Year: 2017

Would you believe that I had plans to take my computer home last night and produce the blog after my daughter’s basketball game?  They ended up winning by 44 and it was so exciting that I completely forgot.  I know, a lame excuse, but it is all I have.  I believe this is the first time in our 90+90+150 days that I forgot to post on a day.  Hang in there, it will probably happen again.  Now on to Psalm 26.

You find many psalms where the author, and let’s say that it is David, raises up his own righteousness and beseeches God to not count him in the number of those who will be judged negatively.  He lists his positive attributes almost as reasons for why he should be seen as righteous.  One of our fundamental beliefs as Protestants is what Paul tells us in Romans 3:23 which reminds us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  Many people go through life trying to do more than enough in order to compensate for that sin.  Our actions and being good is often thought of as a way to make ourselves worthy before God.

But the simple truth is that we cannot do enough, ever, to compensate for our sin.  There is simply nothing that we can do to make up the gap that exists between us and God, the gap created by our unfaithfulness and constant sin.  So since it is out of our hands, it is not helpful for us to list the good things that we have done.  The breech has been filled, the gap between us and God, by the blood of Jesus and his actions.  Nothing we have done or can do will ever be able to compensate for the undoing of our sin.  Only Jesus can do it, and he has.

So when we get to vs.6 and the author states that he washes his hands in innocence and he walks around the altar, we need to understand that there was an actual act which took place which allows him to say this.  Once a year a lamb was sacrificed upon the altar and as a result the people’s sins were forgiven and they were able to be washed clean by the blood of the lamb.  Again, in the Old Testament, this had to take place once a year and what David describes here in vs.6 is that shedding of the blood in which the hands would be washed clean.  During this the people would walk around the altar as a liturgical act which contributed to the forgiveness of sins.

As a result David can write vss.7 and 8 praising God for what God has done.  God has forgiven him.  The resulting expression is one of extolling the beauty and the joy of being in the house of God.  Today I want you to rest assured of your salvation in Jesus which does not come about by your actions, but rather by the blood of Jesus which was shed up on the cross.  Praise be to God!

So when the psalmist asks in vs. 7 “do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions”, I wonder where that takes you and what memories it just might elicit?  I have a number of memories of my youth that I am so grateful that the Lord does not remember and has cancelled them completely out of his memory bank.  Now, those are sins that I committed and times that I was unwise and young and foolish.  It is those times that I am grateful that according to God’s steadfast love He remembers me.

But what about those times that we have been transgressed against and we have a hard time forgiving ourselves for that transgression even if we were the victims.  I don’t want to speak on behalf of anyone because personally I have not been subjected to any traumatic experiences as a youth where I was the victim of a heinous crime. I think of the many women to whom I minister who have had life changing experiences when they were young and violated in a variety of ways.  These are not in any way the “sins” of their youth, but they have a hard time shaking off that experience as something that wasn’t partly their fault.  It is in those moments of counseling that I want to raise this psalm and remind them that they are the victim and victims do not in any way contribute to the crime and the horror to which they are subjected.  But it is hard to get that across.  I don’t raise this psalm to them because those life changing moments are not moments of their sin but rather moments when they were subjected to someone else’s sin.

If we go back to verses 1 and 2 these would be verses more appropriate to those who have suffered in this way.  The psalmist lifts up their soul.  Let’s pretend that this psalm was written by a woman and read it again and see if it sounds different to you.  When she says I lift up my soul, I can see the look in her eyes of desperation as she reaches out for help.  The Psalmist reinforces that it is in God that she trusts and asks that she not be put to shame or that her enemies not be allowed to be over her.  

Jump to vs.9 and still see the writer as a woman who is trying to climb her way out of a painfully tragic situation in her past.  God does lead the way of the humble.  Jump to vs.16 and you will find more words of comfort, turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted.  Relieve the troubles of my heart and bring me out of my distress.  I do not think that people in this situation need to ask God to forgive them of their sin as vs.18 states.  Hear me out on this one.  We all need to be forgiven of our sin, yes, absolutely.  But when you are struggling with an event and an occurrence in your life to which you have been subjected it is my experience that more often than not you feel as if you have had a hand in that event to the point where you feel like it is your sin, your fault.  That is something that I am always trying to eradicate.

