Psalms 86-90
FIVE SIMPLE PLEASURES
Being welcomed at the Dryden School cafe by the student with severe learning difficulties who have done work experience with me.- Being thanked by the mum of the girl working with me at the moment.
- Watching the older people dancing and having fun at the Lunch Club
- My new stairs and landing carpet
- Discovering Zumba!
PSALM 86: TORN
Teach me your way, Lord,
that I may rely on your faithfulness;
give me an undivided heart,
that I may fear your name. v11
We can feel torn in life. I often feel torn between work commitments and family commitments. It’s an uncomfortable place to sit. This psalm alludes to feeling torn between trusting in your own strength and trusting in God. Surrendering to God. Relying on God. Being dependent on God. Totally. Completely. 100%. Something within us resists that. We believe we can go it alone. Until we can’t. Then we fall back on our ‘compassionate and gracious God,
slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness’ (v15). But feeling torn is a constant battle. I really like the sound of an undivided heart.
PSALM 87: ALL ABOUT ZION
As they make music they will sing,
‘All my fountains are in you.’ v7
He is the source of life.
PSALM 88: IN A DARK PLACE
You have put me in the lowest pit,
in the darkest depths. v6
I can vaguely remember what that feels like. Although unless you’re actually in it, you can’t imagine how dark and desperate that place is. This psalm speaks to me of depression. A place of no hope, no light at the end of the tunnel. It is the nature of the condition to feel there is no escape, no end in sight. In this psalm, there is no assurance as in other psalms. Sometimes that is how it feels.
PSALM 89: THE STORY OF DAVID
The heavens are yours, and yours also the earth;
you founded the world and all that is in it. v11
Everything we have is yours, and of your own do we give you.
PSALM 90: THE GOD OF ETERNITY
Before the mountains were born
or you brought forth the whole world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God. v2
From the very beginning to the very end….throughout eternity…..God is the God of it all. And us in comparison? How short and insignificant are our earthly lives! We have to see ourselves as part of a bigger picture – God’s big picture – for it to make any sense at all.
