Psalm 35
Well at least he is looking for God to make a difference in real life. Yes, I know he’s on this enemy kick again, but that’s what he had to deal with. For you and me it might – I hope – be something different.
What’s also very real about this for me is that he is really up and down in his connection with the Lord. He gets kind of in a praise sort of groove in verses 9 and 10, not only looking to God to make a difference in his life and circumstances, but relating to others and their needs. This is good.
Then, wham, he’s right back with being what you might find kind of ‘negative’ and going on about all who oppress him. I guest that's why this is called a lament. But he is, after all, taking it to the Lord. And isn’t it just the way, that you think you are on track, spiritually or otherwise, and then you find it doesn’t take much to ruin your nice thoughts and good intentions. Or am I the only one.
So good for him to persist, and he does end up sharing in praise. When someone is praising God, you don’t question what got them to that point. Maybe it wasn’t all that noble, in our judgment. When a 12 year old hockey player give thanks as part of table grace that he dished out some good hits in the game that day, I’ll take it. At least he talking to God. If he persists in the conversation, God will know what to do with him. Let’s, like the Psalmist, just keep talking.
Prayer:
God, thank you for listening to me. You are never bored, never too tired, and amazingly are not deterred from listening to me even while you are crying God-tears over Kenya, Gaza, and Britney Spears. Yes you love her too. And me. Through Christ. Amen.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Taste and See
Psalm 34
What is the connection between instruction in the faith, and personal experience? Here the poet commends the ways of the Lord to his community of faith, as a consequence of his experience. Teaching that arises from real experience is going to more compelling than expounding of doctrine.
But how do we keep teaching that comes from experience from being too subjective? I mean, do we not hold to certain truths that are absolute, or, with every new sharing of personal experience, we could be “tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching” (Ephesians 4:14).
I think part of the answer to this could be explained in familiar modern terms: the greater the sample the more accurate the result. With some notable exceptions, say, the Law given to Moses and the Revelation given directly to John, the teaching in the Bible arises from personal experience in which a people gain understanding of the God who has been dealing with them. It is this record against which we compare and validate personal experience. The Bible’s teaching on God’s redemptive (purchase from slavery) purpose comes from the experience of a people being delivered from slavery, and then from experience of the Risen Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit. In other words, even our doctrine will be more alive to us if we understand it to have arisen from the experience of people with God in their midst. Even a direct revelation like the Ten Commandments came in the context of journey.
Worship in this psalm celebrates in Spirit what is understood about the Lord as a consequence of experience shared in faithful fellowship:
“Taste and see that the Lord is good” (verse 8a).
Prayer:
God, thank you that seeing is not believing. Who of us could see, truly see, without believing? With you, tasting is believing. Through Christ. Amen.
What is the connection between instruction in the faith, and personal experience? Here the poet commends the ways of the Lord to his community of faith, as a consequence of his experience. Teaching that arises from real experience is going to more compelling than expounding of doctrine.
But how do we keep teaching that comes from experience from being too subjective? I mean, do we not hold to certain truths that are absolute, or, with every new sharing of personal experience, we could be “tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching” (Ephesians 4:14).
I think part of the answer to this could be explained in familiar modern terms: the greater the sample the more accurate the result. With some notable exceptions, say, the Law given to Moses and the Revelation given directly to John, the teaching in the Bible arises from personal experience in which a people gain understanding of the God who has been dealing with them. It is this record against which we compare and validate personal experience. The Bible’s teaching on God’s redemptive (purchase from slavery) purpose comes from the experience of a people being delivered from slavery, and then from experience of the Risen Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit. In other words, even our doctrine will be more alive to us if we understand it to have arisen from the experience of people with God in their midst. Even a direct revelation like the Ten Commandments came in the context of journey.
Worship in this psalm celebrates in Spirit what is understood about the Lord as a consequence of experience shared in faithful fellowship:
“Taste and see that the Lord is good” (verse 8a).
Prayer:
God, thank you that seeing is not believing. Who of us could see, truly see, without believing? With you, tasting is believing. Through Christ. Amen.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Creation Now
Psalm 33
This is one of a number of psalms that bring together the work of God in creation (verses 6-9) and active in history (starting at verse 10) through his Word. Creation was made good, complete. Creation is dynamic, but everything necessary was provided.
