Weekly Word with Pastor Mark for July 09, 2025
Welcome to Summer of Psalms!
We pray your summer is off to a wonderful start, whether you’re enjoying travels or finding peace right where you are. No matter our current circumstances, the Psalms continually draw our focus back to God Most-High – our eternal Father who always invites us to live under the shelter of His wing!
This week, Dr. Duane Miller will lead us in understanding Psalm 73. This is a beautiful psalm, striking in its raw honesty and relatable realness. I believe this is precisely why we love the Psalms so much. We live in a world where harsh realities unfold daily – another tragic news story, hundreds of lives lost to disaster, war, hatred, lies, and greed. Yet, as we learned last week, we are consistently invited to live under the shelter of the Most-High God and find profound blessing.
Last week, we also touched on the very real and human emotion of envy. We all struggle at times, seeing or experiencing something someone else possesses—be it physical, emotional, or mental—and wishing we had it too. Psalm 73, verse 7 (NLT), states it quite bluntly: “These fat cats have everything their hearts could ever wish for!” Have you ever felt this way? I certainly have.
Just yesterday, I was watching tennis, and the cameras showed a retired star sitting in the Royal Box at Wimbledon. Attending Wimbledon has been a lifelong dream of mine. I honestly sat there and thought, “Wow, how incredible it would be to fly by private jet into London, be chauffeured to Wimbledon, and escorted into royal seating!” If I’m honest, a little envy was definitely working within me. So, I repented, trusting that eventually, Lord willing, through careful saving and planning, my wife and I will get to experience “strawberries and cream” at Wimbledon.
I think the profound reason we resonate with the Psalms is their consistent balance: the harsh reality of living in a broken world is always met with a powerful call to return to God. In Psalm 73, the author recognizes his own bitterness. Yet, in repentance, he returns to the Lord and makes two beautiful statements of faith and belonging: “I still belong to you,” and “you hold me in your right hand.”
When we feel the pressure or pain of life, like the psalmist, we are called not to run and hide, but to courageously address the reality of our situation. Then, just like the psalmist, we need to turn our focus back to our Loving Father, seek His face, and return to His covering. In doing so, we discover that no matter our circumstances, we are safe in Him!
Discussion questions:
- The final sentence encourages us to “not run and hide, but address the reality of our situation,” and then “turn our focus back to our Loving Father, seek His Face, return to His covering.” Beyond identifying the problem, what does it practically look like for you to “seek His Face” and “return to His covering” when facing life’s pressures or pains? What specific spiritual disciplines or mindset shifts might help you do this consistently?
2. Thinking about my personal moment of envy while watching Wimbledon, highlighting the raw and real nature of human emotions that the Psalms address. Reflect on a recent time when you experienced a surge of envy or discontent over someone else’s circumstances or possessions. How did you respond in that moment, and how might actively turning your focus “back to our Loving Father” (as the author suggests) change your initial reaction next time?
3. In Psalm 73, the psalmist’s journey leads from bitterness to declarations like “I still belong to you” and “you hold me in your right hand.” What is a “raw and real” struggle or disillusionment you’ve recently faced? How did (or how can) the truth of your belonging to God and His unwavering grasp on you bring balance and hope to that experience?