The Heart's Cry: Psalm 23

Psalm 23

Have you ever noticed the pronoun shifts in Psalm 23?

Have you ever noticed that God leads us into places that make us come alive [green pastures], places that give us peace and rest [still waters], and places that restore our soul, yet we are the ones that walk into the valley of the shadow of death?

Have you noticed that God prepares the table, but it's our enemies?

And have you ever noticed that even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death and that they are our enemies we are shown that we do not need to fear either circumstance?

And if we don't have to fear the valley and if we don't have to fear being surrounded by our enemies then we simply do not need to fear. God is with us in the beautiful places, God is with us in the peaceful places, God is with us in the valley, God is with us among our enemies, God is with us at all times.

Fear leads us into the valley, but subtracting fear brings us goodness and mercy. Fear creates enemies, but subtracting fear leads us to the house of the Lord.

Our culture all too often tries to convince us that we need to fear, need to fear this people or this religion or this sub-culture. But God tells us that we need not fear.

+ How have you walked into the valley but been saved by the savior?

+ How can you let go of the fear that the world tries to convince you that you need?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 22

Psalm 22

Jesus hangs from a cross and cries "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" And here David cries "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" For a long time I have used Jesus's quote to talk about how we are allowed to doubt because here we see even Jesus doubting. While I still think that is true, as I read Psalm 22 yet again I begin to think that Jesus was doing a lot more from the cross than voicing a doubt.

As we read the Psalm we immediately go from doubt to belief. Then we move from our unworthiness to our chosen-ness. Next we go from being broken and surrounded to our help still being found in God and the willingness to still proclaim God's goodness. So while I still think Jesus had some doubts while covered only in blood sweat and tears I believe that he was also saying, 'this is as bad as it gets but I will still cling to who God is and who God has been and who God will be.'

I have never hung from a cross [obviously] but I have been in some dire straits before and all too often I question God's presence and action without the strength of belief that God is good and will attend to my needs. David here, and Jesus later, reminds us that we can question and doubt but also reminds us that those questions and doubts need to be couched in language that speaks of God's goodness and how God has saved us before and will save us again, in whatever manner God has and whatever manner God will.

+ How do you understand the connections between faith and doubt? Do you allow yourself to doubt?

+ Is there a right/wrong way to doubt?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 21

Psalm 21

At the beginning of almost every corporate prayer I give I say something along the lines of "Holy God we come before you today and the first thing we always want to say is thank you..." I do this for several reasons.

1) Dr. Gilbert Stafford suggested it in a class I took in seminary

2) to say thank you to God, something we all too often forget to do in life

3) so that we first focus on all that we have before we begin to focus on what we do not

It is this last one that concerns me at the moment, and it seems to have concerned David as well. While I am no fan of the context that David uses in Psalm 21 I believe that thanking God before you ask God to do things for you is essential.

The other day I saw a short video on Facebook. It was a story [real or not matters little] about a professor, a class full of students, and a test comprised of a white piece of paper and a solitary black dot in the middle of the paper. The professor asks his students to write about what they see and every one of them write about the black dot. The professor says that there is no grade for the test but notes how they all focused on the black dot on their paper as they focus on the negativity of their lives. Like the students we are given so much more good in our lives but we allow the negativity, no matter what it is, to too often consume us.

The thing we quickly forget is that we are still a child of God when we are going through a divorce. We are still blessed when we receive whatever bad news the doctor has for us. We still have those who care for us and take care of us when we are in the midst of the struggle. When the storms come we focus on the storm, as opposed to focusing on all that we have that will be with us through the storm and will be there should we make it out the other side of the storm.

+ How can you begin to focus on what God has done in your life instead of the storms that come?

+ Who and what are you most thankful for right now? Take a moment to let God know your thankfulness.

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 20

Psalm 20

Many times through the First Testament God is referenced as 'The God of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob." I think this occurs for two reasons. First, it immediately recalls who God has already been to the people. Secondly, it reminds us that God is not some far off god but is a rather a God that exists in close relationship to humanity, and not just humanity in general but specific humans along the way.

Who God has already been: God is a God of action, stepping into the fray of the daily struggles of God's people and lifting them out and up. I believe that God is a God ahead of us, pulling us forward into a new day. I believe that expressly because that is how God has been both in my life and in the life of history. We progress, we evolve, we expand. What was once commonplace is now unthinkable, and what was once unthinkable is now commonplace. This is only possible through the gifting of God, allowing both our skills and our knowledge to grow. Soren Kierkegaard once said, "Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards." The same is true for God, we can only understand the myriad of ways that God works in our lives by looking back.

A God who exists in close relationship: God does all of that because God enters into relationship with both the individual and the community that desires such. God called Abraham to go because God understood that Abraham would go, much like God calls people to go now. God calls us to be pastors, missionaries, teachers, whether we do that in a church, a foreign country, or in our 'mundane' daily lives, the call remains the same no matter the profession, no matter the situation, no matter the employer. In the case of Isaac God both calls for and then provides the sacrifice, as God does each day for us, God requires and God provides that which God requires. Finally, in the case of Jacob, God wrestles and then renames, we all have that point where we either fish or cut bait and God waits for us to recognize and react in that moment. Should we continue the fight we become a new creation, no longer do we live, but Christ lives in us.