Until an individual is able to see their worth in the eyes of God no matter what they have been through, they will almost always define themselves through the eyes of whomever has the most pull in their lives.  Those who live in situations of abuse and trauma will often identify themselves through the eyes of the person who is causing that abuse and trauma.  I don’t know why these thoughts came to me while reading this psalm, but they do.  If you know someone who has been through these types of experiences have them read psalm 25.  

I can’t help but think of the hymn: “Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates” as we read this psalm.  In case you don’t know which hymn it is here is a clip to refresh your memory. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyMXq-1hvC8

It is a classic Advent hymn, just like this is a classic Advent psalm.  The Advent part of it is found in vs.7-10 where we find an invitation to the King of Glory to come in.  There is an anticipation that this King of glory is coming and He is coming soon.  

I just visited John Faltin.  He is walking along with Cheryl and his family in that valley of which Psalm 23:4 speaks.  He said he is ready for what comes next, and we believe that what comes next is a judgment from God who declares us Not Guilty!  Because the King of glory, Jesus himself, came and died and rose from the grave, he has made us innocent and without blemish, just as He was when He was upon this earth.  Our hope is found in vs.5 of this psalm that we will indeed receive vindication from the God of our salvation.

When we speak about Advent, which has already come and gone and now we have Lent on our horizon, we speak about the certainty that Jesus will come again.  The coming of the King of glory is something we ought to anticipate and believe that it is actually going to happen.  The second coming of Jesus is a part of our belief system and it provides us with an understanding that there will be a new heaven and a new earth when Jesus comes back.  It is paired with the promise that we have in Scripture that when we die we will also be given a new body.  We can find that in I Corinthians 15.  Read it sometime.

Do you know this Psalm by heart?  I would encourage you over this day to read it more than just once.  Read it and try to memorize it and maybe this Sunday we will say it together to see if it stayed with us.  What a psalm, and it is one that is used consistently in so many different contexts.  But the majority of the time that I use this psalm happens to be in contexts where there is death or imminent death.  It isn’t just the line in vs.4 that brings that context to mind, but the entire psalm and its assurance that the Lord is our shepherd.

It is interesting to analyze this psalm and see what the shepherd does for the sheep.  The first thing that he does is make the sheep lie down in green pastures.  God makes us take a break at times.  There are so many times in our lives when we just need to take a break, but don’t.  It is in those times that sometimes things go wrong with our bodies and we are forced to take a break.  I don’t want to make that direct connection, but it often works for me in describing it to those who are forced to take that break because their body has just given out.  The shepherd makes us lie down in green pastures, he doesn’t give us a choice, especially if we are not wanting to take that break.

We are lead to water, but not forced to drink.  We are lead to the correct paths, but not forced to take them.  There is the presence of the Lord, in a staff and rod, to comfort me when I walk through dangerous times and moments in my life when my life just might be required.  This psalm just allows us to feel that we are never, ever, alone in whatever situation we just might find in life.  It is iconic because it provides the type of scenes which do provide comfort and peace.  Let’s see if we can memorize it.

For this Psalm you have to turn to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 27 and you will find some very close parallel verses.  Now, we know that Psalm 22 came before Matthew was ever written and hundreds of years before Jesus walked upon the earth.  But when you read that chapter you can absolutely tell that Jesus lived his life in such a way that it reflected what the psalmist was going through.  Let’s look at some of the Scriptures which are parallel.  

Starting from the very first verse we read the words: “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?”  These are the very same words that Jesus said on the cross in vs.46.  When you look at vs. 6 you read about people who mocked him and say why isn’t he able to to be rescued from the Lord, the one whom he says is looking out for him.  Just about the same words which we hear in vs.42 where the people mock Jesus and say: “He saved others why can’t he save himself?”  

