Psalm 103

This psalm is the medicine to yesterday's psalm. I remember a pastor-mentor of mine back in Holland who would often begin his prayers with the opening of Psalm 103. He would then, in his own humble way, pray back to God the benefits he has received. And on this Christmas Eve, it only makes sense that we would read this psalm. In the birth of Jesus, we see the redemption of the world- the consolation of humanity. In Jesus, we are lifted out of the pit and healing for the sin-sick soul can begin. The King has been born, establishing a reign that will never end and will never be overthrown. For that, I am grateful. Thank you for reading this past year.

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year to all.

Psalm 102

On the day before Christmas Eve... what a horrible psalm to read! I'm listening to my Christmas instrumental station (the only way to truly enjoy Christmas music sometimes), and the carol of the bells is going strongly, and I'm reading a heart-wrenching lament. Can't we get back to a psalm of joy? Wouldn't that make more sense this time of year? Maybe. Maybe not.

What a lament at Christmas reminds me of is that Christmas leaves us waiting. On December 26, we are still waiting for a savior. And for some of us, we are comfortable and able to avoid much of suffering. For us, a savior is nice, but not entirely necessary. With enough power and resources, we can solve our own problems. But for most of the world, and really all of us, there are some things that we just can't fix. People will be neglected on Christmas, just like any other day. We are still hoping for the savior. Still waiting.

Yet, even in our waiting, we have the same comfort David did- that God doesn't change and God isn't limited in power to save. Let's take that comfort with us, along with our laments, into a hopeful Christmas weekend.

Psalm 101

We're back to a psalm of David, and this one sounds to me like a good way to wake up in the morning. Waking up with the praise of God on one's lips could change the outlook of our day. I've just started a new spiritual workout routine that begins the day listening for God. And while it's only been one day, I have started the day with tremendous peace and am ready to tackle whatever comes along my way.

As I read further in the psalm, I am encouraged to begin my day committing myself to staying on God's path- being on God's mission. I want to keep the evil things out of my mind and encourage the things that love God and neighbor. I want to seek wise counsel and put to silence the proud and wicked thoughts I have. Please join me today in making a commitment we can't possibly keep without the Holy Spirit- to live blamelessly today.

Psalm 100

Here is a psalm specifically designed to give thanks (it even says so in the title). So as we approach Christmas, what am I thankful for? I am thankful for many things- a good place to do ministry, friends in the community who make the winter more bearable, and many good steps I see happening in ministry. I am thankful for things even more basic- a loving spouse and two great families. Most of all, I am thankful that God has made me and I am His. So when I enter the gates today, I will be thankful, remembering all that God has done, is doing and has promised for the future. For what are you thankful?

Psalm 99

Let's be honest. There's no real trembling when it comes to God. Few people really go throughout life thinking "Am I living as though there is a God with a particular plan for the world?" Most times, we try to justify what we do through God-like lenses. We desperately want God to be on "our side," and sp we find ways to say "God's on my team." But God isn't a kid hoping we pick Him for our team. God didn't show up to Abraham trying to find someone who would praise God and worship God.

Indeed, God has a mission. Certainly, it's a mission of grace and reconciliation, but a mission nevertheless. And while God isn't hindered by human frailty and failure, sometimes it seems like it. We as Christians fall into a fairly unhealthy pattern of spending more time trying to figure out what God thinks about our priorities than what we should think of God's. Today I try to exalt God and place God's mission in the front of my mind. May we all try that today.

Psalm 98

I think we miss the term "judge" sometimes. I hear the word "judge" and I think of condemnation, rejection and other nasty experiences. Yet, in this psalm my version of "judge" gets challenged. Does it do the same for you?

I can't help but get caught up in the drum-beat of worship that echoes through all creation. God has once again brought salvation to the people, and all the earth rejoices. And we get really excited because God is coming to... judge? Argh! Run, judgment is coming! But wait, are we supposed to be excited or scared of the coming judge?

I think, because we train ourselves to think only of our unworthiness, the judge is terrifying. We register "guilty" by our names, and have seen enough episodes of Law and Order to know that we are going to be condemned. But we forget that our unworthiness, while theologically sound, is not the end of the story. The end of the story is God's glory being known throughout the earth, and God's justice prevailing. And God's justice, if we believe the prophetic visions of God's future, is of acceptance, not rejection. So perhaps, as I think of the coming judge, I don't see a black robe ready to sentence me, but the one who will change me so that I won't be guilty anymore.

Psalm 97

What a great and mysterious God there is! This God, whom the psalmist writes about, is at once knowable and yet mysterious, surrounded by darkness and yet with unmissable glory (verses 2 and 6). This God has a power that creation itself cannot ignore- mountains melt and the earth trembles. Yet this God is one who is concerned about the weak and the oppressed, and delivers them (verses 4-5 and 10).

My idols are easy to control, my idols are easy to figure out. I can tell you exactly how my idols act and what they will do (and what they will want me to do). Perhaps that is why I seek comfort in them rather than in God. My idols tell me what I want to hear, and they make life so simple. God tells me stories about seeds and debtors, God weaves narratives of the "bad people" being obedient and the "good people" being arrogant. God makes things messy and complicated.

When Jesus made things complicated, people left. And Jesus spoke to the disciples, saying "Are you leaving too?" I'm sure the thought crossed their minds. Yet Peter said "Where else will we go? You have the words of life." So, I am willing to live with a little messy and complicated because, at the end of the day, God sows light and joy into the faithful heart. Praise be to God!

Psalm 96

This psalm doesn't take a whole lot of explanation. As I read it, I find I only want to read it, read it again, and read it again, and hope that I can see the creation-wide worship service today. After all, every day is a new song.

May you hear the new song of God's goodness and strength today.

Psalm 95

This psalm undergoes a pretty wild mood change from beginning to end. It begins with a pretty standard praise to God, and it ends with a haunting warning. Perhaps a warning we need to hear, though, because the same warning echoes through the Old Testament right up into the New Testament (in the book of Hebrews). I wonder if I take worship too lightly as I read this warning.

After all, worship is not something small. The ancient people considered it a wonder that God (or the gods, depending on the culture) would even interact with them at all. Perhaps in our pride, we have considered ourselves so important that God should show up in our worship, and to not show up would be some breach of trust.

Indeed, it is wonderful that God would reveal God's own character and plan to human beings. The fact that God walked in the Garden of Eden with the first humans is pretty incredible. God's plan includes us, and that is incredible. God chooses, for some reason we can only call love, to speak to creation. Let our hearts not be hardened to the voice of God.

Psalm 94

Apparently, the hit show "The Biggest Loser" ends its season this week. I am not a regular follower of the show, although I am always surprised when I see the before/after pictures. The trainers scare me a little bit, but they also are a secret inspiration when I'm taking people through a workout myself. That show to me embodies discipline, even if I wonder about the long-term health effects of such rapid weight loss.

This psalm, in the end, is about discipline. And I believe this kind of discipline comes from devotion and focus. Anyone who hits the gym regularly knows that discipline is less about discouraging bad habits than encouraging new habits. The psalmist laments that so many seem to be undisciplined, and the result of such behavior is widespread systemic wickedness. The psalmist turns to God for help, hoping that God will intervene and create a new system that will be disciplined and just.

What is chilling, however, are the questions in the final verses. "Who will rise up for me against the wicked?" "Who will take a stand for me against evildoers?" The psalmist knows that God will send help. It is also true that there are people who silently ask this question all the time, wondering who God will send to stand against the systemic wickedness that still exists today. The Church is God's representative on earth to do that. So may we discipline our own selves so that we can be able to stand against the wickedness and show compassion for the hurting.

Psalm 93

Everyone has something they are afraid of. For some, spiders are a source of dread. Open spaces, closed spaces, the dark, snakes, and germs are all things that are completely benign to some but are terrifying for others. For the ancient world, the sea was a mysterious void with monsters and dark forces swirling about it. Seafaring people (like the Philistines) were seen as even more powerful. Fishermen were often considered crazy for their desire to throw nets into the monsters' lair. Jesus calming the sea was an unexpected victory for the disciples. "Who is this that even the waves obey him?"

Yet here we are in the psalms, and God is the one who reigns over the sea. Not only that, but the monsters and the scary stuff out there praise God. The idea that the seas would be an auditorium for God's praise is so important, the psalmist repeats it twice. If the seas praise God, and the earth is full of God's glory, indeed God reigns from everlasting to everlasting. There is nothing to truly be afraid of- fear is under the loving reign of God. Let God's perfect love drive out your fear today.

Psalm 92

I sometimes get depressed when I watch Christian preachers on television. I'll admit that if I were televised, someone would get depressed watching me, but that's one really good reason I'm not televised. Some programs are just church services televised, others are pastors specifically talking into the camera for no other audience than the home audience. One day, I tuned in to a pastor who spent the entire time I was watching preaching against instrumental music in worship. My first thought was, "Really? All the problems in the world, and you want to convince people not to use instruments in worship?" And so I watched, my heart hardening to his message every minute as I entered into mental combat about his theology. I will confess that I am not proud of this. In fact, I have to repent of my pride in this circumstance. What is also true is that I am convinced of the power of instrumental music to carry us in worship. This psalm is an example.

This is a psalm for Sabbath day worship in the Temple and probably in the home. Only a couple instruments are mentioned, so it's possible to follow this psalm's instructions at home. And the worship is free and joyful. This song laments that more people don't see the works of God's hands, and rejoices in God's victory- a victory for us means even more as Jesus defeated death and sin on the cross and out of the tomb. Because of this victory, we have every right and all the reason we need to worship God; not only on the Lord's Day, but everyday. May this be a day of praise to God for you as well as me.

