Lenten Devotional...March 22

"My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever...as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds."

(Psalm 73:26, 28)

The Psalmist knows full well his limitations. Though his early words in this seventy-third Psalm speak to the sinful ways of the arrogant and wicked, he later comes around to his own failures, identifying himself as embittered, senseless, ignorant, and a brute beast before God. It is at times much more satisfying to point out the failures of others than to confront our own. Such finger-pointing allows us to deflect our attention, and perhaps the attention of others away from our own actions, at least for a moment. Strength, he concludes, comes not from himself, but from God. His heart, his courage may fail, but God's will not. "As for me," he says, "it is good to be near God."

Pondering those words, I remembered the great hymn, "Near the Cross," by Fanny Crosby. The second verse and chorus are as follows:

Near the cross, a trembling soul,
Love and Mercy found me;
There the bright and morning star
Sheds its beams around me.

In the cross, in the cross,

Be my glory ever;

Till my ransomed soul shall find

rest beyond the river.

It is good to be near God...to be near the cross.

Prayer: As we draw near to the cross in this Lenten season, may we affirm with the Psalmist of old, dear God, that as for us, it is good to be near God."

Jim Abernathy