Wow! This passage and that statement resonate with me so deeply and i think always have.
Illustrating the tension of holding seemingly contradictory beliefs or understandings at the same time.
The hopelessness of a situation vs. the trust placed in God.
Yeah, this is just a really good one, so join me as I look at Mark chapter 9 verse 14 to 32:
[For the next passage which has to do with Jesus and His encounter with some children, click here]
Another Psalm begins with David in trouble, railing against his enemies [this time we more specifically know they are men who have been sent by Saul to watch his house] and what is great again is that we see where David turns to:
1 Deliver me from my enemies, O God;
be my fortress against those who are attacking me.
2 Deliver me from evildoers
and save me from those who are after my blood.
We don’t know it’s his first point of turning [for most of us it rarely is, right?] but whether it is or not, we get the sense of his trust and reliance on God with terms like ‘fortress’ and phrases like ‘deliver me’. David always seems to end up at the feet of God when he has trouble [and fortunately when he is full of praise] as opposed to letting trouble in his life send him running away from God. If we only draw close to God when things are going well, that says a lot about our relationship with God. In the same way, if we only draw close to God when things go badly, that also says a lot. A good relationship stays consistent through good and bad. Whatever comes my way I will face it knowing God is with me.
What is great about this psalm [as it is with so many of them] is the honesty. This is not great theology David is throwing out here, it is human emotion in whatever words he has at his disposal. We can see this as he goes from show no mercy to wicked traitors [verse 5] to But do not kill them, Lord our shield, or my people will forget [verse 11] and then to consume them in your wrath, consume them till they are no more so a little bit of contradiction happening here which just gives an indication that this is more an expression of how David is feeling right now, than an accurate portrayal of what he actually thinks God is going to do. We see this later when David has at least two opportunities in caves to kill Saul and chooses not to.
What is particularly great about this psalm is that David starts and ends with God. There appears to be a danger of him losing it during the piece and getting caught up in the enemy-bashing but it’s almost as if he checks himself and ends once more with a focus on who God is and what He will do. Reminding himself why he ended up there again.
16 But I will sing of your strength,
in the morning I will sing of your love;
for you are my fortress,
my refuge in times of trouble.
17 You are my strength, I sing praise to you;
you, God, are my fortress,
my God on whom I can rely.
If you have never understood the Transfiguration of Jesus properly then I strongly encourage you to watch this clip. At the end of it you may not understand the Transfiguration any more, but you just might have a softer spot for Peter the disciple. Worth a shot, right?
Join us as we look at Mark chapter 9 from verse 2 to 13.
Wow! David having a bit of a bad day, it seems.
This is one of the Psalms I would generally skip or quickly move past to the next one if it was just for my reading, but since I’ve committed to commenting on them I guess I will have to give it a try, but this one is NOT for the faint of heart. In fact, if Psalms had movie restrictions, this would get an R for sure.
I think maybe one important point that can be brought up using this psalm is the following: Just because it’s in the Bible does not mean it is true. Wait, let me be more specific there – does not mean it’s true for me. Not every line in the Bible is teaching. Because it says he took a second wife means I can take a second wife. Because Cain killed his brother means I can kill my brother. No, that just shows lazy, uneducated reading of the Bible. Because the Bible is written in so many different forms of writing [history, poetry, song, metaphor, teaching] we need to be mindful of the intention of the part we are reading. What message would the intended audience have taken from it? Is this what God is trying to say to me now?
And with psalm 58 I think that is important because it is a bit of poetry or song and really seems to be David [once again, you say] having a bad day rant against the people he sees as unrighteous or his current enemies at the time [he had quite a lot throughout his lifetime] and he wishes some pretty hectic stuff against them.
1 Do you rulers indeed speak justly?
Do you judge people with equity?
2 No, in your heart you devise injustice,
and your hands mete out violence on the earth.
The first two verses echo what a lot of us might think and feel about our present governments, I imagine. Just a sigh of frustration as the people who have been put in the places of leadership [or authority, perhaps] just don’t seem capable or at least focused on doing what is right.
But then over the next few verses David gets a little graphic about what he wishes would happen to them and the wicked in general. I’ll let you go and look those up.
Then in verses 7 and 8 he comes up with some strong metaphors which I do want to look at [the one is very hectic and unfortunate, but does convey strong imagery] in terms of perhaps finding something that might apply to us in an introspective kind of way:
7 Let them vanish like water that flows away;
when they draw the bow, let their arrows fall short.
8 May they be like a slug that melts away as it moves along,
like a stillborn child that never sees the sun.
So, pretty hectic, right? But let me look at each one briefly in terms of the possible meaning I see in them [this is not necessarily what David was meaning but just trying to draw some meaning of my own from what I read here]:
# ‘water that flows away’ indicates something with non-present boundaries. If water is placed into a container it will remain there and be useful. But once you take all the boundaries away, remove all the limits and restrictions, then the water will be lost. It will seep away into nothingness. This can be a strong reminder for us as individuals and as society I think or the need for helpful boundaries and restrictions. Not ones that are so rigid that the water is not allowed to flow where it needs to or even ones that can’t be changed or adapted from time to time. But the complete lack of all restriction and restraint can often lead to something becoming completely ineffective and useless.
