Dear Reader:

I had a God Wink yesterday while reading another devotion from (Faith/Gateway) and it dealt with  Psalm 18. It is known as the “Grateful Retrospect.” As Paul Harvey discovered a long time ago…it is always the story behind the story that grabs our hearts and doesn’t let go.

The psalm was written by David and throughout the psalm he is retrospecting about the difficult past he has just endured and upon further reflection…how, with God’s help throughout, he has become a better person for the hardships he has been forced to endure.

The backdrop for this Psalm:

David’s lengthy dark period of being chased, frightened, and anxious had finally ended. It has been twenty years of hiding in caves from his enemies and King Saul. He has missed his family and their support, along with  the comforts of home. Now the king is dead and David will soon be king…it is during this short interval in his life that David stops to write a love letter of thankfulness to God with the first line reading:

18 I will love thee, O Lord, my strength.

David’s heart overflowed with gratefulness for God’s protection, provision, strength, and deliverance. Psalm 18 is an incredibly descriptive song written by David on the day that the Lord delivered him from the hands of Saul and other enemies.

During the darkness, David wholeheartedly sought God as his secret hiding place. As a result, he knew specific attributes of God intimately. Psalm 18 contains his overflowing praise sung directly to God from a heart that privately knew God.

Too many times…isn’t it so easy for us to forget to stop and thank God for the trials and tribulations we have just endured…we have a tendency to want to just push it behind us and move on. However David wrote one of his longest psalms (over 50 verses) in the form of a love letter to God. He knew he was a stronger, better man for the difficulties he had endured and that God was the force behind him… preparing him for the future.

So until tomorrow…On Thanksgiving let us all pause and send God a personal declaration of love. I am particularly fond of the verse in Psalm 18 that talks about God’s continuous support of us:

*Your right hand has held me up.” (Has it ever…even helping me limp along these past few weeks)

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh