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.