Psalm 27:10

10    For my father and my mother have forsaken me,

but the Lord will take me in.

Abba,

We live in a world of abandonment and rejection.  The ones to whom we ought to look for our greatest stability and security, our parents, are often the ones who are most absent.  Single parent homes, absent fathers and mothers are a thing of normality in our broken world today.  Human relationships are fragile, brittle, thin crusted skins, and easily shattered.  We walk through this life suffering the pain that comes from these shattered relationships; from isolation; from abandonment and rejection. 

We live in fear of losing what we have. 

We live in fear of being hurt. 

We live in isolation and loneliness. 

The ache of longing for deep connection competes against the fear of pain, loss, and hurt. 

The cuts go deep and the scars remain. 

The tears flow and the grief cripples. 

The anger stains and twists. 

Some know it all too well, too intimately having experienced loss and hurt up close and personal.  Others, know it from a distance and live in fear of gaining this first hand knowledge.  But none escape the touch of abandonments, rejections, and forsaken’s influence. 

Sadly, this fragility of our human experience when it comes to our most cherished and precious relationships presents us with a enormous danger.  The danger to view our relationship with our heavenly creator, You, in the same fashion. 

Abba, you are vastly beyond our comprehension and understanding.  Our minds strive for it, grasping to understanding someone, something that we will never fully be able too.  And yet, we desire to do so.  In our desire, we end up making a fatal mistake.  We create God, you, in OUR image.  We project our human understanding onto you.  We look at our human relationships and experience and use those to define, describe, and illuminate Your being.  Problem is, it cannot be done this way.  We will never gain an understanding of You from looking at one another.  Rather, we are to look at you and gain an understanding of one another.  In our foolishness, we reverse the process. 

Abba, we are facing a day of incredible uncertainty and unrest.  Covid, riots, political tension, struggling marriages, rebellious children, betrayal, sickness, death, loneliness, grief, sorrow, pain, hurt, anger, lust, greed, life dominating sins hold us captive and enslave us.  Fear is a constant companion for some.  Daily, the struggle is real and the battle ensues.

In times such as these, the promises and truths in this Psalm call to us with increasing fervor to be heard.

The Spirit within beckons us to hear, to listen, to give heed to these truth’s.

Over and over in this Psalm, we are given reason for hope.

The Lord is my light…

And my salvation…

The Lord is the stronghold of my life….

My adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall…

Though an army encamp, though war arise, YET my heart will not fear, it will be confident…

We have been invited

to dwell in your house,

to gaze upon your beauty,

to inquire in your temple…

You hide us in your shelter…

You conceal us under the cover of your tent…

You lift us high upon a rock….

Our heads are lifted above our enemies…

We sing and celebrate in your tent…

You hear us when we cry….

You invite us to come…

You do not hide your face from us…

You do not cast us off…

And now…

You will take us in.

Again, and again, and again…

You are near…

You are our protection…

You are our hope…

You are not like the brittle, thin crusted relationships we know in this life.

You are steadfast and sound.

You are faithful and true.

You are unmoveable and ever near.

You are OUR GOD, OUR SAVIOR, OUR KING, OUR FATHER,

Our Abba

Daddy

One who has never left us and never will. 

Abba, protect us from the danger of creating a god in our image.  Protect us from the danger of allowing our circumstances and struggles to be the basis for our formulation of our theology of who you are.  Protect us from the danger of mistaking your identity by erroneously declaring you to be just like every other fragile human relationship that we know in this life.

Let us, like David, declare our confidence that though human relationships fail, you will not.

May that trust guard our hearts and minds today as we are battered and beaten by the storms of this life. 

May we rest with confidence and peace in you.

We love you, Abba.

Amen.