Author: Megan Langan

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 113:1-9 (day four)

The breadth and depth of God’s power and love are on display in this Psalm. It begins by declaring that God is powerful – he is mighty over all of heaven and earth, The Lord is high above all nations; His glory is above the heavens. That would be enough to inspire worship in us, wouldn’t it? When we consider God’s power over the earth and every system and institution we encounter in this world, it leaves us no other response but to worship this powerful God.

But the psalmist doesn’t stop there. He moves from examining the breadth of God’s power to celebrating the depth of his love for his creation. He raises the poor from the dust And lifts the needy from the ash heap…He makes the barren woman abide in the house As a joyful mother of children. This all-powerful God loves his creation so much that he enters into the ash heap of the poor and lifts them out of it, reestablishing them as his very sons and daughters, as “princes.” He does not allow his power and glory to keep him from personal care and attention for his creation; he cares even for the womb of the hopeful mother, the most intimate of places. Only in our God can such power and might abide with such care and love. Worship is our only possible response.

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 96:1-13 (day four)

Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns;
Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved;
He will judge the peoples with equity.”

Occasionally, I start to feel nervous or even panicked at the state of the world. There is so much injustice and uncertainty; the news alerts us to tragedies and the corrupt whims of politicians every day. It starts to feel overwhelming, but then I remember that the God I worship created the world and is sovereign over it. The God I talk to every day – the one who knows my fears and shame, the one who knows the number of hairs on my head, is the one who established the world and his church. What the Lord has firmly established, the gates of hell cannot prevail against.

This is one of the many things we have to celebrate – at the end of the day, the Lord reigns. No matter how bad things seem, the earth will not be moved because the Lord is sovereign over it. We serve a righteous judge who is coming again to set all things right. When we worship, we remember that it is our God who holds all the power in heaven and earth, and we celebrate his goodness and sovereignty.

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 119:1–16 (day four)

“With all my heart I have sought You; Do not let me wander from Your commandments.” v. 10

As we walk through the Christian life, our goal is to be able to say we have sought the Lord with our whole heart. Truly, the Lord requires all of us. But as I continue to walk with the Lord, I continue to find parts of me that I have not yet submitted to him. It is a lifelong process to seek the Lord with our whole heart. As he takes us from glory to glory, we will continue to look like him with ever-increasing likeness.

We look forward to the day when we’re finally united with him completely, and we’re able to worship him purely with our whole heart, mind, and body. Until then, our prayer is the second half of verse 10, “Do not let me wander from Your commandments.” Though we are prone to wander, the Lord keeps us close through his Holy Spirit, through his Word, and through the community of believers.

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 62:1-12 (day four)

Trust in Him at all times, O people; Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us. Selah.

How often do you pour out your heart before God? Do you tend to maintain a sense of formality and “politeness” in your prayers? While God is holy and we should pray knowing we speak to a holy God, the Psalms teach us that emotion is still welcome in his holy presence. We can trust him at all times, knowing that he is the only one who knows the depths of our hearts and is the only one who can handle the things we try to carry. We can pour out our heart before him – even the ugly things we’re ashamed of, even our doubts. When we get those things in the light, they lose their ability to fester within us. When we pour out our heart before him, we’re reminded that God is truly our only refuge, and the best one we could ask for. He’s a refuge even from the war in our own mind.

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 37:1-40 (day four)

The Bible has a miraculous way of giving wisdom for our current, earthly life, in the same breath as it gives insight to our eternal life to come. David encourages the believer that the Lord is a sure place to put our hope, both now and forever. He calls us to a particular kind of hope, though – a patient hope.

He encourages the believer that though they suffer in a temporary sense, a day is coming when their suffering will end, and they will dwell with the Lord forever. The unrighteous settle for cheap joy in the moment, but David calls us to wait patiently for the joy that will last forever. The Lord also offers us hope for our current lives. When we trust in the Lord and walk in faithfulness, he gives us the desires of our heart, which look increasingly like the desires of His heart. If we are willing to wait patiently on the Lord’s timing and sanctifying work, we will find over and over again that there is hope both for tomorrow and for eternity.

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 16:1-11 (day four)

The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;
Indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me. v. 6

While David certainly enjoyed financial blessing, the heritage and inheritance he talks about here goes well beyond that. David recognizes that his inheritance isn’t tied up in land or possessions or even familial prominence, but in his relationship with the God of the universe, the one who rescued him from the pit and preserve his life. The Lord himself is his inheritance.

