During 2025, Peachtree Church is focusing on the Book of Psalms with a series called Dwell, through which we seek to deepen our conversation with God and open ourselves to hearing his response. The practice of praying three times each day will unite the voices of our hearts and souls as we seek the day when we will see the full realization of the Kingdom of God, promised in Revelation 21:3: “…Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”
We will email devotionals twice weekly with Monday’s providing an overview of the Psalm as a whole, and Wednesday’s focused on that week’s Daily Dwell.
The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes.
The Lord has done it this very day;
let us rejoice today and be glad.Lord, save us!
Lord, grant us success!Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Psalm 118:22-26
From the house of the Lord we bless you.
A few years back, I was the assistant coach of our daughter’s softball team during the fall season. We had a fun team that had all of the pieces needed to make everything work, but there was one young lady on that team who struggled a bit more because of some physical limitations. She was and is as sweet as they come, but we had all begun to view her at-bats as an expected strikeout.
That’s what made our first playoff game so special.
We came up to bat in the final inning down by three runs. The girls whom we expected to hit well did so, and by the time there were two out, the game was tied with a runner on third. That’s when this sweet young lady came to bat. The other coaches and I started quietly talking through the strategy for one more inning, even though the team (and coaches) were exhausted, when our batter (who had maybe gotten one hit during the whole regular season) swung and connected. She ran her heart out to first, barely beating the throw as my daughter ran home from third to score the winning run.
As much as I hate to admit it, I’d already started planning as though the game would be tied rather than thinking that this sweet young lady could succeed. I’d viewed the game as tied rather than thinking through any possibility that she could drive in the winning run, but I made sure that none of us said those words while we presented her with the game ball. While it was a small moment in a tiny instance of life, I had allowed my view of this young lady to shape my outlook of what was possible, and while she did not carry us on to win the playoffs (we came in second thanks to a team effort), her role on the team was vital.
I think about that game whenever I read these words from Psalm 118 (or whenever I read Jesus quote them), and I remember how easy it is for all of us to discount what God is able to do with the raw material that we provide. The Lord had been working, had been shaping, this young lady. He had prepared her for a moment where her talents, her abilities, her identity, could shine and show us the glory of what He can do in and through our lives. We need that reminder. So many of us look at the world around us—at the people—and we see them through our own lenses, through eyes that reject what we do not see as the best. Our God calls us to see as He does, to see that there is no stone that has been rejected from His plan, that there is no person who is not deserving of receiving His call.
For Reflection
- When have you had a moment when you have discounted someone’s ability?
- What changed your mind about that person?
- How did this change shift your larger mindset about what God can do with and through people?
Prayer
Lord, you know us each more intimately than we can imagine. You know our strengths and work to maximize them. You know our weaknesses and work to make them perfect through our strength. Help us to look on one another with your eyes and to see the good to which you have called each of us through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
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