Insight for Today
A Daily Devotional by Pastor Chuck Swindoll

Rarely will one of God's heroes show up in the Scriptures having lived a life free of failure. Take Peter, for example. As soon as you read the name, you remember his story. Peter experienced the extreme highs and lows of life.

This song of celebration, Psalm 149, is like a rallying cry, urging all of God's people to praise the Lord regardless of their circumstances. That includes times when people aren't naturally inclined to boast on God.

Psalm 149 is one of five "praise the Lord" psalms that conclude the Hebrews' ancient hymnal. Like the other four, it begins with the command "Hallelujah!" leading to a time of exalting God's goodness.

There are times when the hardest words in the world to utter are "Praise the Lord!" (also translated "Hallelujah!"). These words just don't flow from our lips. In fact, there are times we are turned off even when others use the words!

The last two abominations break from the pattern of using body parts as illustrations. The Lord finds these activities detestable, and they are linked together because they have similar effects on the community of God’s people.

Solomon’s anatomy of sinful behavior concludes with a look at the evildoer’s feet. Not a pretty sight under any circumstances!

The Lord’s list of abominations—behaviors He intensely detests—continues with the hands and the heart.

Solomon’s fatherly advice to his son begins with a focus on parts of the body, starting from the head and working down: eyes, tongue, hands, heart, and feet. Today, we take it from the top.

Even though we have mentioned various aspects of this subject and have glanced at these sayings on more than one occasion in our study together, we need to give them further attention.

In Psalm 142:5–6, David asked the Lord to change his circumstances: to deal justly with his persecutors and to honor His promise to make David king. But he also recognized the greater need for God to change his state of mind.

David feels enveloped or wrapped up in his depression, so much so his spirit feels faint and feeble. In the middle of confessing his darkest feelings of hopelessness, he acknowledges that God knows everything.

The raw emotion of David's prayer in Psalm 142 comes through clearly in his choice of words. In his Cave of Adullam, the beleaguered future king struggled with depression and shrieked heavenward.

David's depression most likely resulted from an unusually long period of stress. The superscript for Psalm 142, identifying David's circumstances as "in the cave," probably refers to the cave of Adullam.

Who hasn't struggled with those demoralizing seasons of dark sadness? Everyone suffers from grief and sorrow from time to time. But depression is a different matter. Like a disease, it's very common, but it's not "normal."

In 2 Corinthians 6:14 (KJV), Paul the apostle warned believers to avoid being “unequally yoked” with nonbelievers.

The “excellent woman” of Proverbs 31 casts a long shadow for her sisters through history!

To be honest, I never quite understood the dogmatic assertion, “A woman’s place is in the home.”

In the opening lines of his ode to excellent womanhood, Lemuel expressed his great admiration for someone close to him. He obviously wrote from personal observation of someone truly great—perhaps his own wife or mother.

Without taking away from the joys, rewards, and those extra-special moments of motherhood, I do want to acknowledge that the daily tasks of that assignment can be a grind!

David no longer looks up (as in verses 1–18) nor around (as in verses 19–22); he now looks within. He wants to be God's man at any cost, so he invites the Lord to make a thorough examination of him down deep inside.