Psalm 91

Psalm 91 is without a given author, and certainly has a message for the ages. God is our refuge in times of trouble. However, this psalm also opens us up to temptation. After all, this psalm is cited by Satan in the Gospels as a reason for Jesus to jump off the Temple. After all, wouldn't Jesus be saved as part of the promise of angelic protection? The other temptation is to read this psalm as a proof of whether or not God loves you. It can be easy to read this psalm and look back on one's life and see that perhaps you have been struck with harm, and then you look at this psalm with either cynicism or shame.

Indeed, this psalm seems to intend neither shame nor cynicism. The Bible is abundantly clear that we are not guaranteed freedom from suffering nor absence of hardship. In fact, Jesus says "blessed are you" when we face hardship. Indeed, God's salvation goes beyond our temporal hardship and into everlasting relationship. So today, I give thanks to the God who can be trusted and is the savior!

Psalm 90

Moses is the author of this particular psalm, writing on behalf of the Israelite people. The books of Exodus and Numbers are filled with stories of the rebellion of Israel resulting in plagues and earthquakes and the like. The forty years Israel spent wandering in the desert were not pleasant. They were filled with hardship and battles and temptations and trials. Most of the time, Moses was not directly affected. The plagues usually landed on the people who were directly rebellious against Moses and God. But what we do know of Moses is that he prayed for the people constantly. He even prayed for the people who wanted him out of leadership. This psalm is not like David praying for his own safety, but Moses praying for others.

May I pray like Moses today.

Psalm 89

One key phrase of Advent is "already, but not yet." In Advent, we celebrate the fact that Jesus has come into the world, taking on human flesh and living among us with our struggles, hurts and everything that comes from an embodied life. On the other hand, I'm looking outside the Leelanau Coffee Roasting Company at the Prescription Shop, which reminds me that people are still sick. I spent the noon hour yesterday face-to-face with the same reality at Munson Hospital in Traverse City. My memory is flooded from time to time of my own failures and the ways I have hurt others. I am afraid. I read articles this morning about how Wikileaks has changed the face of diplomacy with its recent burst of documents exposing secrets and conversations. North and South Korea are marching toward the brink of war. Clearly, not everything is right yet.

This psalm captures the already/not yet reality of Advent. On the one hand, the Ezrahite is celebrating Israel's return from exile. They are back in Jerusalem with a Temple and everything. Priests are functioning, people are worshiping in the way they were meant to, everything is better. Except Cyrus (the king of Persia) is still the face on their money. Their governor, a descendant of David, is not king but rules under the guidelines of Persia. And so things aren't great yet. They aren't the way that the prophets described, when Israel would be greater than they were before. Where's the Messiah?

Life is a mixture of waiting and receiving, of acting and pausing. Indeed, as Job tells us, our worship is not based on circumstances but on God's unchanging character. So, although we are surrounded by reminders of the not-yet, Praise be the Lord forever! Amen, and amen.

Psalm 88

This psalm reads like a fairly standard lament... until the last verse. I am unsettled by it. I think I actually gasped a little when I read it- darkness is my closest friend. Who ends a psalm that way?

Clearly one who knows what that feels like. If you buy into the consumer attitude of spirituality today, you will believe that once you "acquire" God (or whatever you want in the spiritual realm), you will be set. You will have it made. You will love the verse "If God is for us, who can be against us?" because it will give you the comfort that your relationship with God is locked into the "awesome" setting and is static. As the people of Israel found out, a relationship with God is both steady and dynamic. Israelites, as well as Christians over the ages, discovered that we experience God differently at different times. This speaks against the consumer attitude.

Indeed, people of faith sometimes have a close friend in darkness. Perhaps you can point to a time when darkness was a good friend. Darkness hides, and sometimes we want only to hide. So we wear the darkness like a costume, immersing ourselves in the malaise in order to hide the mysterious (and possibly painful) healing process. Indeed, darkness hides. But darkness is a fickle friend. Darkness will hide you for only so long. Eventually, the darkness wants to hide things from you. Hope can be swallowed up in darkness. We can only be sustained for so long without hope- an imagined future better than our present and perceived reality. So may hope in the God who saves be breathed into your areas of darkness today.

Psalm 87

Where I grew up, the home was the center of my world. After all, I couldn't cross the busy streets a few blocks west, or two blocks south, or several blocks north, or just a bit to the east. Unless I went somewhere in a car, I was restrained to a few blocks, my home nearly in the middle of that region. Not that I had a problem with that; after all, most of my friends lived in the neighborhood, we had a candy store, a Burger King and a delicious doughnut shop all in that area. Thus, I was a happy kid. So when my friends and I would take off on our bikes, we would always know where home was. Or, at the very least, we knew which way to turn when we got to a busy road.

For ancient Israel, God's home was the center of the world. That chosen home was Mt. Zion in Jerusalem. Being close to that place was special to the ancient Israelites, creating a pining for home when they were carried away. This psalm has both a rooted centeredness about it as well as a driving move outward. Certainly, Zion is a special place. However, God is not only interested in the city of Zion- God is interested in the world. God's desire is that all the nations would look to and acknowledge God. Whether those nations be Philistia, Tyre, Spain, Saudi Arabia, China or the United States of America, God has an outward-focus from Zion to bless the world. Today, Paul says that we as followers of Jesus are the Temple of the Holy Spirit, so admittedly things are a little different now. However, the drive of God for the nations has not. May we be motivated further into mission by reading this Psalm.

Psalm 86

Just when we thought we had moved on from David to Asaph and Korah, the organizers of the book of Psalms sneak another Davidic prayer into the mix. And much like other Davidic psalms, it begins in the muck and mire of David's painful circumstances. Yet there is something different about this one.

Certainly, David calls upon God to act in justice to save him. And in this, David trusts God to do whatever is right. However, there is something else going on in this passage that is truly remarkable. David asks for a different way of living in the midst of his trials. Often, when we encounter rough times, we just focus on surviving the crisis and making it through the other side. And that can be valid, God designed us to operate that way to some extent.

Yet, we also find ourselves in crisis mode making some shady decisions in order to make it. And in those moments, we can take a cue from David and ask God for the wisdom and direction to make the right decisions, even when it's hard. I pray that we can each take those cues today.

Psalm 85

A psalm begins in utter confusion, and ends in sweetness. The Korahites composed this little number as a piece of hope. They begin in the chaotic, in the disastrous. But this is only a backdrop to the intense hope of a heaven-to-earth connection found in verses 10-13.

What would it look like to have love and faithfulness meet? Or to have righteousness and peace locked in embrace, kissing? If faithfulness burst forth from the earth and collided with righteousness in heaven, what would be the result? Jesus. Jesus Christ is the heaven-to-earth connection that people in the Old Testament waited for but never fully saw. In Jesus, love for God and neighbor was met with absolute faithfulness. Jesus exuded peace, even in His anger, and lived a righteous life. In Jesus, we see all of the things that the Korahites sang about. And so the hope we have is a little different than theirs. They hoped for something (or someone) to come, and we hope for the return of that same person. Both ideas may offend our modern sensibilities, yet still we wait. And we wait to see the poetry of Psalm 85 lived out. I hope you see a glimpse of it today.

Psalm 84

It would be a tragedy to write about this psalm and not mention that there is a pretty moving song that has been written as a modern day Psalm 84. Click here to give it a listen.

You know the feeling of being home. After a long time of travel, it is good to finally rest your head on your pillow and know that you are home. In the same way, there are few fears more tangible than when one's home is violated by disaster or the acts of people. Our homes contain our dreams, the people we love, the memories we cherish. To lose that, even walking away to something better, can be difficult.

The Korahites, the Old Testament worship team, put together this psalm to talk about God's house (the Temple) as home, God as home, and the pilgrimage home. As the pilgrims make their way to the Temple, they find healing in the journey. They go through the valley of Baka (meaning deep sorrow), and leave it as a thriving oasis. Healing indeed comes along on the journey.

Today, I am going to find my home in God. I pray that you will do the same.

Psalm 83

One difficult theological conundrum in the Christian life is failure. After all, if God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31) Yet, the Bible is full of failures. Despite overwhelming grace, the Israelites are carried into exile. Despite direct, face-to-face encounters with Jesus, disciples turn astray and fail. And sometimes, in the Christian walk, we are faced with failure. We get a strong sense that we believe is from God that we should go forward with something. We go forward, and it fails miserably. We are hurt, and we wonder if God set us up or if we weren't really hearing God's voice. Either way, our faith is rattled. The same is going for Asaph, who is wondering why armies are invading and succeeding in Israel. This could be the exile, it could be one of many other situations where armies actually begin to succeed in the wars against ancient Israel. Yet, God is God, who can defeat God?

Failure is a mystery that is often beyond our comprehension. We can set up theological framework to explain away failure, but our best explanations can still feel dry. Much like the explanations of Job's "friends" were of little use to Job, we can often sit in judgment on others and even ourselves when faced with the anxious, fear-inducing reality of failure. I wonder if we instead brought failure to God, like Asaph does, and in doing so remind us of the ultimate reality that God is Most High over all the earth. And in that reality, I can have some measure of peace today, despite my failures.

