Insightful Musings on theScriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good morning, dear ones.

I made an attempt yesterday morning to catch a salmon in the Colombia River aboard my sailing kayak. Nothing. Just a lot of expense and effort. It makes me return to my approach of preference—I’m not a sport fisherman who simply loves to get out there, no matter how productive it is—I’m a meat fisherman, so if I’m not catching fish, I’m wasting time. Therefore, I want to invest more in an approach that will more certainly put meat in the TRAEGER and onto the table. That’s one reason I so loved spearfishing. I was never unproductive growing up on Puget Sound or in the Pacific Islands. Still lots to learn around here. On the other hand, I guess I can comfort myself at catching just as many fish as all those other big fancy boats out there on the river. I never saw evidence of one fish being caught.

Lots on the agenda today. I think I’ll go knock out a little jog to begin with—even though it’s so late.

Blessings on your day.

Love, Dad/Ray.

In other words, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5).

You have no doubt met many people who drip with arrogance—those who think they have it all figured out—absolutely superior in their thinking. They are afflicted with an aggressive effort to sidestep every reference to God and man’s accountability to Him, judging that science now understands and explains everything worth understanding and explaining, and anyone who believes otherwise is simply a weak-minded inferior who seems to need some kind of faith or god as a psychological crutch to help them cope with reality. I reason, as I think David did, that that ideological posture is the natural result of doing what David emphatically states he chooses not to do in the first verse of this three-verse psalm. “My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.” But why? I think David understands that if or when he were ever to convince himself that he was even capable of truly understanding the big questions of life, of origins, of purpose, etc., arrogant rejection of God would result. Instead, he testifies and promotes the safer and more reasonable option—“Oh Israel (…and everyone else), put your hope in the LORD.” Trust Him.

The beautiful metaphor David uses to describe the resulting peace and security of one who trusts the LORD with the big stuff is that of a “weaned child” (v. 2)—satisfied, content, at rest in the embrace of its parent/provider, not striving or worried over the big stuff, not even the little stuff. The song comes to mind again—one I have come to love—