Month: March 2017

God is called the Shepherd of Israel.  What a wonderful title.  It is not a foreign one in the psalms as arguably the most popular psalm, 23, we find that same title for God.  The shepherd is the one who leads the sheep.  The Gospel of John tells us that the shepherd knows his sheep by name.  But not only is God given the title of shepherd, but also in Scripture, and in real life, shepherd is also a title given to the religious leaders of any given group.  When you are in Italy the name for pastor is “pastore”, which means literally: shepherd.  When we served in Italy I was a colleague to many German Shepherds (see what I did there).  But it is true, we also find that same reference in Scripture when we find God’s Word refer to the shepherds of the day and it was in reference to the religious leaders.  

Unfortunately, Scripture is not often kind to them.  Look at Ezekiel 34 and Jeremiah 23 and the prophets speaks out strongly against the “shepherds” that have failed the Lord by seeking after their own desires.  We see that same problem happen in I Samuel when Eli and his sons were priests, his sons were only seeking out their own interests.  We know full well that Jesus is the only good shepherd.  We also see him saddened because the people on the sermon on the Mount seemed as sheep without a shepherd.  That is a sad place to be.  But God chooses the shepherds to lead His sheep.  While Jesus is the only good shepherd, it does not remove the fact that God has chosen shepherds, pastors and religious leaders, to lead His sheep.  He can only use what is at His disposal, and that is us.

There are so many references to sheep in Scripture: the lost sheep, the good shepherd, a sheep at the slaughter, and a myriad of people of faith in the Bible who were shepherds: Moses, David and others.  

So this is one of those psalms that if I had to choose this one from which to extract the Call to Worship on Sunday morning it wouldn’t be until the very last verse that I would find something suitable.  We once again find the author speaking through one of the most traumatic times in the nation of Israel, the destruction of the temple.  The detail which we find in this psalm can be disturbing.  We find bodies lying unattended left to rot by the enemy.  We find bodies posted as signs to any who would come near and try to conquer the victors that this too could happen to you.  The author asks the Lord to come to their rescue.  We don’t find that rescue comes about, but at least in vs.13 we find a promise.  God, if you come and rescue us then I promise we will tell our children that you have rescued us.

Wait, hasn’t the Lord rescued them time, after time, after time?  What makes this one time any different from the myriad of times that God has come and taken Israel close to his bosom and said: You are my people?  Why would Israel forget what God has done in the past right in the midst of a time when they need to remember it the most.  Isn’t it true that in the midst of crisis we forget the good that God has done for us.  It is in that time when we need to remember it the most.  

I really hope you were able to read through this psalm in one sitting.  It is powerful.  The entire premise is built around vs.1-4 where the author states that we will not hide, we should not hide, all the glorious deeds of the Lord from our children.  We have to pass on the memories of God’s actions in our midst to our children.  I also think of:

A scripture which is a classic which reflects what this author is trying to say at the beginning, that we will never forget to tell our children of the wondrous things of the Lord, is called the Shema which is found in Deuteronomy 6:4.  It is called Shema because that is the Hebrew for hear or listen.  In the Shema we find the author telling his audience of how crucial it is for the next generation to hear and understand what God has done for the nation in the past.  The passing down of the faith from one generation to the next is crucial for the Israelites, and equally crucial to us.  At least it should be.

Once vs.4 is over do you see what the author does?  He launches into a reflection of what God has done, and specifically what God has done in relationship to the time of Israel in Egypt.  He goes through the plagues, he goes through the people being led out and crossing the red sea.  He goes through the continual betrayal of the people time after time.  It sounds like the book of Judges where we hear consistently and constantly: “And the people did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.”

This Psalm contains one of my favorite references or metaphors for the Lord.  Look at vs.65 where the author basically compares God to a drunken sailor.  Do you see that?  Like a soldier who wakes from his stupor after a long night of drinking God comes to the battle and slays the enemy.  Not one I would use often in my sermons, but effective and it gets the point across.