Psalm 82

This little psalm tucked away is not one you hear about very often, but it was brought to my attention first a couple years ago when I was in an Old Testament class talking about how the Hebrew people viewed the so-called "spiritual realm." The NIV translation adds the quotation marks around the word "gods" as an interpretive decision, but Hebrew has no quotation marks or anything that would denote that Asaph meant so-called or anything like it. And that little fact makes this passage fascinating. Is the psalm talking about some kind of spiritual being that has some kind of power in the world? Sometimes, the word for gods also denoted angels. God could be summoning the angels, including the fallen ones, in this passage. Some of these heavenly beings may have been worshiped as gods in different cultures. This passage could be talking about kings, since many theologies of kingship in the Old Testament held that the kings (and prophets and priests) had basically one foot into heaven already. All three of these options are possible. There is more mystery to the heavens than our theologies often give credit for.

However, the charge is the same if you are talking to royalty, Zeus or some kind of angel- God is Just. And the voices of power, whether or earth or of heaven, wish to drown out the voices of the oppressed, the hurting, the weak. And God, as a good friend of mine put it, is good at delegating. Certain responsibilities have been granted to creation. For example, we were given the responsibility by God to take care of creation and to make disciples of all nations. The responsibility to love our neighbors and to defend them also can fall to us in any situations where we have power. Ultimately, though, we can be glad that God holds the cause of the defenseless and is a rescuer.

Psalm 81

I heard an unknown voice say...

What an interesting shift in the psalm. It starts with a decree for worship, musical instruments and all, and all of a sudden a voice breaks in on the psalm and changes the whole direction. Of course, it doesn't take too long before the mysterious voice is revealed to be God, the same God of the Exodus. Yet Asaph is content to never announce that God's voice is breaking in.

I can appreciate how this psalm is written, because I am sometimes (if not often) surprised at how God shows up in both dramatic and subtle ways. I could tell of times even in the past few weeks where God showed up at a time that I would have expected (a quiet time of meditation) yet in a way that I would never have expected (unearthing a thought that was brutally honest). And as soon as that happened, it seemed like I went through a shift. Now, in that moment, I was waiting for God and God was faithful. But that does not need to be the case. What is great about God is that God does not need the conditions to be perfect in order to communicate with us. God can surprise us. I pray that your encounters with God are surprising and meaningful this weekend.

Psalm 80

I have often heard of revivals as a religious concept. People fear that the spiritual state of their community has descended into apathy, and so pray that God would "revive" the spiritual health of the community. This psalm is a prayer for a different kind of revival- one that takes place in a time of desperate rescue. The story of the transplanted tree is the story of Israel, a story that in the minds of the Hebrew people was to end in perpetual growth and prosperity. Imagine the complete shock to the system created by the exile! And so the people are left craving a holistic salvation.

I wonder if, in our appeals for revival, we miss out on the fact that salvation is a physical/mental/social/spiritual reality. The Kingdom of God means something to all areas of life, not just an emotional experience of life. So when I pray for revival today, I pray for those who are in need of rescue. Our rescue may be from depression, or drugs, or slavery, or injustice, or prejudice, or any form of human brokenness. May the Kingdom of God be present today. Restore us, O God; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.

Psalm 79

Asaph's clan is at it again with a psalm of lament regarding the exiled life. Jerusalem is so smashed up that there's no one left to bury the dead. Now, carrion birds are swooping into Jerusalem by the flock and are profaning the holy city. To the psalmist, this is a metaphor of the unclean nations (Babylon in particular) who have swooped in to plunder and feast on the goods of Israel. Naturally, watching something like this occur could be a detriment to one's faith. And for the worshiping community of Israel, it is coming to the point of inhibiting worship (see the end of the psalm). The worshipers ask in fairly brutal honesty, "Is this God worth worshiping?"

Somewhere in the back of their minds, they have a sneaky suspicion that God is still with them. After all, this is a piece for public worship, so they are at least showing up and talking to God. This implies some kind of relationship. But, just like us sometimes, they have a blockage to really letting loose with the praise. We have the same DNA they did, and the same brokenness. And sometimes, our places of brokenness (including, perhaps especially, the places where we have been further broken by someone else) can impair our ability to worship. Why did God allow this? Why me? What is God holding over me? are all questions that can lead to a fundamental breakdown in the with-God relationship. Psalms like these give us resources to say "I want to praise, I want to worship, please heal me in this area where I can't." May God bring wholeness to your areas of brokenness today.

Psalm 78

This psalm continues yesterday's discussion of a storied faith. This psalm likely comes from the hands of Asaph himself (and not a later descendant), as it reaches its conclusion in the life of David (for whom Asaph worked). But it is basically the story of Israel from the Exodus to their present. The story has been told and retold throughout the Psalms and other places in the Word, yet there is something distinctive about this psalm- purpose. The opening of the psalm talks about why one would re-tell the story. You retell the story again so that the next generation does not forget it. Perhaps in the age of youtube clips, books, online magazines, blogs, 24-hour news and social networking, we do not fear anything being forgotten. After all, my computer now is only two clicks away from finding whatever information I want. It's not like the ancient days, when the only thing keeping stories from being forgotten was one generation's silence.

So are we off the hook? Can we just trust the numerous resources out there to hold the story for us? I would argue that we are not off the hook. In fact, we are more on the hook than ever. To leave the story at "well, there's a Bible on the shelf" relegates God to the distant past. A storied faith is grounded in history yet has a future and is playing itself out in the present. People need to hear our stories as well, and we need to hear others' stories. Hear how God acted in the distant past, the recent past and now. Maybe then we can draw closer to a storied faith.

Psalm 77

Here is another example of how the Old Testament saints (this time Asaph) dealt with the crushing blows of their present circumstance by remember the events of the past. In this case, Asaph (again, or one of Asaph's followers) remembers the days of the Exodus. During the time of the exile, references to the Exodus were powerful reminders of God's grace. After all, the exile lasted less than a hundred years, while slavery in Egypt lasted a few hundred years. Certainly, if God could deliver the Israelites from Egypt, God could deliver the Israelites from Assyria/Babylon/Persia. That sense of rootedness in history allowed the Old Testament believers plenty of space to mourn, doubt and have faith.

One of my worries for contemporary spirituality is that we have lost the storied sense of history that the Bible holds so closely. The danger of losing a rooted history is that a timeless spirituality leaves a person in desperate need for "universals." In other words, every moment is a commendation or indictment of present faith. Ultimately, this spirituality is self-serving as it assumes that each event in our lives is somehow designed to teach "me" a lesson or is a result of what "I" have done. This can be exhausting, to be sure. Instead, let us find ourselves rooted in a deep faith centered on a God who has been faithful from all generations.

Psalm 76

How do I think of psalms such as this one? God gets involved in the battles of the earth, and (naturally) is victorious. I read psalms like this and think of days like the Crusades, when priests would carry a large golden cross (supposedly containing a piece of the cross of Jesus) into battle and expect the cross to provide victory. After all, God is the warrior here and wins battles. I tremble at the image.

Compare this image to the image of Ba'al and Asherah, chief god and goddess in the Canaanite world (and the most popular idols in Israel). Ba'al gets involved in wars just for the sake of it, and meets his consort Asherah while she is washing off the blood of her conquests. They destroy village after village, and there is no end to the violence and destruction.

I compare that image to Psalm 76, and I see some major discrepancies. For one, God is not the one with the sword. God is the one who speaks. God disposes of "the weapons of war" (verse 3). God's true home is not the battlefield, but Salem. Salem is a pre-Hebrew word that relates to "Shalom" in Hebrew and "Salaam" in Arabic. It means peace. God dwells in peace. God's battles are not for the sake of being the warrior, but on behalf of the afflicted. God's battles are to restrain the powerful from oppressing the powerless. May God's name be known as great in all the world.

Psalm 75

"When the earth and all its people quake, it is I who hold the pillars firm" (verse 3). That is a great line. In the face of chaos, natural disasters, riots, crime and everything else, God is the one holding us up. Certainly we can be glad that we aren't in charge. After all, check out the top headlines today from the BBC's website:

"Fuel supply to Paris airports cut" because of pension protests and the fear of running out of fuel for the city.

"DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) troops 'in rapes and murder'"

"Troops tell of Fort Hood shootings"

"Israel unveils settlement plans"

"Father jailed for drowning sons"

The list goes on, trust me. And what's worse is that this doesn't even begin to tap into the stories too gruesome to put into words. Clearly, human beings left to our own devices will not hold up the pillars of the earth. However, today I can be grateful that God does hold up the pillars of the universe and of my own life. Thank you, God, for that gift.

Psalm 74

Imagine being in the place of Asaph (or more likely a descendant of Asaph). All the ways you normally connected with God are gone. Temple- burned to the ground. Prophets- dead or in hiding (either way they're gone). Altars- toppled and smashed. Now there's nothing. Armies close in on all sides and there is no way to know when it's all going to end.

All you have is a story. The story is of God the deliverer, the One who created all things and defeats the monster. This God speaks through the changing seasons and through covenant. And with the story playing itself in your mind, you begin to see that God has not been silent- God has been speaking all around you. And yet, God does not answer the main question on your heart- "How long?"

That is a question that God rarely answers in Scripture. Even when God finally lays down a time-line for the exile, it's measured in "times," not years or months or hours. It is not always for us to know the time, and that can be very frustrating. However, we also have the promise of God's presence for that entire time. And that can be very comforting. So today, allow yourself to feel the tension of God's delay in putting together the broken pieces, and take hope in God's sustained and sustaining love.

Psalm 73

Click here to read Psalm 73

What a story! This testimony comes to us from Asaph, who helped lead the praise team under David (1 Chronicles 6:39), and it is a testimony of a changed heart. Honestly, it can be hard to look around at the world and see evil prosper. And seeing it, Asaph stumbled. He wondered how his life might be better if he would have just lived a little more carefree. Not carefree in the light-hearted sense, Asaph wondered if his life could have been more care-free as in callous. Wouldn't his life be better if he just never saw the suffering of the world? Wouldn't our lives be so much easier if we could just ignore that stuff and only see the positive? Unfortunately, as Asaph acknowledges, "ignoring that stuff" can easily lead to more violence and more destruction rather than more bliss. But still, for a moment, envy filled his heart and he found himself wishing he could just forget his values and live that burden-free life.

