The Heart's Cry: Psalm 57

Psalm 57

It does my heart good to come across Psalms such as this one, Psalms that are written when David is in trouble but still in a good headspace. As you have no doubt noticed, if you have been following this blog and are literate, I wrestle with a David who is as bloodthirsty as he is worshipful. If I'm honest one of the reasons I wrestle with it is that I myself have a gargantuan temper that I fight with to keep under control at times. If you have never thought about it we often find ourselves at odds with people who are most like us, and while I am unwilling to say that I am a man after God's own heart, though I do long to be, I find that I too often see myself in David's words and actions. I try to tell myself that I am better than David because I attempt to keep my demons at bay, but that is highly judgmental of David, how do I know that he didn't fight that same fight against himself.

Now that I have shared that particular confession let me get to a more general devotional thought...

My heart is steadfast, O God,
my heart is steadfast.
I will sing and make melody.
Awake, my soul!
Awake, O harp and lyre!
I will awake the dawn.

How powerful is your worship? Is it a worship that can potentially wake the dawn? Or is it more like mine? A worship that borders on causing yourself and others to fall asleep? Sure there are times when my worship is more awakeful [not a word, but you know what I mean] but that is too often due to how I feel about the lyrics of the song I'm singing than it is due to the God I'm praising. I try to do better when I am leading others in worship, but sometimes my throat gets dry or I have a headache and I let my personal circumstances trump my worshipful stance.

I guess that today is as much about my struggles as it is about the Psalm, but isn't that part of the point of the Psalms? We can find ourselves reflected in the words and thoughts of others, sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a less than way.

+ Do you have a worship that is awake or asleep?

+ How can you become a worshipper that trumps their personal circumstances?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 56

Psalm 56

Be Yours

slipping feet
it seems I have
always going
where I shouldn't go

slipping tongue
it seems I have
always saying
what I shouldn't say

slipping hands
it seems I have
always punching
what I shouldn't hit

Chorus:
and this I pray
each and every day
keep my feet from slipping
keep my tongue in check
keep my hand at my side
and let my life, lord let my life
be yours

slipping feet
it seems I have
always moving
whom I should help

slipping tongue
it seems I have
always cutting
whom I should love

slipping hands
it seems I have
always hurting
whom I should hold

Chorus:

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 55

Psalm 55

According to the title of this Psalm it is a focus on a friend who betrays, then in verse 12 David gets to the point himself, he is not talking about an enemy but someone who was a friend. I would prefer to sit here and tell you that I have no idea what being betrayed by a friend is like, that it's never happened to me, but I can't, much like you probably couldn't.

There was that one time when...

Or that other time when they...

And perhaps the most painful one is the one that happened just a few months ago when...

And they were friends that I worshipped with and prayed with and studied with, friends that I told intimate details to and listened to them when they needed someone, but that entanglement didn't stop the betrayal, if anything it just exasperated the pain I felt. Like most people the first thing I asked was 'How could they do that to me?' I raged, first internally, then externally, than to others. I swore I'd never speak to them again. But then, after a time, I calmed down and asked myself a more important question, 'Was there anything that I did to cause this to happen?'

Sometimes there was nothing I could point to that caused my friends to react the way they did, but sometimes there was. I realized that sometimes I had acted in a "less than" type of way before they did, that I may have caused a feeling of betrayal in them way before they did in me. That is a place we don't really like to get to, realizing that we may be at fault for the damage done to us, but it is very important to ask that second question, for individuals, for families, for corporations, for governments.

+ Have you been betrayed by a friend? Were you able to rescue the friendship or did it end?

+ Were you able to ask both questions ['How could they?' and 'Did I cause it?']?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 54

Psalm 54

Considering David's actions and words it is not that surprising that the world didn't comprehend Jesus as Messiah at first. Messiah was to be the heir of David, the conquering hero, the shepherd boy who outwitted his enemies, the slayer of Goliath, the defeater of Saul, the one who beat his tens of thousands. In light of who David was its not too surprising that Herod wanted to wipe out a generation to make sure that type of king didn't come on the scene. In light of who David was its not too surprising that Judas thought Jesus was going to be something other than he was. In light of who David was its not too surprising that many of his followers expected a violent overthrow of Rome. Violence, bloodshed, retribution, revenge, this is what the people expected, and instead they got a baby born in the middle of nowhere, who fled to egypt, was raised by a carpenter, and for his grand entrance turned water into wine.

