The Heart's Cry: Psalm 91

Psalm 91

I believe that some Psalms speak truth, some Psalms seek truth, and some Psalms hope that they are true. I guess that it all comes down to what it means to be protected, what does it mean to be blessed, what does it mean to be heard, what does it mean to be answered? Some times I think we expect God in our relationships the way that we work in our other relationships. For instance, if my wife asks a question I give an answer, sometimes she doesn't really want one, but I give it anyway, I wonder if sometimes God doesn't answer us because we don't really want to know the answer, or at the very least the answer wouldn't help us along our path.

Then I sometimes wonder if we take our safety to be protection. For instance if you are driving down the road and there is an accident around you, or perhaps you slam on the brakes and are just stopped before you have an accident, did God protect you or did you hit those brakes at the right time, or are you just lucky? Lucky, there are some Christians who say that we shouldn't believe in luck, that what we see as luck is what is actually God working things out, but then why doesn't God work things out for everyone? If not everyone why doesn't God at least work things our for Christians? Or Jews, they came first after all? So maybe it is just a mystery, or maybe part of it is luck, or good timing, or bad decisions, or what ever you want to call it. Because good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people and aren't we all somewhere in the middle of good and bad anyway and aren't all things also somewhere in the middle of being good or bad and maybe its all just a matter of perspective anyway.

I believe that some Psalms speak truth, some Psalms seek truth, and some Psalms hope that they are true, and I believe that the same is true about each of us as well.

+ How is your relationship with God similar and dissimilar to your other relationships?

+ Do you believe that God is behind all things at all times, some things at some times, no thing at no time?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 90

Psalm 90

Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand Six Hundred Minutes
Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand Moments so dear
Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand Six Hundred Minutes
How Do You Measure, Measure A Year?
In Daylights, In Sunsets
In Midnights, In Cups Of Coffee
In Inches, In Miles
In Laughter, In Strife
....
How about love? Measure in Love

Seasons of Love by Jonathan Larson from the musical Rent

To an extent you could condense Psalm 90 into these lyrics, all you would have to do is add a line about God being before and after and in all things, but the main thrust of it is an understanding that physical life is finite and we need to recognize that if we are to do what we need to do. I myself have been wrestling with this issue recently, trying to come to a place where I could begin doing what I am passionate about to a larger extent and spend less time on what I am less passionate about. At first I was thinking about that job wise, but then I began to come to a simple realization, we can't all have a job that brings out our passion, if that was the case there would be much less fast food and retail establishments, which maybe wouldn't be the worst thing but would radically change our society, which again might not be the worst thing.

Since we can't all quit our passionless jobs [not saying that mine or yours are passionless] and do what makes our hearts soar, we must then begin to spend our non-work hours in a different way. We need to come to a conclusion on how best to judge our "free" time, we can spend that time freely lazing around on the couch if we so choose, or we can use that time to set us free. I'm not sure about you, but I hope to spend more of it with passion, pouring into those I love, and allowing the world to pour into me. We may get 70 or 80 or even 100 years but it is not the length of time that makes life worth living, it is how we fill up all 525,600 minutes a year, and a life lived to the full, the life that Jesus promises means using each 60 second section to the fullest extent possible, so let's start living full.

+ What about your life brings you great joy? What takes joy away from you? How can you better do the former and do less of the latter?

+ While you may not be able to just quit your job and pursue your passions how can you pursue those same passions within the confines of your current life situation?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 89

Psalm 89

You said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one,
    I have sworn to my servant David:
‘I will establish your descendants forever,
    and build your throne for all generations.

Who are your ancestors? Who are you descended from? While these may seem like simple questions in reality they are a bit more complicated. We are flesh and blood and so we obviously have biological ancestors, those who we are connected with through our DNA. We are also something more, call it spirit or soul or whatever other word you prefer, and so we have spiritual ancestors and descendants as well. These ancestors and descendants can be good or bad, we may have alcoholism or an aversion to alcohol in our DNA and we may pass on persistence or stubbornness to the generations to come, in the same way we can have, and be, both positive and negative spiritual ancestors and descendants. Only some people are biological descendants of David, but everyone who counts themselves a Jew or a Christian, for better or worse, are spiritual descendants of David.

Through time David had children and grandchildren and great...and along that line, check Matthew and Luke for Mary and Joseph's line to David, came Jesus the biological and spiritual descendant of David. Now, of course, Jesus took the spiritual to a whole other level, but in theory so can you and I. Jesus said [in John 14] that his followers would do even greater things than he did, so we have it in our spiritual DNA to do things we cannot yet imagine. Doing great things requires that we remember that while we have been limited by our physical DNA that we have been given a way to overcome that through our spiritual DNA. This is not an easy task, I struggle to believe it as much or moreso than anyone else, but it is a worthy task.

