Anxious Toil Reading: Psalm 127 (what version?) “In vain you rise early and stay up late, eating the bread of anxious toil. For he gives rest to his beloved.” Psalm 127:2 (what version?) It has been a habit of mine in the last few years when I am feeling anxious and worrying as I fall asleep to recite Psalm 127 to myself. Not so when I was a foster parent. I spent a good deal of nights going over the craziness of my day and the drama of fostering in my mind. This of course did not help me go to sleep, but only increased the worry of my mind and resulted in loss of sleep. But God gives rest to His beloved!! And we can rest in His promises. Psalm 126 is a beautiful testament about allowing the Lord to build your house, and how children AND …show more content…
One that trusts in the Lord’s provision and not our anxious toil. If you need a nap, take yourself one. Let some things slide in the kitchen to find some rest and attack it when you are ready. Gather your kids for a clean up power 10 with a reward movie or snack and a nap for yourself. The change in your schedule and habits during foster parenting can zap you of energy. Being a nurse I am completely aware of physical and emotional stress toll on our bodies. But do you know?? Long term stress can deplete us of our much needed stress hormone called cortisol and send us into adrenal fatigue. It is useful for getting past a deadline, keeping it together while everyone else falls apart, or physical exertion. But long term business, rushing, and worrying are not what the Lord has made our bodies for. That is not His rest. His rest is peace and trust. In times of stress when I am emotionally overwhelmed and feeling at my end, I have a ritual of imagining myself as the beloved apostle John, as I lay down at night. He rested his head on Jesus’ chest undoubtedly hearing His heartbeat and listening to the steady rhythm. John knew he was loved and he was comfortable enough to take this intimate position with Jesus. I find that this simple visualization places me at a point of release, trust, and dependence on Jesus right where I need to be. It frequently brings me to tears when I imagine
To a great extent, stress can be a helpful response, especially for prehistoric humans. During this era, our species needed to react quickly to outside stimuli through a response of “fight or flight”. Through stress, certain hormones are released to help the individual resist the stressor, which may have meant running away from a natural predator. Thus, stress is a positive response that ensures the survival of the species. However, stress over a prolonged period of time causes exhaustion in the individual. Consequently, although stress can be helpful for individuals today, many often experience chronic stress, inflicting varying degrees of damage to their bodies.
Psalm 113 reads like a 1st century pep talk for those with spiritual burnout. The writer makes his case for the Lord by pointing to the many ways that God earns our praise. These nine verses of scripture are saturated with three specific reasons to praise the Lord – He is Su...
Psalm 82, known as A Plea for Justice, or A Psalm of Asaph within its first few lines gives credence to this idea of acknowledgment of other gods, “God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment…” Within these lines it can be seen that the ancient Israelites see their god as one of many, they see their god as sitting within a council. (NRSTV Psalm 82:1) However, while within the first line it does acknowledge that the ancient Israelites acknowledged the existence of other gods, later on, their specific god is seen as being angered by the other gods seeing them as unjust. (Patrick d miller psalms) “How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Give justice to the weak and the orphan;
Day after day they pour forth speech… The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making the wise simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes,” (New International Version, Psalm
Maglione-Garves, Christine A, Len Kravitz and Suzzane Schneider. Cortisol Connection: Tips on Managing Stress and Weight. n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2013.
Over the course of some great activity packed days, I truly missed sitting at the feet of Jesus, meditating on His word and receiving thoughts to ponder on and share. I could definitely agree with the Psalmist that my heart longed to be in the courts of the Lord! “Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere!” Psalm 84 is a beautiful Psalm that oozes praise of God.
In theory this Psalm is exactly how I would like to live my life. I would like to get up every morning and have the ability to go throughout my day without having all of the fears I come across in my daily life. How am I supposed to just let all of my fears go when I can see them all around me in my life? Is the Lord really going to keep me safe from those who are opposing me in my endeavors? The answer seems so obvious when just looking at the questions. Of course he is going to keep me safe, but actually applying this Psalm to my daily life is harder than ...
The Lord is my shepherd. The metaphor of the psalm, this is saying that god is like our shepherd he helps us to find food, water, love, and all that we need. He also protects us from evil. I shall not want. 4I interpret it to mean that I will have everything I need if I allow God to be my shepherd, therefore I will need nothing else.
This is also how Psalm 85 projects the story of the Sons of Korah that identifies the suffering of the Jewish people during exile. More so, it identifies an important aspect of worship services that helped to relieve the punishment of God that put on them throughout various periods of history. Certainly, the Psalms provided a foundation for God’s wisdom, which could be celebrated amongst multiple worshipers at a service. This is why the Psalms, under the leadership of David aka. the musical director, identify these important facets of God’s love for the Jewish people in these particular
Today’s culture is one where people like to do as little work as possible. Even when it comes to reading our own scripture, The Holy Words of God, a lot of people like to look up one verse and reference it to something without knowing what the rest of the passage says. Psalms 109 is no exception, it is one the more widely misused passages as of late. A popular verse from Psalms 109 is verse 8 which reads “Let his days be few; and let another take his office”, this is seen in reference to our current president, but what people fail to realize is what else David is actually praying. This paper is going to go through Psalms 109 and unpack it verse by verse to show the true meaning of what David was praying and to give us a new look at how to pray.
Getting sick is another negative factor of being overly stressed. Chronic stress compromises your immune system and stress hormones affect the body’s ability to fight off illness due to the fact that thymus’s ability to stimulate and coordinate the white blood cell activity.
Once again the psalmist starts off with praise. This alone is instructional in that we should begin every day with praise and thanksgiving to God for all he has blessed us with and will bless us with throughout our day. In addition, he gently reminds us that we are to be delighted in spending time reading and studying God’s laws. The psalmist continues on compiling a list of blessings the righteous man can look forward to: “His offspring will be mighty in the land”; “wealth and riches are in his house”; “his righteousness endures forever” (repeated twice throughout the psalm); “light dawns in the darkness for the upright”; “the righteous will never be moved”; “he will be remembered forever”; and “his horn is exalted in honor”.
This interpretation, I believe, is similar to my own. We both say that the subject of the psalm is scared or fearful of a life without the Lord. In another source, Bible Gateway, it says “A child of God startles at the very thought of despairing of help in God”. A true child of God will never despair or lose faith in the Lord. Faith is the total trust in something you don’t know for one hundred percent
Imagine with me for a moment you're living during the time of Jesus. You're a disciple and you're getting into a boat with Jesus to cross this huge lake. My gue...
/ When thou dost ask me blessing, I’ll kneel down / And ask of thee forgiveness. So we’ll live, / And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh”