Words of Wisdom, Psalms 80-85 and Proverbs 17

Oh, I’m not a very good Christian.

I keep trying but I get caught up in life and stuff and looking at memes or TikTok videos and before you know it, it’s like 12:30 am and I have written absolutely nothing on those Psalms and Proverbs I read earlier.

But fortunately, I found my husband’s stash of chocolate-covered espresso beans and so I am good to go! I feel like I musta downed 3 five hour energies. Good Lord!

Ok, so let’s try this again….I am on Day 17 of the Billy Graham Words of Wisdom Bible Reading Plan. I really honestly thought I would have run out of interesting material by now and given up and thrown in the towel on this. However, these psalms and proverbs are actually chock full of interesting stuff to ponder surprisingly. They say reading Psalms will help your relationship with God, or the Creator source or whatever you want to call it. Meanwhile, reading Proverbs will help you to understand these crazy humans around you.

These are interesting passages I found today reading Psalms 80-85 and Proverbs 17. I also add my reflections, thoughts, ideas, and hare-brained notions to the mix.

Psalm 80 “Thou that dwellest between the cherubim.”

Ok, so as I understand it, there are the cherubim and the seraphim. The cherubim are quite an odd mysterious sort. I looked them up to understand them better and it really is as if the author of the Bible in this part might have taken a slight break to smoke a joint and came back to write about these guys.

So apparently there are 4 cherubim and they have faces of different animals like an Ox and stuff. They represent love and purity and spend all their time in the throne room of God and praising him. I wouldn’t describe them like the court jesters….more like the court flatterers.

“God, you look awfully charming in that new sweatshirt. Love the color on you, big guy!”

So, I guess there are angels that do the angel work with humans like Michael slaying bad guys and Raphael being a doctor or Gabriel spreading all sorta of messages but then these cherubim strictly stay in the throne room.

At first, I thought they were like those super cute pudgy Valentine’s Day baby angels but those are cherubs like Cupid flying around all cute with the little wings and bow and arrow.

Side note, I saw a meme recently that showed Cupid shooting a bow and arrow of love straight through his target’s head and I think that is a pretty accurate assessment cause when I fall in love with someone I become completely brain-dead.

Falling in love or lust is such an awkward, awkward feeling. I don’t know about you but when I really fall for a guy, I clam up like a clam. I just stare at him like a deer in headlights if he talks to me. I literally get all sweaty and nervous. Gah, so embarrassing. It’s like a switch gets flipped in my brain when he comes around where I can only communicate in Neanderthal grunts and Neanderthal vocabulary and grammar. If I really, really, really like someone……I stutter.

“Are you there, God? It’s me, Janea. Put me outta my misery, please.”

Falling in love is the absolute worst and yet oddly also the absolute best….if he’s actually nice enough to pay attention to you through the stuttering until you finally calm your butt down and stop panicking and start using full, coherent sentences like a normal, cooler human being.

I saw a video where Matthew McConaughey tells folks to be “less impressed and more involved” when dealing with others. I try to remind myself of this and go with the flow. It helps a bit when you get all tongue twisted from bumping into Mr. Beautiful on the subway or wherever you meet him or her.

“You’re beautiful it’s true. I saw your face, in a crowded place….” (cue the James Blunt song)

Psalm 81 “Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.”

I recently learned the difference between joy and happiness. I thought these were synonymous but no, they are different. Happiness is fleeting. You are happy when you pass an exam. You are happy when you take a trip. You are happy for a myriad of different short reasons throughout the day. Happy is short-lived emotion.

Joy, though, is like contentment. Joy is mindfulness in the present moment I guess and joy comes from being grateful for the things around you. Joy happens when you don’t take things for granted, when you stop for a minute and look at that husband you’ve been married to for 10 years now and realize, man, I am lucky to have him around. He’s amazing.

I felt that way when I first met him. We were laughing in the truck. I was sitting beside him on the bench seat. He was telling jokes and driving all fun and wild and I thought he was a real exciting trip. All I wanted to do was spend every minute with him.

And now, ten years later, I spend a lot of minutes in the other room sorting laundry or working on hobbies or hanging out with the kids. But sometimes….sometimes I get joy in my heart for him and I stop what I’m doing. He’s usually playing on his cell phone watching TV and I’ll give him a hug and kiss and tell him, “I love you.”

I need to do that more often.

When I worked at the nursing home, I used to occasionally take some of the residents out for smoke breaks. One older woman, I was sitting at the picnic table outside with her while she lit up and told me about her husband. She said he was the love of her life.

The day he died, he had a heart attack. They were on the highway. He was driving. The heart attack was sudden and intense. Somehow he managed to get the car pulled to the side of the road and put the car in park and then he was gone. Just like that. He loved her enough, even when he was dying, to make sure she was safe in that final moment.

She said she had several boyfriends over the years after that but she never remarried again.

I need to do better at not taking my husband for granted.

Anyway, joy is an overall vibe of living. It’s choosing to be content and balanced.

