“Choosing aright”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Wednesday, February 23, 2022
Psalm 119:145-176 (Forward, p. 25) CEV p. 633
Our psalmist is in continued and grievous trouble and danger and yet, even so, he does not fail to turn to God, trust in God, depend upon God, and value God’s laws and commandments above all else. Where many people would grow disillusioned with God’s seeming slackness in responding and be unhappy with their lot in life, our psalmist does not. He chooses to remain centred firmly in God and in His word in spite of all his troubles:
“I have not forgotten your Law! Look at the trouble I am in, and rescue me. Be my defender and protector! Keep your promise and save my life” (verses 155-156);
“People who disobey your Law have made evil plans and want to hurt me, but you are with me, and all of your commands can be trusted” (verses 150-151);
“I have a lot of brutal enemies, but still I never turn from your laws” (verse 156);
“Rulers are cruel to me for no reason. But with all my heart I respect your words, because they bring happiness like treasures taken in war” (verses 161-162).
A wise person once told me, when things weren’t going at all well, to look up. Bewildered, I replied that all I could see were clouds. He said, “oh yes, but above the clouds the sun is still shining. The same goes for you and your troubles and God. All you can see are the clouds of your present worries, but above them, God is still there, and His love and mercy and ever-present help are still there and will eventually break through those clouds.” So, as with the psalmist, it’s merely a choice of focus, a decision to choose aright, that is to choose God and His ways and to trust in them. Amen.
Forward notes: “Early in the morning I cry out to you, for in your word is my trust” (verse 147).
“There was a time in my life when I was a morning person. I would wake up before sunrise, turn on my bedside lamp, open my prayer book, and spend some quiet time with God. Sometimes, I would get up and make a cup of tea. It was a wonderful way to begin each day with an awareness of God’s presence.
“But in the years since, my life has changed. These days, I groggily open my eyes not to the soft music of my alarm clock but to a little voice yelling over a baby monitor: ‘Mommy? Mommy! MOMMY! MOMMY, PICK ME UP!!!!’
“I still pray every morning, but these days, my first prayer is more like a muttered ‘Thank you, help, amen.’ It’s not the time of quiet contemplation that I might choose—but I have to trust that God delights in my prayers, no matter how harried or short. Even during seasons when we may not have the bandwidth we’d like to devote to our prayer lives, God hears us and treasures us in every moment.”
Moving Forward: “Does your morning routine include prayer? If not, try it for the next few days.”
