Praise the Lord - Psalm 66

         

Today we slow down and take a moment to concentrate on God’s faithfulness; a faithfulness that remains constant even in our times of faithlessness. Psalm 66 is a hymn of praise, calling us to “Shout for joy to God, all the earth! Sing the glory of his name; make his praise glorious.” All the earth is called to shout for joy to God, not just his people. We can sometimes fall into thinking that we’re the center of all God’s attention. Pastor Stan Mast reminds us, “it is helpful to be reminded that God’s reign extends far beyond Israel. Yes, God has acted for Israel in marvelous ways, but ultimately he will use them to bless the whole world. In anticipation of that worldwide salvation, Psalm 66 calls the whole world to praise God now.”

Psalm 66 is not simply an invitation to praise God, it commands us to “shout for joy, to sing the glory of his name, to make his praise glorious.” This is the Lord’s expectation of us, to not take him and his gifts for granted, but respond with hearts filled with joy and gratitude at who he is and his commitment to us. The psalmist reminds us that God’s active in the life of his people, “How awesome are your deeds,” so that even God’s enemies can see how powerful he is. Telling the stories of God is important for our faith. The Jewish people often talk about themselves as People of the Story, referring to the long history of God’s presence with them.

He remembers the Exodus and how God saved them out of slavery and led them through the sea on dry ground. The psalmist seems to be a later king and reminds the people to praise God for refining them like silver when other nations defeated them and took them into slavery. He describes these times in terms of purifying them through fire and water, but always God brings them back to a place of abundance. He looks back at those difficult times and thanks God for them because they’ve shaped the people into who they are; a people whose relationship with God is rooted in thankfulness and trust.

The psalms are clear that life is filled with times of abundance, but with also times of struggle. Yet we live in trust that in those times, God acts to restore his people, to lift them up again to experience his presence and blessings. Difficult times bring us to a place when we turn back to God, and remember God’s faithfulness to us. This gives us the courage to come to him and rededicate ourselves to being his people. God hears our cries, our prayers, and he acts.

Pastor Mast calls us to remember that God acts not only for Israel, God cares for the entire world, “God heard the cries of his people and answered their prayers by becoming one of us, a human, a Son of Adam, and an Israelite, the Son of David. The Incarnation, the Atonement, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, for us individually, for the people of God as a whole, and for the nations of the world—those are the awesome deeds of God that call the whole world to “make his praise glorious.”

It's good to take time as a church family to remember God’s blessings to us, as we share our stories of how God has been with us, restored us, forgiven us, and provided for us. As we hear the stories of God’s blessings and presence, our memories are stirred and we remember even more times when God was with us, walked with us, and acted for us. For those of us going through harder times right now, hearing how God is working in and through our church family, gives us the courage, strength, and reassurance we need to come to God with our own prayers with hope and confidence, knowing that he’s with us. Faith shared in community grows stronger and builds the community, yet our faith is also personal. The stories of God’s amazing deeds in Israel’s history help us recognize God working in our lives, and our stories help others see God at work in their lives, giving them hope.

In verse 13, the psalmist moves from talking to all the earth and about God’s people, to making this psalm personal, using “I” and “me” language. All this praise and worship of God, all this remembering of what God has done in the past now becomes personal to him.  “I will come to your temple with burnt offerings and fulfill my vows to you—vows my lips promised and my mouth spoke when I was in trouble.” We learn the psalmist had been in trouble and turned to the Lord. We don’t know what the trouble was that made the psalmist turn to the Lord, but it was big enough that he made vows to God to show that he’s deeply serious about his need, a deep cry for help.

This isn’t an attempt to manipulate God into answering his prayer. The psalmist knows that God can’t be manipulated to do our will. Vows in Scripture show that the person’s need is serious, a way of saying, “if this is your will to answer this prayer, I’ll respond with gratitude to your will, but if it’s not your will, I’ll still trust in you.” Vows showed that the person making the vow is serious about their request, caring enough to promise God something in return when he answers. But the response comes out of gratitude.

The psalmist understands this as we see in Verse 18, “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.” The psalmist is reassured that his prayer was honouring God and was according to God’s will. We hear him give thanks, “Come and hear, all you who fear God; let me tell you what he has done for me. I cried to out to him with my mouth; his praise was on my tongue…. God has surely listened and has heard my prayer.” When we read through the Old Testament stories of God and Israel, one thing stands out: praise and prayer go hand in hand with each other. They flow out of remembering and telling the stories of how God cares about his people, hears their cries and acts on his people’s behalf. Thanksgiving is a way of life; how we engage with God and the world, rather than a feeling.

Jesus tells us to bring everything to him in prayer, there’s nothing too small to bring to him. I know I’ve probably told this story before, but one Sunday morning in Second CRC of Allendale, a small girl came up to me to ask me to pray for her lost cat. It's a small thing to many of us, but it was big for her, so I prayed for her lost cat in the congregational prayer. The cat never did come back, but she was thankful that we prayed for it, it gave her some peace that day. This girl understands what the psalmist is getting at when he says, “Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!” Just knowing that God listens, that he hears our prayers and doesn’t reject them, gives us the permission to truly bring everything to him in prayer, leading us into a spirit of thanksgiving and trust, even if the answers are not what we desire. We know God cares for us as a Father and will never withhold his love from us. As we gather as families and friends for Thanksgiving, take time to give thanks to God for who he is and for Jesus.

