Devotion for July 11, 2011 – Tell it!
Photo: Viña Caliterra (Creative Commons license)
Today's Scripture Reading
Psalm 65
O God of Our Salvation
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. A Song.
65:1 Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion,
and to you shall vows be performed.
2 O you who hear prayer,
to you shall all flesh come.
3 When iniquities prevail against me,
you atone for our transgressions.
4 Blessed is the one you choose and bring near,
to dwell in your courts!
We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house,
the holiness of your temple!
5 By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness,
O God of our salvation,
the hope of all the ends of the earth
and of the farthest seas;
6 the one who by his strength established the mountains,
being girded with might;
7 who stills the roaring of the seas,
the roaring of their waves,
the tumult of the peoples,
8 so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs.
You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy.
9 You visit the earth and water it;
you greatly enrich it;
the river of God is full of water;
you provide their grain,
for so you have prepared it.
10 You water its furrows abundantly,
settling its ridges,
softening it with showers,
and blessing its growth.
11 You crown the year with your bounty;
your wagon tracks overflow with abundance.
12 The pastures of the wilderness overflow,
the hills gird themselves with joy,
13 the meadows clothe themselves with flocks,
the valleys deck themselves with grain,
they shout and sing together for joy.
Today's Devotion
“Tell it!” That’s what this Psalm does. It beautifully sings the experiences of a specific people with our God. This God is One who answers, who forgives, who blesses all of creation. The experience of the ancients was not always easy or simple. They faced hardships, slavery, exile, tough questions of God. But still, they knew God was with them, active in their lives, and told of their experience. Their words have been used in public worship down through the ages. What a gift their testimony is! It points us to our Creator, it comforts us on dark days, it gives word to our worship. What would have happened to us if they did not “Tell it!” so long ago?
“Tell it!” is the theme this week as thousands of Disciples (members of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the US and Canada) gather in Nashville, Tennessee for our biennial General Assembly. We, too, experience the joy and the hope of God’s faithful love, even in the midst of challenge and pain. It’s been wonderful to worship our God with so many sisters and brothers. Morning and evening we raise our voices in song, using beloved old psalms and new ones, too. We share our own experiences of forgiveness and blessing and hope with each other. For many Disciples, “Tell it!” is a new muscle to flex, a new kind of offering to make to the One who breathed us to life. It’s not that we have not experienced God, but we often show it more than tell it. It can be hard to put words to life in relationship with the One in whom we live and move and have our being. But so many people in the world, in our very own neighborhoods, don’t know much God loves them. We can be blessing to our neighbors and to future generations when we, too, Tell it!, like our ancestors in the faith did so long ago.
What is your experience of God? What do you tell?
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