October 31: Of Instruction ManuPsalms (And Really Bad Puns)

Lamentations 4:1-5:22

Hebrews 2:1-18

Psalm 103:1-22

Proverbs 26:23

Yesterday we wrote about the helplessness and despair that comes with the passing of a loved one.  We acknowledged there was little we could offer by way of effective comfort (Job's friends felt the same way early, resigning themselves to sitting quietly with their tortured friend).  We confessed that the best we could do was plead with God to ease our friends' pain.  

But what reassurance do we have that the Lord hears and that He will act?  Worse, what reassurances do we have that God will listen to us when, as is often the case, we are responsible for our suffering?  When the distance between us has been of our own doing, because of our "sin, our most grievous sin"?  Today's psalms offer us the comfort and reassurance we so desperately crave.  Maybe we could treat it like an instruction manual?

1.  "Praise the Lord".  Doesn't matter how badly you feel, how helpless you might be, how hopeless things might seem.  Stop, drop and praise.  

2.  "Forget not all His benefits".  Remind yourself of all He has already done, even while you were a sinner. Of how often we've been sick, and recovered.  Of even something so simple as how often we've had food to eat, water to drink, air to breathe.  

3.  "The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love."  Remember what He is like.  "As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him."  And remember that, having been created in His image, we share some of those traits, and can understand why He loves as He does. 

4.  "As high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear HIm."  Where do the heavens end?  If you shined a light directly into the sky, bar a planet in the way, would it every find an end to the universe?  Think about that:  His love for us is unlimited.  

5.   "…so far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us."  And realize that it is because of that limitless love that His forgiveness is equally limitless.

6.  "Praise the Lord, my soul."  So think on these things, meditate on them, contemplate them, clutch them tightly in your mind and in hour heart.  And then, perhaps with the benefit of the beginning of a realization of HIs love, we will not just praise the Lord, we will praise Him from the very depths of our being, as He deserves.

Father, open our eyes, our hearts, our minds and our souls to see, to recognize, and to realize the depth and magnitude of Your love for us, so that even in the midst of despair, our souls can praise You.