dry and weary land with no water in sight, my soul is dry and longs for You. My body aches for You, for Your presence."
On the one hand, my soul is often dry, and this land, this world is dry and weary, and nothing truly quenches my thirst. I do long for refreshing waters from the Lord, and I have ached for His presence. These are very real feelings that I have had.
And yet...
Do I really seek the Lord with EVERY FIBER of my being? What would that look like? What would that feel like? How would my life be lived out if this was a reality, rather than just a piece of poetry that sounds nice when I say it or would look good on a bumper sticker? It has made me pray today, "Lord, help me to seek YOU with every fiber of my being. Help me to be all about YOU. Help me to live every moment for YOU. Imagine if the church would be a place where people who sought the Lord with every fiber of their being came to worship together and share what the Lord is doing in their lives as they seek HIM with all they are. Imagine what this church would do as they left the four walls of the building and lived a life among those who do not know the Lord.
Psalm 63:2 "So here I am in the place of worship, eyes open, drinking in your strength and glory."
Sadly, worship in the local church has become much more about us than it is about Him. We should come ready to encounter God in a special way. And we should be able to encounter this great, awesome, holy, and only true God no matter what else is going on around us...if we will simply focus on Him. That means if there is a noisy baby around us, or if people are coming or going, or if the music is our thing, or the worship team is not exactly on key, or the music is too soft, or too loud, or too contemporary, or not contemporary enough. Imagine what our services would be like if we would spend the time when we worship the Lord with music as a time when we were drinking in HIS strength and HIS glory! Don't you think that people would be lined up for miles to try to get into a building where you could encounter God in this way? I do.
Psalm 63:3 "My lips will glorify You, because Your faithful love is better than life."
Far too often, my ability to glorify the Lord has more to do with how my life is going at the current time than the fact that His faithful love is better than life. I have found that if I can just focus on the Lord, that the things that bring me down, that distract me, that cause me to stumble, that make me angry, that cause me to want to just chuck it all in - well, those things fade into the background and eventually disappear when my mind, my heart and my life is focused on the faithful love of the Lord. It truly is better than life, because this life, no matter how good it is, is not without its share of pain and hardness. But a life lived in the faithful love of the Lord is better than what we have here, because it is a love that leads to action that is invested in eternity.
Psalm 63:8 "I follow close to You; Your right hand holds on to me."
In high school I had a best friend named Rick. We were so close that we called each others parents, "Mom & Dad." Often our other friends would mix our names us and call me Rick and him Dave. If we went somewhere without the other person, we were always asked, "Where's Rick?" or "Where's Dave?" This was because even though we did not spend every moment with each other, our friendship for a few years was so tight, that people did not think of one of us without thinking of the other one.
That's how it should be with the Lord. I want to be so close to Jesus that when people see me, they see Him. I want to be so close to Jesus that when people think of me, they think of Him. I want to be so close to Jesus that if someone wanted to know where Jesus was, or how to get to know Him, that they would come to me...because they know that Jesus and I are tight.
Ok, so there's that.
Pastor Dave
