Category: “Listening to God” Devotional

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Psalms+045

 

Psalm 45 (ESV)

¹ My heart overflows with a pleasing theme;
I address my verses to the king;
my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe.

² You are the most handsome of the sons of men;
grace is poured upon your lips;
therefore God has blessed you forever.
³ Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one,
in your splendor and majesty!

⁴ In your majesty ride out victoriously
for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness;
let your right hand teach you awesome deeds!
⁵ Your arrows are sharp
in the heart of the king’s enemies;
the peoples fall under you.

⁶ Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.
The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness;
⁷ you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.
Therefore God, your God, has anointed you
with the oil of gladness beyond your companions;
⁸ your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia.
From ivory palaces stringed instruments make you glad;
⁹  daughters of kings are among your ladies of honor;
at your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir.

 

REFLECTION:

1. Silence – Read/Listen – Meditate – Pray – Contemplate
2. What is the word or phrase that touches you today as you read and meditate on this passage? What is your emotion as you read this word or phrase? How is that related to your current situation? What does God tell you to do?
3. This song celebrates the king’s wedding. The joy of the wedding feast points us to the heavenly banquet awaiting Christ and His church.  It gives us a foretaste of the joy we will know when our Lord returns.
4. Thank God that your heart has been “stirred by a noble theme”— the promises of the King coming for His bride. Praise Him for His majesty and the overwhelming awe that you feel because you are in the wedding (as you are in the church).

 

PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what He wants to tell you.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

 

HYMN:

Fairest of All – www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCTFpPmQyHQ

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Psalms+044

 

Psalm 44 (ESV)

¹⁷ All this has come upon us,
though we have not forgotten you,
and we have not been false to your covenant.
¹⁸ Our heart has not turned back,
nor have our steps departed from your way;
¹⁹ yet you have broken us in the place of jackals
and covered us with the shadow of death.
²⁰ If we had forgotten the name of our God
or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
²¹ would not God discover this?
For he knows the secrets of the heart.
²² Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

²³ Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord?
Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever!
²⁴ Why do you hide your face?
Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?
²⁵ For our soul is bowed down to the dust;
our belly clings to the ground.
²⁶ Rise up; come to our help!
Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!

 

REFLECTION:

1. Silence – Read/Listen – Meditate – Pray – Contemplate
2. What is the word or phrase that touches you today as you read and meditate on this passage? What is your emotion as you read this word or phrase?
3. The psalmist was puzzled and in agony. He begged God to “rise up and help us.” Psalms like this one let us know that we are allowed to feel abandoned and alone in our relationship with God and actually say that to Him, all the while hoping to return into right relationship with Him. What about you? What is one bad thing that happened to you recently that you didn’t deserve? Did you feel God was sleeping, just as Jesus’ disciple felt on the boat in the storm (Mk 4:35-38)? What did you do to wake God up? How does this experience impact your faith in God’s justice and love?
4. Ask God to help you understand His ways and give you peace when you are waiting for His voice.

 

PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what He wants to tell you.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

 

HYMN:

Psalm 44 – www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywmdsAgL5gQ

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Psalms+043

 

Psalm 43 (ESV)

¹ Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause
against an ungodly people,
from the deceitful and unjust man deliver me!
² For you are the God in whom I take refuge;
why have you rejected me?
Why do I go about mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?

³ Send out your light and your truth;
let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy hill
and to your dwelling!
⁴ Then I will go to the altar of God,
to God my exceeding joy,
and I will praise you with the lyre,
O God, my God.

⁵ Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.

 

REFLECTION:

1. Silence – Read/Listen – Meditate – Pray – Contemplate
2. What is the word or phrase that touches you today as you read and meditate on this passage? What is your emotion as you read this word or phrase? How is that related to your current situation? What does God tell you to do?
3. Have you ever asked “if God is ours, why must we suffer oppression? Why does He seem to reject us?”  The psalmist did just that here.   But then he asked to “Send forth your light” (God’s light meaning God’s Word), not so much to explain his troubles but to lead him back to God Himself (v4). What we need most when hurting is not answers, or even relief.  What we need is to come into God’s presence, there to find hope and to offer praise.
4. What are your struggles right now? Ask God to help you understand your own feelings of depression or despair. Also ask God to help you focus on Him and be ready to turn to Him with your own depression and/or that of a troubled friend.

 

PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what He wants to tell you.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

 

HYMN:

To God, My Exceeding Joy – www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhxmNOGII5k

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Psalms+042

 

Psalms Book 2 – The Book of Elohim

Psalm 42 (ESV)

¹ As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.
² My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
³ My tears have been my food
day and night,
while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?”
⁴ These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I would go with the throng
and lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and songs of praise,
a multitude keeping festival.

⁵ Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.

 

REFLECTION:

1. Silence – Read/Listen – Meditate – Pray – Contemplate
2. What is the word or phrase that touches you today as you read and meditate on this passage?
3. As water from a brook sustains a deer physically, so God Himself sustains people spiritually (cf. John 4:14). The psalmist was thirsty for God. The images of thirst and eagerness to be in God’s presence are the essence of our life with God.
4. What is your emotion as you read this word or phrase? Do you share the emotion expressed in the psalm?  How is that related to your current situation?  What is God saying to you?  What is your response?

