Friday, May 19, 2023

How is life treating you?

Losing a newborn baby
Betrayal of a friend
Opposed by leadership
Accused wrongfully
Betrayal of a grown child
Losing an adult child
Physical Afflictions

The list really could go on and on.  Let's face it, we have troubles, don't we?  But this list was what the Psalmist had faced in his life.  David did not have an easy road to travel.  Yet, through his trials we are able to read and draw comfort from a precious book, Psalms.  
I am finding so many truths to ponder as I dive deeper into Psalm 119.  This morning I was reading verse 83,
"For I am become like a bottle in the smoke; yet do I not forget they statutes."
I thought for a little bit and was tempted to keep reading.  But then my curiosity took over and I had to search it out.
The "bottle" was most likely an animal skin that was used to hold liquids or solids.  They were typiclly hung suspended from a roof.  Because of the chimney system in many homes, they would become black from the smoke.  Sometimes this would cause them to shrivel, harden, and get brittle.   David felt like that bottle.  Have you ever been there?  "Life" has a way of surprising us with events we never planned or expected for us.  Sometimes we allow those circumstances to darken us with sin, cloud our judgement, and make us hardened.  I love how God used real people to pen His Words.  We can sometimes relate to David.  But, the amazing part, the encouraging part, the part that makes me not want to give up, is that David didn't stay there!  He recognized how he felt and knew that's not what he wanted for his life. 
 He goes on to say a few verses later in verse 88,
"Quicken me after thy lovingkindness;  so shall I keep the testimony of thy mouth."
He wanted to be quickened.  I love the definition of QUICKEN- to be made alive, revived, to continue in life and to be preserved alive. 
If that bottle was left suspended from the rafters, being subject to all the smoke, it would turn black, harden, get brittle and crack, and then would not be usable anymore.  David felt like that, but he wanted to be filled again, to be usable, to be fresh and not dirtied with sin.  He wanted to be quickened.

Dear sister in Christ, have you ever been there?  If you were to step back and take a look at your countenance, your responses and reactions, your tone of voice from today, would you say that you are brittle and hardened?  You don't have to stay there!  Just like David, you can ask God to quicken and make you alive again!

The amazing thing about God's Word is that He doesn't just reveal the problem, He always gives the answers.  As I glanced through Psalm 119 my eyes found many examples of how to be quickened again.   
"Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction."  vs 92
"Thou art my hiding place and my shield:  I hope in thy word." vs 114
"Let thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may live:  for thy law is my delight."  vs 77

Over and over you see David's response to feeling like that bottle in the smoke.  He gives us an outline of how to be made usable again, how to keep going for Christ in the midst of storms, and how to walk daily in this life.  God's Word is amazing!
Let me encourage you, do a deep dive study into the wonderful Psalm 119.  Make a list for yourself of how to become quickened.  God's Word is exactly what you need today and everyday!




 

2 comments: