Strangers No More

December 9, 2021

One of my Scriptural disciplines consists of reading five Psalms, corresponding to the days of the month. So on the first of any month, it would be Psalm 1, 31, 61, 91, 121. Today being the 9th of December, the Psalms for the day are 9, 39, 69, 99, 129. Today, the 9th, 39th, and 69th caught my attention.

Ps. 9:10–“You have not forsaken those who seek you.” Ps. 39:12–“I am a stranger with you.”

How do you seek someone who is a stranger to you? Where do you begin? How do you know when that stranger is found? Sometimes God seems a stranger to me. I search, but he eludes me no the emptiness remains. Others speak glowingly of him, while it all seems but an academic matter to me, lacking soul and fire. Often I feel like a kid looking through the toy store window at all the wonderful things inside. I can see them, see others enjoying them, but they remain out of reach and inaccessible to me. What others experience, I only observe. Like that child staring through the window, it’s cold outside; I long to come in, but can’t find the door.

Psalm 69:16—“Hear me Lord, for your lovingkindness is good. Turn to me according to the multitude of your tender mercies.” This gives me to hope in the mercies and lovingkindness of God. Maybe he will unlock the door.

Ps. 69:29–“I am poor and sorrowful; let your salvation O God, set me up on high. I will praise the name of God with a song and magnify him with thanksgiving.” God turns to us when in our poverty we sing, praise, and give thanks. As Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit…” I’ve discovered that when I focus on my feelings of inadequacy or my insensitivity to the things of God, as often as not, the problem is that I am dwelling upon me and my feelings instead of on God himself. When I praise and give thanks in spite of what I feel, the Holy Spirit begins to move within me.

There are two “I’s” in verse 29: “I am,” and “I will.” It is best if I never let “I am” rule over “I will”.