Yeah, its not too surprising that the world had blinders on when it came to the son of Mary. Take a moment and read Luke 4:14-21 and then read Isaiah 61:1-2. Do you notice anything missing in Luke that Isaiah contains? You'll find it right at the end if you missed it the first time. Isaiah 2 includes "and the day of vengeance of our God" whereas Jesus does not, he unrolls the scroll to this particular passage and leaves out the part about God's vengeance. If you keep reading in Luke, the crowd is at first amazed at Jesus, but then he tells them that a prophet is never accepted in his hometown and they run him out and try to kill him. I wonder if part of the reason they did this is because they realized what Jesus left out. Jesus was here to speak good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom for prisoners, to give sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, and to declare the year of the Lord's favor, but he did not come to announce the day of vengeance, that wasn't part of his mission, and the people had hoped that it would be.

+ In what other ways did Jesus surprise the Israelites?

+ In what ways does he continue to surprise you?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 53

Psalm 53

I know a few atheists who do good, I know some Christians who don't.

I know some atheists who hate Christianity, I know some Christians who hate atheists.

I know the atheists that I do because they are my friends. We are friends because we have things in common, our belief in God is not one of them, but that is alright. Some people may have just read that previous sentence and gasped. They have obviously not been moved by the amazon commercial with the priest and the imam buying each other kneepads. What the priest and the imam understand and many others do not is that you do not need to agree on everything in order to love and care for another person, in fact it is the only way to love and care for another person. I say that because you do not agree with anyone completely, and no one agrees with you completely either. To that end, we should allow ourselves to be open to people of different ideologies than our own.

Telling an atheist, or anyone else for that matter, that they are a fool is not the best way to get them to go for coffee or a coke. Stating that there is no one in this world that does any good on their own is being blind to all the good that is done in this world by people who do not believe the way you believe. I have atheist friends because we started in a common place and then spoke about our differences. I have atheist friends because I do not hang my belief like an anvil over their heads. I have atheist friends because my Jesus tells me to love my neighbor as myself. It's the same reason I have straight and gay friends, the same reason I have democrat and republican friends, the same reason I have DC and Marvel friends, the same reason I have friends who do and do not like oatmeal raisin cookies.

+ Do you have friends who have a different ideology than you do? Why or why not?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 52

Psalm 52

7 “See the one who would not take
    refuge in God,
but trusted in abundant riches,
    and sought refuge in wealth!”
8 But I am like a green olive tree
    in the house of God.
I trust in the steadfast love of God
    forever and ever.

Here are our options, we can either grow like a fruitful tree resting in God's garden or we can decide to not take refuge in God, we can either trust in the love that God gives us or we can trust in our wealth, our strength, ourselves. Be fruitful and safe or go it alone, trust in God or ourselves, it really is as simple as that.

So why do we often choose verse 7 instead of verse 8? Maybe it is because it is simpler to trust in ourselves than it is to trust in someone else, anyone else, even God. Maybe it is because our society tells us that we are on our own and we shouldn't expect help from anyone. Maybe it is because "we stamp our god in God we trust." Maybe it is because of our sinful nature. Maybe it isn't any one of these options but some other reason or perhaps a combination of several. In truth it doesn't matter why we choose what we do, what matters is that we do in the first place, what matters is that we do a better job of choosing.

+ Which do you find yourself naturally choosing? If it is yourself instead of God how do you overcome that?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 51

Psalm 51

It's been almost 12 years since I wrote what you're about to read. Almost 12 years since I got tired of wiping out on the slopes and decided to hang up my snowboard and get warmth and rest in the ski lodge. Almost 12 years since I sat down next to my friend Chris and listened as he played guitar, some songs that previously existed and some that did not. It was during one of those songs that didn't previously exist that I took out a pen and notepad and wrote the lyrics to Renewal, a song based on Psalm 51.

