After my readings this morning, went back into the archives to help prime the pump for a brain feeling a little like molasses. Came across these old musings from 2009 . . . they spoke to me in a fresh way. Passing them on . . .

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I’m not sure that Psalm 62 and Matthew 26:6-13 would normally be compared and contrasted with each other . . . but they’re both part of my reading plan this morning . . . and they both deal with silence and out-pouring.

In Matthew 26 a woman comes to Jesus as He dines at the house of Simon the leper and, without saying a word, takes “an alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil, and she poured it on His head as He sat at the table” (26:7). John 12 identifies the woman as Mary, the sister of Lazarus . . . the Lazarus who had been dead, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. John tells us it was a pound of very expensive spikenard perfume . . . that after pouring it on His head, she also anointed His feet . . . wiping them with her hair . . . and the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil (John 12:1-3). Mary is silent . . . not a word spoken . . . just the outpouring of extravagant worship . . . and Jesus is honored.

Psalm 62 is a very different situation . . . a completely unrelated context . . . but here too you find silence . . . and you find an out-pouring.

For God alone my soul waits in silence;
from Him comes my salvation. . . .
For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence,
for my hope is from Him.

(Psalm 62:1, 5 ESV)

As David so often experienced, the pressure is on . . . times are tough . . . the battle is going in the wrong direction . . . his enemies are many . . . his victories, at this time, are few. What to do? What’s the strategy? What’s the “plan A” . . . and if that doesn’t work, the “plan B” . . . “plan C”??? The plan? . . . wait silently for God alone . . . still all that is within me . . . focus it solely on the God who is the immovable rock . . . quietly direct my total being on the One who has promised to be my salvation. In so doing, I will not be moved.

Really? My tendency when things are going south is to do something . . . anything . . . try a little of this . . . work a little of that. Is my stability in chaotic times really found in my soul silently waiting on my God? David thought so. And in this silent determination to look to God to be God. David stood on the Rock and with confidence declared, “I shall not be moved.”

Mary knew that Jesus’ death was imminent . . . she didn’t understand how or why Messiah could die, but she believed that Jesus’ predictions of His death were soon to be fulfilled . . . her world was about to shaken . . . her hopes to be tossed upside down . . . what to do? . . . go to the Rock . . . silently, quietly . . . come to Jesus.

Mary brought some oil to pour out . . . David, his heart.

Trust in Him at all times, O people;
pour out your heart before Him;
God is a refuge for us. Selah

(Psalm 62:8 ESV)

Jesus was honored through Mary’s sacrificial out-pouring of costly perfume . . . isn’t He also honored when we pour out our hearts before Him . . . when we break open the alabaster box of our inner desires and feelings and anxieties . . . when we trust Him with all our troubles and trials . . . when we anoint Him with our most intimate struggles . . . when we run to Him as the only refuge that is sure. Tender, broken hearts freely flowing . . . their target the feet of God . . . their fragrance of faith and trust filling the portals of heaven itself . . . believing His word when it invites us to “come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16).

Father, when I think of extravagant worship, I think of what I can say . . . what I can give . . . offerings of joy. But this morning, I wonder if quiet confidence in You, trusting all the circumstances of my life, pouring out a heart filled with un-certainly and anxiety is equally an act of extravagant worship. When I turn to You first . . . when my soul waits silently before You because You are my rock . . . when my heart is poured out to You because my hope is in You alone . . . does it fill the room with a sweet smelling aroma? . . . are You honored my God? . . . are You exalted Lord Jesus? . . . I’m thinking so. May I be quick to bring such offerings . . .

By Your grace. For Your glory.