Psalms 36-40
FIVE SIMPLE PLEASURES
Working on my wall of family photos- Watching our favourite TV programme with the kids
- Doing the three and a half minute exercise challenge with my daughter
- Helping to come up with ideas for my friend’s 40th
- Looking at dresses online
PSALM 36: CHOOSING TO WALK WITH GOD – OR NOT
Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the skies.
Your righteousness is like the highest mountains,
your justice like the great deep. v5-6
Choosing to walk with God or not is a choice. It is a choice we all make – as the overall direction of our lives and in the little decisions we make every minute of every day.
PSALM 37: CONSEQUENCES OF CHOICES
Take delight in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart. v4
Unlike the wicked. It may seem now that all is going well for them, but it will not last forever. And to me, this verse does not mean we will get everything we think we want if we trust God. That should never be our motivation. It’s kind of the other way round. As we trust God and know Him more, then our desires are transformed to be more like His desires and therefore we will be wanting His will to be done at all times, whatever that looks like for us. Our desires will change to be more in line with God’s desires.
PSALM 38: I’M IN AGONY HERE!
My back is filled with searing pain;
there is no health in my body.
I am feeble and utterly crushed;
I groan in anguish of heart.
All my longings lie open before you, Lord;
my sighing is not hidden from you. v7-9
Someone I met described this as ‘praying naked’. Laying it all before God. Groaning. Sighing. Hiding nothing from Him. Sometimes we are in pain that feels too much to bear. Unrelenting, searing pain. We call out to God for relief. We find a language for our pain.
PSALM 39: I CAN’T GO ON LIKE THIS!
I said, “I will watch my ways
and keep my tongue from sin;
I will put a muzzle on my mouth
while in the presence of the wicked.” v1
Sometimes it’s better to say nothing at all. It can’t be taken back once it’s out there. We all tend to say far too much, to feel the need to fill the silence. I don’t mind silence. I’d rather silence than foolish words. (Although everything does have to be let out at some point in some safe place – otherwise it will burst out uncontrollably!).
PSALM 40: MUCH TO SHOUT ABOUT
I waited patiently for the Lord;
he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God. v1-3
We should all have much to shout about. The difference God has made in our lives. How we have been transformed. How we are being transformed. I am a changed person. I am singing a new song. I am telling a new story. I lived so much of my life under the shadow of deep depression and now I have been set free from that. Every morning, I was dragged into the land of the living and surfacing felt like climbing out of a deep pit every single day. I don’t feel like that any more. I wake up excited for the fresh opportunities of a new day. It’s been a long journey and I’m still on it. I’m still wired to think negatively, but God has renewed my mind – is renewing my mind. This is something to shout about!
