Thursday, May 22, 2025

Psalms for Today ~ Side-by-Side

 


Read Psalms 25-27

 

Show me how you work, God; School me in your ways. Take me by the hand; Lead me down the path of truth. You are my Savior, aren’t you? Psalm 25:4-5

 

Examine me, God, from head to foot, order your battery of tests. Make sure I’m fit inside and out So I never lose sight of your love, But keep in step with you, never missing a beat. Psalm 26:2-3

 

I’m asking God for one thing, only one thing: To live, dwell, in God’s house my whole life long.  I’ll contemplate God’s beauty; I’ll study at God’s feet. That’s the only quiet, secure place in a noisy world, The perfect getaway, far from the buzz of traffic.  Psalm 27:4-5

 

One of the ways to engage the triplet of Psalms each day is to find ONE verse from each psalm and sit with it.  To let that verse sing to your soul and see how your soul joins in the chorus.  I also love laying a verse from each of the three Psalms for the day alongside each other to watch them interact or argue or dance with each other.  I call this “Scriptural Chemistry”.  Just like baking soda and vinegar and red dye are used to make a volcanic eruption in a science fair, so too letting scripture verses dance/play/pray/ and interact can do things in us and through us beyond words. 

 

Above are the three selections from the Psalms today that sang to my soul.  You don’t have to go with my choices.  Maybe you liked the 6th verses or thought the truth was in the first verse of each.  Great!  Find the verses that sing to you.  Maybe you didn’t like any of the verses in Psalm 26, and you can’t believe the editors included that Psalm in the 150!?!  The mystery of the Psalms (and this goes from hymns too, is that you can return to them time and time again because each time you are different and so a different verse might just sneak up on your soul unaware).  Your soul might think tomorrow, “Oh I love that 4th verse of Psalm 25, only to be struck by verse 8 (God is fair and just) tomorrow because of something that happens today.  So, hold these words, let them work and wiggle in your heart and life.  Take them with you.  Pray these words at red lights out in traffic and before you go into a meeting with that person or before a doctor’s appointment.  The Psalms are meant to be wisdom to go with you, truth that travels and guides you through your day.  May whatever verse or verses you find in this triplet of Psalms today, may these words we read awaken your awareness of God activity your one precious and wild life.  Amen.


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