Psalm 51 is the Psalm of understanding and repentance, a Psalm where David's eyes are finally opened up to the disaster that he has orchestrated. David's men were at war but the king was at home. He called a woman to him, and no woman can say no to the king and live. He bed this woman, though she was married to another, and impregnated her. Then in order to cover up his sin he summoned her husband who was off fighting a war that David told him to fight. David hoped that the soldier would bed his wife and that his sin would be assumed to be the man's offspring, but Uriah, being a man of higher moral fiber than David was, could not sleep with his wife while his friends were dying in a far off place. David then decided that the only course of action to cover his sin was to kill Uriah so he sent him to the front and told his commander to pull everyone else back. The prophet Nathan then comes and shows David how awful his deeds were and Psalm 51 is what proceeds from that understanding.

I have never done what David did, but I understand that I am not a man without sin, so I also understand the need of repentance, of renewal, and so I added my own words to David's.

Renewal

I've been down for oh so long
didn't know what to say
or even what to do
I've been fighting, fighting you for so long
and I'm so tired of trying on my own

Chorus:
clean me, wash me, purify me
clean me, wash me, restore me
to you

When I walked away, when I climbed to you
didn't know what to say
or even what to do
I've been fighting, fighting me for so long
and I'm sick and tired of trying it on my own

Chorus:

Bridge:
bring back the joy
renew my spirit
unseal my lips
and let me shine
Lord, let me shine

Chorus:

+ How do you need to be honest about your own failings?

+ In what areas of your life do you need renewal?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 50

Can you believe it, we have come 1/3 of the way through Psalms? A quick note before we begin, the week between Christmas and New Years, specifically Dec 26-30, there will be no posts, we will be visiting family and doing fun family things so consider that week a vacation week. But that still leaves two more weeks of posts until then, so stick around and come back after on January 2 2017 to roll right on through to 150.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled devotion.

Psalm 50

I like you, I really do. And this year for Christmas I wanted to get you something really special, something I knew you'd like and appreciate. I thought long and hard about it and decided to get you, your car. I know you love it, you drive it everywhere, I hope you like it. What? You don't? Well, okay then, I'll get you your house, that's even better, I sure am thoughtful. What? While you like your house you think that it's not mine to give? Ok, I guess I see your point, but come on, I tried really hard, shouldn't you be appreciative?

That previous paragraph is rather ridiculous, I know, but think about it for a second and you'll understand that it is a pretty good example of how people who sacrifice things to God act. We are very generous with our sacrifice as long as it's things that aren't really ours to give in the first place. You see, we have this illusion of ownership, this illusion that possession is nine-tenths of the law, but in a very real way It. Is. All. God's. To. Begin. With.

The land doesn't become ours because of the piece of paper. We are not owners of the air or water. We don't even truly own our bodies, we were molded, formed, created by another. But, what we can give to God is ourselves, our attitudes, our actions. Of course, the only way we can do that is because God gives us a the freewill to go our own way, and what God desires above all else is that with that freewill we would choose God. Here, in Psalm 50, God requires a sacrifice of thanksgiving, in Micah it is one of mercy justice and humility, but it is not about giving to God by way of the woodpile and fire, it is giving to God by way of our lives, in the words of Paul, as living sacrifices.

+ In what ways have you attempted to sacrifice to God what was already God's?

+ How  can you live your life in such a way as to become a living sacrifice?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 49

Psalm 49

I could wrap this Psalm up in one very familiar sentence, "He who dies with the most toys still dies."

But, I suppose you click on the link for a little more than that, so let me give it a whirl.

First, a simple question: What do you think of when you hear "He who dies with the most toys still dies"? Does it make you think of people with a lot of things and how they sometimes act like their things make them more important? Does it make you think that you have too much stuff and you need to get rid of some of the clutter? Does it make you think that it would still be nice to have a lot of toys now?

While I am sure that there are more answers, those are the three that pop into my mind, because those are the three that I have thought from time to time. Truthfully I don't think any of them are the right answer. If I first think of stuck up people I am being judgmental. If I first think of decluttering I am simply wanting to make my life simpler. If I think about wanting more things I am being selfish.

