Sunday Devotional: Psalm 150 ~ Praise the LORD!

The close of one year ... the beginning of the next. Through the joys, the sorrows, whatever each of us might have faced, and in whatever mixture, I pray that one thing has remained constant for each of you ... a sense of God’s presence, and the knowledge that regardless of circumstances, He is most worthy of our praises.

Psalm 150 (NKJV)

Praise the Lord!

Praise God in His sanctuary;
Praise Him in His mighty firmament!

² Praise Him for His mighty acts;
Praise Him according to His excellent greatness!

³ Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet;
Praise Him with the lute and harp!
⁴ Praise Him with the timbrel and dance;
Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes!
⁵ Praise Him with loud cymbals;
Praise Him with clashing cymbals!

⁶ Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord!

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Sunday Devotional: Psalm 145 and Mary's Magnificat

Just eleven Psalms left. #140 thru #150 span two major themes, the first several being that of throwing ourselves in utter desperation on the Lord, the last Psalms of focused, joyous, almost ecstatic praise to His glory.

And since either, or both, can accurately reflect the Christmas season ...

I got to thinking about the original event. How a young, apparently unremarkable Jewish village girl was singled out by the awesome Lord of the universe and visited by one of His most noteworthy angels. She accepts the honor given her—and some of us might say, of course, except we have to remember Moses’ stubborn, stammering refusal at the burning bush. And you know she had to be terrified, since this doomed her to the stigma of unwed mother, immoral woman, and put the whole of her adult life and reputation in jeopardy ...

Whether before or after facing her family, we’re not told, but she runs off to her cousin Elizabeth, whose husband Zacharias had recently experienced a similar visitation. Elizabeth was hiding out at home, because she’d been informed they’d have a child in their old age, and could it really be true? What if she lost the baby and Zacharias was mistaken?

³⁹ Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, ⁴⁰ and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. ⁴¹ And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. ⁴² Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! ⁴³ But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? ⁴⁴ For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. ⁴⁵ Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.”

⁴⁶ And Mary said:

“My soul magnifies the Lord,
⁴⁷ And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
⁴⁸ For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant;
For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.
⁴⁹ For He who is mighty has done great things for me,
And holy is His name.
⁵⁰ And His mercy is on those who fear Him
From generation to generation.
⁵¹ He has shown strength with His arm;
He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
⁵² He has put down the mighty from their thrones,
And exalted the lowly.
⁵³ He has filled the hungry with good things,
And the rich He has sent away empty.
⁵⁴ He has helped His servant Israel,
In remembrance of His mercy,
⁵⁵ As He spoke to our fathers,
To Abraham and to his seed forever.”

One of the most beautiful, majestic psalms ever, right there, from a village girl barely in her mid-teens, if that. So loved that it gets referred to as Mary’s Magnificat.

As I read this, I wonder, did the Holy Spirit draw these words as an echo to other, older ones that Mary surely heard many times over the course of her still-young life?

Christmas is a time of year everyone has fought over, it seems, from  the Catholic Church’s early attempts to unify people in one faith, to those who felt the same church perverted the simplicity of God’s word, to modern-day groups who, in their zeal for pure worship, claim celebrating it at all is pagan. The season certainly has become a conglomeration of commercialism, greed, sentimentality, and dare I add idolatry? The simple, core truth of God becoming Man is almost unrecognizable under the monstrous layers.

If there’s any beauty at all in the Christmas season, however, this psalm certainly proclaims it. Notice how it echoes—or maybe foreshadows—Mary’s.

Psalm 145 (NKJV) ~ A Praise of David

I will extol You, my God, O King;
And I will bless Your name forever and ever.
² Every day I will bless You,
And I will praise Your name forever and ever.
³ Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
And His greatness is unsearchable.

⁴ One generation shall praise Your works to another,
And shall declare Your mighty acts.
⁵ I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty,
And on Your wondrous works.
⁶ Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts,
And I will declare Your greatness.
⁷ They shall utter the memory of Your great goodness,
And shall sing of Your righteousness.

