My Disciplinarian

A Series on the Psalms – a collection of prayers
Feeling like a disappointment
 (Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Psalm 6 

[Life is full of emotions. The book of Psalms is a collection of prayers that express our emotions which are the cry of our soul for hope. In this series, we will be looking in the mirror of the Psalms, to learn more about ourselves and our Lord.]

 

Growing up, my Dad was my disciplinarian. This included spanking. The ironic thing is that as I got older it didn’t hurt when he spanked me. But I would still cry because I knew that I had disappointed him.

 

David wrote Psalm 6 as a prayer in response to the Lord’s discipline. It had affected his whole being… mind, body and soul.

 

² Have compassion on me, Lord, for I am weak.
    Heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony.
³ I am sick at heart.
    How long, O Lord, until you restore me?       NLT

 

In his prayer, he appealed to the Lord’s unfailing love to show mercy.

 

⁴ Return, O Lord, and rescue me.
    Save me because of your unfailing love.        NLT

 

David was a mighty warrior; a man’s man. After all, he had defeated Goliath! And yet, in an unexpected confession, David disclosed not only how he reacted physically to the Lord’s discipline, but also just how emotional he was.

 

⁶ I am worn out from sobbing.
    All night I flood my bed with weeping,
    drenching it with my tears.      NLT

 

We don’t know the specifics of David’s situation; of what led the Lord to discipline him. The NIV study Bible suggests that the Lord was disciplining him by inflicting him with an illness for some sin that he had committed. Think of Bathsheba and her husband Uriah.

 

But what we do know is how he was feeling. We know how the discipline affected the condition of his mind, body and soul. We also know that he based his appeal on the Lord’s unfailing love.

 

You get the feeling that David needed the Lord’s love and acceptance more than anything else. Maybe even, like me, he felt bad because he had disappointed the Lord, his Heavenly Father.

 

We’ve all disappointed someone in our life at one time or another. It might have been a
parent or a spouse or even ourselves. For sure though, we’ve disappointed our Heavenly Father. The Good News is that He hears us when we pray.

 

⁹ The Lord has heard my plea;
    the Lord will answer my prayer.         NLT

 

Copyright 2024 Joseph B Williams

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

Protecting Your Home

A Series on the Psalms – a collection of prayers
Feeling unprotected
 (Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Psalm 90 

[Life is full of emotions. The book of Psalms is a collection of prayers that express our emotions which are the cry of our soul for hope. In this series, we will be looking in the mirror of the Psalms, to learn more about ourselves and our Lord.]

 

Home is supposed to be a safe place. Everything that’s important to you is kept there: family pictures, documents and worldly possessions. It’s where you live with the people that you love... your family. If someone breaks into your home, you feel unprotected and vulnerable.

 

A few years after moving to Columbus, our home was broken into during the daytime. My wife and I were working. As a result, our nine-year-old daughter discovered the burglary when she came home from school. The back door was broken, and the burglar had placed a kitchen knife on the counter.

 

In Psalm 90, Moses felt unprotected. Part of his reason was due to God’s anger.

 

⁷ We wither beneath your anger;
    we are overwhelmed by your fury.
⁸ You spread out our sins before you—
    our secret sins—and you see them all.           NLT

 

Even life itself left Moses feeling vulnerable.

 

¹⁰ Our days may come to seventy years,
    or eighty, if our strength endures;
yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow,
    for they quickly pass, and we fly away.          NIV

 

As Moses prayed about this, he was reminded about who God is and His love.

 

¹ Lord, through all the generations
    you have been our home!
² Before the mountains were born,
    before you gave birth to the earth and the world,
    from beginning to end, you are God.               NLT

¹⁴ Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love,
    that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.              NIV

We do a lot of things to protect our home, ourselves and our loved ones. We put locks on our doors and fences around our yards. We have a security system installed. We put our money in the bank. We tell our children to not get in a car with a stranger.

 

All of these are good things to do. But the best thing is to pray. By doing this, we not only remind ourselves about who God is and His love for us, but also call upon Him as our refuge and home... a very safe place to be.

