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.
“But now, Lord, what do I look for?
My hope is in you.
Save me from all my transgressions;
do not make me the scorn of fools.
I was silent; I would not open my mouth,
for you are the one who has done this.
Remove your scourge from me;
I am overcome by the blow of your hand.
When you rebuke and discipline anyone for their sin,
you consume their wealth like a moth—
surely everyone is but a breath.“Hear my prayer, Lord,
Psalm 39:7-12
listen to my cry for help;
do not be deaf to my weeping.
I dwell with you as a foreigner,
a stranger, as all my ancestors were.
Look away from me, that I may enjoy life again
before I depart and am no more.”
Devotional
What does it mean to cry out to God when we need help? Like we talked about on Monday, God is bigger than our disappointments and will receive them when we bring them to him. Like the psalmist says, our hope should be in God despite the trials and tribulations of this life. But how do we bring our trails to God and put our hope in him?
As a child I had a very active imagination. I remember reading the book, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis and being enraptured by the magical world of Narnia. I decided on one Saturday morning that I was going to go to Narnia too, so I packed up my breakfast and sat in the guest room closet for several hours, waiting for Aslan, the Lion to appear. To my disappointment, I stayed where I was in Atlanta, Georgia.
I was upset that I was denied my part in the story and talked with my parents about it. To their credit, they made me feel as though my disappointment was grounded in reality, which as a child meant a lot to me. They shared that life was full of disappointments and that the point of the stories about Narnia was that in the ups and downs, we could depend on Christ the way that the characters depended on Aslan.
Sometimes crying out to God for help looks like shouting out in honest lament to God, but other times it looks like my conversation with my parents. In all circumstances, we first need to acknowledge that God cares enough to listen and that he won’t shame us for being honest. This is where the hope comes from.
So as you go forward this week, I invite you to start a conversation with God. Maybe you have a disappointment in your life that seems overwhelming and you need to cry out to him in a loud way, or maybe you need to have a quiet talk with your Father to know that everything will be OK. Either way, know that God will hear your prayer and will not be deaf to your weeping even if your struggle seems trite or unrealistic.
For Reflection
- What prevents you from bringing your disappointments and struggles to God? What makes you think that he will not hear your cry?
- What kind of conversation do you need to have with your savior this week?
Prayer
Jesus Christ, you are our savior. You went to the cross for us so that we could bring all of ourselves to you without fear of being turned away. Turn us to you this week and help us to start a conversation with you that never stops moving. Amen.
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Devotionals