Scripture

Be angry and do not sin. Meditate within your heart on your bed and be still. Selah

~Psalm 4:4, NKJV

Quote

Enjoying the Psalms requires a quiet and restful soul; otherwise you will fail to grasp what the Holy Spirit has to say to you.

~Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I know I joke about being born in a hurry, and I have learned the hard way that haste makes waste. In my latter years I have slowed down; partly because I have no choice. Physically speaking, my running days are over. June and I were at the Doctor on Tuesday and I saw a man who was walking almost as slow as a turtle. I almost chuckled and then a little voice said rather distinctly, “Don’t laugh, that could be you and it may be you before its over.” Some things cannot be rushed. You don’t rush into prayer or rush through it. Your anxious spirit will kill the moment. You can’t rush worship. You can’t rush through your quiet time in the morning. I don’t like having anything scheduled in the morning. I want the freedom to stay in my office to lunch. I don’t always get to do it, but I do love being free to do it. You can’t rush inspiration and you cannot presume upon either.

Selah is a musical notation or what they call in music a ‘rest’ or a pause. It a brief moment to breath in deep and to think. Selah is used 71 times in the Psalms. It is there to remind us to slow down, give the LORD some unhurried time. You do not have too much to do that you can’t spend at least an half hour in unhurried devotion. One of the great weaknesses of my life has been my task oriented drive to get things done and as much as possible. But this can be a weakness, a flaw of sorts because God is speaking in and through your daily activity, and when we get in a rush, we miss what He is trying to show us or teach us. So slow down, take a deep breath and read a Psalm. Take a deep breath and read it again. Mediate for a moment and then read it again. See if God doesn’t speak after that third reading.

The Psalms are deep. I can’t find the bottom and I dive into them daily. I don’t believe the Psalms are amazing: I know they are amazing.

Extra

I made my normal rounds yesterday and didn’t see much storm damage but last night, we took the Rock Springs road, turned on to Depriest and saw those giant oaks laying on the ground. Vaugh Bridge Road has at least a dozen big oaks down. I have never seen as many trees fall in one spring and I am afraid we have more coming. Amazingly, our corn is thriving. I think we will have some tasseling by the end of the week. Even our tomatoes are growing.

We started a new study in Philippians last night and I enjoyed it. I don’t know about anyone else. I think we have a special message for Sunday and then we will get back to our NT survey.

I hope you have a great day with no storms and electricity. Thank you for reading the blog.