⁸ The Lord is gracious and full of compassion,
Slow to anger and great in mercy.
⁹ The Lord is good to all,
And His tender mercies are over all His works.

¹⁰ All Your works shall praise You, O Lord,
And Your saints shall bless You.
¹¹ They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom,
And talk of Your power,
¹² To make known to the sons of men His mighty acts,
And the glorious majesty of His kingdom.
¹³ Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
And Your dominion endures throughout all generations.

¹⁴ The Lord upholds all who fall,
And raises up all who are bowed down.
¹⁵ The eyes of all look expectantly to You,
And You give them their food in due season.
¹⁶ You open Your hand
And satisfy the desire of every living thing.

¹⁷ The Lord is righteous in all His ways,
Gracious in all His works.
¹⁸ The Lord is near to all who call upon Him,
To all who call upon Him in truth.
¹⁹ He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him;
He also will hear their cry and save them.
²⁰ The Lord preserves all who love Him,
But all the wicked He will destroy.
²¹ My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord,
And all flesh shall bless His holy name
Forever and ever.

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Sunday Devotional: Psalm 139 ~ God with us

Emmanuel. God with us.

He is the God who is with us.

Through joy, through blessings, when the road is smooth and the weather clear.

Through sorrow, through loss, through hardship. Even when it feels like He’s abandoned us to our circumstances or at least to the storm of our emotions.

Psalm 139 (NKJV) ~ For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
² You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thought afar off.
³ You comprehend my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.
⁴ For there is not a word on my tongue,
But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.
⁵ You have hedged me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is high, I cannot attain it.

Can we even really comprehend the thoroughness with which God knows us and our situation? With how closely He watches over us and, as this passage says, surrounds us with Himself?

⁷ Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
⁸ If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
⁹ If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
¹⁰ Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold me.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,”
Even the night shall be light about me;
¹² Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,
But the night shines as the day;
The darkness and the light are both alike to You.

These were the words the Spirit whispered to my heart one lonely night, lying in a hospital after the birth of my sixth child, who had been whisked away to the local medical university.  I felt so alone, so desolate, not knowing if he would live or die. If I make my bed in hell ... and yet, He whispered, I am there. Was I swallowed up by darkness? It made no difference, because His eyes  penetrate the deepest shadow. Indeed, to Him there is no difference between light and dark.

¹³ For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.

Every one of our days is mapped out by the brilliance of God’s genius. That means nothing happens by accident—which may not be a comfort, when we consider how hard (or purposeless) some things seem to be. But can we trust that He does indeed have a purpose?

¹⁷ How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
¹⁸ If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
When I awake, I am still with You.

Even His thoughts are with us. His very thoughts. He doesn’t set our lives in motion then walk away ... He’s paying attention. All the time.

¹⁹ Oh, that You would slay the wicked, O God!
Depart from me, therefore, you bloodthirsty men.
²⁰ For they speak against You wickedly;
Your enemies take Your name in vain.
²¹ Do I not hate them, O Lord, who hate You?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?
²² I hate them with perfect hatred;
I count them my enemies.

We have it drummed into our heads that it isn’t “nice” to hate anyone ... that it isn’t righteous. But is there not cause to hate evil? To hate the darkness that wreaks such havoc on the innocent?

It is not wrong to grieve the wickedness done in this world. Indeed, evil breaks the heart of God Himself—it is what drove Him, in love, to step down from heaven and become one of us so that He could redeem us and put an end to evil.

²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
²⁴ And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.

And this is the God we trust to know us, to search our deepest depths, to shape us into what we should be, need to be. The God who loves us. Who became our Savior.

The God who is with us.

