Psalm 23 Green Pastures

Image via Wikipedia Green is term we use to describe those who are inexperienced and childlike in understanding. But “green-ness” is critical to a fresh perspective and new understanding. Although many of us desperately cling to the “same-ness” and stability in our lives, living is about change and transformation.

Psalm 16 Divine Protection

Image via WikipediaOne of the most important aspects of a relationship with the Divine is that it improves the believer’s everyday life. This is commonly referred to as the protection of God. For the faithful there is a perspective on every situation that is beyond the worldly appearance. Without faith in God and the spiritual perspective, the world seems to be an evil place. This prayer of thanksgiving to God is a strong affirmation of faith that there is no good apart from the Divine. The spiritual life offers us the ability to see any circumstance from the divine point of view (holy ones in the land).

Psalm 23 Green Pastures

Image via WikipediaGreen is a term we use to describe those who are inexperienced and childlike in understanding. But ‘green-ness’ is critical to a fresh perspective and new understanding. Although many of us desperately cling to the ‘same-ness’ and stability in our lives, living is about change and transformation. If we fight to stay the same, we find everything continues changing around us. It is in the new that we are best able to embody those childlike qualities, we desire. When we can drop the facade of expertise and knowledge, we allow ourselves to just experience what is. The excitement and anticipation in facing the unknown is palpable.

Psalm 119:1-8 Centering

It is effortless to adhere to the laws of gravity, we do not have to think about it and plan, because it is a law of nature and the way things should be. Only if we try to bend the laws of nature do we find ourselves struggling. When we are single-mindedly focused on God, it is effortless to keep the statutes, because that is the natural way of things. God has a plan for our lives and if we fix our minds on divine will rather than our own, we will find that the struggles of life will fade away. How do we do this? Through daily meditation, spiritual practice and heeding the call of the still small voice inside of us (our intuition).

Psalm 46 Permanent Sanctuary

Image via WikipediaGod is a creative force. Underlying these words is a great truth. There is nothing in the world that is consistent but change. If we attempt to maintain the status quo or prevent things from changing, we ensure our own unhappiness. It is out of harmony with nature and God to attempt to hold on to anything. That includes love, money, and joy. By allowing all things to course through our lives rather than stagnate, we clear room for more good. When we understand that life is change, we can begin to relax and go with the flow.

Psalm 119 The Living Law

So many of us as sincere believers read the Scriptures looking for principles by which we can live our daily lives. While this is a helpful and important part of our spiritual journey, literal adherence to ancient texts can be problematic. The Word is a living Presence which cannot be limited in a word (or many words). The true power of Scripture is its ability to open our minds and hearts to the Presence and Power of the Holy Spirit, so that It can guide us in God’s way.

Psalm 14 Foolishness

The dictionary says a fool is someone who lacks understanding. It is true that only a fool would say that there is no God. When we believe there is no God is we have undoubtedly been seduced by the trappings of intellect and the physical realm. If we look to the world for strength, purpose, and support, we can be tricked into believing that there is no higher power. Unfortunately, when we succumb to these ideas our thoughts and deeds are all corrupt because we believe them to be of our own doing and for our own exaltation. The intention with which we act is erroneous and the results can be nothing less.

Psalm 50 Judgment Days

Most of us have a visceral response when we hear the word judgment. It brings to mind a wagging finger and a disapproving stare, or worse. Our response is stronger when we expand this idea to Divine judgment. But is there a way for us to view judgment differently?

Psalm 77 Remembering the Past

Often we are told do not dwell on the past, because we cannot change it. For most circumstances this is true, but there is a situation in which dwelling on the past may be constructive. When times are tough and it seems that our faith is tested, it can be helpful to revisit the past and remember how when things seemed the darkest, the light broke. When we thought there was no solution, from out of the blue one suddenly appeared. Whenever we experience any situation we believe we cannot bear, we should look back to the times when God in loving-kindness delivered us from our stress and strife. If we can look back objectively, we will see that in every situation there was a life lesson that we are grateful for now.

Psalm 146 Trust in God

Human beings are strange creatures in that we trust that the sun will rise and set but do not trust in the omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence of God. No other creature in all of creation has less than absolute faith in Spirit; that which is behind, within and around everything we experience. It is absurd for us to trust in the sun but not trust in God. Each and everyday we are confronted with the miracles that are proof of this Presence, yet we question.

