COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS

“The king rejoices in Your strength, Lord. How great is his joy in the victories You give!... Surely You have granted him unending blessings and made him glad with the joy of Your presence.”  (Psalm 21:1,6 NIV)

“Count your blessings” is a popular phrase I’ve never related well to. The moment I try to list all God has done for me, I realize how woefully short my efforts fall. I can thank Him for my salvation, for the blessings of home, relationships, work, and ministry. But I know His grace extends far beyond that. Even if I spent a week, I could hardly cover everything adequately. And when I came to an end, all I’d have would be a mechanical list -- the exercise itself would take the delight out of my praise.

Yet even joy-filled King David didn’t attempt to cram all God’s wonders in a single hymn. Though he rejoices throughout Psalm 21, he hardly describes everything God has done for him. The king’s adulation rings through much of the psalter -- as if he couldn’t contain it in one place or time. But his masterful adoration is more than a list of thank-yous. David knew a secret of thanks it took me a while to uncover. Real thanks are tied to the nature of God. Here David offers gratitude to his Lord for specific blessings in verses 1-6 and ends describing God’s eternal gifts. All the psalmist’s joy cannot be separated from his Master’s presence. Without God, the king understands, even the richest gain would be empty. To know God deeply is the greatest blessing of all, and intimate knowledge comes with a lifetime of loving Him.

So instead of detailing every benefit God provides, like David I’ll thank Him for a few big ones today and spend time basking in His love. As I look closely into my Lord’s face, I can’t help but delight in His presence. 

-- Pamela McQuade, from “Daily Wisdom to Satisfy the Soul,” published by Barbour Publishing, Inc. Used by permission.

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FORGIVING OUR GRIEF-GIVERS -- Part 2 of 3

 Based on 1 Samuel 24.

Vengeance fixes your attention at life’s ugliest moments.  Score-settling freezes your stare at cruel events in your past.  Is this where you want to look?  Will rehearsing and reliving your hurts make you a better person?  By no means.  It will destroy you.

I’m thinking of an old comedy routine.  Joe complains to Jerry about the irritating habit of a mutual friend.  The guy pokes his finger in Joe’s chest as he talks.  It drives Joe crazy.  So he resolves to get even.  He shows Jerry a small bottle of highly explosive nitroglycerine tied to a string.  He explains, “I’m going to wear this around my neck, letting the bottle hang over the exact spot where I keep getting poked.  Next time he sticks his finger in my chest, he’ll pay for it.”

Not nearly as much as Joe will, right?  Enemy destroyers need two graves.  “It is foolish to harbor a grudge” (Ecclesiastes 7:9 TEV).  An eye for an eye becomes a neck for a neck and a job for a job and a reputation for a reputation.  When does it stop?  It stops when one person imitates David’s God-dominated mind.

-- Max Lucado in “Facing Your Giants”

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FORGIVING OUR GRIEF-GIVERS -- Part 1 of 3

Read 1 Samuel 24.

As we think about the purveyors of pain in our own lives, it’s one thing to give grace to friends, but to give grace to those who give us grief?  Could you?  Given a few uninterrupted moments with the Darth Vader of your days, could you imitate David?

Perhaps you could.  Some people seem graced with mercy glands.  They secrete forgiveness, never harboring grudges or reciting their hurts.  Others of us (most of us?) find it hard to forgive our Sauls.

We forgive the one-time offenders, mind you.  We dismiss parking-place takers, date-breakers, and even the purse snatchers.  We can move past the misdemeanors, but the felonies?  The repeat offenders?  The Sauls who take our youth, retirement, or health?

Were the scoundrel to seek shade in your cave or lie sleeping at your feet…would you do what David did?  Could you forgive the scum who hurt you?

Failure to do so could be fatal.  “Resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple” (Job 5:2 NIV).

-- Max Lucado in “Facing Your Giants”

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RIDING ON A DONKEY

“Jesus found a young donkey and rode on it, fulfilling the prophecy…”  (John 12:14 NLT)

Riding on a donkey is a richly symbolic act, and one that goes back to King David, the prototypical Jewish king. The royal animal David rode was not a steed but a donkey, which was more sure-footed than a horse on the rocky, hilly terrain of Palestine, and able to travel farther on less water. The donkey, moreover, was a humble beast reflecting David’s identity as a shepherd king. Davidic kings from that time on rode donkeys or mules to identify with David.

Even more important for the Palm Sunday story is the prophetic Zechariah’s promise, given to the Jews five hundred years before the time of Christ: “Rejoice, greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey.” (Zechariah 9:9 NRSV) Everyone in the crowd would have known these words and their promise of who would come riding on a donkey, so that when Jesus met up with His disciples and mounted the donkey, the people knew instantly what was happening. He was giving a clear signal that He was the long-awaited King promised by the prophets. Finally, Jesus was openly proclaiming He was the Messiah!

-- Adam Hamilton in “The Way: Following in the Footsteps of Jesus”

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A LACK OF TRUST AND OBEDIENCE

“I am in great distress,” Saul said. “The Philistines are fighting against me, and God has departed from me. He no longer answers me, either by prophets or by dreams. So I have called on you to tell me what to do.”  (1 Samuel 28:15b NIV)

Saul was chosen by God to lead Israel. He was gifted, strong, and charismatic. But he had a pattern of behavior in his life that revealed he would not trust God enough to obey Him. This went on for such a long time that, finally, God could not use him anymore and chose David to be the new king.

Initially Saul had liked David, but when he discovered that David was to replace him on Israel's throne, he would not surrender to God, would not surrender his crown, would not obey God. Finally, he ended up turning to the occult. He went to visit a woman known as the witch of Endor to ask her to conjure up the spirit of Samuel the prophet, an occult practice that would have been an abomination to him when he was a young man. As G. K. Chesterton wrote, if people cease to believe in God they do not believe in nothing but in anything. In the end, Saul took his own life in despair rather than bend his knee before God.

-- John Ortberg in Faith & Doubt

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