Dear Friends,
I hope you're keeping well, and that despite the scorching weather lately, you've managed to enjoy these summer weeks with family and friends. September is now upon us, and as individuals, and as a Church family, many of us will return to our usual routines, roles, and responsibilities in the weeks ahead.
In Psalm 27, we find words of encouragement as we prepare to embrace the coming weeks and months. This Psalm is among my favourites, the whole Psalm is worth reading through, but here I’ll just mention the closing words of the Psalm:
13 I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
14Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!
The Psalmist is definitely a realist, familiar with the challenges and difficulties that God’s people face. However, as one writer notes, the Psalm ‘rings with the overpowering conviction of the presence of the Lord, of the assurance that he may be sought and found’, and the Psalmist is certain of the Lord’s care for him at all times and in all situations. As the reader of the Psalm lives devoted to the Lord, walking in his ways, depending on his faithfulness, relying on his grace and trusting in his provision, a hope, a confidence in God flourishes and the Psalmist then challenges his reader to ‘wait for the Lord, be strong and brave, and put your hope in the Lord’.
I pray that whatever specific situations we find ourselves walking through right now and in the coming weeks, whether individually or as a fellowship, we will be able to keep growing in our devotion and dependence upon the Lord, that we will sense his presence, and with a settled confidence, be those who ‘wait for the Lord, be strong and brave, and put your hope in the Lord’. We can be sure that we are surrounded by and held in divine love and we can always lean into the ever loving, ever faithful, ever dependable God. So let us walk forward together with hope, looking out for the goodness of the Lord.
With much love,
Alone with none but thee, my God,
I journey on my way.
What need I fear, when thou art near,
O King of night and day?
More safe I am within thy hand
than if a host did round me stand.
Attributed to St Columba (521-597)