Seeing like David

Where did the psalmist David get his gift for seeing God everywhere?  He opened his eyes.

Juan Carlos Ortiz, an Argentinian pastor and author, says he and his congregation stopped praising God with the same old phrases and began looking for God in the world around them.  It gave new life and joy to their worship of the Lord.

In his book Disciple, Ortiz said the breakthrough came during a men’s retreat in the country two hours outside Buenos Aires. 

The men were outside praying praises to the Lord with their eyes closed.  Ortiz says they sounded just as they did in the church basement in the city.

He opened his eyes and saw a flowering apple tree with a bird sitting upon it.

“Lord, how beautiful this apple tree is,” Ortiz prayed.  “The flowers are just fantastic.  Look at the bird, Lord?  Isn’t it beautiful?”

He says the other men opened their eyes to see what was happening to their pastor.  He continued praying about the beautiful, God-made things around them.

Then, others picked up the idea and joined in.  One boy climbed a tree and began exclaiming about the things he saw.

“Soon we all were in the trees (it was a very unusual prayer meeting), shouting like a bunch of monkeys.”

“It is true that sometimes we need to close our eyes and look deep inside ourselves,” Ortiz says.  “But when we praise God, we are reaching outside, and we find many more things with which to fill our praise boxes as we look around.”

He points to David’s many psalms which celebrate God and his creation.  David spoke about God and his power and glory by referring to the everyday things he saw around him.

The famous 23^rd psalm is a good example.  The psalmist equates God with the shepherd who protects, defends and guides his flock.  It is a brilliant example of talking about our relationship with God by painting word pictures from the everyday world.

So, Ortiz’ congregation now sits in circles as they praise God.  Their eyes are open and they pray as if God is right there with them – which he is.

Their praises are personal psalms to God.

We can do the same as we got about our day’s work.  We don’t have to wait for special prayer meetings.