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Daily Devotion: Psalm 65:4

Psalm 65:4    "Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple."

"Blessed is the man."  Before we can understand the thought of this verse, we must understand our need for blessings. And of what do blessings consist? The word as used in this verse carries the meaning of happiness in prospering, or going forward. Sometimes we might be guilty of thinking that blessings only consist of material things, and they definitely can be a blessing. But those things can also be a curse when used improperly.  The Psalmist here is speaking of finding happiness, joy, and contentment with the success of life in dealing with struggles and troubles of life.

We could even be guilty of thinking we can work our way through without any help whatsoever.  Time heals all things, right? In my opinion, that is not necessarily true.  Even after time, things still hurt and still sting.  Even after time, we still struggle when trying to make it on our own.  So, when we come to the place of understanding that we cannot make it on our own, we can then properly submit (humble) ourselves before the Lord. It is in our humility that God chooses us to approach His glorious throne of grace and mercy.  If we are trying to fight it on our own ability, we rob ourselves of the blessing of His mercy.

Moses, then Joshua, was chosen to complete the journey into the Promised Land and His instruction was to lean upon and depend upon and walk with the Lord. These men were blessed by the Lord through interaction. "Blessed is the man (woman, boy, girl) whom thou (God) choosest, and causest to approach unto thee."  We sing, "I need thee every hour," but then we think we can do it by ourselves. Some of the first words that a toddler learns is to say, "I can do it myself."  We sometimes do not outgrow that sentiment.  But truth is, "I need thee every hour" and I am blessed when "thou (God) choosest (me), and causest me to approach unto thee."

It is in the courts of God that we find complete satisfaction, contentment, and joy. Why is that? We saw it in Psalm 16:11, "Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore."  My thought for today is to stop trying to do it myself and instead seek to be blessed to approach the throne of God's grace and mercy where I find all things that matter most in life.

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