Psalms of Comfort 6: Groundhog Day

Psalm 73

23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand.

24 You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me to glory.

25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.

26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Stormy weekend we’ve had. I wonder is that the last of the storms, will the sunshine last, will spring finally put winter to bed. Have you ever seen that film Groundhog Day? The actor Bill Murray is an arrogant tv network weather man reporting on a small town’s big festival, groundhog day, where the town waits for the ground hog to come out of his hibernation to signify the end of winter and the beginning of spring.

If the groundhog sees his own shadow he stays out, and the townsfolk celebrate the coming of spring but if he doesn’t find his shadow he goes back into his burrow and they get 6 more weeks of winter, 6 more weeks of same old, same old. Murray ridicules the event and the groundhog’s prophecy of 6 weeks more winter, gets caught in a freak weather system and gets stuck in the town because every morning he wakes up, it is the same day. He repeats the day and tries to change things to no avail. Every morning the day replays – same old – same old.

I don’t know about you but I woke up this monday morning and it really feels like the last 10 lockdown Monday mornings. Same old same old – will we ever break free of the cycle? We may feel alone with no one to show us a way, to make sense of the happenings around us and to breath some sense and understanding into the road ahead. We might feel the future is very uncertain ground. We perhaps don’t know what to hope for, our priorities and desires have changed; what was once important has been relegated and was once taken for granted has become our new important. We might feel so helpless and vulnerable.

In the here and now it may be groundhog day but this psalm tells us of God’s presence in our present:

• v23: He is with us not sometimes but always, He holds our hand so we are safe.

• v24: He guides us with his wisdom and His intimate advice, how closer can He be than in your hands through His word and in your heart through His Spirit.

• v25: His promises are of a heavenly inheritance but they are also of earthly providence. The world can offer us nothing that can measure up to that.

• v26: Even in our human weakness we are strong because His strength is within us, and it really is like groundhog day but it will be an experience that you will want to repeat time and time again, because He will be with us forever.

Every day we wake up He is with us. So may He be your portion today and all of your tomorrows.