Psalms 40: Here we see David in the state we’ve become used to seeing him in: scared, tired, mistreated. He comes to God with great faith and asks for deliverance, and he remembers he is speaking to the God Who answers prayers: “I waited patiently for the Lord; / And He inclined to me, / And heard my cry. / He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, / Out of the miry clay, / And set my feet upon a rock, / And established my steps. / He has put a new song in my mouth” (vv. 1-3a, NKJV).
Psalms 41: I notice here, as I have noticed in other psalms, that as David cries out for mercy and deliverance from his enemies, he also acknowledges his own sins and he gives his praise to God. What a powerful reminder! A friend of mine said to me recently, “Don’t you get sick of this mentality of ‘take, take, take’ and they never give?” It’s a similar mentality when it comes to prayer. “God, I need [insert need]” over and over again. But are we offering Him our praise? Are we confessing our sins? There’s so much to learn about prayer from the Psalms and it would take many pages to discuss all of it. But one thing we see is that as David asks, he also gives.
Now we begin the book of Micah, a book that isn’t quite as well-known as Psalms, but a beautiful book of social justice and Messianic prophecy. I believe that much of this book takes place at the same time as the book of Isaiah, which is where we started our journey of reading the Bible together at SoGF. In Micah 1-4, we see the rich and powerful taking advantage of the poor and weak. I can’t imagine being a prophet and having to tell the rulers that they were evil and going to be punished, but Micah steps forward and does exactly that.
In Micah 1-2, he says that Samaria and Judah will be destroyed because of their corrupt leadership and their idolatry. In Micah 3, he condemns those who are taking advantage of people in the name of God—false prophets, priests, etc. It makes me think of psychics and mediums who prey on people’s grief and take their money in exchange for “communication” from a deceased loved one and a sense of peace. When people are desperate, they look for hope anywhere. This made me think about how important it is to offer the only real hope, which doesn’t cost anything—the hope of an eternity in heaven. Sometimes that hope starts with a kindness of giving to the poor, being a listening ear, etc., and hopefully our love will open the door to a meaningful conversation about Jesus. Micah 4 begins to talk about the restoration and justice that will come eventually to those who have been oppressed. We have that same hope—we may live in moments of doom and gloom, but it won’t be that way forever. As my friend and pastor Brad Vaught has said a few times, “I may drive down the road of discouragement, but I don’t park my car there.” We have no reason to stay in a sea of sadness and despair, because all of our suffering is momentary. I am so thankful to serve a just God who will deliver us from any pain.
We’re about to embark on a new year, a fresh start. Let’s embrace it and know that God’s plans are bigger and better than ours, and he will bless us abundantly, as He has promised.
Blessings to you in 2026,
Alexandra Shloss
