Hiding in Thee

(Psa 71:3 KJV)  Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort: thou hast given commandment to save me; for thou art my rock and my fortress.

(Proverbs 25 also read)

Put aside your yearning to emulate John Wayne.  We are not stand alone giants, defying everything that the world throws at us.  Sure, we stand tall but we also get worn down.  This is a time for heading for our “strong” (6697) “habitation” (4583).  Here the NASB is more literal with “rock of habitation”.  The idea is a fortress where we can get out of the storm.

“Continually” (8548) does a good job of getting across the expectation that we are going to need to make this a lifestyle, not the exception.  What surprised me when I look at the software was that this is a noun.  It is continuity rather than continually.  

So?  Seek Him and rejoice that He shelters us.  He will send us out again but the assurance of a fortress behind us adds strength to our stance.  

The Real Danger

Psalms 71:13 (KJV) Let them be confounded and consumed that are adversaries to my soul; let them be covered with reproach and dishonour that seek my hurt.

(Proverbs 11 also read)

We all encounter roadblocks in life.  Most of them are just the every day difficulties that we have to navigate through.  A traffic jam on the interstate might make it questionable whether you will be on time for work.  I remember one time when I was the treasurer of a church and I just could not find the reason that my books did not balance. I was only two cents off.  It finally came down to an adding error that a clerk had made in the store.  A child throwing up in the middle of the night when you have a big day in the morning can make life difficult.  Lots of roadblocks come our way.  For the most part, we can handle those.

But here it talks about “adversaries” to my “soul”.  This is a different category.  Often these adversaries are very close to us.  They could be an intimate part of our lives.  They could be a spouse, a child, a lifelong friend.  Sometimes they know what they’re doing.  Sometimes it’s just accidental.  The problem is it arrows deep.  It goes for the heart, the soul.  The prayer here is that they would be “confounded”.

So?  Keep your eyes on the prize, as the saying goes.  Keep focused on where God wants you to be.  Call upon him to confuse the enemy and clarify things for you.  He has access to resources you can’t even dream of. 

Matching Verses

(Psa 71:15 KJV)  My mouth shall shew forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day; for I know not the numbers thereof.

(Proverbs 7 also read)

I don’t know why it still surprises me, but there are those days when you have some thoughts running through your head and you read a few verses of scripture and it’s like someone had an arrow right at your target.  This morning as I was contemplating the attributes of God, and how difficult it is for us to even grasp His reality, I was humbled by the limitations of my vocabulary, let alone my understanding.

And then I come across this verse, which points out to me that even David, or whoever was the author of this Psalm, couldn’t begin to approach, understanding God’s righteousness, or our salvation.  It is good to be in such company.  It is good to be reminded that in one small part of His awareness God is paying attention to what’s going through my mind.

So?  I certainly can’t guarantee it every day, but the Bible speaks to us where we are and where we’re going. 

Joyful ignorance

(Psa 71:15 KJV)  My mouth shall shew forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day; for I know not the numbers thereof.

(Proverbs 11 also read)

What a great joy it is to know that we can never even begin to approach the blessings that God has for us.  Here David, or whoever is writing this Psalm, is rejoicing, in the fact that he can speak about the righteousness of God.  He can talk about his salvation.  And yet he admits his ignorance about how glorious and how eternal this is.

That’s where we should be. We should be rejoicing in what we do know, and getting excited about the things that we do not know.  And I might say that we don’t know yet, or I might even say that we will never comprehend the total of what God has for us.

So?  Are you living in joy?  Are you living in ignorance?  I am living in joyful ignorance, content in what I do know now and the Person that I know forever. 

Ashamed of Confusion

(Psa 71:1 KJV)  In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion.

(Proverbs 11 also read)

I am reading today in the KJV and instead of the “ashamed” of the NASB it has “confusion” (954).  The NASB has the more frequent translation, in fact it is the most common in the KJV also, but here it caught my eye.  As I get older I find that my peers seem more and more “confused”.  I am sure that I seem the same to them.  It is part of life and is more pronounced in some than in others.

We develop skill in covering this up and hiding it from others, but eventually people begin to catch on.  It is more than just the occasional forgotten word.  It is being out of touch with the greater reality.  I remember my wife’s grandmother.  If you were only around her for a few minutes you thought she was one of the sharp tacks in the room.  The longer you were with her the more that faded.  The jokes were funny the first time but when repeated lost a bit of zest.

So?  We need to be compassionate with those going through this.  We need to develop the patience to live with it when it hits us.  We need to pray for clarity of mind.  We don’t know the physical reasons for why some decline and others remain sharp.  I pray that God rewards me with mental ability that does not make me ashamed or confused.