+ When you think of physical ancestors who are the ones you want to be like and who are the ones you don't want to be like? How about your spiritual ancestors?

+ What attributes do you have that you hope to pass down to your descendants? Which ones would you rather not?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 88

Psalm 88

Sometimes you wait to do something and when you finally get around to it, it becomes more powerful than it would have been to you if you had done it when you were 'supposed' to, which begs the though, in times like that perhaps you weren't supposed to do it until you did it.

It's been a bad day, car troubles, child troubles, work troubles, and most of those troubles wouldn't have been nearly as troubling minus the original car trouble which totally dislodged the good day that I was experiencing, even after waking up at 4:15. It's been a bad day, and while I wouldn't go any where near suggesting that I am in the underworld, I can at least glimpse an understanding in this particular Psalm. Sometimes life wallops you out of the blue, sometimes that relationship is torn asunder, sometimes your plans go off the rails, sometimes there is cancer or a heart attack or a drunk driver and you populate a dark place that appears to be only growing darker. When you are in those times you may just wonder if God ever steps into that darkness, and even if you think God does in general you may yet believe that God may not in specific.

I hold to a different theological ground than this psalmist, I do not believe that God is responsible for everything that happens on this great big blue rock. I believe that when a friend or spouse betrays it is because a friend or spouse betrays, not that they were forced to by God's divine design. I believe that we are supposed to be partners in the creation of each moment, joining God is a great unfolding of time. So I don't hold God responsible for my car troubles, nor my dad's death, nor every heartbreak I have experienced in love. Instead I hold onto God to guide me through those experiences, and to bring me out the other side the better for having experienced them. I hold onto God and the belief that there will never be a darkness that is not without the hint of God's light, I may have to squint in order to see it, I may have to change my perspective to focus on it instead of me, but I believe with all my heart that it is always there.

+ How are you at finding God's light in the midst of darkness?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 87

Psalm 87

Holy City

I've been wandering so far
trying to fit into the overall scheme
but I fail, to recognize
any place that I belong

Pre-chorus:
so I wait, patiently
on you my king, to rescue me
and take me home
to where I belong, in

Chorus:
the holy city
where my life can be free
the holy city
my saviour, my God, and me
the holy city
I pray one day I'll meet you there
in the holy city

I've been wandering so far
trying to find a way to get back home
but I fail, to understand
I'm not made for a place like this

Pre-chorus:

Chorus:

Bridge:
it's my home
where I belong
where everything just fits
it's my home
my destiny
to be there with you my king in

Chorus:

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 86

Psalm 86

Teach me your way, O Lord,
that I may walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart to revere your name.

Oh that one might have an undivided heart, oh what a feeling that must be! I don't know about you but I don't think that I can say that my heart is undivided. I long for it to be though. I long to follow that greatest commandment of loving the Lord my God with all my heart my soul and my mind, but I fear that I often don't do as well as I should. I divide my heart to so many things in life, God, church, family, work, myself, others, things, desires, not necessarily in that order. I think on things that I shouldn't waste a moment's thought on. I sometimes would be willing to gain the whole world and lose my soul. And so I often fail in all three categories of loving God with my all, but I wonder if it all radiates from having a divided heart.

Perhaps if I could solidify my heart I could better love all the things that I should love, perhaps by giving all my heart to God I would have more to give to everyone else. That seems a bit sideways I know, but going along with the whole "have life and have it to the full" I wonder if by loving God better I would automatically start to love others better as well. If I gave what I had away to the one who deserves it perhaps I would gain back more than I gave in the first place, which would allow me to give more to everything else in my life, but instead I give a little to God and a little to my wife and a little to my son and a little to the church and a little to my work and a little to my sins and a little to my wants and a little to things I desire and a little to others. I divide it up so small that what I get back gets me through, when love could make me thrive.

As I do on occasion, I would like to end this with a prayer instead of questions: Holy God may you help us all to live with undivided hearts, to give you our whole heart, whole mind, whole soul that we might have more to give to others, Amen.

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 85

Psalm 85

"I once was lost but now am found, was blind, but now I see"

"The vilest offender who truly believe that moment from Jesus a pardon receives"

"Forgiveness, forgiveness can you imagine?"

So often, song lyrics can make you believe when other words cannot, and so I offer you lyrics from John Newton (Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound!), Fanny Crosby (To God Be the Glory), and Lin-Manuel Miranda (It's Quiet Uptown) in order to best illustrate the point that God's grace is available at all times, sometimes it comes directly from God and sometimes it is delivered by the voice of one you have scorned. Grace is an integral part of a Christian's DNA because it is an integral part of Jesus's life and of God's ways. Grace is the sweet sound that brings us from one side of the equation to the other, going from being part of the problem to being part of the solution. Grace is the life preserver that is thrown out to any who ask, and I do mean any who ask. Grace is the moment where forgiveness is given, despite the evidence that maybe it shouldn't be given at all. And grace is always the turning point from pain to freedom.