An encounter with God changes all of that, though. In the sanctuary, God shows Asaph a vision of a day of rescue for the abused and battered people, where injustice and wickedness will come to ruin. And from God's perspective, Asaph realizes that he doesn't need all of the power and wealth of the wicked. God is enough.

Is God enough for me today? I hope my heart is ready to say that. Whom have I in heaven but God, and earth has nothing I desire but God. Let us take our refuge in God today.

Psalm 72

What makes this psalm especially interesting is the very last verse. At the top, we see that this psalm is "of Solomon," and so we assume that it means "by Solomon." But when we get to the bottom, we see that this is David's last psalm. "Of Solomon" means "for Solomon." These are David's recorded wishes for Solomon, his son. And he wants all the best for him- tributes and power and a big kingdom. However, what David really wants to communicate to Solomon is his most important responsibility- the afflicted. It easy, when power is involved, to ignore the powerless. After all, it's much easier to spend one's time focusing on people who have resources. But to step into the world of someone in such totally different circumstances can be difficult. Many times, it doesn't even cross our minds. It may be why David not only repeats the thought several times in the psalm, he also makes it into a song that Solomon may have heard many times in his long reign.

Protecting the powerless and delivering the marginalized was/is as major theme to our king as well. Jesus often opted for the people on the fringe of society, even choosing their situation rather than a place of privilege that could have been afforded him. May we have the heart of Jesus today.

Psalm 71

Of all the verses in this psalm, I think these verses hit me the hardest:

14 But as for me, I will always have hope;
I will praise you more and more.

15 My mouth will tell of your righteousness,
of your salvation all day long,
though I know not its measure.

My mouth will tell of your righteousness... though I know not its measure. What a statement of faith! Even though the psalmist cannot grasp the fullness of God's salvation, or figure it all out, the psalmist can still praise God. We, who live after Jesus, can say something similar. We do not fully understand salvation, we do not fully understand Jesus. Yet that doesn't need to keep us from telling (and celebrating) the story. How can you do that today?

Psalm 70

Come quickly! Such is the cry of David as once again he finds himself poor and needy in the face of his enemies. The heart-cry of David wants to worship God and wants to cry out that God is exalted, yet he finds himself trapped in his own circumstances. And so he finds himself in lament- the fuzzy gray between God's perfect wonder and the world's (seemingly) unending brokenness. It would be easy to paint lament as "being mad at God," although that doesn't get to the heart of the matter. Anger is a second tier emotion; that is, anger comes after we feel something else. In David's case, the anger comes from fear. True lament gets to the heart. It cries out the question "Why?!?" and is not satisfied by platitudes and fake answers. Lament takes the goodness of God and holds it next to the absolute absurdity of life circumstances and refuses to ignore either. Lament is not an easy place to be, but it is a necessary place to be sometimes. Let's not be afraid of lament, but embrace its place in our lives and in the life of God's people.

Psalm 69

A movie was released a few years back with a terrifying premise- a couple goes scuba diving off of a cruise ship in open water, but gets forgotten. They are left there floating in open water to endure the cold water and isolation in the middle of the ocean. They have no idea where to swim, so they just float, hoping that the ship will realize that they're gone and send someone to get them. Then the dorsal fins start to appear, and the sharks begin checking them out. I won't spoil the ending for you, but I don't think I need to. I can't even imagine how frightening being trapped in open water would be. This psalm gives us the inner life of a person who is drowning, although in a much more metaphorical sense. The water of life circumstances seems to be a prison where the doors are locking and the key is being thrown away. Perhaps you have experienced your own days of "drowning."

The twist, however, is at the end of the psalm. This psalm, of David, begins talking about an event David did not live through. The personal experiences of David are reinterpreted to talk about the national event of the exile. When the people of God were taken away to Babylon, they were poor, distressed, and their faith was drowning. So maybe this personal experience of David's can shed light on something more than personal depression. Perhaps, this psalm is the cry of the human heart, broken and kicked down, waiting for the day for the pieces to be put together again.

And if that is the cry of the heart, then we have a story to tell...

Psalm 68

To be honest, not everything God does makes me comfortable. Melting people like wax, letting us plunge our feet in the blood of enemies, crushing heads, and the like are not exactly the God I imagine when I think about God. David is probably more comfortable with that imagery because walking in the blood of enemies was a regular occurrence for the warrior-king. I'm just not totally there yet. Maybe I won't ever be totally there. God has ways that are higher than mine, and so I'm okay not being comfortable with every verse. I don't even have to explain it away. I'll just be uncomfortable. But... and here's where the power of the verse comes in, I see tremendous beauty in this psalm.

God's creative energy is clearly at work in this psalm. The lonely are given community, the rain falls to give life to the earth in preparation for God's coming, the poor are provided for by God's creative abundance. God daily bears our burdens and carries them for us even as God shows us mighty strength of protection. And so my response is praise, despite my personal discomfort with the psalm. God is the God who protects the vulnerable and acts to bring people into relationship with others and with the God who created them. Praise be to God!

Psalm 67

This psalm begins with a familiar opening- it's the blessing of Aaron found in the book of Numbers (or at least, it's part of the blessing of Aaron found in the book of Numbers). This blessings was seen as a benediction, and in many churches is used as the benediction before people leave the sanctuary to get their coffee. Yet here, the blessing is an opening. This psalm seems to answer the question, "Why do we ask God to bless us?"

Clearly, the answer in this psalm is for the sake of the world. Blessing is not for our comfortable lives, nor is blessing to pull us out of a frustrating time. Blessing, in God's eyes, is always on behalf of others. It goes back to Abraham, who was blessed to be a blessing.

So who can we bless today? Who can we tell of God's salvation throughout the world today?

Psalm 66

What stories are worth telling? As a movie buff, I watch each week as the box office totals roll in and people vote with their wallets on which movies have stories that are worth telling and worth hearing. And I would happily tell you about any of my favorites. In fact, I dare you to try to have a conversation with me where I don't reference a movie or TV show in the process. Some stories are just worth re-telling.

This psalm is a story worth re-telling. It is a story that rumbles through creation, echoing throughout all the earth. God draws nearer still in the dramatic rescue of a people from Egypt (nifty computer model here- http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=11690108). The story isn't all happiness and sunshine, it involves hardship and frustration. Yet, God is still God. The story is still worth re-telling. So what story in your life is worth re-telling? Even bigger, is this story worth re-telling?

What's interesting about this psalm is that it doesn't have the whole thing in mind. After all, God's biggest move isn't featured in it at all- Jesus Christ. Yet, the psalm excitedly and passionately proclaims this story. How can we tell the story today?

Psalm 65

God provides. I am happy that we came to this point in the psalms. It got a little difficult to hear psalm after psalm of frustration and angst. But here, we get a celebration of God's goodness and provision for the world and the people in it. We get a picture of God's loving care that extends to all people (verse 2). We get a sense of God's amazing grace (verse 3). And we get a mighty vision of God's activity.

Have you wondered in the past week at God's creative power? As I watch the winds blows outside my office window, I can't help but get a sense of God's might and care. After all, if the leaves never fell from the trees, and old branches were never pruned away, the cycle of nature and life would be stunted. Plus, I actually enjoy pulling the branches out of my yard. It, along with raking leaves, is one of those chores that just connects me right in to God's re-creative activity. It is that same creative energy that is at work in me and you. God the Creator is God the Redeemer. The One who makes the leaves come out, soak up sun, turn brilliant colors, fall and grow anew is the same One who takes the decay in our hearts and replaces it with new life. May you experience that new life today in God's world.

Psalm 64

I doubt that when David wrote these words he could have imagined a world when words could be "sharpened like swords" like today. When David lived, communicating outside of your city was hard enough- imagine communicating across the world! Technology has connected the far reaches of the globe, for good and for ill. One of the ills is that the situation David responds to in this psalm is far more prevalent (and easier) today. Just think about how easy it is for a person to get an audience for hate speech. It happens on blogs, youtube channels, facebook groups, twitter accounts, chain e-mails, pop-up advertising, and that's just the stuff that anyone can get started. Television shows, newspaper columns, magazine articles and others can be accessed and used by people of higher communication skills to let their conspiracy of words be released to millions of people in some circumstances.

I have wondered from time to time what God must think of the toxic environment of our world. I shudder to think about God's perspective on our words. Having once been the recipient of word-hate online, I can't imagine that similar situations happen every day. People have even lost their lives in the sweeping tide of bullying and verbal hate. The end of this passage gets ominous when David describes that God will personally end the hatred and bring release to the hated. And so when we are victims of hate, we can rest in God and lean on the marvelous works of God. But when we participate in the hate, we can turn back to God and let our tongues "unsharpen" a bit. Words, like just about everything else in life, are impossible to erase. Let us go into our day watching for opportunities to increase the peace with our words and actions.

Psalm 63

Imagine this kind of encounter with God! David in one moment sees God in the sanctuary of the Temple and he is forever changed. From that moment on, David craved to be in that presence. His soul is satisfied only by the presence of God, and his desire to see God moves him day and night.

Sometimes, I feel that desire too. Other days, I want to feel that desire. Still other days, I want to want to feel that desire too. We are all on spiritual journeys that do not progress in a straight line. I pray that your soul connects with David's words this morning.

