Blowing It

IT HAPPENS TO ALL OF US. Teachers as well as students. Cops as well as criminals. Parents as well as kids. The diligent as well as the lazy. Not even presidents are immune. Or corporation heads who earn six-figure salaries. What am I talking about? Making mistakes, that’s what. Doing the wrong thing, usually with the best of motives. And it happens with remarkable regularity. Let’s face it, success is overrated.

Be Still and Know

AS I WRITE THIS, the thermometer registers in the nineties. The air is still and heavy. The dog is panting at my feet, the sun is high, and the birds are silent and still. Within a matter of hours night will fall, the dark sky will be ablaze with moon and stars, and sleep will force itself on me. As I slumber, life will continue uninterrupted. Appreciated or not, the canvas of nature will go on being painted by the finger of God.

Handle with Care

THE PACKAGE ARRIVED SAFELY, the reminder “Fragile: Handle with Care” affixed to the front. Oh, it had a few scuff marks and a bent corner or two, but by and large, nothing was damaged. Inside was a photo of my family, just a picture of six people with the same last name, four of whom were delivered by God into our home between 1961 and 1970. Those four deliveries should have had the same reminder: “Fragile: Handle with Care.”

Considering Life

SNAP A TELESCOPIC LENS ON your perspective for the next few minutes. Pull yourself up close enough to see the real you. Pore over your own pores. Study what you see. Like a physician giving you a physical. Like an artist painting your portrait. Like a biographer writing your story. From the reflection in your mental mirror, pay close attention to your life. Try your best to examine the inner “you” based on time.

Lost in Wonder, Love, and Praise

LOST IN THE SILENT SOLITUDE of recent days, I have been impressed anew with the vast handiwork of our incomprehensible God.
O LORD, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth! Your glory is higher than the heavens. You have taught children and infants to tell of your strength, silencing your enemies and all who oppose you. When I look into the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you set in place—what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?

Cave Dwellers

Now look at Psalm 34, which I believe is the third psalm he wrote while in the cave. What a difference. What a change has come over David! He says, “I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth” (v. 1).

Declaration of Dependence

We looked at Psalm 142. Now let’s look at two others David wrote, Psalms 57 and 34. We don’t know in what order he wrote these, but looking at his life, they seem to fit in this backward order . . .

Never Alone

David had bottomed out. This was the lowest moment of David’s life to date, and if you want to know how he really felt, just read the song he composed during those days, Psalm 142. Can you feel the loneliness of that desolate spot?

Historical Joy

Isn’t that great? Rather than sadness and fear, there was exhilaration that night. The sweet fragrance of freedom was in the wind. We love to sing the hymn, “O for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise.”

Grace That Releases

One characteristic of a grace awakening ministry deserves special attention: release from past failures. A ministry of grace doesn’t keep bringing up the past for the purpose of holding it over people. There is an absence of shame.

Tag Archives: Psalms