Exhortation Station

Psalm 37:3-6
Trust in YHWH and do good. Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. ⁴ Delight yourself in YHWH, and He will give you the desires of your heart. ⁵ Commit your way to YHWH, trust also in Him, and He will do it. ⁶ He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your judgment as the noonday.

These verses are some of my all-time favorites from the Psalms, as they encapsulate so much of what a God-honoring, abundant life looks like. This life is not one of austere adherence to traditions learned by rote (Isaiah 29:13) but rather of delight in the love, righteousness, and goodness of Yahweh. Indeed, He gives good gifts to His children (Matthew 7:11). His commandments bring liberty and joy (Psalm 119:45,111).

With the season of Passover and Unleavened Bread quickly approaching, I think we would do well to reflect on our habits. Our spiritual maturity has a lot less to do with the occasional mountaintop experiences and much more to do with the morsels we consume in small, consistent doses. Those daily doses can either serve to cultivate or frustrate a steadfast devotion to our Bridegroom. The things that grow within our hearts are the things we nurture — a little watering here, a little weed-pulling there. Are we creating an environment that invites disease or one in which faithfulness can thrive?

Consider this thought experiment: Let’s say there is something you habitually do for 15 minutes a day. Multiplying 15 by 365 gives 5,475 minutes or just over 91 hours for the year. If you were to look back on those 91 hours, could you honestly say, “that was time well-spent”?

May we disentangle our lives from worries and cares that choke out our fruitfulness (Matthew 13:7,22). May we gladly commit our way to Yahweh, trusting Him to accomplish what concerns us (Psalm 138:8). Now is the time to decline the deceitful delicacies of folly (Prov 23:1-3) so that our appetites may be satisfied with righteousness (Matt 5:6). Now is the time to pull our roots out of contaminated soil and plant them instead by streams of living water (Psalm 1:1-3). Now is the time to cultivate faithfulness, so that our delight may be in Yahweh.

Psalm 89:14-16
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Lovingkindness and truth go before You. ¹⁵ How blessed are the people who know the joyful sound! O Lord, they walk in the light of Your countenance. ¹⁶ In Your name they rejoice all the day, and by Your righteousness they are exalted.

(Bible passages NASB 1995; Hebrew transl. added)