psalmthing to chew on: psalm 29

what struck me immediately about this psalm is where it begins, with a loud chorus of praise to God, acknowledging Who He is:

‘Ascribe to the Lord, you heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of his[a] holiness.’ [vs.1-2]

that even the heavenly beings must sing praises to God. that is great – often i rush into prayer with my list of needs or cries for help only to be reminded that it is always good to spend some time being still and just knowing this God that i am interacting with – when i take time to focus on God then His heart and character and desire to show Love to His children comes to the fore and the prayers i pray will be more relevant and meaningful anyways and have more of a ring of ‘Your kingdom’ and ‘Your Will’ be done instead of ‘my’ and ‘mine’.

‘The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord is enthroned as King forever.
The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace.’ [vs.8-9]

actually that is what i like about this psalm – it’s a very God psalm – all about Him – The Lord… The Lord… The Lord…
sometimes our prayers should look like this – maybe to remind ourselves more than God that sometimes it’s good for us simply to love Him back and not just come to Him in need or crisis…

psalmthing to chew on: psalm 28

ooh, i’m not sure i like this psalm, or maybe more importantly where my reading of it took me…

cos it’s david again, being a self-righteous plonker:

‘Do not drag me away with the wicked, with those who do evil,
who speak cordially with their neighbors but harbor malice in their hearts.
Repay them for their deeds and for their evil work;
repay them for what their hands have done and bring back on them what they deserve.’
Because they have no regard for the deeds of the Lord and what His hands have done,
He will tear them down and never build them up again.’ [vs. 3-5]

starts off with a distancing of himself from ‘the wicked, those who do evil’ [which again makes me think this has to be a pre-Bathsheba break-most-of-the-commands-in-the-Book written psalm] and then lists all the nasty things he would like God to do to them… GET THEM, LORD!

and as i sat there reading and meditating on the psalm, thinking what a hypocrite david is, the silent voice [oh, you know the One] came to me with a bit of a “so you’re better than him, right?” and i knew i was in trouble. cos that’s just it. how david writes this psalm is so often how i live my life – my stuff is not so bad as your stuff – it’s arrogant, it’s self-righteous and more often than not it’s probably just a blatant downright lie.

God, have mercy on me a sinner.

but maybe once i have realised that, and gone to God in repentance [which means turning away from, not just uttering the word 'sorry' with nothing attached to it] and chosen to try and see the world through different eyes, His… maybe there is still hope for me:

‘Praise be to the Lord, for He has heard my cry for mercy.
The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and He helps me.
My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise Him.

The Lord is the strength of His people, a fortress of salvation for His anointed one.
Save your people and bless your inheritance; be their shepherd and carry them forever.’ [vs 6-9]

psalmthing to chew on: psalm 27

this is a great psalm… so rich… but i am just going to pull out one or two things as usual and once again would love to hear what stood out for you…

‘The Lord is my light and my salvation — whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life — of whom shall I be afraid?’ [vs.1]

such a strong, powerful start and the reminder to us that this is a great place to be in – one where you are reminded of the bigness of the God you follow… this reminds me of the principle of ‘audience of One’ – live your life as if God was the only One in the audience cheering you on – the only One you were trying to impress… and not so much because you have to try to impress god [you don't, He starts impressed, loving, extending grace] but because it can be so helpful to not be feeling the need to impress everyone else around you… live for Him and know that if you do that, you don’t need to be afraid!

‘When the wicked advance against me to devour me, it is my enemies and my foes who will stumble and fall. Though an army besiege me,
my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident.’ [vs. 2-3]

these verses, to me, just add to the focus on God’s faithfulness – look at the progression – ‘when the wicked advance’ to ‘though an army besiege’ to ‘when war breaks out’ – hopefully not too many of us are facing those particular circumstances, but just the encouragement of no matter how bad it may feel now or even how hugely it may escalate, God has this thing, you can trust in Him. [the disclaimer that needs to be attached to this is that just because God is bigGER and has your back doesn't mean He will necessary keep you safe or comfortable or even physically alive, but His kingdom is bigger than all of those things and in the bigger picture you will come out on top, as He defines 'on top'.]