Our Rescuer - Psalm 91

                           

Psalm 91 is a favourite of many people; it’s a psalm of confidence in the Lord and his ability to rescue us from whatever’s going on in our lives. What fascinates me about this psalm is how Satan uses it against Jesus when tempting Jesus in the wilderness to do God’s plan his way instead of God’s more difficult and painful way. However, Satan twists the verses slightly, missing the meaning completely, reminding us to be careful about reading the Bible in context.

This psalm was likely written by a priest or Levite in the temple to provide reassurance to the people of God. The psalm is written in 2 parts of 8 verses each where the second 8 verses echo the first 8 verses, amplifying the themes in the psalm. The psalmist begins with the confident declaration, “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most-High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” This is amplified in verses 9 and 10, “If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,” and you make the Most-High your dwelling, no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent.” A few weeks ago, we reflected on Psalm 8, a “Wow!” psalm showing us the magnificence of God, Psalm 91 is another of those “Wow!” psalms, as we get a glimpse of who God is, what kind of God he is.

The psalmist shows us who God is and how he relates to his people. God’s a safe place, a safe person you can go to in order to find protection or rest. In Hebrew the word for shelter holds the sense of hiding place or covering, a place where you can go when you’re seeking somewhere your enemies cannot find you. The psalmist uses the image of a bird, likely a dove, as a place of safety and protection. Doves, both the males and females, take turns sitting on the nest to hatch the eggs and when the eggs hatch, both will take turns finding food and feeding the chicks, with one of the parents always staying behind to watch over the chicks. Since the chicks have no feathers, the parents take turns covering them with their feathers. The doves’ faithfulness in protecting and providing for their young is the image the psalmist gives us here of God’s faithfulness and protection, our shield and rampart.

These are images of belonging which gets picked up in verses 9 and 10 where the Most-High, El Elyon, the sovereign God of power, is our refuge. This is magnified by the Psalmist’s use of the name Shaddai for God in verse 1, the Almighty, a God of authority. In using these two names of God so closely together, the psalmist is reminding us that we don’t need to fear what life holds. God is sovereign, in control of all things, creator of all things, almighty, more powerful than anything life can hold, whether enemies, disease, or brokenness. The call is to trust, yet such a powerful God can seem too powerful to approach, so the psalmist also reminds us of another name of God. In verse 9 we find the name Yahweh, the Lord, the personal name of God, given to Moses at the burning bush; the eternal God. Yahweh is our refuge, reminding us of the personal relationship between the Lord and his people; we’re part of his household, part of the family. A reminder that the Thanksgiving week devotional leads us through several names of God, giving thanks for who God is.

Your tent is an image of safety and belonging; the personal nature of God’s relationship with us as part of his family. The psalmist identifies 4 terrors the Lord will keep us safe from, “the fowler’s snare, deadly pestilence, the terror of the night, and the arrow that flies by day.” The fowler’s snare are those unseen or unnoticed traps in life that can catch us by surprise. Many of our sins often fall into this area. We don’t start off deciding to deliberately sin or disobey God, and yet suddenly the realization strikes us that we’re caught in sin again. A few years back, we had a small men’s group that would get together every couple of weeks to support and encourage each other as husbands, and fathers. At one meeting the topic of smart phones came up. One man shared, “I start off looking for tools or sports scores, and then suddenly I realize I’ve started searching for sexual images and other inappropriate sites. That wasn’t my intention, but I end up there anyway.” These snares are so easy to get trapped in. Our snares may be different, but we all have snares that we tend to fall into.

There’s pestilence like locusts or insects that can devastate crops or livelihood, there are plagues and disease, things we still see today around the world, in spite of all the advances in medicine. There are the arrows that fly by day from enemies; there’s the terror of the night, all the fears and worries that seem to get bigger and heavier as we lay in our beds at night, taking us down paths where the world and life is dark, hope is faint, and fear is strong. These can paralyze some of us in the dark of night. Yet the psalmist begins with, “Surely he will save you…. You will not fear…,” and yet we do often fear.

Scott Hoezee writes, “The main message of Psalm 91 is not “Times are bad” but instead “Times are bad but for that very reason your confidence in God needs to be stronger than ever!”  The threats around us make people nervous, uncertain, afraid, and cynical.  Psalm 91 conveys a counter-message: the poet who composed these words wants to tell us that instead of letting the wider world determine how we feel, we need to let our ultimate confidence in God become the lens through which we view the wider world. God, not current events, is what shapes our viewpoints, informs our hopes, and brings us a confidence that avoids cynicism.” Psalm 91 gives us the confidence that when there are snares, pestilence, terrors, and plagues, even when we’ve gotten snared, we can come to Yahweh, our El Elyon and Shaddai and the safety of his arms. He greets us as our father, with a hug. When we make God our refuge and fortress, he accepts us, never abandons us.

This confidence comes through in verses 11 and 12, “For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” He goes on, “You will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.” Four powerful and frightening beasts you might encounter on the path or in the wilderness, echoing the 4 threats in the first half of the psalm. Confidently, the psalmist declares that we don’t need to fear because God sends angels to protect us. This verse has led many to believe that we have guardian angels watching over us. Our strongest confidence is knowing that Jesus is our rescuer and crunches the head of the serpent under his feet on the cross!