 

PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what He wants to tell you.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

 

HYMN:

Psalm 42 – www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctThGKhcoEw

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Psalms+041

 

Psalm 41 (ESV)

¹ Blessed is the one who considers the poor!
In the day of trouble the Lord delivers him;
² the Lord protects him and keeps him alive;
he is called blessed in the land;
you do not give him up to the will of his enemies.
³ The Lord sustains him on his sickbed;
in his illness you restore him to full health.

⁴ As for me, I said, “O Lord, be gracious to me;
heal me, for I have sinned against you!”
⁵ My enemies say of me in malice,
“When will he die, and his name perish?”
⁶ And when one comes to see me, he utters empty words,
while his heart gathers iniquity;
when he goes out, he tells it abroad.
⁷ All who hate me whisper together about me;
they imagine the worst for me.

⁸ They say, “A deadly thing is poured out on him;
he will not rise again from where he lies.”
⁹ Even my close friend in whom I trusted,
who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.
¹⁰ But you, O Lord, be gracious to me,
and raise me up, that I may repay them!

¹¹ By this I know that you delight in me:
my enemy will not shout in triumph over me.
¹² But you have upheld me because of my integrity,
and set me in your presence forever.

¹³ Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting!
Amen and Amen.

 

REFLECTION:

1. This song is David’s prayer for mercy when he was seriously ill. He expresses his confidence that those who care for the weak will be cared for in their own weakness.
2. From his past experiences, David concluded that even though everyone else, including our close friends, may abandon us when we most need their support, God will never give up on us.
3. Praise God for His love and mercy that never gives up on you.

 

PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what He wants to tell you.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

 

HYMN:

Heal My Soul – www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuRdWK9QuTo

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Psalms+040

 

Psalm 40 (ESV)

¹ I waited patiently for the Lord;
he inclined to me and heard my cry.
² He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
making my steps secure.
³ He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
and put their trust in the Lord.

⁴ Blessed is the man who makes
the Lord his trust,
who does not turn to the proud,
to those who go astray after a lie!
⁵ You have multiplied, O Lord my God,
your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us;
none can compare with you!
I will proclaim and tell of them,
yet they are more than can be told.

⁶ In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted,
but you have given me an open ear.
Burnt offering and sin offering
you have not required.
⁷ Then I said, “Behold, I have come;
in the scroll of the book it is written of me:
⁸ I delight to do your will, O my God;
your law is within my heart.”

⁹ I have told the glad news of deliverance
in the great congregation;
behold, I have not restrained my lips,
as you know, O Lord.
¹⁰ I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart;
I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation;
I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness
from the great congregation.

 

REFLECTION:

1. This song is a prayer for help when troubles abound. It is also a celebration of God’s mercy in times of need. It begins with praise of God for His past mercies (vv1-5) and a testimony to the king’s own faithfulness to the Lord (vv6-10).  The rest of the song is a prayer for help.
2. In your own times of need, when God seems to take too long to help you, what “false gods” (v4) offer tempting alternative solutions to you? What happened the last time you relied on one of those “gods”?
3. What in your life feels like a “slimy pit”? (v2)  Which helps you most with present troubles: remembering God’s actions in the past or claiming God’s promises for the future? Why?

 

PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what he wants to tell me.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

 

HYMN:

Psalm 40 – www.youtube.com/watch?v=26RFQqFMI3Q

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Psalms+039

 

Psalm 39 (ESV)

¹ I said, “I will guard my ways,
that I may not sin with my tongue;
I will guard my mouth with a muzzle,
so long as the wicked are in my presence.”
² I was mute and silent;
I held my peace to no avail,
and my distress grew worse.
³ My heart became hot within me.
As I mused, the fire burned;
then I spoke with my tongue:

⁴ “O Lord, make me know my end
and what is the measure of my days;
let me know how fleeting I am!
⁵ Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths,
and my lifetime is as nothing before you.
Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! Selah
⁶ Surely a man goes about as a shadow!
Surely for nothing they are in turmoil;
man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather!

⁷ “And now, O Lord, for what do I wait?
My hope is in you.
⁸ Deliver me from all my transgressions.
Do not make me the scorn of the fool!
⁹ I am mute; I do not open my mouth,
for it is you who have done it.
¹⁰ Remove your stroke from me;
I am spent by the hostility of your hand.
¹¹ When you discipline a man
with rebukes for sin,
you consume like a moth what is dear to him;
surely all mankind is a mere breath! Selah

¹² “Hear my prayer, O Lord,
and give ear to my cry;
hold not your peace at my tears!
For I am a sojourner with you,
a guest, like all my fathers.
¹³ Look away from me, that I may smile again,
before I depart and am no more!”

