Week 11: Psalms 120-134

What fills your heart this week?  

For me, my mother’s heart is full of emotions.  As my three oldest prepare to head back to school (two of them in full-day for the first time), I am surprisingly less excited than I anticipated.  Someone asked “aren’t you thrilled?”  Not today.  

I wonder if my hesitancy is just my strong dislike of change, or my new-found love of everyone sleeping past 7am.  Maybe.  But I think more than anything, it’s hard for me to accept that someone else will be spending more time with my children on a daily basis than I will.  

Should I be homeschooling? (uh, no.)  But it is hard to send them off, away from our home, away from the security of our family.  Yet they need this.  It is their next step, and thus it is also mine.  

This is why I love the Lord.  He brings just the right scripture, at just the right time.

The Lord took me to a familiar place this week, to Psalm 127:

“Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat – for he grants sleep to those he loves.  Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him.”

Here’s what this says to me:  I can pour into my children, I can love them, try to protect them, “do” the right thing for them.  But at the end of the day unless the Lord is the One building our home, unless we are seeking Him and entrusting Him with our family, it is all in vain.  

My children must take their next step.  So must I.  Therefore, I must allow the Lord to build our house.  

In this week’s study in the Psalms we are looking at a section termed “Song of Ascents”.  Some believe these chapters were a “Pilgrim Song” sung by pilgrims as they “went up” to Jerusalem for the great annual feasts.  Others believe that these psalms were sung by the returning exiles when they “went up” to Jerusalem from Babylon.

Songs, hymns, scriptures read and sang as people took their next step on their way to seek the Lord in His Holy Temple.  

A song for a new step, for a new season, a new time.  

What are the steps you’re taking today?  Where is the Lord leading you as you continue to walk with Him?  What song are you singing?

Taking new steps takes faith.  It takes courage.  It takes prayer.  

“Pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord. Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your children.”  Lamentations 2:19

We must pray for those we love.  Prayer matters.  Do you believe that?  Pour out your heart before the Lord on behalf of your children, or for whatever situation you find yourself in.  Find scriptures to cling to and believe – and maybe even sing.  Then believe that the Lord will personally be the one to build your “house”, whatever that means in your life.

Ladies, we have two weeks left in the Psalms!  We’re going to finish up a week earlier than I anticipated, as the remaining chapters are fairly short.  You’re almost there!  Stay with it, stay connected to Him, in the Word and as you walk.  His Word is a light to your path as your proceed with your next steps.  Walk strong!