“Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.”
~ Psalm 86:11
Hi James and Ellen,
How do you feel when everything goes wrong for you? What do you do when you know that there are unseen spirits around you who are doing all that they can do to mess with your lives? Who do you go to when the going gets messy for you? Your grandmaa, grandpaa, Aunt Lynn, Uncle Chris and your dad’s Uncle Perry and Aunt Mag are planning to go to Guatemala next month. When your dad’s Uncle Perry and Aunt Mag – who live on a farm near Milaca, Minnesota, were told by their travel agent last Friday that they could get – at a really good price, roundtrip tickets that would have them flying from Minneapolis to Guatemala City with a short stop in Atlanta, your grandpaa told his sister Mag to go ahead with getting the nonrefundable ticket. When your grandpaa went online a couple of days later to buy the roundtrip tickets for himself, your grandmaa, Aunt Lynn and Uncle Chris and for a couple who is in the same Bible study group that your grandmaa and grandpaa are going to and who are going to Guatemala on this medical/ministry short term ministry team trip, your grandpaa found out that the return flight – which had had plenty of open seats just a few days earlier, had filled up, that it was going to cost more than $200 more per seat than before and that there would be a rather long layover in Los Angeles on a different return flight back to Atlanta. When your grandpaa opted to change the scheduled date of the return flight from Guatemala City to Atlanta to a day earlier, it saved your dad’s Uncle Perry and Aunt Mag from having to go through a lot of angst in having to get on an airplane at the Guatemala City airport without any help. When your grandpaa contacted Delta about changing the flight to another day, your grandpaa was told that the return flight change would mean that he would have to pay an additional cost for changing the tickets. Your grandpaa needed to change earlier the departure date of the short term medical/ministry team trip to Guatemala after he was told – after he had explicitly asked before he made the mockup schedule for the trip if there was in place something that would conflict with the trip, that Adventures in Missions decided to schedule a training – in which your Uncle Chris was asked to do teaching in that overlapped the first days of the medical/ministry team trip. Your grandpaa had already given the dates to the couple who was also going to Guatemala on this medical/ministry team trip and to Jaime Lopez – who is doing the setup in Guatemala for the trip.
Even though your grandpaa always hopes that whatever it is that he is working on to see happen will unfold without any glitches, your grandpaa has learned to expect something to happen that will cause his stomach to roil. Your grandpaa sometimes will feel really uptight when everything he does goes ‘south’. The way that some things sometimes go sour for your grandpaa will sometimes clearly tell your grandpaa that there are unseen forces that are trying to hinder what your grandpaa really hopes to see happen. Your grandpaa will also sometimes try to get over a difficult life hurdle – like when something that he is trying to make happen continues to run into random obstacles, by using his own will power or strength. David – in Psalm 86, sets a very high bar in dealing with seen and unseen enemy forces. David scribed this symmetrical psalm song to be prayed to God – as God the Father, when barraging onslaughts of seen and unseen enemies are wearing down the physical and emotional reserves of a guy, gal or kid. David’s response to how to deal with any kind of enemy attack is to immediately claim God’s unmerited mercy and unconditional promise to deliver His especially chosen/elected guys, gals and kids from Satan’s minion’s attempts to discourage, interrupt, cause comprise and/or . . .
It is how David prays/talks to God in this psalm song prayer that he scribed that . . . David flat out tells God to hear him, answer him, guard his life, save him, have mercy on him, bring joy to him, listen to him, teach him, give him His undivided attention, turn to him, grant him strength and give him a sign. David also flatly tells God that he is poor, needy, trusts in Him, calls on Him all day long, lifts up his soul to Him, knows Him as being abounding in love, knows Him as being forgiving, knows Him as being good, knows that He will answer him, knows that His deeds cannot ever be compared, knows that He alone is God and that he will walk in His truths, fear His name and glorify His name forever. Verse 11 to your grandpaa really sums up David’s heart, “Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.” Your grandpaa is sure that David was not always looking over his shoulder but . . . this psalm song tells your grandpaa that David’s mindset was that absolutely believed that he could right to God whenever he needed help against any kind of enemy. On their way back just now to where your grandmaa and grandpaa had eaten lunch – after going back to the place to pick up your grandmaa’s purse that she had forgotten, your grandpaa was stopped by a sheriff’s officer and given a citation because his car windows had per a Georgia law too thick of a tint. The fine supposedly will be $84. To pull a David is not easy to do. (It is as of this editing of this missive almost 16 years later. Instead of paying a fine, your grandmaa and grandpaa bought a 2007 Kia Sorento. Old Tin Can Tank is now close to having gone 283,000 miles.)
Psalm 86 (961)