“With God we will gain the victory, and he will trample down our enemies.”
~ Psalm 60:12
Hi James and Ellen,
Have you ever felt like or were you ever made to feel like a loser? If you have ever felt like or have been made to feel like a loser, when have you felt like or were made to feel like a loser? Your grandpaa thinks that most every guy, gal or kid will sooner or later feel like or has felt like he or she has been a loser. What does being a loser mean to you? A loser is a kid – or a guy or gal, who did not win the game that he or she played. A loser is a kid – or a guy or gal, who was on a team that did not win the game that his or her team played. A loser is what a kid – or a guy or gal is sometimes called who has burned all of his or her relationship bridges that he or she had resulting in him or her becoming ostracized by every guy, gal and kid who knows him or her. Have you ever felt rejected, rebuffed or snubbed by a kid – or by a guy or gal? When your grandpaa was going into eighth grade and then throughout the four years that your grandpaa was in high school, your grandpaa each summer played on a fast pitch softball team in a softball league in the town – Volga, South Dakota, where your grandpaa was born, went to school and near the farm where he grew up. When your grandpaa was not playing softball, your grandpaa did not talk much. When your grandpaa was on a softball field, your grandpaa was constantly jawing. When your grandpaa was on a softball field, your grandpaa felt respected and appreciated by his teammates. When your grandpaa was not on a softball field, your grandpaa did not feel as respected and appreciated by some guys. When your grandpaa was a young kid, your grandpaa’s dad told your grandpaa that he did not want your grandpaa to get in fights with other kids. When one kid in particular realized that he could hit your grandpaa in the chest with his fist and that your grandpaa would not hit him back, the kid would often punch your grandpaa really hard on his chest. The kid made your grandpaa feel like a real loser. A place where your grandpaa did not feel like a loser was on a softball field where he played shortstop, told the other guys on his team where to play, made up the lineups, always wrote himself in to bat second and where the other guys on his softball team could see that he was a good shortstop who could catch most everything that was hit his direction, throw a softball hard and accurately and hit any fast pitch pitcher.
Why do you think that it is that a guy, gal or kid will sometimes feel like a loser? How sovereign or in control do you think that God is? Do you think that God as He designed a perfectly choreographed, incomprehensible plan for everything that now exists in the universe before He created the universe – which includes planet Earth and you, would have some perceived goofs or errors in it? Do you think that God as He designed a flawlessly unfolding, inexplicable plan for everything that now exists in the universe before He created the universe – which includes planet Earth and you, would include unreasonably difficult life lessons – life lessons that will make you feel like a loser? God had David go through all kinds of really hard problematic life lessons. David wrote psalm songs about some of the really hard challenging life lessons that God put him through. David wrote a psalm song – Psalms 60, after he felt like God had totally rejected him. David knew that he needed God’s help when he fought guys from the Edomite people group. God for a time did not help David fight guys from the Edomite people group – and guys from the Moabite and Philistine people groups. David during this time when he was fighting guys from the Edomite, Moabite and Philistine people groups did not know of anything that he might have done which would have gotten God really perturbed with him and . . . when David felt God’s presence once again supporting him, David wrote a psalm song about how he felt having God’s presence once again in his life. This psalm song is known as a miktam. The psalm song that David wrote was to be used as a teaching psalm song. This psalm song was to be sung to the tune of ‘The Lily of the Covenant’ when it was sung by a Levitical choir before God’s specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group’s guys and gals, at the temple of God that was located in the city of Jerusalem. At the end of this psalm song – in verse 12, David wrote what he found out again what God would do for him and what God would do for His specially chosen guys and gals when he wrote “With God we will gain the victory, and he will trample down our enemies.” David had learned that all of his victories came and will always come from God.
Your grandpaa has done his share of razzing guys. A pitcher that was on one of the softball teams that your grandpaa – when he was a high school kid, played against drove a water truck for a living. Your grandpaa would always yell at or razz this pitcher – calling him ‘water boy’. This pitcher – Cub Becker, came running over to your grandpaa one night after your grandpaa had been constantly yelling at him and calling him ‘water boy’ to tell your grandpaa that he was going to #*@ your grandpaa if your grandpaa did not stop yelling at and razzing him. Your grandpaa’s dad was sitting in the stands behind home plate and saw Cub Becker run over to your grandpaa. Your grandpaa’s dad waved for you grandpaa to come over to where he was sitting after Cub Becker left and asked your grandpaa what Cub Becker said. When your grandpaa told his dad what Cub Becker had said to him – without all the #*@s, your grandpaa’s dad told your grandpaa to ask Cub Becker the next time if . . . who he would get to help him if he tried doing what he said that he was going to do if . . . your grandpaa felt like he had won at that moment knowing that his dad was on his side – even though what your grandpaa was doing in not showing Cub Becker any respect was wrong, God’s plan has times when He will teach you how He is on your side – just as He taught David.
Psalm 60 (407)