Week 38: Day 5

Intro: Hello and welcome to Orbit, a short reflection to help you put God at the centre of your life from the team behind Satellites - I'm Sarah Yardley. Each weekday we share a little bit of the Bible with you, give you a chance to pray and think about it, and provide you with one practical way to put it into practice today.

Bible: Today's reading comes from Psalm 7:

Lord my God, I take refuge in you; save and deliver me from all who pursue me, or they will tear me apart like a lion and rip me to pieces with no one to rescue me.

Lord my God, if I have done this and there is guilt on my hands— if I have repaid my ally with evil or without cause have robbed my foe—then let my enemy pursue and overtake me; let him trample my life to the ground and make me sleep in the dust.

Arise, Lord, in your anger; rise up against the rage of my enemies. Awake, my God; decree justice. Let the assembled peoples gather around you, while you sit enthroned over them on high. Let the Lord judge the peoples. Vindicate me, Lord, according to my righteousness, according to my integrity, O Most High. Bring to an end the violence of the wicked and make the righteous secure— you, the righteous God who probes minds and hearts.

My shield is God Most High, who saves the upright in heart. God is a righteous judge, a God who displays his wrath every day. If he does not relent, he will sharpen his sword; he will bend and string his bow. He has prepared his deadly weapons; he makes ready his flaming arrows.

Whoever is pregnant with evil conceives trouble and gives birth to disillusionment. Whoever digs a hole and scoops it out falls into the pit they have made. The trouble they cause recoils on them; their violence comes down on their own heads.

I will give thanks to the Lord because of his righteousness; I will sing the praises of the name of the Lord Most High.

Thoughts:

Earlier this week, I prayed a Psalm with a friend who lost her beloved dog. We prayed about that sense of loss, of bittersweet goodbyes, of a time that was too short.

One of the things I love about the Psalms is their honesty. They speak about our real life condition, the places of pain and need as well as the places of joy. In this Psalm, David touches on so many of the themes we’ve discussed this week; betrayal, hope, expectation, and loss. And in the middle of all of this, David reminds himself to allow his heart, words, and life to speak of the God who is still worthy of his praise.

Whatever is happening in your life today, God is with you. Let’s look for the moments of His presence, in both our places of joy and challenge.

Pray: Jesus, I thank you that you are with us; that the cross shows your eternal commitment to know and love us in and through all things. I pray that we would finish this week with a new sense of your love and commitment to be with us in the joys and the challenges of our days.

Silence: There's now just a few moments of silence for you to pray, reflect on these ideas, or simply sit and be still.

Action: Every day on Orbit we give you a simple practical challenge to help you put this passage into action in your life. Here's today's:

Take a few minutes to write your own Psalm today; it might not have the rhythm or poetry of a Psalm from Scripture, but just write down some of your challenges and some of your joys from this week and speak to God about them. Read your Psalm to a friend that you trust.

Outro: That's it for today's Orbit. Thanks so much for joining us - we'll be back with another reflection next week!