God Feels the Pain
2007-12-26

I hope everyone had a really good Christmas! Unfortunately, I didn't have time to do this yesterday, as we were up pretty late Christmas Eve and by the time I got up Christmas morning, everyone else got up, too, so we basically went straight to the important task of, well, you know...opening those presents.

For today, Psalm 116.
I love the LORD, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy.
Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish.
Then I called on the name of the LORD: "O LORD, I pray, deliver my soul!"
Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; our God is merciful.
The LORD preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me.
Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.

For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling;
I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.

I believed, even when I spoke, "I am greatly afflicted"; I said in my alarm, "All mankind are liars."

What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits to me?
I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD,
I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people.

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.
O LORD, I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds.
I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the LORD.
I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people,
in the courts of the house of the LORD, in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Praise the LORD!


Whew. That's a long one. But verse 15 is a great comfort to any of us who have had loved ones pass on before us. "Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints." I love that verse.

Day 38

read
2 Samuel 24:13-17, 25

This has always been a troublesome passage. David is being punished for a very strange sin. A sin, in fact, that God actually incited him to do. And that was the numbering of the fighting men of Israel.

think/pray

I'm asked to imaginatively replay the story, inserting myself as a character, either as David or one of his elders.

What do you think and feel as you hear God's words of discipline?
It would be a terrible thing, first of all to hear the disciplinary words of God Almighty, and then to know that this punishment was coming about as a direct result of my sin. If I were David, I would have to face that fact that my sin was affecting an entire nation.
What do you experience as you walk through this tension-filled and tragic day?
As David, I see death and sickness everywhere; death that I essentially caused. It is too much for me, and I finally have to cry out to God to not punish those who had no part in my sin. I am not angry at God, but at myself. Perhaps I am afraid to approach him, but in faith, I do so anyway. When I finally see the angel hovering over the city with sword drawn, it is too much for me. I even dress myself in burlap to signify my contrition. Finally, the prayer of myself and the elders stays the hand of destruction, and God's heart is moved. The disaster is over.

live

C.S. Lewis is quoted.

[Each sinful act leaves a mark]on that tiny central self which no one sees in this life but which each of us will have to endure--or enjoy--for ever. One man may be so placed that his anger sheds the blood of thousands, and another so placed that, however angry he gets, he will only be laughed at. But the little mark on the soul may be much the same in both.

I'm asked if I have any of these "little marks" on my soul that I've never talked about with God. I need to explore this possibility and talk to God about it, and especially make not of any action I feel he is leading me towards.

Grace and peace, y'all.



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