Devotion for Today: 31 May 2007 Devotion for Today "Great Matters" Psalm 131

31 May 2007  Devotion for Today  "Great Matters"  Psalm 131

I read this week where a person said that "a person with six children

is better satisfied than a person with six million dollars.  The reason

for this is tha the man with six million dollars wants more!"  Funny!

This may not be true with everyone, however.  But I have observed that

simplicity in life and satisfaction in life go hand in hand.  The more

complex one's life is, the more difficult it is to cope and the less

happy they are.  There are people that I have known who

singlehandedly feel that they must take on a personal crusade against

every problem in the world that they do not feel is right.  I am not

saying we shouldn't be involved where change is needed, but very

often a person sees a very unhappy world and tries to fix it, when really

the problem would be much easier to deal with if they would just look

within themselves and fix what is wrong there first.  Psychologists

tell us that this is what they term as "projection."  To set up a

straw man and make him responsible for all the problems of the world

is the acting out of a heart that full of turmoil.  Some would call

them "trouble makers."  But this is a misnomer, because people do not

make trouble.  They already have it- they just want to make sure that

they share it and that no body is left out!

Does the world seem to be constantly in trouble around you.  Do you

feel the constant urge to fix it (even when it is not broken).  My

friends, this is a sign that there may be be a more direct and

intimate cause.  The Psalmist understood the secret to the satisfaction

he experienced when he said in Psalm 131: "Lord, my heart is not haughty,

nor my eyes lofty.  Neither do I concern myself with great matters,

nor with things too profound for me.  Surely I have calmed and quieted

my soul, like a weaned child with his mother; like a weaned child is

my soul within me.  O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth

and forever."

Are you troubled today?  May your soul be quieted within you, and may

you be as happy as the writer of this psalmist.  Have a blessed day!

Rev. Jeffery C. Russell
Salem Baptist Church
Elizabeth City, NC
jefferyrussell@embarqmail.com

jcrussell@liberty.edu

Devotion for Today