Oct 30 - Psalm 9:1

A psalm of David,

to be sung to the tune

"Death of the Son."

I will thank you, LORD,

with all my heart;

I will tell of all

the marvelous things

you have done

Psalm 9:1

My wife reads much faster than I do. And generally speaking, she reads with deeper comprehension. Part of the art of reading for comprehension is discerning which details are necessary to pay attention to.

When reading a novel, for example, I tend to read every word, placing equal weight on each syllable. And I sometimes miss the forest because I intentionally bump into every tree and leaf and branch. Mary Louise, on the other hand, often skims. Hurrying past extraneous details so that she has time to savor the deeper parts of the forest.

"Except," said Mary Louise recently, "when I'm reading an instruction manual. Then I slow down and read every word."

"That's funny," I said, speaking like a stereotypical man, "I read every word ... except when I'm reading directions!"

(She groaned. But knew it was true!)

I say this because, I generally read the details … like the small print in today's Psalm. Today it’s definitely worth paying attention to!

When we read that it is "to be sung to the tune 'Death of the Son,'" seasoned Christians will see the capitalized "Son," and think immediately about the Son, Jesus Christ. But having been written 1000 years before the birth of "the Son,” this is probably just a grammatical accident that goes along with capitalizing major words in the title of a song. (For example, when Motion City sings, "I am a Son of a Gun," the capitalized son is probably not referring to Jesus!)

Nevertheless, pay attention to this happy coincidence.

Whenever you are "s[inging] to the tune 'Death of the Son,'" is this your response: "I will thank you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all the marvelous things you have done."

The life-giving sacrifice that comes through the death of the Son, Jesus Christ, is our greatest hope. It is the pathway to forgiveness. It is the door to eternal life.

And as this Psalm suggests, there ought to be two responses to this good news:

·       The first is thankfulness ("I will thank you, LORD, with all my heart").

·       The second is evangelism ("I will tell of all the marvelous things you have done").

In Christ's Love,

a typical guy who doesn't like

to follow directions ... but ...

will follow follow this one

to the letter