Refreshed - Psalm 105

A good night's sleep and a good morning read of Psalm 105 has me refreshed.

Apparently it takes me at least two days to recover from exhaustion.

What I like about Psalm 105 is that it says that there is reason to celebrate, there is cause for joy. It is an account of what God did for the wandering Isreallites. When God lead Isreal out of slavery from Egypt and through the desert, He gave them an extended experience which effectively changed their identity from slave to free. Such an identity change is not easy and does just show up when freedom shows up.

People in slavery have such a controlled and oppressed life that thinking free is a challenge. Thinking often moves to survival from the oppressor, from despair, from meaninglessness. There is little room for a free identity for the slave. Just thinking about freedom is a courageous act of defiance. And with little encouragement from anyone or evidence that such thinking could ever become reality, the longer one is in slavery, the more courageous the thoughts of freedom become.

Instant freedom, like the kind Israel experienced, required a sort of freedom training. It also required protection. A people who have only known slavery and a people without much power and a people who have no place of their own are vulnerable to being oppressed again. Psalm 105 speaks of how God protected Israel when she was most vulnerable.

Gettting a reminder of God's love and protection and vision for a better future has given me some peace this morning.