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 19

Psalm 19

I could very easily write two completely different devotions this evening. The first one would be on the wonder of the sun, moon, and stars and the second would be on what we will actually concern ourselves with.

 The law of the Lord is perfect...
it revives the soul
it gives wisdom to the simple
it gladdens the heart
it gives light to the eyes

It revives the soul...when we are on the edge of depression and desperation it raises us up again so that we may become 'entangled'* again with God.

It gives wisdom to the simple...when we are at our wits end with no where else to turn we are given insight we shouldn't have that we may find the path forward.

It gladdens the heart...when we are in the doldrums of the struggle it lightens our load because Jesus's yolk really is easy and his burden is light.

It gives light to the eyes...when we cannot see beyond the horizon of our circumstances it gives us vision to see the possibilities of a brand new day in a brand new way.

In short the law of the Lord is both what sets us free and lets us be free. Before we understood God's law we roamed, we survived, but through God's law we have the possibility of living, of thriving. Because this law is not a set of rules that must be followed, but rather it is a way to see ourselves and the world around us, through the lens of grace and mercy, through the lens of kindness and empathy, through the lens of love. Jesus shows us how to be and how to live by showing us how to exist in right relationship with our God, with our self, and with our neighbors [i.e. everyone else].


* a word which I stole from my friend PC Walker, go buy his book, Beneath Broken Machines, from your preferred retailer, the digital copy is only $5.99

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 18

Psalm 18

From the Abbey Psalter v.28-29

"You O Lord are my lamp
my God who lightens my darkness
With you I can break through any barrier
with my God I can scale any wall"

This past Sunday I preached about Ecclesiastes and Revelation, about surviving and living, about a song by Derek Webb [This too shall be made right], about a book by PC Walker [Beneath Broken Machines], about a song that my wife taught the kids in Sunday School a few weeks ago and somewhere in the midst of all of that I talked about how the way of Jesus is most helpful in the darkness, that what Jesus teaches is important at all times but it's how we make it through the pains and struggles of life. The Hope that Jesus gives us is what sustains us. The Peace that passes all understanding is a peace for times of trouble. The Grace that we are shown is never felt more than after we have failed and failed hard. Jesus lived, breathed, pooped, and died so that we would know that he lived, breathed, pooped and died just like we do so we wouldn't lose sight of him in the storm.

Jesus lights our way through the darkness, and he strengthens us to accomplish what he has set for us to accomplish. Among all of the red letters there is a moment where Jesus says that those who come after him [i.e. us] would do greater things than he did. The only way we can do greater things is by asking for and receiving his help. If you read enough biographies you will begin to see a pattern emerge throughout the human experience, most of the people who do great things only accomplish those things after great failure, great pain, great sacrifice and while there are many people who do all of that on their own, we do not need to, because we have a savior who is willing to join us if we are willing to join him. Jesus lightens our darkness so that we may accomplish great things, breaking barriers, climbing walls, impacting the world through Hope and Peace and Grace.

How has Jesus been your lamp in the darkness?

Do you agree that Jesus's teachings are never more helpful than when we are in the midst of pain, struggle, darkness?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 17

Psalm 17

I read the beginning of Psalm 17 where David talks about how no deceit is on his lips and how God finds no wrong in him and I immediately think of Isaiah 6:5 where Isaiah is in the presence of God and says that he is a man of unclean lips and comes from a people of unclean lips, and here is David with clean lips and I begin to wonder if David is seeing himself clearly. The beautiful thing about it is that whether or not David actually has clean lips is of little importance to being accepted by God. God accepts us in whatever manner we come to God as long as we come to God, the actually arrival is the important part.

God literally knows all of our failings, all of our sins, all of the times you and I stooped down low in the much and mire and hung out there for a long time, and yet God still accepts us the moment you or I come. I am the prodigal son who wanted my inheritance and then wasted it and God is the father that comes running. I am the son who stayed and lifted my attendance as overriding the repentance of another and God is still the father who tells me that all he has is mine, I must but ask. You are each of those sons as well, and God is the pursuing and giving father to you as well. So, maybe your lips are clean or maybe they are dirty, whatever state they are in they are welcome.

Have you tried to convince others [God] that you are better than you really are? How did that make you feel?

How have you been the two sons in Jesus's parable from Luke 15?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 16

Psalm 16

The Abbey Psalter translates verse 3 in this way, "He has put into my heart a marvelous love for the faithful ones who dwell in his land."

The chorus of the song The Church by Derek Webb is:

Cause I haven't come for only you

But for my people to pursue

You cannot care for me with no regard for her

If you love me, you will love the church

This is a truth that we all too often overlook, because we claim Jesus yet want nothing to do with the church. The funny [sad] thing about that is that we can't help but be a part of the church independent of whether or not we actually go into a church building. The church is not a building, it does not have a mappable location, it does not have an old nor a catchy name. The church is those people whom God has chosen and in turn have chosen him. Thus, at the moment of turning, we are part of the church.

Unfortunately this in no way prohibits us from attempting to do the whole Jesus follower thing on our own, which was in no way what Jesus hoped for us to do. We are not meant to live in isolation, our culture may suggest this but Jesus does not. We are commanded to love one another, which we can only do when we actually have an other in our lives. We are told that people will know we are Jesus's because of our love, a love that is sacrificial, that is selfless, that is aimed toward the other, a love that is shown through the individual and the community. God called a people in the First Testament and God called a people in the Second Testament, people not persons, ya'll not you.

