More on David

Well, unfortunately it has been a few weeks, but back to David . . . 

1 Samuel 18 & 19

Soon after David defeated Goliath he became a officer in Saul's army. However, after returning to Israel after defeating the Philistines Saul's hatred for David begins to gain a hold on his heart.  An evil spirit from God came down on Saul and he tried to kill david.  But Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with David and no longer with Saul. David led the armies in their campaigns and the Lord was with him and gave him great success.  David's success caused Saul's hatred of him to grow.  Saul decides to give his daughter Michal to David as his wife thinking that she would become a snare him.  But after earning Michal's hand in marriage by killing two hundred Philistines, Saul realizes that Michal is in love with David and his anger and fear of David grows.

Saul tries to kill David by throwing his spear at David while he is playing the harp to calm Saul.  David makes his escape that night from the king's house.  Saul then sends men to David's house to kill him. With Michal's help, David again escapes and flees to Samuel, a prophet of the Lord, at Ramah.  

David is clearly in distress. His king is trying to murder him, when he has done nothing but serve and defend the king.  David has killed tens of thousands of Philistines to defend Israel and the Lord has been with him and given him great success.  But his life is in danger.  David writes Psalm 59 about the night when Saul sent men to David's house to kill him . . . 

"Deliver me from my enemies, O God: protect me from those who rise up against me.  Deliver me from evildoers and save me from bloodthirsty men.  See how they wait for me! Fierce men conspire against me for no offense or sin of mine, O Lord.  I have done no wrong, yet they are ready to attack me.  Arise to help me; look on my plight!" (Ps 59:1-5)

David pours his heart out before the Lord. He expresses his frustration, his fear, and sadness.  David is not afraid to be transparent with the Lord. To ask the Lord why, to question his situation.  There is nothing wrong with expressing questions and doubts to the Lord. He would rather have us hand our doubts over to him than to let our deceitful hearts try to sort them out.  

Look at what David says next:

"O my Strength, I watch for you; you, O God, are my fortress, my loving God.  God will go before me and will let me gloat over those who slander me." (v 9-10)

David expresses his emotions to the Lord, but then anchors himself to the truth. He does not let his fear take over or make his decisions. He trusts the Lord and knows that God has promised to make him king of Israel.  He believes that God firmly holds his future and keeps his promises.  

What surprises me the most about this Psalm is that David then asks for the demise of his enemies. "  But do not kill them, O Lord our shield, or my people will forget.  In your might make them wander about, and bring them down.  For the sins of their mouths, for the words of their lips, let them be caught in their pride.  For the curses and lies they utter, consume them in wrath, consume them till they are no more.  Then it will be known to the ends of the earth that God rules over Jacob." (v 11-13)

David is not afraid to express the deepest desires of his heart to God.  He has no hesitation. He gives the Lord his ugliest desires for the death and demise of his enemies but then expresses his purest desires for the Lord's name to be known.  

David knows that if he does not counter his emotion with truth, he will be overcome by grief and fear.  He again anchors his feelings to the truth of who God is. 

"But I will sing of your strength, in the morning I will sing of your love; for you are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble.  O my Strength, I sing praise to you; you, O God, are my fortress, my loving God." (v 16-17)

I cannot even express the number of times I have attempted to sort out my emotions on my own, without anchoring them to the truth of who God is.  Jeremiah 17:9 says that our hearts are deceitful.  I know that is true. I know that when I allow myself to deal with any emotion without focusing first on the Lord, I become lost in lies. But I need to be constantly anchoring my thoughts and emotions to the truth. I need to be reminded that my fortress is the Lord and that He is the only refuge, no matter the circumstance.

The Five People You Meet at the Gym

Lately all I can think of at the gym is things to blog about or witty sentences to tweet.  For some reason all the little things that annoy me are heightened at the gym.  While I rarely run into the exact same combination of people at the gym there are always constants.

1. The Slapper

SLAP SMACK SMACK SLAP SLAP SLAP.  Every contact with the treadmill sounds as if someone is getting whacked in the face. Painful. And not necessarily in any rhythmic pattern.  Just loud, sporadic, uncontrollable slapping.

2. The Starer.

Uh, did you just lose control of your face muscles or are you just a creeper? Nine times out of ten this one is male. Why don't you just go over there and look at yourself in the mirror for awhile?  Maybe you'll drop a weight on your foot and have to leave. 