and so much more… but want to leave you with the last two verses of this psalm which don’t even need commentary but exist as a great place to land this: ‘I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.’ [vs. 13-14]

psalmthing to chew on: psalm 26

and i move on to psalm 26, and another psalm of david clearly set before the little bathsheba incident [2 samuel 11] where he starts by proclaiming how good and righteous he has been and inviting God to ‘examine my heart and my mind’ [vs. 2] which is a great practice to take from this psalm [altho maybe without the assumption of being clean and pure and righteous, unless it's been a good week for you].

and then this next part is maybe not the bit that would jump out to most people – ‘I do not sit with the deceitful, nor do I associate with hypocrites. I abhor the assembly of evildoers and refuse to sit with the wicked.’ [vs. 4-5] and i imagine could be used by a lot of christians to promote just hanging out with other christians, but i don’t believe that is trying to say – flashbacks to psalm 1 and the ;don’t walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners’ which i think is encouraging us to not invite non Christ-following people to have the biggest influence and input in our lives – we are definitely called [and Jesus modeled this well and strongly] to be in the world, but to not let it affect us ['do not conform to the pattern of this world but be trasnformed by the renewal of your mind' - Romans 12.2] so perhaps it is talking about ‘sitting in agreement with’ or ‘being on the same page as’ which is not a good thing in the company that is mentioned.

the last bit i really liked about this psalm was the unashamed proclamation of Who God is: ‘I wash my hands in innocence, and go about
Your altar, Lord, proclaiming aloud Your praise and telling of all Your wonderful deeds.’ [vs. 6-7] and ‘My feet stand on level ground; in the great congregation I will praise the Lord.’ [vs. 12]

i don’t think this just means forwarding ‘pass this email to 30 of your friends or Jesus won’t like you any more’ emails or facebook statuses/stati – i do think it means using the networks we are a part of to boldly proclaim either directly or indirectly [just by who we are and how we relate to people and uplift rather than bring down - by a positive attitude rather than a whiny complainy one etc] who Jesus is, but also doing it live with real people in actual conversation – living it, speaking it, modeling it…

because, after all, we do have a great thing – ‘The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.’ [John 10.10]

psalmthing to chew on: psalm 25

me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, Israel… that is how psalm 25 reads to me – starts off really good and positive and kind of like the sunday picture of a christian – look at me God, everything is together, You are good, i can sing all the words in all the worship songs and even believe that i believe them and You’re great and thanks for all You’ve done and You’re control and You’ve done some great stuff in the past and everything you do is amazing and i’m done at church and i’m driving home and i reach verse 16 and my mask comes off and i have a fight with my wife and i can’t believe the weekend is finished and i have to go to work on monday and look at all these problems i have God and HELP ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

or something like that:

‘Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. Relieve the troubles of my heart and free me from my anguish. Look on my affliction and my distress and take away all my sins. See how numerous are my enemies and how fiercely they hate me! Guard my life and rescue me; do not let me be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.’ [vs. 16-20]

and then he slips into his ‘pre-useless-sinner’ mode of hoping his ‘integrity and uprightness’ will rescue him and then quickly finishes off with a quick p.s. of ‘oh and please be nice to Israel, amen’

i really dig this psalm though cos as you read it, it is as if the layers are being peeled away and you get closer and closer to the real man and the heart of the issue and everything is not so rosy and happy and together… and YET he STILL continues to pray and cry out to God, because he knows…

and also maybe cos i can strongly relate many days here in the ‘hood… [and more days than not it's not the 'hood stuff that is causing the problem] – feeling lonely and afflicted but yet continuing to trust in God, because i know!

Prayer-liners [v]

some more challenges from ‘Prayer: Does it make any difference?’ by Philip Yancey and you really should get the book:

‘I remembered reading the account of a spiritual seeker who interrupted a busy life to spend a few days in a monastery. ‘I hope your stay is a blessed one,’ said the monk who showed the visitor to his cell. ‘If you need anything, let us know, and we’ll teach you how to live without it.’

