Reading David's Journal

Glory in his name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always. --Psalm 105:3-4

My husband makes a point of reading a portion of the Psalms every morning as part of his devotional time before he heads off to work. Since I have had absolutely nothing competing for my attention throughout the last week or so, I have been doing some reading in the Psalms myself. It's amazing how many songs come to mind whenever I read them. How can I help but want to sing praise songs when I read verses like this? Songs with lines like "Oh Lord, your beautiful, your face is all I seek"; or what about "I will seek you in the morning, and I will learn to walk in your ways...".

Another thing I've noticed while reading Psalms is that David, who wrote the Psalms, certainly had some mood swings when he was writing! That only made him seem that much more real to me. As I read what he has written during some very distinct periods in his life, I almost feel like I'm reading his journal, or spying on him during his times of personal meditation. The fact that he expresses every emotion on the spectrum while still being considered a man after God's own heart, encourages me.

I always used to think of the people in the Bible as being so completely in tune with God all the time that they were nearly perfect. Well, obviously they weren't! David cried out to God on several occasions. It reminded me of my own writing and how I tend to write poems, journal and post to my web pages when there's a lot on my heart. As I write, I reflect. My words become more than just a creative outlet or a problem solving session. The words eventually stop flowing to the paper and instead leave my lips as a prayer. Like David, I keep coming back to the same conclusion that I need to give everything over to the Lord.

Like this verse says, we need to seek His face always. Not just when we feel like it...not just when things are going well and we have things to be praising God for, and not just when we need things from Him. We need to seek Him always and in all ways. In doing so, our hearts rejoice. Over the last few weeks I have been so totally encouraged to draw nearer to the Lord, and as a result, I almost always have a song in my heart. Even this afternoon when I was completely exhausted, I had reasons to praise Him in word and in thought.

It is my prayer that rejoicing hearts will occur as a natural result of seeking the Lord. Those of us who call ourselves Christ-followers must strive to seek him always. He's always there, so why not take advantage of that fact? The only thing we stand to lose is the weight of the burdens we so willingly but unneccesarily carry around.