Friday, April 28, 2017

Psalms 94:16-19 -- On Soul Silence and the Love of God

"Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?
Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence.
When I said, My foot slippeth; thy mercy, O Lord, held me up.
In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul."
Psalms 94:16-19


I really like these verse because I think that the show something of the depth that we can have in our relationship with God.  In the Book of Mormon Lehi has a dream of a tree "whose fruit was desirable to make one happy."  This was a symbolic representation of the love of God.  Sometimes we don't really get that idea because our experience with love in this life is so different than the love that God offers us.  Despite our best efforts, we're actually really bad at love.  Our attempts get better with practice, but often our love is conditional, biased, selfish, manipulative, stingy, transactional, competitive, or confused for something else entirely.  And because we don't know how to love very well, we learn to expect the same kind of love from others, careful to not give too much, or overreach lest we be hurt or ridiculed or seen as needy, or other endless piles of fears and mockeries.

Part of us cries out for something better, and that emptiness can *only* be filled by God, even though of course in our stubbornness we attempt to fill the hole with various other, often scary, things.  The truth is, no one else, family, friend, significant other, celebrity, hero, or other fill-in-the-blank loves of our lives can take God's place or love us as he does.

If we let God into our lives, He is the one that will rise up against the evildoers for us.  He will stand up for us against the workers of iniquity.  He is the "kindred spirit" that we yearn for, and prevents our souls from dwelling in silence, because we always have God there to remind us that we are not alone.  God catches us when we are slipping.  He speaks to us mind to mind and comforts us.  He will never force us to have a relationship with him, but if we invite him in he will be the family, hero, and friend that our souls have been looking for.

Today, let's not let our souls dwell in silence.  Let's accept the Lord's help, and come out of the darkness of our soul's isolation and emptiness, and be filled with his love, which indeed *is* desirable to make us happy. :)

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