3. The Ab Queen

After 15 minutes of light cardio on the elliptical this "ultra-high-metabolism-never-had-to-actually-work-for-this-figure" focuses all her energy on making sure everyone knows how many different exercises she can do with her abs. 

4.  The Meat Head

"I lift things up and put them down.  I stare at myself in the mirror and flex when people look at me."

Oh, I guess there really is nothing else going on in that head of yours.  

5.  The Intruder

You know what, I think there are actually ten bikes open, not just the one suddenly too close to me. Actually yes, I was using the end of that stretching mat.  Oh, no, go ahead! Take the medicine ball I was clearly alternating sets with because yes, in fact I am done even though it is sitting right in front of me.   Was it really necessary to pull your weight bench that close to mine when there is now a  20 foot gap between you and the wall?

Thats all. But despite the Slapper, the Starer, the Ab Queen, the Meat Head, and the Intruder, I keep going back to the gym. At least till the weather warms up . . . 

David & Goliath

This study of David and his Psalms starts off with a very familiar story of scripture; David and Goliath.

The story of David and Goliath is from 1 Samuel 17.

A champion named Goliath, who was form Gath, came out of the Philistine camp.  He was over nine feet tall. He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels (about 125lbs)...His spear shaft was like a weaver's rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels . . .  Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, "Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not servants of Saul? Chose a man and have him come down to me.  If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.  This day I defy the ranks of Israel!"


Imagine the scene. Tens of thousands of Israelite men stand terrified of one single Philistine.  These Israelite men have followed their God and Saul, their king, in many battles and the Lord had brought them to victory.  Yet here they stand, terrified, hopeless, and unable to turn the situation to their favor.

But then out of no where God brings up a man after his own heart . . .

"Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep.  When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth.  When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it.  Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God"


David then gathers five smooth stones from a nearby stream. He approaches Goliath amongst laughter and ridicule.  Not only do the Philistines laugh at him, but his own people are not confident in his ability to conquer the giant.  But David knows his strength is in the Lord.

Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead.  The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground.  


David's faith in the Lord is incredible. In the midst of certain death, he knows that the Lord has a way to victory.  David words in Psalm 11 show us what his heart was feeling as he faced the giant.

In the Lord I take refuge.  How then can you say to me "Flee like a bird to your mountain."

The Hebrew word for refuge literally means to seek refuge, flee for protection.  David was fleeing to the Lord for protection. While everyone else was literally fleeing to the hills, David was running to the Lord for protection. He knew the Lord had promised to protect him.


I so rarely have faith like David.  I so often rely on myself and the things I can do.  I am so easily caught up in a works mentality that I forget who my refuge is.  I was reading through my journal from when I first went through this passage about David.  After a page or so writing about how frustrated I was at myself for trying to do things on my own, I had written a verse.

"Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion . . . " (Isaiah 30:18)


I'll end with this. This truth that the Lord showed me back in September and again opened my heart to today.  This is what I had written just under that verse . . .

"Why would you long to be gracious to me?"
"Because you don't know how to be gracious to yourself.  I want to give you things you could never dream of deserving."

The Sun Will Rise

I came across this song a few days ago and it has been in my head ever since. I have been listening to it over and over and over. 

Kelly Clarkson's The Sun Will Rise. (lyrics. song.)

I have now written approximately 15 sentences and deleted all of them.  I'm not sure why, but for some reason I feel like I should probably say as little as possible in this post.

My favorite lyric in the song is this,

"I've been stuck in the storm before.

Felt the wind raging at my door.

Couldn't move, couldn't breathe, couldn't find a way out.

Somehow the clouds disappeared, somehow I made it here.

Maybe just so you could hear me say,

The sun will rise!!"

Jesus is still here. He is still involved. He is still working. He will never give up on you. The Son will rise!

Marathon, for real!

Well, on October 7th I will be running 26.2 miles around my favorite city, Chicago, with one of my best friends!

I just spent the couple hours figuring out a solid plan for my marathon. I am loosely basing it off of Hal Higdon's Marathon training plan.  I say "loosely" because I have read that it is good to lengthen your training cycle. For example, instead of trying to get all your runs and workouts in in a 7 day period, stretching it out to 10, 14, or even 21 days.  This is essentially what I am going to do. I'm extending each week on his plan to a 2 week period. During that 14 day cycle I will get in 6 runs, 1 of which will be a long run, 4 strength workouts, 2 cross training workouts, and 2 rest days.

