Tag Archives: “You Are Always There”

Qoph

¹⁴⁵ I pray with all my heart; answer me, Lord!
    I will obey your decrees.
¹⁴⁶ I cry out to you; rescue me,
    that I may obey your laws.
¹⁴⁷ I rise early, before the sun is up;
    I cry out for help and put my hope in your words.
¹⁴⁸ I stay awake through the night,
    thinking about your promise.
¹⁴⁹ In your faithful love, O Lord, hear my cry;
    let me be revived by following your regulations.
¹⁵⁰ Lawless people are coming to attack me;
    they live far from your instructions.
¹⁵¹ But you are near, O Lord,
    and all your commands are true.
¹⁵² I have known from my earliest days
    that your laws will last forever.

Psalm 119:145-152

Dear God, with this day, I have four days left in Psalm 119. I have to say, I’m ready to be done. Mainly because the sense I get from the psalmist is that they just aren’t at peace. He seems so wrapped around the axle. Maybe I’m wrong and I’ve completely misread him, his life, his intentions, and even his theology. But I just find myself wanting to sit with him and encouraging him to relax and know the Jesus I know. And the Jesus I know didn’t get rid of the law. In fact, he raised the standard. But he made love for you and others and then compassion, forgiveness, and mercy the foundation for everything. In fact, he chastises the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2 for doing everything that looks right but then losing their first love. This guy loves you. I don’t doubt that. But there is certainly more to worshipping you than doing everything right.

With that said, let’s look at today’s Qoph section:

• ¹⁴⁵ I pray with all my heart; answer me, Lord! I will obey your decrees. – See, he loves you. He prays with all of his heart. I have no doubt he loves you. And that is wonderful to see. In fact, he probably prays more fervently than I do. Do I pray with all my heart? That might actually be convicting this morning. I pray earnestly. I pray thoughtfully. I pray intentionally. But I’m not sure I do it with all my heart. I think I have to be in a more desperate mode to pray with all my heart.
• ¹⁴⁶ I cry out to you; rescue me, that I may obey your laws. – If I’m ever asking to be rescued, I think it is so I can worship you and continue being salt and light in the world for you. That seems like a more appropriate reason to ask for rescue than just so I can obey your laws. I don’t think you created us to obey your laws. You created us for relationship and then gave us laws through which we could live an effective life in relationship with you. Oh, how I’m hope I’m not just typing heresy here.
• ¹⁴⁷ I rise early, before the sun is up; I cry out for help and put my hope in your words. – I have an early meeting this Saturday morning, but here I am up a little early so I would have time to do this. The sun will be up later, but right now I need you. In fact, we are doing something important for work today. This is probably a good opportunity to express my need for you. We need your guidance. We need your vision. We need to see the man/woman calling to us that needs us and figure out how to reach them in your name. Help us to know what that need is and how to reach it.
• ¹⁴⁸ I stay awake through the night, thinking about your promise. – It’s important to remember what you promised and what you didn’t promise. My wife and I visited with a friend last night who told us about a conversation he had with a woman about the recent floods in Kerrville. She attributed it to you basically smiting the area and those who suffered. He was shocked at her perspective. I would counter that your earth is in motion, and it’s not a safe earth. It has natural disasters. It has man-made disasters. It has man-made horrors. And I believe that sometimes you choose to intervene and rescue us from them, but there is no way for me to figure out the rhyme or reason to them this side of life. But you will always comfort those who mourn. You will save your people from the second death. Those are the promises. Expecting anything beyond that, on my part, is wishful, selfish thinking (in my opinion).
• ¹⁴⁹ In your faithful love, O Lord, hear my cry; let me be revived by following your regulations. – Revive me. When I’m down and weary, revive me. When I drift from you, Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit, revive me. Please, give me exactly what I need to accomplish what you have for me to do.
• ¹⁵⁰ Lawless people are coming to attack me; they live far from your instructions. – Help me to share you with those who attack me. Help me to be your messenger to them. Give me words to speak. Give me mercy for them (something I often lack). And they would probably tell you I live far from your instructions. Help me to see any truth in their attacks on me.
• ¹⁵¹ But you are near, O Lord, and all your commands are true. – This makes me think of an old Christian song by a group from the 90s called Rachel Rachel, “You are Always There.” Chorus: “You are always there holding me closely. In your tender arms the wonder of your love falls on me.” Thank you for this verse being true. It doesn’t have to be, but it is. You are faithful. You are true. You are always there.
• ¹⁵² I have known from my earliest days that your laws will last forever. – I can’t quite say my earliest days, but I have certainly known you from a young age, and I am grateful I learned to follow you before I did too much damage to myself. When I think of some different directions my life could have gone when I was a child and where those roads could have led, it is sobering. Who knows where I would be if I hadn’t been in an environment where I could find you.

Father, I am about to go into this board retreat for our nonprofit. Be with us. Be among us. Do it all for your glory and our growth in you.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen