Psalm 16:7 - Peace

 I'm bouncing back and forth between a few series at the moment! I know it's a little disorganized. One of these days I'll find a better blog template to make it easy to find these, but since I'm writing for me (and not really polishing things up) I'm not too worried about it now!

This verse is personal to me this morning, so I'm not going to approach it academically in my "line by line" manner. A little introspection, a few more paragraphs, a few less headers. Enjoy!

Psalm 16:7

I will praise the LORD, who counsels me;

    even at night my heart instructs me.

This morning: I woke determined to focus on one of my responsibilities. 

I then remembered a second priority. Oh well! I can bounce between the two.

Oh dear - but I'm a BAD FRIEND! There are those two folks I wanted to catch up with. Nope, more. and more. and more.

I mentally checked my email, messages, computer files. Wow! I really need to take a week and just delete 90% of my files. Maybe then I'll be able to focus.

"Someone tell me what to start with," I thought. "Start with one thing...but what? What's the thing to do that WON'T exhaust me to the point I'll be useless for the rest of the day? What's productive but low-risk? Now I'm overthinking. Great job, Amber."

So I resolve to finish a task, to send an email. But, shocker, people don't revolve around my schedule and don't respond right away, and I get frustrated. Somehow "people don't like me" and "I'm a failure" works its way in there. Then it's downhill, to the point where I'm eating chips and Top Ramen for lunch and sleeping away the afternoon.

What do I need this morning? A pep talk? Caffeine? Advice? An app to organize my life?

These can be helpful tools. but they have never, ever brought me peace. Remember, this psalm is scattered with words like "secure", "safe", "not be shaken", "not be abandoned", "refuge". Coffee and motivational memes aren't permanent. We need counsel from an all-knowing, all-powerful, eternal source.

"I will praise the LORD, who counsels me;

    even at night my heart instructs me."

Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

He counsels. He instructs. All the time. Even at night.

Night, when I'm running through my to-do list for the next day.

Night, when there is no light to reveal the path.

The LORD - Yahweh, the creator himself, counsels me through his very Spirit by speaking to my very heart with pure wisdom.

And that is where my help comes from. I lift up my eyes to the mountains to search for help, but where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, maker of heaven and earth (Psalm 121).

This is just another reason that "I will praise the LORD". If I can remember that today - and allow HIM to counsel and instruct me - I cannot go wrong. The #1 item on my to-do list, causing me the greatest anxiety, might not be his priority for me today.

Psalm 16

Keep me safe, my God,

    for in you I take refuge.

I say to the LORD, "You are my Lord;

    apart from you I have no good thing."

I say of the holy people who are in the land,

    "They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight."

Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more.

    I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods

    or take up their names on my lips.

Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup;

    you make my lot secure.

The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;

    surely I have a delightful inheritance.

I will praise the LORD, who counsels me;

    even at night my heart instructs me.

I keep my eyes always on the LORD.

    With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;

    my body also will rest secure,

because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,

    nor will you let your faithful one see decay.

You make known to me the path of life

    you will fill me with joy in your presence,

    with eternal pleasures at your right hand.