שׁוּבִי נַפְשִׁי לִמְנוּחָיְכִי: כִּי יהוה גָּמַל עָלָיְכִי

Shalom!  V’Simkha L’kha!

Anyone who ‘knows’ me knows that I’ve endured something very painful of late.  I will not even give a nod to it, beyond just acknowledging that it was very difficult for Tzilah and me.  All the while, I could ‘feel’ our Creator ministering to me in His Word; reading a set of four Tehillim daily for His voice of comfort.

This morning, after a brother finally ‘saw’ and ‘understood’ me and my perspective in this, I wanted to offer the Creator thanks.  While I ‘knew’ that Tehillah 116 [not one of the four I’ve been praying daily this past month] contained in it “Zevakh Todah”, a ‘sacrifice/offering of thanks’, I had NO idea before I read it how He would speak to me beyond just my giving thanks.

The first thing I noticed is that this is one of Miqedem’s melodies, at least vs. 1 and 2 and 19 are.  This helped to make it more ‘worshipful’ for me right away.  After seeing how relevant to my ‘times’, my ‘days’, the whole thing was, then His breath breathed on me in a way only one who has the Ru’akh of Messiah would understand:

שׁוּבִי נַפְשִׁי לִמְנוּחָיְכִי: כִּי יהוה גָּמַל עָלָיְכִי

“Shuvi nafshi lim’nukhaikhi, ki  יהוה  gamal alaikhi”

“Return, O my soul, unto my rest!  For  יהוה  has dealt bountifully with me!”  [the title verse]

How I have waited for that moment!  And now that it has arrived, how I have REJOICED!  It is indescribable!  I wish I could give it away!

And then, the next verse that ‘spoke’ in power:

יָקָר בְּעֵינֵי יהוה הַמָּוְתָה לַחֲסִידָיו

“Yakar b’einei  יהוה  hamav’tah lakhasidaiv”

“O how PRECIOUS in the eyes of  יהוה  is the death of His devout ones”.

Why would that ‘speak’ and bring me joy?  Just this morning, during prayer and reading, I meditated on Sha’ul stating “I die daily,” and: “for you are dead, and your life is hidden with Mashi’akh in Elohim”.

In Tehillah 116, I wondered if there is ‘more’ to verse 15 than just our Creator welcoming the passing of a devout one out of this life?  Is it possible that the ‘death’ about which we read in this verse is also about our dying to self?  Dying and rising in Messiah Yeshua?  Every day?  Is it possible that this is ‘yakar’, very, very dear to Him?  I think it is.  And I think that is really ‘how’ we compel our soul to return to ‘my rest’.  HE is my rest!