Psalm 24

Verses 1-2... 

The earth is the LORD's and the fullness thereof, 

  the world and those who dwell therein, 

for He has founded it upon the seas 

  and established it upon the rivers.

Hiking with friends has given me a renewed wonder at the beauty of God's creation!

When through the woods and forest glades I wander

And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees,

When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur,

And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze:

Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee:

How great Thou art! 

Goodbye June...

My dear one, 

The month of June has been profitable and busy. I enjoyed my first international travel experience as a guest performer/teacher, joined a fantastic gym, bought a new car at a great price (and in a great color), and successfully ignored a birthday. As busy as June has been, I've been able to pull back a bit, savor quiet moments, and enjoy fellowship with dear church folks and colleagues. National news headlines are more sobering than ever, but they push me to study the Scriptures more hungrily than ever. An acquaintance renewed back in January after eight long months renders me silently (and unjustifiably) hopeful. My admiration for this one only grows, but I can't speak much on this matter without feeling like a fool... I was listening to the words of an Ella Fitzgerald song that resonated well with my romantic dreaming:

Imagination is funny 

It makes a cloudy day sunny 

Makes a bee think of honey 

Just as I think of you

Imagination is crazy 

Your whole perspective gets hazy 

Starts you asking a daisy 

"What to do, what to do?"

Have you ever felt 

A gentle touch and then a kiss 

And then, and then 

Find it's only your imagination again? 

Oh well...

Imagination is silly 

You go around willy-nilly 

For example, I go around wanting you 

And yet I can't imagine that you want me too

Psalm 25

Verses 4-5...

Make me to know Your ways, O Lord;
     teach me Your paths.
Lead me in Your truth and teach me,
     for You are the God of my salvation;
     for You I wait all the day long.

So much for which to be grateful. So many areas in which I need God's wisdom.

Lord, grant me the grace to wait for Your leading and the faith to follow Your paths.

Psalm 26

Verses 3, 8...

For Your steadfast love is before my eyes,
     and I walk in Your faithfulness.
O Lord, I love the habitation of Your house
     and the place where Your glory dwells.

I'm meditating on these words this morning and trusting the Lord to completely satisfy my restless heart. Sundays are good for my soul. Yesterday was no exception.

Spirit of God, descend upon my heart;

Wean it from earth, through all its pulses move;

Stoop to my weakness, mighty as Thou art,

And make me love Thee as I ought to love.

I ask no dream, no prophet ecstasies,

No sudden rending of the veil of clay,

No angel visitant, no opening skies;

But take the dimness of my soul away.

Hast Thou not bid us love Thee, God and King?

All, all Thine own, soul, heart and strength and mind.

I see Thy cross—there teach my heart to cling:

O let me seek Thee, and O let me find.

Teach me to feel that Thou art always nigh;

Teach me the struggles of the soul to bear,

To check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh;

Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.

Teach me to love Thee as Thine angels love,

One holy passion filling all my frame;

The baptism of the heav'n-descended Dove,

My heart an altar, and Thy love the flame.

(George Croly)

Psalm 27

Verse 14...

Wait for the LORD; 

     be strong, 

     and let your heart take courage; 

     wait for the LORD!

Though I've primarily been using ESV for the verse quotes I insert here, in this case I love the KJV even better:

Wait on the LORD: 

     be of good courage, 

     and He shall strengthen thine heart: 

     wait, I say, on the LORD.

Elisabeth Elliot: "Waiting on God requires the willingness to bear uncertainty, to carry within oneself the unanswered question, lifting the heart to God about it whenever it intrudes upon one's thoughts."

While You wait in gracious wisdom and my doubts begin to rise,

I recall Your loving kindness, and lift my hopeful eyes.

While Your hand withholds the answer, I will not withhold my heart.

I will love you in Your silence, I will trust You in the dark.

(Eileen Berry)

...and can I be dismayed?

My dear one, 

This weekend was one of many escaping tears. Sometimes it truly becomes impossible to hold them back. From hearing a particularly convicting devotional at a ladies' event at my church, to realizing that I've been incredibly foolish in imagining the possibility of someone, to reading a blog article that addressed perfectly a constant struggle ... all conspire to wring tears from these tired eyes of mine.

