Bountifully

I did something today that I have never ever done.  I entered Starbucks (the one in Target where you can hide in the very back) purchased a Toffee Mocha and sat down to read the Bible.  I was there for over an hour and it was awesome!  I didn't think I would be able to concentrate, but since I was in a corner facing the wall, it all worked out.  I spent a lot of time on Exodus.  How is that I think I know that book and then I realize I really don't know it at all?

Right before I got up to go (Target shopping was calling my name) I flipped to Psalms and read this:  "Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you."  (116:7-ESV)

That just stuck with me.  My mind has been going a thousand different directions this week...wondering what God is up to in so many areas of my life and the ones I love.  But that word.  Bountifully.  It was just leaping off the page.  I later looked it up in the NIV and it simply said "good."  (Not as pretty and compelling, is it?)  But, the King James says "bountifully" as well...so I knew my Hebrew word would come from that. 

And here it is:  "gamal".  I think you say it like this:  gaw-mal'.  It means to treat a person well, to benefit them, to ripen (okaaaaay?), to repay, to bestow on, and to wean...as if you are weaning a child.  That last one threw me a bit, so I found some other verses where this word gamal is used and here are a couple:

1.  Psalm 131:2 "Surely I have behaved and quited myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother, my soul is even as a weaned child."

2.  Isaiah 28:9  "To whom will he teach knowledge, and to whom will he explain the message?  Those who are weaned from the milk..."

Our job is to literally rock our souls as if we are rocking our children.  We rock our souls to rest in spiritual security by speaking the promises of God over them. 

It is easy in this world to be overcome with disappointment and confusion.  We can easily lose our confidence in God.  So, returning to "rest" is an act of faith and confidence.  As we return, we remember God's nature towards us.  He is long suffering.  Patient.  Kind.  Good. 

We quiet our souls by choosing not to occupy ourselves with things too great and too marvelous for us.  We simply aren't Sovereign God, and so we must rest in the fact that He is. 

We know that while at rest, we are able to remember that God has dealt very beneficially for us in the past.  And here is the best part...as we are at rest (weaned from the milk as a weaned child) we become people that are able to be taught from God.  Able to receive whatever message He has to give to us.

Those that rock their souls back to spiritual rest are able to hear from God and be taught by Him.

To me, that sounds just plain bountiful.