Ponder; Uncovering Richness

As defined by Merriam-Webster, ponder means to weigh in the mind, appraise, think about, reflect on. Ponder is also a synonym for meditate defined as: to focus one's thoughts on, reflect on or ponder over.

It feels like today's world does not meditate or ponder much. We're like butterflies flitting from one idea to another. It's hard for us to land on one thought and sip the sweetness from it. And, it's too noisy to hear anything with all the stimulation going on around us.

I've found silence to be so healing. I do admit that silence enables one to think; and some of us don't want to, but it really is good for us!

If you're a believer like me, pondering things as I'm traveling this journey helps bring scripture alive to me.

For example, this morning's scripture for my Daily Offering - otherwise known as Quiet Time - was this:

But as for me, I will sing about your power.    Each morning I will sing with joy about your unfailing love.For you have been my refuge,    a place of safety when I am in distress.O my Strength, to you I sing praises,    for you, O God, are my refuge,    the God who shows me unfailing love. Psalm 59:16-17

Here's what I found to ponder - three times it's mentioned about singing. Now in the old days, when I was just reading Scripture to mark off boxes for my daily reading; I would have skipped over that - or not even noticed it was said three times.

And to be honest, I've been on a hesed hunt for 108 days now - finding instances where the word in the original language, "hesed," most often translated, "unfailing love," was listed. This is the reason I was in Psalm 59 in the first place. Hesed was there three times; today, I found unfailing love in this passage twice.

But I got to thinking ... hmm.. singing three times in two verses. Perhaps God wants me to take notice of something. So I looked it up and found something worthy of note. The three times "sing" was mentioned was three different words.

(Word study is so interesting!)

“Three different words are used for this, which might be rendered ‘I will sing…I will shout (59:16); I will raise a psalm (59:17).” (Kidner)

I also notice each time was accompanied by the word, "will." In other words, when trouble comes, I make up my mind to sing, shout and praise.

Powerful!

I challenge you to join me on pondering God's Word. I'm only doing the smallest chunks of scripture at a time; but boy, what richness I'm uncovering!

This is post #11 of my "Walk the Walk Christian Living Series." You can go here to see the links of each post as they go live.

I'm linking this post to InstaEncouragements LinkUp and #TuneInThursday.