My favorite psalm

I am working in Starbucks this morning. I know it sounds strange but I sometimes work better when there is a lot of ambient noise. Even as I am reading my Bible, I can concentrate a little better. Anyway, Starbucks got me thinking about my favorite verse in the Bible. I don't know why... maybe it's the coffee!

For the longest time Psalm 42-43 was my favorite psalm. Yes, I know they are two in our Bibles, but they are one in the Hebrew scriptures. Psalm 43:3 has been my favorite verse for a long time, actually since I became a Christian. 

I repented of my sins and believed on Christ on January 26, 1992. I was 18 years old. God used Psalm 43:3 to make Himself known to me, to teach me how he breathed new life into my heart and enabled me to respond to the gospel in faith. Here it is:

Send out your light and your truth;
   let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy hill
   and to your dwelling!

From the moment of my conversion I was aware of God’s grace in calling me out of my sin and death and giving me new life. He showed me that it was the Word that led me and delivered me to Him. This is truly amazing grace! His light and truth brought me to Him. 

The rest of this psalm is equally powerful in it’s imagery: a deer panting for water, my soul crying out to God in my despair. At my conversion I totally related to that.  I was in despair without Christ. I was suicidal. I would have rather died than live one more moment without Him. Before my conversion I did not realize what I was longing for, but on that Sunday morning when the preacher read Matthew 13:24-30 and described those tares that were going to be cast into the fire, God’s light and truth reveled that it was CHRIST that I longed for and panted for. And He saved me…

So, Psalm 42-43 has been very dear to me for a long time. 

But things change over time. Now my favorite is Psalm 33. 

I am teaching the psalms on Wednesday nights this summer, and my preparation for this series has reacquainted me with Psalm 33. The Spirit sets the agenda for our sanctification and maturity in Christ and He prepared a lesson for me in reading this psalm like I was seeing it for the first time. It is amazing!

I will not give you all the details of what He has shown me here, but I think I will take the rest of the summer and plumb the depths of this oasis. It is so theologically rich and diverse. It teaches us about worship, his word, his righteousness, creation, his omnipotence, his glory, our fear of Him, the power of his words, his sovereignty, his blessings, and on and on… 

I leave you with this thought for today from verse 1: 

Shout for joy in the LORD, O you righteous!

    Praise befits the upright.

The righteous and upright SHOUT for joy in the LORD! Is your joy in God so intense that the only way to express it is to shout? Lest you think that you are too dignified for shouting, don’t forget that this type of praise “befits the upright.” In other words it is fitting and right for the upright to praise God this way. 

Hmmm...