5 Psalms a Day Helps Keep the Adversary Away

Do you have a busy life with many responsibilities? Are you feeling frustrated, tired, and beaten down by the "new normal" of COVID-19, work (or unemployment), kids' eLearning, personal health issues, a relative in ill-heath, talk of hurricanes, rhetoric in the 2020 political season, the media, social media, adolescents, a broken down vehicle, etc, etc, etc?

Ponder this advice someone reminded me (a busy person, a recovering legalist, and someone who likes math) of recently.

September has 30 days. There are 150 Psalms in the Bible. 150 divided by 30 equals exactly 5.

Read through the book of Psalms in September. If you read 5 Psalms a day, you can achieve it, and you may actually have time to really reflect on what you're reading.

PS. Pray before you go to bed on the night of September 23.

There are so many comforting, encouraging, humbling, tender, and/or wise words to consume in these 150 chapters. Below are some examples from the bookends of the book of Psalms.

May God continue to remind us in September (as the rhetoric of the world ramps up prior to any "October Surprises") of the words from Philippians 4:8 – Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Psalm 6:2 – Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am languishing; heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled.

Psalm 7:1 – O LORD, my God, in you do I take refuge; save me from all pursuers and deliver me.

Psalm 8:3-4 – When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?

Psalm 141:3 – Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips!

Psalm 143:8 – Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.

Psalm 144:2 – He is my steadfast love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield and he in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.

Psalm 145: 18 – The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.

Christian Ponder has been a resident of Lake Wales since 2001. He enjoys living in Lake Wales with his wife and two children.