How Was Your Day, Honey?…
Psalm 118:24 This is the day which the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
One would think that the author of this Psalm had just listed all the wonderful, fun, glorious things God had given him. One would think that this author has never suffered a day that sucked in his life. One would think… but one would be wrong.
Verse 5… from my distress I called upon the Lord
Verse 10… all the nations surrounded me;
Verse 13… you pushed me violently so that I was falling
Verse 18… The Lord has disciplined me severely, but He has not given me over to death.
THIS is the day!
Psalm 116:1-4 I love the Lord, because He hears my voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I shall call upon Him as long as I live. The cords of death encompassed me and the terrors of Sheol came upon me; I found distress and sorrow. Then I called upon the name of the Lord: “O Lord, I beseech You, save my life!”
Verse 6… I was brought low, and He saved me.
Verse 8… For You have rescued my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.
THIS is the day!
If you or I spent one day in the sandals of our Psalmist, would we declare that we love the Lord, because He hears?
Psalm 118:1 Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His loving-kindness is everlasting.
We look at our world through the tainted glass of me… myself… and I. We put great faith in OUR assessment of life determining whether or not it makes us happy. We judge our day by how “bad” it was… how “hard” it was… how “hurtful” it was.
Our Psalmist used the same assessments to describe his day. He didn’t sugar coat the truth as he saw it. He didn’t declare that his suffering was imaginary. He didn’t rise above his enemies and form a plan to be the toughest kid on the block.
Our Psalmist was under the same human condition of flesh and blood, that of being vulnerable to all the elements of this creation. But our Psalmist KNEW one thing that I pray we all will come to KNOW…
Hebrews 11: 6 without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is the Rewarder of those who seek Him.
Our Psalmist KNEW… God IS!
And… God is GOOD ALL THE TIME!
From the beginning our enemy, Satan, has whispered that God has no control over circumstances, but if He does, He doesn’t care about you, He only cares about His power and position…
Genesis 3:4-5 “You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good from evil.”
As believers in God, there is pressure (from without and within) to explain and justify suffering. Our enemy, Satan, knows our weakness. He wants us to believe that WE are God’s advocate… WE are His creator… WE are His sustainer… WE are His Explainer-in-Chief.
The temptation is to judge God, our Creator and Sustainer, by the assessment of our day or an event within our day. Satan encourages us to be God’s jury, to declare our belief in or turn our backs on because of the assessment. Was it good… a delight to the body… desirable to make one powerful…
We take from life’s fruit and we eat. We give to our friends and family, and they to eat. And then… our eyes are opened and we know we are naked; we sew fig leaves together and make ourselves loin coverings… (Genesis 3:6-7)
We are tempted (remember – tempted is not our sin) to say… It’s God’s fault because He created this life and didn’t stop us from destroying it. We are tempted to say, He couldn’t/wouldn’t stop us. We are tempted to declare there is no God… only chance.
Some believe our ANSWER to “How was your day, Honey?” is our verdict of God. But I believe the real verdict is our RESPONSE to the day we had.
What do you do and say when your day sucks?
1 Corinthians 13:11-13 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man (woman), I did away with childish things. For, now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.
How was my day?
… THIS is the day the Lord has made… God IS
… Let us REJOICE and be glad in it… God is GOOD ALL THE TIME!
And someday soon… He will return… we will go out with joy and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before us, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. (Isaiah 55:12)
What a day, what a day that will be, Honey!
**All Scripture quoted comes from the “Bible Gateway” app and is the NASB version of the Bible