Psalm 40:1-11 (CEB)

I put all my hope in the Lord.
    He leaned down to me;
    he listened to my cry for help.
He lifted me out of the pit of death,
    out of the mud and filth,
    and set my feet on solid rock.
        He steadied my legs.
He put a new song in my mouth,
    a song of praise for our God.
Many people will learn of this and be amazed;
    they will trust the Lord.
Those who put their trust in the Lord,
    who pay no attention to the proud
    or to those who follow lies,
    are truly happy!

You, Lord my God!
    You’ve done so many things —
    your wonderful deeds and your plans for us —
        no one can compare with you!
    If I were to proclaim and talk about all of them,
        they would be too numerous to count!
You don’t relish sacrifices or offerings;
    you don’t require entirely burned offerings or compensation offerings—
    but you have given me ears!
So I said, “Here I come!
    I’m inscribed in the written scroll.
    I want to do your will, my God.
    Your Instruction is deep within me.”
I’ve told the good news of your righteousness
    in the great assembly.
    I didn’t hold anything back—
        as you well know, Lord!
I didn’t keep your righteousness only to myself.
    I declared your faithfulness and your salvation.
I didn’t hide your loyal love and trustworthiness
    from the great assembly.

So now you, Lord —
    don’t hold back any of your compassion from me.
Let your loyal love and faithfulness always protect me

At times in our lives, we realize that we have wandered off the beaten path of following Jesus. This path should be easy to see covered with the footsteps of all those faithful saints who have gone on before us. Yet something else catches the corner of our eye and before we know it, we are far into the tickets and trees, and often we cannot see the dim light waiting for our return. There is a beautiful, brightly colored flower, and because we want to see it closer, we move even deeper in the forest. There is music over there – somewhere! We must go towards it so we can hear the notes painting a beautiful picture. Before we realize it, we have lost our way. 

The light is still waiting, yet we have no total clue of how we got so far off the beaten path and lost our way. It is easy to give up at this point, we think to ourselves, “walking on the beaten path was costly.” “This wandering around “no-where” is easy and we can make our own pace.” “There is not even any accountability – We are free!!!!” 

 We realize wandering around today that while we are enjoying the freedom, we really are lost. We try to remember “who” we were while on the path, and all we could remember was a joyful, growing life in Christ. We miss the people we worshipped with, was in small group with – we even missed the costliness of living as a Disciple. Not wanting to go any further, we find the shade of a tree, lean on it’s massive base and hear God speaking to us. Those loving words are so clear ... 

“My Child, I have a lesson for you: remember the 3 L’s and the 3 S’s they you read about in Psalm 40? That promise is still with you today. Just then, when we had given no thought to more than the words, God leaned down to us, He listened to our cry for help. He then lifted us out of the mud and filth and set our feet on solid rock. He steadied our weak and weary legs. God then placed a new song in our hearts.  

The beaten path isn’t so bad after all – is it? 

-- Rev. Hollie Tapley
Disaster response coordinator
htapley@greatplainsumc.org

Prayer for Reflection