When I awoke this morning is was raining, and quickly it progressed to a downpour. I made my coffee and then sat down in the corner chair to lift my thoughts heavenward, but though my thoughts ranged far and wide, they could not get vertical. It began to trouble me, so as a remedy I opened my bible to where I’d left off in the Psalms, which was in the high 90’s. David wrote the first 70 or so, and then the others were written by guys like Asaph, the lead worshipper/choir director, and various other anonymous writers. I noticed how unlike David’s psalms these later ones were; how when David wrote he brought his personal experience to the table - difficult, painful, triumphant or embarrassing as it was, and then praised the Lord in the midst of it, or despite it, but he from an angle of his own experience. These Psalms I read this morning were more equivalent to a modern-day worship leader who desires for the people to worship the Lord because it is their duty and God’s right. Such leaders are, of course, right to feel that way, but I must say that David’s representation of his own human experience and the Lord’s presence throughout it moves me more than a general call to worship. After reading I got up, made my bagel, and went on the porch for a bit. It was still pouring, and it was freezing cold outside. I felt glad to be sheltered from the elements. Still trying to elevate my thoughts, I recalled Psalms that spoke of the Lord’s power in terms of extreme weather – floods, lightning, and mighty wind. Certainly God is as powerful as Oklahoma weather and more, and those thoughts were entirely true. What really captured my heart and my imagination, though, was the fact that God is my shelter – that He is a strong tower into which I can run and be unafraid when it’s figuratively storming outside, and when the world is just not a hospitable place to be. How tender of the Lord to use these torrents and frozen water to teach me about His tenderness and protection. It’s what I really what I wanted to hear this morning, and it satisfied my soul. I was surprised by how today’s great soul hunger was satisfied in an unexpected way this morning – this time through a storm and a shelter. I’m grateful that He chooses to speak to me at all, and that He never leaves me out in the cold for longer than it takes to realize that I need to find all of my security in Him.
