I like the Holman Christian Standard Version of vs. 5-6. It is a little clearer for me to see.
5 Lord, You are my portion and my cup [of blessing]; You hold my future. 6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.
The phrases "portion," "cup of blessing," "future," "boundary line" and "inheritance" were all familiar to the people of David's day as ways of expressing God's promise (and fulfillment) of the Promised Land. But David says, "Lord, YOU are..." David realized that the TRUE Gift is God Himself.
How often do we get caught up in looking forward to heaven, our "future" and "inheritance" and forget that HE is the real gift of heaven? Do we search for blessings from God here on earth and forget that HE is our "cup of blessing?"
Verses 7-9 hold another great truth.
7 I will praise the Lord who counsels me- even at night my conscience instructs me. 8 I keep the LORD in mind always. Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. 9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my spirit rejoices; my body also rests securely.
I can't tell you how many times I wake up in the night with either the answer to one of the questions in my life at the moment, or the idea I needed for the Passion Play or "the Tree," or for whatever project I was working on at the time. The key isn't that I think better when I'm asleep. haha. I try to follow what David says here. "I keep the Lord in mind always." Keeping the Lord in mind, knowing His word, praying without ceasing... when this is part of how you live your life then God can speak to you at any time - even in the middle of the night. Do I always do this? No. But I wish I did - and I try to. Because that is one of the main ways God speaks to us - through His word.
I'm doing this 150 days of Psalms to encourage as many people as I can to read a Psalm a day (and hopefully a little more) but I'm also doing it for me. I need to see new truths each day. I needed to be reminded today that HE is my portion and cup of blessing.
I won't go into detail on another truth I see here, but you may have recognized verse 8 as the verse Peter quoted in his great sermon to the Jews in Acts 2. (See verses 25-31.)
3 comments:
I am being blessed by this study of Psalms, Bro. Lyndel! Thank you! I especially like seeing the relation between the Old and New Testaments--as in today's verses being quoted in Acts.
I am so enjoying getting into each Psalm. This one, when I read it in "The Message" version, struck me at the beginning: " I say to God, 'Be my Lord!' Without you, nothing makes sense."
I had a conversation with a neighbor yesterday, and she commented on a woman who had died, who was a friend of her daughter-in-law. The woman was only 26, left two children behind. She made the comment about how it seemed so pointless. It was a way for me to say that what we think of as a "full" life, may not be what God knows to be a full life. I've had family members died young, and other stuff that goes on in my life. It's good to know that without God, it doesn't make sense! When there's no "cause and effect" we can point to, we can know that God is in control. To Him, it all makes perfect sense.
Thankyou Phyllis Hobson for sharing, my friend has terminal cancer and will be leaving three young children behind its very hard to understand, but I love what you said," it makes perfect sense to God"
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