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Sunday Devotional: Psalm 130 ~ Emmanuel shall come

One of the things I love about the Christmas season is having more reason to listen to a handful of favorite carols that, to me, serve as much as worship songs as anything. Probably my favorite, in any arrangement and style, is “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” There’s something universally appealing about a song of any age or season that touches upon our deepest aches and longings, and points us to the hope of a Savior, and we see that all over the psalms.

This one, especially, resonates with the theme of Christmas. Keep in mind as you read that Emmanuel means God with us.

Psalm 130 (NKJV) ~ A Song of Ascents.

O Come, O come Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel ...

Out of the depths I have cried to You, O Lord;
² Lord, hear my voice!
Let Your ears be attentive
To the voice of my supplications.

... that mourns in lonely exile here ...

³ If You, Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
⁴ But there is forgiveness with You,
That You may be feared.

... until the Son of God appear ...

⁵ I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
And in His word I do hope.
⁶ My soul waits for the Lord
More than those who watch for the morning—
Yes, more than those who watch for the morning.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel!

⁷ O Israel, hope in the Lord;
For with the Lord there is mercy,
And with Him is abundant redemption.
⁸ And He shall redeem Israel
From all his iniquities.

He is our Savior, in any time, in any season. He came once ... He shall come, yet again.

~~~~~~~~

One of my favorite versions of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” was sung by 70’s Christian artist Evie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CohbAHsUk2w

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Sunday Devotional: Psalm 126 ~ harvest of joy

Psalm 126 (NKJV) ~ A Song of Ascents.

Another short and sweet one from among the songs of ascent ...

When the Lord brought back the captivity of Zion,
We were like those who dream.
² Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
And our tongue with singing.
Then they said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
³ The Lord has done great things for us,
And we are glad.

Nothing compares to the joy of knowing just what the Lord has done for us—the simple fact of being set free from our captivity, here referred to in a literal sense, when Israel was released to return to the land after being led away by the Babylonians. But for us, the deeper and more desperate captivity of the sin we’re all born into.

What makes that joy even sweeter is when others recognize the change, and marvel and rejoice along with us.

⁴ Bring back our captivity, O Lord,
As the streams in the South.

⁵ Those who sow in tears
Shall reap in joy.
⁶ He who continually goes forth weeping,
Bearing seed for sowing,
Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
Bringing his sheaves with him.

The psalm ends with a beautiful reminder that none of our tears and angst is wasted, when we’re laboring for something worthwhile. Indeed, our tears might be the very thing which waters the seed.

The harvest will come, as echoed in Galatians, when the season is right ... and it will be accompanied with joy.

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Sunday Devotional: Psalm 121 ~ the God who watches and keeps

Psalm 121 (NKJV) ~ A Song of Ascents

The songs of ascent is a collection of short Psalms, meant to be sung while on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, or as some suggest, while ascending the steps of the Temple (one Psalm for each step). This one, in all its sweet brevity, seems perfect for a week when many are traveling and most are thinking of home and family ...

I will lift up my eyes to the hills—
From whence comes my help?
² My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.

As we survey God’s creation in all its glory, may we never forget the true source of our help ... the One who shaped all that we see.

³ He will not allow your foot to be moved;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
⁴ Behold, He who keeps Israel
Shall neither slumber nor sleep.

No matter what goes on, either in our lives or the wider world, God does not sleep or even grow drowsy or inattentive. He sees—He watches—and He watches over us.

⁵ The Lord is your keeper;
The Lord is your shade at your right hand.
⁶ The sun shall not strike you by day,