Grace is also very hard to believe in sometimes, sometimes it's hard to believe that grace is even possible. When the darkness is surrounding you and it is of your own making sometimes it is very hard to believe that grace is a thing, let alone actually available to you. But Grace is available, even when we doubt its existence. Grace is available even in the darkness created by our own hand. Grace is available and all it takes is our asking for it, all it takes is our recognition of it, all it takes is to open our eyes to the reality that is beyond our reality. Grace is available so let it flow over, around and through you.

+ Have you ever believed that grace wasn't available to you?

+ Have you ever sat and wondered in the majesty of grace?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 84

Psalm 84

One of my favorite worship songs, Better is One Day, is based on this Psalm and it is a song and a Psalm with a great message, but I think that by focusing on the truth of this Psalm we may miss the Truth.

This Psalm is a song of gladness about being able to worship in the temple, and through the course of years we have lifted up the church as a new temple, calling and believing it to be God's house. Don't get me wrong, I love being in church buildings, everytime I walk into a new one I look around to see how they are set up, to see what each section of Christianity does in order to usher people into the presence of the Lord, but the church building is not God's house. Holding to that belief is forgetting a central fact of Jesus's crucifixion, the veil was torn. We are living in a world where the veil was torn, God tore that veil to finally and completely show that God does not dwell in a place, but all places, God does not dwell at a certain time, but at all times, God does not dwell in a certain way, but in all ways.

Better is one day in God's courts, but we need to recognize that it is all God's courts. Jesus makes [Matthew 5:34-36] this point when he says that we shouldn't swear by heaven nor by earth because heaven in God's throne and the earth is God's footstool, which is also found in Isaiah 66. The fact that it can be found in Isaiah goes to the fact that God never dwelt in only certain places, but that we needed the cross for a multitude of reasons, to show us God's love, to show us God's power, to show us God's omnipresence, which is a fancy way of saying that God is present everywhere. It is not that we need to be in a special place for God to speak to us because God can speak at any time in any place, what is needed is for us to realize that and listen for God's voice no matter where we are.

+ How has God spoken to you in places that are not "spiritual"?

+ In what ways have you boxed God into the church building?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 83

Psalm 83

O God, do not remain silent;
    do not turn a deaf ear,
    do not stand aloof, O God. [verse 1, NIV]

I read this Psalm and I sat back and thought about what it was saying to me, then I went to Amazon and looked at a few books and records. After a few minutes I began to read the Psalm again, though I didn't get very far into it, I read the first few verses and then read verse 1 again and again. I began to think about how many times God spoke to Israel in the First Testament, whether through God's voice, the angels, the prophets, their leaders, kings and judges and I began to wonder about how often God was silent. Since the First Testament takes place over thousands of years I am guessing that their was a great deal of 'silence', but then I begin to think, 'there is a great gulf between saying God is being silent and saying that God is turning a deaf ear or that God is being aloof,' but then I begin to contemplate if I am judging them and if I am would I like to be judged by the same standard, and in truth I would not.

There have been times where I have grappled with the so-called silence of God, times where I have written about it, sung about it, complained about it, and mainly wondered when it would end. But I sometimes wonder whether God is being silent or I am simply not listening, or at times if I simply don't want to hear what God has to say. In yesterday's post I wrote about how God desires God's people, both then and now, to listen and follow so that their lives would be better. But the fact of the matter is that we all too often choose to follow our path instead of God's path, we decide to choose our actions instead of God's actions, we decide to choose our words instead of God's words. We do all of that and then we question how God let us get to the place we are in, when we are the ones who let us get to the place we are in. God is over to the side whispering, "Listen to me, listen to me, listen to me," and we are over here saying, "Why won't you speak?"

+ Have you been listening, truly listening for God's voice?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 82

Psalm 82

So often we come to God with anger and questions and for most of us that anger and those questions are usually selfish, we have been wronged, we go without, we are hurting. The first thing you need to know is that their is nothing wrong with going to God with our anger and our questions. The second thing that you need to know is that their isn't anything wrong with some of that anger and those questions being selfish, it's not wrong to want, it's not wrong to desire, it's not wrong to feel slighted.

The third thing that you need to know, and it is knowledge that the psalmist shows us by example, is that we also need to go to God when our anger and our questions are not selfish at all. It is extremely important that we bring our anger, our pain, our questions about those who are suffering to God. It is extremely important that we live with eyes open to the inconsistencies in our culture, our economy, our structures and that we create a righteous anger within ourselves about those inconsistencies. There are times when we should have a base need to overthrow some tables in our countries and in our churches.