God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. - Genesis 1:38a
Creation is complete. But the pattern of creation is repeated daily in the lives of those who trust God. God’s Word in creation spoke into chaos and darkness and formed beauty, order, and room for life, not just to survive but to thrive. He can do that with us daily if we let him speak his creative Word into our life. Do I put him on the throne of my life daily? Do I let him address those chaotic and dark places in my heart and in my circumstances, or do I think “I can handle it,” or I might just rather complain about certain outward circumstances and use them as excuses for other things, or maybe it’s just easier to coast. That’s to invite further chaos. Better by far:
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. – Romans 8:28
And
I can do everything through him who gives me strength. – Philippians 4:13
1. Creation is complete.
2. God’s creative, redemptive work can be invited and experienced in our daily life.
3. And God’s creative work is at work in human history, the psalmist celebrates. That’s harder to see, because it is not complete. Are we on the verge of a world recession unlike anything we have experienced? Is there about to be as terrorism wildfire, as the Afghan president has warned? Are we already at a tipping point in the world’s climate? We are hardly to be complacent about those things any more than we are to say “whatever” to our personal circumstances. On the contrary, those and other problems will worsen as long as we as a race and as leaders among us see ourselves as gods unto ourselves. All world events are part of the chaos in which God’s eternal creative Word is presently active toward bringing about a new creation in its fullness, already begun with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. With gracious, loving power, it is now growing toward its fulfillment in and through Christ’s Body in the world, the church. What form does that take? It starts very simply:
Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them. – Matthew 18:19-20
What is the end of all this?
And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.
- Ephesians 1:9-10
Prayer:
God, make a fresh start in me,
shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
- Psalm 51:10 The Message
This is one of a number of psalms that bring together the work of God in creation (verses 6-9) and active in history (starting at verse 10) through his Word. Creation was made good, complete. Creation is dynamic, but everything necessary was provided.
God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. - Genesis 1:38a
Creation is complete. But the pattern of creation is repeated daily in the lives of those who trust God. God’s Word in creation spoke into chaos and darkness and formed beauty, order, and room for life, not just to survive but to thrive. He can do that with us daily if we let him speak his creative Word into our life. Do I put him on the throne of my life daily? Do I let him address those chaotic and dark places in my heart and in my circumstances, or do I think “I can handle it,” or I might just rather complain about certain outward circumstances and use them as excuses for other things, or maybe it’s just easier to coast. That’s to invite further chaos. Better by far:
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. – Romans 8:28
And
I can do everything through him who gives me strength. – Philippians 4:13
1. Creation is complete.
2. God’s creative, redemptive work can be invited and experienced in our daily life.
3. And God’s creative work is at work in human history, the psalmist celebrates. That’s harder to see, because it is not complete. Are we on the verge of a world recession unlike anything we have experienced? Is there about to be as terrorism wildfire, as the Afghan president has warned? Are we already at a tipping point in the world’s climate? We are hardly to be complacent about those things any more than we are to say “whatever” to our personal circumstances. On the contrary, those and other problems will worsen as long as we as a race and as leaders among us see ourselves as gods unto ourselves. All world events are part of the chaos in which God’s eternal creative Word is presently active toward bringing about a new creation in its fullness, already begun with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. With gracious, loving power, it is now growing toward its fulfillment in and through Christ’s Body in the world, the church. What form does that take? It starts very simply:
Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them. – Matthew 18:19-20
What is the end of all this?
And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.
- Ephesians 1:9-10
Prayer:
God, make a fresh start in me,
shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
- Psalm 51:10 The Message
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Naked
Psalm 32
Forgiveness is the invention of God. Our sin grieves him. It disappoints him, but it does not turn him against us. So think what it must mean to him when we actually, willingly, turn to him, trust him, confide in him, even though he knows what we are going to say, what we must say, if we are to be truthful before him.
This Psalm is all about being truthful, before the one who knows what we must say anyway. It leads to a recognition that we are really only who we are when we stand honestly before God. That’s not just because he made us to begin with, but even more because he remakes us. He knows what we are to be, what he has in mind for us. Only he can shape us toward that vision – imagine: God has a vision for you – and we do our part by being spiritually naked before him.
