There are two readings for today.
SCRIPTURE: Psalm 85
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
The LORD will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest. [Psalm 85:12]
As the psalmist pleads with God for mercy and help, he reminds himself that God is good, and that He will in His time help His people.
These words are an expression of faith when the evidence seems to go against it – so far God has not given what is good, so far the land has not yielded its harvest.
A relevant parallel for today is a jobless person saying, ‘the Lord will provide the job’ or ‘the Lord will provide for my needs’.
Can you think of people in a tough place asking God for mercy and help?
Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! [Luke 11:11-13]
Jesus picks up the same idea as this psalm and assures His followers that God will indeed give what is good (good gifts) to those that ask Him.
But He also clarifies the heart of that gift – really the greatest gift, and our greatest need, is for the presence and the power of the Spirit to help us on the inside when things around us are falling apart.
Asking for a car, a job, an increase in pay, a healing miracle, etc. these are all temporary fixes, for temporary concerns.
This life will always present temporal challenges and needs that we might bring to God, a grocery list of daily needs that will never go away.
But what we really need is inward renewal, inward strength, inward healing, inward hope; what we really need is a fresh infusion of the Holy Spirit to make us strong and steady on the inside.
Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? [Psalm 85:6]
If we are revived by the Spirit, then our joy will overflow whatever the circumstances.
Having everything in the world, but not the Spirit, will leave us poor and sad.
Having nothing in the world, but the Spirit, will leave us rich and joy-filled.
To be rich and content in God makes our external circumstances secondary.
I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength. [Philippians 4:11-13]
God wants to bless us this way, to make us rich and content on the inside.
When we ask to be revived by His Spirit, God gladly, eagerly complies.
Are you asking?
PRAYER:
Lord, You can’t wait for me to ask for Your Spirit, You eagerly long to give me more of Yourself. Forgive me for seeking temporal trinkets when You are offering me eternal treasure!
God’s faithfulness. We can see the hand of God in past days where He showed His people mercy. Those stories need to be told from one generation to the next. Those stories also remind us that God is ever present. He hears His people when they cry unto Him. And we hear that cry in this psalm.
Once again the people have fallen away from His ways and they are once again at the point of repentance – turning from their ways to walk in His way. Once again, the people’s hearing is hearing what they are supposed to hear – God’s voice saying -this is the way. Walk in it.
Not only will the land have peace, but also the people and they will bear the fruit of the spirit. Walking in His SonShine shows other – those around us – that God is our Guardian and Guide – preparing the Way for us if we but have an open heart to listen to Him.
Hear my cry O lord
Attend unto my prayer
From the ends of the earth will I cry unto thee
And when my heart is overwhelmed
Lead me to the rock
That is higher that (2)
For thou has been a shelter unto me
A high tower Lord against the enemy