Psalm 36:10 Continue your love to those who know you,
your righteousness to the upright in heart.

There are several verses in this Psalm that I like very much, particularly verse 9, but reading this in the Japanese, verse 10 really struck me. Not knowing the Hebrew, I can’t vouch for which translation is more accurate, but where the NIV says “Continue,” the Japanese says “Pour out.” It may well be that the Hebrew phrase indicates some sort of continuous pouring action. In any case, the image gripped me. We speak of anointing, which is pouring oil, so this could be said to be an anointing of love (the Japanese says grace) and righteousness. That sounds good to me! We need to remember that God never runs out of love, He never runs out of righteousness, or grace, or power. We hit our limits on all of those, so it’s hard really to grasp that God never does. David was in many ways a simple man. Were he alive today, quite probably we would think him rather uncouth. However, he had tasted God, and knew that God was good. (Psalm 34:8) David responded with his whole being, and that made all the difference. He famously stripped down to dance before the Ark of the Covenant when bringing it into Jerusalem, even though he was the king. (2 Samuel 6) Despite his failures, he fit the category of those who know God, who are upright in heart.

I can certainly join David in testifying that the Lord is good, having tasted Him abundantly! I need to remember that when God pours His blessings out on me, they are not to stop with me, but be poured through me to others. In my experience, one of the greatest blessings is to be used as a conduit of blessing to others. Paul quoted Jesus (evidently referring to a collection of Jesus’ teachings that didn’t get included in any of the Gospels) as saying, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35) That has certainly been my experience. The thing of it is, the more we let pour through us, the more He pours into us! We don’t serve a sprinkling God, we serve a pouring God!

Father, thank You for Your generous abundance, and for allowing me to be a conduit of that. Yesterday You allowed me to bless various people, and it didn’t diminish my blessing in the least! Keep me from holding back in any way. Rather, enable me to grow as a conduit of Your abundant love, mercy, forgiveness, and salvation, so that more and more may be brought from death to life, darkness to light, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!