It boggles the mind that David wrote this Psalm before Jesus came on the scene. A similar sentiment is echoed by Paul in his letter to the Romans: The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

The miraculous thing we celebrate this week is that we can count ourselves heirs of God. Christ is our inheritance because he died for our sins and rose again, defeating sin and death and welcoming all into the Kingdom of God. No matter how bleak life seems, we who are in Christ can confidently say “my heritage is beautiful to me.”

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 51:1–19 (day four)

Let the bones which You have broken rejoice. v. 8

This verse startled me this week. David had committed egregious sins, and the Lord confronted David about his sin through the prophet Nathan. It is after this confrontation and confession that David writes this psalm. He runs to the Lord to repent, but also to receive comfort. He recognizes that while it was God alone who knew his sin, it is also God alone who can comfort him. The Lord “broke his bones” by convicting David of his sins, showing him his waywardness and revealing the ways in which his heart had wandered. The Lord “broke” David in this way not to hurt him, but to lovingly call him back to a life of faithfulness and holiness. As David ran into the Lord’s arms, repenting and seeking forgiveness, he found wholeness and joy. The Lord met him in his brokenness and used it to form David to become the man God intended him to be. Though it is painful, experiencing the Lord’s sanctifying work in our lives is beautiful. We can rejoice because while God breaks us, he doesn’t leave us broken. He reconstructs those broken pieces to make us more like him, which will inevitably bring us into the fullness of joy.

 

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 19:1-14 (day four)

During this season of Lent, I’m fasting from a couple things that had become unhealthy in my life. This is not a boast, but a confession. These things slowly, insidiously creeped in and took up residence in my heart without me realizing it. While not bad in and of themselves, they were adding noise in my life that was distracting me from God. The goal in fasting is to replace the time you engaged with that thing that was not adding to your life, and spend it with the Lord instead. I have by no means excelled at this, but even in my feeble attempt to spend more time with the Lord and less time on distractions, I have noticed a world of difference.

I’ve been able to spend more time in God’s word, and I can attest that this Psalm speaks the truth. God’s Word really is perfect and restores my soul. It is sure, and has given me wisdom. It’s right, and it has added joy to my life. It’s pure, and spending more time in it has cleared my vision. My prayer is that this time spent in the Word would allow my words and thoughts to be acceptable to the Lord. What distractions are pulling you away from spending time in God’s presence and his Word? What might happen if you got rid of those distractions and spent that time meditating on the Word? I assure you, it will be worth it.

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 14:1-7 (day four)

This Psalm paints a picture of God looking down on creation and finding no one who is righteous, no one who is holy, no one who is committed to justice. It ends with an expression of longing – longing for God to send the Promised One, longing for God to restore his people as he promised, longing for the restoration of the earth. As we continue through this season of Lent, we enter into that longing with the psalmist. We long for the salvation hope that will come on Easter morning. We long for the day still to come, where Jesus will return to make all things right.

Unlike the psalmist, we live in a world that Jesus has already walked. We live in a world that has seen the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. When we surrender our lives to Jesus, we are clothed in his righteousness. We aren’t righteous in our own right, but we are covered by the righteousness of Christ and therefore made acceptable before the Father. As we await Christ’s return, we seek to live in a way that matches our new clothes of righteousness. Praise God for fulfilling his promises!

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 30:1-12 (day three)

What profit is there in my blood, if I go down to the pit?
Will the dust praise You? Will it declare Your faithfulness?

This psalm is just so raw. It’s like you’re reading the author’s personal journal detailing the range of emotions they’ve had before God. In verse 9, the psalmist sounds like they’re trying to persuade God to save them. He’s essentially saying, “The dirt can’t (audibly) praise you! If I die and return to dirt myself, I’m not good for anything! Save me so I can praise you!”

We know it’s generally not wise to bribe God; nor is it necessary to bribe him who loves us and wants to help us, though many of us have been this desperate in our prayers. In the psalmist’s desperation, though, he sheds light on the truth: we exist on this earth to give praise to God. Our purpose in life is simply to give him the praise that he is due, which is all of it. When we walk through life distracted by other pursuits and fail to give God praise and glory, we’re fulfilling our purpose no more than if we returned to dust.

This psalm reminds us of the ultimate purpose of our life, and it reminds us that God is worthy of that praise. He rescues from the pit; he hears our cries. May we praise him in both our mourning and our dancing.