We are called to this love. We are called to this community. We are called to love this community. Only by loving God, self and neighbor can we fulfill our calling, and only by loving Jesus's bride can we love and be loved by Jesus.

+ What are your views on churches and the church?

+ How do you need to improve your love, your community, and your love of your community?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 15

Psalm 15

David ends this Psalm with some variation of 'those who act this way will never be moved,' which shows you that his understanding of humanity was occasionally lacking. Both the blameless and the wicked sway from time to time, and most people who may now be blameless one day weren't. The whole concept of repentance is based on the 'turning' of a person, from one who did not recognize their sins to being one who both recognizes and regrets their former deeds. If we did not move from how we were we would never be found in God's tent.

Speaking of God's tent, have you ever noticed God's road-trip mentality? The Israelites were a people on the move, until they were forced to stay in one place and then became a people on the move until they entered a promised land but then became a people on the move again and again until David asked for and Solomon built a temple, placing God in a place and restricting who could enter into God's area and who could not. We also restrict God to a place, we just call it a church instead of a temple, but much like God showed in the tearing of the veil, God is not restricted, no matter how much we may prefer God to be.

+ Take a moment to reflect on how you were before you 'turned' toward God just so you can adequately praise God for all he has done in your life.

+ How have you restricted God? How has God revealed God's own freedom to you?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 14

So as not to infringe copyright I will be posting a link to the Psalm. I will be posting the NRSV link since it comes pretty close to what the Abbey Psalter uses, but feel free to change it to whatever version you prefer, after all it is not the exact words I am trying to get at but rather the purpose behind those words.

Psalm 14

I think that we often have the same problem that David does, we speak way too often in generalities. He starts this Psalm off by calling those who say 'that there is no god' fools, and some of you [or most] may agree with him, but the fact of the matter is that those who have chosen against our beliefs often do so for very logical reasons. One of the authors I read often talks about being in conversation with atheists and asks them about the God they don't believe in, he relays that often by the end of the conversation he will say, 'I don't believe in that God either.' Then he goes into the God he does believe in, by listening to them, by giving them space he is in turn given space, given the right to share his thoughts. Unfortunately many of us are never given that space, that chance, because we never give the space, that chance to anyone else.

I have, for lack of a better word, a tagline that I hold that encompasses what I believe the church should be about, it is Real Faith, Real People, Real Love. Real Faith allows space for questions to be asked, for people to struggle, it is in no means a blind faith, This is because too often what we preach and what we require is blindness, whereas Jesus claimed that he came to give sight to the blind. We decide where God can speak and how God can speak and what God can speak about, when we need to realize that God speaks wherever, however, whenever God chooses to speak and we must have 'ears to hear.' It is this blind faith that people often rebel against, and we call them fools for it, perhaps we are the fools who are too scared that God cannot handle X and they are the smart ones who call us out on it. Our God is big enough for any subject, any conversation, any disagreement.

+ How do you view atheists and those who follow other religions? Is it a view that is congruent with Jesus's call for us to love our neighbor as ourselves?

+ In what way(s) do you have a blind faith? In what way(s) do you have a Real Faith?

+ Do you think that it is your job to protect God? If so how can you begin to let God be God instead?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 13

Psalm 13

How long O Lord will you forget me
How long will you hid your face
How long must I bear grief in my soul
this sorrow in my heart day and night
How long shall my enemy prevail

Look at me answer me Lord my God
Give light to my eyes lest I fall asleep in death
Lest my enemy say I have overcome him
lest my foes rejoice to see my fall

As for me I trust in your merciful love
Let my heart rejoice in your saving help
Let me sing to the Lord for his goodness to me
singing psalms to the name of the Lord the Most High

There isn't much in life that is more disheartening than the silence of God. Those moments when you reach out in faith and in hope and are meet with a deafening nothing. Those moments deeply hurt, but what if there is something more behind the silence?

What if we hear nothing because we don't listen in the first place?

What if there is silence because we are not asking the right questions?

What if there is no response because we aren't willing to follow the response if it was given?

What if we simply don't want the answer to the questions we are asking?

There are plenty of times in my life when someone gives me the answer and it makes me mad. There are times when I ask the wrong question from the wrong perspective to the wrong person. There are times when I seek God's intervention when God is waiting on mine. There are times when I am only willing to hear the response I demand, and if there are responses outside of whatever criteria I have at the moment I simply discard the response. And so, sometimes, there is silence and it hurts.

Then the question becomes, what do we do next? David heard the silence and wondered how long the silence would continue, but he still ends the Psalm trusting in God's love, rejoicing in God's help, singing for God's goodness, singing for God's mightiness. When I was in speech class in high school I was given a paper that had a quote by Charles Swindoll, which talked about 10% of life being what happens to you and 90% of life being about your reaction to it. If that is the case the silence is only 10% but what we do in response is the game changer.

+ How do you view the silence of God?

