Most joyful to hear the voice of God, and to sing with David:
"You are my hiding place; You fill my heart with songs of deliverance." 🙏
A second day at Calais, a Sunday afternoon by the Channel.
Last night Le wrote: I obey because I love Him. He taught me to obey Him by loving me.
This afternoon Smith opens with the command that sentence was answering: O love the LORD.
And then he spends the whole meditation explaining why it is easy to love Him — not by telling us to try harder, but by listing what He has already done. That is exactly Le's order: His love first, then ours.
And Le's answer this afternoon was not an essay. It was a song. She read Psalm 32:7 and it came back to her sung: you are my hiding place; you fill my heart with songs of deliverance.
That is the verse doing exactly what it says. Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. The promise of songs was fulfilled in the reading of it.
"Most joyful to hear the voice of God." Psalm 32:8, the very next verse: I will instruct thee and teach thee... I will guide thee with mine eye. He speaks first. She answers singing. That is love — His voice, and her song back.
"Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O LORD God of truth... My times are in thy hand... O love the LORD, all ye his saints: for the LORD preserveth the faithful."
Psalm 31:5, 15, 23 · KJVSmith's verse closes a psalm with two famous lines inside it.
"Into thine hand I commit my spirit." Verse 5 — the last words of Jesus on the cross, Luke 23:46: Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. Jesus died praying this psalm.
"My times are in thy hand." Verse 15. Four nights after a closed door, this is the line to hold. Not "my plans," not "my address." My times — the when and the where and the what-next — are in His hand. Le's mother's song, again: segura na mão de Deus.
"The LORD preserveth the faithful." Emunim — the faithful, the ones who hold on. Not the flawless. The ones who keep trusting.
"Our God has revealed Himself as the source, center, and end of everything lovely. In Jesus He appears as the fairest among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely... He is all we could wish or desire. To possess Him is to be set for eternity. To have Him on our side is to be safe forever."
James Smith · On Psalm 31:23"The chiefest among ten thousand... altogether lovely." Song of Solomon 5:10, 16. Smith borrows the language of a bride describing her beloved. Love for God is not only duty. It is delight.
"To possess Him is to be set for eternity." Psalm 142, three weeks ago, the song Le woke with: tu és a minha porção — You are my portion. Not the house. Him.
"But you may ask: what is His mind toward us? Emphatically, 'grace.'... Do you doubt it? Read His Word. Look at Calvary. Ask His people. Prove for yourself. Have we a being? He gave it. Have we a good hope? He bestowed it. Have we liberty? He bought it. Have we holiness? He produced it. Consider what we might have been but for His grace."
James Smith · On Psalm 31:23Four questions, four verbs — and every verb is His. Gave. Bestowed. Bought. Produced.
"Have we a being? He gave it." Two weeks ago, the UNESCO address: none of us chose to be born. And Le's answer: we are God's children.
"Have we liberty? He bought it." Three nights ago, Le: I am not my own. Ye are bought with a price.
Smith is asking 1 Corinthians 4:7 one more time: what hast thou that thou didst not receive? And Le's answer from September 18 still stands: every single thing we have, God gave to us.
"Consider what we might have been but for His grace." Le, August 24: I was mercied. That is how love for God begins — by remembering.
"Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long... I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah."
Psalm 32:1-3, 5 · KJVThree words for sin, three words for its removal. Transgression — forgiven, lifted off. Sin — covered, hidden from view. Iniquity — not imputed, not counted.
"Imputeth not." Paul quotes these two verses in Romans 4:7-8 — the chapter Le read in August. And the Greek word Paul uses is logizomai — Le's accounting word. The ledger has an entry, and God has written beside it: not counted.
"When I kept silence, my bones waxed old." Silence about sin is heavy. "I said, I will confess... and thou forgavest." Notice how short the distance is between the decision and the forgiveness. David has barely finished the sentence.
"Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah. I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye. Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle... he that trusteth in the LORD, mercy shall compass him about. Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart."
Psalm 32:7-11 · KJV"Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance." Not one song — songs, surrounding. Le has been surrounded by them all autumn: Trust and Obey, Blessed Assurance, Psalm 142 at dawn, her mother's segura na mão de Deus, Talbot singing Psalm 91. Each one arrived when it was needed.
"I will guide thee with mine eye." Four nights ago, Le asked for a new vision for the future. Here is the promise of guidance — and its gentlest form. A look across a room between two people who know each other well — no words needed.
"Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule... bit and bridle." And here is last night's truth from the other side. The mule obeys because the bit forces it. The beloved obeys because she is watching the eye of the One she loves. Le, last night: I obey because I love Him. That is the difference between the bridle and the glance. Obedience is love's answer, not love's price.
"Mercy shall compass him about." Yesovevennu — surround, encircle. Verse 7: songs surround. Verse 10: mercy surrounds. Psalm 142:7, three weeks ago: os justos me rodearão — the same picture. The one who trusts is never on the open plain alone. He is ringed. 🙏
"Most joyful to hear the voice of God, and to sing with David: You are my hiding place; You fill my heart with songs of deliverance."
Le · Calais · October 11, 2026 · He speaks; she sings. O love the LORD — guided by His eye, compassed about with songs and with mercyMy Times Are in Thy Hand
The psalm Jesus prayed on the cross. Not my plans, not my address — my times. Segura na mão de Deus.
Not Imputed
Forgiven, covered, not counted. Paul quotes it in Romans 4 — logizomai, Le's accounting word.
Guided by His Eye
The mule needs a bit and bridle. The beloved needs only a glance. Obedience is love's answer.
Songs of Deliverance
Not one song but many, surrounding. And mercy surrounds too. The one who trusts is ringed.