Skip to main content

In A Dry and Parched Land

             You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. (Psalm 63:1-2)

David describes a tough time. He was in the Desert of Judah, and God wasn’t meeting him there. People then tended to live a little closer to difficulty than I think I do. Growing up as a shepherd boy, he learned to deal with difficulties, but one of the problems with difficulties is that they can quickly turn into nasty gods. They demand attention, sometimes to ensure our survival. The alternative is to seek God, but God isn’t like Lurch (the Addams Family butler), who appears and takes orders the second the bell rings.  

There are times when God leaves us out in the desert. We aren’t really alone, but it feels like it. He lets us search and not find. He fails to meet needs. Will we turn to other gods? Even the god that is the desert (problem) itself?  Will we put ourselves and our feelings on the altar, or on the throne? God knows the answer, but do we? Do we recognize the difference? For example, how much of the time does “Thy will be done” mean “Watch me” or even “hold my beer”?

Deserts are one of the ways we discover who or what our gods are. There are also times when we may have to look both at our circumstances and at our past experiences, and hold on to the memory of seeing God “in the sanctuary” and beholding His power and His glory, because He is God and the desert is not.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Shepherd!

                 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep . (John 10:14) God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” (Genesis 3:14) The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths     for his name’s sake. Even though I walk     through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil,     for you are with me; your rod and your staff,     they comfort me. (Psalm 23:1-4) For the Jews, it was politically incorrect to make claims about yourself as a teacher (or possibly as anything else.) Teachers were expected to take pride in the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more