A Devo From Scot - Psalm 118

Dear Church,

You’ve made it. It’s December and Christmas 2020 is fast approaching. I know it seemed very far away back in the shadows of March and April, but you’re here now.

Our focus in these little biblical reminders has been to tend our own heart. It’s perhaps never been more important to do so when our hearts are tempted to “trust” or “hope” in some expected transition because of a change of calendar. What if our “goodbye and good-riddance to 2020” isn’t as nice and tidy as we’d hoped? What if 2021 is just as challenging? Now I don’t want that to be a prophecy, but it begs the real question: How will we focus on our heart?

Today I invite you again to the Psalms. We’ve covered a lot of ground since March. Find a way right now or soon today to read Psalm 118. It is powerfully beautiful. As you read it, tune your ears and eyes to the life and times of Jesus in the New Testament, as lines from Psalm 118 are often quoted or referenced in the gospels (and beyond). Fitting for Christmas week, don’t you think?

Today, right where you are, could you quote two verses from Psalm 118 as a statement of retrospect as well as hope and faith? I think verses 13 and 14 are good candidates. What if you spoke them to 2020, or COVID or even the devil?  “You pushed me violently so that I was falling, but the LORD helped me. The LORD is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation.”

As you continue to read and meditate on Psalm 118, recall that the “right hand of the LORD” is the locus of power and activity. We are to trust in Him. He is the source and conduit of action, salvation and strength. I hope you also see that the “gates of righteousness” are deeply tied to thanksgiving. Gratitude is the attitude of those who trust in the LORD. And even after a rough year, there are countless gifts, blessings, graces and rescues for which to be thankful.

And finally, as you prepare your heart for Christmas Day, I hope the words of Psalm 118 ring in your ears: “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone…blessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD.”

God came for you. Nothing, and I mean not one thing, can change, deny, subvert and corrupt that sublime fact. God came for you.

I love you church,

Scot