Loving God on a Tuesday ((Psalm 52))

 ----A dad and his sons were wrestling, and as they finished the sons were trying to convince their dad that he was loved more by them, rather than him loving them more. 

It went on to say God, our Father, is the same way. He loves us more than we could ever imagine. We always praise and say, "I love you." God is constantly whispering, "I love you more."----

This really touched me today. I think about my love for my kids and our relationship, and God loves ME more than I love my kids. It made me smile just thinking about the unfailing love that he has for us. I have issues with feeling unloved a lot, so this was an amazing reminder of His never ending love!!!

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I love that story.  It's so hard to imagine how much God loves us... and to then accept that He loves us that much.  It's also hard for me to feel worthy of such love, but God is constantly reminding me that when I say I'm unworthy or worthless, I'm telling Him that He's wrong and His creation is unworthy.  We've been created to be His glory, and he's made us beautiful--for the purpose of glorifying Him.  He has really been showing me in the last year that He has created me for His delight, and He wants me to be filled with joy.  He made His sacrifice because of this deep >>UNFAILING<< love He has for us.  Where our love is imperfect, and we have trouble showing it all the time, His love is SO perfect, and He loves us when we feel unlovable.  He even loves us when we're doing wrong.  And He is so patient... waiting for us to come to our senses and back into our relationship with Him.

It has been so awesome--yesterday and today--feeling like I'm back with my God.  I've been totally ignoring Him (well, mostly ignoring Him) for awhile, and I forget how unbelievable it feels to be walking with Him and trusting Him for the little things in our lives.  Ah...  blessed contentment.  He is so amazing!

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Psalm  52

 ¹ Why do you boast of evil, you mighty hero?
   Why do you boast all day long,
   you who are a disgrace in the eyes of God?

• David is talking to a specific person here.  I researched it, and it's when David is running from Saul (the king who wants to kill him).  David wrote this psalm towards someone who told Saul David's whereabouts... someone who was betraying David, basically. 
• I'm thinking about the term "boasting evil," and wondering how I can be like the bad guy here.  I think, for me, it's really easy to boast--outwardly, and/or to have a sense of pride in myself--about things in my life that aren't necessarily Godly.  The world puts a lot of value on things that aren't important in the grand scheme of things.  While I can see that my situation is different than the one David is talking about, I can still see myself as someone who "boasts of evil" because there are times when I put a lot of value on possessions and relationships instead of focusing on God and what's important to Him.

² You who practice deceit,
   your tongue plots destruction;
   it is like a sharpened razor.

• The image of a tongue being like a sharpened razor is really interesting.  I'm imagining how a razor cuts--then how skin would heal afterwards.  Our words affect people in such a way that after we say something cutting, the person never really is the same again.  The wound has to heal, but even then there's a scar.  And, scars do fade over time, but they never really disappear.  There are other places in the Bible that also talk about our words and how important it is to use them carefully.  This is a great visual example of how words can be used violently---that we need to treat our tongue like a weapon--something that can cause "destruction."

³ You love evil rather than good,
   falsehood rather than speaking the truth.^[c]
4 You love every harmful word,
   you deceitful tongue!

• I think this description of the "bad guy" is interesting because there are two ways I'm looking at it.  1) I see the myself in the bad guy.  I see the ways in which I enjoy speaking falsehood (gossiping, in particular) and get pleasure out of hurting others (sometimes it makes me feel good to talk about how other people fail because then I feel better about myself...  in some ways, I am just as bad as the betrayer because I've betrayed God's commandment to love others, and I end up loving myself and caring more about my feelings than anyone else's feelings).  2)  I can also see this as a warning against the attackers of the world.  The devil and his workers have deceitful tongues; they want us to believe lies (like me believing I'm too guilty... that I should be ashamed of myself).  They love seeing us hurt one another, and they love to encourage falsehoods (lies), whether it's the lies we tell ourselves or the lies we tell others.

⁵ Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin:
   He will snatch you up and pluck you from your tent;
   he will uproot you from the land of the living.
⁶ The righteous will see and fear;
   they will laugh at you, saying,
⁷ “Here now is the man
   who did not make God his stronghold
but trusted in his great wealth
   and grew strong by destroying others!”

• I see this part as a warning and a reminder that the evil will parish...  it's a reminder to cling to God, to find our strength in Him rather than in our wealth (earthly possessions).

 ⁸ But I am like an olive tree
   flourishing in the house of God;
I trust in God’s unfailing love
   for ever and ever.
⁹ For what you have done I will always praise you
   in the presence of your faithful people.
And I will hope in your name,
   for your name is good.

• I love this ending part.  I don't really know why he says "olive tree," but I know that God has created us to bear fruit (fruit of the spirit), and the word flourishing (growing more and more.. producing more... blooming... LIVING!) makes me so happy.  I want to be the type of person that flourishes in the way God wants me to (I looked up "flourish" and put the definition below).  I feel like the only way we can thrive like this is to feed on God's word... to get the nutrients from Him that we need.  Otherwise, we will die and shrivel up... gross.  :) 
• (((Flourish:  to grow luxuriantly, or to thrive.  To be in a state of activity or production.))) 
• It's interesting.  The verses I read yesterday also talked about God's "UNFAILING" love.  It's such an awesome reminder that while I'm only human and I screw up all the time... God does not.  His love is unfailing.  I pray that I will be the type of person who "always praises Him" and that I can always "hope in His name." 

~ Kasey & Megan