Episode 145-Trying to Be Good

Speaker 1:

It is time for a pause in your day. Welcome to a podcast where we press the pause button on our busy

lives for a few moments, and we focus on God’s word with Sharon and Nicole, we pray this is a time of

refreshing for you. The Sweet Selah Moments Podcast is a cooperative production of Word Radio and

Sweet Selah Ministries.

Nicole:

Welcome to Sweet Selah Moments. We’re celebrating 10 seasons of sharing God’s word with you. And

this season is our Selah season. This is episode 145, Trying to be Good. This is an intriguing title.

Sometimes forcing oneself to be good seems to take a tremendous amount of effort. We’re going to learn

from David in Psalm 39 today, how to be good without the stress, or at least with less stress. But first,

because this is our Selah season, we’re gonna talk about our Selah word for the day, the tip we have to

help us all practice pausing and simply being with the God who loves us. So far, we’ve talked about

Silence, going Slow, Solitude, and Selah Days. Sharon, what’s next?

Sharon:

Today’s word is Sleep. I love sleep. And sleep is essential to good health and life itself. If someone is

deprived of sleep too long, they literally lose their mind and hallucinate. Our bodies have to sleep in order

to function and repair themselves. Good sleep is so critical to mental wellbeing. So, I had a season in my

life when I couldn’t sleep, and I can underline all of this so much. When I was in my early forties, I had a

period of insomnia that really took me under. It was awful. I was doing a lot, but that’s typical of me. I

always do a lot. And I never had insomnia before. But it was like I had a little chihuahua in my brain

going, yip, yip yip, yip, all the time. And I’d lay down to sleep, literally exhausted, it wouldn’t let me rest.

I would lay wide awake. I would try all these different things. Nothing seemed to work. I was lucky to get

two to three hours of sleep a night.

Nicole:

Oh, that’s awful.

Sharon:

And then I’d get up and I’d have my busy day again and do it again. Well, it, it got to the point where I

had to go to the emergency room.

Nicole:

Mm-hmm. Oh yeah.

Sharon:

This is where I’m a witness to. Mentally I was losing it because I had so many nights in a row without

good sleep. And so, ironically, I get to the emergency room and I fall asleep.

Nicole:

Oh. They’re like, wait what’s the problem?

Sharon:

Like in two seconds being there. So anyways, they sent me home for that little bit, but then I went to see

my doctor and Ray and my doctor both made me take pills for two weeks of Ambien that made me go to

sleep.Nicole:

Oh, yeah.

Sharon:

Yeah. Yeah. So for two weeks, I, you know, took my little pill in bed because they worked really well for

me. I was asleep right away and slept all night, but only for two weeks. The doctor said, you don’t want

this as a habit. But you have to reset your time cycle. I mean, my sleep cycle was so out of whack. It was

awful. So after that, I learned some techniques that helped me. I learned that I couldn’t work right up till

bedtime. I couldn’t have screen time till bedtime. Right. I needed to tell my body it was time to sleep. And

that is why wherever Sharon goes in the world, she needs milk.

Nicole:

And I’ve seen it.

Sharon:

You’ve seen it.

Nicole:

When I travel with you, your little milk is supplied and it’s just so cute.

Sharon:

I have to have it. So people recommended to me wine or warm milk, and there was no way I was going to

have wine before bed every night. And so I chose warmed milk. And so I have warm milk and a cookie

every night.

Nicole:

So, nice.

Sharon:

I read a physical book, turning pages, for 45 minutes before bed. And now, I mean, this happened in my

forties. I’m in my sixties so we’re talking decades later. It’s a signal and my body knows it. Just like a little

baby with a full tummy. I am out and I sleep all night and I have so much more energy.

Nicole:

Oh, that’s so nice.

Sharon:

So anyways, sleep is essential.

Nicole:

It’s so important.

Sharon:

It’s absolutely essential. And for those of you that could tolerate warm milk,

Nicole:Give it a go.

Sharon:

I highly recommend it. But, you know, chamomile tea would do the same thing. If you were more of a

chamomile type. (Yes) Right. So how about you? I mean, you’re a mama. (Yeah) You have babies. More

recently than I’ve had babies. Talk to me about sleep.

