June 18 - Psalms 26-31: Across a Lifetime

When you read this post on Saturday, I will be on my way to serve on staff at the Breathe Conference in Switzerland.  It's a time "designed for the renewal and enrichment of singles, couples, and families who serve cross-culturally."  I am overwhelmed with details, overwhelmed with excitement, and overwhelmed with my own inadequacies!  A friend reminded me yesterday what God did with 5 loaves and 2 fish and that He can take my meager offering and multiply it.  Whew - pressure's off!   So, Cici will be taking over for a few days and then I'll jump back in when settled and have internet access.

But for today, I found our readings interesting in that we have both the beginning and end of David's life represented in these psalms.  Psalm 31 is placed when Saul is chasing after David to kill him (1 Sam. 23) and then Psalms 29 and 30 are near the end of his life when he's preparing to build the temple.  (As a side note, Psalms 27 and 28 are placed during the time of Absalom's rebellion.)

Contrasting the earlier and later years of David's life, we hear his desperation in Psalm 31.  The demands from David for God to come through for him.  The raw honesty of David wondering if God is able and even knows about his plight.  A man who wants desperately to believe that God is all that He says He is, but there's still a question, a lack of experiential knowledge.

I run to you, God; I run for dear life. Don't let me down!  Get down on my level and listen, and please - no procrastination!...Desperate I throw myself on you:  you are my God!...Trapped by a siege, I panicked.  "Out of sight, out of mind," I said.  But you heard me say it, you heard and listened.  (31:1-2, 14, 21-22)

God doesn't leave David in his distress, but answers him:

"In desperate confusion and anguish, you will know Me in ways no one knows Me in comfort." (66LL)

Later in David's life, "after he had conquered foreign enemies and subdued internal revolt, he planned for the future, including preparing for the building of the temple."    He had experienced much of God.  David knew God's voice as well as His deliverance and provision.  The tone of these psalms is different, confident, resting in what he now intimately knows about God:

I give you all the credit, God - you got me out of that mess, you didn't let my foes gloat.  God, my God, I yelled for help and you put me together....All you saints!  Sing your hearts out to God!  Thank him to his face!  He gets angry once in a while, but across a lifetime there is only love.  The nights of crying your eyes out give way to days of laughter.

When things were going great I crowed, "I've got it made.  I'm God's favorite.  He made me king of the mountain."  Then you looked the other way and I fell to pieces....

You did it:  you changed wild lament into whirling dance...God, my God, I can't thank you enough.  Psalm 30:1-2, 4-7, 11-12

I'm still in the early years, desperate for understanding of my circumstances, sometimes wondering if God has forgotten about me.  But, I'm experiencing a deeper intimacy with Him that is revealing that across my lifetime - in spite of circumstances, wounds, and even blessings - there is only His unfailing love.