“Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” (Psalm 42:9)

There are a thousand reasons to feel unsettled.  Being off nutritionally, affected by the weather, facing stress, feeling overtired and reacting to the cunning confusion of spiritual enemies all add up to the sense of a gray day in a gray world.  As movie goers, we expect such a low moods to be resolved within two hours.  We look for the Mighty Ducks to score in the last seconds against the sinister team in the black uniform and ride off in cheers of glory.  For David, this didn’t happen.  The Psalm ends and nothing in David’s surroundings really changed.  The message he preached to himself, however, was to hope in God and set his focus on the fact that one day he will praise God with a joyful heart.

There is no spiritual achievement of feeling up (you may have a sunny disposition or may be going through a positive season).  There is no shame in feeling down either.  Whatever our feelings may be, focus not on the feelings but on the spiritual exercise of hoping in God and the expectation of God’s faithfulness.

“I have set the Lord continually before me.”  (Psalm 16:8)

Brother Lawrence spent his time doing the tedious tasks in a monastery kitchen.  It was here that he practiced a profound spirituality.  “Men invent means and methods of coming at God’s love, they learn rules and set up devices to remind them of that love, and it seems like a world of trouble to bring oneself into the consciousness of God’s presence. Yet it might be so simple. Is it not quicker and easier just to do our common business wholly for the love of him?”

Any common business – emptying the trash, running a letter to the mail, driving into town to get a gallon of milk – can be that means through which our love for God is expressed.  As we walk with the consciousness that God is before us and we set our thoughts on Him, every moment can be sanctified, every thought can be a holy one, and every step an adventure.

“He makes peace in your borders; he satisfies you with the finest of the wheat.” (Psalm 147:14)

If a kingdom had two things, safety from their enemies and provision for its people, it would be set.  The Psalmist’s prayer for Jerusalem was that it would be such a city.  In our complicated lives, it is tempting to think that we need so much more.  We can analyze our past and worry about our future.  Yet, if I have peace with God, peace with those about me and daily provision from God’s hand, there is no reason not to be content.

“Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him.”  (Psalm 42:5)

While God is everywhere, David felt cut off from the manifest presence of God.  He was hiding in the land of Jordan by the peaks of Hermon and Mount Mizah – somewhere that wasn’t Jerusalem, the place of God’s sanctuary.   The enemy had a point when they taunted, “Where is your God?”  The temptation in this unhappy situation is to throw in the towel and say, “I’m done.”  After all, what good has been all the effort given to following Christ when I find myself so far away from God’s comfort?

As the breakers and waves of troubles broke over David, he knew that in giving up, there would no longer be any possibility of hope.  In rekindling the belief that he would one day be back home praising God again, he set his heart that God would one day redeem him out of his troubles.  Our trials always feel like they will last forever.  But we set our heart to the belief that one day in Christ they will be resolved.

“Evening and morning and at noon, I will complain and murmur, and He will hear my voice.” (Psalm 55:17)

I never felt the explanation was adequate that says that when we pray, God may say “yes” but God may also say “no.”  My reaction was inevitably, “well, then what is the point of my input?”  It was this kind of thinking that led me to spend less time rattling on over a list of requests and simply pray “may your will be done” and leave it at that.  But perhaps there is a value in prayer – even if it is the whiny, misguided, unproductive kind.  Ultimately, God hears my voice.  He sees through my clamor and ascertains the true, God-honoring prayer request – the thing I should be asking for but am too immature to know.  He sets forth into action what I really need.  It may still feel like a “no” but it really isn’t.  It is God hearing my childish ranting and giving me the thing that is best.

“The earth is full of the lovingkindness of the LORD.”  (Psalm 33:5)

How can a loving God allow evil?  This is so asked of believers with the naive assumption of originality as if it never occurred to the best minds of the Western Intellectual tradition in the last two thousand years that evil exists.  In fact, the reality of a fallen humanity and a fallen world gives adequate explanation of why humans are cruel to other humans.  What is rarely asked is the opposite.  How does an atheist explain good in the world?   Just as evil points to a fallen humanity, so the good about us in sunny days, stirring art, caring relationships, tasty food and satisfying accomplishments point to the pouring forth of a loving God.