Psalm 150 Joyous Celebration

Praise does not change God but it most definitely changes us!

Psalm 150 eloquently describes the natural rhythm, harmony and joy (music) established throughout the consciousness, when the soul radiates the power and presence of God.

Psalm 31 Cycles of Growth

As we walk along our spiritual path, our lives and experiences move in cycles. First, there is the time of rapid advancement in which we have a lot of activity going on and our progress feels very real and measurable. These times can be experienced as a high because we are in the flow and we can feel it with every fiber of our being. We feel the Presence and Power of God in a tangible way. These are the times in which we are acutely aware of Divine activity in our lives.

Psalm 126 Awaking from the Dream

Have you noticed that we tend to label things we do not want or do not like, evil? It is interesting how we take our own expectations and standards and make them the benchmark for “right” in the world. Much of the suffering in this world is merely a dream ( or perhaps nightmare) of our own creation. This is not to say that we should completely discount the presence of evil in the world, but it does help us take a step back and look more closely. More often than not our experience of suffering is caused by our own inability to let go of what we think should be and instead accept on what is.

Psalm 32 Acknowledging our Sins

Do your sins define who you are? Are they opportunities for you to learn and grow? Or do you hide your sins from yourself and others to maintain a facade? To sin is merely “to miss the mark” and we are all constantly doing that. How we process our missteps is just as important as the actual sin.

Psalm 63 Hunger and Thirst

Making a commitment to the spiritual journey and actively seeking God, we literally tap into the strong human craving to reconnect with Spirit (my soul clings to you). This basic need is frequently described as hunger and thirst. For all human being’s this desire is present, and it is a basic compulsion in us all. Unfortunately, most of us do not understand that this underlying discontent that we all feel is a spiritual need. So we set off to placate the urge with things physical, emotional and mental. But these cannot quench the thirst; only the spiritual journey can do that. So we see many people in orgiastic relationships with sex, falling in love, money and intellectual theories. But at their core they remain discontented because they have not reached towards the heart of the problem. In all of us there is a core yearning that can only be satiated by spiritual enlightenment and a relationship with God.

Psalm 99 Mystery and the Sacred Life

What does it mean to live a sacred life? Although it may take an infinite number of forms, at it heart is a single principle. To live the sacred life is to engage the world from the divine core within us. Psalm 99 is a declaration of the primacy of God within human beings. We were created in God’s image and likeness, and as such our thought life (peoples) and physical life (earth) were created for the purpose of serving God. God as Spirit protects that divine spark within each an every one of us (he sits enthroned upon the cherubim). We only have to ask to be shown its magnitude, but that spark is always lit, no matter how dim the light appears to us.

Psalm 71 Spiritual Maturity

As the years pass our bodies go through changes, along with our minds and spirits. Human race consciousness teaches that as our stay on this planet is prolonged, we must experience deterioration in our bodies and minds. We have been taught that these changes that take place are negative and that we should fight them to the extent that we can with medical and scientific intervention. Nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, we must inevitably experience change in our bodies and minds, but none of this should be viewed as negative or as deterioration. It is just different.

Psalm 36:5-10 Unbounded Love

So often we define God’s love by our limited human ideas of what it means to be loved. But love in the divine sense is at the same time similar to and very different from human love. Sometimes I think of it this way: take the highest and healthiest aspects of human love and expand. God’s love is the impulse to oneness or unity. It is the knowledge that we are all of one Source and the feelings, thoughts and actions that come from that understanding.

Psalm 29 - Renewal and Glorification

Psalm 29 is a call to worship and glorify the Lord. It has been said that glorification is the highest spiritual state of consciousness attainable by human beings. In order to glorify the Lord, we must understand God. This is a difficult concept to convey in words because typically when we think of understanding, it implies some intellectual or analytical exercise. spiritual understanding does not have this connotation.

Psalm 148 The Rejuvenating Action of Praise

It has been said, “prayer and praise change people, not God.” What happens to us when we offer praise to God?

To praise God essentially requires us to willingly put God at the center of our lives. We must surrender all of ourselves to the Spirit.