But one hymn has been encouraging me through these past few days:

In heavenly love abiding, 

No change my heart shall fear; 

And safe is such confiding, 

For nothing changes here. 

The storm may roar around me, 

My heart may low be laid; 

But God is round about me, 

And can I be dismayed?

Wherever He may guide me, 

No want shall turn me back; 

My Shepherd is beside me 

And nothing can I lack. 

His wisdom ever waketh, 

His sight is never dim; 

He knows the way He taketh, 

And I will walk with Him. 

Green pastures are before me, 

Which yet I have not seen; 

Bright skies will soon be o'er me, 

Where the dark clouds have been. 

My hope I cannot measure, 

My path to life is free; 

My Saviour has my treasure, 

And He will walk with me. 

(Anna L. Waring)

Keep going on that path the Lord has set forth for you, my dear one, long and lonely though it may be. Someday you'll perhaps find yourself walking beside me on this journey heavenward.

-- Your Evenstar

Psalm 28

Verse 7...

The LORD is my strength and my shield; 

     in Him my heart trusts, and I am helped; 

my heart exults, 

     and with my song I give thanks to Him.

This verse, one of my very favorites in the whole Book of Psalms, is a song of praise, a confession of faith, and a statement of purpose all in one. Here are some observations I gleaned from Spurgeon's The Treasury of David…

The heart's possessions: "The Lord is my strength and my shield." 

• Strength: God is not only gives the believer strength, He also increases and perfects that strength (I Peter 5:10; I John 2:14). God's strength is made perfect in my weakness (2 Cor. 12:9).
• Shield: "You have given me the shield of Your salvation" (Ps. 18:35). God's gracious work of salvation is a shield that we are to take unto ourselves in faith, enabling us to ward off—yea, even quench—the fiery darts of temptation and doubt launched against us by the evil one.

The heart's confidence: "In Him my heart trusts."

• What futility there is in trusting anything else! May we not trust in the abundance of our riches (Ps. 52:7), or in our fleshly wisdom and false knowledge (Is. 47:10)! Psalm 2 closes with the affirmation, "Blessed are all who take refuge in Him." Surely, the more I trust, the more fully shall I know this blessedness.

The heart's experience: "I am helped."

• I should encourage myself for the future by remembering God's deliverances in the past. One of the simplest ways I can remind myself of God's past deliverances is by going back through old entries in my Bible study journal. There I can read some of the struggles I have brought before the Lord, followed by God's answers in which He did exceeding abundantly above all that I could ask or think (Eph. 3:20).

The heart's joy: "My heart exults."

• Joy in the Lord is both a duty and a privilege. I am commanded to rejoice at all times (Phil. 4:4; I Thess. 5:16), yet what a natural reflex it becomes when my hearts consciously remembers God's greatness, goodness, and grace!

The heart's music: "With my song I give thanks to Him."

• God would be worthy of our praise even if He had never done anything for us. He deserves our reverent praise and adoration because of Who He is. One day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that He is God to the glory of God the Father. Yet we the children of God have an additional motivation for worship. We have been redeemed by the blood of Christ and justified because of His righteousness! Our grateful hearts cannot help but sing with Paul, "O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways! For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen." (Rom. 11:33, 36).

Psalm 29

Verses 1-2...
Ascribe to the LORD, O heavenly beings,
ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
Ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name;
worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness.

The object of our worship is the one true God, YHWH. We offer praise to the Lord, as do the angels, because of His glory and strength, because of who He is, and because of the beauty of His holiness.

I found a hymntext based on these verses that also happens to fit with the last psalm I looked at.

Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; 

Bow down before Him, His glory proclaim; 

Gold of obedience and incense of lowliness 

Bring, and adore Him; the Lord is His Name!

Low at His feet lay thy burden of carefulness, 

High on His heart He will bear it for thee, 

Comfort thy sorrows, and answer thy prayerfulness, 

Guiding thy steps as may best for thee be. 

