Devotional 3-18-08

Please read Psalm 6

A Psalm for Mercy in Troubled Times

Evidently the writer of the Psalm (David) thinks God is angry with him and asks the Lord not to punish him when he is angry. David admits he is weak, and that he is tired of crying to the Lord. Do we sometimes feel as if the Lord is not hearing us at all? I'm not sure I cry or would cry about it as David did, but I am sure I am sometimes frustrated.

In (verse 9) David says: “The Lord has heard my cry for help: the Lord will answer my prayers." The Lord does always answer our prayer, but sometimes the answer is not the one we want. Most of the time we find out that we were better off not getting our "yes: from God.

In Psalm 94 David is saying: “God will pay back his enemies,” and in verse 11 he says "the Lord knows what people think." I know that I have had thoughts I really prefer God not knowing, but as David says in the next verse "Lord, those you correct are happy."

I remember one time when my son was very small I had spanked him about something. I have no idea what the spanking was about since it happened so many years ago. He looked up at me and thanked me for the spanking. In stunned disbelief I looked at him and he said "Now I know you really love me." Is that how we feel about God, when he corrects us? David says, Lord, those you correct are happy. Isn't it wonderful that God even bothers with us, that he sent his Son to live among us, to suffer for us, to die for us so that we can be forgiven for the things we have done that we're not proud of, the things we have said and the thought we have had. Just thinking of Easter morning makes me happy.

My friend Stella Reed wrote this poem several years ago. It has meaning for me and I am sure it will for you too.

Lent Is

A morning time of tears and pain
Leads to Alleluias of rising again
The spring time of life and light
Replacing the long, dark night
As we pray and fast these forty days of Lent
The love and almsgiving are well spent
Easter Sunday comes, we should not be the same
Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again.

Gloria Peek-Rosenblum