Dear Faith Family,
Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
and for as many years as we have seen evil.
Let your works be shown to your servants,
and your glorious power to their children.
Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us,
and establish the work of our hands upon us;
yes, establish the work of our hands!
(Psalm 90:14-17)
The rather simple and basic to freedom rhythm of "Six days you shall labor...the seventh day is a Sabbath...you shall do no work" (Ex. 20:9-10) is not as easy as it reads.
Within this seven-day cycle, we experience, like the psalmist above, the affliction of daily labors subjected to the wear, tear, and frailty of existence not yet fully freed from the bondage to decay (Rom. 8:20-21). Those roles, responsibilities, and relationships through which we make a life can be, as we all know, a drain as much as (if not sometimes more than) a delight. Add to the affliction the often-reported misery and distress (i.e., "evil") experienced in our neighborhoods and across the globe, and no wonder this whole and holy rhythm is more naturally resisted than remembered.
Perhaps the inevitable difficulties of this rescued rhythm are why the psalmist's honest plea for something equally prevalent-- "as many days...as many years"--is couched within what we've come to know and (Lord willing) believe as the reality to which we awake each morning: "Your glorious power" which is "Your steadfast love..."
How do we keep in sync with the good of a resurrected life? As we've said over the last several weeks, we do so by resting and working through faith and hope within love. We won't escape the inevitable afflictions and evils, but we can know "the beauty of the Lord our God," experiencing the favor of God in our making life, good with Him.
And so this morning, I pray for you, my friends, that what we've seen through faith and what empowers our endurance through hope, "the love of God...made manifest among us" (1 Jn. 4:9), would satisfy you in your daily labors, establishing the work of your hands, whatever you do today to make life, good. May you recognize and rest in "the beauty (favor) of the Lord our God upon" you this and every day.
Love you, faith family! God bless.