Fear not to enter His courts in the slenderness 
Of the poor wealth thou wouldst reckon as thine; 
Truth in its beauty, and love in its tenderness, 
These are the offerings to lay on His shrine. 

These, though we bring them in trembling and fearfulness, 

He will accept for the Name that is dear; 

Mornings of joy give for evenings of tearfulness, 

Trust for our trembling, and hope for our fear.

(John S. B. Monsell)

Psalm 30

Verse 5...

For His anger is but for a moment,
     and His favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may tarry for the night,
     but joy comes with the morning.

Amy Carmichael: "Joys are always on their way to us. They are always travelling to us through the darkness of the night. There is never a night when they are not coming."

Ann Voskamp: "Because there is never a night where joys are not coming to us, there is never a road that can’t arrive at Hope. Circumstances can go ahead and run out of time — but the courageous refuse to run out of hope. We can always hope because there is always joy traveling to us down the unexpected roads."

Knowing you

My dear one, 

My thoughts are a jumble, but if I wait to craft the perfect letter, it will never materialize...

Do I know you? To know you will be to be proud of you, your character, your accomplishments. Knowing you will make me want to introduce you to my family and friends. 

My heart has kept someone in prayer for over a year and a half. Someone whose eight-month absence left an empty place in my heart. Someone whose return this past winter brought renewed though fragile hope. Someone whose character and accomplishments have earned him the respect of all those around him. Someone with whom I'd be proud to be identified. Someone who tonight made me break into a bigger smile than I've felt for some time. 

But when it is someone who may never dare to approach a closer friendship with me, what am I to do but ask the Lord for strength to accept His will?

The intensity of my desire for attention and affection is nothing compared to Christ's jealousy for my devotion and allegiance. My longings for companionship give me a tiny glimpse of the paradisal communion between God and our first parents.

So as I fight for sleep on this sleepless night, I leave you, my dear one, with this:

Liszt's piano transcription of Schumann's Widmung ("Dedication")... 

Du meine Seele, du mein Herz,
Du meine Wonn’, O du mein Schmerz,
Du meine Welt, in der ich lebe,
Mein Himmel du, darein ich schwebe,
O du mein Grab, in das hinab
Ich ewig meinen Kummer gab.

Du bist die Ruh, du bist der Frieden,
Du bist vom Himmel mir beschieden.
Daß du mich liebst, macht mich mir wert,
Dein Blick hat mich vor mir verklärt,
Du hebst mich liebend über mich,
Mein guter Geist, mein beßres Ich!

(text by Friedrich Rückert)

Psalm 31

Verse 15... 

"...my times are in Thy hand"

Charles H. Spurgeon: The great truth is this — all that concerns the believer is in the hands of the Almighty God. "My times," these change and shift; but they change only in accordance with unchanging love, and they shift only according to the purpose of One with whom is no variableness nor shadow of a turning. "My times," that is to say, my ups and my downs, my health and my sickness, my poverty and my wealth — all those are in the hand of the Lord, who arranges and appoints according to His holy will the length of my days, and the darkness of my nights. Storms and calms vary the seasons at the divine appointment. Whether times are reviving or depressing remains with Him Who is Lord both of time and of eternity; and we are glad it is so.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Octavius Winslow: God has placed us in a school in which He is teaching us to lay our blind reason at His feet, to cease from our own wisdom and, guidance, and lean upon and confide in Him, as children with a parent. The goodness of God to us, combined with a jealous regard to His own glory, constrains Him to conceal the path along which He conducts us. His promise is, "I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them" (Isaiah 42:16)... How unfitted should we be to discharge our duties, to sustain our responsibilities, to meet our trials, cope with our difficulties, and bear with our sorrows, were they all to confront us this moment! Oh! how kindly, wisely, and tenderly does our Father deal with us! And in no part of His providential dealings is His goodness more clearly seen than in veiling all our future from our reach. Let us sit down at Jesus' feet, thanking him that the "life which we now live in the flesh," we live not by sight, but by "faith in the Son of God, who loved us, and gave Himself for us."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

My times are in Thy hand; my God, I wish them there;

My life, my friends, my soul I leave entirely to Thy care.