How do I think we should answer the question you ask? I think that we need to come to a simple realization that the toys don't matter. Having a lot of them doesn't matter. Having fewer of them doesn't matter. Having none of them doesn't matter. They may cause momentary joy or distress, but in the end they don't matter. They are physical and physical doesn't last, not in ourselves, not in relationships, not in anything. What matters is that everyone will die and it is highly important what we do with our lives while our lungs are moving.

So...a second question: What are you going to do with the time you have left?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 48

Psalm 48

Time for a little history lesson to get to a deeper point.

There was a man named Abram whom God told to go, and he went.
This man became Abraham and God promised him offspring.
Abraham begat Isaac after quite some time and a bit of laughter.
Isaac followed the Lord and begat Esau and Jacob.
Jacob grew up and tricked Isaac, but that's not really a part of this story.
Esau was cheated out of a birthright but begat, among others, Korah.
Korah begat others whom became the Korahites, who sang and wrote songs, particularly Psalms 42, 44 - 49, 84, 85, 87, and 88.
In some English translations Korah is spelled Core, so these Sons of Korah, who sing and write songs, could also be considered Sons of the Core.

All of that leads me to think that maybe most English translations really get the spelling wrong. What if these Sons of the Core are trying to get across something deeper in their Psalms? What if they want us to understand that praise should be something that exists at the core of each one of us, not at the periphery, or worse? If worship should be so intrinsically a part of us we probably all need to work on that aspect of our faiths.

Lin Manuel Miranda, who wrote the Broadway musicals Hamilton and In the Heights, has a character Abuelita Claudia in In the Heights who [spoiler alert] passes away and Lin's character Usnavi says the following about her, "Abuela Claudia had simple pleasures. She sang the praises of things we ignore. Glass Coke bottles, bread crumbs, a sky full of stars. She cherished these things, she’d say; Alabanza. Alabanza means to raise this thing to God’s face And to sing, quite literally, praise to this." I wonder if we need to be more like Abuelita Claudia in how we look at the world around us, praising God for all the small wonders of this life, that seems to me like what worship at the core could look like.

+ What role does worship play in your life? How could it become a core aspect of you?

+ What might it look like for you to praise God for "glass coke bottles, bread crumbs, a sky full of stars"?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 47

Psalm 47

There are times when I begin to think that having a king was the worst thing that ever happened to Israel.

You see on one hand we believe that God is King of Kings and Lord of Lords and on the other hand we put a lot of stock in who is the ruler of our particular parcel of land. Here in America we see this especially in focus during our election cycle. It begins over a year before the actual election when candidates begin to pop up. We hitch ourselves to whichever particular candidate says the right thing or believes the right thing or gives us hope or instills in us enough fear and as the process moves on stage by stage we become more and more galvanized that only our particular candidate can lead our country into a bright future, while the candidate on the other side is only interested in riding us on a chariot to hell. Then election day comes and we are either exuberant or a complete mess. For the next 4 or 8 years it is a constant battle against those who are against us, whether we be on the winning or losing side.

We wrap so much into this one person, or against that one person, that we forget that whoever sits in an oval office, or wherever your particular ruler sits, is not quite at the level of the one who sits on a throne in heaven. Those of us who believe need to often remind ourselves of that fact, that God supercedes the person we declare as 'the most powerful man [or one day, woman] in the world'. We need to begin again, remembering God's power and might and justice and love and mercy and peace. If we fail to make that jump back to how we once believed we will miss out on the opportunities that God is granting us in the here and now to transcend our momentary concerns by focusing on things of eternal importance.

+ In what ways has your culture focused more on your earthly leader than on your heavenly king? How have you?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 46

Psalm 46

The earth is changing.
The mountains shake.
The waters roar and foam.
The mountains tremble.
The nations uproar.
The kingdoms totter.
The earth melts.
War is made.
Bows break.
Spears shatter
and shields burn.

Be still and know that I am God.

