Month: April 2017

It seems that we hear from the author that one bad deed deserves another.  The whole beginning of this Psalm we find the author speaking out strongly about how he has been abused and treated scandalously by those around him.  His request at the end of the psalm is that his accusers would be put to shame.  It really doesn’t seem to be the example that we ought to be following.

The redeeming aspect of this psalm is found in vs.31 where we see that God stands at the right hand of the needy.  This can be used as the basic foundation to discerning how we are seeing our own lives and what happens around us.  Are we seeing God standing at the right hand of the needy, or is God simply standing on our side and all others who are not on our side should suffer.  We would never pose it that way, but we could pose it in a more gentle way: God is on our side and all those who don’t agree with us are wrong.  It is an equally compelling argument that at times we feel as if we are an island to ourselves and our views and our perspectives trump the views and perspectives of those around us.  

When we are able to lift up the cause of the needy then our own needs seem to dissipate into the needs of the others.  It works well if we are committed to it.

This is a prayer for victory.  It is difficult for me to put myself in David’s position where every single day he had to think about which enemy might be on his border and which troops he would have to deploy where.  It was such a different world for David as he was writing these psalms than for me as I am reading them.  I think it is pretty obvious that the author is David since he speaks about the harp and the lyre and how his songs will exalt the name of the Lord.  He is an interesting character, a real Renaissance man who loved music and yet was a warrior.  

I’m not sure why I haven’t run across this Psalm in a way that it would influence my preaching upon a certain passage.  The passage I have in mind is either Mark 4:35-41 or Matthew 8:23-27.  I was thinking of vss. 28-30 where we find people crying in  distress as the storm rages and the Lord rises and calms the storm.  Pretty amazing that it took me that long to figure that even that act was an act of prophecy as seen in Psalm 107.  But then it took me to this song, and I’ll leave you with this.  

I was born in the wrong era.

First of all, Happy Easter!  What a celebration we had to honor the resurrection and recognize the significance of it.  This Psalm starts off so well.  It starts off with a well known call and response as we hear Give thanks to the Lord.  And then the response, for his steadfast love endures forever.  But then the psalmist launches into the historical unfaithfulness of Israel from the time that they grumbled in the wilderness to the time that they forsook the covenant they made with God.  It is pretty much all bad news from after the first verse until we get to verse 47 and 48.

The ending of this psalm reminds us that God continues to deserve our honor and praise even if we have messed up so much that he has every right to withdraw his grace and mercy from us.  We can still say “Praise the Lord” even after a recounting of all the events that took place.

This is David looking back over the past powerful presence of Almighty God who led his people out of Egypt and created a nation that would love and serve him.  He focuses specifically on the the story of old patriarchs of the faith from Abraham through Moses and all of the history that took them into and out of Egypt.  It was good enough for the Hebrew children as Mahalia Jackson sang.  It is nice to be able to look back and see the faithfulness of the generations that allows us to be where we are.  We are especially blessed at First Presbyterian to be able to look back over 180 years and see that faithfulness play itself out.

This is actually from where the words to this song come.  I think in the past I copied one from where we had whales and stars singing together in this song.

I’ll never forget my first few years of ministry.  We went with the entire church community up a  mountain for the annual gathering of  the chestnuts.  We were on a precipe looking out over the mountains and I read the following: 

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+104&version=NR2006

That’s right, you found the right link.  It is Psalm 104 in Italian.  I couldn’t make it through the Psalm.  The sun was shining, it was a beautiful, beautiful day, the people were so excited to be there, the feeling was spectacular.  As I made it through the psalm where it talks about the greatness of God as exemplified in His creation, it was almost too much emotionally.  God is so good and His goodness is revealed so powerfully in His creation.  

You should also notice that this is a great Psalm for Pentecost Sunday.  The presence of the Spirit of the Lord is powerfully portrayed.  Look at vss. 29-30 and you find the Spirit of the Lord, or his breath, same word, that creates all the creatures and all that moves and has life.  Bless the Lord oh my soul, and all that is within me!

This has to be the song that comes to mind when I read this Psalm.  But if you only focus on the blessing and the praise then you miss the most powerful verses in this Psalm.  Look at vs.10-12 and we see the length, breadth, and width of the love that God has for us.

A very common assurance of pardon we can find in vs.12 as the author states “as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us.”  Right out of the Bible, right out of this psalm we recognize that the distance between east and west is unfathomable.  That is how much God loves us and forgives us.  Enjoy the song.  It is one of my favorites.  I could sing it every Sunday.

This is quite a transformation from Psalm 101.  Whereas in the last psalm we saw a very confident (I would probably even say at best brash and at worst cocky) author who was able to proclaim: “I will destroy the wicked in the land.”  In this Psalm we read the author humbly confess: “he has broken my strength in midcourse, he has shortened my days.”  Again, context is everything.  If Psalm 101 was written pre-Bathsheba and this psalm was written post, maybe even after the death of Absalom, it all makes sense.

We find in this Psalm a cry for help as the author bemoans the fact that his bones burn like a furnace (sounds like old age to me), and he is too tired to even eat bread.  But the contrast is found in vs.12 where he speaks that the Lord is enthroned forever and that His name shall endure for all generations.  

The author is able to lay down the perspective of this psalm by reaching back even to creation itself as he states: “Long ago you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.”  All of this is really for the purpose of leaving a legacy behind.  The legacy is so that “the children of your servants shall live secure, their offspring shall be established in your presence.”

This legacy is not anything material, but rather as vs. 18 states: that the faithfulness of the Lord will be recorded for generations to come and that even those who are unborn would praise the Lord.  That is strong statement for making sure that we make this world a better place for future generations.  This is an even stronger statement that we pass on our faith from one generation to the next.

My first thought upon reading this Psalm was: here is the pride that comes before the fall.  The person who is writing certainly knows what they think is right and wrong and noticeably lets us know what is acceptable and what is not.  I always do find it very interesting that those who are the most outspoken on certain moral topics have some very real and visible shortcomings in the realm of morality.  It is ironic that those who would speak the most forcefully have the least amount of room to speak because of their own lifestyle and their own judgment.

It is interesting that the first thing that this author points out is his loyalty to the Lord.  He then goes into the areas of life that he will be sure to hunt down and eliminate.  No evil shall pass in the presence of this person.  I’m guessing that this psalm was written by David before his encounter with Bathsheba.  Isn’t it interesting how failure humbles all of us.  This is before that humbling, in my thinking.

The first 100 days have been completed.  Congratulations!  We are 2/3rds of the way done.  You will find the first time that tennis is mentioned in the Bible here in Psalm 100…”enter his courts with praise”, get it?  Okay, I am so looking forward to spending an hour in prayer this morning at 1am.  I am so pleased with the response, there were only 3 open spots, and I am incredibly happy to take those spots.  The pastor has to pray too, after all!

Psalm 100 is one of those psalms that you learn in VBS by heart.  It is a great psalm and it is one, like Psalm 23, that remains with you and that sticks with you through thick and thin.  Make a joyful noise has often been misspoken by pastors as “make a noyful joise”.  My dad used to tell a story of how when he was interning as a seminarian he did that on Easter Sunday to greet the congregation.  He never recovered.  It reminded me of my brother who was reading Scripture and introduced it as Paul’s letter to the Philippines.   He’s still recovering.

But this Psalm has so much which is comforting but also it is just sheer joy.  That is what is memorable about it.  Psalm 23 is memorable because of the imagery.  Psalm 100 is memorable because of the unmitigated joy.  I pray that you are able to be in a Psalm 100 mindset this evening.