Whether or not we should be angry is not the issue, where our anger comes from and where we direct it should be the issue. We need to be angry over the pain of others, we need to be angry over the inconsistencies, we need to be angry over those who hold up immoral structures. In addition we need to be able to use our anger in constructive, godly ways, so that when people see our actions they will know why we are doing what we are doing.

+ Think of a time when you went to God with selfish anger, how did you feel afterward?

+ Think of a time when you went to God with selfless anger, how did you feel afterward?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 81

Psalm 81

There are times when we think everything is going ok and then the voice of God finds a way to break through to us and we begin to realize that no matter how good things are, they were meant to be better.

This Psalm begins with a call for a shout of praise to God, a call for every instrument to be joined to a mighty chorus, there will be praises in Israel tonight! But then there is a voice, an unknown voice, the voice of God. Let that sink in for a moment, things are going so well that it is time to praise God and then the voice of God speaks and no one recognizes it, no one recognizes it. So often we find ourselves in this same place, ready to praise a God that we don't take the time to listen to with enough regularity that we might know the sound it. We praise God on the mountaintop, at the pinnacle, when everything seems to be going so well, that is when we want to thank God. But God wants us to listen on the mountaintop, in the valley, and in every step of the journey in between.

The call to praise goes out and then the voice of God is heard and the voice reminds the people of all the times God has taken care of the people and asks why they didn't listen to God more. God would have protected them, partly by God's hand and partly through God's commands, following God always leads us to the better life. Jesus echoes this when he tells us that he has come to give us life and life to the full, this is not a empty phrase, it is a phrase that promises if you follow Jesus your life will be lived to a greater extent than if you do not follow him. Jesus's teaching leads to a better place, Jesus's love leads to a better place, Jesus's grace leads to a better place. But we would rather do what we want, love how we want, show grace to whom we want. We do that and sometimes it still leads to good things and good places, but, as the psalmist reminds us, it will never reach the heights and depths as it would have if we would have just chosen to listen.

+ How has choosing your own path brought you both joy and sorrow?

+ How do you think God will protect you if you choose to follow God more closely?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 80

Psalm 80

This morning I am reminded that the church does better when it has less, that it grows when it is forced to. This morning I am reminded that though Jesus may be 'popular' his teachings are very much are not, but I'm reminded that nothing formed against Jesus's bride can stop her, except maybe herself.

Song of a wayward bride

Years ago you prayed
prayed that we might be one
but one is just a number and we are anything but
with one word we claim you
with a million actions we disarm you
and a million more voices who desperately need you
are turned away from you by our hand
Years ago you walked
walked that we might understand
but understanding only comes to those open to it
with one thought we cling
and with a million we fling you further
further down the road of our regrets and misgivings
further down the road of our sin
so hold us up in the darkness
though we made the darkness
hold us up through the pain
though we made the pain
a hand on the lever
a finger on the trigger
a brain thinking right or wrong
decisions made in anger, decisions made in fear
decisions that decide whose we are
forgive us our debts, sins and transgressions
forgive us a million little things
forgive us our hatred, our racism our pride
forgive us for pushing down your child
forgive us a million little things
but most of all forgive us
for thinking they are merely little things

+ Are you concerned for the future of the church? Why or why not?

The Heart's Cry: Psalm 79

Psalm 79

Jerusalem has been attacked, the people are in trouble, and it has come as a shock, once again. There is always a segment of people who are in shock when the judgment comes, because they never listened to the ample warnings. Peppered throughout the First Testament are books of the Prophets, warning the people of Israel that if they did not turn from their ways that they would be left to their own devices, and when they did not turn they were. Part of the problem with them, and with us today, is the end of this Psalm where the author says that if God will simply turn back to them and protect them they will praise God forever. Therein lies the rub, God doesn't want simply our praise, God wants us to take care of those who need our help, the widow, the orphan, the sojourner, the poor, the hurting, those without peace and hope and love.

I am no prophet, believe me I am not qualified for such a position, but there is a part of me that wonders if we as a people will also be left to our own devices soon if we do not begin to follow the commands of God. Commands like walk humbly, do justly, and love mercy. Commands like do good to those who persecute you. Commands like love your neighbor and your enemy. Commands that come in the form of stories like accepting the prodigal and taking care of the one attacked, even if they are not of your country or religion. In the end it is our ability to follow these commands, and many more like them, that will define our relationship with God, because anyone can sing a song or say a prayer, but we are called to carry crosses.

+ How can you begin to show more love and acceptance, especially to those that your society or church shuns?