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Psalm

Life is Like a Pencil Maze

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And They’re Easier with Help

A maze is defined as, “A path or collection of paths typically from an entrance to a goal. The word is used to refer both to branching puzzles through which the solver must find a route, and to simpler non-branching (“unicursal”) patterns that lead unambiguously through a convoluted layout to a goal.”

Life is like a maze. It has a beginning and an end. We can choose what we want the end goal to be. Do we want to spend eternity in heaven or hell?

We start down a path that seems clear. We’re sure is the right one. Then we run into a roadblock. Now we have to turn around and go in a different direction. And just when we think we have it figured out…there’s another dead end.

This maze we call life can be frustrating.

But if we persist, we will eventually find the goal. Finding our way through the maze is easier if we have a map and help. The map is our Bible. The help is God, our church, family, and Christian friends.

This Sunday’s message was from Psalm 5. It is a morning prayer for help…and boy, don’t we all need help getting through this maze called life.

David starts out by stating who he’s praying to and asking God to hear his prayer. He confirms that God does not like evil and will not support sin. He asks God to make His teaching clear and to guide him. He then closes the prayer asking for protection for those who love God.

Starting our day off in prayer is a good way to begin each daily portion of the maze.

In Psalm 1, we are shown the way to happiness. We are also shown a different path. One path is to success. One is like straw blown by the wind. Verse 6 tells us, “The Lord protects everyone who follows Him, but the wicked follow a road that leads to ruin.”

So, if we are aware of the maze of life, understand how it’s better with help, take intentional actions, and continue learning as we go…we’ll make it to Heaven in the end.

Routines Are a Good Thing

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That is, If the Routine Includes Doing Good Things

A routine is doing tasks, chores, or duties at a regular or specific interval or time. It is a habitual procedure constantly repeated.

Prayer is a good routine to have.

This is part of the Jewish religion. The Jewish Law calls for praying three times daily. In the morning, the afternoon, and at nightfall. The morning prayer is called (shacharit), the afternoon prayer (minchah), and the evening prayer (arvith or maariv).

It is taught that the custom of praying three times a day was introduced by the Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Abraham introduced prayer in the morning, Isaac in the afternoon, and Jacob added one at night.

Routines can help you stay organized, be productive, and even find meaning. Certain studies have associated family routines with parenting competence and marital satisfaction.

Not all routines are created equal and failing to examine or alter bad habits can have a negative effect on our lives.

Habitual behavior can cause us to be unaware. A series of habits can set us on autopilot. This can lead to losing touch with who we are made to be.

For example, scrolling through our phone can seem pretty harmless, but we may be missing out on interaction with others. Similarly, items we pressure ourselves to include in our routines may be taking up time that could be used for better things.

Whatever our personal habits may be, it’s worth considering the ways they may be affecting us negatively. These routines may prevent us from engaging with the world around us.

Routines can start out with good intentions, but the good can get lost in the routine.

If we are doing the routine just to do it, we may have lost the reason behind why we’re doing it.

Going back to Jewish routines, many of the Sadducees and Pharisees in the Old Testament got caught up in the routines and forgot the why.

We need to periodically step back and ask ourselves why. Why are we doing this routine? Is it still an effective part of who we are and what we’ve been put here to accomplish?

As for the Jewish prayer routine, they consider Psalm 4 an evening prayer. It is one of David’s Psalms. In this Psalm, David:

  • Talks to and gives God his problems
  • Speaks to the people and reminds them that he was called by God
  • Advises the people to not hold on to their anger, to not dwell on their anger overnight, and to give their anger to God
  • Trusts in God
  • Asks God for peace and joy

Praying regularly and often is a good way to stay connected with God. This can be especially true as we come to the end of our busy days.

There can be a sense of guilt when falling asleep before you’re finished praying. It’s okay…it’s like falling asleep in your parent’s arms.

