This morning I noticed that I am almost at the end of the journal book. WHAT? No way! I have only ever finished an entire journal book once, and that was a small one.
What typically happens is this. I can’t find it so I start another one. Or, I get bored with that one. Or I find a really beautiful/cute/awesome/inspiring one at the store and I just “have to” start using it. Or someone gives me one and I want to use it right now. You get the picture.
Anyway, I counted only seven more pages. Incredible. I thumbed back to the beginning and found that I had started this particular journal in January of 2018. As I leafed through the pages I found gaps. Gaps where I wasn’t writing in a journal with my devotions. Gaps where I had lost it and was using another one. A long gap after Daddy went to heaven.
I also found a couple of really great entries. You know how sometimes you read your Bible and you write down a couple of comments and, well, that’s all you’ve got to write? Then there are other days. Days where a truth explodes off the page and you journal two or three pages of what God just showed you. Well, there were a couple of those.
At the end of the second one I stopped and reread the verse. Wait a minute. That’s awfully familiar. Could it be? It sounds just like the verse that jumped out at me this morning.
It wasn’t the same verse, but it did say the same thing. I was so stunned I hurried into the house and shared it with Bruce. Then I took pictures and sent it to my Mom. I told a friend via Marco Polo.
Here it is. Are you ready?
Psalm 57:1-3 1To the chief Musician, Altaschith, Michtam of David, when he fled from Saul in the cave. Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast. 2I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me. 3He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.
Psalm 89:14 Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face.
When I read Psalm 57:1-3 on July 30th the thing that struck me was that the Most High God performs all things for me. He holds it all together. He maintains my cause. Then, verse three. He will send from heaven and save me. He shall send forth his mercy and truth. Here is where my imagination kind of took flight. Here’s what I wrote in my journal:
I imagine God raising his arm and shooting out LOVE like a laser, right down to me. And right behind it is his truth. Love and truth. OR, it could be little hearts dropping from the sky to bring his love. Or little minions marching in with truth and love. (Oh wait, I thought. That’s not biblical. God doesn’t have minions.) Okay. Angels flying in with the truth and love.
Anyway, you get the point. So when I saw that part about God sending mercy and truth, I couldn’t help but remember today’s verse. Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne. They are the foundation. You must have the home base, the foundation for mercy and truth. That is God’s justice and judgment. Not always seen. No.
What’s seen are the mercy and truth that go before his face. What a picture! And, what an explanation for those who are wondering how a loving God can judge sin and unrighteousness.
Anyway, that’s what God taught me today. What about you?