Regularly reading through the Psalms is one of the most fruitful habits in my spiritual discipline. I have done this by following the reading of the Bible in a year plan or just by reading one Psalm every day for a year (enabling me to read through the Psalter two times a year if you do it six days a week). In my daily devotional this past week, I read one of my favorites, Psalm 27, which has many themes worth meditating on.
“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1)
Do you have fears? Are you afraid? There is no reason to fear; the Lord is our light and salvation. He is our stronghold.
“One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock.” (Psalm 27:4-5)
What is your greatest desire? What do you want more than anything else? The only desire that will be met for eternity is seeking the Lord. When we ask that we may dwell in the Lord's presence all the days of our lives, we know it will be met. (On a side note, in my acting days, I wrote a one-man show of six self-contained monologues titled ‘One Thing I Ask.’ Each character was working through their selfish desires and the disappointment that it brought. Little did I know that for many years I would be working through competing desires to my devotion to God.)
“For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in. Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies…Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!” (Psalm 27:10, 14)
Even if your parents forsake you, the Lord will not forsake you. The Lord will take you in. Such wonderful assurance from the Lord that he loves us as our heavenly father. My seven-year-old daughter Mariana likes to remind me that she has two dads: me and her heavenly father. The Psalmist waits for the Lord not passively but actively. You could think of most of the Psalms as an example of waiting on the Lord by praying, pleading, confessing, and praising Him. In an impatient, instant, distracted culture with shallow, untested, superficial desires, the Lord offers us himself as the only one worth asking for and seeking.