Nicole:

like drunk driving.

Yeah. I remember reading an article saying that sleep deprivation is almost as, or is as bad as being drunk,

Sharon:

See?

Nicole:

So I remember it kind of scaring me as I was thinking. I slept two hours last night after nursing a baby

and being up with a kiddo with an ear infection. And all my kiddos are a little bit older now, so my

youngest is 10, so they’re all sleeping through the night. Thank you. Jesus. Hallelujah. So all you young

mamas out there, I promise it won’t last forever. Nap when you can mamas. But where I’m at, the season

now where my children are sleeping more, I didn’t realize that, especially my teenagers, their brains kind

of reset in, I think around sixth grade, which is around eleven and twelve. And they actually need more

sleep than they were getting.

Sharon:

No kidding?

Nicole:

Yeah. It’s almost like they’ve reverted back to like that toddler stage because they’re growing so much. All

those new hormones and their brains are changing. (Sharon: Yes) So they do in fact need more sleep.

(Uh-huh) So I know for my children, I’ve tried to make sure they’re still going, my older one is, oh, I can

stay up later now. I’m like, actually, you still need to go to bed at the same time as your ten year old sister

because you need sleep.

Sharon:

You need that sleep. Yeah.

Nicole:

That sleep. And they’re so grumpy when they don’t get sleep. Now talking about me. I’m also very

grumpy without sleep. So Yes. As a mama, leading by example, we’ve also tried to start going to bed

earlier, my husband and I. So we don’t watch TV at night anymore. We’ll go up to our rooms around like

eight o’clock. Josh will shower if that helps him get ready for bed. I will read a physical book. My phone

turns off automatically now. I do chamomile and mint tea before bed.

Sharon:

A wonderful choice.

Nicole:But we’ve just noticed now that it’s so important to get sleep in.

Sharon:

It is.

Nicole:

We need it. Or we get a little crazy.

Sharon:

us.

We do. Yeah. Yeah. God might’ve created sleep because he knew that’s what our bodies needed. And

when we push that too long and too hard, we’re actually rebelling against the way he made us and wired

Nicole:

Well, and we don’t work well. Like if I’m up with puppies when they’re first born, again, it can’t be

helped. I am a mess the next day. And my life is a mess. Everything feels like it’s a mess because I’m

tired.

Sharon:

Yep. Exactly.

Nicole:

My perspective is off.

Sharon:

Yeah. So there, there’s our Selah word and it doesn’t sound super spiritual but it is because God made us

Nicole:

Yes, and he cares about our bodies.

Sharon:

And God made us to sleep. Right. Exactly. Alright. Okay. So now we’re going to turn to puzzling out a

psalm that employs our word Selah. David has written it and David in the psalm is not doing well.

Nicole:

Oh. Poor guy.

Sharon:

He’s actually having a hard time being good. So Nicole, there are some days when I also do not want to be

good. I wanna be selfish. I want to demand my own way. It’s very tempting. Yet, if I give into the

temptation and say a harsh word or refuse to do something that I ought to do it, it never ends well. How

about you?

Nicole:I do not know of what you speak. No. Sadly. Yes. I know all too well how that feels. It’s funny. You

would think you’d kind of grow out of it. I’m thinking with four kids, it would work that selfishness out of

me. But alas, here I am still very selfish some days.

Sharon:

Yes. Yes.

Nicole:

And when I give in, it just doesn’t work. (Sharon: No) It never feels good. I always feel miserable. (Yes)

God’s ways are much better.

Sharon:

They are so much better. Words spoken in anger are just never helpful.

Nicole:

Never. If I lose my temper and holler at the kids to get something done, they still don’t do it any better.

And then everyone’s just grumpy.

Sharon:

No. They might do it worse. Yes.

Nicole:

And then a dish gets broken ’cause everyone’s grumpy. It doesn’t work.

Sharon:

It does not. So, all right, well here we go. Our psalm with the word Selah in it is another one written by

David. I already said that. Let’s look at David’s dilemma in a packet stopping at each Selah. So Nicole,

you’re gonna read first again today, and then ponder the Selah.