I have also learned that I train best when my schedule is pretty flexible. I like to be able to move around days, combine workouts, and sometimes skip them all together (yes, I realize the last one is not the greatest).  What I have decided to do this time is to plan out my major milage first. I have planned out when I need to be at specific mileage over the next nine months. I have also planned out a few triathlons that I would like to do between now and the marathon.  Beyond that, I decided to only plan my runs and workouts for January and February. That way I can re-evaluate how I'm coming in two months and make any necessary changes.

Basically right now I am working on building up my weekly mileage so that I can get to a point where I feel comfortable about working in runs over eight miles. I am also working back into a solid routine with running/workouts since it is now very difficult to run outside in the cold and dark.

I am also working on not killing the people at the gym that made it their New Year's Resolution to work out for the 15th year in a row, who take my treadmill during this crucial time, and will be nowhere to be found come February 1st. Its fine.

I am looking forward to this adventure!! I will continue to update on my training and progress!!

Potential disaster . . .

I am about to start something that I have always wanted to do. Bear with me, this could be a disaster.

I have always loved King David. I love that God calls David a man after his own heart (Acts 13:22).  I love the way David writes exactly what his heart is feeling in the Psalms.  But I have always wondered what exactly David was experiencing when he penned those Psalms.  What were the circumstances he was facing that were causing those reactions in his heart?

I have always had a "timeline" mindset.  I like to know what is going to happen when and in what order.  I often remember things better when I recall them in sequence. Anyway, I've always wanted a better grasp on the actual timeline of the Old Testament. I feel like that is something I have never fully understood simply because I have never taken the time to dig into it.

I am a very emotional human.  Ha. But not all emotion is bad. God gave us our emotions for a purpose.  I have a theory that David was also very emotional (I mean, read any Psalm of his).  I want to understand what a Biblical emotional response looks like (if that makes any sense).

Because of all this I have decided to go through David's life and the Psalms chronologically and to blog about it!!  I know I am not an expert, and I am going to do as much as I can to be credible.  I am excited to dive into this.  I am not 100% sure exactly how I want to do this. I think for now I am going to go through David's life and look at the Psalms that match up with his experiences.  That may change.  Would absolutely love any and all feedback through this! Can't wait!

Ponder Anew

Listening to some tunes on Spotify at work today and a lyric caught my attention. It was a line from "Praise to the Lord", a song I've heard at least a hundred times, but today it stuck.

"Ponder anew what the Almighty can do"

Ponder anew what the Almighty can do.


What a great thought at the start of a new year. 2012.

2011 was no cake walk. It actually wasn't even close. I have just come though the hardest year I have ever experienced in my 23 and a half years. I was glad to put 2011 behind and start fresh with a new year!  While I know I learned and grew through this incredibly difficult year, I am not at a point where I can see success. I am still trying to understand what exactly it was God was trying to teach me through all of my brokenness.  But I am (trying to be) confident of the fact that He is using those trials for my maturity.  I am clinging to this verse as I head into the new year . . .

"And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast" 1 Peter 5:10

I really love this lyric from the song also, "Ponder anew what the Almighty can do." What a great challenge for 2012. To focus on all the Lord can do in my life, all he wants to do, and all he is going to do.


I do have some specific "goals" for 2012, and a few "resolutions." I've determined a difference. I don't think it is a technical difference, but I'm sticking to it. A goal is a one time event that I have to put forth daily effort in order to achieve. A resolution is a commitment to do something on a daily/weekly/regular basis.  Resolutions don't really leave much room for life to just happen, but are necessary to establish a routine. That is why I like goals.

One of my resolutions is to be more consistent with this blog. I absolutely love writing and I definitely get more out of my time with the Lord when I am turning around and writing about it.  It just allows me to study more and dig deeper than I would for just myself.  I am excited to be more consistent. I have seriously been itching to get back into writing. That is my resolution for 2012.

One of my goals is to run the Chicago marathon on October 7th. I am excited to blog about training. And I am going to sign up on February 1st, so after I shell out that $150 and buy a plane ticket, I'm definitely going to do it!

Looking forward to a new year, a time to ponder anew what my Jesus can and will do!!