In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation. (Psalm 5:3, NIV)
Some years ago Loren Roberts, a four-time winner of senior major championships, shared with me that one of the things that allowed him to develop as a golfer was that he never tired of his own company. In preparation for this year’s Links Players Magazine, 2015 Women’s Amateur Golfer of the Year Emma Talley told me something similar: Some of her Alabama teammates turn down practice sessions with her because she keeps going and going. They don’t want to hang out that long.
Discipline, it seems, can be a lonely business. The process of maturity doesn’t always come with raving fans. You’re going to have to stick to it even when others aren’t walking with you.
David’s psalm for flutes, Psalm 5, gives us a picture of the shepherd-king’s morning routine. He would sigh and cry and lay his requests before the Lord. More than that, he would wait in expectation. Hardly dramatic. Even a sensationalistic Internet headline writer would have a hard time milking any interest from that.
As with many of David’s psalms, we don’t know exactly at what time of life Psalm 5 emerged from his singing lips. Was it when he was traversing the hillsides with his fleeced charges? Sure, there were the days of bears and lions against which he had to make a strong defense, but most afternoons were lazy, spent in dry fields, with no one to talk to except the Lord.
Or perhaps it came later in life, when his reign was established and his victorious renown kept his internal enemies at a distance. But these times we know can be lonely too, for kings are above their subjects and true friendship—as he had experienced in his fighting youth with Jonathan—is hard to find. Then also he must have found himself alone in his quarters, with no one to talk to except the Lord.
And now we must wonder if we have perhaps stumbled upon the secret to spiritual maturity: time alone with the Lord. In today’s accompanying video, Tracy Hanson confesses that her next big step in personal discipline is seizing more time for stillness, so she may hear from the Lord. In other words, she is landing in the closing words of Psalm 5: “I… wait in expectation.” This practice may come with little fanfare, but it carries with it great value for spiritual development.
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Jeff Hopper
January 22, 2016
Copyright 2016 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.