"Meditation – 60 Days of Prayer" for Saturday, 23 April 2016 The Upper Room of Nashville, Tennessee, United States

"Meditation – 60 Days of Prayer" for Saturday, 23 April 2016 The Upper Room of Nashville, Tennessee, United States

SATURDAY, APRIL 23
READ PSALM 30
PSALM 30: A David Psalm

1 I give you all the credit, God—

    you got me out of that mess,

    you didn’t let my foes gloat.

2-3 God, my God, I yelled for help

    and you put me together.

God, you pulled me out of the grave,

    gave me another chance at life

    when I was down-and-out.

4-5 All you saints! Sing your hearts out to God!

    Thank him to his face!

He gets angry once in a while, but across

    a lifetime there is only love.

The nights of crying your eyes out

    give way to days of laughter.

6-7 When things were going great

    I crowed, “I’ve got it made.

I’m God’s favorite.

    He made me king of the mountain.”

Then you looked the other way

    and I fell to pieces.

8-10 I called out to you, God;

    I laid my case before you:

“Can you sell me for a profit when I’m dead?

    auction me off at a cemetery yard sale?

When I’m ‘dust to dust’ my songs

    and stories of you won’t sell.

So listen! and be kind!

    Help me out of this!”

11-12 You did it: you changed wild lament

    into whirling dance;

You ripped off my black mourning band

    and decked me with wildflowers.

I’m about to burst with song;

    I can’t keep quiet about you.

God, my God,

    I can’t thank you enough.

There is always a before and an after. The psalmist shows us life with God between this before and after. We go from despair to joy, from feeling utterly alone, cast down, and forgotten to feeling uplifted, supported, and healthy. We must be careful not to imagine this before and after of life as caused by God’s toying with us. Nor would it be helpful to our souls to see life as endless cycles of absurdity moving continually back and forth between the sublime to the grotesque.
Both ways of seeing life constantly tempt us. The psalmist shows us a God who walks with us in time, content to be with us in life’s every moment. Before you awoke this day God was there with you, waiting to enter it with you. Before you encounter events and relationships that may disappoint or hurt or drive you toward despair, God is prepared to move you through the day. Even if this day brings you to mistakes that displease God and hurt your neighbor, God will not abandon you but will await your repentance and your turning again to the way of faith.
God is the God of the again and again, always wishing to bring us to an after:after we have fallen, after the disappointment, after the hurt. This is God’s way, forever drawing us from the signs of death to the sight of life. Therefore we are bold both in our praise and our complaint to God, knowing that in either moment we live with a God with excellent hearing. The time between before and after can seem endless, but there will be an after because God is faithful.
Lord, remind me in my difficult moments that there was a before and you were with me then and there will be an after because you are with me even now. Amen.[Willie James Jennings]

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The Upper Room Strategic Initiatives
PO Box 340007

Nashville, Tennessee 37203, United States
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