Nicole:

Sounds good. Psalm 39 for Jeduthun,, the Choir Director, a Psalm of David, “I said to myself, I will watch

what I do and not sin in what I say. I will hold my tongue when the ungodly are around me. But as I stood

there in silence, not even speaking of good things, the turmoil within me grew worse. The more I thought

about it, the hotter I got, igniting a fire of words. Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be.

Remind me that my days are numbered. How fleeting my life is. You have made my life no longer than

the width of my hands. My entire lifetime is just a moment to you. At best each of us is but a breath.

Selah.”

Sharon:

Hmm. Wow.

Nicole:

It’s an interesting one. I know at the beginning of this, of standing in silence and letting turmoil grow in

you, and the words building up, it just reminds me of my sweet little Clara. My little ten year old has so

many words, and if we ask her to wait her turn to tell her story, you just see her just like filling up with

words and angst ready to explode, like in a little overfilled balloon. So.Sharon:

That’s so cute.

Nicole:

So I feel this, but all this is so interesting. This also reminds me of me when I’m angry. And those words

kind of fester and build up, don’t they?

Sharon:

Oh my. Yeah, they do. They do.

Nicole:

Just unsaid words. Like we try not to say, as David did in the psalm, we try not to say the things we don’t

wanna say around the ungodly, but we can’t, we’re unable to hold in the bad on our own. (Sharon: Right)

We just can’t.

Sharon:

Right, right. Yeah.

Nicole:

And I love this like, what a mind set shift halfway through. It’s like, he’s kind of asking like, is it worth it?

You know, as he’s talking about, Lord, remind me of how brief our time on earth will be. Remind me that

my days are numbered. All of this striving to be good and trying so hard to do what I think is best. Like,

wait a minute, is this, is this worth it? God, is this what you have for me? So it’s a good kind of, he kind of

stopped looking at himself.

Sharon:

Yes.

Nicole:

what should I do?

And trying to do things on his own, and then looked to God and said, oh yeah, my days are numbered. So

Sharon:

Show me how to live wisely.

Nicole:

Right.

Sharon:

Exactly. Exactly. And you know, the more he thinks, the hotter he gets the fire and words that spews out,

you know. Okay, is that what I want either though? Because then, I only have so many days with this

person and I don’t wanna fill them with anger. So, how do you be good? (Nicole: Yeah) And yet, not

spew forth angry words. (Right) So it’s an interesting dilemma and I (Yeah) like that we’re gonna consider

it. (Mm-hmm) All right. So David continues to consider, in my section, he says, “We are merely moving

shadows and all our busy rushing ends in nothing. We heap up wealth not knowing who will spend it.

And so, Lord, where do I put my hope? My only hope is in you. Rescue me from my rebellion. Do not letfools mock me. I am silent before you. I won’t say a word for my punishment is from you, but please stop

striking me. I’m exhausted by the blows from your hand. When you discipline us for our sins, you

consume like a moth what is precious to us. Each of us is but a breath. Selah.” All right. So there’s a ton in

this. It starts with, we’ve got to stop thinking we’re so important. {Yeah} You know, all our busyness

actually big, fat, hairy deal if you’re a little bit faster in the car or not. Right. (Right, right.) We heep up

wealth. We want all this money. Why? I mean, we could die tomorrow. (Right) You know, and who

knows who’s gonna spend it. So, when we stopped our podcast for six months the world didn’t stop

spinning. It was amazing.

Nicole:

Imagine that.

Sharon:

I know. It just kept going. So we have to go back to permanence, what is permanent. And David says that

in verse seven, “My only hope is in you”. It’s not in wealth. It’s not in proving how good I am by how

busy I am. (Nicole: Right) Right. Because we can do that. We can define ourselves by productivity. (Yes)

And then when you get sick, like we both have been sick times in our lives, you feel useless. (Yeah)

Because you’ve defined yourself by what I do. (Right. Instead of I’m his, and I’m just as loved laying on

my back, unable to do anything. (Right) Now, self-importance is wrong. We are important ’cause God

loves us. Not because we’re busy and we’re doing stuff. (Right) So then there’s that. So David has a lot of

troubles coming in at the end and he says, you stop striking me. And I think that’s interesting, but I think

we often think that if God is able to stop trouble and he doesn’t (Mm-hmm) well then he must be causing

it. Right? (Right) And there’s so many ways to look at this, but trouble happens to people that love God

and trouble happens to people that don’t. People have their houses destroyed in fire that know God and

don’t Right. People are shot randomly in churches and in bars. (Right. Right.) So, trouble’s gonna come

and yes, God allowed it. So in that sense, he’s letting something strike us. (Right) And David’s at the point

where he’s like, stop, this is too much. (Yeah) Don’t, I’m trying to behave myself here and I’m still getting

hit. And then he wants us to stop and think about that for a bit. So there’s our Selah. I’m glad this isn’t the

end of the psalm.