We learn to pray by praying, and two concentrated hours a day taught me much. To begin, I need to think more about God than about myself when I am praying. Even the Lord’s Prayer centers first in what God wants from us. ‘Hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done’ – God wants us to desire these things, to orient our lives around them.’ [pg. 45]

‘The main purpose of prayer is not to make life easier, nor to gain magical powers, but to know God. I need God more than anything I might get from God.’ [pg. 47]

‘In a telling comment Jesus also said, ‘Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.’ He could not mean that prayer is unnecessary, for His own life belied that. He could only mean that we need not strive to convince God to care; the Father already cares, more than we can know. Prayer is not a matter of giving God new information. Instead of presenting requests as if God may not know them, it might be more appropriate to say, ‘God, you know I need this!’

And that is how Tim Stafford found a sort of resolution to his questions about prayer:

Here, I believe, is the key to understanding what is most personal in prayer. We do not pray to tell God what He does not know, nor to remind Him of things He has forgotten. He already cares for the things we pray about… He has simply been waiting for us to care about them with Him.’ [pg. 50]

to be taken to the start of this series, click here.

psalmthing to chew on: psalm 24

hm, after the richness of 23 which i could have explored a lot more and in greater depth, i found 24 a bit more of a dig. nice poetic vibe and all, but not a lot jumping out at me and so maybe this is one where a bunch of you can chime in with your suggestions…

i guess the one thing that stood out is the beginning which reads – ‘The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters.’ [vs. 1-2]

this kinda reminds me of something i have been saying, or at least writing, a lot lately, especially in the welcome letters to people who come and visit the simple way – be still and know that He is God – take a moment to remember that this story is all about Him. we do like to make it all about us, but it’s not. and the same goes for the planet. kind of like the idea of colonisation – the white man arrives [it's always 'the blasted white man'] and moves into land that clearly has other people living on it and proudly declares that ‘we have discovered this land’. now a huge focus all around the world in recentish times [lets go with decades] has been that, “no, in fact this is not your land, we the native Americans/Africans/Australasians were here before you and what right have you to come and take our land and claim it as your own.” important point and really needs to be examined and worked out and repentance/restoration/reconciliation needs to happen for sure… however, that is not the complete truth as ‘The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it…’ And so even before the native peoples were on that particular piece of land, there is Someone who is making a previous ownership claim.

and so this becomes a stewardship question. whoever you are, this story is not about you, it is the story of God and you have been invited to become an active part of that story. wherever you are is not land that actually belongs to you but to God and He has invited you to look after it well, in such a way that it exists in good shape for generations to come.

we have a lot of work to do. and i guess 24 did have something in it…

psalmthing to chew on: psalm 23

‘The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures,
He leads me beside quiet waters, He refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths for His name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil,
for You are with me; Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely Your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.’

this is quite a short one so i thought i’d write out the whole thing… often with the passages of scripture we know we skim through them or just nod knowingly, but i encourage you to go back and really read it again, line by line, pausing to think about each one. there is so much richness in this psalm.

verse 3 stands out for me – ‘He guides me along the right paths for His name’s sake.’ – kind of counter culture to the whole church, worship, personal salvation “it’s all about me” message we too often slip into [Val told me the other day about this worship competition invite we received here - so different teams are going to be competing to see who can play a worship song the best. i think that's when it has become just a song because any worship aspect disappeared the moment competition was brought into it... and you can file that alongside 'worship song of the year' which is quite likely determined by looking at the winner of the 'worship song that made the most money this year' award - Jesus, ready Your whip]

because it is His name’s sake. the story is all about Him. it is His kingdom. we would do well to remember that. in fact part of signing on for this adventure was something about denying myself, taking up my cross every day and following Him [luke 9.23] if i recall. i am a disciple OF JESUS. i am a follower OF JESUS. if i go in for the old title i used to wear before i started leaning towards follower of Jesus, then i am a CHRISTian. if we could align our lives to live for the glory of God rather than the glory of me [as we so often slip into, guilty as charged] then the world would be completely revolutionised.

the other part i want to focus on and it culminates with verse 5′s ‘You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies,’ starts with this section: ‘Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.’ [vs. 4] the idea that while God is completely invested in being there when trouble strikes [and supporting, comforting, strengthening, helping endure, restoring] He doesn’t seem all that committed to keeping us safe from it. And i love that about God. to be honest i definitely don’t always like that about God, but i get that He uses the times to strengthen and work character and build up and also break down some of the garbage and brokenness in me… and so while they may not be fun times, i can rest confidently in the fact that He is there and He won’t abandon me, or let the situation take me down. or you.

