Words

Read Psalm 126

When I was growing up, my mother loved to talk on the phone. I remember that she would receive a phone call and sit down on the top step leading down to my bedroom and talk for what seemed like hours. Whether it was one of her sisters or a friend, she was not going to hang up until every word in the English language was uttered.
Communications experts tell us that the average person, let alone those that like to talk, speaks enough to fill 20 single-spaced, typewritten pages every day. This means our mouths crank out enough words to fill 2 books of 300 pages each month, 24 books each year, and 1,200 books in 50 years of speaking. Thanks to phones, voicemail, and face-to-face conversations, words comprise a large part of our lives. So the kinds of words we use are important.
The psalmist’s mouth was filled with praise when he wrote Psalm 126. The Lord had done great things for him and his people. Even the nations around them noticed. Remembering God’s blessings, he said, “Our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing” (v.2).
I wonder sometimes what our response would be if we were directed to write the third verse of this Psalm? Would it go something like this? “The Lord has done great things for me, and I— . . . can’t recall any of them right now.” Or how about, “The Lord has done great things for me and I - …am wondering what He’ll do next for me? Or, “The Lord has done great things for me – …but, O, I need so much more.”
Can you be content with everything the Lord has given to you? Are you the kind of person that can say they have received of the Lord, and then just be willing to thank Him for it, or do you look around the next bend for the next thing that He may provide?
Jesus Christ has already done so much for me that if He doesn’t do another thing, my heart says that I must trust Him. What He has brought me through and out of, the family I am so blessed with (not only natural family, but friends and spiritual family, too), health and strength to play catch with my boys should be enough for me to be content for the rest of my life. Unfortunately, I am human and I know I will be peeking around the corner to see what He has for me next. He understands that mindset. Just like my sons have things provided and given and dare I say it, maybe a little spoiled, it does my heart good when I am able to give them something new and they get all hyper because it came from daddy. That is how I believe God is. He wants us to be content, but there is that joy that wells up in Him when he gives good gifts to His kids.

“Short words are best and the old words when short are best of all.”
- Winston Churchill