Journaling — Psalm 144
In today’s devotional, we focus on Psalm 144. I share from my personal journal my responses to specific phrases and my prayers to reflect the personal reach of God’s Word.
A psalm of praise and dependence, Psalm 144:
Fill me, O Lord, with Your grace, not cheap, blind-eyed, tolerance grace, but hesed, unconditional-love grace that Paul in Romans 7 wrestles to understand but shows to the Corinthians and asks of Philemon. I have not lived consistently in that grace since I came to You at summer camp years ago. I could not have understood it at fourteen, but have had to live through it, visit it, experience it, taste it, and still have not known it so fully as to easily share it, to breathe it, to not just be covered but soaked and marinated in it.
Easily, I have fallen into moralistic, therapeutic deism and tried to live and make others live the “right way.” You let me fail miserably time after time until I could fully understand the death penalty I was under, that You bore. Oh, Jesus, how I grieve not having understood and shared. How will You let me share this now?
Please, Lord, I ask for community with other recovering Pharisees to avoid judgmental moralism and frozen closeness together and to fight it within ourselves and with each other so that we may claim with David in Psalm 144:
Blessed be the LORD, my Rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle…The psalmist wrote not only of enemies without but those within, both agents of Your great enemy with whom we, Your people, are in the battle. You, O LORD, are my…
Steadfast Love and my Fortress, my Stronghold and my Deliverer, my Shield and He in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples(my thoughts, my desires, my actions, my words)
Under me,not me, but under You, Holy Spirit.
O LORD, what is man that You regard him, or the son of man that You think of him? … that Youtake on his flesh and call Yourself Son of Man?!
Man is like a breath, his days (certainly)
Are like a passing shadow. (But “the shadow proves the sunshine!”2)
Bow Your heavens, O LORD, and come down! Though we expected You to…
Touch the mountains so that they smoke! Flash forth the lightning and scatter them; send out Your arrows and rout them! Instead, You…
Stretch out Your hand from on high; on the cross to…
Rescue me and deliver me from the many waters,as You reached down for Peter when he faltered and failed.
From the hand of foreigners, the battles against the enemies within, the lies and fears I have believed and trusted instead of You—
Whose mouths speak lies, and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood. (See Romans 7:18-20.)
I will sing a new song (“Repentance is completed in joy”3)
to You, O God… Blessed are the people whose God is the LORD!
LIFE-GIVING ENCOURAGEMENT
Oh, Lord, may Your people awake and unite in the bond of love You have given us, singing songs of praise and thanksgiving to turn back our enemies who are not “flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12).
PRAYER
I will sing a new song of thanksgiving and teach it to others that they may sing, too; and that together our voices may turn away the enemies and bring close the Day of Your return and the full restoration of Creation. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. Amen.
2Switchfoot, “The Shadow Proves the Sunshine,” 2005.
3Dr. Bryan Chapell, sermon at Perimeter Church, April 12, 2026.
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Sharon W. Betters is a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, pastor’s wife, and cofounder of MARKINC Ministries, where she is the Director of Resource Development. Sharon is the author of several books, including Treasures of Encouragement, Treasures in Darkness, and co-author with Susan Hunt of Aging with Grace. She is the co-host of the Help & Hope podcast and writes Daily Treasure, an online devotional.
Contact Sharon with comments or questions at dailytreasure@markinc.org.