WHAT'S IN YOUR TENT?
Psalm 118:15 NKJV
15 The voice of rejoicing and salvation
Is in the tents of the righteous;
The right hand of the Lord does valiantly.
No, this is not a devotional about camping per se. But this is a key verse from one of my favorite psalms. Psalms 118 is in my top five favorites in the Book of Psalms. It is one of the psalms I go back to on a regular basis, and it speaks to my heart.
The verse for today was one that the Holy Spirit highlighted to me several years ago. And it continues to prompt me to action today. "The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous…" This verse made me stop and ask myself this question. If someone walked past my tent, what would they hear? Let me explain.
When Matt, my oldest, was about 9-10, we were part of a small Scout troop. One of our excursions was a camping trip out west of Houston. It had been quite a while since I had been camping in a tent. We were flooded out of our tent when I was a boy camping with my parents, and my dad never camped again. So Matt and I were in a tent, and I was reintroduced to a camping reality. You can hear everything that goes on in a tent. A couple of tents away from ours, a man was snoring so loud that I could not get to sleep. I was both amazed and annoyed at the volume. But with only a thin canvas wall separating us, there was very little to buffer the sound coming out of his tent.
What is the predominant voice coming out of our tent? Peter, in his second letter, spoke of putting off his tent. He was referring to his body as a tent, a temporary dwelling. So, what is coming out of us? Would it be rejoicing and salvation? Or something else? Joy in the Lord or despair because of our situation. This little verse sparked off a big discussion in our home about what was coming out of our respective tents: rejoicing or sighing, salvation, talking about what the Lord has done for us, or concern for the future.
This devotional was never intended to be hard but rather to spark conversation and introspection. As the Lord walks past our tent, what would He hear? I find myself having to constantly correct back regarding the expessions of my heart. When I am stronger spiritually and staying well fed on God's Word much better things come out of my tent. The righteous are those who have been made right with God through the work of Jesus on the earth. We are the ones who have experienced the salvation of God. Therefore, we are the ones who have great reasons to rejoice.
Snoring is annoying, but the voice of rejoicing and salvation are beautiful sounds. So what's in your tent?