Prayer:
God, I am so grateful that I can utterly trust you with my inmost being. I don’t have to be guarded, I don’t have to worry about what I share with you, because you know it all anyway, even better than I do. Help us move toward that kind of trusting honesty with one another. Through Christ. Amen.
Forgiveness is the invention of God. Our sin grieves him. It disappoints him, but it does not turn him against us. So think what it must mean to him when we actually, willingly, turn to him, trust him, confide in him, even though he knows what we are going to say, what we must say, if we are to be truthful before him.
This Psalm is all about being truthful, before the one who knows what we must say anyway. It leads to a recognition that we are really only who we are when we stand honestly before God. That’s not just because he made us to begin with, but even more because he remakes us. He knows what we are to be, what he has in mind for us. Only he can shape us toward that vision – imagine: God has a vision for you – and we do our part by being spiritually naked before him.
Prayer:
God, I am so grateful that I can utterly trust you with my inmost being. I don’t have to be guarded, I don’t have to worry about what I share with you, because you know it all anyway, even better than I do. Help us move toward that kind of trusting honesty with one another. Through Christ. Amen.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
A Sign of Relief
Psalm 31
He feels like a hunted animal, but for one thing: He has a retreat position that gives him a position of strength (verses 2-3), a refuge in the Lord. When he commends his spirit to the Lord, it is not a sign of resignation, but a sigh of relief, that whatever his battle, he is not on his own. Verse 5 is precious to many Christians because of the same words our Lord uttered on the cross. Even more are these words then not a sign of defeat, but of victory in the midst of circumstances that normally would be seen as defeat.
His prayer goes on (verses 9-13) to have the effect of alleviating the loneliness of his affliction (what can we not handle as long we know we are not alone?), and to see his situation more from God’s perspective (verses 14-24). That means his loneliness is turned to greater fellowship with God and his fellow worshippers, since he has had the freedom to give outward expression to his inner turmoil.
Prayer:
God, I let out now a long, slow breath that carries with it my burdens of the moment. With them I release to you whatever I call mine, including my very life, so that you can make it yours. Through Christ. Amen.
He feels like a hunted animal, but for one thing: He has a retreat position that gives him a position of strength (verses 2-3), a refuge in the Lord. When he commends his spirit to the Lord, it is not a sign of resignation, but a sigh of relief, that whatever his battle, he is not on his own. Verse 5 is precious to many Christians because of the same words our Lord uttered on the cross. Even more are these words then not a sign of defeat, but of victory in the midst of circumstances that normally would be seen as defeat.
His prayer goes on (verses 9-13) to have the effect of alleviating the loneliness of his affliction (what can we not handle as long we know we are not alone?), and to see his situation more from God’s perspective (verses 14-24). That means his loneliness is turned to greater fellowship with God and his fellow worshippers, since he has had the freedom to give outward expression to his inner turmoil.
Prayer:
God, I let out now a long, slow breath that carries with it my burdens of the moment. With them I release to you whatever I call mine, including my very life, so that you can make it yours. Through Christ. Amen.
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
that my heart may sing to you
Psalm 30
There is an aspect of this psalm that is of critical importance for any worshiping community. The writer has had an important experience at the hand of the Lord – brought back from the brink of death, and from the added insult of having certain people rejoice in his demise. So he invites his fellow worshipers to join in his thanksgiving and praise. So what’s their answer? Sorry, we don’t have time to write it into the Powerpoint? Hardly. What is part of the community’s expression of universal truth begins as a very personal experience on the part of one of the members of the community. That’s worth pondering deeply. How does today’s worshiping community allow the Spirit to work through individual’s experience into and through the larger life?
My answer is, I think, it doesn’t matter how you do it, as long we find some way to let it happen. One way is to grow the opportunity for worship as part of small group experience – letting it happen at the church’s cellular level and growing it from there.
For the writer of the psalm, the very value of his continuing earthly existence was all about the opportunity to bear witness to the grace of God that he had experienced. That’s behind the striking argument he makes to the Lord that if he died now and went to the realm of the dead (this is before the revelation of praise in heaven), the Lord would be denied his praise! The argument is a sign of his sense of urgency, his sense of life-purpose in sharing what he had experienced of the Lord.
