Category Archive Browsing Category: Psalms

I was not born into the nation of Israel, but I have spent my adult life being nurtured on these same stories, these same promises. What do I learn from the ancient longing and prayer in this Song of Ascent?

I love Christians, but sometimes we say dumb things.

What if we’re looking to the wrong place for our safety and security?

And what if we’re robbing ourselves of the very things that would drive us to trust in a God who delivers?

By arranging our lives around money and the security it offers and our votes around military might and the promise of enforced safety, what if we’re robbing ourselves of the chance to ever say, “Come and listen, let me tell you what God has done for me.”

What if – rather than running and hiding or making empty promises – I followed the Psalmist’s example and embraced my sin? What if I trusted that there is provision? What if I trusted God with my sin? What if I was naked and unashamed with my God?

As each news cycle erupts, we can ask “what would it look like to respond to this as a people loved by God and sent to share God’s love?” We can hang on tightly and refuse to turn back or leave His ways. What does it look like to refuse to leave His ways? It looks like compassion, no matter what. Grace and love for the undeserving. Forgiveness. Choosing peace and connection and service. No matter what.

Maybe this is the reason faith is required for relationship with God – not to earn eternity or grace from Him (as if we could earn anything). Maybe He knows that the realities of this fallen world make it awfully hard to trust a God who feels very far away sometimes.

Last year our college ministry spent the summer in the Psalms, and our staff directional team took turns writing devotionals for each Psalm that we covered. While I am on vacation this summer, I thought I’d share some of the devotionals I wrote. This one is on the second half of Psalm 18,  which you can read…