verse 23 jumped out at me:

‘Love the Lord, all his faithful people! The Lord preserves those who are true to him,
but the proud he pays back in full.’

my translation says, ‘The Lord preserves the faithful…’

and i found it an interesting contrast – faithful vs proud – because i don’t think we would naturally see them as opposites…

yet when i think of being faithful the immediate connection is the idea of ‘faithful to someone, or something’ and that will generally require humility and service, which are much closer to being the opposite of proud

my nickname “Fish” stands for ‘Faithful In Serving Him’ which is something i aspire towards more than can claim i achieve, but it really is an incredibly high value of mine, and when i get it right it is when [as in luke 9.23] i am denying myself and inviting God to take charge

my friend Mugabe [no relation] used to say something like this: ‘When God is on the throne of my life, i have to be on the cross, but when i put myself on the throne of my life, it means i have once again condemned Jesus to the cross.’ it is as if i am crucifying Him again.

Joshua looked at the people and said, “Choose this day who you will serve.” [Joshua 24.15]

Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters; you will hate the one and love the other” and yeah he may have been talking about money in that specific account but the principle remains – there is only space for one king in your life. who is it going to be today?

there is a whole lot more of juicy stuff in psalm 31 [it’s a long psalm] but i think that’s good for now… maybe something else stood out for you and i’d love to hear it below…