Coffee With The Lord

I just love spring, don’t you?  The stunning colors, the fresh smell after rain, the blue sky, the song fest of the birds… if you don’t have to, why stay inside!  Take a walk!  Breathe deep!  Lift some worship to your Creator God!

Two favorite times of day for me are sunrise and sunset… Never the same!  Stunning beautiful variety!  Just makes me want to praise the Lord… There’s a Psalm for that!  Read it this evening – Psalm 65!  Here’s a taste of it…

“Praise is due you, O God! … You who hear prayer to You shall all flesh come! … By awesome deeds You answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation – the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas; the One who by His strength established the mountains… You make the going out of the morning and the evening shout for joy!  You visit the earth and water it – You greatly enrich it… You provide for the grain.  You water its furrows abundantly settling its ridges, softening it with showers and blessing its growth.  You crown the year with your bounty; the wagon tracks overflow with abundance.  The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy, the meadows cloth themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy.” (from Psalm 65)

Well, today the sun has just set here in Texas… I can’t hardly wait for sunrise tomorrow!  Gonna be good!  Everything will be a worshipful testimony to Creator God!  Sure wonderful to know Him personally!

Ever been homesick? People may grin, chuckle a bit, and give one another that “raised eyebrow look” at the idea of being homesick… but being “homesick” is real! For several years I served as dean of students at a university and every semester I had a few students that were actually “ill” with “homesickness!” Call it whatever you want to… heightened nostalgia, relational dependence or deprivation (I am sure my counsellor friends have a technical name for it) but being “homesick” is real!

I think there is a sense in which some form of “homesickness” is what King David might have experienced alone in the wildness of Judah, when he was deprived of the presence of God he sensed when he went to God’s house. Here is what he said about in in Psalm 63…

“O God, you are my God! I long for you! My soul thirsts for you, my flesh yearns for you, as in a dry and parched land where there is no water. Yes, in the sanctuary I have seen you, and witnessed your power and splendor! Because experiencing your loyal love is better than life itself, my lips will praise you! For this reason I will praise you while I live! In your name I will lift up my hands! As if with choice meat you satisfy my soul! My mouth joyfully praises you, whenever I remember you on my bed, and think about you during the nighttime hours. For you are my deliverer; under your wings I rejoice. My soul pursues you! Your right hand upholds me” (Traditional title: A psalm of David, written when he was in the Judean wilderness.)

Anyone who has ever experienced and known the wonderful presence of God in their life, and then gone through a dry spell (either because of spiritual drift, sin, or just “a season” in their spiritual journey) will identify with David’s expression of “spiritual homesickness!” My advice? If sin has caused you to feel the loss of His presence, acknowledge it to Him and ask for His forgiveness. If it spiritual drift, and you, like the prodigal, feel like you’re in a distant land gnawing on the empty, dirty husks of this world, why not humble yourself, head “home” and ask the “Heavenly Father” to receive you back (He will, you know)! And if it’s just “a season” that we sometimes go through as “spiritual pilgrims,” my advice is to press through it and make the words of this Psalm your personal, passionate expression to a Living God, whose “steadfast love” is incredible and real!