Nor the moon by night.

I’ve often said that no matter what has happened to me, no matter how deep a funk I’ve fallen into to, someone, somewhere, has it worse. And I wonder, for all that God does allow to befall us, how many terrible things has He turned aside? How much does He spare us from on a daily basis?

⁷ The Lord shall preserve you from all evil;
He shall preserve your soul.
⁸ The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in
From this time forth, and even forevermore.

... until the time for going out and coming in is done, and it's time to go to Him, at last.

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Sunday Devotional: Psalm 118 ~ His everlasting mercy

Psalm 118 (NKJV)

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.

² Let Israel now say,
“His mercy endures forever.”
³ Let the house of Aaron now say,
“His mercy endures forever.”
⁴ Let those who fear the Lord now say,
“His mercy endures forever.”

Three times is the reminder that the Lord’s mercy is everlasting ... once for the nation of Israel, once for those called into special ministry (as the house of Aaron was, within the tribe of Levi), and once for all who fear the Lord ... in other words, for His people, specifically and in general.

His mercy endures forever ... His mercy endures forever ... His mercy endures forever.

And I am so grateful that it does ...

⁵ I called on the Lord in distress;
The Lord answered me and set me in a broad place.
⁶ The Lord is on my side;
I will not fear.
What can man do to me?
⁷ The Lord is for me among those who help me;
Therefore I shall see my desire on those who hate me.
⁸ It is better to trust in the Lord
Than to put confidence in man.
⁹ It is better to trust in the Lord
Than to put confidence in princes.

At the end of a grueling day, feeling emotionally battered and exhausted, this is both comforting and sobering ... first, that God is truly with us, on our side ... and that if we put confidence in other humans—even important, powerful ones—we are bound to be disappointed. How many times am I guilty of putting my expectation on another person and not God?

¹⁰ All nations surrounded me,
But in the name of the Lord I will destroy them.
¹¹ They surrounded me,
Yes, they surrounded me;
But in the name of the Lord I will destroy them.
¹² They surrounded me like bees;
They were quenched like a fire of thorns;
For in the name of the Lord I will destroy them.
¹³ You pushed me violently, that I might fall,
But the Lord helped me.
¹⁴ The Lord is my strength and song,
And He has become my salvation.

Regardless of how trouble surrounds us, how pushed and pulled we are by the forces of darkness (and this includes the darkness inside our own selves), the Lord is our deliverer—our strength and salvation.

¹⁵ The voice of rejoicing and salvation
Is in the tents of the righteous;
The right hand of the Lord does valiantly.
¹⁶ The right hand of the Lord is exalted;
The right hand of the Lord does valiantly.
¹⁷ I shall not die, but live,
And declare the works of the Lord.
¹⁸ The Lord has chastened me severely,
But He has not given me over to death.

Maybe the trouble we’ve faced is a result of our own doing, and God has allowed it for chastening—for discipline. Even then, there is a limit, as long as we’re still living and breathing.

The right hand of the Lord does valiantly ... I’m reminded of that verse in Exodus, Be still! The Lord will fight for you. Indeed, if we have the patience to let God have the situation—any that we find ourselves in—then He can and will do His work in it. The difficulty is often in the surrendering ...

And yet His mercy endures forever.

And so the Psalmist finishes out this one in poetic praise:

¹⁹ Open to me the gates of righteousness;
I will go through them,
And I will praise the Lord.
²⁰ This is the gate of the Lord,
Through which the righteous shall enter.

²¹ I will praise You,
For You have answered me,
And have become my salvation.

²² The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone.
²³ This was the Lord’s doing;
It is marvelous in our eyes.
²⁴ This is the day the Lord has made;
We will rejoice and be glad in it.

²⁵ Save now, I pray, O Lord;
O Lord, I pray, send now prosperity.
²⁶ Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
We have blessed you from the house of the Lord.
²⁷ God is the Lord,
And He has given us light;
Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.
²⁸ You are my God, and I will praise You;
You are my God, I will exalt You.

²⁹ Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.

