Banquets and Peanut Butter

          One of my relatives, who had a large family, once stated that she wanted to retire in Arizona with plastic furniture. After raising a family with a large number of children, she was simply tired of cleaning up after the messes that occurred in her everyday life. The thought of the typical plastic furniture was that it could be cleaned off with a hose. Our everyday lives are filled with “messes” that need to be cleaned up. Our young cat or old kitten, has not been feeling well and has had some issues with the litter box resulting my “cleaning up” messes here and there. If that was all I had to think about, life wouldn't be too bad, but there are more messes than the cat and the litter box. This is why the following passage is such a blessing to me and many others. Psalm 37:4-6 says, “Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.  Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.   And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.”

         I recently had a lady tell me that she almost lived in Psalm 37. The entire Psalm has lessons for us especially in the issues of daily life. My cousin wanted plastic furniture because it was quick and easy to clean. She did get a simpler life after all of the children left to begin their own lives, but she never got plastic furniture, that I know of. Most of the time, we would settle for something rather small on any given day, such as a glass of ice tea and some time to drink it in peace. Verse 4 begins with the statement that we are to “delight ourselves in the LORD...” Ice Tea and plastic furniture are just a quick fix to a daily problem, but delighting ourselves in the LORD has a long lasting effect available to every believer. The Psalmist says that God will give us the desires of our heart. In this case, the desires of the heart are not the ice tea and the plastic furniture. The desires of the heart is what God gives to us. God gives us a desire to know Him deeper. God gives us a desire to read His Word more and more. God gives us a desire to come to Him in prayer each moment, day, month and so on. God gives us a desire to rest in Him in all things, big and small, simple and complex. There are times when we seem to forget all that God can do and all that He wants to do in our lives. That is when we turn to the ice tea and plastic furniture not realizing the promises that He has for us in His Word. We notice the words in this passage and the following verses that say, “delight, commit, trust and rest.” Now, there is nothing wrong with the ice tea and the plastic furniture, but God has so much more because His Word simply tells us the end of the story. We know what is coming and so to settle for something else in this life when you don't have to do it, just seems like a waste of time and of the wonderful promises that God has given us. I am reminded of a story of a poor man who wanted to come to America and so saved up for the passage price, got his ticket and filled his suitcase with bread and peanut butter to make it on the trip. He noticed the rest of the people enjoying the fine dining on the ship as he ate his peanut butter sandwiches during the trip. At the end of the trip he found out that the passage price had included all the meals. He didn't enjoy the blessings that were there all the time but still ate his peanut butter sandwiches. Sad to say, we are sometimes in the same predicament. We are eating peanut butter sandwiches and not enjoying the fine dining that has been provided for us. So, Praise God today for the wonderful blessings that He has provided for us. Maybe we should live awhile in Psalm 37 ourselves.