Psalm 62

There is a beautiful but subtle shift in this psalm that I can see play out in my life. David begins Psalm 62 with the proclamation that his soul finds rest in God alone. Yet, if you look later in the psalm, David reminds his soul to find rest in God alone (verse 5). So what has changed in four verses?

Namely, David encounters struggle of some kind. He has come under an attack so vicious that it seems to be an attack on God as well as David. Traitors (who bless with their mouths yet curse with their hearts) have unleashed a relentless assault to kick him out of the throne. David's son is probably the leader of this group. It seems that in moments of trial, David needs to remind himself of God's goodness. That may be an important lesson for all of us.

Yet the most fascinating part of the psalm may be that David says "What's the point?" to the newest rebellion. Remember that David is the one who didn't play politics when everyone wanted him to. He even refused multiple chances to steal the throne from Saul. What's the point of all this rat race? Our status at the end of life does not determine our mortality. We are all but a breath, so why extort and steal for our own benefit? Let us instead put our energy toward the Kingdom- toward something that will last.

Psalm 61

David's sense of responsibility is huge. In verse 5, David talks about his responsibility to take care of God's heritage- God's people. And it is that foundation that he calls out to God to save his life. He even takes an interesting turn where he refers to himself in the third person, speaking even bigger than himself and to the kingship of Israel. David's reign is such that he depends on God to fulfill his kingly responsibility.

David's sense of dependence of God is admirable- it's something I want to strive for in my own life. God has granted responsibility to all of us, sharing in the royal anointing of Jesus Christ, and that can be scary sometimes. We are called to carry on the ministry of Jesus in the world... gulp!

So let us rely on God in the same way David sings about as we fulfill our vows day after day.

Psalm 60

Now here's something we are encountering for the first time in the Psalms. If you take a chance to read the title, we are told that this psalm is meant "for teaching." I almost missed it the first time. So what does this psalm teach us? Perhaps a better question would be "What does this psalm teach me?"

In lyrical form, I am reminded to never take lightly the idea that God is, "on my side." That would claim that God stands behind me and defends my causes and passions. Instead, I should be asking the self-reflective (and much more difficult) question if I am on the Lord's side. And to go even father, do I assume that God only has one side and there are only two sides to every conflict? Is God so small that God only exists with one group at a time?

This psalm starts with the rejection by God of the people of Israel. It is credited to David's time, but probably became even more real in the exile. This would present a powerful question to the people of God- are they still the people of God, or has God chosen the side of the enemy? And the prophets, communicating in human terms, can only go so far in expressing the nature of God. At times, the counsel of God is that the Israelites are done being the people of God- terms like divorce are sometimes used (Jeremiah 3:8, Isaiah 50:1). Yet, the welcoming back of Israel into the fold of God that takes place occurs in those same books (Isaiah 49:8, Jeremiah 30:1-3). So what is it?

Perhaps it is more complicated than just "which side is God's." God is bigger than our schemes and our plans, than our sides and our struggles. God works among us when we are on top as well as when we are on bottom. God tears and God mends. God is our help, and God is our king. God gives grace, and God sharpens. Praise be to the God who is bigger than all of our understanding, hopes and dreams!

Psalm 59

This psalm plays out some like a scary movie- David is once again trapped when Saul sends his death squads to David's house. Now a prisoner in his own home, David hears the would-be assassins and the joy they take in besieging his home. He hears the taunts and curses they shout out to goad him, to trick him into coming out to face them in combat. And so David sits in his home, given to him by King Saul, wondering when it will end. He waits for the darkness, because maybe in the darkness they will leave him alone. But the darkness only makes it worse. He can still hear them, and they have taken to scavenging the streets to pass the time. David seems to be haunted by them.

Sometimes we too can be haunted. We can be haunted by bad decisions, torn relationships, mistakes, behaviors, trauma that other people have inflicted upon us. We too can feel like prisoners in our own homes and our own bodies, while our thoughts have a field day tearing us down. And we too can cry out to God. And we too can have hope that in the morning, the sun will rise. Our hope is even more powerful than David's, because we know about Easter morning, when not only did the sun rise but Jesus also rose. As Malachi puts it, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. May you experience a sunrise in your life today, and may the glory go to God.

Psalm 58

Have you ever listened to someone and thought "Yeah, this person really gets it," until all of a sudden the person said something that threw you completely off guard? This psalm does that for me. David starts this psalm calling the rulers of his day to task for the injustices they are a part of, and that is a role that God's people have taken part in since the beginning. It continued through the prophets, until even Jesus and the apostles would speak about the dirty deeds of the rulers. I get that.

What I find difficult is the imagery used toward the end of the psalm. I'm not sure that, even in my anger, I have ever wished that my enemies would be like a stillborn child or that I would bathe my feet in the blood of the wicked. My shock at these images does not deter my faith, yet I see these images and think only of Christ. I think of how Jesus' blood is the only way I rejoice, and that Jesus was entombed from the light of day. I consider how Jesus bore not only my penalty but the penalty of my enemies. I pray grace upon you and me throughout this week.

Psalm 57

Sometimes it is hard to have a steadfast heart in the midst of our trials. It is hard to be strong when all you feel is weakness. David's psalm begins in trial, despair, and isolation. Yet it ends in praise. That kind of strength cannot come when we are the center of our world. When we are the center, we will never rise above our circumstances. We will not have the strength to have a steadfast heart when we are in trial, despair and isolation.

It is only when God's glory is the center when we can have that kind of strength. What may seem insurmountable to us, seems small in the eyes of God. And thus we can have hope. So I will borrow from one of my favorite songs, sung at our worship service this past week.

Jesus, be the centre
Be my source, be my light
Jesus

Jesus, be the centre
Be my hope, be my song
Jesus

(from Be the Centre by Vineyard music)

Psalm 56

Of all the phrases in this psalm, many are familiar. There is one that jumps out for me at least, and that comes from verse 8: "Record my lament; list my tears on your scroll, are they not in your record?" Another way to translate that phrase would be "put my tears in your wineskin." God collects our lamentation, either by record or the gathering of tears. What does that say about God?

God does not forget our times of trial. God does not turn a blind eye to pain and suffering. The listing of our lament is a sign of God's presence in a broken and painful world. So God walks with us in all the circumstances of life. God also rescues us in our circumstances from being overwhelmed completely. So I suppose, if this psalm reminds me of anything, it is to put my trust in God and to remember to praise God for my rescue.

Psalm 55

As I read this psalm, I became intrigued by David's wish to fly away. The impulse to flee disaster isn't terribly new, since it is a temptation everyone faces. What intrigued me was that David wanted to fly away to the desert. Why there? What in a desert would entice David to find safety there? When I spent a night in the desert of Oman, there were times when I felt incredibly vulnerable. I realized that if I had wandered away from the group and found myself too far from the camp to see it, I would be totally lost. All of the sand hills looked the same, and there were no mile markers or signposts guiding me to safety. Yet, this is where David wants to be.

And the desert as a safe place shows up in other places in Scripture as well. Revelation 12 talks about a woman who gives birth to a child and then is attacked. The child is swept into heaven, while the woman is brought to the desert to be cared for. Later, when she is pursued, she flees once more to the desert. Now, the story is a symbolic one, but it still paints the desert as a place for hiding and safety.

The desert fathers and mothers followed David and the Revelation 12 woman into the desert to flee from corruption and find safety there. So I suppose I must revisit my night in the desert. While I was there, I was completely safe. As long as I had companionship, I had no worries about getting lost. Under the big, clear sky, I could see all the stars of heaven. In the quiet breeze tumbling across the sand, I felt no sense of danger. Maybe the desert isn't so bad, after all. May you find your hiding place in God today and throughout this week.

Psalm 54

Jesus would say a thousand years after this psalm was penned "Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man" (Luke 6:22). This psalm is the heart-cry of the person hated, excluded, insulted and rejected as evil. Psalm 54 is the person runs from the cave of a bear only to find refuge in the den of a lion. Trapped, surrounded, and unable to save him/herself from life circumstances, this person's only companionship is God.

But what companionship to have! The verse from this psalm that strikes me as interesting is the final one, where David sings praises about the deliverance of God before that deliverance happens. David is so sure of God's faithfulness to God's promises that he is thankful for what has not even happened yet. May you and I have the faith to trust God in such a way that I am thankful for what has not happened yet.

Psalm 53

As I listened to this psalm in lectio divina, a particular form of Bible listening, a couple words jumped out at me. The directions were jumping out- "turned away" "come out from" or "looks down from." However, what really got me was the phrase "there was nothing to dread." And God spoke through that phrase in my final reading to see that in God there is nothing to dread. Even though God is described in this psalm as one who "scatters the bones," there is nothing to dread. There is much in my life that I dread- what people think about me, if I'm living a life of integrity, if I'm doing my best, etc. In God, those fears ultimately melt away. It is when I turn away that I am filled with dread. It is when I am the center of my world that the smallest things seem so big. Indeed, when God is the center and following God my aim, my deepest fears seem trivial. I hope that you found benefit in this psalm as well.

Psalm 52

Enter another one of David's angry psalms. This time, it's over a shepherd named Doeg who sold out his position to King Saul. Thus, he is an evildoer who loves evil and hates all things good. Indeed, Doeg made some bad choices in life, culminating after this betrayal in the execution of several priests (1 Samuel 22). What we don't get in this psalm, however, is David's remorse (found at the end of 1 Samuel 22). He regrets that he put all those priests in danger by hiding with them from the king. Indeed, this psalm only relates his anger at Doeg.