+ How do you respond to the silence of God?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 12

Psalm 12

Help O Lord for good men have vanished
truth has gone from the sons of men
Falsehood they speak one to another
with lying lips with a false heart

May the Lord destroy all lying lips
the tongue that speaks high-sounding words
Those who say Our tongue is our strength
our lips are our own who is our master

For the poor who are oppressed and the needy who groan
I myself will arise says the Lord
I will grant them the salvation for which they thirst

The words of the Lord are words without alloy
silver from the furnace seven times refined

It is you O Lord who will take us in your care
and protect us forever from this generation
See how the wicked prowl on every side
while worthless things are prized highly by the sons of men*

The beautiful thing about the Psalms, or rather the most beautiful thing, is that it they are perfect illustrations of how we can go to God in prayer and song in ANY mood. Too often we talk about 'approaching the throne' in the right attitude, one of worship and servitude, but David and the other Psalmists do not hold back other attitudes from God. The fact of the matter is that God can handle our joy, our gratitude, our obedience, our anger, our disgust, our fear, our jubilation, our lust, our defiance, and any other thing that we feel, Remember, God is first a Creator and among a host of other things God created you and among a host of aspects of you God created your capacity to feel and the range of emotions you can experience and God can handle all that he has created.

So David comes to God in a state of disgust about the world around him, he sees people who are taking what they want from who they want when they want and how they want. He sees people in power who are using those they should be serving. He sees people who are chasing after things best left alone. He sees all this and at the same time it seems as if all the good people are gone, because none of them are speaking up for the oppressed, none of them are standing up for those without a voice. In the midst of this disgust he goes to God and pleads for a change, any change, any sign that at least God is paying attention. And he clings to that hope, that God has not missed what is going on and that God will not allow it to continue.

+ Do you allow yourself to pray from whatever headspace you happen to be in or do you feel you must neuter your emotions for God's ear? How does that effect your prayer life? your worship life?

+ Is there any way in which you might be able to 'approach the throne' when you are in a less than fine attitude?


[* I changed that last line a little, in the Abbey Psalter it reads 'while the worthless are prized highly by the sons of men,' but that line didn't make much sense to me because I was thinking of it as 'the worthless people' which are prized highly by God. After looking at a couple other translations it seems clear to me that it is not talking about people but rather 'things' hence I rewrote it to give a clearer reading.]

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 11

Psalm 11

In the Lord I have taken my refuge
How can you say to my soul
Fly like a bird to its mountain

See the wicked bracing their bow
they are fixing their arrows on the string
To shoot upright men in the dark
Foundations once destroyed what can the just do

The Lord in his holy temple
the Lord whose throne is in heaven
His eyes look down on the world
his gaze tests mortal men

The Lord tests the just and the wicked
the lover of violence he hates
He sends fire and brimstone on the wicked
he sends a scorching wind as their lot

The Lord is just and loves justice
the upright shall see his face

One of my favorite movies during high school and college was The Program. It was a fictional account of what a NCAA football program, by imagery FSU, does in order to stay on top. In other words, the school overlooked massively bad behavior [including cheating, alcohol and steroid use, sexual assault] in order for players to keep playing. There was this one defensive player who had the line, “Kill ‘em all, let God sort them out.”

I remember as a kid my mom would sometimes use Santa Claus as leverage for me to act correctly, ala ‘if you don’t behave Santa is going to only bring you coal.’ And there was this general awareness that parents were in communication with Santa giving him updates on who exactly was naughty and nice.

As a pastor I am not the gatekeeper, I neither let people in nor do I keep them out. And in a way it could be argued that I have a similar stance as that football player but I decide to ‘Love ‘em all, let God sort them out.’ I have often thought it would be better to err on the side of grace and be told that I should have been stricter than to err on the side of judgment and be told that I should have shown more grace.

Jesus says that we will be judged by the same standard by which we judge, and so part of the reason I show grace is that perhaps grace will be shown to me. I do this because I know there have been times where I have shown less grace, times where I have judged others by a standard that I can’t, or rather don’t meet myself. Friendships have been damaged, people have been hurt, and I count myself among those people because when we judge others harshly we are the ones who very often are left out. On the flip side, when we give grace we are often shown grace and included. Inclusion is so much better than exclusion.

+ Have you intentionally or inadvertently acted as a gatekeeper to God? If yes, how can you keep from acting that way again?

+ How do you keep from judging by unfair standards? Do you?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 9 & 10

A note before we begin. When I turned the page of the Abbey Psalter my first thought was, “what are these crazy monks thinking now?” because while I expected to find Psalm 9 I instead found Psalm 9-10. I then turned to Psalm 9 and 10 in my handy Bible and there was a little note that read “Psalms 9 and 10 may have been originally a single acrostic poem, the stanzas of which begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. In the Septuagint they constitute one psalm.” The Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, or First Testament. So, perhaps those monks aren’t quite as crazy as I first thought, and since I am using their Psalter for this exercise, I will adhere to their delineation. In other words…

Psalm 9-10

I will praise you Lord with all my heart
I will recount all your wonders
I will rejoice in you and be glad
and sing psalms to your name O Most High

See how my enemies turn back
how they stumble and perish before you
You upheld the justice of my cause
you sat enthroned judging with justice

You have checked the nations destroyed the wicked
you have wiped out their name forever and ever
The foe is destroyed eternally ruined
you uprooted their cities their memory has perished

But the Lord sits enthroned forever
He has set up his throne for judgment
He will judge the world with justice
he will judge the peoples with his truth