Nicole:

I know.

Sharon:

You get to finish it out.

Nicole:

I do. I get the little bit happier part. So he continues, “Hear my prayer, Oh Lord, listen to my cries for

help. Don’t ignore my tears for I am your guest, a traveler passing through as my ancestors were before

me. Leave me alone so I can smile again before I’m gone and exist no more.” So I feel by the end of the

psalm, he’s very humble and he’s very broken. (Sharon: Yeah) By all that’s going on. (Yeah. Yeah.) So

then he acknowledges the Lord in his sovereignty. He asks for help and he kind of puts himself at God’s

mercy, for I’m your guest, a traveler passing through as my ancestors were. Because I think when in the

ancient times, the Israelites, if they had people coming through, if you’re traveling, you don’t have as

many inns or hotels or whatever. (Right. Right.) You can’t carry a lot. You don’t have a car. (Yeah.) So

they would be reliant upon the hospitality of people (Yes) that they met along the way. (Uh-huh) So if

you had a traveler come in, you’d take ’em into your home, you’d feed ’em, you take care of ’em, send

them on their way. (Uh-huh) But you’re kind of in a very vulnerable position as a traveler. You have to

trust that that person’s a good person and is going to provide for your needs. (Mm-hmm) And I think he’skind of comparing that, that he’s in that place of, I really can’t provide for myself God. Like I’m at your

mercy like my ancestors were. Like, please help me.

Sharon:

Yes. Yeah.

Nicole:

That’s a good place to be when we acknowledge we’re not all that and a bag of chips.

Sharon:

I love it.

Nicole:

And we need God’s help.

Sharon:

Yes. We do. So desperately. Yes, we do. So, yeah. So he’s in a, he’s in a time of trouble that won’t let up.

Nicole:

Yes.

Sharon:

And that happens sometimes, you get hit and you’re like, all right, well, I’ve survived that. And then you

get hit again and you’re like, right. Digging deep. I’ll survive that.

Nicole:

Some more to be refined. And then the other, the next wave comes, you’re like, seriously?

Sharon:

Yeah. And then you’re kind of done. Yeah.

Nicole:

Yes. I feel that.

Sharon:

So, but what I like about the psalm is that every bit of it comes to God. And I think this is what is so

valuable about reading the Psalms. David is a little bit upset with God at this point. Right. (Nicole: Yeah)

Would you leave me alone? Because he’s seeing the troubles as directly from God. I kind of see them a a

little differently. I kind of see them as God’s allowed it. (Right) So in that sense, it’s direct. Right. He

could have stopped him. (Yeah) And he didn’t. So he’s a little ticked off. And yet, you’re right. He’s

humbled by the end. I’m just me. Help me. (Right) And I think instead of trying to muscle through it at,

you know, the beginning, you know, I’m stuffing down my words. (Yes) Right. He’s letting out the words.

He’s saying, I don’t get this. I am at the end of myself. If you send one more trouble my way, I can’t. I just

can’t. Right. I think that’s being good. You know, when we’re struggling to put on a veneer (Mm-hmm)

that’s not being good. (Right) It’s when you say, all right, you know what, I can’t do anything right now. I

can’t feel productive about life. I can’t feel like I know what the future’s gonna hold. I’m just this mess.But I’m your mess. (Yeah) And I’m gonna tell you how I feel about it, and I know that you’ll comfort me,

and I know that you have some purpose in this, even if I have no clue what it is at the moment. And we

just have to receive it from his hand. (Yeah) Yeah.