What a human tale! How often does our self-anger turn outward? It is a very human reaction to pain to deny our own responsibility and to place the blame solely on another. As the blame takes root in our hearts, it leaves our hearts unable to see our own part in our life situations. David's only recourse is to turn back to God. First, he rests on his own actions "I am like..." or "I trust..." but these self-descriptions will not suffice. Truly, the only way to acknowledge God is to acknowledge God's actions- "I will praise you for what you have done." It is my hope that we turn to God and root ourselves in God's faithfulness.

Psalm 51

Probably one of the most famous penitential psalms, here is the poem that gives us "Create in me a clean heart, O God" and other musical confessions of sin. It also contains the theme verse for a drama ministry I took part in during my college years. Needless to say, Psalm 51 has had an important place in my heart for some time.

Yet it strikes me as new today, it is difficult to read it today. I just watched for the first time a film called "Call + Response: A concert to end world slavery," and even as a person who has tried to be informed about the global slave trade, it once again unraveled my careful defense mechanisms and laid bare the harsh reality that I make decisions every day that promote the global slave trade. Even as I type this onto my laptop screen, I do so knowing that my laptop (as well as the cell phone I used this morning) could not have come to me without a mineral mined almost exclusively in the world by slaves. Many of those slaves are children. As I watched, I was caught up in the music and the images of this tragedy. And my scattered thoughts began to crystallize on one thought - repentance. I prayed right there, now I wish I were informed more by the prayer of Psalm 51. Especially verse 7.

My desire for cheaper products and better convenience helps create this mess. So, I too, am messy. I could point the finger at the powerful for letting this happen. I could point the finger at the slave traders who have to live with themselves. Yet, I must point the finger at myself. I am part of the mess. I am messy. Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Come, Lord Jesus.

Psalm 50

What do you think of when you hear about God drawing near? Do you think of a feeling of God's nearness that you have to be looking for lest you miss it? Do you think of Jesus Christ, who "snuck" into the world in the Incarnation? Well, in this psalm, the drawing near of God is not mistakable. There's no sense of sneakiness here- God comes with fire and tempest. The fire is an image of sacrifice- after all, God lit the fire on the altar to the Temple. The tempest is a reminder of God's presence on Mt. Sinai. This time, though, God's presence is not to give the Israelites the Law, but to see how they are doing with the Law.

What follows is a discussion of sacrifices. Animal sacrifice was key to Old Testament spirituality. In the ancient world, sacrifices commonly helped the gods eat. Without the sacrifices, the gods would grow hungry and would unleash their fury until the people started feeding the gods again. God makes this clear that being fed is not the point of the sacrificial system. Then what is the point?

In this psalm, keeping vows and thanksgiving are the primary motivators to the sacrificial system. We respond to God because of God's deliverance and God's rescuing acts. And as we respond to God's saving grace, we keep a dialogue going between God and us. I pray that we keep the dialogue going in our daily walk.

Psalm 49

I don't know how you picture this psalm being performed, and honest biblical scholars will agree that we don't have much in the way of historical evidence. All we know is that the psalms were a common part of biblical worship. I imagine this psalm beginning as one person in a crowd beginning to sing with a smirk on his face. He starts to taunt his audience a little, promising the secret to a riddle as the audience draws in. As they arrive, the grin gets bigger as the riddle begins to laugh at those who rely on their wealth. People get a little uncomfortable. The singer is talking about death now- the only inescapable reality. People are afraid of death, as it is entrance into the unknown. People in the Old Testament didn't have many hints toward an afterlife, so death was especially scary. The harpist is playing and singing along, and then... comes the hope? Yes, indeed, we hit verse 15 and the harpist declares one of the first hints of the resurrection. And then a pause (selah), and the audience is saying "WHAT?!? Tell me more?" And yet, the psalmist does not, but only warns those who trust in their riches that the end of trusting in material wealth and power is the same as the beasts of the field.

I find delight in this psalm, although it's probably because I view the psalmist as winking at the crowd who hears it. He (or she) hints toward a day to come, a day none of us can fully explain or understand, yet a day that has dramatic implications on how we live today. How has this psalm spoken to you?

Psalm 48

Psalm 48 is a psalm of God's faithfulness. In the Old Testament, people would look toward the Temple and be reminded of God's sustaining presence. Within the Temple, people could celebrate God. They could use that space to tell future generations about what God has done in their lives. I'm going to use this space as a digital Temple for people to share how God has been faithful in your life. Please share, use "anonymous" if you would like.

Psalm 47

One of the most powerful stories in the Bible comes to us from the Old Testament, where Syrian general Naaman is cleansed by God through Elisha. At that moment, Naaman asks for soil from Elisha so that he will always stand on God's ground. Isn't it good news that all ground is God's ground? In the Old Testament, it was largely believed that gods were territorial, and they had no power once you left their territory. That's why Israel's deliverance out of the hands of the Egyptian gods was such a controversy. And sometimes we have that attitude today, like there is a great big battle of gods out there who are fighting for territory across the world.

This psalm, however, gives us the good news that God is King. We can expand from the New Testament to say that Jesus is Lord of all. We don't need to worry about conquering land for God. That gives me great comfort and, along with the psalm, grants me reason for praise. So as you go throughout today, celebrate that every square inch of land is God's domain which we can care for.

Psalm 46

We as a people are fascinated by apocalypse - we are endlessly curious about the end of the world. Images of the entire world changing under the power of God, nuclear weapons, melting ice caps, alien invasions, continue to sell movie tickets all over the world. People open Revelation with fear and trembling, watching monstrous angels pouring bowls of wrath upon a rebellious and tormented world. We wonder and watch for "how it's going to happen" and "what will happen next."

The people of Israel gradually began to become aware of these world-changing realities throughout the Old Testament, especially when the Temple was torn down and cascading empires took over the land. During this time we have writings like Ezekiel and Daniel which show power figures battling it out for domination of the world. The Hebrew understanding of the world was that it was full of darkness, an infection that had spread from the human heart to the very makeup of creation. And God somehow entered into this darkness in particular ways and places. Those places were spots in which to see light (the Temple, various altars built where God encountered God's people). And so as the people watched kingdoms melt and the world change, they knew that they could find refuge in God, who ultimately had power to deliver people from darkness. May we find that hope today in a world enraptured with its own destruction.

Psalm 45

How appropriate that I read this psalm on the day of a wedding rehearsal! Here is a wedding song, although not one I would read at a wedding today. I think there might be a father of the bride after me if I said "Forget your people and your father's house." I also rarely refer to the groom as the lord of the bride. Yet there is something that stirs within me when I read this psalm, and that's because I can't help but read it and think of the bride of Christ.

There is a wedding to look forward to. We often read Revelation and think about the end, but how often do we read Revelation and think about the beginning? After all, the wedding is not the end of the couple's relationship (although we often joke that way). It is the beginning of something new. I hear this psalm and think about the everlasting kingdom completed by the second coming of Jesus and the bride of Christ (the Church) uniting with her risen Savior. What a day that will be! May the hope of a new beginning encourage you today.

Psalm 44

Israel had to experience the most demoralizing situation for any people group- occupation. Babylonian armies swept over them and most of the people never saw their homes again. For seventy years, the Promised Land was a desolate and barren land that so no meaningful civilization. When the people returned to Jerusalem, it was still the ruin that it had been when they left. This is a far cry from the world they had known at the beginning of the psalm. Before the exile, the Israelites knew victory well, and knew it well.

But now things were different, and they didn't know how to think of God. Had God changed? Is this the God they were stuck with forever? Did God pick a new people? Sometimes our images of God can be shaken- things happen that defy our expectations. We are left in the same camp as the Israelites, wondering how God could let things happen. The one thing I would ask in those situations is to follow the lead of the Psalm- cling to the redeeming love of God. Cling to God. Our images of God will always be imperfect, but the love of God carries through. What we know today is that in the midst of exile and occupation, Jesus was sent into the world. And because of that, we can have hope. May hope invade your world today.

Psalm 43

Verse five of this brief psalm should look familiar. Here is a running theme in psalm-based worship: the hope for tomorrow in the middle of the hopelessness of today. The psalmist here is terrified at the current situation- God seems absent, enemies seem rampant. Yet the soul finds some comfort in the hope of God's renewal, even if it doesn't come today.

How does hope of God's renewal of the world give you strength today?

Psalm 42

We enter a new section of the book of Psalms, and are introduced to a new author- the sons of Korah. These were temple priests who led music-based worship during the days of the Temple. And what a worship song this psalm is! What this psalm does for me is that it acknowledges hurt while standing on the foundation of better days that have come before (and hope that they will come again).

The psalm is a search for God, a search for the strength to keep going. The worshippers have been mocked, and God seemingly has not come to rescue them. Yet, as the worshippers seek after God, they remember the glory days of processions and joy. Their hope is that joy will be restored.

We often struggle with the tension between the joy of the Lord and the sufferings of this life. And most of the time, people choose one or the other. They become engulfed in the sufferings without any sense of hope. Others ignore suffering and just try to plaster on fake joy. Obviously, society prefers the latter kind of people. We medicate the first kind of people. And to some extent, churches can echo society on this one. Except sometimes we are guilty of embracing the "fake-joy" group as heroes of faith and telling the people who don't experience hope to repent (as though judgment is what is going to help this situation).

I wonder what would happen if we as followers of Jesus modeled hope in our lives throughout the week. What do you think would happen?

Psalm 41

It would be easy to read most of this psalm and see it as another one of David's pleas for justice in regards to his enemies. However, the opening of the psalm gives us an interesting peek into the basis of David's ideas of justice and righteousness. Verse 1 begins with "Blessed is the one who has regard for the weak..." and the rest of the psalm follows.