For the oppressed let the Lord be a stronghold
a stronghold in times of distress
Those who know your name will trust you
you will never forsake those who seek you

Sing psalms to the Lord who dwells in Zion
Proclaim his mighty works among the peoples
For the Avenger of blood has remembered them
has not forgotten the cry of the poor

Have pity on me Lord see my sufferings
you who save me from the gates of death
That I may recount all your praise
at the gates of the city of Zion
and rejoice in your saving help

The nations have fallen in the pit which they made
their feet caught in the snare they laid
The Lord has revealed himself and given judgment
The wicked are snared in the work of their own hands

Let the wicked go down among the dead
all the nations forgetful of God
For the needy shall not always be forgotten
nor the hopes of the poor be in vain

Arise Lord let men not prevail
Let the nations be judged before you
Lord strike the with terror
let the nations know they are but men
+
Lord, who do you stand afar off
and hide yourself in times of distress
The poor man is devoured by the pride of the wicked
he is caught in the schemes that others have made

For the wicked man boasts of his heart’s desires
the covetous blasphemes and spurns the Lord
In his pride the wicked says He will not punish
There is no God such are his thoughts

His path is ever untroubled
your judgment is far from his mind
His enemies he regards with contempt
He thinks Never shall I falter
misfortune shall never be my lot

His mouth is full of cursing guile oppression
mischief and deceit under his tongue
He lies in wait among the reeds
the innocent he murders in secret

His eyes are on the watch for the helpless man
He lurks in hiding like a lion in his lair
He lurks in hiding to seize the poor
he seizes the poor man and drags him away

He crouches preparing to spring
and the helpless fall beneath his strength
He thinks in his heart God forgets
he hides his face he does not see

Arise then Lord lift up your hand
O God do not forget the poor
Why should the wicked spurn the Lord
and think in his heart He will not punish

But you have seen the trouble and sorrow
you note it you take it in hand
The helpless trusts himself to you
for you are the helper of the orphan

Break the power of the wicked and the sinner
Punish his wickedness till nothing remains
The Lord is king forever and ever
The heathen shall perish from the land he rules

Lord you hear the prayer of the poor
you strengthen their hearts you turn your ear
To protect the rights of the orphan and oppressed
so that mortal man may strike terror no more

I read these psalms together and I think that David was on to something in ‘9’ then goes off the rails a little bit through ‘10’ and finally regains his footing at the end. I suppose that the same thing often happens to us, when we focus on God we are mainly on the right track, but when we focus on whatever is bothering us we often miss the point. For instance, when David writes that the wicked man has contempt for his foes. How do you think that David is currently feeling about his enemies? I’m pretty sure that he is experiencing a good amount of contempt. The same happens to us, we can speak about love as much as we want, but we then must also show love, to those that are close to us and to those who mean us harm.

We, as 2016 Christians, may look at David and think, well he didn’t live in a world that contained Jesus’s teachings, but he is aware of a God who looks after the widow, the orphan, and the oppressed, yet if you read David’s story there are times when he doesn’t seem to regard those that God regards very well at all. David may have been a man after God’s own heart but he was also a man who commanded a woman to be with him and after her pregnancy tried to first trick her husband and then have him killed.

But, we are 2016 Christians and because of that we are not to hold to David’s standard we are expected to follow Jesus. We do live in a world post Sermon on the Mount, and we are commanded to live like it. We must, like David sometimes does, focus on God, not the moment, not the enemy. By focusing on God we remember what God has done for us and what God can do for others, and so we pray for enemies. Pray for them to notice and receive grace, not for their destruction.

+ How have you focused on God?

+ How have you been hateful to enemies?

+ What steps can you take to ensure that you put your focus on the right subject?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 8

Psalm 8

How great is your name O Lord our God through all the earth

Your majesty is praised above the heavens
on the lips of children and babes
You have found praise to foil your enemy
to silence the foe and the rebel

When I see the heavens the work of your hands
the moon and the stars which you arranged
What is man that you should keep him in mind
mortal man that you care for him

Yet you have made him little less than a god
with glory and honor you crowned him
Gave him power over the works of your hand
put all things under his feet

All of them sheep and cattle
yes even the savage beasts
Birds of the air and fish
that make their way through the waters

How great is your name O Lord our God through all the earth

Have you ever sat in a church service, or perhaps listened to a sermon on the radio, or perhaps watched a preacher of a megachurch on television or the internet, or perhaps read a book and encountered a theology that focuses on the perfection of God and the complete and utter imperfection of people? You know, the kind of sermon where you walk out feeling like the scum of the earth, the kind of sermon where you think, ‘Yep, I do deserve to burn in hell forever’? If you haven’t you should count yourself lucky, but my guess would be that you are more like myself and have sat through quite a few sermons about how completely awful we humans are.

I cannot say that there aren’t passages in the Bible that relay such information, but at the same time there are passages like Psalm 8 where David sends up worship to God, at least in part because of how good and powerful we are. In addition, sitting on this side of the cross and resurrection, I know about the great love that God has for us. It is a love that is so large that it sent Jesus down to this big ball of water and rock in an attempt to open our eyes to that love.

