My heart is steadfast, O God,
my heart is steadfast.
I will sing and make melody.
8 Awake, my soul! Ps. 57: 7, 8
My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast;*
I will sing and make melody.
Awake, my soul! *Ps. 108: 1
He will have no fear of bad news;
his heart is steadfast,
trusting in the Lord. Ps. 112: 7
In one scene from The Passion of the Christ, Jesus is shown quoting these words: My heart is steadfast O God. I forget so much - especially when it comes to movies. But these words of Jesus when he was in the greatest torment and physical abuse of his life have haunted me: My heart is steadfast O God.
When things are going badly for us - not just badly, horribly - and our souls feel dead, we are called to sing, calling on God to wake us up from the deadness we feel in the depths of who we are.
When I read these psalms, I read them as a commentary on the thoughts of Jesus facing the cross.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Ruth 4
For you Ruth, who loves you, is more to you than seven sons. (Ruth 4: 15 paraphrase)
Ruth is such an odd little book and so beautiful. It is so odd because it deals with what appears to be entirely ordinary events. No kings here. No prophets. No great men of God being spoken to by God himself. Just a family that during hard times leaves their homeland to go to another country to find work, illegal immigrants that during tough times go where they are not wanted except for the labor that they provide. Not surprisingly, the story is sad. The men die, father and sons. The wife is heartbroken and dirt poor. She decides, of course, to go back home where. at least, she can live among her relatives and not starve to death. There is love between her and her daughter-in-laws. But all of them are poor, no-name individuals that would have hardly been noticed by anyone - nameless faces in a crowd of poverty, moving around the country, going wherever they think they can find a little work and something to eat.
But among these nameless people, there is love, and God blesses love. God blesses love among the rich and the poor, and this story becomes a fairy tale. The rich man Boaz falls in love with the the young widow, Ruth. By the end of the story Boaz, head over heels, is throwing away his shoes and his honor and his wealth to marry into a family that is poor in everything but a love for each other, a love straight from the heart of God. And Naomi, an old woman bereft of husband and sons, again is the star of the story, the everyday, ordinary woman, who has seen more than her share of sorrow and grief, now with hope and joy rising within her because of a baby in the womb, an almost grandson, and Naomi's family becomes a family of kings.
An ordinary story of the kingdom and the family of the Messiah... an ordinary story that shows you that to live in love creates an extraordinary world. Read and believe.
Ruth is such an odd little book and so beautiful. It is so odd because it deals with what appears to be entirely ordinary events. No kings here. No prophets. No great men of God being spoken to by God himself. Just a family that during hard times leaves their homeland to go to another country to find work, illegal immigrants that during tough times go where they are not wanted except for the labor that they provide. Not surprisingly, the story is sad. The men die, father and sons. The wife is heartbroken and dirt poor. She decides, of course, to go back home where. at least, she can live among her relatives and not starve to death. There is love between her and her daughter-in-laws. But all of them are poor, no-name individuals that would have hardly been noticed by anyone - nameless faces in a crowd of poverty, moving around the country, going wherever they think they can find a little work and something to eat.
But among these nameless people, there is love, and God blesses love. God blesses love among the rich and the poor, and this story becomes a fairy tale. The rich man Boaz falls in love with the the young widow, Ruth. By the end of the story Boaz, head over heels, is throwing away his shoes and his honor and his wealth to marry into a family that is poor in everything but a love for each other, a love straight from the heart of God. And Naomi, an old woman bereft of husband and sons, again is the star of the story, the everyday, ordinary woman, who has seen more than her share of sorrow and grief, now with hope and joy rising within her because of a baby in the womb, an almost grandson, and Naomi's family becomes a family of kings.
An ordinary story of the kingdom and the family of the Messiah... an ordinary story that shows you that to live in love creates an extraordinary world. Read and believe.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Psalm 130
Psalm 130
Waiting for Divine Redemption
A Song of Ascents.1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.
2 Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my supplications!
3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
Lord, who could stand?
4 But there is forgiveness with you,
so that you may be revered.
5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
6 my soul waits for the Lord
more than those who watch for the morning,
more than those who watch for the morning.
7 O Israel, hope in the Lord!
For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
and with him is great power to redeem.
8 It is he who will redeem Israel
from all its iniquities.
After last night, waking up before 3 a.m. and never being able to fall back asleep, tossing and turning, thinking of everything that is wrong in what I see at work, and thinking of my own failures to be the man that I believe God wants me to be, to lead the way that I think that God wants me to lead, to love with courage, wisdom and self-sacrifice, this passage is just what I needed. Thanks and praise to God who always speaks just the right word to me at just the right time. Lord, help me to believe from the heart.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Psalm 123
Psalm 123
Supplication for Mercy
A Song of Ascents.
