Psalm 40: Mountain Top Moments

 

As I roamed the ruins beside San Francisco el Grande Church in Antigua, Guatemala, on a sunny morning, I decided to climb a set of stairs. By the time I reached the top of the stairs I was short of breath from the heat and the climb as I stepped into a panorama that took what remained of my breath away. Mountains on three sides and the ruins of the church on the remaining side, and I thought, God, you are too wonderful!

Such are the words of the psalmist. Our God is too wonderful for our comprehension!

“I waited and waited,” the writer of Psalm 40 begins. He has been experiencing a time of trial and wonders, will it ever end. We here, in Michigan, in the midst of a seemingly endless winter might well ask, will spring ever arrive? What does it mean to wait patiently for God?

Psalm 39 - Why Does Life Have to be so Hard?

God, why does life have to be so hard? I know my sinfulness, you know it too—after all you created me. If you know my nature then why be so harsh when I act in accord with that nature; when I behave in ways that are all too human? Remember, I am but a passing guest in this world we call life. Remember the laws of hospitality. Treat me as befitting a guest. Extend your gracious hospitality to me, not your angry looks, or else how can anyone bear this life? – Random reflections on Psalm 39

As the Christian season of Lent begins, I am reminded of the phrase, “Remember man, that thou art dust and to dust you shall return,” as ashes are placed on foreheads. Ashes are a reminder of our mortality. We come from dust and will return to dust, but, oh, there is so much more to life than that. Still it is fitting to reflect on where we came from and where we are going now and then.

Psalm 38: Whatever Happened to Guilt

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book, Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible, tell us:  “If we want to read and to pray the prayers of the Bible and especially the Psalms, therefore, we must not ask first what they have to do with us, but what they have to do with Jesus Christ.  We must ask how we can understand the Psalms as God’s Word, and then we shall be able to pray them. It does not depend, therefore, on whether the Psalms express adequately that which we feel at a given moment in our heart. If we are to pray aright, perhaps it is quite necessary that we pray contrary to our own heart. Not what we want to pray is important, but what God wants us to pray . . . The richness of the Word of God ought to determine our prayer, not the poverty of our heart.” (pp. 14-15) 

I was struck by this when reading Psalm 38. What does this psalm have to do with me, I asked myself. The psalm is about someone afflicted with terrible guilt over a wrong-doing. If written by David, this would be appropriate. He slept with another man’s wife then arranged for her husband to be killed in battle. Certainly this is a sin worthy of this psalm.

Psalm 37 - Wait for the Lord

Waiting is a routine part of life. We are always waiting for something or someone, and yet, for all the waiting we do, most of us do it poorly. We are in a hurry, easily frustrated and can burst into anger when we have to wait more than a minute for a download of a video from u-tube.

Our psalmist for today is older and wiser. His years in life have taught him the value of waiting on the Lord, “Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him,” (7a) “Wait for the Lord and keep to his way.” (34a) Evil may appear at times to triumph but this triumph is short-lived, “For the wicked shall be cut off; but those who wait for the Lord shall possess the land.” (9)

Psalm 36 - A Question of Evil

From whence comes our fascination with serial killers? Every week the TV series, Criminal Minds, gives us yet another psychopathic killer, each competing with the last weeks to be even more devious and deadly. And now with the addition of the TV series, The Following, we have the “ultra” super villain, one who not only kills, but actively recruits followers to widen his web of destruction. Once the head is chopped off, hundreds of off-spring will pop up like terrorist cells to ensure his legacy continues. What is up with this? Why this fascination with evil?

When we think of psychopaths our minds go naturally to these killers, yet their numbers are few and far between despite what TV might lead us to believe. There are far more psychopaths living among us who many never physically harm anyone yet they leave a path of destruction in their wake. A psychopath is someone with no conscience who feels no empathy for others. As Webster tells us, a psychopath is “a person who engages in antisocial behavior and exhibits a pervasive disregard for the rights, feelings, and safety of others.” If they are caught and made to pay for their crimes, they feel no remorse for the pain they caused others.

Psalm 35 - A Very Human Psalm

In contrast to last week’s psalm wherein the writer instructs us to bless the Lord at all times, Psalm 35 shows no such magnanimity. Unlike Psalm 34 which is all about God, this one is all about me, the writer! It is a personal appeal for deliverance from one who is being falsely accused and plotted against. Written in three sections, each part ends with words of thanksgiving (vs. 9-10, 18, 28). It could be three separate incidents involving one person, or a composite of accounts by three different authors.

In the first, powerful foes plot against the life and property of the writer who calls upon God to come to his assistance. He asks God to do battle for him, “Take hold of shield and buckler . . . Draw the spear and javelin.” (2-3)

In the second section the enemies are former friends who have turned against the writer. “They requite me evil for good.” (12) When they were sick the psalmist wore sackcloth, fasted and prayed for them, “as though I grieved for my friend or brother.” (14) Now that he is in trouble they mock and slander him, “they impiously mocked more and more, gnashing at me with their teeth (a Biblical gesture of scorn).” (16) How much more hurtful is the betrayal by a friend. We expect our friends to be on our side.

Psalm 34 – “He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.”

Anyone who watches the TV series Bones, knows that you can learn a lot about a person by studying their bones. As someone who has been diagnosed with osteoporosis, I take bone health seriously. Is it any wonder that I found myself drawn to verse 20 of Psalm 34: “He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.” I’ve been reflecting on this for months as I’ve been preparing to start blogging about the Psalms again. What a wonderful promise to those who believe, but what does it mean?

Psalm 34 is another acrostic psalm, where each line begins with another letter of the alphabet. The first section, vs. 1-10, is full of praise of God. “I will bless the Lord at all times,” the psalmist tells us, not just when it is convenient or when life is going our way. “His praise shall be ever in my mouth.” It’s a reminder of our need to give praise at all times, even when it is hard. We can learn a lot about this from Job who praises God even when he is struggling with despair (Job 1:21 "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord!").