We are not perfect, far from it, turn on the news and you learn that pretty quickly. We are capable of great evil, but we are also capable of great good. There are Hitlers and Pol Pots and Mansons among us, but we are also the people that Jesus said would do greater things than he would do, and only by tapping into the goodness within us and the grace that we are shown can we do that. So don’t focus on the evil, on the sin, on the mistakes, focus on the goodness, the love, the grace and the kindness, both within you and around you.

+ How did you feel while sitting through sermons on how evil humans are? How do you feel about those sermons now?

+ How can you better focus on the good that humanity is capable of as opposed to the evil that we are?

+ Can you accept the great love that God has for you, and for the rest of humanity as well, both the good and the evil? How can you begin to show that same love to the people around you?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 7

Psalm 7

Lord God I take refuge in you
From my pursuer save and rescue me
Lest he tear me to pieces like a lion
and drag me off with no one to rescue me

Lord God if my hands have done wrong
if I have paid back evil for good
I who saved my unjust oppressor
Then let my foe pursue me and seize me
let him trample my life to the ground
and lay my soul in the dust

Lord rise up in your anger
rise against the fury of my foes
my God awake you will give judgement
Let the company of nations gather round you
taking your seat above them on high
The Lord is judge of the peoples

Give judgement for me Lord I am just
And innocent of heart
Put an end to the evil of the wicked
Make the just stand firm
You who test mind and heart
O just God

God is the shield that protects me
who saves the upright heart
God is a just judge
slow to anger
But he threatens the wicked every day
men who will not repent

God will sharpen the sword
he has braced his bow and taken aim
For them he has prepared deadly weapons
he barbs his arrows with fire
Here is one who is pregnant with malice
conceives evil and brings forth lies

He digs a pitfall digs it deep
and in the trap he has made he will fall
His malice will recoil on himself
on his own head his violence will fall
I will thank the Lord for his justice
I will sing to the Lord the most high

Have you ever been accused of something that you did not do? By someone who had more influence than you? And did the person they told believe their tale over your truth? If you have then you may be able to understand what David is going through in this Psalm.

Biblical historians seem to think that Cush the Benjaminite was a member of King Saul's court and that he accused David of something that he, apparently, didn't do. He's in a tight spot, he knows that Cush has power over Saul and that Saul may likely believe Cush over David. David has almost nowhere to turn, but he can still turn to God. David recognizes that he isn't alone in his struggle, that God enters into that struggle alongside him, and focusing on that can bring peace and strength.

This is true not just when there are unfounded accusations against you but in every struggle that you are in the midst of. Perhaps you are grieving the loss of a loved one or a job or your preferred future, and you need to step into God’s presence for comfort and healing. On the other hand, we usually don’t seem to think that struggles can be both negative and positive, so, perhaps you are actually in the midst of an opportunity, or there is a new baby right around the corner, or a new marriage, or a new job, but you are not sure if you are ready for it and you need to step into God’s presence for reassurance. In both cases God is there and is ready to receive you, as Jesus says, the one who seeks, finds.

+ In your struggles [both positive and negative] do you remember that God is with you? If yes, do you turn to God in those times? If no, why do you think it's difficult to believe that God is there and that God cares?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 6

Psalm 6

Lord do not reprove me in your anger

punish me not in your rage

Have mercy on me Lord I have no strength

Lord heal me my body is racked

my soul racked with pain

But you O Lord how long

Return Lord rescue my soul

Save me in your merciful love

for in death no one remembers you

from the grace who can give you praise

I am exhausted with my groaning

every night I drench my pillow with tears

I bedew my bed with weeping

My eye wastes away with grief

I have grown old surrounded by my foes

Leave me all you who do evil

for the Lord has heard my weeping

The Lord has heard my plea

The Lord will accept my prayer

All my foes will retire in confusion

Foiled and suddenly confounded

Here David comes grappling with the fact that thing have not yet worked out for him. By his question of ‘How long Oh Lord, how long?’ I get the distinct impression that he has come to God numerous times with his current state of affairs, his current worries, his current fears. He has come to God and shared with God and yet God has not changed the affairs, has not removed the worries, has not lessened the fear. David has come to God and it was ‘for nothing’ but here he comes again. How many times can we say the same?

Too often when we send our requests, our prayers to God and are met with seeming silence, we stop going to God. We move on to the next avenue, if there is another, or we just let go of whatever hope we still had that maybe, just maybe God could help in our times of need. We get discouraged, we let whatever negative thoughts that are beating us down to finally and completely win, leading us to ever darker and darker places.

I don’t know why some prayers are “answered” and some are not. I don’t know why some people are healed and some die. I don’t know why some homes are spared by a tornado and some are thrown through the air. What I do know is that we need to come to a place where even when God is “silent” we are not. We should pray and when those prayers don’t turn out how we would like them to, we should pray again and again, without ceasing as Paul writes. It reminds us that we are not alone and it reminds us that God is still at work, still speaking, still moving.

+ What prayers that you have had recently not been answered [or not answered in the way you would prefer]? What was your response?