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Sunday Devotional: Psalm 104 ~ the amazingness of God

On this, the second Sunday of November, and a birthday weekend to boot—which always makes me a bit more contemplative than usual, if such a thing is possible—I can think of no better way to prepare for the American holiday of Thanksgiving than to focus on the amazingness of the Lord.

As Psalm 34 says, “My soul shall make its boast in the Lord.” He truly is worthy of our praise, our honor, our admiration—or to put it in plain terms, for us to brag on Him!

And there is plenty to brag about. This psalm covers a bit of everything, from heavenly glories we can only guess at, to the marvel of this world, where the very forces of nature must do His bidding. The various creatures He’s made (us included!) and the lavishness of His care for all—right down to the most basic gifts of comfort and enjoyment in food and drink.

What an incredible God He is, to think of every detail!

Savor this one, without my usual commentary ... as always, the Word of God needs no embellishment.

Psalm 104 (NKJV)

Bless the Lord, O my soul!

O Lord my God, You are very great:
You are clothed with honor and majesty,
² Who cover Yourself with light as with a garment,
Who stretch out the heavens like a curtain.

³ He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters,
Who makes the clouds His chariot,
Who walks on the wings of the wind,
⁴ Who makes His angels spirits,
His ministers a flame of fire.

⁵ You who laid the foundations of the earth,
So that it should not be moved forever,
⁶ You covered it with the deep as with a garment;
The waters stood above the mountains.
⁷ At Your rebuke they fled;
At the voice of Your thunder they hastened away.
⁸ They went up over the mountains;
They went down into the valleys,
To the place which You founded for them.
⁹ You have set a boundary that they may not pass over,
That they may not return to cover the earth.

¹⁰ He sends the springs into the valleys;
They flow among the hills.
¹¹ They give drink to every beast of the field;
The wild donkeys quench their thirst.
¹² By them the birds of the heavens have their home;
They sing among the branches.
¹³ He waters the hills from His upper chambers;
The earth is satisfied with the fruit of Your works.

¹⁴ He causes the grass to grow for the cattle,
And vegetation for the service of man,
That he may bring forth food from the earth,
¹⁵ And wine that makes glad the heart of man,
Oil to make his face shine,
And bread which strengthens man’s heart.
¹⁶ The trees of the Lord are full of sap,
The cedars of Lebanon which He planted,
¹⁷ Where the birds make their nests;
The stork has her home in the fir trees.
¹⁸ The high hills are for the wild goats;
The cliffs are a refuge for the rock badgers.

¹⁹ He appointed the moon for seasons;
The sun knows its going down.
²⁰ You make darkness, and it is night,
In which all the beasts of the forest creep about.
²¹ The young lions roar after their prey,
And seek their food from God.
²² When the sun rises, they gather together
And lie down in their dens.
²³ Man goes out to his work
And to his labor until the evening.

²⁴ O Lord, how manifold are Your works!
In wisdom You have made them all.
The earth is full of Your possessions—
²⁵ This great and wide sea,
In which are innumerable teeming things,
Living things both small and great.
²⁶ There the ships sail about;
There is that Leviathan
Which You have made to play there.

²⁷ These all wait for You,
That You may give them their food in due season.
²⁸ What You give them they gather in;
You open Your hand, they are filled with good.
²⁹ You hide Your face, they are troubled;
You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.
³⁰ You send forth Your Spirit, they are created;
And You renew the face of the earth.

³¹ May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
May the Lord rejoice in His works.
³² He looks on the earth, and it trembles;
He touches the hills, and they smoke.

³³ I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.
³⁴ May my meditation be sweet to Him;
I will be glad in the Lord.
³⁵ May sinners be consumed from the earth,
And the wicked be no more.

Bless the Lord, O my soul!
Praise the Lord!

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Sunday Devotional: Psalm 102 ~ Dying From Despair

Psalm 102 (NKJV) ~ A Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed and pours out his complaint before the Lord.

Sometimes, our sorrow is just too great ...

Hear my prayer, O Lord,
And let my cry come to You.