Yet we need to make sure that we don’t misinterpret Scripture. Satan uses these verses to tempt Jesus to throw himself off the top of the temple to prove to the people that he’s the Son of God, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down for it is written: He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” Wesleyan pastor Danny Quanstrom writes, “Satan omits the very important “in all your ways” when he tempts Jesus to throw himself down from the heights, thus turning a confession of trust in God to determine which ways are his ways into an attempt to force God’s hand in meeting our demands at the moment.” It’s important to not twist Scripture for our own agenda, this is why, in the Reformed tradition, we emphasize Scripture interpreting Scripture.

 We trust in God’s protection, “Because he loves me, I will rescue him, I will protect him… I will deliver and honour him.” We might not find healing, but he will give us ways forward, people to walk with us, give us strength, point us to Yahweh, to El Shaddai, to El Elyon who never abandons us, gives up on us.

Yahweh, ends with, “With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.” In the ancient Near East old people are held in honour. Old age is seen as a sign of divine favour for fearing the Lord and keeping his commands, helping us see why Jesus is identified with the ‘Ancient of Days’ in Daniel. Older men are expected to lead as elders; expected to have grown in wisdom through their life journey, learning confidence in the Lord in good and difficult times and sharing their faith and wisdom with younger generations.

Psalm 91 reminds us that our God is sovereign, almighty, and desires a personal relationship with us, “Wow!” It doesn’t promise us that there won’t be pain or struggle, but it promises that we can turn to God and he won’t turn us away, he’s there with us, giving us what we need to make it through, reminding us he’s always faithful to us.

Losing Our Foothold - Psalm 73

                                  

Psalm 73 begins the third book in psalms. This book includes prayers for help, tells us of a God who helps his people and brings down the wicked. Psalm 73 contains a question that still get asked today by followers of Jesus, “why do the wicked so often have things so good while God’s people suffer?” Asaph begins by confessing that God is good to his people, but it can be hard to see that goodness when evil’s all around, and to make it worse, the wicked have it good while the psalmist struggles. Shouldn’t God take better care of his people, is the unspoken question here.

Jeremiah has the same compliant, Jeremiah 12:1–2, “You are always righteous, Lord, when I bring a case before you. Yet I would speak with you about your justice: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease? You have planted them, and they have taken root; they grow and bear fruit. You are always on their lips but far from their hearts.” This is a question that comes up regularly in the time I’ve been a pastor, that those who don’t really believe in God and do horrid things do great while those who are faithful to God struggle to get by. It makes it hard for Asaph to trust God.

Asaph’s complains that the arrogant prosper, they don’t struggle at all, they’re happy and healthy, have no problems, no human ills. They’re violent, filled with sin, there’s no limit to the evil their imaginations can come up with, and they even threaten to oppress those who don’t give them what they want. It’s not fair! What frustrates Asaph even more is that the people love them, they turn to these wicked people and drink their water. I hear an echo forward to Jesus’ offer of living water to the woman at the well and how it fills with life, unlike the water from the wicked that leads people to doubt, or even mock God, “How would God know? Does the Most High know anything?” The name Asaph uses for the Lord here is El Elyon, God Most High, check out the Thanksgiving week devotional to reflect on how this name points to God as being superior in every way, but the people mock God.

Asaph finds himself jealous of the wicked. He wonders, why work so hard to keep his heart pure and himself innocent by living how God calls him to live in the Torah, the books of Moses where God lays out his expectations for his people. Asaph wonders why he should work so hard at living this way when he doesn’t seem to get anything out of it. This kind of faith is a business-like transaction: Asaph gives God his loyalty and worship, but then expects the Lord to bless him with a lovely wife, respectful and gifted children, success, and good health; otherwise, why bother? This is prosperity gospel thinking. Asaph only sees, “All day long I have been afflicted, and every morning brings new punishments. If I had spoken out like that, I would surely have betrayed your children.”

Envy, jealousy, and frustration leads Asaph to a place in his heart where he confesses, “my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold.” He’s not the only one this happens to; these feelings often fill us too and can lead us away from trusting God. Asaph finally decides to go to God’s place, his sanctuary to try to figure all this heart stuff, to address this envy and bitterness inside him, “When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.” Asaph begins to find some peace and understanding when he enters God’s house. It’s here that he’s reminded of who God is, of God’s long relationship of faithfulness to his people, the stories of how he has delivered his people time after time. But the stories of God’s deliverance of his people from their enemies also reminds Asaph of why God had to save his people so often, because of who they had become, just like the wicked around them, instead of being God’s people. Because Israel keeps choosing to be more like the nations, God allows the nations at certain times to conquer and oppress Israel so Israel can experience exactly what being like the nations is really like. God allows this oppression to happen in order to draw his people back to him again, to remind them of who he is and who they are: his people called to be his image to the nations instead of being like the nations. God reminds them that they are his chosen people and he’ll always be faithful to the covenants he’s made with them, even when they’ve failed to be faithful in return.

Asaph gets to a place where he understands why God holds off and allows the wicked to commit themselves to their ways and choices, “Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin. How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors! They are like a dream when one awakes; when you arise, Lord, you despise them as fantasies.” God allows us to collect for ourselves as much as we can, but in the end, it’s nothing more than a fantasy and meaningless. Our worth doesn’t come from how much we have or have accomplished, it comes from who we are as a child of God and how we use what we’ve gathered. You can hoard it for yourself and selfishly only bless yourself, or you can recognize it as a gift from God to be used to bless others and build community. Jesus touches on this in his parable about the wealthy man who keeps building bigger barns to hold his wealth, but then suddenly dies in the night. What he gathered for himself ultimately doesn’t save him, he dies just like the beggar in the ditch or laneway.