I will admit that sometimes it is hard for me to have regard for the weak. That means that I can't ignore what I don't want to see. I have to face reality in all of its beauty and all of its ugliness. I would rather focus only on the strong and be happy about how great everything is.

God calls us to something deeper, though, to voluntarily have regard for the weak and to use our strength (which ends up being God's strength) on the behalf of others. And that's hard to do. In fact, it's hard to even remember to do it! So my prayer for myself and all of you today is to keep your eyes open to the weak so that all might see God's grace in you. Amen.

Psalm 40

It is a difficult thing to place our trust in God, sometimes. Okay, a lot of the time. Sometimes, we get so caught up in our vision of the results that we forget to trust the Author of the entire story. This psalm is a call for two things, as I read it: patience and obedience.

As we obey God, we may get mixed results. The Bible shows a complex story in which results are not guaranteed. Obedient prophets are ignored and killed. Broken people who make poor decisions become successful. Evil prospers (in the short term) as oppressive kings are granted long reigns. So as we live in obedience, we can expect failures, trials and the like.

Yet we are also promised that our obedience will bear fruit. We may not know what the fruit will look like, but we do know that there will be fruit in the end. The question is, can I endure patiently until the day of the fruit shows up? Maybe not, but the Holy Spirit can help me endure. I pray for all of us patient obedience.

Psalm 39

A sad passage from David to be sure, as it shows David's desire to reach the end of his days so that his suffering might end. Certainly, there are many who have felt this same way, hoping that the end of life may see the end of suffering. In the middle of this darkness and sadness, there is a pretty strong glimmer of hope: "My hope is in you" (vs 7).

I don't have much to say today, other than I want to delight in my hope in Jesus Christ. I pray you have a chance to do the same. Have a wonderful day.

Psalm 38

In other psalms, we have encountered a David who is confident and assured of his own blameless righteousness. He has called upon God to grant him victory based on his own upright behavior and the wickedness of his enemy. Here, we have a different David entirely. And we have a different Israel entirely. After all, this psalm comes to us in a songbook for public worship.

Israel, in much of biblical history, was confident in their security because they had the house of God (the Temple) in their borders. The reasoned that God would never let His own house be destroyed, so they had nothing to worry about. What they forgot is that God is so much bigger than one place could contain Him and that God does not have to live in a polluted house. God allowed for the exile of Israel as a way to give the land a sabbath (2 Chronicles 36:21), and the theology of Israel changed. It would seem that the personal prayers of David when he repented of some pretty heinous stuff became a good resource for the Israelites.

And ever since then, "the people of the Book" have counted confession and repentance as important parts of the spiritual life. In church yesterday, we prayed aloud for the forgiveness of sins. Here is that prayer, coming to us from "The Worship Sourcebook." May it be helpful for you as you continue your day.

Almighty God, we confess how hard it is to be your people.
You have called us to be the church,
to continue the mission of Jesus Christ to our lonely and confused world.
Yet we acknowledge we are more apathetic than active,
isolated than involved, callous than compassionate,
obstinate than obedient, legalistic than loving.
Gracious Lord, have mercy upon us and forgive our sins.
Remove the obstacles preventing us
from being your representatives to a broken world.
Awaken our hearts to the promised gift of your indwelling Spirit.
This we pray in Jesus’ powerful name. Amen.

Psalm 37

Once, while having coffee with a friend and talking about the sad state of affairs in our world, my friend looked at me and said, "The sad truth of the matter is that there are people who are going to do very evil things today and sleep soundly in their comfortable beds tonight." Those words stuck in my mind and they come back to me as I read this psalm.

Israel also knew these words well. After all, compared to the empires of Assyria and Babylon around them, along with united tribal powers before the empires, Israel was very small. The entire nation is smaller than Rhode Island, and they constantly dealt with invaders of many kinds. Not the least of which would be the Philistines, a five-city kingdom that boasted the most advanced weapons and technology (as well as an advanced civilization/religion) of the time. Goliath, for example, was carrying an iron-tipped spear at the beginning of the iron age. The Philistines were loaded. And oppressors constantly moved in on the people of Israel.

Similarly, there are people all across the world who are bearing the brunt of the wicked. People scoff at righteousness and justice (the same word throughout much of the Bible). And schemes to commit injustice happen everyday, and the perpetrators sleep soundly in their beds. What gives?

This passage gives us hope. This passage reminds us that the "justice of our cause shall shine like the noonday sun" (vs 6), that the world belongs to the meek and that God cares about these things. So we do not need to envy the people who profit from others' suffering, we do not need to be scared that God will never act. Indeed, Christ lives through us and allows us to act, and we know that injustice has no part in the Kingdom that Jesus brought to Earth. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Amen.

Psalm 36

I'm sorry that this didn't come out yesterday. An internet error caused the entire post to be deleted, and in my frustration I decided not to post yesterday. However, I am back today with either a fresh look at Psalm 36 or I will be accidentally rewriting my post from yesterday.

Come to the fountain. I read this psalm and that's the invitation I get. Come to the fountain (vs 9). Despite my objections, I come to the fountain.

But where is the fountain? Where do I go to be cleansed from my own self-deception? Where is the fountain that will let me see light in God's light? When I was baptized, I was introduced to the water from this fountain. Ten years later I said (to the best of my young ability) that I wanted the living water that came from the fountain. And today, do I still search for the fountain? Or could it be that I have been soaked in the fountain so long I have forgotten that I'm wet? Is it okay to splash and play in the fountain, or am I supposed to take my sip and go along my merry way? I wonder. Is it okay to swim in the fountain, or will that dirty the water for everyone else? Is it okay to enjoy God? Is God big enough to play with and be trusted with the entire universe? I wonder. And I hope so. Please wonder with me at the bigness of God as you go through today.

Psalm 35

This psalm found new meaning for me when I recognized something in verse 18. I saw that verse and thought of a verse in Hebrews chapter 2 which sounds very similar. I found that the verse I was thinking of quoted a different psalm, but a very similar spirit. And the verse in Hebrews was talking about Jesus. And so I read this psalm wondering if Jesus had similar thoughts on the cross.

Certainly, Jesus was so close to humanity that he mourned when bad things happened (including Lazarus and others). And although Jesus came to bring salvation to all people, all people united in one moment on the side of Jesus' execution- repaying evil for good (verse 12). And at the crucifixion, Jesus was finally beaten by all of his enemies... where was Jesus' vindication?

We find that on the third day- Jesus rose from the dead. In our human-ness, we often want bloodthirsty revenge. Just think about the rise of the revenge movie- almost all superhero movies are really revenge movies in disguise. And they are some of the most popular movies out there. And we love the idea that God will step in and clear our enemies out.

A popular Talmud reading is a story about the crossing of the Red Sea. As soon as the Israelites are across and Pharaoh's army is destroyed, the angels rejoice. God's response to the angels is basically "Why do you rejoice? Those Egyptians were my children too." Let us realize today that our enemies are children of God and long for reconciliation and the day when there will be no more enemies (Isaiah 65:25).

Psalm 34

Now here is a great psalm located in a particular time. David meets up with Abimelech, a feared enemy, and doesn't know what to do. So he pretends to be insane, even foaming at the mouth. Abimelech pities him and sends him away, causing David to write this psalm.

How many of us have been at our wits' end? How many of us have been up between a rock and a hard place? We know the situation of David, even if we haven't faked insanity to escape. As the psalm progresses to its worshipful end, remembering promise after promise, we begin to see words that echo in our hearts. "God is near to the brokenhearted" (verse 18) is one phrase that sticks in my heart. I pray I never forget it. It reminds me of God's care for those who live persistently brokenhearted, and also that God is gracious to me when I have a broken heart.

This psalm also reminds me that God can be this comforting presence through me. When I "turn from evil and do good" and "seek peace and pursue it," it is not I that lives but Christ living in me. Thank you Jesus, for acting through our actions to be near to all who are hurting.

Psalm 33

This passage offers us comfort and a history lesson in the same moment. This psalm encourages us to worship because of the great deeds of God. Whenever we see God intersect with our story, it is a cause for worship. And so I reflect on my story and I wonder where I've seen God intersecting with my story. I look to see where I have seen God at work.

Heather is involved in a photography activity that I marvel at. She creates words using letters that are actually common, every day things. For example, a sink faucet could be an "r" and a power line could be an "E." This hobby forces her to see the world differently, finding letters when we only see common objects. I think this psalm invites us to a similar way of viewing the world. God's activity is already there, but sometimes it is so subtle that we need to have eyes to see it. God, grant me eyes to see your mighty acts in the world today. Amen.

Psalm 32

In thinking about forgiveness, I have to admit that I've never thought about being surrounded by songs of deliverance (verse 7). I imagine the Underground Railroad, where delivered slaves sang songs of freedom and worship to God. It reminds me that forgiveness is a community experience. We often think of forgiveness as a one-on-one experience with God. Yet we are the redeemed people of God, a community called together by God under the common banner of God's redemption.

We can celebrate this redemption together as a community when we come together and worship. We acknowledge the brokenness of the world, the strength-sapping circumstances of life (verse 4). We lift up this brokenness and acknowledge our contribution to it, and we too receive God's blessing. As you go to worship this week, wherever it may be, I pray that you are surrounded in songs of deliverance and experience the power of God in the community of God. Amen.

Psalm 31

Here is another psalm that Jesus quoted from the cross "Into your hands I commit my spirit" (verse 5). Interestingly, Jesus does not finish the quote and ask for redemption from the cross. Certainly, the rest of the psalm captures the moment of the cross quite well. Jesus had never placed trust or hope in having a crowd of followers or in miracles on His own behalf- Jesus always found a refuge in God. It was that refuge that gave Jesus the strength to do the miracles that He did.

