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
What I appreciate most about this book is that people from all occupations can relate to Cordeiro’s story. Even volunteers, wives, and mothers, can experience burnout easily. While I am not a pastor and have never reached a crisis like Cordeiro, I have certainly had warning signs in my life that required attention. After years of working in the nursing field, I became a stay-at-home mom for the first time. Something I never
Cortisol is in the class of hormones called glucocorticoids and affects almost every organ in the body. One of the most important functions of cortisol is to help regulate the body’s response to stress. Cortisol is also responsible for other necessary functions including: helping to maintain blood pressure and cardiovascular functions, helping to slow the immune system’s inflammatory response, helping to balance the effects of insulin in breaking down sugars for energy, helping to regulate the metabolism of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, and helping to maintain proper arousal of sense of well being. The amount of cortisol is precisely balanced and regulated by the brain’s hypothalamus.
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.
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...
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.
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;
Maglione-Garves, Christine A, Len Kravitz and Suzzane Schneider. Cortisol Connection: Tips on Managing Stress and Weight. n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2013.
Psalm 130 is an unnamed psalm in the Hebrew psalter composed by a penitential Israelite. The church has made great use of the psalms. It was written by and anonymous author but is suggested that it could be Hezekiah. It was written during the time of Moses (approximately, 1440 B.C.) and the Babylonian captivity (586 B.C.). The authors of the Psalms are accredited to David who wrote 73 psalms; Asaph who wrote 12, the sons of Korah who wrote 9; Solomon who wrote 2, Heman (with the sons of Korah), Ethan, and Moses each wrote one; and 51 psalms are anonymous. The New Testament ascribes two of the anonymous Psalms (2and 95) to David. The purpose of Psalms 130 is to provide poetry for the expression of praise, worship, and confession to God. The
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
The author in this Psalm is looking at fear and how we should be able to overcome it with our faith in the Lord. He believes that we have nothing to fear if we let ourselves live in the house of the Lord. He sees fear as something that we all have but shouldn't have. This Psalm is his way of explaining how he tries to deal with the fear that he has in his own life. He is trying to look at fear as something that anyone can overcome if they are confident in the Lord. He is trying to give himself some confidence in the fact that although he is scared he shouldn't be because the Lord will hold him high above his enemies. He sees fear as nothing and is supremely confident in himself through the Lord.
/ 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”
In the day of David this is written as a song of praise to show the love between God and David. In the old days many phrases had more literal meanings like green pastures and clear waters. However to a modern day translation a more elaborate theme is brought to the text. For example to a modern theme clear waters and green pastures means speaks more to a healthy life and home. The explanation of this psalm is to show the promise of God to always be a good shepherd.
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
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