Psalm 109:18-31 (KJV): I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth

From Psalms

Psalm 109 (cont.)

¹⁸As he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment,
      so let it come into his bowels like water,
      and like oil into his bones.
¹⁹Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him,
      and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually.
²⁰Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the LORD,
      and of them that speak evil against my soul.

²¹But do thou for me, O GOD the Lord,
      for thy name's sake:
      because thy mercy is good, deliver thou me.
²²For I am poor and needy,
      and my heart is wounded within me.
²³I am gone like the shadow when it declineth:
      I am tossed up and down as the locust.
²⁴My knees are weak through fasting;
      and my flesh faileth of fatness.
²⁵I became also a reproach unto them:
      when they looked upon me they shaked their heads.

²⁶Help me, O LORD my God:
      O save me according to thy mercy:
²⁷That they may know that this is thy hand;
      that thou, LORD, hast done it.
²⁸Let them curse, but bless thou:
      when they arise, let them be ashamed;
      but let thy servant rejoice.
²⁹Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame,
      and let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a mantle.

³⁰I will greatly praise the LORD with my mouth;
      yea, I will praise him among the multitude.
³¹For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor,
      to save him from those that condemn his soul.

Psalm 109 takes an interesting turn today.  The psalmist turns things around and realizes in spite of all of the people who cause him grief he still needs to rejoice in the love and mercy of God.  In spite of his weakness.  In spite of all of his problems God's mercy is good - and outweighs all of his problems.  God's mercy, and for that matter all of God's gifts, are all we need.  In this second part of psalm 109 the psalmist's tone turns from one of resentment to one of trust and praise.

This is an important shift because, and I may be misreading this but, this is the process of "letting go and letting God."  This is a common saying in 12 step meetings - and it's often much easier said than done.  It takes a lot of practice...I've been working on it for about 16 months and I still have much work to do.

Letting Go and Letting God, for me goes something like this.  I'm facing a problem.  Things are not going according to my plan.  I kind of wish I had a specific example, but I'm sure we've all had situations that for one reason or another don't go as we expect.  When I "let go and let God" I choose not to "fix" the, or add some level of control, this not always my first instinct.  This requires the following steps: I step back, take a breath, say a prayer, and ask God to help me accept the situation, ask God to help me find the beauty and positive in the situation, go with the flow of God's plan, and realize that God's plan will turn out better than what I had in mind anyway.

This has been a big part of my recovery - and I'm glad I can see this in psalm 109.

Thanks for letting me share.