Prayers don’t need to be some elaborate thing. They can be simple. Like the “Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep” prayer that many of us learned as a kid. I found out in the children’s message Sunday that there are variations to this prayer.

Here’s one I really liked –

Thank you Lord for another day,
The chance to learn, the chance to play.
Now as I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
Please, guard me Jesus through the night,
And keep me safe till morning’s light.
But if I should I die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.
And should I live for other days,
I pray that God will guide my ways.
Amen.

Routines help us remember to do things. But we need to do the right routines for the right reasons.

It’s important to be intentional with our routines.

How You Deal With Adversity is Up to You

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Nobody Said It Would be Easy

Life is full of adversity. It comes in all shapes and sizes. We all deal with it differently.

The important thing to remember is that we don’t have to do it alone.

Most of us will never experience the amount of loss that Job in the Bible did. He was a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil. He had seven sons and three daughters. He owned 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 teams of oxen, and 500 female donkeys. He also had many servants. He was, in fact, the richest person in that entire area.

One day, a messenger arrived at Job’s home with this news: “Your oxen were plowing, with the donkeys feeding beside them, when the Sabeans raided us. They stole all the animals and killed all the farmhands.”

While he was still speaking, another messenger arrived with this news: “The fire of God has fallen from heaven and burned up your sheep and all the shepherds.”

While he was still speaking, a third messenger arrived with this news: “Three bands of Chaldean raiders have stolen your camels and killed your servants.”

While he was still speaking, another messenger arrived with this news: “Your sons and daughters were feasting in their oldest brother’s home. Suddenly, a powerful wind swept in from the wilderness and hit the house on all sides. The house collapsed, and all your children are dead.”

Job stood up and tore his robe in grief. Then, he shaved his head and fell to the ground to worship. He said,

“I came naked from my mother’s womb,
    and I will be naked when I leave.
The Lord gave me what I had,
    and the Lord has taken it away.
Praise the name of the Lord!”

In all of this, Job did not sin by blaming God.

This seems like a lot of adversity. Most of us have never experienced anything close to this. We can’t imagine what this would be like.

It can be hard to relate to Bible stories. They can feel like they are from so long ago and so far away that’s hard to relate.

Horatio Spafford’s story of loss is closer to our time in history than Job’s story.

Horatio Gates Spafford became well-known for his clear Christian testimony in Chicago. He and his wife Anna were active in their church. Their home was always open to visitors, including their friend Dwight L. Moody.

They were blessed with five children and considerable wealth. Horatio was a lawyer and owned a great deal of property in Chicago.

Tragedy came in great measure to this happy home. At four years old, their son, Horatio Jr., died suddenly of scarlet fever.

Then, only a year later in October 1871, a massive fire swept through downtown Chicago, devastating the city, including many properties owned by Horatio. Despite their substantial financial loss, the Spafford’s sought to demonstrate the love of Christ, by assisting those who were grief-stricken and in great need.

Two years later in 1873, Spafford decided his family should take a holiday in England, knowing that his friend, the evangelist D. L. Moody, would be preaching there in autumn.

Horatio was delayed because of business, so he sent his family ahead, his wife and their four remaining children: 11-year-old Anna, 9-year-old Margaret Lee, 5-year-old Elizabeth, and 2-year-old Tanetta.

On November 22, 1873, while crossing the Atlantic, their vessel was struck by an iron sailing ship.

All four of Horatio Spafford’s daughters perished, but remarkably Anna Spafford survived the tragedy. Those rescued were taken to Cardiff, South Wales. Upon arrival, Anna immediately sent a telegram to her husband, which included the words “Saved alone….”

Receiving Anna’s message, Horatio set off at once to be with his wife.

During the voyage, the captain pointed out the very spot where his daughters had died.

It is said that Spafford returned to his cabin and wrote the hymn “It Is Well With My Soul” there and then. The first line is, “When peace like a river, attendeth my way…”

Obviously, the voyage was one of deep sorrow as well as inspiration. This is evident in the moving and well-loved hymn.

