During my birthday get-away, we enjoyed relaxation laced with love and vitality, new understanding and amazing discoveries.

Part of relaxing for me is healthy habits, following the routine frees my mind to discover new insights. In this Psalm, the writer is faced with struggling to understand and came to a full comprehension only after he repented of his short-sightedness during his “time away” at the sanctuary of the Lord.

Our society can fool us into thinking arrogance and riches are the way to “make it”. The way to truly arrive is a paradox however. A mixture of trusting God’s provision (not our own) and keeping our eyes on Him as refuge (not on arrogant puffs of men, strutting around and spouting off).

An important insight is that whatever has held me hostage in the past no longer has power over me. (Unless I allow it to)…for example, self-doubt has been a recurring nemesis. Instead, God-confidence would grant me victory (aka seeing myself as the Father sees me).

In order to draw on God as the strength of my heart, He must be my portion forever. A portion or inheritance in the ancient Hebrew culture had everything to do with land and provision.

The portion for believers under the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31) is our spiritual inheritance through the Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord. God adopts us as sons and daughters into His glorious family and the kingdom of light and life, the moment we believe in His Son.

Certainly earthly land and provision are important and we work hard toward that end. More significant, however, is how we arrive into our spiritual abode. If it’s through His refuge and protection, then we are truly blessed. If it’s through wily coyote schemes full of arrogance and deception, then we are headed to sure destruction.

Finally, to separate the earthly from the heavenly is impossible. For how we live our earthly lives directly translates into our heavenly calling (to trust Him and His ways). #evenwhenpainful

Can one who builds a house carry on without the proper materials? Similarly, can we who desire a heavenly home build with only (man made) useless hay and stubble? No, we need the foundation to last and for that- drawing close to God will be our rock (solid and sure).

When I saw all the well cared for dogs in the town this week, I understood the good hearts of the people near our vacation place. When God sees our choice of caring for those around us, He proudly identifies that our hearts are His. – Teresa #God’sglory #reachingheaven #onmyknees #loveyourenemies #prayforthosewhodespitefullyuseyou

Psalm 73:1-28 (ESV) (bold added for emphasis)

A Psalm of Asaph

73 Truly God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
² But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
my steps had nearly slipped.
³ For I was envious of the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

⁴ For they have no pangs until death;
their bodies are fat and sleek.
⁵ They are not in trouble as others are;
they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
⁶ Therefore pride is their necklace;
violence covers them as a garment.
⁷ Their eyes swell out through fatness;
their hearts overflow with follies.
⁸ They scoff and speak with malice;
loftily they threaten oppression.
⁹ They set their mouths against the heavens,
and their tongue struts through the earth.
¹⁰ Therefore his people turn back to them,
and find no fault in them.^[a]
11 And they say, “How can God know?
Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
¹² Behold, these are the wicked;
always at ease, they increase in riches.
¹³ All in vain have I kept my heart clean
and washed my hands in innocence.
¹⁴ For all the day long I have been stricken
and rebuked every morning.
¹⁵ If I had said, “I will speak thus,”
I would have betrayed the generation of your children.

¹⁶ But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
¹⁷ until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their end.

¹⁸ Truly you set them in slippery places;
you make them fall to ruin.
¹⁹ How they are destroyed in a moment,
swept away utterly by terrors!
²⁰ Like a dream when one awakes,
O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
²¹ When my soul was embittered,
when I was pricked in heart,
²² I was brutish and ignorant;
I was like a beast toward you.

²³ Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand.
²⁴ You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me to glory.
²⁵ Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
²⁶ My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength^[b] of my heart and my portion forever.

²⁷ For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
²⁸ But for me it is good to be near God;
I have made the Lord God my refuge,
that I may tell of all your works.

Footnotes

1. Psalm 73:10 Probable reading; Hebrew the waters of a full cup are drained by them
2. Psalm 73:26 Hebrew rock