A WORD FOR TODAY, July 5, 2024
Peggy Hoppes
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Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, July 5, 2024
“But you brought me out of the womb. You made me trust while at my mother’s breasts. I was thrown on you from my mother’s womb. You are my God since my mother bore me. Don’t be far from me, for trouble is near. For there is no one to help.” Psalm 22:9-10, WEB
I started a journey about ten months ago, a journey that has ended (but will keep going) with a dramatic transformation. I had desperately bad teeth and my health was not as it should be. I’ve dealt with some health issues, and I have had tooth implants. Today was the day when I finally received my final teeth. I spent a couple hours in the dentist’s chair as he worked to make the prosthetics fit properly and look good. They have taken photos during the process to see the changes. At one point, I looked at their computer screen and realized that they had my first photo up on the screen. When the girl came back with my teeth, I said, “You can take down that picture, that woman doesn’t exist anymore.”
There is truth to that statement, but a friend reminded me today that I might look different on the outside, but I’m the same woman in heart, soul, and spirit. I am the person God created me to be. God gave me my body, and I am meant to take care of it because it is the temple in which the Holy Spirit dwells while I live in this world. Yet, my body is not my whole person. My teeth are not what God looks at when He considers my life and the work He is calling me to do. He looks at our hearts, the center of our being that He created from the moment when we were conceived.
It takes some people a long time to realize what David sang in Psalm 22. David’s story is typical of the people God chose to serve Him. He was the least of his many brothers, the smallest and least likely to be a warrior or leader of a nation. He was shepherd to his father’s flocks, and yet it was David that God chose to be anointed as king of Israel. It wasn’t David’s looks, but his heart that God saw. God knew that David, despite his many flaws, would always look to Him.
Psalm 22 is very familiar, and is part of “The Shepherd Psalm Trilogy,” which includes Psalms 22, 23, and 24. Though David sings these songs in response to his own life and reign, these psalms focus on Christ the King. We see Him as the Suffering Servant, the Loving Shepherd, and the Reigning King. It is a trilogy of the past, present and future of our Eternal King. Though the psalm points toward the suffering of Jesus, we read it with the faith that God is with His people from the very beginning and the hope that God is with them always, even into eternity. Though Psalm 22 sounds discouraging, the afflicted one is not forsaken. God has not hidden his face from him; God has heard his cry. Affliction is not the end of the story. The suffering one will eat and be satisfied.
We see affliction and a glimmer of hope in Psalm 22. We celebrate a victorious monarchy in Psalm 24. Psalm 23 comes right in the middle. Psalm 23 is the bridge between affliction and triumph, both for Jesus and for us. The pain of the afflicted one in Psalm 22 is translated into contentment and trust in Psalm 23. There is still pain. Real pain. Darkness surrounds the suffering one, but God is the rescuer. God is the Shepherd. He leads and restores. Even though the afflicted one walks through the valley of the shadow of death, God is there to guide and rescue and comfort.
David always trusted God, confessing his faith that God was with him from the beginning, and we are called to believe and trust Him, too. We will go through tough times, journeys of transformation that lead to something new. God is happy to see us fulfill what He intends for our bodies and our lives, but most of all He wants us to join in David’s confidence that God is at the heart of everything about us. It may take awhile before we realize just how involved God has been with us from our mother’s womb, but He has been there and will be there to help us always whenever we struggle with the troubles of this world because He created us and called us to be His.
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