Be still and know, not in the calm, not in peacefulness, not in serenity, but in destruction, wilderness, turmoil. Be still and know in the raging storm. Be still and know in the hospital room. Be still and know while the house burns down. Be still and know in the midst of wailing. Be still and know in the midst of fear. Be still and know when everything else is moving and when everybody else is unsure.

That is what we are called to, but it isn't what we would prefer. We would prefer to be still in the silence. We would prefer to be still in solitude. We would prefer to be still when everything is calm and peaceful. We would prefer to know after we have learned what we need to know. We would prefer to know when there is no opposition to our knowledge. We would prefer to know when no one is screaming false words when we are whispering truth.

Yet, the Bible claims that the peace of God is a peace that passes all understanding, and it definitely does mainly because it is a peace that is available when no other peace is. In silence and solitude there is a plethora of peace available. On good days with good weather surrounded by good friends peace is plentiful. But God offers us peace in the midst, peace in the battle, peace in the pain.

+ How has God given you peace and knowledge in times of turmoil?

+ In what way can you better seek to be still and know in your daily life?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 45

Psalm 45

11 years ago I worked my way through the Psalms during Lent, writing songs based on these poems and lyrics. Today's Psalm is a song of love for a wedding and rather than share a normal devotional with you here is my lyric from February 27 2005.

Fair Daughter, how do you do?

Fair daughter, how do you do?
where are you going,
this bright sunshiny day?
have you been down by the water's edge?
have you sniffed the flowers on the air?
and where have you been hiding, my fair?

Fair daughter, how do you do?
where have you been,
in these slow moments?
have you been walking by the evergreens?
have you heard birds sing new songs?
and where have you been sleeping, my fair?

Fair daughter, how do you do?
where have you gone,
this warm dark night?
have you been sleeping under the stars?
have you been washing under the waterfalls?
and where have you been dreaming, my fair?

Because I've been looking for you
what begins to seem like forever
and I've been dreaming of you
since my very first dream
Yes, I've been dreaming of you
since my very first dream

Fair daughter, how do you do?
where have you been hiding?
where have you been sleeping?
and where have you been dreaming, my fair?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 44

Psalm 44

I think that God got out of the war business.

While I can't deny that there are passages of scripture that declare that God told the people of Israel to go to war with group X or Y, there are also passages like this Psalm that talks about God not being with the people in battle. Then, of course, once we get to the 2nd Testament the focus has shifted to battles of the heart, mind, and soul. But, following biblical times there were, and are, those who claimed that God was on their side, that their side was righteous and the other was evil. Constantine became a Christian, by truth or for opportunity we won't know this side of the grave, and believed that no army that was led by a cross could be defeated, until it was of course. Still today there are those, think the KKK or ISIS, who claim that God is on their side of whatever moral crusade they declare against people unlike themselves. But, I think that God got out of the war business.

I think this because a) we stopped caring what God wanted in our lives b) we stopped fighting wars only when we had to c) we got way to good at killing people.

a) You have to begin at the beginning, there's no other choice and it starts at us deciding that we knew the way forward better than God did. You see this in the story of the Adam and Eve, you see this in Abraham, and Moses, and David, and the disciples, and so on and so forth. Over and over again we tell God that we should be in control, that we should get what we want, that we trust ourselves more than we trust God.

b) The people of Israel only began making war in the 1st Testament when God told them to, but it wasn't too long before the Bible speaks about David being at home during the time when kings were supposed to be out with their armies. Do you realize what that at base means? There began to be a time when what we did was war, as if it was right to decide that we needed this land or we didn't like this people. It was no longer a need, but a desire and when we desire war, God calls for peace.

c)  The first death was by bare hands, or perhaps a rock. Through the ages we used sticks and swords and bows and cannons and guns and missiles and atomic bombs. We used to have to look someone in the eye before we ended their lives, now we can do it on a computer screen from the other side of the world. War has become to easy to wage, we can have our troops anywhere on the planet in a matter of hours and we do.

Those are the main, but not only, reasons that I believe that God got out of the war business.

+ How do you read the First Testament accounts of war?

+ Do you believe that God is still in the war business?