Strength for Today
After a nonstop day of medical appointments yesterday, today has been pretty laid back. That means I have actually been following instructions from the doctor and Debbie. We should know tomorrow about the urine culture and see if there is any infection in my body and the strategy for handling it. I am still praying that it will come back clear and I will be feeling up to par soon.
I haven’t felt too bad and actually, this morning I felt fairly good. I am dragging a little this afternoon. After-all, keeping watch on my companion dog is almost a full-time job!
BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY… Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up; God is our salvation. Selah
Our God is a God of salvation, and to God, the Lord, belong deliverances from death.… Awesome is God from his sanctuary; the God of Israel—he is the one who gives power and strength to his people. Blessed be God! Psalm 68:19,20,35
I have been enjoying reading through the Psalms this time around and have realized that if David didn’t have the difficulties and enemies that he did we would not have most of the Psalms! Psalm 68 is a little long as goes most of the Psalms. The verses above stood out to me today as I read them. I am glad that I didn’t stop after the familiar first three verses of this Psalm.
In our hymnbook singing days, the old adage was, “I would never want to be the third verse in a hymn.” That is because that is the verse that was always skipped over. Sometimes the same thing applies when we come to a Psalm that has familiar verses and we tend to stop after those that readily come to mind.
The verses of Psalm 68 above have some application to my life.
1 – I am thankful that the Lord “daily bears us up.”
The Message paraphrase says, “…day after day he carries us along.” I am trying more and more and trying to remind myself to praise the Lord for doing exactly that. There are days that I realize that I need it more than others. There are days that I fool myself and believe I am doing okay on my own. But the fact is if we are trusting in Him. If our life is in His care each day, every day, He carries us along!
2 – I am thankful for deliverances from death
My spell check doesn’t like the plural form of the word, “deliverance.” David knew that the Lord had on more than one occasion delivered him from death. Perhaps it would be difficult to count all the times. He was delivered from a lion and a bear in his youth, the giant Goliath, King Saul as a young adult, his own son Absalom as an aging leader and many close battles long the way.
I don’t recall them that much and I didn’t experience the awareness or fear, but this last year I had at least two close calls with death. The first was just a few days after I was hospitalized last July. The second one was on February 22 when I went into septic shock at home and my blood pressure bottomed out.
However, as the “God of our Salvation” the greatest deliverance from death is spiritual death. That means avoiding eternal separation from God’s presence because of Christ’s forgiveness and having confidence of an eternity in heaven.
3 – I am thankful that the Lord gives power and strength to His people
He bears us up, He delivers us, He gives us power and strength. I have learned more about “strength” in the last year than I thought I would ever have to learn. I am thankful that the first time around when I was a toddler becoming strong was new experience.
Once you have strength and lose that strength, regaining it can be a trial of trust and patience. I have learned more about the inter-workings of the human body than I thought I would ever know. So many times I pause and reflect on the words of Psalmist when he says, “we are fearfully and wonderfully made.” A quick review finds 274 Bible verses related to strength. I am sure those would make an interesting study in themselves. What I do know is the strength that comes from the Lord is mighty and reliable.
As we consider all that the Lord does for us, there is no better way to end these reflections than repeating the final three words of Psalm 68, “Blessed be God!”