Keep calm and carry on. Stiff upper lip. Soldier on. Look on the bright side. Things could be worse. They could always be worse.

Like they say in Monty Python’s Life of Brian,

“Better just to laugh and dance and sing.”

Life isn’t about fixing the storms. It’s about learning to dance in the rains like a kid again with little galoshes on and yellow raincoat splashing through lovely mud puddles.

Psalm 81 “I proved thee at the waters of Meribah.”

Meribah?

I got no clue. One moment.

Oh. Oh. This is cool. Ok, so Meribah is in the Torah. It’s the “waters of strife.” Ok, so Meribah is the place in the desert, remember, in I think Exodus or one of those books about the Israelites in the desert after fleeing Egypt.

Ok, so they are thirsty and at Meribah, Moses strikes a rock with his staff and these waters flow out of the rock as a miracle to preserve the Israelites.

Huh.

I did not know that. Learn something new everyday.

Psalm 82 “All of you are children of the most High.”

That’s a comforting statement and a universal, uniting statement. I like that one.

Did you know that according to the Human Genome Project, it is only a very, very small, miniscule portion of the human DNA sequence that actually houses our distinctive features of appearance? It is literally like 0.005% or something like that. That means you and me, we are over 99% percent alike or almost exactly the same.

Psalm 83 “They have holpen the children of Lot.”

I don’t know this word. What the heck is “holpen?”

Holpen is Middle English phrasing for “past tense of helping others.” So the sentence is basically, “They have helped the children of Lot.”

Ok, time out. Why do they throw in these old ancient words in the Bible every now and then?

Thee and thou and all that.

Dost thou understandeth my questioneth?

So bizarreth.

No one talks like this anymore. It’s like going to a Latin mass and having no clue what the heck is going on. The music is pretty like going to an Italian opera but you got no clue what the storyline is.

Figaro, Pirates of Penzance….

Phantom of the Opera though….that one’s pretty decent. I like that one. Les Mis was a little bit too depressing for me. Oh, and the one where the clown is crying and sings that super sad but really pretty song.

“Reginald, sempre pravo…”

I think that’s what he’s saying. I don’t know really for sure. Seems to be really upset with this Reginald guy. I don’t understand this stuff. Could someone translate this for me?

Psalm 84 “I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.”

Being a butler….I wonder what that’s like?

“Very good, sir.”

“Would you like your brandy in the drawing room, sir?”

Proverbs 17 “Children’s children are the crown of old men.”

Ah this is like that saying,

“Grandpas are really just awesome Dads that got promoted.”

Grandkids are the best.

Proverbs 17 “The glory of children is their father.”

This is true. Children love their Dad for the most part,if he’s a good Dad that is. When my son and daughter were born and babies, “Dad” was one of their first words. That and “fry”. My daughter liked french fries.

But you can spend all day with the kid, rocking them, nursing them, feeding them, changing poopy diapers, etc. etc. and when Dad gets home from work…..they light up like a light bulb. Babies love their Dads.

“Dadda Dadda!” Reaching for him. Smiling at him.

The bond between children and their Dad, that is something so very special that Moms just don’t have. And that’s ok. It’s a good thing. Dads teach their kids very important things.

My son went to live with his Dad in Guam for a year. It was only a year but when he came back, he looked transformed to me. He was thin and fit and in great shape and had great grades. This is what Dad’s instill in kids that Moms have a hard time doing. Me, for my part, I am always focused on their safety and whether they’ve been fed or not and always offering them snacks and such. But, under their Dad, they are much more disciplined.

Tough love.

It’s what they really need.

Sounds callous.

But to survive in this world, you need discipline. The more disciplined you are, the better your chances of success.

I’m not the only one who thinks this. I was reading an article about Arnold Schwarzenegger and how he grew up. He grew up with his Dad and that’s how he built his strong discipline for weight-lifting and body building.

Recently, I started a LiveStrong 30 day walking challenge. I was watching some videos on YouTube about working out motivation. One thing a guy said, I started implementing it and it really does work. He said, so many people, as soon as they wake up nowadays, they reach for their cell phone and check messages. He said don’t do this.

Get up. Get dressed. Go workout. Only check the phone after the workout and the shower. Otherwise, you spend a good hour or half-hour wasting time going through your phone at the very start of your day.

I like this advice. It does work. Just thought I’d share that. I tried it a bit and I felt a lot better when I did that. I don’t know. Something about the cell phone, it just sucks you in. It’s a huge time waster and produces nothing for you really.

I’ve been around a few decades now. Maybe it’s just me, but I really think folks seemed happier and healthier back in the 80s before cell phones. And marriages seemed to last longer too without all this easy access to private texting and direct messaging and stuff. Maybe I’m old school. Maybe I’m getting to be an old timer that says, “Back in my day…”

Maybe so.

That’s it for now. That’s Psalms 80-85 and Proverbs 17. Thanks for reading and I look forward to any comments. Thanks!