Psalm Twenty three
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can quote it. I've read it. I've heard it. It's good for hospital rooms and funerals. It gives hope. It's a good Psalm. End story. Move on. This is how I felt about the twenty third Psalm. It was typically never relevant to me, yet somehow we all learned to recite it in monotone, maybe because we were supposed to have it for the end of our life? I dunno.
Well. During a week of healing back in June, on a beach in Alaska with both the waves and the mountains before me (it really is a must see). I read the twenty third Psalm. I knew there was something in it for me. I had just asked God how to heal my soul. There was something serene as I read it that time. A peace that transcended all the other worries in my mind. I correlated it to an otter I was watching in those same waves. The wind blowing, the waves mounting, and this little otter no match for the ocean, yet it was completely at peace. Fully surrendered, having not a care to the storm and chaos around it; Arms crossed to chest, floating and bobbing. How on earth was it so still, so chill?..."He sets a table before me in the presence of my enemies..." There is peace. And you would have to believe it if you were sitting at a banquet table prepared for you in the midst of your enemies. We're not talking about those who don't like you, we're talking about those that want to kill you. "He leads me beside quiet waters...He restores my soul." Ah, there is was. He heals my soul, anoints my head.
Enter again, a room full of people praising Jesus and someone shares that God is with us in the battle. In the midst of green fields, raging war, swords are clashing...Jesus sits with you at the table. How could I have missed it! He not only prepares a table. He sits with you at that table. He is with you. Always. He doesn't somehow give this bubble of peace in the midst of turmoil. He sits with you there. He is our peace.
He is not only peace, though. He is victory. And that's what's crazy to me. He prepares a table, He sits with us at that table, but not only that, He does it because there is already victory. It's as if there isn't a battle, because it's already won. There is victory. It's like when I was reading through second Chronicles and numerous times, the kings who lived rightly and feared the Lord, as to end that chapter it kept using the phrase, "and there was peace on every side." In their kingdoms there was peace. A complete peace. North, East, West, South, no enemy advancing. You have already defeated the enemy. Victory on every side.
But as in most things in life, God doesn't ask us to be a passive participant. We get to actively take part. We get to choose. It it vital that we choose to walk in His victory. It is imperative that we choose to hold His hand. It is necessary that we choose to sit at that table that He invites us to. We get to choose to eat from His table. We get to choose to claim His promises. We have to choose to be loved, and walk away from fear. If we do that, we get to laugh in the face of our foes. We get to choose laughter. We get to disrupt plans that want to shake our world. I think I'm beginning to understand why David repeats one line over and over again through the middle part of the Psalms: "I will not be shaken." I have to choose to declare and preach it over myself. And then we get to be filled with all the fullness of God. He anoints us, commissions us in it; we get to overflow of an abundance of the fullness of God through PEACE, VICTORY, because He is WITH ME, because I CHOOSE TO WALK, because I CHOOSE TO SIT, in His presence. Surely His goodness and mercy shall follow me wherever I go.
Friend, I know the storm is coming. I can feel it, I can see it. Yet, somehow I get to choose peace too.
Well. During a week of healing back in June, on a beach in Alaska with both the waves and the mountains before me (it really is a must see). I read the twenty third Psalm. I knew there was something in it for me. I had just asked God how to heal my soul. There was something serene as I read it that time. A peace that transcended all the other worries in my mind. I correlated it to an otter I was watching in those same waves. The wind blowing, the waves mounting, and this little otter no match for the ocean, yet it was completely at peace. Fully surrendered, having not a care to the storm and chaos around it; Arms crossed to chest, floating and bobbing. How on earth was it so still, so chill?..."He sets a table before me in the presence of my enemies..." There is peace. And you would have to believe it if you were sitting at a banquet table prepared for you in the midst of your enemies. We're not talking about those who don't like you, we're talking about those that want to kill you. "He leads me beside quiet waters...He restores my soul." Ah, there is was. He heals my soul, anoints my head.
Enter again, a room full of people praising Jesus and someone shares that God is with us in the battle. In the midst of green fields, raging war, swords are clashing...Jesus sits with you at the table. How could I have missed it! He not only prepares a table. He sits with you at that table. He is with you. Always. He doesn't somehow give this bubble of peace in the midst of turmoil. He sits with you there. He is our peace.
He is not only peace, though. He is victory. And that's what's crazy to me. He prepares a table, He sits with us at that table, but not only that, He does it because there is already victory. It's as if there isn't a battle, because it's already won. There is victory. It's like when I was reading through second Chronicles and numerous times, the kings who lived rightly and feared the Lord, as to end that chapter it kept using the phrase, "and there was peace on every side." In their kingdoms there was peace. A complete peace. North, East, West, South, no enemy advancing. You have already defeated the enemy. Victory on every side.
But as in most things in life, God doesn't ask us to be a passive participant. We get to actively take part. We get to choose. It it vital that we choose to walk in His victory. It is imperative that we choose to hold His hand. It is necessary that we choose to sit at that table that He invites us to. We get to choose to eat from His table. We get to choose to claim His promises. We have to choose to be loved, and walk away from fear. If we do that, we get to laugh in the face of our foes. We get to choose laughter. We get to disrupt plans that want to shake our world. I think I'm beginning to understand why David repeats one line over and over again through the middle part of the Psalms: "I will not be shaken." I have to choose to declare and preach it over myself. And then we get to be filled with all the fullness of God. He anoints us, commissions us in it; we get to overflow of an abundance of the fullness of God through PEACE, VICTORY, because He is WITH ME, because I CHOOSE TO WALK, because I CHOOSE TO SIT, in His presence. Surely His goodness and mercy shall follow me wherever I go.
Friend, I know the storm is coming. I can feel it, I can see it. Yet, somehow I get to choose peace too.
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