Nicole:

And he’s, well, he’s very honest through all of this. I mean, even that last verse, leave me alone so I can

smile again before I’m gone and exist no more. He’s at the lowest of the low points. (Sharon: Yes. He is.) I

said, it’s kind of a funny thing to ask God, like, leave me alone so I can smile again. (Yeah) I don’t think

I’ve ever come to that point. But if, like you said, he’s being honest with God and at this point he’s

viewing it as coming from God. So he’s being incredibly honest here. Even at the point of asking God to

leave him alone.

Sharon:

Yeah. Yeah.

Nicole:

So I appreciate that honesty that he shows. He isn’t putting on a veneer. Even if he’s wrong and kind of

directing that toward God, he’s still telling him, because God knows his heart. He knows our hearts.

Sharon:

He does. He does.

Nicole:

So for us to pretend like, well, I’m not really mad at God, but you know, if this, you know, if you could

take this away, that’d be great. He’s flat out telling him, leave me alone. I wanna smile. I’m dying. I can’t

take it anymore. (Sharon: Exactly) And that’s so beautiful. (Yes) ‘Cause in that, you see, he still

acknowledges that the Lord is his hope. (Yes) He’s still talking to God. (Yes) He’s still coming to him.

(Yes) And feel safe enough to pour out all the messy, broken pieces of himself before God.

Sharon:

Exactly. So, and that is goodness. Being real. It really is. I was talking to a dear friend on the phone the

other day, and she had just lost her husband of 45 years. (Oh) She’s miserable. (Oh, yeah.) And she didn’t

need to be cheered up. (Oh, yeah.) And I said, just keep crying, I’ll talk. And when you can stumble out a

few words, go ahead. (Yeah.) Don’t stop crying. (Yeah.) Please don’t stop crying. You need to get those

tears out. You need to say, I’m sorry, but 45 years wasn’t long enough. (Right.) Which is what she told

me. She said, no offense, but that was not enough. (Hmmm) You know, and of course there wasn’t

enough. (Right.) I mean, my parents are still living. They’re 90 and 91, and when one of them dies, the

other one’s gonna say it wasn’t long enough. (Yeah) It never is. (Yeah) Right. So, I think sometimes, we

are made to feel uncomfortable by our grief, by other people. (Mm-hmm, right.) I know my sister, when

she lost her husband, shared that she spent an awful lot of time trying to make other people feel better so

that they didn’t feel bad about her feeling bad. (Yeah) Do you know what I mean? (Oh, yeah.) Isn’t that

weird? Yeah. You know, when you’re in the hospital, that can happen. People come and you like, try to

cheer them up even though they’re, there to see you and you’re like, what am I doing? I’m the sick one

here. Right? (Yeah. Yeah.) And I think we need to make more room to sit with people in grief and not

make them feel like you’re making them feel uncomfortable. Does that make sense?

Nicole:Well, it leaves again, it’s that room for honesty. And I think the goodness comes from honesty, ’cause the

opposite of honesty is lying. (Sharon: Yes) And if we’re honest, like if we’re Oh, no, it’s fine. Or we put

on a front, or if David was like, well, Lord, this isn’t my favorite, but I’ll do it, he would be lying. (Right)

And we shouldn’t lie. (No) So, giving space to our loved ones, to be honest, and then not make them feel

uncomfortable for that. (Right) But just sit in like, I know this is awful. Like, I’m so sorry. (Yes) This is

so awful. I’m just gonna sit here with you.

Sharon:

Exactly.

Nicole:

That’s a gift.

Sharon:

Right. Eventually you’ll see the purpose. We’re not gonna talk about that yet. Can we just sit in the blagh

for a bit?

Nicole:

Right, right.

Sharon:

You know?

Nicole:

Just stay there for a while.

Sharon:

We’re to weep with those who weep. (Nicole: Yeah) And sometimes we would like them to hurry up

because it does make us feel uncomfortable. (Yeah) And get to the happy part. (Mm mm) But I think that

the psalms teach us that we have to get out the real feelings first. (Yeah) And when we do, and I found

this to be so true, when I get out my real feelings with God that’s when the peace does come. (Yeah)

That’s actually when I can sound like this wonder Christian with platitudes. You know, because I’ve first

gone to the stuffing part of words and unstuffed them. (Right) And said them. (Yeah) And they needed to

be said.

