July 9--Psalm 61

Hey yall! I think I might accually put this blog thing to some use now... I've been trying to keep up w/ this like, 'devotions journal' to 1, help me keep up w/ my Bible reading, and 2, to help me make sure i accually try to learn from what i'm reading. Well, i figured, why not share what I write? So, i'm gonna try to start doing that, it's usually just a little something i found in what i read and i comment on it, nothing big or drastic. Be sure to leave your own comments or shoot me an email about it! It'll be cool to hear back from yall, to hear your persepective on the passage. Well, here's todays:

(Btw, if anyone cares, my Bible is an ESV (English Standard Version))

Psalm 61

This Psalm is another of David's Psalms of worship and crying out to God. It sounds like this one was written during David's time as king of Israel, but I'm not sure when exactly. I just noticed something in verses 4. It says:

"Let me dwell in your tent forever!

Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings! Selah"

Usually I hear this in the KJV which I think says "Let me dwell in thine house forever." When I read the word "tent" I started thinking, why did he use that word? Right before this verse it talks about God being "a strong tower against the enemy," and I thought it was odd to go from a strong tower to a tent. Well, I remembered that the word "tabernacle" means "tent." The tabernacle was where God came and visited Israel, it was where He dwelled in the nation, and that was where people had to go to commune and talk w/ God.

The next phrase talks about being under the shelter of God's wings. Usually people take this verse and think of a bird taking her young under her wing a very peaceful and picturesque picture... but I don't think that's quite what David was going for here. If you keep the Tabernacle idea in mind what in the tabernacle had wings? In the Holy of Holy's was the Ark of the Covenant, which had two angels, cherubim, on top who were facing each other. Their wings went above the ark and met in the middle.

I think what David was saying here was he wanted to be as close to God as possible. He didn't want to just be in the tabernacle, but he wanted to be in the Holy of Holy's. He wanted to be in the very spot where God sat.

It's obvious what we can take from this. Do we have the same love of God that David had? When we're going through hard times, as David apparently was when he wrote this, who do we look to? What do we want for comfort? Do we cry out to God Almighty, our friend and protector? I know that for me, when I'm going through something rough, I don't usually go to my knees to pray first. I usually pull out my cell and flip through the phone book to find someone to listen to my problems. If no one can talk, I just sit and think by myself. It's not till later usually that it dawns on me, it's like "oh yeah, God's there for me.." I know I need to turn to Him first. He wants a relationship w/ us, He wants to be a part of our lives, and a big part of that is trusting Him w/ all of our problems throughout life.