This morning I started doing the study Intimacy With God, by Cynthia Heald. It is a Bible study in the Psalms. This morning my assignment was to read Psalm 62 and note key words and phrases that communicate an intense longing for closeness with God. Here is a phrase that I've been increasingly blessed by over the years; it especially stood out to me in my reading this morning.
"Trust in Him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before Him: God is a refuge for us." (Psalm 62:8)
The idea of being able to pour out one's heart before God is such a blessing! It reminded me also of Lamentations 2:19: "Pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord."
I decided to see what some of my favorite commentators had to say about this phrase from Psalm 62:8.
Spurgeon wrote: "Ye to whom His love is revealed, reveal yourselves to Him. His heart is set on you... turn the vessel of your soul upside down in His secret presence, and let your inmost thoughts, desires, sorrows, and sins be poured out like water. Hide nothing from Him, for you can hide nothing."
John Berridge, quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David, wrote: "He is never weary with hearing the complaints of His people; therefore you should go and keep nothing back; tell Him everything that hurts you... Make Him your counsellor and friend; you cannot please Him better than when your hearts rely wholly upon Him."
All of this reminded me of Philippians 4:6-7 and what H.A. Ironside had to say about those verses:
"Be careful [anxious] for nothing: but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
"And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."
Ironside writes: "The Spirit of God... would have me bring everything, the great things and the little things, perplexing conditions and trying circumstances of every character, into the presence of God, and leave them there. By prayer and supplication, not forgetting thanksgiving for past and present mercies, He would have me pour out my requests unto God. I may feel that I do not know the mind of the Lord in regard to them, but that need not hinder. I am to make known my 'requests', counting on His wisdom to do for me that which is best both for time and eternity. Thus, casting my care on Him, and leaving all in His own blessed hands, the peace of God... a peace passing all understanding, shall guard, as with a military garrison, my heart."
This made me think, too -- when we "pour out" all of our concerns to God, it is easier to leave them with Him.
What an encouragement to me today! I hope it is an encouragement to each of you as well.
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