² Do not hide Your face from me in the day of my trouble;
Incline Your ear to me;
In the day that I call, answer me speedily.

Who among us doesn’t feel, despite all the promises to the contrary, that when our spirits are overwhelmed with trouble, God is far away—or at the least, is hiding His face from us?

³ For my days are consumed like smoke,
And my bones are burned like a hearth.
⁴ My heart is stricken and withered like grass,
So that I forget to eat my bread.
⁵ Because of the sound of my groaning
My bones cling to my skin.
⁶ I am like a pelican of the wilderness;
I am like an owl of the desert.
⁷ I lie awake,
And am like a sparrow alone on the housetop.

It’s easy to dismiss the terrible desolation and loneliness inherent in this kind of sorrow as overdramatic when it’s someone else struggling. I mean, we can see clearly from the outside that all is not in ruins, that they aren’t completely alone, that there is hope.

But...that’s from the outside. When we’re mired in the struggle ourselves, it’s a completely different matter. No amount of words from others can really assuage the sense of being overwhelmed by our troubles.

Sometimes, even knowing that God is still there and has a handle on it all, is not quite enough.

⁸ My enemies reproach me all day long;
Those who deride me swear an oath against me.
⁹ For I have eaten ashes like bread,
And mingled my drink with weeping,
¹⁰ Because of Your indignation and Your wrath;
For You have lifted me up and cast me away.
¹¹ My days are like a shadow that lengthens,
And I wither away like grass.

It’s also easy to feel the whole world is against us, that indeed the trouble is not just God turning His back on us, but exercising His righteous anger against us—whether our wrong is real or imagined.

¹² But You, O Lord, shall endure forever,
And the remembrance of Your name to all generations.
¹³ You will arise and have mercy on Zion;
For the time to favor her,
Yes, the set time, has come.
¹⁴ For Your servants take pleasure in her stones,
And show favor to her dust.
¹⁵ So the nations shall fear the name of the Lord,
And all the kings of the earth Your glory.
¹⁶ For the Lord shall build up Zion;
He shall appear in His glory.
¹⁷ He shall regard the prayer of the destitute,
And shall not despise their prayer.

And then, even in the middle of our severest sorrow, God gives us a glimpse of His enduring greatness, reminding us that a bigger plan is still in effect, still in motion. (Yes, I’ve written about this before. The Psalms themselves write about similar themes, over and over ... how can we not humble ourselves and take note?)

¹⁸ This will be written for the generation to come,
That a people yet to be created may praise the Lord.
¹⁹ For He looked down from the height of His sanctuary;
From heaven the Lord viewed the earth,
²⁰ To hear the groaning of the prisoner,
To release those appointed to death,
²¹ To declare the name of the Lord in Zion,
And His praise in Jerusalem,
²² When the peoples are gathered together,
And the kingdoms, to serve the Lord.

As I wrote last week, He still knows, He still sees, those who are struggling under the weight of oppression, both from their own sin and the awfulness of others. The time for widespread deliverance may not be here yet, but He takes the time to remind us—even through words thousands of years old, penned by those who had no inkling of those of us who would come in their place. How amazing is that?

²³ He weakened my strength in the way;
He shortened my days.
²⁴ I said, “O my God,
Do not take me away in the midst of my days;
Your years are throughout all generations.
²⁵ Of old You laid the foundation of the earth,
And the heavens are the work of Your hands.
²⁶ They will perish, but You will endure;
Yes, they will all grow old like a garment;
Like a cloak You will change them,
And they will be changed.
²⁷ But You are the same,
And Your years will have no end.
²⁸ The children of Your servants will continue,
And their descendants will be established before You.”

And so we can know, even if this current struggle or pain or trouble really is the one that will sweep over us and bury us forever under despair, God still lives, and rules. Even this earth and the heavens will perish—but not the Lord. And if indeed we carry some spark of the Eternal in us, we will outlast even the earth and heavens.

Regardless of how devastating the current trouble is. Regardless of the evil plans of men. The people of God endure.

Even when we’re sure we’re dying, we are ... undying.

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