To you I lift up my eyes,
O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
As the eyes of servants
look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid
to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our God,
until he has mercy upon us.
Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us,
for we have had more than enough of contempt.
Our soul has had more than its fill
of the scorn of those who are at ease,
of the contempt of the proud.
This a psalm about a plea to God that the petitioner not be held in contempt. He says that he has had enough of it Most of my life I could not say that I have related to this psalm. For the past few years, though, I could relate to the plea of this psalm. It is so good to me to know that God cares about how we feel when we feel like we are being treated badly.
Supplication for Mercy
A Song of Ascents.
To you I lift up my eyes,
O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
As the eyes of servants
look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid
to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our God,
until he has mercy upon us.
Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us,
for we have had more than enough of contempt.
Our soul has had more than its fill
of the scorn of those who are at ease,
of the contempt of the proud.
This a psalm about a plea to God that the petitioner not be held in contempt. He says that he has had enough of it Most of my life I could not say that I have related to this psalm. For the past few years, though, I could relate to the plea of this psalm. It is so good to me to know that God cares about how we feel when we feel like we are being treated badly.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Psalm 150
1 Praise the Lord!
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty firmament!*
2 Praise him for his mighty deeds;
praise him according to his surpassing greatness!
3 Praise him with trumpet sound;
praise him with lute and harp!
4 Praise him with tambourine and dance;
praise him with strings and pipe!
5 Praise him with clanging cymbals;
praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
6 Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord!
Psalm 150
What a great way to end the psalter - praise God, praise everything about Him. And take every instrument you have to do it: your voice, your lyre, your cymbals, your cowbell - whatever you have, take it and praise Him!
Psalm 19 gives two great reasons to praise Him: his creation and his law. For me, to praise God for his creation is a natural. As a child of the 60s, I am less inclined to understand the giddy praise of God for his law. When law is used as a club, it is hard to see it joyously. But when you understand law as an expression of love, of the Word that engenders all beauty and light in the middle of a world that is killing and dying in darkness and fear for the lack of knowledge and Life, then you begin to understand its true goodness and the great gift that it is
These readings are taken from the daily lectionary of the PCUSA.
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty firmament!*
2 Praise him for his mighty deeds;
praise him according to his surpassing greatness!
3 Praise him with trumpet sound;
praise him with lute and harp!
4 Praise him with tambourine and dance;
praise him with strings and pipe!
5 Praise him with clanging cymbals;
praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
6 Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord!
Psalm 150
What a great way to end the psalter - praise God, praise everything about Him. And take every instrument you have to do it: your voice, your lyre, your cymbals, your cowbell - whatever you have, take it and praise Him!
Psalm 19 gives two great reasons to praise Him: his creation and his law. For me, to praise God for his creation is a natural. As a child of the 60s, I am less inclined to understand the giddy praise of God for his law. When law is used as a club, it is hard to see it joyously. But when you understand law as an expression of love, of the Word that engenders all beauty and light in the middle of a world that is killing and dying in darkness and fear for the lack of knowledge and Life, then you begin to understand its true goodness and the great gift that it is
These readings are taken from the daily lectionary of the PCUSA.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Psalm 104
You make darkness, and it is night,
when all the animals of the forest
come creeping out.
The young lions roar for their prey,
seeking their food from God.
Ps. 104: 21
Short and to the point: this way of thinking is so different from the way we think today in our "Enlightenment" society. The psalmist sounds more like very unscientific Native American or the Christians that I met in Ghana. God is written all over nature. God feeds us, not our own hands; God feeds us, not natural processes. Sure, the lion is not sitting in its den, waiting for his meal to come and insert itself in his mouth. A lion does what a lion does - but it is God who feeds him. Read the whole psalm. It is a completely joyful celebration of God and of nature, a nature that is created by God. And lions eating their prey cause no theological or moral problems at all.
when all the animals of the forest
come creeping out.
The young lions roar for their prey,
seeking their food from God.
Ps. 104: 21
Short and to the point: this way of thinking is so different from the way we think today in our "Enlightenment" society. The psalmist sounds more like very unscientific Native American or the Christians that I met in Ghana. God is written all over nature. God feeds us, not our own hands; God feeds us, not natural processes. Sure, the lion is not sitting in its den, waiting for his meal to come and insert itself in his mouth. A lion does what a lion does - but it is God who feeds him. Read the whole psalm. It is a completely joyful celebration of God and of nature, a nature that is created by God. And lions eating their prey cause no theological or moral problems at all.
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