Psalm 140

Sorry it has been a week, but blogger/blogspot (the host of this site) has been acting funny the past seven days. But now we are back and on our trip through the psalms, today looking at Psalm 140.

And what a psalm to come back to! Burning coals, being thrown into a fire, and other delightful imagery designed to get us into the summer spirit. This is a truly hard psalm to hear, especially when I get to the bottom. The last couple verses repeat David's trust in the God who secures justice for the poor. And now I have to look at my own life, and I recognize that the system is arranged in my favor- I have no business repeating this psalm. I am not poor.

I am comfortably drinking coffee and typing on my new laptop. My greatest inconvenience this morning is that I forgot to plug my laptop in and the batteries were almost dead. I am watching the bugs fly outside, but I am safe from malaria or any other disease bugs carry. I chose what clothes to wear this morning. I am not poor.

But I'm spiritually poor, my mind fights back. And certainly, I am. But that is my internal voice justifying myself- the Bible, however, is not always on my side. The poor in the Bible are sometimes, frankly, the poor. And so in this psalm, the mirror gets held up to me and I have to ask who I am in the psalm. So, who am I?

I am one who only pays lip service to societal transformation because right now, society favors me. My pastoral profession is respected in society. My car, while not beautiful, is admirable. You won't find too many churches who would deny my services because I am a Caucasian male. My taxes are uncomfortable but reasonable. Therefore, why would I want anything to change? Yet, for many people, my story is as fictional as Jack and the Beanstalk. The system we call society is arrayed against them like a subtle and yet monolithic army. And I will sit and sip my coffee, waiting for the day someone will come and help them without inconveniencing me. The Bible, it would seem, is not impressed with my attitude.

How long will it take before the suffering of the world will reach our ears? How long will it take before suffering becomes uncomfortable enough for us to change? If I believe this psalm, I hope it's soon.

Psalm 139

Psalm 139 is a transformational journey in the life of the psalmist (David), and it certainly isn't done yet. This transformation relies on God to be all-knowing and caring. "Know my anxious thoughts," the psalmist asks, even while knowing that God "[perceives his] thoughts from afar." The psalmist also knows that God cares when saying that God hems and God created his inmost being. That's a caring, nurturing God who has the power and desire to transform.

Yet, David has some work to do yet. His bitter tirade about considering his enemies nothing about enemies coupled with a desire for them to be slaughtered reveals the same heart that put Goliath's head for display to all. Yet, David recognizes this and submits right back to God's ways and tries for something better.

You and I can be stuck in the same paths. This past weekend, I made a commitment to do something better. Yet, yesterday I got sucked back into the same old paths. The old ways are well worn grooves in the track of my life and I ease right into them. Trying to travel the road differently can be very difficult. So get used to going back to God- but then again, is there any place you would rather be?

Psalm 138

In the ancient world, the gods were the gods of the powerful. Kings were invited into the council of the gods and their rule was verified by the gods. Pharaoh of Egypt was considered a god who held power over the Nile and the sun, for example.

But the God of the Old Testament (and the New) is not only the God of the rich and powerful but also (especially) the poor and needy. This psalm is a reversal of the surrounding and competing views. Whereas Pharaoh was encouraged and the poor were instructed to obey, this psalm instructs the kings and encourages the lowly.

It is this backward view that Jesus encourages in Luke when He says, "Blessed are the poor." Perhaps this psalm is instructive to us today to make sure that we are looking at the world through God's eyes.

Psalm 137

Have you ever sat with someone who is grieving? What I mean is not simple grief, but the traumatizing grief of severe circumstances. If you have not, then Psalm 137 will sound incredibly strange to you. And if you read Psalm 137 like a text of Deuteronomy or a command of Jesus, this psalm will turn utterly horrifying in its final verses, with the psalmist delighting in visions of infanticide.
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But you are not reading a command of Jesus or Deuteronomy. You are reading the heart-cry of an exiled people, drowning in their sorrow. This is a people hardly keeping their heads above water, and they are filled with emotions and thoughts (like any of us would be if we were kicked out of our homes and forced into another country). They feel abandoned, powerless and are trapped in despair. "How can I sing songs of the LORD while in a foreign land?" This trauma is more powerful than attitude alone can cure- a round of "Jesus Loves Me" won't bring the people out of this slump.

And so this psalm turns from lament to utter rage. Rage is okay, it has its place in the grieving process. But the place of rage is not "venting." Recent research is showing us that venting does not help anger, but it fuels anger (click here). However, there is a place for brutal honesty with God, letting the authentic self come out before moving to the place you would rather be (peaceful, comforted, what have you). God can take it. So today, in your prayers, I would encourage you to be fully honest with God, then recognize in your words that God may be calling you to a higher place.

