Day 10

Psalm 43:3-5

³ Send me your light and your faithful care, let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell. ⁴ Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight. I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God. ⁵ Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

Have you felt as if everyone and everything is working against you and even bent on misunderstanding you and causing you pain? I have. It’s a terrible feeling.

King David writes from a very dark place in his life. Yet, he pleads with God to send to him light and faithful care. He has experienced God’s presence in the past. And as David pours out his heart, he asks God to lead him once again to that place, an altar.

The king prays, leading his heart to God’s presence. And then God responds, leading him still deeper. As his heart moves into that sacred place, into God’s presence, God, Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace, inspires David to ponder why he is downcast? Why is he disturbed? God re-calibrates David’s desire to be loved and treasured toward the only one who can truly do this right.

God alone is the perfect lover of our soul. God wants us to bring to the altar all the concerns weighing us down. Our need for love, our desire to be treasured… God cares about the way we feel. He cares when it feels like no one else does. He knows every problem and need. And in his presence, as we lay each of our concerns down on the altar, we can take up hope. God is our Savior.

Prayer: God help us to lead our hearts to your altar. Help us practice being in your presence. Lead us from our places of darkness, into your light. Into your hope. Into your salvation, into your love! In Jesus’s name, Amen.