Prayer:
Lord, let the psalmist’s experience impress on us the importance of our personal experience as the basis for inspiring and encouraging others. The experience, the sharing, the building of community and larger witness – it’s all your doing; just let us provide the appropriate channels. Through Christ. Amen.
There is an aspect of this psalm that is of critical importance for any worshiping community. The writer has had an important experience at the hand of the Lord – brought back from the brink of death, and from the added insult of having certain people rejoice in his demise. So he invites his fellow worshipers to join in his thanksgiving and praise. So what’s their answer? Sorry, we don’t have time to write it into the Powerpoint? Hardly. What is part of the community’s expression of universal truth begins as a very personal experience on the part of one of the members of the community. That’s worth pondering deeply. How does today’s worshiping community allow the Spirit to work through individual’s experience into and through the larger life?
My answer is, I think, it doesn’t matter how you do it, as long we find some way to let it happen. One way is to grow the opportunity for worship as part of small group experience – letting it happen at the church’s cellular level and growing it from there.
For the writer of the psalm, the very value of his continuing earthly existence was all about the opportunity to bear witness to the grace of God that he had experienced. That’s behind the striking argument he makes to the Lord that if he died now and went to the realm of the dead (this is before the revelation of praise in heaven), the Lord would be denied his praise! The argument is a sign of his sense of urgency, his sense of life-purpose in sharing what he had experienced of the Lord.
Prayer:
Lord, let the psalmist’s experience impress on us the importance of our personal experience as the basis for inspiring and encouraging others. The experience, the sharing, the building of community and larger witness – it’s all your doing; just let us provide the appropriate channels. Through Christ. Amen.
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Glory!
Psalm 29
You really have to read this out loud. Try half shouting it some place you feel comfortable doing that (Just don’t try reading it while you’re driving!). But don’t just shout it. Try putting the emphasis on different syllables; maybe, in your mind, hear a drum or tambourine sounding on various words. This psalm just has so much energy to it. It all builds to a climax with the communal cry of “Glory!” (verse 9). It is a call to know and give honour to the power of the voice of God over the earth, with the various ways of portraying that here piling up an audio-visual impression in our minds and hearts that in some way resonates with the Word of God from all time and space continuing to call out in the universe – the same Word known to us in a personal way in Jesus.
Prayer:
Glory, glory, glory to you, Lord God whose voice calls with loving, urgent insistence. Let your voice and purposes resonate in me and spill out from me. Through Jesus. Amen.
You really have to read this out loud. Try half shouting it some place you feel comfortable doing that (Just don’t try reading it while you’re driving!). But don’t just shout it. Try putting the emphasis on different syllables; maybe, in your mind, hear a drum or tambourine sounding on various words. This psalm just has so much energy to it. It all builds to a climax with the communal cry of “Glory!” (verse 9). It is a call to know and give honour to the power of the voice of God over the earth, with the various ways of portraying that here piling up an audio-visual impression in our minds and hearts that in some way resonates with the Word of God from all time and space continuing to call out in the universe – the same Word known to us in a personal way in Jesus.
Prayer:
Glory, glory, glory to you, Lord God whose voice calls with loving, urgent insistence. Let your voice and purposes resonate in me and spill out from me. Through Jesus. Amen.
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
The Standard
Psalm 28
It seems 2007 was a year of more than the usual number of awkward episodes in the lives of famous people. Many of those episodes were less embarrassing than the amount of attention given them. I find it especially curious how CBC in a famous meltdowns feature lumps together famous people of completely different fields. It all seems to come under entertainment, whether it’s a former prime minister (Brian Mulroney), a businessman (Conrad Black), football player (Michael Vick), a singer, actress, or person who is just famous for being famous (Spears, Lohan, Hilton), it all comes under famous people in some kind of trouble or at least under some kind of cloud (Nothing has been proved against Mulroney).
I guess it (a) helps some of us feel better about our own little messes, and/or (b) just goes to show none of us is immune from trouble. My guess is that at least some of the persons included in such a list do not appreciate being lumped together with the others. (The report linked to above seems to have overlooked Dog the Bounty Hunter, the guy who prays for the people he’s seeking and then, sometimes, calls them utterly foul names when he has them).