Psalm 136

I LOVE Psalm 136. This is a pep rally psalm, one that I can see building up to an absolute riot at the Temple. This is a Call and Response psalm. You have the priest/worship leader up front who is leading with the main statements, and the people are responding "His love endures forever." Woven through this psalm is statement after statement of God's faithfulness. And it's a story that the whole people owns. I don't see this take place as much in the American Church. We don't always own our story... probably because our story is full of things that we would rather forget and distance ourselves from (Crusades, Inquisitions, schisms, religious wars, etc.). Interestingly, the place I see people "own their story" the most is at a 4th of July ceremony. At the ceremony, people rejoice in a story they didn't take part in. When I go to an Independence Day ceremony, I take part in the celebration of events my family had nothing to do with. The Bossardet clan didn't arrive until the 1800's, well after the War of Independence was over. Yet, because I am an American, they let me come to the party anyway.

The story of God unfolding over all time is one that we can also participate in and own. In fact, it is even more our story than the history of our nation. If it's true that God's love endures forever (and I believe it is), then the story has a lot more unfolding to go. So let's approach today with gratitude and and a watchful eye, because you never know when you might see the next chapter of God's story.

Psalm 135

Endures.

I came across this word in verse 13. The name of the LORD endures forever. Unlike the idols, which are not living in the first place but also break down over time, God does not decay. This psalm got me thinking about how much time I spent propping up and fixing idols compared to how much of my life I devote to obedience to God.

The most invincible of institutions, organizations or systems are all subject to decay. I read on Leonard Sweet's website the other day that of the 1955 Fortune 500 companies (the strongest 500 companies out there), only about 60 exist today. That's an insane number. Just over ten percent of the most powerful companies in the world can last over fifty years. And in the span of human history, fifty years is a blink. It has been four thousand years (plus) since the calling of Abraham. The Exodus is just over three thousand years old. Jesus walked the earth two thousand years ago. Fifty years is nothing. Yet, it is the accumulation of stuff and power that drives so much of our activity and energy. As John Calvin once said, the human heart is a factory for idols.

Today, let us keep our thoughts on what endures. And may that shape the kind of people we hope to be.

Psalm 134

Here's the climax to the psalms of ascent. If you were on pilgrimage to Jerusalem in OT times, you would now be at the base of the Temple. The high priest would have ascended the ramp to the altar, and the worship service is about to begin. While worship in the OT was familiar, you still never knew what would happen next.

There are some things you do know. God is there. That's really all that matters. The Lord is in His sanctuary, and the way has been opened for you to be there too. Together we approach the throne of God, and in the end, that's all that matters.

As I write this today I think of Ell Faulman, who went to be with the Lord yesterday morning. His pilgrimage is over. He has gone to the great sanctuary of God, and the way has been opened to Him by Jesus Christ. His hands are lifted in praise. His rest will never end.

In his honor, I will simply leave this post praying that you experience the love of God through the Holy Spirit today.

Psalm 133

The fact that we go on pilgrimage together is important, and has been noted before. It is essential that we don't do this spiritual journey alone, or treat our salvation individualistically. This psalm is the psalm of journeying together.

Yet, even as I write this, I know that "together" has become abused, twisted, warped and bastardized into something it was never intended to be. I read "together" as a circling of the wagons, a call for ideological purity and an inquisition to keep the outsiders out and to find the "secret outsiders." Soon you have your tribes, whether they be denominations (not nearly as prevalent or line-drawing today) or brands (authors, etc.).

Now, the age of social media was supposed to "save" us from tribalism and ideological dictatorship by allowing everyone to have a voice in the great Internet, savior of us all (tongue firmly in cheek). But all that has happened as it has allowed falsehood to spread faster and has given our ideological leaders a ground to voice their opinions and condemnations without the blessing of editorial accountability. Napoleon had his armies, Caesar had his legions, ideologues have their twitter followers. And I am self-aware enough to note that I am writing all of this on a blog of social media. Hypocrisy, maybe? Redemptive, hopefully? Either way, saved, we are not.

Social media is not the problem. Technology is not the issue. Technology only allows us to unleash our worst and best characteristics at blinding speeds. The problem, and the blessing, is that we travel in herds. The problem of herds is that we get way too focused on "in and out." And this kind of thinking saps our joy. When is the last time you had an experience that nourished you like the dew on the mountain, giving you life and purpose?

