A WORD FOR TODAY, June 6, 2025
Peggy Hoppes
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Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, June 6, 2025
“God, you are my God. I will earnestly seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you, in a dry and weary land, where there is no water. So I have seen you in the sanctuary, watching your power and your glory. Because your loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise you. So I will bless you while I live. I will lift up my hands in your name. My soul shall be satisfied as with the richest food. My mouth shall praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you on my bed, and think about you in the night watches. For you have been my help. I will rejoice in the shadow of your wings. My soul stays close to you. Your right hand holds me up. But those who seek my soul to destroy it shall go into the lower parts of the earth. They shall be given over to the power of the sword. They shall be jackal food. But the king shall rejoice in God. Everyone who swears by him will praise him, for the mouth of those who speak lies shall be silenced.” Psalm 63, WEB
I had a friend who got a new kitten. Alex was just barely old enough to be away from her mother, and she was a tiny ball of fluff with endless energy. I went to this friend’s house when the kitten was new to the house, and the room where we sat was new to her. Alex spent the evening zooming, bouncing, and climbing everywhere, entertaining us with her zest and curiosity. She startled us and herself when she jumped onto the keys of the piano.
The family also had a hamster that was happily sleeping in her cage while the kitten zoomed all around. Tilly eventually woke up and began to do hamster things, like gnawing and exploring. Alex did not notice the hamster until there was movement in the cage, and she was mesmerized until she got bored and went zooming around the room again. Alex noticed Tilly a second time and went to investigate. This time she sniffed at the walls of the cage and tapped them with her paws. No matter what she did, she was unable to get to Tilly.
Tilly was completely unbothered by the cat’s presence. She remained at peace and went about her business climbing through the rooms of her house, chewing on everything she could get her teeth on. She had no concern for this playful fellow outside her cage, even though the way Alex began to attack the walls might have seemed threatening. Alex was just a tiny ball of fluff, certainly non-threatening to the people sitting in that room. However, Alex is larger than Tilly, and she did attack the cage. Tilly never flinched.
Have you ever felt like a hamster in a cage, attacked by the pressures of the world and the effects of sin? Sometimes evil seems to come in a package that is unthreatening but can still be overwhelming. Think about the life of David. Many of the psalms are called Songs of Lament, or what we might think of as “oh woe is me” whininess. I say that with tongue in cheek because David certainly faced some very real enemies, including Saul. Today’s Psalm probably was written when David was running from enemies, like Saul in 1 Samuel 21-23.
Saul was almost like a father to David in the beginning. David served Saul and was able to calm Saul’s spirit when he played his lyre. The day came that the Lord was so angry with Saul that He took His anointing from him and promised David that he would be king. Saul refused to give up his power and position, and so David fled from Saul’s anger and threats into the wilderness, far from the Holy Place of the Temple and the presence of the Word of God. The wilderness of Judea was a dry and thirsty place.
David had a vital and rich experience in God’s presence and vowed to continue to enjoy His God. He was thirsty and hungry but then was full and satisfied. He looked to God to overcome his fear at night, when he was most vulnerable and afraid. David may have been in the desert, but He knew God’s promises and trusted in Him. While this psalm is a lament, it is also a song of praise, because David knew that God is faithful and that He would make all things right.
What do you do when you feel like you are trapped, when the pressures of the world are overwhelming? David trusted God, and even when he had the opportunity to fight against Saul, he did not harm him. It is because he trusted God that he did not wrong to those who stood before him. He knew that his enemies would not win, that they would meet the end that they intended for him. God has a way of turning things around for our sake. Later, David’s offspring Jesus expressed the psalmist’s passion that God’s love is better than life by dying on the cross. Though Jesus did die, God won the victory over sin and death by raising Jesus. As Christians, we experience the same thirst as David for God, but it is quenched by Jesus. Let us all pray that we can be like that hamster Tilly, at peace in our little corner of the world, unflinching when the attacks come because we know we are at home in the Kingdom of God.
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