My mind is focused upon what I’m going to be sharing tomorrow in church so it is hard to get away from the message of claiming our faith as our own.  In the first 10 verses of this psalm you have the author lay out reasons for why he is struggling with his faith.  He can’t sleep, he calls upon the Lord and doesn’t hear an answer, his doubts start to rise up.  

But then in vs.11 we see that he remembers the deeds of the Lord.  Hosea is frustrated in chapter 6 because of the fickleness of the faith of the people of God.  While the faithfulness of the Lord is never ending, our faith is like the dew in the morning.  Once it feels a little heat then it burns off.  the rest of the psalm is a recognition that God is the man.  It takes us a few verses in our life to sometimes get to the point where we recognize that God is the man.  We have sleepless nights and times when we wonder where God is and if the Lord will spurn us forever.  

Once we build up enough experiences and begin to trust completely that God’s faithfulness will never, ever disappear, then we can look toward the future without fear.

This feels like a psalm of celebration over a conquest.  There is no complaining, there is no asking God for help because things are getting noticeably out of control.  It seems more of a celebration of God’s power and might which had just recently been experienced in the author’s life.  It makes we think of this song.

We are halfway through.  Hard to believe that it was 75 days ago that we started this challenge on Sunday, January 1.  I want to focus on vs. 7 which reminds us that it is God who puts one down and lifts up another.  Judgment comes from the Lord.  But then look at vs.10 where it seems that the author is going to take matters into his own hands.  “I will cut off the horns off the wicked.”  Not the Lord will do it, but the author himself will do it.  

Let’s talk about what exactly the author means when he talks about horns.  It has to mean the source of power.  You see Samuel in I Samuel 16:13 who takes the “horn” of oil to anoint David as king.  The horn contained that which symbolically made David king.  The horn was also the source of power for the ram, which was caught in the thicket when Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac.  So the horn would be the root and the source of power.  That which could hurt the most and that which was given by the Lord to give us blessings and power.  

It is probably better to allow the Lord to cut off those horns and leave the living within God’s parameters to us.  

This Psalm, like the past one and all the ones now through 83, are in the context of Asaph.  But it is clear from this Psalm that the author is bemoaning the fall of the Temple.  The first time that the temple fell was in 587 and I wonder if somehow this psalm made it in the Psalter to reflect the agony and the pain of that experience.  The details which are depicted make me think that it had to have been written by someone who was an eyewitness.  Listen to the words that are used: smoke, emblems set up in the holy place, wooden trellis’ hacked with axes, all the carved work smashed with hatchets and hammers, the temple is lit up with fire.

In my mind this is no doubt an eyewitness account of the destruction of the temple which would have remained emblazoned upon the minds and the history of the Israelites as the attack on Pearl Harbor and 9-11 is emblazoned upon the minds of our nation and the Holocaust on the minds of the nation of Israel.  As a response to this attack the author comments that there is no one who is able to speak a prophetic word as to how long the Lord will allow this to last (vs.9).

You see a transition in vs.12 where the author remembers the salvation of the Lord who is King.  He remembers His Lordship and how He rules over all things including creation and the nations.  We need to be reminded of this when we find ourselves in situations where it seems like things are spinning out of control.  I find it interesting that the author refers back to the covenant that God has made with the people as a reminder of what is at stake.  This is the same covenant that we see the people of Israel breaking time after time.  It wouldn’t seem to me that God needs to be reminded of that covenant as much as we do.

Let’s start by trying to identify Asaph.  You would have found his name in Psalm 50 but we didn’t mention it at all.  Today we have to mention it because starting in this psalm all the way to Psalm 83 we hear him mentioned in each of the preludes.  As in most cases there are a number of different theories as to who exactly Asaph is.  I’m going with the theory that Asaph is the one mentioned in I Chronicles 6:39 who was considered one of the main singers in David’s temple.  He was also credited with performing in the dedication of the temple by Solomon in II Chronicles 5:12 (I’m so glad I proofread this.  I had put “performed in Solomon’s wedding”.  That would not have been accurate).  Let’s see, the book of psalms is a book of songs and this man, Asaph, is a singer/songwriter.  I like that, it almost seems like it makes sense.  I’m going with that theory.  David would have known him and he would have been one of the leading singers and songwriters of his time.  Asaph would have been to harp music what the Beatles were to rock and roll.  