# ‘let their arrows fall short’ to me speaks of the lack of power behind the arrow. If you put an arrow into a bow and let go, the arrow will fall directly to the ground and have shown to be completely useless in achieving its goal [or your goal with it]. In the same way if we continue to operate purely in our own strength so we will miss our goal [or God’s kingdom goal for us] again and again. We need to be empowered by His Holy Spirit living in us and invited to operate fully in us. Have you surrendered yourself completely to God or are you at least in the process of living day to day offering your life to Him. When we allow ourselves to have the power of God working in and through us, then our arrow will fly further and be more effective in hitting its intended target.
# ‘a slug that melts as it moves along’ – with my limited understanding of biological things, i’m still pretty sure that if you throw salt at a slug it melts and so when I read this I think of a slug that is moving along on a trail of salt. The lesson for us being that if we pursue or follow a destructive path [or a path that contains strong elements of the things that are bad for us] then we are causing our own destruction. The warning to be aware of the things in our life that are not helpful or healthy for us and making wise [sometimes difficult] decisions to that we don’t melt as we move along. The enemy never starts out with tempting someone to commit adultery or to kill someone. No, he begins with the subtle temptation of a returned lingering glance, of a late night meeting with that person you have felt attracted to at work [despite being married] and choosing to go and have a drink with them afterwards instead of heading home [and not telling your wife about it] or a little white lie that at a later stage will need a slightly bigger one to cover it. Before you know it there is a weird smell and a bubbling sound. We are called to be salt in terms of adding flavour and preservation to things and people around us. But we must identify the things that would act as salt to us if we were slugs and choose a different, less dangerous path, every time.
# ‘a stillborn child that never sees the sun’ – this is a hectic image and not one I really want to look at because of all the pain that it carries for anyone who has walked that path [and even those who know people who have]. But simply put, it brings to mind the idea of missed potential. All that could have been that will now not be.
And so this psalm is a rant from David and not necessarily a teaching on what we should even wish on our enemies – after all, Jesus gave us some strong teaching on how we should love them, bless them, walk the extra mile for them [and at least the metaphorical satisfaction of the burning coals that might fall on them if we do] – but by looking at the extent of his curse-wishing on them, we have hopefully been able to do a quick stock take on our own lives and take some valuable lessons of things, life paths to avoid from those.
“Do you expect me to talk?” [asks Sean Connery’s James Bond to the villain Goldfinger in the movie of the same name, as he lies strapped to an operating table with a gold laser beam heading menacingly towards his privates]
“No, Mister Bond, I expect you to die.”
A classic Bond moment, and a similar statement is being made in today’s Mark passage.
Except this time, it is no Bond villain, but our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who is calling us to do the same.
Can this be?
Join me as I take a look at Mark 8.27-38
[For the next passage in Mark on Figuring out the Trance, click here]
I want to start at the end of this Psalm, so we see where the writer ends up,
9 I will praise you, Lord, among the nations;
I will sing of you among the peoples.
10 For great is your love, reaching to the heavens;
your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
11 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;
let your glory be over all the earth.
The writer sounds excited and as if they are in a place of thriving and life to the full exhuberance… and it is important to recognise that and hold on to the image that this last part of the Psalm envokes and then maybe apply it to your life and your present circumstances as we wander through the rest of the psalm listening to some context:
1 Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me,
for in you I take refuge.
I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings
until the disaster has passed.
4 I am in the midst of lions;
I am forced to dwell among ravenous beasts—
men whose teeth are spears and arrows,
whose tongues are sharp swords.
6 They spread a net for my feet—
I was bowed down in distress.
They dug a pit in my path—
but they have fallen into it themselves.
This echoes a number of other psalms – life is not so good right now, God. It’s difficult. People and situations seem against me. But, when I am afraid I will trust in you…
Which reminds me of an old song we used to sing that still moves me deeply. In fact it is a duet we used to song at Westerford which is the High School I went to and for four years we would look forward to being in matric [grade 12] and being able to do the harmony part of ‘You are my hiding place’ which goes like this:
You are my hiding place
You always fill my heart
With songs of deliverance
Whenever I am afraid
I will trust in You
I will trust in You
Let the weak say
I am strong
In the strength of the Lord
[I will trust in you.]
The song is credited to a number of artists but it looks like it was written by Michael Ledne, who based it on a verse in Psalm 32 [7] and Psalm 56 [3] with bits added from 2 Corinthians 12.9-10
‘The author, Michael Ledner, composed “You Are My Hiding Place” at the age of 27 when he
was going through a painful period in his life, a period of separation from his wife. He shared the
song with several friends, made a recording of it, and set it aside. Nine months later he shared the
song with a group while they were serving at a kibbutz (communal settlement) in Israel. These
friends took the song back with them to California, and after it was sung there, Michael was
contacted by Maranantha! Music who wished to record “You Are My Hiding Place.”‘
In fact, here is the Maranatha Singers giving their interpretation of his song [I did try to find a more up tempo rock version that captures the Westerford matric rendition, but alas, most of the versions are more slow and orchestrated like this one, and none of them seem to have the same duet harmony vibe, but it is nonetheless still such a powerful song so worth the listen]:
Did Jesus heal everyone?
There are a lot of people who seem to enjoy the argument that Jesus didn’t and that might be true. But there is never an account of Jesus trying to heal someone and failing. Although this one comes close, but He gets it right on the second attempt. Join me as I read through the interesting Mark 8 from 22 to 26 and this encounter of Jesus and the semi-blind man.
[For the next Mark Passage on Denying another Day, click here]
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Irresistibly Fish 