Wednesday, November 12, 2008

We DO live in very uncertain times

Psalm 121

1I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
2 My help comes from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.

3He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps you will not slumber.
4Behold, he who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

5The LORD is your keeper;
the LORD is your shade on your right hand.
6 The sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.

7The LORD will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
8The LORD will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time forth and forevermore.

There are times when we need help carrying some of the load that we are asked to carry, and yesterday morning was one of those times for me. Most of you, as a parent, teacher, leader or maybe just a friend, know the feeling; like you are carrying the whole world, but it may be just a little more than an extra brick in your back pack.

I normally am not reading through the Psalms, but through Matthew, so yesterday I decided to go to one of my favorites; Psalm 121. What an encouragement to know that we only have to look the the Father and He is our Help in time of need. It grieves my heart that I often wait until I'm seemingly desperately "overloaded" until I ask for help, because He wants to carry our burdens all the time.

He who is the Creator and Sustainer of the entire universe is MY Helper.
He who does not slumber nor sleep will keep MY foot from being moved.
He who is the keeper of the sun and the moon is also MY Keeper.
He who is eternal will keep me from evil and will keep MY life.

There are so many songs about His care for us and that must be because as humans we quickly forget that He is our Everything, and we don't need to be concerned about what we will eat of drink or what we will wear, because our Heavenly Father cares for the birds of the air and they aren't concerned where their meal will come from in a few hours.


This is a song by the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir that I like and it says a lot to this issues. The title is "So you would Know".

How many times must I prove how much, I love you,
how many ways, must my love for you I show,
how many times, must I rescue you from trouble,
so you would know, just how much I love you

How many days, must I be a fence all around you
and how many nights, must I wipe your tears away,
and how many storms, must I bring you safely through,
so you would know, just how much I love you

Oh didn't I
Wake you up this morning, you were closed in your right mind
When you woke up on a problem didn't I step right in on time
When you were weak along life's journey my angels carried you
So you would know just how much I love you

Oh didn't I,
Put food on your table
Show up when your bills were due
When the pain was racking your body didn't I send healing down to you
When you were lost in sin and sorrow I died to set you free
So you would know just how much I love you

So you would know, so you would know how much
So you would know just how much I love you

Thankfully we are not asked to carry any of these burdens on our own and we certainly aren't asked to carry them all at once, because Jesus will carry them all for us, but only if we let Him.
He is not too busy or tired to carry them, He is eagerly waiting to have us/me give Him the load.

Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift.
His yoke is easy and His burden is light.
Cast all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you.
Speak to each other in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord.

When we focus on the waves we quickly start to fear,
When we focus on the Savior the waves will disappear.

1 comment:

A. P. Yokers said...

Chuck...thanks for your post. It really encouraged me, and it was great to read the words of Psalm 121. He cares for me....what a thought :)