Nicole:

stay in the yuck.

You had mentioned your word of the year earlier, and mine for the year is ‘stay’, God is teaching me to

Sharon:

Whoa.

Nicole:

Because I’m not a person to stay in the yuck. I want to get to the hope and the good. But when I do that I

shortchange the process, that God is working out with me because there is refinement in sorrow and in

pain.Sharon:

Yes.

Nicole:

There’s something to be learned in that. And sitting before God and saying, this is the worst. I have

nothing, there’s nothing left of me. I cannot fake this God. Like what are you doing inside of me?

(Sharon: Yeah. Yeah.) And there’s something so beautiful, I think as he digs out the sin and the yucky

parts of us. (Mm-hmm) That the well is deeper for joy.

Sharon:

It is. Yes.

Nicole:

There’s more space for it now. Because like I said, you can’t enjoy the sun until you’ve sat in like the

dreary cold rain for a long time.

Sharon:

That’s a good point. Yes. Yes. And you certainly can’t sit with another in pain (Nicole: Yeah.) unless you

felt that pain. (Right) Maybe not the exact same kind of pain, but felt the pain. (The pain. Yeah.) Yeah. So

yeah, I think there’s a lot to be learned here. David was called a man after God’s own heart. Why? Not

because he was any great shakes.

Nicole:

Right.

Sharon:

I mean, we know all his sins.

Nicole:

We’ve studied him.

Sharon:

Good gravy this guy.

Nicole:

Not of his own merit can you say he was a good guy?

Sharon:

Yeah. Yeah. So if you wanted a pillar of virtue?

Nicole:

Yeah.

Sharon:You would not look to the guy that had way too many wives, ignored his kids, you know, we could go on

and on. Why was he a man after God’s own heart with this messed upness? Well, because he

acknowledged it and because he still kept coming back to God. (Nicole: Yeah). And he still kept getting

cleansed and forgiven. (Mm-hmm) And he still kept loving and praising. And it’s so beautiful, Nicole,

because it says, God saying to me, I’m not looking for perfection. You’ll never do that on your own.

(Yeah) The trying to be good is going to result in failure every time. You were born with sin. (Mm-hmm)

And all have sinned. What is gonna bring me joy is living transparently.

Nicole:

Yeah, absolutely.

Sharon:

Right. So anyways, that’s that. Okay. Time for questions.

Nicole:

All right.

Sharon:

All right. So I’ll start with the first one for me, and then you can go, then it can be you. What did we learn

about trying to be good for this passage, and how can we apply it? Well, we kind of already talked about

that, but I wrote David tried to tough it out and be quiet, but it was actually better for him to express it.

(Nicole: Yes) And I need to remember that, that I don’t need to tough it out. I can say, quite frankly, this

stinks. (Yeah) And I’m really unhappy about it. I know God is there and I know he is good, but at the

moment I have no smile. And you know, and that is okay to say.

Nicole:

Just be honest. Yep. Absolutely. Kind of the same thing. We can’t do it on our own strength, you know,

back to verses two and three again, he tried to not speak the things and they just built up inside of him.

And it doesn’t work. We can’t just on our own fake it till we make it.

Sharon:

No, no.

Nicole:

Not all the time.

Sharon:

No. And the freedom and the lack of stress comes when we acknowledge that there are gonna be days

when the smile is hard to find.

Nicole:

Absolutely. And then I put to remember how short our lives are, you know, remember God is big. He sees

this, you know, he sees the the never ending, the big picture and how we should live. So, you know, we

shouldn’t have hope in our own efforts that it’s in Christ alone, that we can get through all of this.

Sharon:That true.

Nicole:

And we can trust him in that and how to be good.

Sharon:

Yeah. That’s right. David zoomed out, didn’t he? And said, wait a second. All this stuff I’m going through,

life is brief.

Nicole:

that.

Yeah. The breadth of my hand. (Sharon: Yeah, yeah.) I have a little hand, so that’s a short life. So God is,

his life is so much bigger than ours, so he’s gonna understand the bigger picture. (Right) So we can trust

Sharon:

Right. I like that. That’s why that part was in the psalm. Thank you.

Nicole:

Yeah.

