Greetings to you in the name of the ‘All Sufficient One’, Jesus Christ – THE Risen Saviour! What a delightful summer morning in the Kingdom – thank you God! I trust that you had a good long weekend with a perfect balance of adventures, interactions,quiet moments, and celebration moments. Today I will be praying for you, asking Father to bless you with health and strength and a happy heart!
Over the past 140 days I have been reading one of the Psalms using a new translation/paraphrase called the Passion Translation. It has been an interesting experience and I have been challenged by the translation as well as experiencing a new perspective on many of my favourite passages from Psalms. I started this exercise shortly after coming home from hospital, when I was doing some extra thinking about life. So, today after reading my Psalm for the day I picked up the newspaper and an article about a certain young entertainer caught my eye. He made a statement saying that it was important…necessary, even…to question the meaning of life.
He had written on a ‘post’ … “I don’t always feel close to God. I feel it may be human distractions or maybe I’m letting lies detour me from accessing it. Regardless it doesn’t stop me from seeking. Although it is frustrating I am reminded that relationships take work, even with God!” I believe that the Psalmist could have used that as an introduction to his expressions of his questioning of life…a relationship with God is hard work…staying focused, finding quality time, avoiding enemy attacks. One of the things that I really enjoy in Psalms is how the writer(s) express their emotional attachment to God whether it is in anger or frustration or gentleness or surrender or sorrow or joy. It is the way that this emotional content is expressed in the translation that refreshes my perspective.
Yesterday in my reading, I came across a sentence that brings the words of the entertainer and the words of the Psalmist and the feelings in my heart together. Here it is: But You are my Lord and my God, I only have eyes for You! I hide myself in You, so don’t leave me defenseless! – Psalm 141:8 TPT. Somehow I had the vision of a love song being sung or ‘crooned’ over the radio: “I only have eyes for you – I’m lost in you – Don’t ever leave me!” The entertainer, the Psalmist, and me…we want to stay close to God and the reality is that it takes effort on our part…God will do His part for sure! In fact, He makes a very bold promise – I will never leave you or forsake you!
Something to think on – be blessed!