Wednesday, October 31, 2007

How Should We Respond?

Yesterday I wrote about Psalm 30:11, and God turning my wailing into dancing. This morning I read verse 12:

that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever.
There is a song in my heart and as I consider what the Lord has done for me I want to sing!
I read that verse aloud a few times and lingered on the phrase and not be silent. After all God has done for me, when I consider who He Is, I know I must not be silent.
As I read over the entire Psalm I recognized once more how much of "me" there is in those words.
*being lifted out of the depths
*calling for help
*having confidence when I feel secure
*being dismayed when I feel insecure
*crying out for mercy
*being redeemed
*recognizing the goodness of the Lord and rejoicing in Him

My friends, God is good. Whatever your situation is today, He knows it and He can handle it. I believe He will use our sorrows and hard times for our good and His glory in His perfect time. And when He turns our wailing into dancing, when He removes our sackcloth and clothes us with joy, may we each respond by singing and not being silent - giving thanks to Him forever!

I finished my time of meditation by creating a "Thank You for..." list in my journal. What a great exercise. May I recommend it to you?

Finally, if you have never meditated through a psalm before, may I suggest giving it a try? The way I do it is I pick a psalm and read just one verse per day. I read it several times, look up any words I don't know (Like pestilence in Psalm 91 - what a lovely word. Eewww!) and spend time praying asking God what He wants to say to me through that verse. I write the verse on a piece of paper and carry it in my pocket to refer back to throughout the day.
I am so thankful for the ways God has loved me through the psalms in this time of meditation. The psalms become much more personal and I believe my relationship with God has grown stronger. Give it a try, and let me know what you think!

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9 comments:

Rochelle said...

I do this also. I love the Psalms. They speak directly to my heart. I haven't done this, but a friend of mine actually wrote her own Psalm. It was really cool.

Stacey said...

I like the idea of putting the scripture in your pocket! I'm going to try that. Thanks!

kreed said...

What a great post full of great ideas. Thanks for the insiration...

Praise and Coffee said...

Wonderful couple of posts Karen, thank you!!
Praying that your weekend meetings go well!

Sue

Annie said...

Great idea for the Psalms, I will try it! Thanks Karen.

Shawna said...

God gives us the ultimate encouraging. Great idea for meditation.

KarenW said...

Just what I needed to hear! Thanks for sharing.

Wendy said...

I've wondered about meditations. I hear it mentioned in church, or referred to in a Bible study, but only once have I heard a description of how one might go about it. Sometimes I wish there was a class for those of us that come to Christ as adults and don't know all the terms long-time Christians use. (Maybe it could be called the New Creations class?) Anyway, I appreciate your giving us this glimpse into how you do it. It wouldn't have occured to me to take one verse at a time like that, or carry it with me all day. Thanks for the welcome insight. :)

It's OK to be WEIRD! said...

Thank you for the "The way I do this is..." application part of this. It helps me to put feet to what my heart wants to do.