Immersion

Today I am writing about immersion. This is not the 'oh hey I'm in the water'-immersion or the 'I'm getting dunked in the baptismal pool'-immersion. Nay, the definition I'd like to focus in on today is "complete attention; intense mental effort." This is the kind of immersion you get to see when you walk into a room full of guys playing Halo 3. Sure, they will respond to remedial phrases such as "Hello," but anything after that will probably call upon a reply such as, "OH MY GOODNESS!"; "HOW DID YOU KILL ME?!"; or the commonly uttered, "You [expletive deleted]!" because at that point, they are no longer talking to you, but yelling to the other gamers seated there. I actually had this happen myself just last night. I was over at a friend's apartment with a couple of dudes and we were playing Halo 3. This friend, we hadn't seen in a pretty long time (despite living a 2-minute walk away). While we were playing, he tried to ask us questions about how we were doing, how our other apartment-mate was doing, what our plans were after graduation, and general ketchup talk. The other two guys did not really answer. I tried my best to, though my answers were one-worded, intermittently infused with "WHAT?!" and "HOW?!" whilst playing the game.

That was lovely to write about. And now into the 'srsly'. I know I write about video games and how easy it is to become immersed in them, but have you ever considered being immersed in God's Word? I've recently come to experience this, and let me say, it is fantastic. I've been reading through the book of Psalms for my morning and evening devotionals. Each psalm has this resounding effect on the rest of my day, especially when I read them before class. My greatest hit is a toss-up between Psalms 17 and 18.

One night, I was reading, I opened my Bible and read Psalm 17. It is the epitome of being Christ-like, and I was truly humbled yet wanting with all my being to be able to say Psalm 17 to God, with my own heart in this desirable state. The humbling part was realizing that I did not have these traits: "lips free of deceit" (1), "you have tested me, and you will find nothing" (3), "I have avoided the ways of the violent" (4), "my feet have not slipped" (5). And yet David could pray all these things to God. I was in awe. The rest of the prayer was a call to God to deliver David from the wicked and being satisfied with God.

The next day, my eyes wandered to Psalm 18 and I was blown away once again. This was a Psalm written after God had rescued David from his enemies and Saul. I'll just insert a passage, because my own polluted words cannot do it justice.

1 I love you, O Lord, my strength.
2 The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
3 I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.

Yes! One of the benefits of being on worship team for so many years is being able to recall praise songs from verses. This one instantly brought to mind You Have Made Me Glad, which I think Hillsong does a cover of. The chorus is the words of the scripture in lyrical format. It evokes emotions of trust, comfort, deliverance, God's amazing and all-encompassing glory, and a quelling of fears! The rest of the psalm, which is pretty long, depicts how Awesome God is and the great power He holds within even his breath. Check this out, "The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice, hailstones and coals of fire. And he sent out his arrows and scattered them; he flashed forth lightnings and routed them" (13-14). Awestruck, I immersed myself in how great and how wide and how deep our God was, admittedly powerful beyond any imagination. I can only imagine.

But alas! The book of Psalms does not end at 18, no, no, no. It goes on for another hundred-some psalms, ending in 150. That is the beauty of it all, that God's word could have just one psalm mean everything I needed on that night or that morning, and He gave us one hundred fifty of them! Psalm 19 - "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer" (14)! That's a song! It's aptly titled Psalm 19. Psalm 20 - "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God" (7). YES WE DO! Psalm 21 - "Though they plan evil against you, though they devise mischief, they will not succeed" (11). We have the one with all authority in heaven and earth with us, who shall stand against the Lord? Psalm 23 - "The Lord is my shepherd [...]" (1-6). Do I really need to write this one out? It's the most commonly used Psalm in the world because of its ease of memorability and comforting appeal. Psalm 24 - "He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false" (4). Another song: Give Us Clean Hands! To ev'ry generation, to ev'ry generation, Lord.

And so I see just encapsulated in words how great God's Word is, and am immersed in it to the point that I am spilling out these proclamations. I can barely close up this entry with all the praises I want to write and shout and boast, for if I must boast, "boast in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 1:31). [All scriptures quoted in this entry are taken from the ESV.] I thoroughly enjoyed writing this entry. Praise God!