“Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.” [Psalm 119:37]
I have found the quickest way to look away from something is to look at something else.
Today, we are going to look at Psalm 91 together.
Transcript
Today, we are going to take a “Posture of Peace” by turning our eyes away, from looking at worthless things.
Posture is a short, audible fist bump to remind you, God is with you in everything. Together, we’re going to be emboldened to take a daily posture of perfect peace.
In Psalm 119:37, it says, “Turn my eyes away, from looking at worthless things, and give me life in Your ways”. Now, worthless things is not necessarily hard things. We have to face hard things in this life, we know this and as people of the kingdom, who better than us, because we can bring solution and answer to the hard things in this world. But as someone who is on her screen a lot, and I’m sure a lot of you watching are on your screen as well, well you’re on your screen right now, while you’re watching this, or perhaps listening to this. It’s very easy to consume in one day, a lot of worthless things, worthless information, worthless content, as you’re scrolling your screen.
And a good gauge, of course, we have the Holy Spirit and He’s our helper, and He’ll lead us and guide us in all truth, but a good gauge for me, that I’ve been asking the Holy Spirit, as I’m consuming content and really in a lot of days just deciding not to scroll, or to stop to scroll is, asking myself, is this life-giving? Is the information I’m partaking of life-giving? And another great question to ask is, can I engage with this content, with the perspective of heaven? Can I see with the eyes of God, whatever the content is. And some days I’m able to, and some days I have to just turn off the screen,
I have to look away. And so it’s a prayer of mine, often I’ve adopted this prayer, this request of Psalm 19, asking the Lord, “Lord, turn my eyes away from looking at worthless things and give me life in Your ways.” And as I’ve been practicing this in my own life, what I have found is the quickest way, to look away from something, is to look to something. And I have been looking to scripture, and it’s been a beautiful shift for me. And so that’s what we’re gonna do today, together, we are going to turn to scripture, and I wanna read Psalm 91 over you today. I love for you to just soak this in as I read it, I’m gonna read the whole chapter, it’s not a super long chapter, but man, this is the chapter for 2020 if you ask me. What’s beautiful is that, this is a Psalm, that’s very personal to me, ’cause it has followed me most of my life.
This was our family’s favorite Psalm, we recited it often together, and I can’t help but think about the prophetic nature of that. I wanna thank and honor my parents for doing that, from such a young age, because I feel like having that Psalm, tucked away in my heart and my spirit early on, was preparing me to take on a year like 2020. And so, you can receive this as well, maybe this is a Psalm that you’re familiar with, or maybe you’ve never heard it before, I wanna read it to you because, this Psalm is chock full of promise, that you can partake in. It’s conditional, and the only condition, is it’s for whoever dwells in the shelter, of the most high. So if you wanna dwell in the shelter of the Most High, these promises are for you to partake in today. So let me read this over you.
“Whoever dwells in the shelter of the most high, will rest in the shadow of the almighty. I will say of the Lord, some translations say, I will say to the Lord, I will say this to the Lord.”
“He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust. Surely, most certainly, that’s what surely means, He will save you from the fowler’s snare, from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings, you will find refuge. His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. You will not fear of the tear of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. 1,000 may fall at your side, and 10,000 at your right hand, but it will not come near you.”
“You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked. If you say, “‘The Lord is my refuge,”‘ and you make the most high your dwelling, no harm will overtake you. No disaster will come near your tent or near your home. For He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways.”
“They will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the cobra, you will trample the great lion and the serpent. And then this is what the Lord says to you, who has, the one who has chosen to make Him your shelter.”
“Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “‘I will rescue him, I will protect him for he acknowledges my name. He will call on me, and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him, with long life, I will satisfy him, and show him my salvation.'”
The promise of “Perfect Peace” is found in Isaiah 26:3. In Hebrew, it is “shalom, shalom.” Meaning, complete wholeness. Nothing missing, nothing broken. This is who you are in Jesus. Because of Jesus, you are a living testimony of Jesus’s ultimate win. With every step you take today, you’re putting Jesus’s victory on display and satan’s defeat on replay.