psalmthing to chew on: psalm 22 part ii

continuing with some further thorts from psalm 22

‘I will declare Your name to my people; in the assembly I will praise You. You who fear the LORD, praise Him! All you descendants of Jacob, honor Him!
Revere Him, all you descendants of Israel! For He has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; He has not hidden His face from him but has listened to his cry for help.’ [verse 22-24]

‘The poor will eat and be satisfied; those who seek the LORD will praise Him — may your hearts live forever!’ [verse 26]

this psalm serves as a reminder as to those who God seems to have special time and affection for – the afflicted one, the poor. this is backed up hugely by evidencing Jesus’ life in the gospels as He was constantly representing God’s heart for those in the background, the marginalised, by reaching out to the people of the day who were not considered worthy to spend time with – children, women, samaritans, lepers, drunkards and prostitutes, tax collectors… and powerfully vocalised in the parable of the sheep and goats which Jesus concludes with, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ [matthew 25.45]

reaching out to the ‘least of these’ is not an optional extra for Christ followers [who have been called to deny themselves, take up their cross daily and follow Him in luke 9.23] but an identifying sign of who we are. ‘Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.’ [james 1.27]

and then lastly, i love how this psalm ends:

‘…future generations will be told about the Lord. They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn: He has done it!’ [verse 30b-31]

this is the exact opposite to what is evidenced in judges 2.10 just after joshua dies: ‘After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD…’

yet in this psalm David is speaking of God’s name being pronounced and declared to a future generation that has not even been born yet. the question is begged of us, how will we continue the legacy of Jesus-following among present and future generations?

psalmthing to chew on: psalm 22 part i

this is a long psalm, so may just do it in two parts…

starts off with a very familiar statement: ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ [verse 1]
Jesus groaning from the cross… or me, sitting and chatting with my wife on my bed last nite…

i seem to be able to relate to a lot of the groany [whiny?] stuff of this psalm which i appreciate for its raw and rough realness’ity:

‘Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?’ [verse 1]

‘My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest.’ [verse 2]

‘All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads. “He trusts in the LORD,” they say, “let the LORD rescue him. let Him deliver him, since He delights in him.” [verse 7-8]

followed by this desperate cry: ‘Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help. Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle me. Roaring lions that tear their prey open their mouths wide against me. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within me. My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; You lay me in the dust of death.’ [verse 11-15]

i mean, that’s pretty dramatic – you lay me in the dust of death? and yet when everything around you starts looking bleak, that can be how you feel. a sneak peek into tomorrow’s well known psalm reminds us where God is, when we hit the ‘dust of death’ [or even the 'valley of the shadow of death'] and i guess this psalm does a bit of that as well – God, it feels like you are nowhere near at the moment, but i am going to trust on the experience of the past and my faith in You and who i believe You to be and that will be enough to get me through.

i have been feeling very distant from God [well the feeling always manifests as 'God is distant from me', you know] for a long time now and last nite in particular just a whole bunch of stuff hit and i had a really good chat with my wife, tbV, and was able to b’lurgh a lot of it out, and then this morning i received an email from a very random source completely encouraging me for something i had been a part of in her life years ago at some camp i spoke at, and was just completely encouraged by that. huge coincidence, for sure, excepting that those kinds of coincidences just seem to happen every single time i get to that point of just wanting to throw in the towel and run far away [or more honestly probably slap someone in the head with the towel] and it’s like God swooping in to remind me that, “I’m here. I haven’t forgotten you. I certainly haven’t forsaken you.”

and so the reminder of the writer’s past connection to God: ‘Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast. From birth I was cast on you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God.’ [verse 9-10]

and a reminder of the writer’s national connection to God: ‘Yet You are enthroned as the Holy One; You are the one Israel praises. In You our ancestors put their trust; they trusted and You delivered them. To You they cried out and were saved; in You they trusted and were not put to shame.’ [verse 3-5]

and lastly, the reminder that the last time that first verse was groaned, well proclaimed, from the cross, in the midst of apparent hopelessness, chaos and confusion, it didn’t turn out so badly…

we serve a faithful God. one who allows us to ask the difficult questions and be hurt and scared and confused when we need to be.

to continue to part ii…