+ Do you continue to go to God, even when God doesn’t seem to act?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 5

Psalm 5

To my words give ear O Lord
give heed to my groaning
Attend to the sound of my cries
my king and my God

It is you whom I invoke O Lord
In the morning you hear me
In the morning I offer you my prayer
watching and waiting

You are no God who loves evil
no sinner is your guest
The boastful shall not stand their ground
before your face

You hate all who do evil
you destroy all who lie
The deceitful and bloodthirsty man
the Lord detests

But I through the greatness of your love
have access to your house

I bow down before your holy temple
filled with awe

Lead me Lord in your justice
because of those who lie in wait
make clear your way before me

No truth can be found in their mouths
their heart is all mischief
Their throat a wide-open grave
all honey their speech

Declare them guilty O God
Let them fail in their designs
Drive them out for their many offences
for they have defied you

All those you protect shall be glad
and ring out their joy
You shelter them in you they rejoice
those who love your name

It is you who bless the just man Lord
you surround him with favor as with a shield

We have reached the end of week 1 and it seems as good as any place for me to point out something that I consider of utmost importance: just because the Psalmist says how God feels about X doesn’t necessarily make it so & just because the Psalmist desires something doesn’t mean that God will give it.

While the Psalms are of utmost importance to the Christian we must never forget that we live on the other side of Christ’s revelation, and I am not talking about that crazy book at the end of the Bible. Jesus came to earth to show us how much God loves us; Paul says that even when we were still sinners that Jesus was sent as a sacrifice for us. Jesus tells a story of a lost son in Luke 15 where the father runs after a wayward son, while declaring that all that was his was his other son’s if he but asked for it. Jesus said that it was not the healthy but the sick that needed the doctor. In the Gospel of John, we are told that God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but that through him it might be saved.

All of which flies in the face of a comment like ‘You hate all who do evil.’ Jesus told us to pray for and do good to those who would mean us harm, are we held to a higher standard than that which God is held to? Are we commanded to do good while God just slays indiscriminately? Are we required to forgive 77 or 70 times 7 [depending on the translation] while God gives but one chance? Are we told to love our enemies while God hates them with an untold fire of destruction?

I’m not sure how you answer those questions, but I say that God’s love is not smaller than my love, nor is it equal to my love, but rather it is infinitely greater than my love, and if it is than whatever vengeance I might call down, God will cast aside.

+ How has the words of the Psalms caused you to question their validity? If they haven’t how do you reconcile their occasional calls of hate and destruction with the grace and mercy found in other areas of the Bible?

+ What tangible way might you begin to let go of the anger you have about various situations and take a more holistic and reconciliatory course of thought and action?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 4

Psalm 4

When I call answer me O God of justice
from anguish you released me have mercy and hear me

O men how long will your hearts be closed
will you love what is futile and seek what is false

It is the Lord who grants favors to those whom he loves
the Lord hears me whenever I call him

Fear him do not sin ponder on your bed and be still
Make justice your sacrifice and trust in the Lord

What can bring happiness many say
Lift up the light of your face on us O Lord

You have put into my heart a greater joy
than they have from abundance of corn and new wine

I will lie down in peace and sleep comes at once
for you alone Lord make me dwell in safety

If you are like me you probably encounter a lot of people who when you mention the love of God they mention the justice of God. And If you are like some people if you mention the justice of God they will bring up the love of God. What we all too often fail to realize is that it is not an either or, it is both and. David speaks of it clearly in the first stanza a God of justice who shows mercy. You see, God's justice is not like our justice, we have a justice system that is built around giving or reserving punishment, whereas God's justice is one that ultimately moves toward reconciliation.

But not only does David speak of God's justice showing mercy but then he says that we need to have a sacrifice of justice. What that says to me is that what we need to do is lay aside our need for 'our type' of justice and allow God's justice to prevail. Here it gets stickier, because we often want vengeance but will settle for justice, but we want that justice to be swift and hard not merciful. But the Bible requires us to 'trust in the Lord' which means that we believe and act as if God knows more than we know and acts in accordance to God's knowledge, not ours. That is never an easy road at first, because we exist on the other side of original sin and thus we desire things to happen the way we desire them to happen. Relying on God's justice is a daily dying to our desires, which opens us up to a new way of thinking and feeling.

+ In what ways do you think God's justice is and is not like our human justice?

+ How can you come to rely on God's justice and set aside your need for vengeance and justice?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 3

Psalm 3

How many are my foes, O Lord
How many are rising up against me
How many are saying about me
There is no help for him from God

But you Lord are a shield about me
my glory who lift up my head
I cry aloud to the Lord
He answers from his holy mountain

I lie down to rest and I sleep
I wake for the Lord upholds me
I will not fear even thousands of people
who are ranged on every side against me

Arise Lord save me my God
you who strike all my foes on the mouth
You who break the teeth of the wicked
O Lord of salvation bless your people

There is a distinct chord of violence that reverberates through the Psalms and we will discuss that at length in the coming days, weeks, and months but today I want to focus on the desire behind the lyrics as opposed to the actual lyric itself. David writes this Psalm from a place of desperation and fear, but through the writing of it, by remembering what God he is talking to he finds respite from that desperation and fear.

The thing many people don't realize about the Bible is that it is in many ways the world's best selling self-help book [yet it doesn't require you to do it by your'self'], if we were to listen to most of its commands our lives would be infinitely better. Jesus tells us to not worry about tomorrow, yet anxiety runs rampant in our culture. We are told to do things in moderation, and yet excess runs rampant in our culture. We are told to treat others how we desire to be treated, yet in our culture we preach about getting ahead by any means. And perhaps most life-changing, many times throughout the Bible there is a command to 'fear not' yet we so often allow fear to overwhelm us.

