Daily Reflections from our Re:Verse Scripture
Re:Verse passage – Psalm 14:1-7 (day one)
Join us as Senior Pastor Chris Johnson, Associate Pastor Aaron Hufty, and Minister Megan Langan walk us through Psalm 14:1-7 in our Re:Verse Series: “Psalms – Voicing our Faith.”
To watch the Re:Vlog video, Click Here!
Re:Verse passage – Psalm 30:1-12 (day seven)
You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; Psalm 30:11a
As we have read this week, every time I get to verse 11 I find myself clapping and singing, “You are the Only One who can!”
Elevation Worship is not a musical group that we pull music from very often at FBCSA. However, they partnered with Brandon Lake to produce a song called “Graves into Gardens” that has a bridge that reads like this:
A word from Limuru, Kenya:
What amazes me is the range of emotions David expresses in this Psalm. He goes from immovable confidence to total despair.
In this Psalm, David models for us the cares we can bring to God. His shoulders are big enough for joy and desperation, fear and confidence. In fact, God expects us to bring what we feel to him.
Church planter and author Jeff Vanderstelt said, “Our feelings are an indication of our need. If we don’t take them to God, those needs will be met in unhealthy ways.” (Paraphrase)
Christian, take all your cares to the Lord. His shoulders are big enough.
Re:Verse passage – Psalm 30:1-12 (day five)
“O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.”
There is something transforming and life-giving about saying “thank you.” I would suggest those are possibly the two most powerful words we can say. Why? Couple of reasons. Saying “thank you” shifts the focus from an internal perspective outward (in the case of this Psalm, upward). We look and search outside of our circumstances and emotions for a reason or person to be thankful. Second, it is a great practice of humility to recognize and appreciate the fact that there are times (maybe many) where we need help. I would also suggest that being thankful (regularly) is a discipline. What if there was a place in our daily journal and/or prayers for a place of thanksgiving? What if we consistently found a reason, relationship, promise, truth, or experience (both good and bad) for which to express thanks? How would that deepen our relationship with the Lord? How would that deepen our relationships with others? Maybe a prayer prompt for today would be- Thank You, Lord for …(what would you say or write).
Re:Verse passage – Psalm 30:1-12 (day three)
What profit is there in my blood, if I go down to the pit?
Will the dust praise You? Will it declare Your faithfulness?
This psalm is just so raw. It’s like you’re reading the author’s personal journal detailing the range of emotions they’ve had before God. In verse 9, the psalmist sounds like they’re trying to persuade God to save them. He’s essentially saying, “The dirt can’t (audibly) praise you! If I die and return to dirt myself, I’m not good for anything! Save me so I can praise you!”
We know it’s generally not wise to bribe God; nor is it necessary to bribe him who loves us and wants to help us, though many of us have been this desperate in our prayers. In the psalmist’s desperation, though, he sheds light on the truth: we exist on this earth to give praise to God. Our purpose in life is simply to give him the praise that he is due, which is all of it. When we walk through life distracted by other pursuits and fail to give God praise and glory, we’re fulfilling our purpose no more than if we returned to dust.
This psalm reminds us of the ultimate purpose of our life, and it reminds us that God is worthy of that praise. He rescues from the pit; he hears our cries. May we praise him in both our mourning and our dancing.
Re:Verse passage – Psalm 30:1-12 (day three)
11 You turned my lament into dancing; You removed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, 12 so that I can sing to You and not be silent. Lord my God, I will praise You forever.
Throughout the Bible, God uses the metaphor of new clothing to signify change in us. The Psalms and prophets are full of this imagery; Paul writes of it often in his letters; and John talks of it in Revelation. It helps us understand just how different we are when we follow God and give our lives fully to Him.
Here, David uses it to describe how God turned what was once broken into the exact opposite. David uses this imagery to describe just how far he had come with the Lord and invites others (us) to reflect on how God has changed their (our) lives. But, he doesn’t end there. In this Psalm, we are reminded that God changes us so that we can sing for joy and not be silent. We are changed so that others may know and see the goodness of the Lord and come to know Him as a result. We are rescued so that we can praise the Lord and glorify His name.
Reflect on the new set of clothes God has given you. You were given those so that you could praise His name and share His story of redemption and goodness.
Re:Verse passage – Psalm 30:1-12 (day two)
For His anger is but for a moment,
His favor is for a lifetime;
Weeping may last for the night,
But a shout of joy comes in the morning. v. 5
The beauty of the Psalms is that they acknowledge the gamut of the human experience. They give voice to struggles with family, with sin, with conflict and make you feel as though real people wrote and experienced very similar circumstances to your own. They take the veneer off being “religious” and help make the journey of faith a real one. Life is challenging and sin is real. The psalms give us an avenue to express the height and depth of the journey. The more I read the psalms the more I realize they are written for all of us to aid in each challenge and victory. Every step we take, we can use these words to accompany the chapter we are in.
Re:Verse passage – Psalm 30:1-12 (day one)
Join us as Senior Pastor Chris Johnson, Executive Pastor Scott Lane, and Minister Megan Langan walk us through Psalm 30:1-12 in our Re:Verse Series: “Psalms – Voicing our Faith.”
Re:Verse passage – Psalm 66:1-20 (day seven)
Blessed be God,
Who has not turned away my prayer
Nor His lovingkindness from me. Psalm 66:20
God hears. He doesn’t turn us away. Even when our prayers are selfish and our theology is imperfect, He listens. As the God of the universe, He has so much more to deal with than our insignificant first world struggles. Look up into the sky at night and you will come to the realization that we are just a tiny blip in a universe that is bigger than we can ever imagine. Yet, God cares for you. He hears every prayer. He comforts every soul that cries out “ABBA, Father.” In the midst of our insignificance, God shows us His lovingkindness and says, “You are significant to Me!”
Re:Verse passage – Psalm 66:1-20 (day six)
This week, I stumbled upon this profound quotation from Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book Life Together:
“The Psalms are the prayer book of Jesus in the truest sense of the word…Because Christ prays the prayer of the Psalms with the individual and the congregation before the heavenly throne of God, or rather because those who pray the Psalms are joining in with the prayer of Jesus Christ, their prayers reach the ears of God. Christ has become their intercessor.”
That claim is both comforting and revolutionary. It means that when we open the Psalms, we are not simply reading ancient religious poetry; we are stepping into the living prayer life of Jesus Himself.
We often read the Psalms looking for references to Christ, and rightly so. But Bonhoeffer pushes us further. The Psalms are not merely predictions about Jesus; they are the very words Jesus took on His lips.
He prayed them in the synagogue.
He sang them with His disciples.
He cried them from the cross.
So when we pray the Psalms today, we are not praying alone. We are praying with Christ.
This transforms how we think about prayer. Prayer is not first about finding the right words or reaching a certain emotional state. It is about participation, being drawn into the Son’s relationship with the Father.