Grains of Sand

Pixabay So many of the psalms are cries for help.  That, in itself, should tell us something. God doesn't mind cries for help. And David was usually not shy about admitting his needs. God knows we can't.... Feel free to fill in the blanks with whatever it is that you can't do, or be, or feel. I'm not sure if David composed Psalm 143 as a bedtime prayer. I imagine it that way because of verse 8: " Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love. " As he pours out his grief to God, not knowing what the next day may entail, he admits his need for mercy, for relief, for forgiveness, for protection, for encouragement, for a touch from the Lord Himself (vss. 1-6). His desperation requires an immediate answer: " Answer me quickly, O Lord; my spirit faints with longing. Do not hide your face from me or I will be like those who go down to the pit. Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. " This i...

Google Images A man who becomes a law unto himself is a dangerous creature. Take Micah, for example. We know that the period of the Judges was a dark one for Israel. Even some of the people God chose to rescue His people from their enemies had clay feet—and ankles and legs! So we aren’t surprised when we read the often repeated phrase, “ …everyone did as he saw fit ” (Judges 17:6). Micah decided that Shiloh was too far away to go when he wanted to worship (18:31) so he ignored God’s prohibition and made himself an idol as well as a shrine, and found himself a Levite to serve as his own personal priest (17:3-13). He had the audacity to believe this: “ Now I know the Lord will be good to me, since this Levite has become my priest ” (17:13). In Judges 18 we discover that when the Levite got a better deal he abandoned Micah and took the idol and all the other religious symbols with him. In an odd way, God did what Micah anticipated but not in the way Micah anticipated it. God removed a...