Jesus despairs at the worthless idols that find such a willing audience in our world. Jesus weeps over Jerusalem, Jesus overturns the Temple's idols of wealth and power, Jesus is executed on a symbol of shame and rejection. And for the moment, it seems that God has handed Jesus over to the cross of shame and the power of Jesus' enemies. Yet in that moment on the cross, when Jesus forced out the words "Into your hands, I commit my spirit," Jesus subverted the power of the day. Jesus' Kingdom was not hampered by the cross, it was defined in the cross. It is why each of us may come to the cross- not to bask in the violence in it but to see the world-transforming power of it.

It is a strange thing to say that we have found refuge in the cross. The cross does not seem like a place to hide. It seems like something to hide from. But we have no fear of evil or suffering, because we know that Jesus has been there and invites us into a Kingdom where eventually suffering will be finished. Amen.

Psalm 30

This psalm is a song of faith and hope. After all, it is introduced by the curious two phrases "for the dedication of the temple" and "of David." David was dead long before the Temple was completed and dedicated. Solomon is the one who dedicated it. Yet David could see God's intended future and just hoping for the day inspired him to sing. This psalm sings of Gods un-ending grace and abiding presence. Even when God is absent, says David, that absence does not last forever.

For the people of God, the Temple would be that place where God's presence would abide. Although few would go into the deepest room where the presence of God rested, people could see the flames on the altar (which God lit) and they could still stand in God's presence. There are days when I wish I could go back to the days of the Jerusalem Temple and have a physical place to stand and worship.

Yet things are difference now. They are somewhat de-centered in physical space. We are told in the New Testament that God's Holy Spirit dwells inside us and we are now a temple for the presence of God. This means that where we go, people ought to see God working out in us. Wow, that's a tall order. It's a lot easier to fix some bricks on a physical Temple building than to live out the presence of God for other people. But that is our challenge. So perhaps you can open this psalm to start your day, and dedicate yourself to God with these words. After all, you are a temple. Amen.

Psalm 29

If you are looking for a good Psalm listening experience, find this passage on Biblegateway.com. Then click on the "listen button" and hear a very deep voice read this passage. When he gets to the "the God of glory thunders," you definitely believe it. The power of the Lord is great here. Anyone who has any power in the world can only ascribe it to God, for God is the Almighty One, the Ancient of Days whose voice can strip the bark off the trees and yet has beautiful majesty. God uses power and glory for one particular purpose in this psalm- giving strength and peace.

The ancient gods of David's day often used their power to conquer and destroy. People today use power to control and hoard. Power is abused and it corrupts. It only makes sense, then, that ultimate power rests in the One who is incorruptible. We don't have to worry that God will destroy all but the voices God most wants to hear. We don't have to worry that God will accept bribes. Indeed, we can trust that the power of God will empower us to continue God's mission and it will ultimately bring about a never-ending peace. Amen.

Psalm 28

This is a beautiful progression in the psalm. We find David in the depths (the same place we find him often), pleading with God to hear just a whisper of God's voice. He compares God's voice to life itself, and we see a complete transformation in David when he hears God's voice.

And isn't God's voice life for us? If God had never breathed the words to create, nothing would exist. And we are dependent on that same breath today. After all, Jesus Christ is the one in whom we live and move and have our being. It is because the Spirit lives inside us that we experience the new life of Christ. It becomes my prayer, then, that we hear God's voice today. Amen.

Psalm 27

Now here is a Psalm I can identify with! Last psalm, as you may recall, was a struggle for me, but this psalm speaks right into my heart. The beauty of its words, the promises of God bursting out of every verse with a haunting yet awesome promise at the end- I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Sometimes, people are so low on hope that they are unable to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, content only about the heaven yet to come. In fact, history shows that when a group of people are marginalized and oppressed, they will often focus on heaven and Jesus coming back (one can see some of this in the slave community during institutionalized slavery in the US).

The good news of the Kingdom of God is that salvation is for the here and now and for the day yet to come. So I pray you see the glimpses of the goodness of the Lord today, so that you can hope for today and for tomorrow.

Amen.

Psalm 26

First of all, happy 100th post with "A Moment with Andy." Thank you for joining me on this journey.

But on to the point- I have a hard time connecting with the emotion of Psalm 26. I can wrap it in theological language, talk about Jesus as the blameless one (which I have done before and certainly believe that in Jesus we are graced with blamelessness), or talk about rigorous self-improvement (a phrase that gives me shudders for many reasons). But at the end of the day, I cannot imagine myself speaking this psalm to God. I can't imagine talking about how awesome I am, nor would I challenge God to find a fault in me.

Yet there is one part of this psalm that I can say with full passion- "I love the house where you live, O Lord, the place where your glory dwells." That part I could say any day. In the Old Testament, so few people actually got to walk into the place where God's glory dwelt. And now, as we are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19), God dwells with us and God's glory is growing here on earth. I look forward to the day when God's glory will heal all of the scars of creation and when we will finally be re-united fully with God (Revelation 22). Amen?

Psalm 25

The Bible has a way of creating and relieving tension, and sometimes creating without relieving tension. Psalm 25 creates tension. Certainly, there is plenty of praise in this psalm, but there's also a theological quandary that David finds himself in. You can see this tension best at verses 10-11. On the one hand, David seems to be pretty strict that one has to rise to meet the "demands of the covenant" (verse 10), yet David in at least two places (verses 7 and 11) confesses and repents from his past. Holiness and grace are held in tension. It's a tension I hope we all feel, because falling to one side or the other can be somewhat dangerous.

How do we handle to the Jesus who says at one moment "Come to me, all who are weary, and I will give you rest" and at another moment says "Take up your cross and follow me" to His disciples? How do we live in the tension of radical obedience and unrelenting grace? I'm not sure I fully know. I suppose that what God has taught me in the trying times is that sometimes obedience is coming to Jesus when I am weary and taking His rest. How do you live in the tension of radical obedience and unrelenting grace?

Psalm 24

Here is another psalm that is quoted often. Not by the New Testament, per say, but by songwriters throughout the century. I think of songs that say "Give us clean hands, give us pure hearts... let us not lift our souls to another..." or "O God let us be | a generation that seeks... that seeks your face, O God of Jacob" or "Lift up your heads, O gates | lift up your heads, O ancient doors | prepare the way, prepare the way, the King is coming through..." or even a song that begins "Who is this king of glory?" Whether you know it or not, we love this psalm. We sing of this psalm often and in many ways, as we should. This psalm talks about the world as God's beloved creation, God's people are called to holiness and an attitude of seeking God's face. And God is given the glory and credit that God deserves.

I pray that as we read this psalm, that we may find appreciation for all creation. I pray that we may seek God's face and be open to finding a God beyond our imagination.

Psalm 23

Psalm 23 is one of those psalms you can't go wrong reading. When people are going through hard times, Psalm 23 gives them comfort and hope about God's presence in the valley of the shadow of death. Those grieving a loss can be comforted that God's presence is forever. When people are harried and stressed out, Psalm 23 is the comfort of quiet waters and green pastures. And for those of us who long for reconciliation and peace wait for the day when we can sit a table in the presence of our enemies (if you want to see a story of how this works out, click here). Psalm 23 is a versatile psalm- what do you think of when you read it?

Psalm 22

This Psalm is quoted all throughout the New Testament. The opening is one of Jesus' last words on the cross. The description of David's persecution matches frame-for-frame the crucifixion, so much so that the Gospels quote this Psalm yet again in describing the crucifixion scene. Hebrews will quote from the latter portion of the psalm in describing the wonder and uniqueness of Jesus. And while this psalm connects with Jesus so much, it also connects with us as well. Anyone who knows the pain of depression or anxiety knows the feeling David is talking about. The physical and emotional pain, and the collapse of hope. Toward the end, we get a glimpse of hope that David has for the future, and we can certainly see how that connects with Jesus' story of resurrection.

It seems to me that this psalm is a remarkable instance where the story of Jesus collides with my story (and your story). When we are in our darkest moments, and this psalm makes too much sense, we can know that Jesus entered into this mess and went through his own dark moments. Jesus stands by us in our dark moments, and Jesus will not leave between dark moments. The Kingdom of God is not for fake happy faces, the Kingdom of God is described by Jesus as a place for the sick- where we can all receive care.

Psalm 21

Kings aren't very popular in a democracy. In fact, the idea of the king is distasteful at best in the minds of most USAmericans. After all, as we are celebrating the 4th of July this coming weekend, isn't kingship what the Revolutionary War was all about? While on vacation, Heather and I went to a park and found a monument of an ever-burning flame to those who died in the Revolution. Indeed, kingship is not cool. So in the States, we hold on to passages in which God does not approve of monarchy for Israel, believing that things may have gone differently if Israel was a republic.

All of that being said, if we cannot identify with kingship, we miss some major portions of God's story. Certainly, monarchy can promote some of the worst in the human heart/society- marriage of church and state, so-called "holy war," misogyny, prejudice, oppression, injustice, just to name a few. Yet it would seem that these are perversions of power that humans have twisted from our own lust for more. It would not seem that these come from the way God views power.

God's power is a power that serves. Jesus' power came not from violent conquer, but radical servanthood. This psalm celebrates the glory that comes through victory- Jesus' victory was the cross (and the resurrection that followed). Jesus' glory bears the scars of crucifixion. What is our victory?

Maybe this passage will help us along (Philippians 3:10-11): I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.