Come Learn Rest Ministries

Grace is often described as amazing and it is. But how else might you and I describe it? Have you ever stopped to consider what God’s grace sounds like, feels like or tastes like? I had not until this week when I spent time reflecting on Psalm 81.

Theologian Karl Barth once said, “Laughter is the closest thing to the grace of God.” I wonder if grace sounds like the joyous celebration described in the first verses of Psalm 81:

Sing aloud to God our strength;
shout for joy to the God of Jacob!
Raise a song; sound the tambourine,
the sweet lyre with the harp.
Blow the trumpet at the new moon,
at the full moon, on our feast day.

Would you agree that grace feels like a distressed person being heard and then relieved from the burden they have been carrying for a long time (vs. 6,7)?

I relieved your shoulder of the burden;
your hands were freed from the basket.
In distress you called, and I delivered you;
I answered you in the secret place of thunder;
I tested you at the waters of Meribah.

Perhaps grace tastes sweet like the finest of wheat mixed with honey which is described in the last verse of Psalm 81.

But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.

No doubt God’s grace fills our lives with laughter, relief and sweetness. But perhaps the most amazing thing about grace is that you and I are invited into a listening relationship with the Lord.  Twice in Psalm 81 we hear the desire of God’s heart (vs. 8, 13). Just as God hears the cries of our hearts so God longs for you and I to listen to His voice.

O Israel, if you would but listen to me!

Oh, that my people would listen to me.

  Oh Lord, thank you for calling me into a listening relationship. May I have eyes to see, ears to hear and sensitivity to feel and even taste your truly amazing grace all the days of my life…Amen and amen.