ChosenRebel's Blog

Sunday Afternoon Musings

What do you do when the mere reading of the Scripture reduces you to tears?

What do you do when your heart is longing for some … something your lips can’t describe and our mind can’t explain but your spirit knows … something is needed, something it can almost taste, something it can almost reach … but not quite? 

Like standing on tippy-toes trying to touch something that is just the tiniest fraction away but unreachable nevertheless.

What do you do when your spirit is longing for God and he seems just out of reach?

I’ll tell you where I go.

I go to the Psalms.
I go to an undistracted place.
I go to a silent place.

And I listen to the voice of God in his word as I pour out my longing to God. God’s Spirit, expressed through David, becomes my teacher and and I use David’s words to frame my prayer for the satisfaction of a longing that only God can give. Today, stimulated by a reading in our service I will be in Psalm 63.  Join me.

Psalm 63 (ESV)

1 A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
       my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you,
       as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
2 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
       beholding your power and glory.
3 Because your steadfast love is better than life,
       my lips will praise you.
4 So I will bless you as long as I live;
       in your name I will lift up my hands.
5 My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,
       and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,
6 when I remember you upon my bed,
       and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
7 for you have been my help,
       and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.
8 My soul clings to you;
       your right hand upholds me.
9 But those who seek to destroy my life
       shall go down into the depths of the earth;
10 they shall be given over to the power of the sword;
       they shall be a portion for jackals.
11 But the king shall rejoice in God;
       all who swear by him shall exult,
       for the mouths of liars will be stopped.