My times are in Thy hand; whatever they may be;

Pleasing or painful, dark or bright, as best may seem to Thee.

My times are in Thy hand; why should I doubt or fear?

My Father's hand will never cause His child a needless tear.

My times are in Thy hand, Jesus, the crucified!

Those hands my cruel sins had pierced are now my guard and guide.

My times are in Thy hand, Jesus, my Advocate:

Nor shall Thine hand be stretched in vain, for me to supplicate.

My times are in Thy hand, I'll always trust in Thee;

And, after death, at Thy right hand I shall forever be.

-- William F. Lloyd

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Father, I know that all my life is portioned out for me,

And the changes that are sure to come I do not fear to see;

But I ask Thee for a present mind intent on pleasing Thee.

I ask Thee for a thoughtful love, through constant watching wise,

To meet the glad with joyful smiles, and to wipe the weeping eyes;

And a heart at leisure from itself, to soothe and sympathize.

I would not have the restless will that hurries to and fro,

Seeking for some great thing to do or secret thing to know;

I would be treated as a child, and guided where I go.

Wherever in the world I am, in whatsoe'er estate,

I have a fellowship with hearts to keep and cultivate;

And a work of lowly love to do for the Lord on Whom I wait.

So I ask Thee for daily strength, to none that ask denied,

And a mind to blend with outward life while keeping at Thy side;

Content to fill a little space, if Thou be glorified.

And if some things I do not ask in my cup of blessing be,

I would have my spirit filled the more with grateful love to Thee,

More careful, not to serve Thee much, but to please Thee perfectly.

There are briers besetting every path that call for patient care;

There is a cross in every lot, and an earnest need for prayer;

But a lowly heart that leans on Thee is happy anywhere.

In a service which Thy will appoints there are no bonds for me;

For my inmost heart is taught "the truth" that makes Thy children "free,"

And a life of self-renouncing love is a life of liberty.

-- Anna L. Waring

Psalm 32

Verse 8...

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; 

     I will counsel you with My eye upon you. 

"I will instruct you..." -- God makes His children wise in divine matters. He gives understanding to the simple where before there was none!

"...and teach you in the way you should go..." -- God gives direction in practical matters of sanctification and godly living. His Word is "profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness."

"I will counsel you with My eye upon you" -- He doesn't merely send us out on the path of His divine decree, but goes with us as our Guide and Helper. Adam and Eve enjoyed sweet communion with God in the Garden of Eden before the Fall wrought a painful distance between them and God. But God, in sending the promised Saviour to undo the curse, made a way for us to again enter into His presence!

These three facets to God's direction for His people, outlined in Psalm 32:8, can also provide a model for His followers who seek to teach others as well. A Christian disciple-maker desires to impart godly wisdom and practical guidance, coming alongside his students to journey with them.

Psalm 33

Verses 18-22...

Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him,
on those who hope in His steadfast love,
that He may deliver their soul from death
and keep them alive in famine.
Our soul waits for the LORD;
He is our help and our shield.
For our heart is glad in Him,
because we trust in His holy name.
Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us,
even as we hope in You.

"Each member of the faithful who sings this, and takes to heart the greatness and wonder of God, is enabled more and more to rest his soul on the Lord, confident that God’s plans will succeed in the earth." (ESV Study Bible)

I'm still here

My dear one,

By God's grace, and with His enabling strength, I made it through what very well may have been the most stressful week of my life to date. Yes, even more stressful than the week I defended my dissertation (two years ago around this time). I pulled off a major state-wide event in my field, with the help of many colleagues and friends. And now I'm counting down the days to the end of the semester. Though life has kept me away from writing these letters more faithfully, my busyness has not kept me from praying for you. I'm watching and waiting, hoping silently and helping secretly...

As ever,
Your Evenstar

It is not a word spoken

It is not a word spoken, 

Few words are said; 

Nor even a look of the eyes 

Nor a bend of the head, 

But only a hush of the heart 

That has too much to keep, 

Only memories waking 

That sleep so light a sleep. 

—Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)