In Psalm 28, there are people the psalmist doesn’t particularly want to be lumped together, or swept away with:
Do not drag me away with the wicked,
with those who do evil,
who speak cordially with their neighbors
but harbor malice in their hearts.
In this case he protests innocence, but the real basis of his appeal is not his own character, but the Lord’s. He appeals to the Lord’s mercy (verses 2, 6). It is by God’s strength and mercy we are not swept away in a tide of decadence, amorality, and, um, whatever the opposite of integrity is.
Prayer:
Lord, let my standard not be not to be like certain others, but to be more like Jesus. Amen.
It seems 2007 was a year of more than the usual number of awkward episodes in the lives of famous people. Many of those episodes were less embarrassing than the amount of attention given them. I find it especially curious how CBC in a famous meltdowns feature lumps together famous people of completely different fields. It all seems to come under entertainment, whether it’s a former prime minister (Brian Mulroney), a businessman (Conrad Black), football player (Michael Vick), a singer, actress, or person who is just famous for being famous (Spears, Lohan, Hilton), it all comes under famous people in some kind of trouble or at least under some kind of cloud (Nothing has been proved against Mulroney).
I guess it (a) helps some of us feel better about our own little messes, and/or (b) just goes to show none of us is immune from trouble. My guess is that at least some of the persons included in such a list do not appreciate being lumped together with the others. (The report linked to above seems to have overlooked Dog the Bounty Hunter, the guy who prays for the people he’s seeking and then, sometimes, calls them utterly foul names when he has them).
In Psalm 28, there are people the psalmist doesn’t particularly want to be lumped together, or swept away with:
Do not drag me away with the wicked,
with those who do evil,
who speak cordially with their neighbors
but harbor malice in their hearts.
In this case he protests innocence, but the real basis of his appeal is not his own character, but the Lord’s. He appeals to the Lord’s mercy (verses 2, 6). It is by God’s strength and mercy we are not swept away in a tide of decadence, amorality, and, um, whatever the opposite of integrity is.
Prayer:
Lord, let my standard not be not to be like certain others, but to be more like Jesus. Amen.
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
In the Land of the Living
Psalm 27
Another year has passed – and a very difficult one, from my perspective. I can read this psalm very personally, just because of the striking contrasts of trouble and blessing it contains. For that matter, this is another psalm said to have two distinct portions (verses 1-6 and 7-14). Whatever experiences come together in this writing, they reflect the experience any of us may have. That is that in surrendering our life, and the past, to the Lord, we can experience that surrendered life as a purposeful unity of seemingly unrelated contrasts. Jesus himself went through amazing highs and horrible lows. What sustained him was his reliance on the Father and his holding to the purpose for which he was sent.
Prayer:
Lord, I can’t make sense of it all. I begin this year by re-surrendering everything to you. I pray for those who have no sense of purpose, for whom everything is just a day-to-day struggle with nothing to hold it together, at least nothing that lasts or doesn’t lead to more chaos. Whatever spot we may be in our relationship to you, raise the level, bring us closer to you, and to one another in this journey, in which we will see your goodness.
Another year has passed – and a very difficult one, from my perspective. I can read this psalm very personally, just because of the striking contrasts of trouble and blessing it contains. For that matter, this is another psalm said to have two distinct portions (verses 1-6 and 7-14). Whatever experiences come together in this writing, they reflect the experience any of us may have. That is that in surrendering our life, and the past, to the Lord, we can experience that surrendered life as a purposeful unity of seemingly unrelated contrasts. Jesus himself went through amazing highs and horrible lows. What sustained him was his reliance on the Father and his holding to the purpose for which he was sent.
Prayer:
Lord, I can’t make sense of it all. I begin this year by re-surrendering everything to you. I pray for those who have no sense of purpose, for whom everything is just a day-to-day struggle with nothing to hold it together, at least nothing that lasts or doesn’t lead to more chaos. Whatever spot we may be in our relationship to you, raise the level, bring us closer to you, and to one another in this journey, in which we will see your goodness.
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