Relax, The Lord is in his Temple. Psalm 11, Day 26, Jan 26

The light of God surrounds me,

The love of God enfolds me,

The power of God protects me,

The presence of God watches over me.

Wherever I am God is

And all is well.

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One of the unexpected side-effects of blogging through the Bible is that it calms me down. Especially when I attempt to blog a Psalm.

The message of this Psalm is Relax. God is in charge, and he has got it all under control.

Psalm 11

For the director of music. Of David.

¹ In the LORD I take refuge.

Just the very words are calming.

   How then can you say to me:
   “Flee like a bird to your mountain.
² For look, the wicked bend their bows;
   they set their arrows against the strings
to shoot from the shadows
   at the upright in heart.

When he considers the might of the opposition, everything seems hopeless. However, we are always under God’s protection, and no arrows can reach us unless he decides to let them reach us.

Hannah Whitall Smith’s “The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life.”

Chapter Twelve: “Is God in Everything?”
“All things work together for the good of them that love the Lord.”

I learned this lesson practically and experimentally long years before I knew the scriptural truth concerning it. I was attending a prayer-meeting held in the interests of the life of faith, when a strange lady rose to speak, and I looked at her, wondering who she could be, little thinking she was to bring a message to my soul which would teach me a grand practical lesson. She said she had great difficulty in living the life of faith, on account of the second causes that seemed to her to control nearly everything that concerned her. Her perplexity became so great that at last she began to ask God to teach her the truth about it, whether He really was in everything or not.
After praying this for a few days, she had what she described as a vision. She thought she was in a perfectly dark place, and that there advanced toward her, from a distance, a body of light which gradually surrounded and enveloped her and everything around her. As it approached, a voice seemed to say, “This is the presence of God! This is the presence of God!” While surrounded with this presence, all the great and awful things in life seemed to pass before her—fighting armies, wicked men, raging beasts, storms and pestilences, sin and suffering of every kind. She shrank back at first in terror; but she soon saw that the presence of God so surrounded and enveloped herself and each one of these things that not a lion could reach out its paw, nor a bullet fly through the air, except as the presence of God moved out of the way to permit it. And she saw that if there were ever so thin a film, as it were, of this glorious Presence between herself and the most terrible violence, not a hair of her head could be ruffled, nor anything touch her, except as the Presence divided to let the evil through. Then all the small and annoying things of life passed before her; and equally she saw that there also she was so enveloped in this presence of God that not a cross look, nor a harsh word, nor petty trial of any kind could affect her, unless God’s encircling presence moved out of the way to let it.
Her difficulty vanished. Her question was answered forever. God was in everything; and to her henceforth there were no second causes. She saw that her life came to her, day by day and hour by hour, directly from the hand of God, let the agencies which should seem to control it be what they might. And never again had she found any difficulty in an abiding consent to His will and an unwavering trust in His care.
http://theoxfordchristian.blogspot.com/2011/01/journey-from-worry-and-anxiety-to-peace.html

³ When the foundations are being destroyed,

what can the righteous do?”

Rest. Look at God.

⁴ The LORD is in his holy temple;

   the LORD is on his heavenly throne.
He observes everyone on earth;
   his eyes examine them.
⁵ The LORD examines the righteous,
   but the wicked, those who love violence,
   he hates with a passion.
⁶ On the wicked he will rain
   fiery coals and burning sulfur;
   a scorching wind will be their lot.

The Lord observes everyone one earth. His eyes examine them. I have not seen justice done in every case in which I have been wronged, or slandered or misrepresented. In a couple, surprisingly, I have. The only thing to do when the wicked apparently prosper is to leave it in God’s hands for him to deal with.

⁷ For the LORD is righteous,
he loves justice;
the upright will see his face.

Leave your affairs in God’s hands, if you have been unfairly treated. He sees.

And the upright will see his face, which is one of the greatest experiences there is.