Salty Zebra

  Every day I will praise you! I will praise your name continually! The LORD is great and certainly worthy of praise! No one can fathom his greatness!   Psalm 145:2-3  This psalm begins, "David's Psalm of Praise," indicating that it was personal and special to him. Today, I'm writing my own psalm of praise after its pattern.  A Salty Zebra’s Psalm of Praise My heart considers You, my Wonderful Creator. You are good and all-knowing, Your power knows no end. My ancestors praised You, following You all their lives. I’ve endeavored to teach my children Your ways, Your praise will echo throughout eternity as Your children honor You! In the morning, I consider Your Word. You open my eyes to see amazing things You have done, My heart quickens at the epiphanies You provide. You are powerful to save, nothing is beyond You. You created it all, And all of creation is Yours. To whom shall I compare You, for You are above and beyond all. Your goodness never...

  Over the next few weeks, I'll be sharing regular posts about how I'm preparing for radiation. I'm hoping these can help someone else, as I struggled to find a conversational source like this that dealt with the subject. For more information on my brain tumor, check out these posts .  I've spent the last three months' worth of Mondays sharing with you all about how I came to do radiation therapy for my brain tumor and how I've been preparing for it. My hope is that these posts can serve as insight, advice, or even just commiseration for others that are facing brain radiation, as I struggled to find a resource out there like this one. If you have found value in these posts, I would greatly appreciate it if you'd let me know in the comments and/or share this series with anyone in your sphere that might be able to benefit from them. The Monday that this post is published marks the final week of my treatment. As I mentioned in this post , the literature suggest...

  Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting: and let all the people say, Amen. Prase ye the LORD.   Psalm106:48 KJV  Amen. You’ve read it. You’ve said it. Do you know what it means? What do you mean when you say it? Charles Spurgeon in his commentary on Psalm 106 shares that, “It has been adopted, and without translation retained, in all languages in which the gospel of Jesus the Son of David is preached.” Webster reflects similarly that, “This word, with slight differences or orthography, is in all the dialects of the Assyrian stock.” He goes on to share its meaning, “As a verb, it signifies to confirm, establish, verify; to trust, or give confidence; as a noun, truth, firmness, trust, confidence; as an adjective, firm, stable. In English, after the oriental manner, it is used at the beginning, but more generally at the end of declarations and prayers, in the sense of, be it firm, be it established.” As Spurgeon so neatly summarized, amen mean...

  How can I repay the LORD for all his acts of kindness to me? I will celebrate my deliverance, and call on the name of the LORD.   Psalm 116:12-13  Jesus’ last night on Earth, prior to His resurrection, was one filled with drama. He sent His disciples to prepare the Passover feast in a room that had already been made ready for them. There, He told them ahead of time that one of them would betray Him, someone who had dipped their bread into the same bowl. He shared with them the first communion, telling them that the bread represented His body, broken for them and the cup represented the blood of the covenant, His blood poured out for the forgiveness of sins. They sang hymns together, one of which was Psalm 116, our passage for today, then they went out to the Garden of Gethsemane. Here Jesus prayed deeply and poignantly, to the point where He sweat drops of blood ( Luke 22:44 ), but the disciples were so worn out that they could not stay awake, keeping vigil with Him....

  Over the next few weeks, I'll be sharing regular posts about how I'm preparing for radiation. I'm hoping these can help someone else, as I struggled to find a conversational source like this that dealt with the subject. For more information on my brain tumor, check out these posts .    Whether because of an accident, serious illness, or natural aging, we will all face the end of our lives. If you're breathing, this pertains to you. Most of us don't want to think about dying though, I know I didn't, and so we put off conversations and avoid thinking about our preferences when it comes to end of life care. Sadly, that can result in our loved ones being put in a difficult position of not knowing what we would want and having to make choices on our behalf, choices that can be difficult or even traumatizing, and may not be what we would prefer at all. How can we avoid that burden being put on those closest to us? By thinking ahead a little and recording our prefere...

  Your loyal followers trust in you, for you, LORD, do not abandon those who seek your help. Psalm 9:10  Do you ever come to God with a request, secretly wondering in your heart if He can or will fulfill it? I think David and the other psalmists definitely felt this way, so you are not alone. You see over and over in the psalms where they remind God of His promises and essentially call Him out, saying “Surely You won’t fail us!” But as they wrote these words to God, they were writing them for themselves as well. They were telling themselves, “Of course God will not let us down. He never has and He never will!” Oftentimes we need to be reminded of this truth, and what better way than by praising God for all He has done.   We can “know” that God is good and mighty to save, but when we focus on our problems , it’s easy to forget that. Here the psalmist encourages us to trust in God’s promises and truth, knowing that He will not leave us to shame. Over and over this is ...

  Then you turned my lament into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and covered me with joy. So now my heart will sing to you and not be silent; O LORD my God, I will always give thanks to you.  Psalm 30:11-12  Earlier in this study, I wrote about the four steps of lament: turning to God, complaining, asking for what you need, and trusting God for its outcome. This week it looks like we are focusing on the fourth step, trusting God.  When we express our trust in God that He will take care of us, provide for our needs, and deal with whatever situation we are facing, in that very moment our prayer is answered. Once we’ve come to a place where we can say, “So now my heart will sing to you and not be silent; O LORD my God, I will always give thanks to you” (Psalm 30:12), our hope is secured and our heart can be at peace. We don’t have to wait to see the fruition of our hopes because they are certain and we can live in them today! When we enter into this frame of mind...