Better is One Day!

I love that this chronological review of scripture takes us to unexpected places each day. The Psalms are today's destination and these particular chapters reveal an acute awareness that all of our striving is in vain unless God is leader and Lord.

Psalm 43-45, Psalm 49, Psalm 84-85, and Psalm 87, read like poetic pleas and prayers that clearly convey the desperate place we find ourselves if we travel life's roads without God.

As I prepare my heart to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ in two days, I write this entry on what is commonly called Good Friday--it is the commemoration of the day my innocent Savior was put to death for my sins and yours.

I've tried to imagine what it must have been like for Jesus as he willingly surrendered to the brutality of the cross. I read the verses that convey his anguish as he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, weeping for those who failed to recognize that their king would come so humbly, so lowly, and I am overwhelmed.

Luke 19: 41 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it 42 and said, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. 43 The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. 44 They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you."

It has rained all day today--not just a slow drizzle, but a deluge that has included bursts of lightning and thunder. In my imagination, God is showering the earth with heavenly tears to remind me of the amazing grace that he poured out on this day so many years ago. And as the rain pounds out its rhythmic melody, I sing praise with the Psalmist that one day with Jesus is better than a thousand days elsewhere. Sunday is coming and my Savior lives!

Psalm 84:
10 A single day in your courts
is better than a thousand anywhere else!
I would rather be a gatekeeper in the house of my God
than live the good life in the homes of the wicked.
11 For the Lord God is our sun and our shield.
He gives us grace and glory.
The Lord will withhold no good thing
from those who do what is right.
12 O Lord of Heaven’s Armies,
what joy for those who trust in you.