MEDITATE Post 2

Over the next several posts, I am going to share some thoughts from Marva Dawn in her book I’m Lonely, Lord, How Long: Meditations on the Psalms.
Loneliness is a common experience in retirement.

This will be my way of using the acrostic MEDITATE:

Memorize, Emphasize, Define, Illustrate, Think about, Apply, Tell about, Enjoy God with 

KEYWORDS

WRESTLE WITH MY THOUGHTS

“I wish for anything to get rid of the pain and instinctively wonder if I could ever be truly loved in a way that would ease my loneliness forever. If God really loves me, couldn’t He stop the sorrow and suffering? Whatever the reason, we’ve all probably felt this way at times: Why does the Lord hold back His love? Must He punish us for some reason? How long must this punishment, this hollowness when we pray, this denial of our ‘needs’, go on?”

EVERY DAY

“This phrase occurs at the end of the sentence in the Hebrew text (a place of emphasis) and could also be rendered ‘all the day’. Some commentators suggest, then, that the expression ‘all the night’ might be presupposed for the line about thought-wrestling to complete the pattern. Our own experiences confirm such a possibility for the text. I’m sure you have stayed awake all night trying to plan ways to end your pain or become numb to it.”