Psalm 42

The familiar phrase in this psalm is "Why are you cast down, O my soul."  The whole verse is repeated - vs 5 and vs 11.  The last part is a great comfort and encouragement -"Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God."
Distress and turmoil of soul are temporary conditions.  He is my salvation (past, present and future - a powerful deliverer from sin) and my God (the absolute and ultimate ruler of the kingdom that I live in).  I can be confident that the future is good and secure, in spite of present distress.

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Psalm 41

This psalm seems to be mostly about vengeance but there is one nugget that stood out to me.  Verse 4 - "Be gracious to me.  Heal me, for I have sinned against You!"
It is an interesting concept that sinning against God produces injury and that we can come back to God and request healing to the injury that we created by sinning against Him.  What wondrous love it this, O my soul.

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By the way, one of the purposes of this blog exercise is to hold myself to a daily regime of meditation.  Even though the last blog and the next are all being published at the same time, I am copying from my notebook, not cheating to try to make my pattern look better.  By that, I mean that missing multiple days in the chapter sequences indicate that I have not been successful in my daily objective.

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Psalm 40

This chapter is tailor made to my issues.  Verse 2 is all about what God does for me and through me.  He drew me up from the pit of destruction, set my feet on a rock, making my steps secure - is what he is doing for me.  Then, the effect of His work on those around me - He put a new song in my heart.  Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.  This is wonderful.
Then in verse 10 it talks about secrets.  My normal understanding of secrets is to hide what I don't want others to know.  Here, it is quite different - I have not hidden Your deliverance.  I have not concealed your stead fast love.  However, it is likely that the best revelation of God's goodness would be in the context of my failure, so that does get into the elements of hiding.  This ties in the the idea of vulnerability which is prominent in the Brene Brown material that I have been reading.

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Psalm 38

This psalm of David is a huge cry of distress.  He is in a deep, deep pit of his own making and all he can do is wait for God (vs 15).  Then, he ends the psalm with this:

[22] Make haste to help me,
O Lord, my salvation!

Even when things look hopeless, we can trust that God will help.  He is our salvation.  Even when we have messed up and it looks like there is no way out, He is our salvation.  This is a great comfort and brings me to tears as I write.

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Psalm 37

Two passages stood out in this chapter.

11 But the meek shall inherit the land
and delight themselves in abundant peace.

I have been reading and thinking about humility.  Pride is exhibited in secret keeping and combated with vulnerability.  This Psalm reinforces one of the principles I understand from my early reading of Brene Brown - wholehearted living is supported by willing vulnerability.  The delight of abundant peace is a great prospect and a byproduct of this humility process.


23 The steps of a man are established by the Lord,
when he delights in his way;
24 though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong,
for the Lord upholds his hand.

Verse 23 is confusing.  It seems that the more likely interpretation is that the man delights in the way of the Lord.  But it might also be the Lord delighting in the way of the man.  In any case, it is a clear direction to allow God to have control of my steps if I want to be established.  Then, failures are not devastating because the Lord upholds my hand.  I don't know what that means either, but it has to be a supernatural support system of some kind.

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Reflections on the day:

Started reading Brene Brown.  Really good stuff about vulnerability and wholehearted living.  Went into Eastsound and walked the streets, took pictures and had lunch at Lower Tavern since Outlook Inn was closed (they only do breakfast and dinner).  Very relaxing day.  No memories of any dreams.

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Psalm 150

This psalm is all about praising God.  The phrase is repeated 13 times in the 6 verses.  Praise Him where He is, for what He has done and for who He is.  Praise Him with all kinds of instruments - brass, strings, wind, percussion and dance.  Cymbals are emphasized.  "Everything that has breath!"  The thought that comes to mind is that quality of performance is not important, making noise is.

Praise needs to be a dominant part of my life.  How can I do that?  Continually recognize His presence and acknowledge His works in my daily life.  Maybe dance would be a good idea.

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Psalm 149

One verse stood out to me in this Psalm - verse 4.  "For the Lord takes pleasure in His people; He adorns the humble with salvation."  Humility is sabotaged by secrets.  I don't want to reveal myself because I don't want to be thought less of.  The other "shocking" thing about this is - He likes me!  My performance based core values have a hard time believing that I am accepted in spite of what perceive as failures.

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