Sharon:

Okay. So you go first this time. What was your favorite verse and why?

Nicole:

I liked verse 12. Here we go, “Hear my prayer, Oh, Lord, listen to my cries for help. Do not ignore my

tears. For I’m a guest, a traveler passing through as my ancestors were before me.” So I just love that he

looks to God in all of his honesty and all of this despair. He still turns his eyes toward God. He doesn’t

turn his back on him. He tells him all the things, and he is very honest. And then again, I talked about the,

you know, people traveling. I thought that was really interesting. (Sharon: Yeah) And it’s just beautiful.

It’s a beautiful attitude to have with God, this humble, I have nothing, I’m relying upon you for these

things. So here I am as I am. I just really like that.

Sharon:

Yep. Yeah. It’s beautiful. Yeah. And I chose verse four, so back when I wrote this, I had remembered that

life was brief because look, this is the one I chose. Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be.

Remind me that my days are numbered, how fleeting my life is. I think that in the light of eternity, pain

lessens when you realize that we live for such a short time here and we live forever, somewhere where

there won’t be pain. So, yeah.

Nicole:

Yeah. That does help with it for sure.

Sharon:

Right. Okay. Last question, Nicole. What did you learn about God from this passage?

Nicole:Hmm. We can be honest with him. He didn’t, he didn’t crispy up and zap David with lightning. We can

hope in him. And that he rescues us from our rebellion, even if we’re having a little pity party and being

grumpy. But he rescues us from all of that.

Sharon:

He does.

Nicole:

I appreciate how gentle he is with us to listen to our not so nice words. (Sharon: Our rantings.) Yep.

Sharon:

I wrote, I learned that God allows hard things to happen. Sometimes way too many in a row.

Nicole:

Yes.

Sharon:

In our human opinion.

Nicole:

Yes, in our very humble opinion.

Sharon:

And it makes me refer back to, in my mind, to where Jesus tells his disciples right before the cross, “In

this world, you will have trouble. (Nicole: Yeah) But take heart. I’ve overcome the world.” And it doesn’t

say you might have trouble in this world. It doesn’t say hope you don’t, it says, Nope, you will.

Nicole:

Or if you do it wrong, you’ll have trouble.

Sharon:

Yeah. None of that.

Nicole:

You will have trouble, period.

Sharon:

In this world, you’ll have trouble. Yep, yep. And the only choice we have is do we wanna do it with him

or without him? (Nicole: Yes) But there will be trouble. (Yep) So, yeah. So, and then basically our only

hope is him.

Nicole:

That’s true.

Sharon:So to try to do it without him is just a recipe for absolute disaster. It really is.

Nicole:

Very bleak. Absolutely.

Sharon:

Yeah. So if you, listener, have been hit and hit and hit again and would like to be left alone, so you could

smile again, read this psalm a few times and be comforted that God let that in the Bible because he knows

sometimes you’re gonna feel that way. So let’s pray. Lord, I thank you so much for the Psalms that show

us the depth and breadth of emotion that you allow us to feel and express to you. Thank you, Lord, that

being good isn’t looking good. It’s being real. Father, help us when we’re sitting with someone who’s

suffering, not to rush them through to the other side, but to let them say the things and then discover that

you’re there in the midst of it. Lord, thank you that this is a short part of our existence and that we have

eternity to look at a world that’s not fallen, where the accuser’s not whispering in our ears. I can’t imagine.

But thank you, Father, for the eternity that awaits us where this world of trouble will not be part of it. In

Jesus’ name. Amen.

Nicole:

Thanks for listening in today. How about you? Do you struggle with being good? Was today’s episode

helpful in any way? We’d love to know? You can find us @sweetselah.org/podcast, or you can email us

@sharonatsweets.org. Join our podcast family by donating and becoming a podcast partner by going to

SweetSelah.org/donations. In any case, we hope you’ll be back next time for episode 146, Riches, Don’t

Trust Them. Thanks so much for listening and have a great day.

Speaker 1:

We are so glad you stopped for a while with us. The Sweet Selah Moments Podcast is a cooperative

production of Word Radio and Sweet Selah Ministries. More information about this podcast can be found

@sweetselah.org. Thank you for joining us.