Asaph knows the Lord and himself well enough to admit that “when my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.” He recognizes that bitterness and envy hurt our relationship with God; it impacts our generosity, compassion, and humility, causing our hearts to wither, creating doubt and anger towards God. We’re not nearly as spiritually strong as we think we are. We’re natural born sinners, we want what we want, no matter what God says. Our hearts are naturally drawn to sin rather than our creator. We’re not strong enough on our own, we need God, we need his Spirit, we need the forgiveness found in Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, and we need to be honest with ourselves. We often find ourselves surprised by our sin, instead we should realize that this is who we are. When you listen to writers like Paul, we’re regularly reminded that God made us weak so that we can learn humility, and just how much we need him.

We’re also set free from our sin and our envy by God’s grace. We’re also reminded regularly how much he loves us, and how Jesus is with us always to always lean on him. As Barbara Duguid reminds us in her book Extravagant Grace, “In the Bible, the strongest people are those who know their own weakness while the weakest people are those who are most impressed by their own strength.” Asaph comes to the realization, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.” He finds the peace that wipes away the envy and questions that had created so much struggle in his heart towards God.

Asaph realizes that his flesh and heart may fail, but God’s his strength. The Jewish writer, Chaim Bentorah gives us some insight into this verse. “The word “flesh” here is the word “she’ar” in the Hebrew which means flesh, but flesh in the sense of a near kinsman, or one you trust as someone of your own flesh, a close advisor… So, when Asaph says that “his flesh failed” he is likely saying that even those closest to him… have failed to explain why the unrighteous should prosper and the righteous do not. When even our closest friends or relatives can not advise us, we then look to our own hearts and let our hearts decide.  But Asaph is saying that even his own heart will fail, he can’t trust his own heart for a correct understanding or discernment.  So, who or what can he trust? Asaph says that God is his “strength.”  The word in Hebrew for “strength” here is “sur” which is the word for “rock.”  This is wisdom, that we turn to God for a solid foundation for our lives rather than the things of this world which come and go as God wills.

The reality is that it can be hard to understand why God allows some people, even those who are arrogant and even wicked succeed so much while we struggle. Sometimes we need to ask God for eyes to see his presence and his blessings he has given us, to ask the Holy Spirit for a spirit of trust, gratitude, and contentment, even as we ask God for our daily bread, as Jesus taught us to pray. This will give us a firm foothold through life as we build our lives on God our rock.

 

Fortress and Refuge - Psalm 46

                       

Psalm 46 is a psalm of lament, a psalm that cries out to God in times of struggle. It begins with a spirit of strength, confidence, and reassurance in who God is. God is a refuge, a place of safety and protection, and place of strength who they can turn to when trouble comes, when anxiety overwhelms and distress fills their hearts and souls. During times like those, when we feel unable to deal with what’s going on in our lives, we seek out places or people of refuge. A refuge is a safe place to get your feet under you again, to recover your strength and find peace and calmness. I’ve learned that no-one can live in chaos all the time.

Because God is our refuge, the psalmist declares, “we will not fear.” Then come images that strike fear in our hearts, “though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.” Earthquakes, mudslides, volcanos, tsunamis all come to mind as we hear the psalmist describe how fearsome nature can be. As we journey through the psalm, we see the psalmist is using these natural disasters to describe civil or social unrest. There’re references to nations in uproar, wars and kingdoms falling, and earth melting. These are not easy times.

It's easy to read Psalm 46 as a hymn or prayer that’s for someone else, yet it’s applicable to many of us, even if not in this moment. We may not be in a time of war as a nation, we may not be experiencing the political craziness that’s infecting other countries, yet Psalm 46 is for us too. I think of a number of times when I’ve seen people grab hold onto this psalm and hang on for dear life. When 9/11 happened, my family and I were living in Michigan and the day of the terrorist attacks, we kept looking to the skies for possible planes aimed at Chicago and that evening the churches in Allendale all gathered together and we turned to Psalm 46. A young man I know whose wife died, leaving him with 3 young children to raise on his own turned to Psalm 46 because he felt as if the ground was melting under him. A family who lost their home after both the mother and father were laid off turned to this psalm as it felt as if the world was crashing all around them. My parents after my sister Toni, and then a couple of years later, my brother Glen went home to the Lord, also turned to this psalm for strength. The earth is not nearly as secure underneath us as we’d like to believe.

In the middle of all the images of chaos and turmoil, the psalmist reminds us that there’s also places full of life and calm, of safety where God can be found. “There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most-High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.” The psalmist uses an image found throughout scripture of life and flourishing, the image of a river. Psalm 1 starts the psalms off by speaking of a person who reflects on God’s way being like a tree planted by streams of water, a healthy flourishing tree. The Garden of Eden had three rivers nourishing the garden, Psalm 36 and Jeremiah pick up on this image as well, Psalm 36:8, “They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights.” Jeremiah 17:8, “They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

Jesus offers us living water in John 4 when speaking to the woman at the well, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Rivers are usually symbols of peace and prosperity because they bring life for farming and roads for trade so communities can grow and prosper. Jesus’ return often includes descriptions of rivers flowing with clean water, making the world a better place to live in. Rivers are a powerful image of life, blessing, and God’s presence in the world.