If you look at vs.18 you read about the enemies of the psalmist casting lots for his clothing and dividing his clothing among them.  We read the same thing in vs.35 of chapter 27 in Matthew where the soldiers who had crucified him cast lots for his clothing.  There are incredible parallels between this psalm of David and our Savior’s crucifixion.  I guess the only difference is that the Psalmist praises God for saving him from his enemies.  Our Savior, however, was crucified and died on the cross.  But that was what we needed in order for our sins to be forgiven.  Great parallels.  

Just got back from a weekend with our elders and deacons.  It was a great retreat.  We looked at this psalm this morning.  I put together some questions that I thought might be relevant for what is happening in the world around us.  Here they are, feel free to follow the study if you would like:  

1.  Read Psalm 21

2.  Who would the king be in our current age and in our current climate?  The obvious answer a day away from the inauguration is that the king for our country right now would be Donald Trump.

3.  How does Romans 13:1-7 work together with this verse?  We are called, as vs. 7 states, to do good in respect to the government which rules over us.  We pointed out that this would be the case both for the administration before this one and the current administration.  We figured that would cover every person in the room.  No matter who is in charge we are called to do good.

4.  How does Micah 6:8 work together with this verse?  The question we can extract from the question above is: “What is the good that we are called to do?”  Micah in vs.8 says the following: “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the  Lord  require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”  There are three things which we could define as good and which we ought to do in respect to the government which is over us – 1) do justice, 2) love kindness, 3) walk humbly with our God.  This would have been a well understood definition in Paul’s day of what “doing good” entailed.

5.  In what ways can we encourage unity within the body within a divided country?  We reflected upon the fact that First Presbyterian in this time and in this place seems pretty united and there is a momentum which is taking us forward.  A question was raised, does lack of conflict mean that we are united?  An answer was given, no, but the ability even in the midst of our differences to focus on kingdom work and not our differences allows me to say that there just might be unity.  We felt that our unity could potentially be a strong witness for our community in as far as how do people who aren’t on the same page politically still be able to do something productive and even life giving.

6.  Is this a conversation that should take place within a church or is it simply too caustic to even touch?  There was a common consensus that topics of political discord could be raised in the church but so much care had to be given as to how they are raised.  An example that we used is the large number of refugees who are coming into Lancaster County through Church World Service.  On paper this would be a tremendously controversial topic.  But in the church we fully recognize that it would fall under Micah’s understanding of doing good.  I was actually surprised that we seemed to be able to come to a consensus on that.  We can address our responsibilities to other people that we may have if we can do it in an apolitical way.

7.  How did Jesus address these issues? (Look at Matthew 22:15-22, John 18:33-38)  In a like manner an answer was given that Jesus seemed to be, on paper at least, apolitical and did not speak against the status quo forcefully, in these Scriptures at least.  Should we pay taxes?  Sure, go ahead, give to Caesar that which is Caesar’s and to God that which is God’s.  Not a strongly worded political statement which would shake up the empire.  Are you a king?  Sure, if you want to call me a king you can, but I’m not calling myself a king and my kingdom isn’t of this world anyway.  Again, a potentially apolitical statement which addressed a very politically charged topic.

All of this from Psalm 21 which speaks very directly to the king and a prayer of blessing and protection on the king and on the nation.  I pray we can ask the same for our “king” even as we seek to ensure that the good which Scripture requires us to do, gets done.

On this day of the inauguration some would see it as somewhat fitting that we hear a psalm of victory.  We could focus on vs.7 which states that some place their trust in their military might, but we will take our stand on the Lord Jesus Christ.  Now, I don’t want that last statement to come across as a reactionary fundamentalist approach which some may have that implies that all I care about is my relationship with Jesus and anything else is insignificant.  I care about those things that Jesus cares about.  What are those things?

Jesus speaks more about the kingdom of God than anything else and a close second is what we do with our finances.  Look at Matthew 25:31-46 and you see what is important to our Savior: feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, showing hospitality to an immigrant or stranger, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, visiting those in prison.  We can never imagine that all Jesus cares about is our relationship with him.

