Joyful Thinking

May our sons flourish in their youth like well-nurtured plants. May our daughters be like graceful pillars, carved to beautify a palace. May our barns be filled with crops of every kind. May the flocks in our fields multiply by the thousands, even tens of thousands, and may our oxen be loaded down with produce. May there be no enemy breaking through our walls, no going into captivity, no cries of alarm in our town squares. Yes, joyful are those who live like this! Joyful indeed are those whose God is the Lord. Psalm 144: 12-15 NLT

What is your idea of success for this year?

I don’t know how many of you want your sons to flourish like plants or your daughters to be beautiful pillars, but I am certain we all want enough to eat and enough to live on. We would like our family to do well, if not to prosper. Certainly, we don’t want outside forces attacking us or any crisis that would harm us. 

The psalmist wants his sons to grow and flourish, his daughters to be graceful and beautiful, his barns full and his crops loaded with produce. He would like there to be no enemy at his walls, no chance of being taken captive and no cries of alarm in the village square. He knows that those who live like this are joyful indeed.

Makes me wonder if the psalmist has known just the opposite of these things. Perhaps his sons have not flourished, his crops have failed and he has been taken into exile. It was known to happen in the time this prayer was written. 

Maybe we should look at what went poorly last year and pray for the opposite this year. We can always hope because God is indeed the Lord.

God, help us to be joyful in all times and all circumstances because you are our Lord. Amen.

Copyright 2013 Amelia G. Sims