Renewed youth: Psalm 103 (Memory Monday)

Are you memorizing scripture this week? Join us at Joanne’s for Memory Monday.

Learned last week:
    who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. 
     The LORD works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. 
     He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel.
Psalm 103:5-7

I looked at the picture on my dad’s bedroom wall yesterday.
And I laughed out loud. It was the late 1970’s. My brother Lane was home on leave from the Air Force. He brought home a brilliant, but foreign, idea—let’s have a professional picture made of us four siblings to surprise Mama and Daddy.

So we four kids, who had never done this kind of crazy thing before, booked with Mr. Vaughn. A very well-known and competent photographer. But a bad one with names.

After a few unheeded reminders to Mr. Vaughn that it was Lane, not Lance, we gave into his faulty nomenclature. But every time Lance was asked to put his hand on Sandy’s shoulder, or Lance was told to stand between his three sisters, we were bubbling inside with stifled laughter.

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But it made a lasting memory from my youth. A fun one. And when I look at the photograph 30 years later, I giggle about Lance and our wings’ haircuts and the green pantsuit that we let Elisabeth wear because we didn’t know any better.

The youthful moment was a place of love, where God lived.

Psalm 103 promises that. God so satisfies us with good things that we’re renewed as youth. It’s part of our benefits’ package (Psalm 103:2).

He will make himself known. His acts. His ways. Remember what he did for Moses. For Israel.

For me. For you. By name, the right one.

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Learning this week: 
    The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. 
    He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. 
    He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.
Psalm 103:8-10