That is absolutely where it starts but many of us see that as the beginning and the ending.  It is not, it is only a beginning.  A relationship with Jesus needs to lead to action in Jesus’ name.  When the psalmist prays for help from the Lord in the midst of his sanctuary, it is a legitimate cry for help that comes from a life lived where help has been needed.  The prayer is that God would fulfill all of our plans.  Once again, our plans ought to be the Lord’s plans.  They should not diverge.  What are the Lord’s plans?  See above and Matthew 25 and repeat.  It is not complicated at all.  We should be able to see in this Psalm a simple assurance that is not quid pro quo (I follow God’s will and God will protect me).  But rather just an assurance that God is absolutely going to protect us and keep us.

Every single Sunday we hear the words of Psalm 19:14.  Do you recognize them and can you identify when in the service those words are spoken?  My style is normally I say some words before I read the second Scripture and then I pray and the prayer that I pray comes directly from that verse.  I tend to switch it up a little bit and it could sound something like this: “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of all of our hearts be worthy and acceptable in your sight, for you are our rock and our redeemer.  Amen.”  The Psalmist includes it at the end of his Psalm, I like to put it in the beginning so that at least the intention is that God is directing and guiding the words that I am saying and that what I will say will be worthy and acceptable in the sight of God.  I know, that is a lot to ask, but I’m not going to stop asking it.

Psalm 19 is a well known psalm and it contains some of the most precious phrases that we have in all of Scripture.  We have all heard the words: “The heavens are telling the glory of God.”  It is real similar to what we read in Romans 1:20 which tells us: “Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made.”  The heavens proclaim God’s handiwork.  

I always go back to the same scene when I think of the most amazing natural beauty that I have ever seen.  It was Spring Break of 1990 and I was studying in Rome and I had a Eurail pass.  I travelled to Figueira da Foz, Portugal and on the way stopped along the French Riviera, Barcelona, and then on the way back I stopped in what was the quaint little town of Interlaken, Switzerland.  I got off the train station with no plans, it was about 10 in the morning and I had been on a train for close to 3 days now, and I looked over beyond the tracks and see a tiny tower looming up on a hill in the midst of the Swiss Alps.  

I made my way to the tower, not knowing that it was taking me away from the town of Interlaken which I never did see on that trip, and arrived at a cemetery which was gated and the tower rose straight up at least 5 stories.  I noticed that it was an easy gate to open, even if it was locked, and went into the cemetery, walked inside this tower which could not have been larger than a 6×6 tower around but probably 40 or more feet in the air.  I’m not sure if that is architecturally possible, but it went way, way up there and it was super, super skinny.  Inside there were rungs, like telephone pole rungs, and so I climbed up the tower which was completely open at the top.  It was skinny enough that as I was climbing my back would periodically brush against the other side of the tower.

When got to the top I propped myself from inside to the outside of the tower and precariously sat down on what would have been similar to a cinder block diameter all around the tower.  I felt very unstable and was not able to look out for a few moments.  But when I did…when I did, it was breathtaking.  I could not breathe it was so beautiful.  There I was on the top of a hill in the Swiss Alps on the top of a structure that took me to a place where I could literally see eagles soaring below me.  Off in the distance there were the two lakes from which Interlaken gets its name.  I could see pastures in the distance and her the cowbells.  The heavens were proclaiming God’s handiwork.  I could palpably feel the presence of the Lord, which was a good thing because I thought I was going to die I was so high up.

The Psalmist reminds us in this psalm not only of the evidence of God’s presence and work in the world around us, but also that God is rooting for us to follow his commandments so that we can live lives which reflect His desires and His presence.  It is simply a great all around Psalm.  Think back of a time when you felt the presence of the Lord in your life that it very nearly took your breath away.

