WordLive - Year OneSample

Prepare: Thank the Lord that he continually speaks to us through his Word. Ask him to show you something fresh in the familiar words of today’s passage.

Living in a fallen world
This psalm, which we associate with comfort and encouragement, describes a surprising number of negative experiences. In fact, David probably wrote these words at a time when he was himself in need of comfort and encouragement, or later when recalling such experiences. We see him mentally and physically exhausted (vs 2,3), facing danger (v 4) and surrounded by enemies (v 5).

This psalm reflects the tension that we all encounter as we live as Christians in a fallen world. We know God is faithful and good; we know he provides and protects. But we know all this best when we feel such comforts are lacking.

Life’s trials
It is when we most need God, when we cry out to him aware that we have no other hope, that what we know about him in theory becomes a personal revelation. As we go through life’s trials, most of us would prefer to simply download the revelation without having to experience it.

But looking back, we know that we trust God more, praise him more, love him more because he was faithful to us in the very situations we would have opted out of, given the choice.

Respond: Read the psalm again as a prayer, pausing to meditate on the verses that are of most significance to you today.

http://www.wordlive.org/Session/Classic/2012-07-01