Week 17: Day 5

Intro: Hello and welcome to Orbit, a short reflection to help you put God at the centre of your life from the team behind Satellites - I'm Lucy Rae. Each weekday we share a little bit of the Bible with you, give you a chance to pray and think about it, and provide you with one practical way to put it into practice today.

Bible: Today we are going to take some time reading Psalm 16:7-11

I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay. You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Thoughts: Through the book of Psalms we get a glimpse into the character of God and how we can respond to Him in worship. In Psalm 16 we are reminded of the truth that God is a refuge for His people and that ultimately He protects His us from sin and death through Jesus’ death on the cross in our place.

I find Psalms so helpful because you see an honest response to faith through the words of David. You see such a human response to emotion through the highs and the lows of life and faith.

I have many fears and worries a lot of the time and some of those are mentioned here - one is that I have really bad sleep a lot and it really struck me the words David shares I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me.

Even when I am sleeping and at rest - God is still moving. He is still watching over me and protecting me. When I wake up at 3 or 4am often my first thought is what woke me, what is my thought pattern, was it a bad dream.

I babysat a friend of mine’s little boy the other week and he woke up crying in the night so I went up to comfort him and through these tears he just said “I want to pray”. Schooled in my prayer life by a 2 year old. But when I read this I was reminded of that thought.

When I wake up in the night my first response can be to go to God - he who counsels me and does not abandon me. He who fills me with joy in his presence. He is not resting even when I wake in the night.

Action: For each of us it might be a different part of the psalm that jumps out - so I’m going to read those verses again and why don’t you clock which verse sticks out to you. When you have it write it down on your notes, hand, diary and keep hold of it today. Keep that verse with you as you go through the day as a reminder in all of the situations you find yourself in today that God is with you.

I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay. You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

For me today, that is going to be the end of verse 8: With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Outro: That's it for today's Orbit - it has been great being with you this week! Have a great weekend - we will be back with another reflection on Monday!