The Word for today:
Psalm 63
mark this: 63:8--
My soul follows hard after thee. (KJV)
I've got this blog to write today, because I promised a lot of people that I'd keep after it.
But what do you say about Psalm 63--about love such as this? It's slightly unsettling to be in the presence of the relationship, the desire, in these lines. I feel like the third wheel, even a wee bit creepy and voyeuristic.
David thirsts, faints, beholds, praises, blesses, overtly expresses, and meditates. He is satisfied, he is joyful, he is upheld by the right hand of God.
He clings, he lingers, he follows hard after God.
This is the man after God's own heart (1).
I return, in the course of a year, many times to Psalm 63, to get a preview of where my relationship with Jesus is heading. I am not there yet, but I'm after it, and I'm closer than I was yesterday.
But we must leave this love story now. There's a time to read love stories, and there's a time to live out a love story of your own.
Everything in the Bible, and everything in creation, in history, in space, in time and in timelessness--all of it leads to the cross of Jesus Christ. And the reason for that cross was to restore the loving relationship with God that we were meant for, the kind we see in Psalm 63.
So here's the shortest Bible course ever taught:
God's heart was broken in the Garden, it bled on the cross, and was whole again in Psalm 63.
The Bible is about the heart of God. You and I and David are just following hard after.
Psalm 63
mark this: 63:8--
My soul follows hard after thee. (KJV)
I've got this blog to write today, because I promised a lot of people that I'd keep after it.
But what do you say about Psalm 63--about love such as this? It's slightly unsettling to be in the presence of the relationship, the desire, in these lines. I feel like the third wheel, even a wee bit creepy and voyeuristic.
David thirsts, faints, beholds, praises, blesses, overtly expresses, and meditates. He is satisfied, he is joyful, he is upheld by the right hand of God.
He clings, he lingers, he follows hard after God.
This is the man after God's own heart (1).
I return, in the course of a year, many times to Psalm 63, to get a preview of where my relationship with Jesus is heading. I am not there yet, but I'm after it, and I'm closer than I was yesterday.
But we must leave this love story now. There's a time to read love stories, and there's a time to live out a love story of your own.
Everything in the Bible, and everything in creation, in history, in space, in time and in timelessness--all of it leads to the cross of Jesus Christ. And the reason for that cross was to restore the loving relationship with God that we were meant for, the kind we see in Psalm 63.
So here's the shortest Bible course ever taught:
God's heart was broken in the Garden, it bled on the cross, and was whole again in Psalm 63.
The Bible is about the heart of God. You and I and David are just following hard after.
In the interest of full disclosure, I should add that there is a bit--a little bit--about you and me in Scripture:
before the cross, we'd fallen in sin. After the cross, we fell in love.
So fall in love, and keep on falling.
(1) 1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22
Don't you sleep my friend. I am longing to find the peace of being held in God's right hand! Keep calling us to fall in love all over again. Thanks
ReplyDeleteWow - I'm falling more & more in love with you and Jesus everday!
ReplyDeleteyours ever,
shellster
this is a test
ReplyDeletehummmmm...as we were reading this passage something stuck out at us. Vs. 11 says, "But the king will rejoice in God; all who swear by God's name will praise him, while the mouth's of liars will be silenced." A few weeks back Pastor Kevin was teaching from James chapter 5 on not swearing - just state what you mean so as to not diminish what you are saying. James 5:12 says: "Above all, my brothers, do not swear - not by heaven or earth ot by anything else. Let your "Yes" be yes, and your "No," no, or you will be condemned." - - - Please help us out here - thanks Bob B.
ReplyDelete