Here’s another Shane arrangement.  But the one that I remember the most growing up is this one:

My first thought is that this would be a great psalm for our soldiers going into battle.  Not only does it speak of God protecting and keeping them safe in His refuge, but he also speaks about God giving them the victory.  It almost feels like a rallying cry of a general as he gathers his troops for the battle ahead.  With Antonio Brown live streaming the victory speech of Tomlin, it places me squarely into that context of a leader encouraging and talking up his troops as they face an uncertain future.  Or, it could also be an encouraging speech by a general as they have just vanquished the foe.

It is a longer psalm and I hope you didn’t lose interest.  It is quite a powerful psalm and like the Shane song, which I love by the way, it goes through shifts and twists and turns.  It gets really riled up in the middle of the psalm as we hear about God’s power and smoke coming out of this nostrils.  It scares the daylight out of you.  But that’s what you want when you are going into battle.  I played basketball in college and it is laughable and maybe even insulting to our soldiers if I even try to use that as an example, but it is all I know, so I’m going to use it fully realizing that it doesn’t even  come close to what our brave men and women experience.  I’ll never forget my high school coach who really laid into us because we were by far the best team in the conference and a team was beating us at halftime that didn’t even deserve to be in the same gym.  Let me just say that what Tomlin said was tame to what we were subjected to.  But we went out and beat the team by 40 points.  

Okay, Elliott Smith just walked into my office.  He is a dear brother from college who is following this challenge in Philadelphia.  Of all things he just said that the challenge has proven to be helpful to him.  It just made my year and the year has just started.  Back to the Psalm.

This Psalm also contains another song which I learned growing up which is this one, found on vs.46.  

I think I’ll leave it there.  Enough said.

I do want to draw your attention to Dot Rineer’s comment from yesterday’s blog.  If you don’t know how to get to the comments on the blogs you can find them below my post in very light blue letters.  You’ll see them.  Just about every day someone has commented on a blog.  She introduced me to Shane and Shane who have put out songs on some of the Psalms.  Yesterday’s Psalm 16 can be found here. 

It might be worth to see if they have one for every day.  I just looked it up, I don’t see a version of Psalm 17.  

So, what is Psalm 17 about?  It does remind me of someone who is running full steam through a dense forest crying out to the Lord for help.  But what I noticed just now is giving me goose bumps.  Look at vs. 8 and we find the phrase: “guard me as the apple of the eye.”  Shakespeare has made that phrase famous for modern day readers in his A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  This isn’t the only place in the Bible where we find that term.  We see it in Deuteronomy 32:10, Proverbs 7:2, Lamentations 2:18, Zechariah 2:8.  In the Hebrew the phrase is literally:  ‘iyshown ‘ayin (אישון עין) which means “little man of the eye”.  The thought is that this refers to a person seeing himself as a reflection in the eyes of another person.  

So, if we are asking God to consider us as his reflection, what does that mean?  Who remembers Genesis 1:26 where God says that he will make us in his own image?  Doesn’t that mean the same as God saying that he will make us as the apple of his eye?  When the psalmist asks God to consider him as the apple of his eye, it is almost as if he is trying to remind God that, hey, do you remember, you said that I was made in your image so protect me as if I were a little you.  What a great image of us being the little man or woman that God created to be just like him.  

God loves us so much that he created us to be just like him.  We are to reflect his presence.  This psalmist knew this well which is why he keeps referring back to what God has done in his life and how God has indeed protected him consistently and without fail.  I want you to remember today that you are the little man or woman of God’s eye.  The psalm ends again with that same reference. The author states that when I awake I will behold your likeness.  Let’s not go into an egotistical approach, but isn’t this just another way of saying that every morning we can look in the mirror and say: God, you have made me to face today.  God, you have made me for today.  God, you love me so much that you have allowed me to have another day.  When we look at our lives we ought to see the likeness of God in action.  

Is it too much to say that we ought to have the sense of worth and value that God has first ascribed to us when he made us?  I went to LCBC on this past Saturday with our confirmation class and the kids heard and remembered the message of pastor Ashcraft.  God loves you and values you.  Simple, nothing complicated.  God considers you a work of art.  We don’t see ourselves that way, but we ought to.  God sees us that way.  God made us to reflect his image and to be like him, that is how much he loves us.