Today’s psalm is a long one… and to be honest, I had a difficult time with it.

I’ll explain, but first, let’s read it…

Today’s psalm takes me back to another musical reference. This one doesn’t go quite as far back as G.F. Handel’s rendition of psalm 2, and has perhaps gotten less worldwide airtime, but it’s a definite reference for me.

In 1989, Sandi Patti released “How Majestic is Your Name” on her “The Finest Moments” album, under Word Records. I’m not sure that it was entirely based on this psalm, but the first line is the same… you can take a listen here & see what you think…

Whoa! I actually had a bit of a hard time with today’s psalm…

There weren’t a lot of things jumping out at me as has been the case with previous psalms

Still though… let me stick with the process & tell you a bit about it…

Yesterday was a thoroughly lovely day… We slid back into our home church and got to chat with many, many familiar faces & longtime friends.

From the first chords of music and the first notes sung, I was emotional and fought back a few tears … happy tears; tears of God’s goodness to us, no doubt mixed with a dose of nostalgia.

It was honestly a bit taxing… emotionally & socially, but yet it was good for the soul to be in both the morning & evening services (with the ever appreciated Sunday afternoon nap thrown in for good measure).

Here’s this morning’s psalm…

Yesterday, we had a nice day of visiting with friends. We drank tea with one and met a new grand-baby, and were able to surprise another who was totally not expecting us.

How special to come home and see that, while some things change, others don’t … friendships, the ability to laugh together. The fact of having walked through lots of shared experiences together creates a bond that time doesn’t wash away.

I read psalm 5 in the hours before I was getting ready to head to church…

Well… we’re a little behind on posting. While I’ve kept up with the reading, making time to sit down and post my thoughts has suffered a little bit as daily activity has increased a little bit.

As a number of you will know by now, we’re back in Canada. We kept our cards pretty close to our chest about coming home because we just really needed a rest, so for the first few days, we really didn’t move too much. Over the weekend, however, that changed as we visited with a few friends then had a church day on Sunday.

But let’s get back to Psalm 4…

Psalm 3 is a little shorter than yesterday’s psalm and reading it this morning was like a breath of fresh air because it feels so spot-on.

Let’s get into it…

Let me begin by saying that I cannot read Psalm 2 without hearing it in the rhythm, or accompanied by the orchestration, of George Handel’s from his Christmas oratorio… Messiah.

That undoubtedly comes from having sung it a number of times as part of the Saint John Symphony Chorus in my hometown. We normally rehearsed for weeks, in the lead-up to Christmas, at Saint John’s beautiful and historic Trinity Anglican Church. Eventually, we were part of the annual performance of Handel’s Messiah, at the beautiful Imperial Theatre, by the Saint John Symphony Orchestra.

Going to move on from the #DaysOfGratitude posts and, for the next month or so… journal some of my thoughts on the Psalms.

On one hand, it’s a way to keep me accountable to a reading goal that I’m setting myself for the few weeks that I’m on vacay, away from home. On another hand, it’s also a way to anchor some of the posts about Gratitude.

Let me explain…