Psalms 8:1, and 31:1-3
My Shepherd met me in His green pastures and laid me down in Psalm 34. The place where the Mind of the Spirit spoke to the spirit of my mind was verse 14:
Psalms 34:14 Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.
The sentiment of the Spirit expressed in the first clause, “Depart from evil, and do good,” brought Paul’s exhortation to mind: “Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity” (2 Timothy 2:19). The next clause: “Seek peace, and pursue it” connected with what Christ made my focal point during this Christmas season: Christ sent to show us “The way of peace” (Luke 1:79) and the revelation of the heart of GOD expressed at the Birth of His SON: “On earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14).
In the context of this exhortation, the Spirit revealed the object of His searching eyes and listening ears: “The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry” (Psalm 34:15). And He warned: “The face of the LORD is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth” (Psalm 34:16). He provided contrast between the righteous who heed the exhortation and those that do evil. While His face is against those who refuse the exhortation of verses 13-14, when “The righteous cry … the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles” (Psalm 34:17). He followed this with the invitation to draw nigh to Him: “The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heat; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit” (Psalm 34:18). He explained that although “Many are the afflictions of the righteous” nevertheless, “The LORD delivereth him out of them all” (Psalm 34:19). Suddenly, the Spirit goes to Calvary: “He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken” (Psalm 34:20; John 19:36—when the soldiers would have broken the legs of God’s LAMB, He held them back from their intention and they pierced His side instead, fulfilling this prophecy). Once again, the Cross appears in David’s Psalms.
Along the still waters, the Spirit brought to mind Peter’s exhortation:
1Peter 3:10 For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile:
1Peter 3:11 Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it.
Pursue and ensue are rhetorical cousins. Pursue tells us to chase after peace, to apply our efforts toward it as a treasured prize to be diligently sought. Ensue tells us to follow after, to give ourselves to the pursuit of, to earnestly press toward peace.
Follow after translates the word rendered ensue in 1 Peter 3:11: “Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another” (Romans 14:19). Peter and Paul were “on the same page,” and that page was Psalm 34:13-14.
Peter included Psalm 34:13, “Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.”
The Spirit took Paul and Peter to Psalm 34; today, He called Jerry there. I recommend including it in whatever resolution you might have for the New Year. Let’s resolve to “eschew evil” and “do good” now and throughout 2026. To eschew is to refuse, to reverse course, to separate ourselves from it, and to “do good,” instead.
In the valley, the Spirit brought my attention again to the fact that David expressed the Spirit’s call to all Christ’s disciples in the context of the Cross (Psalm 34:20). And as I knelt in the shadow of His Cross, He drew night to me. The voice of many waters carried to my heart His words: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23). My heart broke as I contemplated His suffering for me, and thought of my resistance to suffering, when I heard Him say your suffering will not break your bones, but it is My design that it softens your spirit till it be contrite: my spirit crushed, pride and resistance to His will broken to powder and my spirit sifted till the enemy of pride is destroyed.
At the table, my Shepherd sat with me and communed with me. His goodness and mercy comforted me: “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones” (Isaiah 57:15).
JESUS anointed my head with His oil and filled my cup with His grace. Then I walked with Him into the harvest.
2026 will be a time of proving: will His people submit to God and resist the Devil, or will they submit to seducing spirits (devils) and resist their LORD? (James 4:7). He has given us a space to repent, to turn from Satan’s lies, and be delivered from oppression? Or will His people stiffen themselves against the LORD in pride, and so be delivered to the Devil?
Great blessing