Today, let's live out this psalm. Let us be compelled by the beauty of unity and renewed in the promise of God's everlasting life. Let us be conduits of grace and agents of reconciliation.

Psalm 132

Promises.

I hate breaking promises. One broken promise can have devastating effects for years, even decades. One slip-up or late arrival can leave a subtle yet destructive stain on one's integrity or relationships. I HATE breaking promises.

The Bible, as much as it is a book about waiting, is also a book of promises. After all, waiting and promises are two sides of the same coin. Promises are made and people wait to see if the promise will be fulfilled or not.

Psalm 131, a psalm of journeys, is about fulfilled promises. Returning to the Temple for worship is a bittersweet experience. On the one hand, it means coming to the house of God and is worth celebrating (verses 7-9). On the other hand, it means that the great Day of the Lord has not occurred yet and the people are still waiting for their champion to eliminate the need for sacrifice (verses 11-12).

In the meantime, living in the time of waiting and in the time where the promise has been fulfilled, we would do well to meditate on the closing verses of this psalm. While things may change and we wait for things to change further still, we remember the abiding presence of God is constant and irrevocable (verse 14) and that God is the source of all good blessings (verse 15) and most importantly, that the Son of David in the last two verses has come and will come again!

Psalm 131

Noise.

Consider right now the amount of noise that you can hear. My office is fairly still right now, yet I can hear my fingers pounding the keys, the slight whine of my laptop, the delicate hum of the lights and even the welcome sound of bird songs outside my window. While these sounds are neither painful or unwelcome, it reminds me that my life is so very noisy.

Over Lent, I tried to spend a certain time without input from books, voices, music, TV, internet, computers, Wii, or anything else. Thirty minutes of complete silence and stillness. It was incredibly difficult, and many days it would be a torture to get through. It is hard to still the mind sometimes, noise invades and distracts.

The psalmist gives us a new perspective on stillness, and it is wrapped up in humility and utter dependence on God. Often we depend on the noise- it validates us and directs us whichever way our emotions want to go. However, the humble declaration that God is the One who directs our paths makes much of the noise irrelevant and draws us back to the One who sustains us. May your soul be stilled like a weaned child this day.

Psalm 130

We must be approaching the Temple in our pilgrimage now. In the face of God's holiness, we see ourselves as we truly are. And the psalmist gets pitiful really quickly. And this is understandable- I've been there, and perhaps you have too. But being in the self-loathing place of recognition of disobedience and brokenness is not a great place to stay. Trust me. The psalmist sits in the moment long enough to appreciate the gravity of disobedience before the hinge verse- "But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared."

"But" is an important word in English, not as much in Hebrew. For us, "but" means a change in the direction of the mind. We are traveling along this track, but now we're on this track. But is the salvation word of this psalm. What if this psalm ended at verse three? No one could stand. The pilgrimage to the Temple would be foolish- people would be walking to their own annihilation. I wouldn't go. I would run as far as I could from the Temple.

But, my status (and yours) is not the end of the story. God is. With God, there is forgiveness. Now, forgiveness for Christians is a moment and a process. There is the moment of forgiveness on the cross, but still we wait. We wait for the day when the scars can be healed and the disobedience ended. As I mentioned in an earlier post, living while we wait is the story of Christianity. May your waiting be encouraged by God's grace and forgiveness today.

Psalm 129

Entering the gates of Jerusalem, the pilgrim now enters with a changed life. The psalm begins in the place God's people often found (and find) themselves in- the place of the oppressed. The situation is grim, with the oppressors seemingly having the upper hand. However, God's faithfulness shines through and the captives are freed. It is (again) interesting to note God's faithful care for the oppressed and beaten-down of society. How often our Christian love does not extend the same way Christ's love does!
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The interesting transition is the second half of the psalm. The curse. The psalmist wants those who are the oppressors to be destroyed. Certainly, one can sympathize with the sentiment. When someone wrongs you, it is natural (although fallen) to desire some kind of revenge. With his or her words, the psalmist withholds God's blessing from the people who wronged him. Huckabee's words responding to the death of Osama bin Laden (Welcome to hell) certainly echo this tone.

Yet, as one who reads the wider narrative of God in the Bible, I am reminded that our battle (according to Paul) is not about fighting flesh and blood but about powers and principalities. How many times in world history has one empire fallen just to give rise to a new one? It isn't "the oppressor" that God opposes- it is oppression. So let us be people who seek oppression to be lifted and to celebrate when people are freed. Check out this news story if you want something to celebrate.