Monday, Psalm 50:1; This verse contains a powerful, awe inspiring vision of God. But on a more personal level it provides us with inner confidence and a sense of determination to fulfill our destiny as children of God. You see, this “Mighty One” created us in His own image. While it is true that by our self-defeating choices we have damaged that image, it is still there just waiting to be repaired and reactivated by His Spirit when we reestablish and maintain our relationship with Him. Once we realize this fact, nothing can defeat us because just as we get our eye and hair color, etc. from the genes of our parents, we have within us the genetic imprint of the one who “speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting! The Mighty One, God the Lord speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.
Tuesday, Psalm 50:14a; The other day I was waiting for a traffic signal to change when I got one of my “brilliant ideas”. Not wanting to forget it, I quickly grabbed my pen and jotted it down. Suddenly I heard tires screeching and horns sounding. Looking up I saw a speeding van cross in front of me, the screeching tires and horns were from drivers in the lanes facing me. While I was writing the light had changed and the van had run through the red light. It dawned on me that had I been watching the light, I probably would have been in the intersection when the van roared through. As I carefully drove through the intersection I recalled something one of the speakers had said at a retreat I attended many years ago in upstate New York, “When prayer stops, coincidences stop happening”. While this incident had nothing to do with prayer, it sure was a “lucky” coincidence for me. But was it a coincidence that I got this brilliant idea that I had to jot down or was it an example of the scores of ways God “creates” the right coincidence to guide us, protect us and bless us each day? How many of our coincidences do we just take for granted and never consider that maybe we have something to be thankful for? Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving
Wednesday, Psalm 50:14b; I found this text among my late father’s sermon notes with this comment written under it “This passage should cause each of us to stop and think about how seriously we take our relationship with God.” I don’t know how he developed it, but the thought that came to my mind was that if we truly want to maintain and nurture a relationship, we make it a point to keep our promises to the other person. You see, in its essence a relationship is based on mutual trust. This is established through a series of encounters where each person proves to the other that they are trustworthy. A relationship that is broken usually has become one sided because one party failed to live up to their word and trust is eroded. Our relationship with God is one of mutual trust—God trust us to fulfill the promises we made to follow his ways, as well as to live up to the promises we have made in our hearts, just as we trust Him to keep his end of the bargain. To my dad’s comment on this verse, I would add these words, “How far can God trust us based on our track record of being trustworthy?” Pay your vows to the Most High
Thursday, Psalm 50:15; Harvey MacKay, a successful businessman is known worldwide for his contributions to the art and science of establishing, maintaining and managing business relationships. In one of his books, he ask the question “Who can you call at 2:AM when you are backed up against the wall?” His point, which he elaborates on is that it is necessary to be sure we have nurtured our relationships by being both givers and takers, because if all we’ve done is take from the other party, chances are they won’t be much help to us at 2:AM. This is the principle that the psalmist has been dealing with—we must do our part to nurture and maintain our relationship with God by showing our gratitude and proving trustworthy—then, when we face that “2:AM crisis”, we can call on Him and he will come through for us! Call on Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you and you shall glorify me.
Friday, Psalm 50:23; This passage is a summary of our meditations thus far this week. It is a covenant that God offers each of us. One of the things that disturbs me about the theology I hear espoused by many people these days is that God’s covenants are one sided—that is, God will always keep his part of the bargain whether or not we keep our part of it. Such a concept is foreign to the author of today’s mediation. He firmly believes (and therefore those who believe the Bible to be the inspired word of God must also believe) that the covenant of God to “show the salvation of God” is conditioned by our choosing to be mindful of and show appreciation for God’s goodness and our deliberate decision everyday to “go the right way” in every area of our lives. Those who bring thanksgiving as their sacrifice honor me; to those who go the right way I will show the salvation of God.
Saturday, Psalm 16:2; I office in Tulsa Oklahoma’s first “skyscraper” (well in 1927, twenty four floors was a tall building!). We have many older tenants, some of whom have had offices here for over sixty years. A few years ago, one of our older tenant’s wife passed away. Theirs had been a long and strong relationship and one day the old gentleman confided that “I have the same home, the same amount of money in the bank, the same everything…but nothing seems good without her because she was the goodness I drew strength from.” Were these simply the words of a grief stricken old man or do they reveal something deeper about the human spirit? I tend to lean toward the latter explanation. Deep down the quality of our relationships help determine not only how we define our lives but how we view things. Human relationships, while important can disappoint us and eventually end, but our relationship with our Heavenly Father, if nurtured and maintained provides us with not only the ultimate definition of good, but helps us understand the true meaning of the goodness in ourselves, other people and the world around us. I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.
Sunday, Psalm 16:11a,b; I doubt that anyone would deny that there have been special people who have been instrumental in helping them in their careers and personal lives. These people are known as “mentors” because they are more than role models, they are people with whom we forge relationships that help define us. Those of us who have been around for any length of time have probably had several mentors who have shown us the path to take, given us timely advice and served as a sounding board for our ideas. It is good and right to have such relationships, but the psalmist in today’s meditation reminds us that the Good Lord wants to be our mentor. Unlike earthly mentors, He always knows the answer and is always available to us. This knowledge gives us an overwhelming sense of confidence, vitality and joy. You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy
Sunday, August 23, 2009
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