Deeper Longings with Tom
14 April 2020
Hey everyone, this is Tom Clay. I’m one of the Elders in the 1st congregation. I remember in 2008, a friend of mine who was an investment banker in the real estate sector in the States, who was potentially headed for financial disaster with the impending ‘08 crisis—he was kind of a mentor to me and he, one day, pointed out Psalm 37 as a critical Psalm during that time.
So I spent some time in it this morning. It’s a Psalm where David is clearly worried. He says, “fret not yourself” three time in the first eight verses. That’s a tendency of mine - ever since I was a kid - is to worry, so I can definitely resonate with that. And it’s interesting that the imperatives that he gives are mostly things that don’t require a lot of physical movement or effort. He says, “trust in the Lord”, “dwell in the land”, “befriend faithfulness”, “delight yourself in the Lord”, “commit your way to the Lord”, “trust in Him”, “be still before the Lord”, “wait patiently for Him”.
All these are very, in some sense, difficult to do, but, in another sense, very easy. And then it says that God is gonna do all the acting and saving. So anyway, I’m going to pray through this this morning as part of my time with the Lord and just ask for Him to speak to me through this, and hopefully there’s some insight for some of you as well.
Lord, thank you for Psalms like these where I’m allowed to express my feelings, my worries, my concerns. I pray that you would help me to trust you, to delight myself in you, to commit my ways to you. Help me now to be still before you, to wait patiently for you. Lord, help me to rest in your promises - you make some great promises in this Psalm.
You said, “But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace.” I really long for that abundant peace. Lord, you say here that the blameless “are not put to shame in evil times; in the days of famine they have abundance”.
Lord, these are certainly evil times, these are modern day famine and you’ve promised that we will have abundance. It says here that, “the wicked borrows but does not pay back, but the righteous is generous and gives”. Lord, help me not only… not to just be ethical, like borrow and pay back, but help me to actually go beyond that and be generous and giving in this time, especially in this time where my tendency will be to just look out for myself and my family—what a great opportunity to be generous to other people.
You say here, “the steps of a man are established by the Lord when he delights in his way; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand.” Lord even if I may stumble, or have some difficulties in this time, I trust that you will not allow me to be cast headlong and that you will uphold my hand. And Lord, this is very comforting, it says, “I have been young, and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread”. Quite the opposite - “He is ever lending generously and his children become a blessing.”
Lord I long to be not only surviving but being a blessing to others and I want to ask this for the whole body of Christ - that we would not be in survival mode. You’ve already promised and assured us a thousand times that you’re gonna provide for us. We don’t need to worry about that. But that we would go on the offence as servants and members of your Kingdom - that this would be a time to claim new territory for Christ, that this would be a time for the Kingdom of God to expand.
And Lord, we are here. Send us. The hearts of the nation, the nations are on our heart, Lord, as every nation is being affected by this crisis. Lord, we stand in the gap and ask that you would send us, that you would use us, that this would be a victorious day for your Kingdom.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.