The longest Psalm so far in the book - 50 verses that feel like David just riffing on all the ways that God has provided for him. I have to admit that some of the language (destroying others, etc) makes me more than a bit uncomfortable but it is where David was as he was celebrating the rescue from the clutches of his enemies. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t speak in some ways like that at times in my life...however, the Psalm overall is just a beautiful recounting of the marks of where David’s seen God at work. That’s one of the things I love about keeping a journal - it allows me to go back and see points like this in my life - to be able to see where I was at one point and then brought to a new and blessed point. To be able to look back and take in the blessings that I had seen in the past that encourages me in the present.
This shirt is covered in “marks” from years past. I have no idea exactly how long I’ve had this shirt, but I do know that it is at least one size too big for what I am now. But it it my “paint shirt” - Whenever I need to do some painting around the house, this is the shirt that comes out. I can wipe brushes, my finders, etc on it and I don’t worry a bit about what it will look like. But as I look at the paint marks on it, I think of the many different places that it represents - there is paint on there from the rooms in our current house - when we repainted the kitchen two years ago, from the bedrooms we painted when we first moved in, and then paint from our daughter’s room that we just repainted last week. There are colors from our old house - a red from a big wall that we did, of bedrooms, and a few others. In each there are the different stages of life - where I can look back and remember what was happening, what I can celebrate today, and what blessed me then.
This shirt also speaks to me of how our "marks" remain. The paint of the previous jobs isn't washed away in the laundry but remain on the shirt. So it is with the marks of our past. There are some marks that definitely just seem to fade away, but there are others that remain and are simply a part of who we are now. Some of those marks are painful and some are wonderful. Some are trials. Some are blessings. But they are all still there just like all these colors make the shirt the beautiful shirt that it is today...
So, maybe this shirt is a Psalm itself...