YOU CAN BREATH EASIER... LIFE IS A GIFT OF GOD

LIFE ITSELF IS A GIFT OF GOD! 

We do not often speak this out loud but the truth is: LIFE itself is a gift...

 

The God in whose hand your next breath lies...have you not glorified? Daniel 5:23

We tend to recognize this more fully during our sunset years, or maybe IN OUR FINAL DAYS just before our life is over, unless we have had an experience of being close to death earlier in life, we just do not understand how precious life is until it is almost lost. 

David had that near death experience many times while he was still a young man. 

Knowing the king, who also happens to be your father-in-law, has assembled the armed forces and is hunting you down is a serious threat and David no doubt learned much through his suffering injustice at the hands of Saul. 

Saul was his benefactor and the father of his first wife but became his judge, jury, and prosecutor. Because of jealousy Saul sought to take David's life and pursued him to the end for years on end.  

David wrote a Psalm about his state in life as Saul was pursuing him for his life in the wilderness of Judah, maybe while he was hiding at the cave at Adullam. 

To help capture the full meaning of a passage, sometimes it helps to read it one phrase at a time out loud, emphasizing each word in the phrase. Below I have done that by taking one word and making if bold in each line. Read each one out loud and then select the phrase that you think matches the the writer's intent, what he would have emphasized.  Cut and paste that phrase into a document on your computer. 

He says, Oh God! 

• YOU are my God; or we could emphasize the next word.
• You ARE my God;
• You are MY God;
• You are my GOD;

Was David emphasizing MY God? Or was His top priority YOU are my God? 

Now move to the next phrase and repeat each time taking the selected emphasis and copying it to your document. 
When you are done you will have a whole psalm that gets your attention. 

• Early will I seek you. 
• Early will I seek you. 
• Early will I seek you. 
• Early will I seek you. 
• Early will I seek you. 

Repeat the process for the third phrase 

• My soul thirsts for You;
• My soul thirsts for You;
• My soul thirsts for You;
• My soul thirsts for You;
• My soul thirsts for You;

Repeat the process for the next phrase 

• My flesh longs for you;
• My flesh longs for you;
• My flesh longs for you;
• My flesh longs for you;
• My flesh longs for you;

Go through the whole Psalm doing this and I guarantee that you will get something more out of it, than just zipping through it at normal reading speed. 

In a dry and thirsty land
Where there is no water.
 So I have looked for You in the sanctuary,
To see Your power and Your glory.

 Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,
My lips shall praise You.
 Thus I will bless You while I live;
I will lift up my hands in Your name.
 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness,
And my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips.

 When I remember You on my bed,
I meditate on You in the night watches.
 Because You have been my help,
Therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice.
 My soul follows close behind You;
Your right hand upholds me. 

But those who seek my life, to destroy it,
Shall go into the lower parts of the earth.
 They shall fall by the sword;
They shall be a portion for jackals.

 But the king shall rejoice in God;
Everyone who swears by Him shall glory;
But the mouth of those who speak lies shall be stopped.

Tomorrow - life is good, but there is something better than life.