2/27/24 Lent Psalm 65

2/27/24 Lent Psalm 65 From Mike Courtney 

I was grafted into the Leviner family. My widowed Aunt Ruth married widower Uncle Marion Leviner and I somehow was adopted by the whole clan. It was nice but it wasn’t really significant until my family moved, and I found myself as a high school sophomore attending Orangeburg-Wilkerson High School.  

Orangeburg-Wilkerson High School was the Kingdom of the Leviner Sports Dynasty. Harry, Harold, John, and Danny were all-everything in every sport for the years that they attended. Baseball, football, basketball, it didn’t matter. When you walked by the trophy case there was a Leviner picture in there with the current state record they held and the number of championships they had led their teams to.  

Now, suffice it to say that I was not the stunning physical specimen in those days that I am today. I was a whopping 98 pounds, not an ounce of fat on me. Not an ounce of muscle either. I was a scrawny, weak, slow, white kid who really could not jump. Pick-up games during gym class were torture. Every kid in the class was picked and then came the all too familiar discussion. “You can have Mike.” “No, you take him. We had him yesterday.” “No, you take him. We will take a folding chair.” Needless to say, I was never picked. And I “likes” to be picked. 

That’s where my Leviner legacy would kick in. Danny was a grade above me in school. Whether it was a gym class basketball game or a Sunday afternoon “2-hand-touch” football game, Danny would walk up and say, “I’ll play.” Everybody would go crazy. It was NFL draft day with each team scurrying around to make salary cap space on their roster for Danny Leviner. When it was settled, and Danny was on the team, he would say, “I want Mike on my team.” Man, I would saunter out like a Heisman contender and take my rightful place in the shadow of the Almighty Leviner boy. 

Maybe that’s why I love Psalm 65 so much. “Blessed are those You choose and bring near to live in Your courts,” verse 4 says. Listen, if I wasn’t worthy to make the gym class basketball team, how much less am I worthy to be selected to God’s squad. But the psalmist says He chooses me. And I’ll say it again, I “likes” to be chosen. Of all of the things that make no sense in my life, this thought takes first place, “I am chosen by God.” Jesus said, “I have come to seek and to save those that are lost.” (Luke 19:10) Paul said, “Before the world was created, God had Christ choose us to live with Him.” (Ephesians 1:4) And, Jesus said again, “You did not choose me, but I chose you.” (John 15:16) 

So, remind yourself all day long, “I have been chosen.” All you had to do was believe. “For God so loved the world that…whoever believed …would be chosen.” (My translation) Somewhere in Heaven right now there is a trophy case, and, if you walked by you would see your picture in it. “All-star” it says. And then there would be all of the state records from the Leviner boys. 😊 God bless you today. You’re chosen.