 

⁹ If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,”
    and you make the Most High your dwelling,
¹⁰ no harm will overtake you,
    no disaster will come near your tent.  NIV    Psalm 91

 

Copyright 2024 Joseph B Williams

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

Self-Disclosure

A Series on the Psalms – a collection of prayers
Feeling lost or misunderstood
 (Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Psalm 139 

[Life is full of emotions. The book of Psalms is a collection of prayers that express our emotions which are the cry of our soul for hope. In this series, we will be looking in the mirror of the Psalms, to learn more about ourselves and our Lord.]

  

At age sixty, for the first time in almost forty years, I found myself taking an exam. Only this exam wasn’t just to get a grade, it was to keep my job as an insurance agent. My anxiety level was out of sight as my stress increased with each question.

 

After finishing, I went over to the proctor and gave her my answers. She graded it immediately. When she casually told me that I had passed, I wanted to reach across her desk and hug her. But I resisted.

 

Self-disclosure can be a scary experience. And believe me, taking a test is a form of self-disclosure. It shows either how much you know, or don’t know. Truthfully, most people don’t like any form of self-disclosure. But in Psalm 139, David embraced it.

 

²³ Search me, God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my anxious thoughts.
²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting.               NIV

 

Not only did David ask the Lord to search his heart, but he recognized that the Lord had created him and knew him from the inside out. Talk about self-disclosure.

 

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb. NIV

¹⁶ You saw me before I was born.
    Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
    before a single day had passed.            NLT

 

David also understood that the Lord was with him everywhere he went... more self-disclosure.

 

⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.         NIV

 

Self-disclosure can be frightening. Especially if you have skeletons in your closet. I don’t know if David wrote this psalm before or after he slept with Bathsheba and had her husband killed. But either way, David most certainly had skeletons to hide.

 

And yet, he embraced self-disclosure because he took comfort in God’s character: that He is all-knowing, all-present, all-powerful and holy. But also, because even though the Lord knew all of David’s sins – past, present and future - the Lord still loved him.

 

The same is true for you and me.

 

³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.        Romans 8 NIV

 

Copyright 2024 Joseph B Williams

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

Storyworth

A Series on the Psalms – a collection of prayers
Feeling thankful
 (Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Psalm 103 

[Life is full of emotions. The book of Psalms is a collection of prayers that express our emotions which are the cry of our soul for hope. In this series, we will be looking in the mirror of the Psalms, to learn about ourselves and our Lord.]

  

For Christmas this year, my wife gave me a gift from a company called Storyworth. Each week for a year, Storyworth sends you an email question about yourself. When you answer the question, they save it for you. Then at the end of the year, they send you your very own memoir in a hard bound book.

 

But truthfully, who will read my book besides my daughter and maybe my grandchildren? This reminds me of Psalm 103.

 

¹⁵ Our days on earth are like grass;
    like wildflowers, we bloom and die.
¹⁶ The wind blows, and we are gone—
    as though we had never been here.    NLT

 

Commercial jets cruise at an altitude of up to 42,000 feet, or 7.9 miles. Think about that for a minute. The tallest building in the western hemisphere is the One World Trade Center in NYC. Although 1776 feet and 104 floors high, it pales in comparison to the cruising height of jets.

 

A few years ago, my wife took a vacation to Australia with her sister-in-law. It’s a long flight. But in order to save some money, they flew through Qatar which made it an even longer flight. She was traveling for 24 hours!

 

Now, think about these examples in terms of what David wrote about God’s love and forgiveness.

 

¹¹ For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
    so great is his love for those who fear him;
¹² as far as the east is from the west,
    so far has he removed our transgressions from us.  NIV

 

God loves us so much… it’s incomprehensible. He has taken away our sins, including the worst things that we’ve ever done; the ones we can’t even forgive ourselves for... it’s unfathomable.

 

Storyworth is a great gift that I’m looking forward to in 2024. But God’s unconditional love and forgiveness are the greatest gifts possible.

 

There is one verse in Psalm 103 that is repeated three times. That makes me think it must be important.

 

^1a Let all that I am praise the Lord;       NLT

 

Copyright 2024 Joseph B Williams

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com