Tucked in bed while the world rocked in celebration
While the rest of the living world celebrated the dawning of the New Year, while the rest of the Filipino nation lighted fireworks, exploded firecrackers (and destroyed their extremities by so doing), made deafening noise, and listened to fortune-tellers who only talked nonsense, I was inside my boat cabin, asleep. That’s how I almost always welcome the New Year: in dreams.
The slow, lulling movements of the ship was soporific: it was impossible not to have heavy, watery eyes as I sat on my bed. It was only nine o’ clock when I drifted to dreamland. When I woke up, it was a brand new year altogether.
And then thoughts came rushing through me. Thoughts of the past years, the things that have happened to me, the lessons I’ve learned, the growth that I’ve gone through. My devotion that day was centered on Psalm 103—truly one of my favorite psalms in the Bible—and it made me wonder how long I could talk to the Lord without asking for anything. Psalm 103 has no requests; it is nothing but praise.
My point is this, and I share this with David, the writer of such a psalm—our souls should bless the Lord not merely because He has blessed us. We ascribe adoration to Him because of who He is. We also praise Him not for only what He has done, but for what He hasn’t done as well—like throwing us to the pits of hell when we sinned or leaving us to wallow in our ungodliness.
Read Psalm 103 and meditate on it prayerfully. If you do know the Lord personally, it will bring you to buckets of tears….
So here it is. It’s January again, and we’ll be needing new calendars now. Happy New Year.
The slow, lulling movements of the ship was soporific: it was impossible not to have heavy, watery eyes as I sat on my bed. It was only nine o’ clock when I drifted to dreamland. When I woke up, it was a brand new year altogether.
And then thoughts came rushing through me. Thoughts of the past years, the things that have happened to me, the lessons I’ve learned, the growth that I’ve gone through. My devotion that day was centered on Psalm 103—truly one of my favorite psalms in the Bible—and it made me wonder how long I could talk to the Lord without asking for anything. Psalm 103 has no requests; it is nothing but praise.
My point is this, and I share this with David, the writer of such a psalm—our souls should bless the Lord not merely because He has blessed us. We ascribe adoration to Him because of who He is. We also praise Him not for only what He has done, but for what He hasn’t done as well—like throwing us to the pits of hell when we sinned or leaving us to wallow in our ungodliness.
Psalm 103: 1,2
“Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that it within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.”
Read Psalm 103 and meditate on it prayerfully. If you do know the Lord personally, it will bring you to buckets of tears….
So here it is. It’s January again, and we’ll be needing new calendars now. Happy New Year.
posted on January 03, 2006
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