David is in one of these moments where fear could easily overwhelm him. He is on the run, outnumbered by a larger foe, and yet he remembers in that moment who to turn to, God. God is the one whose peace passes all understanding, and that peace is a peace for the storm for the darkness for the fear. It is a peace that can overwhelm the fear that threatens to overwhelm us.

+ What events occurring in your life have the potential to overwhelm you? Have you prayed about them?

+ Remembering what God has already brought us through can be a great comfort to us in current struggles, so can you remember a time when you felt that peace that passes all understanding?



p.s. David was on the run from his son Absalom who had risen to power and declared himself King following a set of events that included the rape of his sister by his half-brother and then the murder of his half-brother some two years later. (see 2 Samuel 13-18 for more depth)

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 2

Psalm 2

Why this tumult among nations
among peoples this useless murmuring
The arise the kings of the earth
princes plot against the Lord and his Anointed
Come let us break their fetters
come let us cast off their yoke

He who sits in the heavens laughs
the Lord is laughing them to scorn
The he will speak in his anger
his rage will strike them with terror
It is I who have set up my king
on Zion my holy mountain

I will announce the decree of the Lord
The Lord said to me you are my Son
It is I who have begotten you this day
Ask and I shall bequeath you the nations
put the ends of the earth in your possession
With a rod of iron you will break them
shatter them like a potter's jar

Now O kings understand
take warning rulers of the earth
Serve the Lord with awe
and trembling pay him your homage
Lest he be angry and you perish
for suddenly his anger will blaze
Blessed are they who put their trust in God

Can we say that the nations are in tumult today? Or that there is useless murmuring among the people today? Without a doubt I believe that the answer is yes. We are in a presidential cycle once again and it seems like with each successive one the barbs fly faster and the truth is played looser and we all join in. Our candidate is the only one who will not send our nation to hell in a hand basket and the other candidate is the worst thing to come along since Hitler. The talking heads on the news stations have their say. The leaders of whatever subset have their say. And we too often fall in line as if we are lemmings quite ready to jump off the cliff is X tells us to.

The funny part is that some of those talking heads/leaders are pastors and they try to tell you what God wants, who God wants, what political party God is and is not behind, how a Christian should vote, what a Christian one issue should stand for and against. This is funny because it is not the job of a pastor to tell someone how to vote. And its funny because God probably is laughing at all of us.

Many many years ago the Israelites came to God and asked for a king and for awhile God told them no, because a king can grow to think that he is the ultimate authority and when the king is the ultimate authority the Almighty is not. For the next few weeks and then the next few months and years after and then for the rest of your life try to remember, whether you vote blue or red or green or libertarian [not sure what color they are], that the party and the politician are only so powerful and so right and so true, yet the God who set this all in motion is all powerful, all right, and all true.

+ How have you contributed to the 'useless murmuring? How can you help to end it?

+ Try to be civil when discussing politics, especially when in conversation with fellow Christians, you should ultimately be on the same side of things even if you are on different political aisles.

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 1

2 short things before we begin

1] I will be transcribing the Psalm as it is found in The Abbey Psalter, which are from the Ladies of the Grail [google Grail Psalms for more info] except I will be leaving out all punctuation marks as they are not found in the original Hebrew, read the Psalm as you prefer

2] The actual content following the Psalms will be in the 250 or so word limit so as not to take up too much of your time and then there will be a series of questions to spur further thought

And now...

Psalm 1

Happy indeed is the man
who follows not the counsel of the wicked
Nor lingers in the way of sinners
nor sits in the company of scorners
But whose delight is the law of the Lord
and who ponders his law day and night

He is like a tree that is planted
beside the flowing waters
That yields its fruit in due season
and whose leaves shall never fade
And all that he does shall prosper
Not so are the wicked, not so

For they like winnowed chaff
shall be driven away by the wind
When the wicked are judged they shall not stand
nor find room among those who are just
For the Lord guards the way of the just
but the way of the wicked leads to doom

I read this Psalm and see a direct distinction between those who 'delight in the law of the Lord' and those that do not, but I am a Christian pastor living in the year 2016 so it should not come as a huge surprise that I look at the Psalms through a post-Jesus lens. What that means is that I do not think of First Testament law when reading, but rather think of the greatest commandment. Jesus, in Matthew 22, says that the greatest commandment is to love God with everything we have and that the second is like it, loving our neighbor as ourselves.

The person who can follow that law is 'like a tree' standing tall with deep roots that is always nourished and always nourishes. We bloom because of who is inside us and how that impacts every aspect of our being, our words, our actions, our feelings, our silence & our violence.

On the other hand the one who does not love God and neighbor drifts in the wind. They are not rooted down by belief nor rooted down by love. They are neither nourished nor do they nourish. And their being, words, actions, feelings, silence, and violence are sporadic, moral one moment and selfish the next.

The true Christian is one who lays their lives down day by day for God and neighbor and the true sinners are those who hold onto their lives so tight at the expense of anyone and everything.

+ How do you read the Psalms? As historical writings or as words that can travel through time and speak to you in your current situation? If you read them through a different lens feel free to comment below

+ In what ways has loving God and neighbor rooted you in trying times? or How do you think loving God and neighbor may also help you?