The psalmist points us to the city of God, to Jerusalem where the Most-High dwells, a stronghold where the chaos cannot reach us. Then comes the powerful promise, “The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress,” a mountain stronghold. He invites us to come and see what the Lord has done. The psalmist then offers an unexpected scene, inviting us to come see “the desolations he has brought on the earth.” This is a God of power, a God you don’t fool around with! Desolation is a word that strikes shock and fear into hearts, it means “an atrocious event,” or “to make uninhabited.” It echoes back to when “the Lord speaks, the earth melts.” The psalmist shows us the power of the Lord, who has the power to destroy all his enemies with a single word.

The Lord’s not only a safe place to turn to in times of turmoil and danger, he’s an active defender of his people. Jesus comes to take our sin on himself to the cross, but also to take the fight to Satan and defeat him and bring peace, his shalom to all the earth. Jesus comes as a warrior, but also as the Prince of Peace “to break the bow and shatter the spear; to burn the shields with fire.” The desolations the Lord brings will bring the end to war, the destruction of the machinery of war. No longer with the people need to defend themselves with weapons of war, instead, as Isaiah 2 tells us their swords will be hammered into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks.

This will all come about when Jesus returns; until then we will face times of turmoil, of chaos, fear, and uncertainty. In those times, God calls out to us to trust him and “be still know that I am God.” In the times of chaos, when the shaking earth under us is more than we can handle, the Lord calls us to “Be still,” to trust that he’s powerful enough to carry you through, that he’s powerful enough to protect you. In all the smoke and haze, all the shaking and roaring, Jesus invites us to come to him, Matthew 11:28–30, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Charles Spurgeon knows that it’s only when God becomes personal to us that we find peace, “Peace comes to me, not only by what God is, but by what God is to me. “God is our refuge and strength.” “This God is our God.” You never enjoy the goodness and greatness of God if you view them in an abstract manner; you must grasp them as your own. It seems a daring act for a man to appropriate God, and yet the Lord invites us to do it; he says, “Let him take hold of my strength.” It’s in stillness that we find greater opportunities to listen to God, to share our thoughts and lives with God, to connect with our God as our Father, our friend. We need a place of refuge to feel safe enough to be still; the psalmist reminds himself that the Lord is a safe place, a fortress where the Lord is with us.

Where do you go when the ground is shaking under you? Who do you turn to, who do you trust, who will never fail you? God places many good caring people in our lives, but when the fear goes deep, when the hurt and pain is deep and understanding escapes you, the only one who can always be counted on to be a place of refuge is Jesus. Unfortunately, even good people will fail us at some point, but Jesus never will, the cross promises us that his commitment to us is unshakeable.

I’ve learned the comfort, hope, and peace of turning to Scripture, especially the psalms and the Gospels, I’m still learning the peace that comes through prayer, especially praying the psalms. I lean on those who have shared their struggles and brokenness in books and stories and how the Lord brought people into their lives to walk with them during those times, giving me eyes to see how the Lord is present, giving me ears to hear his invitation to come to him. I encourage you to take time to “be still and know God” and lean into the promise that Jesus is with us always through the Holy Spirit and holds the whole world in his scarred hands, the most secure place we can find ourselves.

 

Seeking the Lord’s Face - Psalm 27

Psalm 27 is a psalm of confidence and trust in the Lord, even while showing a few moments of uncertainty. King David begins with a confidant declaration of trust in the Lord, “The Lord is my light and salvation—whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?” The question is rhetorical, meaning that David knows he doesn’t need to fear because the Lord is his light, a picture of life, hope, and well-being in the scriptures. The Jews regularly pictured those who are against God as being in darkness. David declares that he belongs to the Lord, his light is his stronghold, his fortress, his place of safety.

Because David belongs to the Lord, he’s not afraid of the wicked who are trying to take him down, even though their amies are powerful and fearsome. David chooses to trust in the Lord. “When the wicked advance against me to devour me…. Though an army besiege me… though war break out against me, even then I will be confidant.” Trust is a choice, especially when you’re being knocked around. We’re not in a time of war such as Ukraine or Gaza, yet we do find ourselves more and more at odds against the values of our culture as the moral and ethical paths of our culture are moving further away from what the Lord has given us in Scripture. Even basic concepts like love are often disagreed on. This has even led to conflict in our churches and this can, and has brought hurt.

In Bethel, we take what I call a compassionate conservative approach in following Jesus where we choose to trust that the way God reveals in Scripture to live by guides us into becoming the people God has created us to be; that God’s way leads to flourishing and health spiritually, emotionally, relationally, and in community. We seek to recognize the image of God in each person, remembering that God so loved the world that he sent his son Jesus so that whoever believes in him will experience eternal life. We remember that people matter to God and this shapes how we live with each other and in our communities.

David goes on and shares his heart’s desire, “One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.” People in David’s day believed that gods were limited in their power and influence to regional areas. David knows the Lord is Israel’s God, believing that the Lord’s power is greatest in the land of Israel, especially where his temple is. This helps us to understand his confidence in the Lord’s protection and ability to keep him safe, even if his enemies have advanced, and even surround Jerusalem. The ark of the covenant is in the tabernacle, the Lord is with David. I wonder if this psalm begins the desire in David to build the Lord a temple in response to who the Lord is as their God. David’s even looking forward to worshipping God with praise and sacrifices, even as his enemies surround him. The depth of David’s trust in the Lord is inspiring!

