Psalm 68 (KJV): 17-30: The Lord daily loadeth us with benefits

From Psalms

Psalm 68:17-30

¹⁷The chariots of God are twenty thousand,
      even thousands of angels:
      the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place.

¹⁸Thou hast ascended on high,
      thou hast led captivity captive:
      thou hast received gifts for men;
yea, for the rebellious also,
      that the LORD God might dwell among them.

¹⁹Blessed be the Lord,
      who daily loadeth us with benefits,
      even the God of our salvation.                          Selah.
²⁰He that is our God is the God of salvation;
      and unto GOD the Lord belong the issues from death.

²¹But God shall wound the head of his enemies,
      and the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his trespasses.
²²The Lord said, I will bring again from Bashan,
      I will bring my people again from the depths of the sea:
²³That thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies,
      and the tongue of thy dogs in the same.

²⁴They have seen thy goings, O God;
      even the goings of my God, my King, in the sanctuary.
²⁵The singers went before, the players on instruments followed after;
      among them were the damsels playing with timbrels.
²⁶Bless ye God in the congregations,
      even the Lord, from the fountain of Israel.
²⁷There is little Benjamin with their ruler,
      the princes of Judah and their council,
      the princes of Zebulun,
      and the princes of Naphtali.

²⁸Thy God hath commanded thy strength:
      strengthen, O God, that which thou hast wrought for us.
²⁹Because of thy temple at Jerusalem
      shall kings bring presents unto thee.
³⁰Rebuke the company of spearmen,
      the multitude of the bulls, with the calves of the people,
till every one submit himself with pieces of silver:
      scatter thou the people that delight in war.

I think it's important that I talk about faith because many the things Psalm 68 talks about are things that we can't see in our lives - but are there.  Faith is the belief in the things we can't see.  Faith is very important in our sobriety and I guess that's why the second and third steps of the 12 steps were developed to instill faith in us.

Making that step to believe in God, in order to cure us of our addiction, something that you can't see, is like stepping off a cliff.  We know we can trust in our drug of choice, whether that's alcohol, sex, cigarettes, cocaine, food, or anything else.  We can see it, we can touch it, we can smell it.  It's there - and temporarily we null the pain and problems.  But God...."What do I know that God is there?" asks the addict.

Quite often there are people around us who have different perspectives and can see things we can't.  They know God is there, that the cliff isn't really a cliff at all.  That the first step is really a path to a new life which has just been hidden from us as addicts - and remains hidden from other addicts.  So, we need to trust, we need to have faith.  When we do that we are able to see, as Psalm 68 tells us that the Lord loadeth us with benefits, saves us from our demons, and gives us strength.  So, if you struggle with addiction of any kind I encourage to make the step to trust in God.  If you would like to see this analogy in action check out this scene from Indiana Jones.

Thanks for letting me share.