Today's Reading: Introit for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity

(Psalm 28:1-2, 7; antiphon: vs.8-9)

Daily Lectionary: Judges 6:1-24; Acts 14:19-15:4

The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him. (From the Introit for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. The tense matters. The Lord is the strength of His people. He is the saving refuge of His anointed. Right now. Today. I am helped. It started in the past. Christ was crucified for you. It's still true now. The tense matters because if you understand what God has done, and who God is now, it makes the things you're afraid of much less scary.

The psalmist has real fears. Real enemies. Sometimes life falls apart in the kind of way that words can't really describe with appropriate language. I'm amazed at pious Christians who sit in the dumpster of what was and try to figure out whether or not it's a sin to wonder if God isn't listening, or how He answers. Digging through the damage sin does and looking for more sin doesn't actually fix anything.

You have the feelings. Here, God gives you something to do with them. He gives you the tenses to answer them. The Lord IS the strength of His people. He IS the saving refuge of you. Right now. Today. You are helped. You have these fears. Bring them to the Lord. Recognize that, even as it was His job to do the saving before, it still is now. The things that leave you sleepless wouldn't have stopped Him as He dealt with David, nor will they stop Him today. You might be overwhelmed, but God isn't. He gives us more than we can handle, teaches us to curse any Hallmark card that says otherwise, then holds us in our Baptism while He handles it and drags us along.

To pray the psalms is to realize that God isn't deaf to you. He's already worked to save. Praying them will help you to hear that God isn't silent, but has already given you a place to put your concern as He drags you along towards salvation. It's to meditate on everything God has done in the past, focus on His character, and realize that He hasn't changed, so the things that leave you rocking in the fetal position are faced by the God who shepherds you in mercy. He speaks about the thing you're going through as if you're already saved from it. Because you are. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

From God's joy can nothing sever, For I am His dear lamb, He, my Shepherd ever. I am His because He gave me His own blood For my good, By His death to save me. ("Why Should Cross and Trial Grieve Me" LSB 756, st.4)

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Duane Bamsch