After Anna was rescued, Pastor Nathaniel Weiss, one of the ministers travelling with the surviving group, remembered hearing Anna say, “God gave me four daughters. Now they have been taken from me. Someday I will understand why.”

Naturally, Anna was utterly devastated, but she testified that in her grief and despair, she had been conscious of a soft voice speaking to her, “You were saved for a purpose!” She remembered something a friend had once said,

“It’s easy to be grateful and good when you have so much but take care that you are not a fair-weather friend to God.”

In August 1881, the Spafford’s left America with several other like-minded Christians and settled in Jerusalem. There they served the needy, helped the poor, cared for the sick, and took in homeless children. Their desire was to show those living around them the love of Jesus.

This week’s sermon was on Psalms 3. This Psalm is regarding the time when David’s own son was attempting to take over as king.

David dealt with a lot of losses throughout his life. He had a great many enemies, some of which were his own family. Even with all the mistakes he made, the one thing that David was consistent in, was giving it to God.

We will experience adversity. Hopefully it’s not to the level of Job, Horatio, or David. Whatever the size and extent of the difficulties we experience…

God is the only way we can really deal with adversity.

Being on the Winning Team

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It’s Nice When Our Team Wins

The 2024 Summer Olympics are just around the corner. The Olympics are a sports fan’s dream come true. There are all kinds of different sports to watch. You can root for your favorite team and/or individual as the competition proceeds.

We like it when our team wins. Not so much when they lose.

I grew up playing basketball on our church’s league team. I watched sports, went to games, and enjoyed it.

Then, somewhere along the way, I would find myself getting upset when the team I was rooting for lost. It would affect how I acted and treated others.

This is when I began watching motor sports and became a big NASCAR fan. I’ve thought about this over the years, trying to figure out why I didn’t get as upset watching racing as I did when I was watching other sports.

The conclusion I came to was that even if the driver I’m cheering for doesn’t win, I still find things that I can celebrate.

For example, in this past week’s race, the driver I wanted to win didn’t…he finished second in a field of thirty-seven. Not bad. He also finished first in stage two and got stage points. That’s good.

Even though the driver that won the race wasn’t my first pick, I like him as a driver. And his dad used to be one of my favorite drivers. That’s good.

Then my favorite team also had a good day, with three of their four cars finishing in the top twelve. One finished twenty-seventh with a blown motor, but even with the motor expiring, there were ten cars that finished after him.

So, what does it mean to be on the winning team?

This answer is going to be different for everyone.

Psalms 1 and 2 are the introduction to the rest of the book. Last week, we talked about how Psalm 1 shows us that we have a choice. We can choose good, or we can choose evil.

This week in Psalm 2, we see an illustration of what good and evil look like and what the rules are.

Just like there are rules in sports, there are rules in life.

Much of the time people see these rules as restrictive, like being chained down. A lot of people see budgeting the same way. They feel like it limits what they can do.

With both rules and budgeting we are given a clear direction of what we can expect and what’s expected of us.

In Psalm 2, it’s evident which team—between good and evil—is going to win.

Unlike sports, in life, we get to choose which team we’re going to be on.

Winning is something that we strive for naturally. We want to be on the winning side.

This reminds me of something that was said in Andy Andrew’s book, The Traveler’s Gift. In chapter eight, David Ponder meets Abraham Lincoln.

They’re talking about the Civil War and who’s going to win. David askes the President, “Do you believe that God is on your side?”

Then after a little discussion the President answers,

“So your question was, ‘Do I believe that God is on our side?’ To be quite honest, I haven’t given that question very much attention. I am much more concerned with whether we are on God’s side.”

Andrews, Andy. The Traveler’s Gift: Seven Decisions that Determine Personal Success (p. 128).
Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.

Choose the right team and be on God’s side.