Mid-Week Worship; Ps 95

May the mumbling commence!

There is nothing like a mid-week worship service to provide me with a pick-me-up.  A week ago Monday, I began to bicycle to the school bus I drive in the mornings (the afternoons were too HOT).  It is a ten-mile round trip.  I thought it would be good for exercise and would save some money on fuel.  This week, since it has been cooler, I decided that I would add bicycling to my school bus in the afternoons.  Well, this morning I felt the strain on my legs.  Double the mileage makes a difference!

Well, I sat behind the steering wheel of the school bus (after I had pre-tripped my bus) and read the Scriptures for today from my chronological Bible.  Weary as I was, I was welcomed into a worship service.  I was drawn to the words of Psalm 95.  Read the below:

Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;

let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. 

Let us come before him with thanksgiving

and extol him with music and song. 

For the Lord is the great God,

the great King above all gods. 

In his hand are the depths of the earth,

and the mountain peaks belong to him. 

The sea is his, for he made it,

and his hands formed the dry land. 

Come, let us bow down in worship,

let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; 

for he is our God

and we are the people of his pasture,

the flock under his care.

Today, if you hear his voice, 

do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,

as you did that day at Massah in the desert, 

where your fathers tested and tried me,

though they had seen what I did. 

For forty years I was angry with that generation;

I said, "They are a people whose hearts go astray,

and they have not known my ways." 

So I declared on oath in my anger,

"They shall never enter my rest." 

All things are in the hands of the Great Creator.  When the psalmist includes the sea, the psalmist is stating that the Lord has control of the chaos of the sea.  The sea, for Hebrews, was the greatest symbol of chaos.

All of us are under the care of this Great Shepherd.  Why should we let present and transitive obstacles deter us from our goals – especially when those goals align with the Lord’s will for our lives.  Neither will I allow sore legs and a sore back stop me.  Bike riding has another fringe benefit – I am not hurtling by in a car, which prohibits conversation.  I am hoping that I will make some acquaintances that may grow into friendships.

Tired as I may feel physically, emotionally or spiritually, if I find the path that the Lord has laid before me; I will be able to enter God’s rest.  For those who go astray, that rest is elusive.  I invite you: Walk along with the Great Shepherd, Jesus the Christ, and enter that rest with me.

Enough mumbling for now… 

Peace Out