Psalm Photos - 41 - Perspective
Psalm 41
Happy are those who consider the poor; the Lord delivers them in the day of trouble.
The Lord protects them and keeps them alive; they are called happy in the land. You do not give them up to the will of their enemies.
The Lord sustains them on their sickbed; in their illness you heal all their infirmities.
As for me, I said, “O Lord, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against you.”
My enemies wonder in malice when I will die, and my name perish.
And when they come to see me, they utter empty words, while their hearts gather mischief; when they go out, they tell it abroad.
All who hate me whisper together about me; they imagine the worst for me.
They think that a deadly thing has fastened on me, that I will not rise again from where I lie.
Even my bosom friend in whom I trusted, who ate of my bread, has lifted the heel against me.
But you, O Lord, be gracious to me, and raise me up, that I may repay them.
By this I know that you are pleased with me; because my enemy has not triumphed over me.
But you have upheld me because of my integrity, and set me in your presence forever.
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and Amen.
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This Psalm really intrigued me this morning as I found a great contrast between the first 3 verses and the rest of the Psalm. The first three verses speak to those who regard the poor (or the weak depending on the translation) and the remainder of the Psalm goes to a prayer for deliverance or healing. What I kept thinking over today was about focus and perspective. Where do we put our focus? I read a powerful article this morning about how we so often (too often) focus on what we have been blessed with - God, thank you for blessing me with a nice income, a house to live in, etc without thinking about the flip side of these statements. If I am blessed with these things, what about those without? Instead, should we not focus on gratitude and serving others instead of just focusing on "our" blessings.
So, the image today was something that took a while before I could figure it out, but I wanted to use the aperture setting on my camera to take the same shot with a small aperture (small depth of field) and then with a wide aperture (larger depth of field). So, this picture is the exact same scene but the first with the shallow and the second with the deeper. When we are focused in simply on what is immediately around us (focusing on me, I, etc) we miss what is there beyond - those we are called to serve (seen in the cross that appears in the 2nd picture and is present (but blurred) in the first.
How is your - how is my - perspective today?
PS - Thank you Sherman and Adam for the apple idea - it brought the whole day together.