David is describing who the Lord is, expressing his trust and faith in the Lord, now in verse 7, David moves from talking about the Lord to talking to the Lord. “Hear my voice when I call, Lord; be merciful to me and answer me.” He knows the best place to go when he needs help is the Lord. David’s prayer is rooted in a deep trust he’s just shared with us. By first reminding himself of who the Lord is, the deeper David’s faith and trust grows. This shows us a basic principle of faith: the more we learn, study God’s story and history with us, reflect on who the Lord is, and remember his presence in our lives, the closer to God we find ourselves coming, the more confident we become in God and the deeper our trust grows. I have found that we then talk more to God, not just about God. God becomes more real to us.

Now David’s not looking to text God, send him an email, or leave him a voicemail, David seeks the Lord’s face, to come to him personally. As a king, David has seen how he’s impacted by people coming to him personally to plead their case, Jesus later tells a parable about a widow seeking justice who comes to the king personally instead of the judges, and she finds justice. In the same way David humbly seeks the Lord’s help. David listens to his heart, the place Scripture tells us our character is found, where our core identity lies. “My heart says of you, ‘Seek his face!’ Your face, Lord, I will seek.” In seeking the Lord’s face, David’s seeking his favour, blessing, and help. He knows he hasn’t earned it, yet he also knows that the Lord is the only one he can fully trust in his time of trouble and need.

Pastor Rebecca Jordan Heys writes, “When I am reminded of the larger reality of God’s loving control, I can face the smaller realities of fear and evil in the world around me and within my own self. I need to hear the words of Psalm 27: “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?” So I ask God, “Are you in control?” This happens at many points along my faith journey because I am genuinely not sure of the answer. The chaos I face seems so powerful that I fear it may overwhelm me. When the psalmist cries out in confidence, “Whom shall I fear?” I want to reply, “I can think of a few things.” Other times that same prayer is more of a calm request for a reminder. Then I feel my spiritual feet more firmly underneath me, and I can join my voice to the psalmist’s: “Whom shall I fear?”

David asks the Lord to not hide his face or reject him, yet David relies on the Lord’s character and commitment to him and to Israel, “Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me.” In a family-based culture, rejection by parents and family is one of their greatest fears, and yet David trusts. Trust is easy in good times, much harder when things are hard. Trust is a choice you make. It used to be that trust was given and developed through relationships, today we’re both more and less trusting. We easily trust online news and bloggers and personalities, while at the same time often expressing much less trust in people around us with whom we have the ability to actually have relationships with. Trust is often easily given to those online because they tickle our ears with what we already believe. People who know us don’t always tickle our ears, and because we don’t want to be told something different from what we’ve decided to believe, we withhold our trust.

David does the opposite. Instead of asking God to confirm his beliefs, David turns to the Lord and asks, “Teach me your way, Lord; lead me in a straight path because of my oppressors.” David is willing to change what he believes, give up what he wants in order to be guided and shaped by God. The Jews see the Ten Commandments as a gift because God’s showing them exactly who they’re called to be, what they’re called to believe, no guessing required. Jesus calls us to do the same, telling us that he’s “the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” To see the Father’s face, we choose to follow Jesus, trusting his way as the path to life. Following Jesus is a choice to trust him through obedience. Jesus challenges us to trust him when he tells us, “If you love me, you will keep my commands.” Jesus earned our trust on the cross where he takes our sin on himself, when he chooses the path of forgiveness and grace, even forgiving all those who placed him on the cross.

David’s faith is focused on living in this world, not escaping to heaven, “I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” Jesus teaches us the same focus, teaching us how to live with trust in God and how to live with each other as image-bearers of God. This takes trust. David ends by reminding himself “to wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart.” Patience, endurance, and trust can be hard at times, but knowing who you place your trust in helps you to go through life in strength and hope.

Our prayers are important to God, this is why we’ve been given the psalms. Prayers don’t always get answered right away. Sometimes we’re called to wait, to be strong, to trust in who God is, because we know his commitment to us is found in Jesus. While waiting can be hard, especially in a culture that values instant gratification, David shows us the power of trusting and talking to our God regularly in a spirit of worship.

The Work of Your Fingers - Psalm 8

                      

Psalm 8 is one of those psalms where you simply have to take a step back and say “Wow!” Sometimes that’s the only way we can respond to who God is. Can’t you just see David sitting on his throne and realizing just how amazing God is and trying to find the words to express something that can’t quite be expressed with just words. He’s in awe of God and wants everyone to share in this awe of God with him. “Lord our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory in the heavens.” I can see David remembering those nights in the fields with the sheep, lying on his back when the skies were clear and the stars shining like diamonds against the blackness, and if he was by water, watching the wonderous beauty reflect back as with a mirror.

The Lord setting his glory in the heavens gives us a tiny glimpse of the amazing mind of our creator: an artist extraordinaire, a creator of beauty and wonder, a God who is extravagant in sharing the wonder of his creativity, offering us soul feeding glory. C. S. Lewis called Psalm 8 a “short, exquisite lyric.” The scholar Derek Kidner writes, “This psalm is an unsurpassed example of what a hymn should be, celebrating as it does the glory and grace of God, rehearsing who he is and what he has done, and relating us and our world to him, all with a masterly economy of words, and in a spirit of mingled joy and awe.”