 

REFLECTION:

1. The psalmist was wrestling with a lot of anguished questions: life is so fragile, so short, like a puff of air, a passing shadow. How long do I have? What does it mean anyway? (v6)  Can’t you back off a bit, God? (vv10, 13). But then the singer also has hope in God (v7) and continues to seek deliverance from sin (v8).
2. “I am mute; I do not open my mouth” (v9) ushers an invitation for us to be SILENT before God to “close off our souls from sounds, whether noise, music, or words, so that we may better still the inner chatter and clatter of our noisy hearts and be increasingly attentive to God.”
3. Plan to have a Silent Date with God today or this week. Share your experience with your cell group.

 

PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what He wants to tell you.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

 

HYMN:

Make Me Know My End – www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzLxR7t0xag

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Psalms+038

 

Psalm 38 (ESV)

¹⁵ But for you, O Lord, do I wait;
it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer.
¹⁶ For I said, “Only let them not rejoice over me,
who boast against me when my foot slips!”

¹⁷ For I am ready to fall,
and my pain is ever before me.
¹⁸ I confess my iniquity;
I am sorry for my sin.
¹⁹ But my foes are vigorous, they are mighty,
and many are those who hate me wrongfully.
²⁰ Those who render me evil for good
accuse me because I follow after good.

²¹ Do not forsake me, O Lord!
O my God, be not far from me!
²² Make haste to help me,
O Lord, my salvation!

 

REFLECTION:

1. Both Old and New Testaments tell us that the Lord disciplines those He loves. David, knowing that he was being disciplined by God, felt wounded, weak, crushed, filled with searing pain.  Rather than trying to hide or find excuses or blames, David came to God with his pain!  Like a little child who turns to mommy for a hug after being spanked, we are to turn to God with arms held out. When we do, God, like any loving parent, will take us up in His arms and comfort us.
2. Despite the fact that David realized he was being disciplined for sin, he was confident that God would answer his plea. How could he be so sure? He said, “I confess my iniquity; I am troubled by my sin” (v18).
3. David understood what 1 John 1:9 conveys to us as a promise: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us.”
4. When have you experienced pain that was at least partly your fault? How did you handle it? What can you learn from David’s example?

 

PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what he wants to tell me.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

 

HYMN:

Psalm 38 – www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYLbW9KIz60

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Psalms+037

 

Psalm 37 (ESV)

¹ Fret not yourself because of evildoers;
be not envious of wrongdoers!
² For they will soon fade like the grass
and wither like the green herb.

³ Trust in the Lord, and do good;
dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
⁴ Delight yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

⁵ Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him, and he will act.
⁶ He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
and your justice as the noonday.

⁷ Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;
fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,
over the man who carries out evil devices!

⁸ Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!
Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.
⁹ For the evildoers shall be cut off,
but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.

¹⁰ In just a little while, the wicked will be no more;
though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there.
¹¹ But the meek shall inherit the land
and delight themselves in abundant peace.

 

REFLECTION:

1. We often think: “Do good and prosper, ignore God and fail.” But this often doesn’t work, and we wonder why good things happen to bad people. The psalmist says not to worry about it. God will take care of them soon enough.
2. Instead of fretting, we should trust, even “delight” in God who will protect and provide generously for those who do.
3. What do you secretly want to see happen to those who do evil and enjoy momentary success? How would their success and your reaction to it make you feel about God, about yourself and those people? Are you focused on success here in this world, or on storing up treasures in heaven?
4. Talk with God and tell Him your emotions right now. Then listen to God’s response.

 

PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what He wants to tell you.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

 

HYMN:

Wait Patiently – www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbGruMKwi7M

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Psalms+036

 

Psalm 36 (ESV)

¹ Transgression speaks to the wicked
deep in his heart;
there is no fear of God
before his eyes.
² For he flatters himself in his own eyes
that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated.
³ The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit;
he has ceased to act wisely and do good.
⁴ He plots trouble while on his bed;
he sets himself in a way that is not good;
he does not reject evil.

⁵ Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the clouds.
⁶ Your righteousness is like the mountains of God;
your judgments are like the great deep;
man and beast you save, O Lord.

⁷ How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
⁸ They feast on the abundance of your house,
and you give them drink from the river of your delights.
⁹ For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light do we see light.

¹⁰ Oh, continue your steadfast love to those who know you,
and your righteousness to the upright of heart!
¹¹ Let not the foot of arrogance come upon me,
nor the hand of the wicked drive me away.
¹² There the evildoers lie fallen;
they are thrust down, unable to rise.

 

REFLECTION:

1. In the Psalms, the “righteous” seem to be those who may do wrong but are generally seeking to please God. The “wicked” are those who, despite good they may do, are generally rejecting God’s ways.
2. David was completely convinced that evildoers will be “thrown down” by the Lord (v12).
3. David’s conviction that the wicked must fail rested squarely on his understanding of who God is. He is assured that God will judge the wicked and continue to display love toward those who know Him.
4. What have you tasted of God’s “feast” recently? How has He refreshed or enlivened you?

 

PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what He wants to tell you.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

 

HYMN:

Psalm 36 – www.youtube.com/watch?v=AH5utZnYw5o