Thursday, October 21, 2010

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.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

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.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

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.

Friday, October 15, 2010

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.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

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.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

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.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

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.

Friday, October 8, 2010

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?

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

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.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

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...

Friday, October 1, 2010

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!