Psalmthing to chew on: From 36 to 72

continuing the easy access of the psalms – here are the next group of psalms i have walked or am walking through – the idea was always to grab a thought or two from each psalm and comment and hope that others would jump in and do the same so please feel free to add your comments on any of the psalms i have looked at so far – be great to get your thoughts, insights and observations…

psalm 36

psalm 37

psalm 38

psalm 39

psalm 40

psalm 41

psalm 42

psalm 43

psalm 44

psalm 45

psalm 46

psalm 47

psalm 48

psalm 49

psalm 50

psalm 51

psalm 52

psalm 53

psalm 54

psalm 55

psalm 56

psalm 57

psalm 58

psalm 59

psalm 60

psalm 61

psalm 62

psalm 63

psalm 64

psalm 65

psalm 66

psalm 67

psalm 68

psalm 69

psalm 70

psalm 71

psalm 72

to head back to the beginning and the first 35 psalms go here.

psalmthing to chew on: psalm 38

‘Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath.
Your arrows have pierced me, and your hand has come down on me.
Because of your wrath there is no health in my body;
there is no soundness in my bones because of my sin.
My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear.’ [vs. 1-4]

Um, wait, what? This must be one of those other psalms, right, the psalms not written by david?… Nope, says it right there, a psalm of david, a petition…

Hm.

something must have happened.

the “them” became the “me” perhaps…?

which i have been alluding to as from psalm to psalm we have been seeing this gung ho “kill the bastards” type attitude from david towards “those who sin” giving the strong impression that he was not part of that team… and now suddenly, he has fallen, and not just a little [popular opinion places this psalm after the bathsheba incident] and now suddenly he is the prodigal shamefully crawling home with his tail between his legs and no longer the older brother indignantly declaring his worth and deservement of reward.

how quickly the tables turn.

i wonder how differently david would write most of the psalms we have looked at already now that he finds himself on the other side – do you think his “smite the enemy” and “decimate those who sin” calls might be more grace-filled restoration focused petitions?

how does this affect the way i view the people who i don’t like or who have hurt me [maybe really deeply and painfully] when i start to get how someone maybe doesn’t have to be a complete schmunglehead to do complete schmunglehead things? because i did those things so it can’t be SO bad, right?

‘Lord, do not forsake me; do not be far from me, my God.
Come quickly to help me, my Lord and my Savior.’ [vs. 21-22]

while it is a good thing to call on God in your time of need and brokenness, once has to ask the question of whether david might have had a lot more people to call on as well and to have gather around him [dispensing grace, mercy, love, forgiveness, compassion] if he had shown a lot more of it to others in his previous writings…

i hope this psalm in some small way is a reminder to us that God has shown us incredible grace and mercy [love, forgiveness, compassion] in sending Jesus to die in our place. How dare we not extend the same kind to those around us, whose sins against us will not likely compare with God’s need to pour His wrath on His very Son.

[To return to the Intro page and be connected to any of the other Psalms i have walked through before now, click here]

psalmthing to chew on: psalm 36

another psalm from David and again, it appears as if he hadn’t committed his major facefall yet as he is still muttering about those who have “no fear of God before their eyes.” [vs. 1]

but once he has gotten over looking at “them” and “their awful sin” he has some useful things to say [so useful we turned them into songs… from songs into other songs that it]

Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the skies.
Your righteousness is like the highest mountains,
your justice like the great deep.
You, Lord, preserve both people and animals.
How priceless is your unfailing love, O God!
People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They feast on the abundance of your house;
you give them drink from your river of delights.
For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light we see light.

so much so that i want to just share it like that, so all the poetry and music can drip from it… it is amazing how when a poet/songwriter/artist gets it so right, they can transport other people along with them on their journey and i feel that happens here – basically the writer is shouting out, “God you are big in this way and huge in that other way and just so incredible in that way” and uses amazing language to take us right there with Him…

Your Love reaches to the heavens [which are not necessarily a physical up there, just past the stars, kind of place, so really Your Love just goes on and on and on]…

Your faithfulness is like the mighty mountains [you know, standing firm, unmoveable, unshakeable, You are trustworthy]…

Your justice like the great deep [going way beyond what we see and can experience and even know about or can safely enter into without super special hectic gear – it just keeps going and is much greater than we can imagine]…

and on and on… God you are Huge and Great and Mighty and everything about You is just desirable and mind-blowing and life-transforming…

it is great, and necessary to every now and then [or really regularly actually, which is why i love corporate worship times cos that is a place i feel encouraged to do so] just lose it in your praise and adoration of God, for who He is and what He does and what He has done…

when last did you do so?

For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light we see light. [vs.9]

[To return to the Intro page and be connected to any of the other Psalms i have walked through before now, click here]

Psalmthing to chew on: First 35 Psalms

so in trying to find a way to make the psalms more accessible to someone looking for a specific one i came up with the idea of this blog which can send you to any of the first 35 psalms you might want to check out – the idea was always to grab a thought or two from each psalm and comment and hope that others would jump in and do the same so please feel free to add your comments on any of the psalms i have looked at so far – be great to get different peoples thoughts, insights and observations.

psalm 1
psalm 2
psalm 3
psalm 4
psalm 5
psalm 6
psalm 7
psalm 8
psalm 9
psalm 10
psalm 11
psalm 12
psalm 13
psalm 14
psalm 15
psalm 16
psalm 17
psalm 18
psalm 19
psalm 20
psalm 21
psalm 22
psalm 23
psalm 24
psalm 25
psalm 26
psalm 27
psalm 28
psalm 29
psalm 30
psalm 31
psalm 32
psalm 33
psalm 34
psalm 35

hope that helps – enjoy – comment – add to the discussion, or start it…

to continue to psalms 36 to 74, click here.

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!

enGAGEing

last nite’s enGAGE church gathering was pretty rad – i could ‘do church’ like that every week i think

we knew we were going to have a smaller group (which for a small group can be daunting) cos of the student holidays and so i chatted to ronel who was worshippy leadering and she and arnie (no relation) chose to do some accoustic worship vibes which was great

then for sun nite when i’d been preparing during the week (preached a much fun sermon called ‘Cremora church’ based on the theme of ‘it looks like water, but it tastes like vinegar’ in the morning service already which went so well) i came to a point of wanting to read a couple of passages from the Message (paraphrase bible which i don’t normally use – my seriously breaking to pieces purple NIV being traditional weapon of choice) to hear the different way they are written to what we are used to, and actually nothing else

was concerned some people might think that’s “not good enuff for church” but am a lot beyond caring about that right now so decided that was all there was going to be and the passages i was looking at were psalm 23 (and later added 34 and carlo added 121 altho it did bring up some questioning about why exactly you need to be protected from moon stroke) and then the genesis 22 account of abraham taking isaac to be sacrificed, Jesus and the woman caught in sin, and then hebrews 12, 1 corinthians 13 (the love passage) and philippians 2

and so we sat in some kind of undefined non-circle with some people on chairs and some people sitting or lying on the ground and we sang some worship songs interspersed with prayer and the Message Bible readings and for me there was such a strong sense of the presence of God which i don’t often seem to feel and a real sense of people hungry and connecting and God being in it

it was church. it was great. i really think i could do that every week. mm.