Sept 25 Daily Rhythms

Morning
Psalm 6

O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger,
nor discipline me in your wrath.
Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am languishing;
heal me, O LORD, for my bones are troubled.
My soul also is greatly troubled.
But you, O LORD—how long?
Turn, O LORD, deliver my life;
save me for the sake of your steadfast love.
For in death there is no remembrance of you;
in Sheol who will give you praise?

I am weary with my moaning;
every night I flood my bed with tears;
I drench my couch with my weeping.
My eye wastes away because of grief;
it grows weak because of all my foes.

Depart from me, all you workers of evil,
for the LORD has heard the sound of my weeping.
The LORD has heard my plea;
the LORD accepts my prayer.
All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled;
they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.

Surely there are times when you feel pursued by temptation, shame and fear. Name some of these “workers of evil” and believe that that God has shown you grace. Thank God that he is restoring you even while destroying your enemies.

Afternoon
Psalm 7:1-7
O LORD my God, in you do I take refuge;
save me from all my pursuers and deliver me,
lest like a lion they tear my soul apart,
rending it in pieces, with none to deliver.

O LORD my God, if I have done this,
if there is wrong in my hands,
if I have repaid my friend with evil
or plundered my enemy without cause,
let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it,
and let him trample my life to the ground
and lay my glory in the dust.

Arise, O LORD, in your anger;
lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies;
awake for me; you have appointed a judgment.

Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you;
over it return on high.

Do you ever think that maybe, just maybe sometimes we have a wrong idea of “judgement”? We often talk about this as if it is to be feared, yet this Psalm gives the impression that maybe “judgement” is closer in meaning to “vindication” than it is to “condemnation.” Can you stand before God like the Psalmist? Can you say to God, “If i am evil, get me too, but reign over all as the righteous judge?” Pray that The good judge of all by his spirit will help you to know that In Christ, vindication is yours, and pray for a heart to long for it.

Evening
Psalm 7:8-17
The LORD judges the peoples;
judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness
and according to the integrity that is in me.
Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end,
and may you establish the righteous—
you who test the minds and hearts,
O righteous God!
My shield is with God,
who saves the upright in heart.
God is a righteous judge,
and a God who feels indignation every day.

If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword;
he has bent and readied his bow;
he has prepared for him his deadly weapons,
making his arrows fiery shafts.
Behold, the wicked man conceives evil
and is pregnant with mischief
and gives birth to lies.
He makes a pit, digging it out,
and falls into the hole that he has made. His mischief returns upon his own head,
and on his own skull his violence descends.

I will give to the LORD the thanks due to his righteousness,
and I will sing praise to the name of the LORD, the Most High.

The are two postures that people can have toward God, indignant or repentant. God looks at all mankind and he calls us to fall before him in submission, to turn from ourselves and toward him. As you lay down tonight to rest, pray that God will help you to become the second.