Reading: Psalm 73
Verses 21-28
When my heart was grieved
and my spirit embittered,
I was senseless and ignorant;
I was a brute beast before you.
Yet I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will take me into glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.
Those who are far from you will perish;
you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.
But as for me, it is good to be near God.
I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge;
I will tell of all your deeds (NIV).
Reflection
I love the brutal honesty of the psalmist. I always like to think I am the smartest one in the room, but the truth is I am very capable of wrong-headed thinking. Wrong thinking often leads to hurtful words or unwise actions. Take a moment to consider the psalmist’s confession: When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.
Kanazawa, Japan – photo by David Kitz
That’s brutal honesty. Are we that honest with God when our reasoning goes off the straight and narrow rails? Or do we justify our thoughts and blame God or others when we are ticked off?
We need to come into God’s sanctuary to have our hearts and minds tuned into the LORD’s thinking. The LORD reminds us that He knows the big picture. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:9).
When we are in God’s presence, we can have our affections adjusted. All too often I have my priorities all messed up. What about you? The amazing truth about God is that He loves us despite our mess ups. The psalmist knows the power of that love. Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.
What a patient, loving God we serve! This should become our humble confession: Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
Response: LORD God, I want to have your perspective. I want to see as you see. Remind me to take time to be with you. But as for me, it is good to be near God. Amen.
Your Turn: How do you get your affections in tune with God?
I love the Psalms 
Reblogged this on Vanier House of Prayer.
How slow to anger is our God. His patience is inconceivable. We stumble through life, trying to handle things in our own way, and when we realize that we can’t do it alone, He’s there waiting to show us the way. Awesome!
He truly is awesome! Stumble along—that’s me. Great in mercy—that’s God!
Amen!
“You hold me by my right hand ………… and afterwards you will take me into glory.”
Truly our security is in God alone….. and I’ve often mused ………….
since God is holding me by my right hand …. am I at His left, or is He facing me while He holds my right hand? Is He holding my right hand in both His hands as He faces me? Does it matter that the place of highest honour is at my Father’s right hand where my Lord Jesus sits, and yet I’m on His left hand in this Psalm? In Christ, I’m at the Father’s right hand positionally. But if it’s all of God and none of me, then it matters not whether I’m at His right or His left in this Psalm, only that He’s holding my hand and will not relinquish His grip upon me (John 10:28-29), so I’m secure in His firm grip….. and as the Psalmist says …. what does it matter what side of God I’m on, it’s just good to be near Him.
(Just some musings, friend, just some musings).
Michael
I like your musings, Michael. It helped me to picture God’s very personal and intimate love.
Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging.
Experience good or bad, and we will have both of these in our daily lives, just pause and……………..experience the “But God” ………..or in other words “Let go and let God”
Yes Marge, we need those moment when we relax our grip and leave our troubles and issues in God’s hands.