Now to the body of the psalm.  Look at vs.1 and there is a bit of a choice that we have to make in regards to that verse.  Instead of reading “God is good to the upright” the Hebrew translation could also mean: “God is good to Israel”.  That makes a little more sense especially when he follows it with: “to those who are pure in heart.”  Of course the psalmist is going to see the people of Israel as the pure in heart, as the ones chosen by the Almighty to be the bloodline of the messiah and the chosen one.

Throughout the psalm he points out the negative attributes of his enemies and how God encourages those things which will bring ruin in their lives.  He speaks very little about how God is a positive influence in his life, but mostly how God manipulates things in such a way that he “makes them fall to ruin.”  Hmm, we have seen this before.  But he snaps out of it and in vs.28 he praises God, actually praises himself that he has made God his refuge in order to tell others of God’s wonderful works.  

This is a classic royal psalm.  A royal psalm is geared to praise and adoration for the king.  It is one where the king is uplifted and his protection and prowess is praised and prayers are offered for his prosperity and safety.  Did you notice the prologue to the psalm?  It is called: Of Solomon.  So, this is not categorized as a psalm which David wrote, but rather it seems more like a psalm which is written for Solomon, the son of David who actually constructed the temple.  This psalm is written for the person who is in power over the nation of Israel.  Read through it again.  Then put it in this perspective.  This psalm is written for the person who is ruling over the United States.  Does that change anything?  I think it should.  Let’s highlight some of the attributes that the President of the United States should have.  We are not getting political, this is written specifically for the person who is ruling the country in which we live.  If we lived in Italy it would be for the Prime Minister etc.   As we see that elections are taking place all over Europe we need to remember that this psalm points out to who one should vote for in Holland, and in France and in any country which elects its leaders.  

I hope you know what I’m going to point out…  Look at vss.1-2, 4, 12-14.  What is the theme, and I would argue the primary responsibility, of the king?  What is the purpose of the government as a whole if we take this psalm at face value and use it to construct a government of which God would be proud.  Its primary responsibility is to rule in righteousness, look to the poor with justice (ie in a positive light), defend the cause of the poor, deliver the needy, deliver the needy (yes, I know that I repeated that), the poor, those who have no helper, has pity upon the weak and needy, saves the lives of the needy, redeems their life from oppression.  In the end, look at vs. 14, the most needy are precious in the sight of the government, in the sight of the king, in the sight of whoever is ruling the land.  That is the way God wants it to be according to this psalm.  I’m going to agree with that.

I’m not sure we have seen a Psalm which is as celebratory as this one when it comes to giving thanks to God in the most unchained way possible.  We will see something similar in Psalm 150 which for me is the uber praise psalm, but this psalm encourages us to praise God with the harp, the lyre, with our voices.  There is also shouting for joy which is to take place.  I know all of the preceding verses in this psalm deal with a request for protection because of all the evil ones who continue to surround and harass this “poor” author.  Okay, it is at this point that maybe we have heard enough laments so it is so incredibly refreshing that we hear him go absolutely ballistic, in a good way, about the love of the Lord.  

So, many of you know that for me March is the happiest time of the year.  I know that we are in Lent, but maybe, just maybe, that is some contributing factor to why I dive so deeply into March Madness.  Please find attached a bracket.  If you want to be a part of our yearly March Madness here at First Presbyterian fill it out and either put it in my box at church or email me a scanned copy.  It is not for the thin skinned, I tend to be somewhat competitive and I will give “feedback” throughout the tourney to all those who have participated.  I hope you will.

ncaam_bracket 2017