Tim Mackie from the Bible Project helps us understand why Psalm 8 is placed where it is. “Our psalm, Psalm 8, is right in the middle of psalms 3-14. And the fact that it’s in the center is important… First in Psalms 3-7, we’re invited to reflect on David’s story from the past, when he was powerless and had to hide from his enemies. In these poems, David cries out to God to deliver him and restore him to his role as king. Then, after Psalm 8, come Psalms 9-14. David is joined by a group of people called the poor and afflicted ones. Like David, they’re oppressed by powerful rulers. And they too cry out to God, asking him to confront these world empires and vindicate his people. Both David and the afflicted ones are really powerless and weak. And yet they are the ones God has chosen to rule the world. And this is what Psalm 8, in the center, is all about.”

David writes this psalm to marvel at who God is, how he pays attention to us, and how we’re important to him. then comes an unexpected thought, another thing to wonder at, “Through the praise of children and infants you have stablished a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.” The praise of children is a mountain fortress against God’s enemies, a force that is mighty and overpowers the criticisms and lies of God’s foes and enemies. The praise of children and infants silences the voices of the enemies through songs and hymns of praise and trust in the Lord. Children trust more easily; they don’t have their own agendas in following God; they simply accept God’s grace and gifts. Jesus points this out to the chief priests and teachers of the law when they get upset on Palm Sunday at the people celebrating Jesus as king. Matthew 21:14–16, “The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant. “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him. “Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read, “‘From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise?” When we see God at work, the proper response is to praise him, not complain, and it helps us understand why Jesus calls us to have the faith of a child.

David turns to the Lord’s relationship with us and he’s overwhelmed with awe again. “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” David’s continuing his first thought here, recognizing not only the beauty of the heavens, but also the intricacy of how every star and planet has their place, that they all dance together in heavens in harmony in a pattern only God can create. Our universe is so vast, that even with all our technology, we still have no real clue at just how big it is, or what wonders it holds, and David is struck by the fact that the God who created all of this still takes the time to pay attention to us, rather insignificant creatures in comparison to the vastness of the rest of creation.

The work of his fingers is so much more than we can imagine, and yet the Lord desires a relationship with us. Of all the creatures he created, he made us in his image, giving us life by breathing his Spirit in us after forming us with his own hands from the dust of the earth. Truly he is the potter and we are the clay, as Isaiah reminds us. Even though we keep turning away from him to follow other voices and gods, the Lord still cares for us, never gives up on us, and even sends his own Son Jesus to wash us clean from our rebelliousness and sin. The immenseness of his love for us is even greater than the immenseness of the rest of creation, greater than anything we can ever imagine.

David recognizes our place in the creation order, but only after helping us see how magnificent God is. David’s praising God, pointing out his power and majesty, reminding us that there is nothing more glorious than our God, nothing and no-one is greater than the creator of all things! We only understand who we are when we understand who God is, our creator and giver of life and soul. We’re not an accident, we’re created to respond to God, and to be responsible to God, to worship him along with all creation. David is amazed at who God has created us to be, “You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honour. You made them rulers over the works of your hand; you put everything under their feet: all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the sea.” God trusts us with his creation, to develop it according to God’s design and plan. We’re called to reflect God’s glory into the world as carriers of his image as the Shorter Westminster Catechism reminds us, “What is the chief end of man? Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.”

We see glimpses of God’s glory in a baby held in the arms of loving parents, in the laughter and joy of children, in youth calling out a leader’s name and scattering in shouts of joy as he chases them in a glorious moment of play, as a older couple sit beside each other with arms around each other, in the smile of a senior as they watch their family gather together, in folded hands in prayer, in a young couple offering vows of commitment to each other for life, in empty nesters helping their children build their own home, in a young person serving at a soup kitchen or helping an older member. In so many ways, we see glimpses of God’s glory in relationships as we reflect him in big and small ways.

David reveals humility in this glorious psalm of praise. God created us lower than angels even while we are crowned with glory and honour. We are small and insignificant and yet at the same time we’re wonderful and magnificent, created in the image of God and an important part of God’s plan for caring for his creation. We’re part of God’s plan of redeeming the earth; it’s through David’s family line that Jesus comes to earth to bear the weight of our sin. We’ll escort Jesus back to earth when he returns and we’re part of the plan of restoring the earth. We’ve been made rulers over the works of God’s fingers, an immense privilege.

As we enter into a new church year filled with worship, learning, working, and growing together, my hope is that in all our ministries that we keep reminding each other that we are the work of God’s fingers, created in his image to reveal God’s glory and the majesty of the Lord’s name as we’re shaped by the Holy Spirit more and more into the image of God, redeemed by Jesus to carry on the work of his fingers.

 

Shepherd and Guide - Psalm 23

                                    

This fall we’ll be journeying through the psalms. The psalms are Israel’s songbook, giving us words to talk to God, helping us find the words we need to talk to him as they speak to life and all that life can throw at us. They speak of joy and worship, of fear and hopelessness, of anger and confusion, and even of revenge, yet in all the psalms, except one, they end in trusting in God.

We begin our journey with Psalm 23, one of the most loved and well-known psalms in the Bible. This is a psalm of trust and hope written from the perspective of the sheep, from our perspective, as we look to God and Jesus. Psalm 23’s about belonging, being part of the flock. It’s an honest psalm, acknowledging our need for a shepherd who sticks by his sheep in quiet and in difficult times, a shepherd who’s diligent in his responsibilities. We need a shepherd because we’re not nearly as capable of taking care of ourselves as we believe we are. Of course, many of us can do fine without a shepherd when things go smoothly; it’s when life doesn’t go smoothly that we look to our shepherd, or we end up struggling along without hope, without peace, without a foundation of meaning, purpose, or belonging.

