They rejoice in your name all day long;
they celebrate your righteousness. (Psalm 89:16, NIV)
If you’ve never been to Bandon Dunes resort in Oregon, you might want to hurry. Though the owner says the newly opened Sheep Ranch will be the last of the courses on the property, there is so much golf available among the five regulation courses and the beloved Bandon Preserve short course that you’ll never be able to walk it all if you’re much older than you are now. Just sayin’, my friend.
Speaking of walking it all, that’s what the Bandon Summer Solstice event has long been about. Seventy-two holes of golf in a single day. On your feet, charging along. It’s a day when you want to be on your game, because you don’t have time for a lot of extra swings! Even on the longest day of the year, you’ll need to be playing your rounds at a fast clip on increasingly tired legs.
Many of you have eliminated yourself from consideration for this event just by what you’ve read here. You might be the smart ones. Some things, maybe even golf, weren’t meant to be done all day.
But here’s a healthy thing you can do all day long: rejoice in Jesus.
Recurring praise of God springs from recurring thoughts of God, what he has done, and what he is doing.It’s almost stunning when we read the psalmist Ethan’s words about those who have learned to acclaim the Lord. Walking in the light of God’s presence, they find themselves rejoicing in God all day. That’s a lot of celebration!
Sometimes when we read of such spiritual dedication, we are tempted to take ourselves out of the running. For one thing, we’ve got to go to work today. How can we be praising God and serving customers all at the same time?
That’s a good question. It may be immediately helpful to know that Ethan was not writing about a group of monks or ascetics, sequestered behind walls that eliminated all distractions and allowed them to chant hymns throughout the day. He was writing of normal people in normal times. In fact, his psalm goes on to report that this is a time when God’s people are not in God’s favor; the promises given to David are now in question because much of what he built is in ruins. Yet here is this batch, this remnant, that finds a way to praise God throughout their day.
How about us? Can we join this batch? Recurring praise of God springs from recurring thoughts of God, what he has done, and what he is doing. We feed these thoughts with regular time in the Scriptures, as well as time listening to excellent teaching about who God is from those same Scriptures. As we reconsider those thoughts, we are led to rejoicing. It fills our day, if we are willing to make room for it, both in blocks of time set aside and during the in-betweens.
Learn to acclaim God. It will take you to joy.
—
Jeff Hopper
June 1, 2020
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The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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