A Devotional by Dr. Dan Ivins

"Learning How To Lick Life"

In my neck of the woods, some folks have a hard time in the inner city of Providence. There is lots of despair that leads to crime and hopeless tomorrows because they don't believe they have a future. A basic trust in God and hope for the future is lacking but not in the eyes of the one who scribed this Psalm.

"Blessed be the Lord!
for God has heard the voice of my supplication.
The Lord is my strength and my shield;
in God my heart trusts;
so I am helped, and my heart exults,
and with my song I give thanks to God"
Psalm 28:6-7

See the confidence? There is confidence galore, but it is confidence in God not humanity. The writer declares what he believes God is: his strength and shield. Who doesn't need that? This is a tough world.

Charles Schulz captured it well with his cartoon: "Life is like an ice cream cone. You have to learn how to lick it." If we don't lick it, it will lick us. The psalmist knew that but he also had resources, namely, his faith in God as his "strength and shield." The result of this trust is first joy, then praise. Such joy cannot be silent. When we experience the help of God, we are grateful. We sing and exult in the sort of emotion which prompted the psalmist to say:  "I will praise the Lord as long as I live" (Ps. 146:2).

What a little gem are these verses from Psalm 28. It is worth remembering as a confession of faith. The belief that God empowers and protects should give confidence to any one. It can go a long way toward enabling us to become life-lickers.