King David wrote this psalm in a spirit of trust and faith. “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.” David has no ordinary shepherd, his shepherd’s the Lord himself, a powerful claim. “I lack nothing,” doesn’t mean that we get everything we want, but it means that we turn to our shepherd when we need something. David calls us to trust that our shepherd knows us and our needs better than we know ourselves. He provides for us in our needs: physically, spiritually, emotionally, mentally, relationally. Our shepherd provides enough for the entire flock; it’s up to us to make sure that we care for each other. There are always those who have more, those capable of creating more, while others aren’t able to provide for themselves and their families as well. This is why we’re part of a flock, we bring what we have to the table and make sure all have enough, whether it’s physical help, encouragement, a sense of belonging, or even a sense of purpose as we walk together. The early church in Acts 2 understood this, it made Roman emperors crazy.

The shepherd “makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.” The Lord takes his sheep to pastures filled with healthy grazing, to quiet waters so they can drink safely. Sheep dislike running water and Israel’s filled with mountain streams so good shepherds would divert water from the streams to create quiet pools so the sheep would drink. Our shepherd cares about rest for our souls, about the worries, fears, and anxieties that fill many of our hearts and minds. More people are living with stress today, many of our teens and young adults confess to living with almost constant stress and growing levels of anxiety, but adults aren’t immune to this either.

Part of this comes from our economic situation, part of it comes from our obsession with social media and the freedom many people feel to strike out, bully, mock, and hurt others. Social media can have a negative influence on us, there’s growing nastiness and followers of Jesus are often part of it or impacted by it. We complain about our children and youth constantly on their phones, but parents and grandparents are often as much at fault. When camping, I noticed families and friends sitting at their campsites, staring at their phones rather than being with each other. It’s difficult to refresh your soul on social media, we need to turn to our shepherd to refresh our souls.

We need our shepherd’s guidance to keep on the right path, for our soul’s sake, and for the sake of our families, church, and community. How we live impacts others. Many of us aren’t always so self-aware and fail to recognize those times when we need those green pastures and quiet waters or wander down questionable paths. We’re not always good at listening to our shepherd’s guidance and how the Spirit urges us to keep our eyes on our shepherd. Over the next few years, we’ll be working as a church family to focus more deeply on faith formation and faith practices to help us in each of our households to grow deeper in our trust in Jesus and shape our lives more deliberately on Jesus’ way.

David recognizes the Lord has a destination and path in place for us, but that path will not always be easy. Jesus’ way is different than our society’s way and he doesn’t always fill us in on the why of his way. It takes trust that Jesus’ path is the right path, that he’s leading us on a path that leads to flourishing and shalom for us personally and as communities. Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit to guide us, but we often choose our own paths instead like wandering sheep. Trust is hard, and we’ve been influenced by our culture’s insistence that we know better than God what’s best for us. This attitude goes back all the way to Adam and Eve who figured they knew better than God what was best for them and didn’t trust God completely and listened to voices different than God’s. This is one of  the reasons why we may find our path sometimes leading into dark valleys.

David gets real now about the importance of those times in green pastures and beside quiet waters. There are going to be times when we’ll walk through the darkest valleys, times when evil will feel close, when the shepherd’s path will be hard. There will be times when we’ll walk through sorrow, fear, loss, and brokenness that will sap away our strength and hope and make it hard to trust our shepherd as our souls and hearts get overwhelmed when life becomes turbulent and chaos engulfs us. This is a sharp turn from green pastures and quiet waters.  Our shepherd doesn’t always protect us from dark times, allows them to enter into our lives. I’ve experienced dark times like many of you, and what’s carried me through those times is the knowledge that I don’t walk those times alone. In experiencing darkness, I’ve learned to trust that Jesus will lead me back into times of light. I’ve learned to appreciate those times of green pastures better.

David trusts that, “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.” Jesus offers us this same assurance when he tells his disciples, John 14:15–18, “If you love me, keep my commands.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth…. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” We hear an echo of this in Hebrews 13:5–6, “God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?” Jesus doesn’t come with a punishing rod or staff. Jesus’ rod and staff pulled me from times of potential disaster while protecting me from situations and people who only wished to hurt and destroy. Jesus’ presence gave hope and strength to make it through those dark times, even when they lasted longer than I wished.

David sees his shepherd as a protector and provider, especially in dangerous times, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” In the fields and wilderness are lions, bears, bandits and more and the shepherd protects his vulnerable sheep from these dangers. In the middle of danger, the shepherd sets a table, a place of hospitality and acceptance, a place of safety and plenty. In biblical times, it was custom to invite travelers and strangers to come eat while the host provided a safe place to refresh themselves. The table echoes ahead to Jesus’ parables of banquets and wedding feasts; for me it also echoes ahead to our communion table where we remember Jesus saving us from our sin through his sacrifice.

Enemies don’t always become friends; evil will always be part of our world until Jesus returns. This psalm doesn’t pretend that everything is always going to be alright, but it does promise that the Lord is with us, will provide for us, that he’s not stingy in providing us with what we need, whether it’s material things, grace, forgiveness, comfort, peace, or his presence. “My cup overflows.” The sheep’s trust in the shepherd shines brightly in the end, “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.” The sheep are confident in their shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep; Jesus, who took all our sin away on the cross, who protects us from Satan and evil, and who will come when our place in the Father’s mansion is ready, to take us home to be with him forever. Until that time, we choose to trust in our shepherd.