In you, LORD, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame. – Psalm 71:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 7, 2013): Psalm 71

We remember, although admittedly not always accurately. I am continually amazed at the outstanding ability we seem to possess to rewrite our own histories. And we seem to have the ability to rewrite history in both directions. Nostalgically we remember some of the rough times of life better than they really were. There is a persistent belief in our culture that yesterday was much better than today, but that belief seems to be without objective proof. But we also rewrite history in the other direction. Or maybe we selectively remember the times of success differently. We run out of confidence in our own abilities – and God’s providence – because we have not remembered some of the good times in life accurately – and we are afraid that they will never occur again. Often we seem to have forgotten the way that God has moved in our lives in the past, so we have no confidence that he will move again in the future – or in our present - turning our challenging situations into more positive ones.

This Psalm is a prayer. The Psalm has no ascription, but it is believed to have been written by David late in life. And David starts off the Psalm with an act of remembering. David remembers all of the times during his life that he had taken refuge in God, and the way that God had moved in response to David’s pleas. Specifically he was probably remembering those times when he had been physically on the run and had no refuge in sight. It was the times that he had been running from Saul or from his son Absalom - the times when he was in danger and he needed refuge. David remembers how God had come through for him in those situations.

And because David remembered what God had done, he could also be assured of the way that God would move in the future – and part of that confidence was in a reliance on God about how he would be remembered after he was gone. The same God who had taken care of him in life would be able to take care of him in death. This was something of which David could be sure.      

David knew the act of remembering was important because it was tied directly to his confidence in what God could do now – and in the future. The only way that any of us can live with the confidence that we need in life is if we remember accurately past – both the things we have done and what god has done in our defence.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 72

Why gaze in envy, O rugged mountains, at the mountain where God chooses to reign, where the LORD himself will dwell forever? – Psalm 68:16

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 6, 2013): Psalm 68

We have an interesting phrase that we use in our culture. The phrase is this – they are rich, but you would never know it. And the phrase is usually used with great respect. It is not that we look down on these people who seem to not use their money to the point where their wealth is obvious. We seem to like people who are like that. And I think the reason for that is that for those of us who do not have a lot money, there exists this idea (probably false) that those that have money are somehow not like us. So with the few moneyed people in our circle of influence who live the same way that we do, to us this is proof that, deep down, we really are all the same. We share the very same struggles and joys that this life brings. They are like us – and we can actually be in community with them.

So it follows, then, that in the Christmas story, we often seem to make a big deal about this Jesus, the very Son and heir of God, who chooses to be born in a barn rather than in a palace. We understand in that story that God deserved much more than the absolute best that we had to give to him. But he chose to be just like us - to be born to working class parents that had no strings that they could pull to get special favors, they were not famous in any way and they had no reservoir of anything available to them when life dealt a surprise to them. It was this ordinariness that resulted in Jesus birth in a barn – and in that birth he became like us.

But the idea of God becoming like us is actually an ancient idea. So it is with this thought in mind that David looks at the mountain of Bashan. The mountain that David is speaking of was probably Mount Hermon, a mountain that was on the border of Bashan in the North. Mount Hermon is actually a mountain cluster, a mountain that has three distinct summits all of about the same height. Mount Hermon is high and rugged and snow covered. Mount Hermon dominates the surrounding area. The mountain is regal and majestic. It is a mountain that would be deserving of God (not to mention that with three peaks Mount Bashan would have made a great illustration of the idea of the Trinity.)

Yet, the reality is that Mount Bashan is God’s mountain only because God created the mountain – it is not the mountain that God has chosen for his dwelling place. For his dwelling place he chose a much more modest place – Mount Zion. Mount Zion, compared to Mount Bashan, would be more of a hill. All the things that Mount Bashan was, Mount Zion was not. And yet, that is the place that God chose as his dwelling place. He gave up the high and regal for something much more plain. God passes on the special so that he can inhabit the ordinary – and what that should teach us is that we are never closer to God than we are in the ordinary moments of this life.      

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 72

... who stilled the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the turmoil of the nations. – Psalm 65:7

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 5, 2013): Psalm 65

I recently listened to a speaker spout off about the lack of evidence for global warning. Unfortunately, the man speaking had a very public audience and absolutely no scientific knowledge. His point was that we do not know definitively that the current global temperature increase is not part of a regular cycle of temperature change happening on the planet. And he is right, we do not know that. But we also do not know definitively that the current temperature change is not of our doing. What we do know definitively is that the human race is causing irreparable harm to the planet, and temperature change is quite probably part of that damage. And we need to understand that.

The Christian response to the ecological damage of the planet has been disappointing. Too often it would seem that we have seen the planet as a consumable designed to be used up by us. The argument is that God placed all of these things here for us to use. That he created the planet perfectly for us. God’s control of the waves is but one of the elements that makes life possible on the planet. If the moon were closer to the earth, the tides would rip the planet apart. Destruction of the polar icecaps could also increase the volatility of the seas. As God designed the planet, all of these things are under his control. And because they are under his control, life is possible. But the Christian understanding also seems to be that because God has set them up in their current formation, nothing that man could ever do would upset the balance.

But God also gave us the ability to make choices. Some of the choices that we make are uninformed because we do not know - but not all of our choices fall into the category. And sometimes the ignorant choices that we make are because we choose not to know – and that is just not acceptable.

Adam was placed in the Garden of Eden to take care of it. He was the first ecologist, but all of the people that followed were to take up the task. And we have failed in that task – we have failed to be the stewards of all that God created just for us. The only real questions are how bad the damage is and is there anything that we can do to recover? And I think it is time for the church to take the lead in the protection of the planet rather than arguing over what we want to do with it. It is time to take our responsibility as stewards of this world seriously and not assume that we are unable to upset the balance – because that just might be the first calling God has placed on any of our hearts.      

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 68

Lowborn men are but a breath, the highborn are but a lie; if weighed on a balance, they are nothing; together they are only a breath. – Psalm 62:9

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 4, 2013): Psalm 62

Last week I attended a conference and, as usual, I find two groups of people that attend these functions. The first are those that have something to say and feel that people should listen to them. With this group of people, it is never about the exchange of stories. It is always about their ability to tell you their story. And once the story has been told, their ears close and they go off to look for places where they can tell their story one more time.

The second group of people are the ones that deep down really do not believe that anything that they may have to say is of any consequence to anyone. So they are generally the ones that sit quietly and listen to the first group. But the problem is that with every story that the first group tells them, the gap widens – and the misconception that the second group does not have a story worthy of being told becomes more and more entrenched inside of them. And so the second group starts to engage in a battle of significance - and with each fight find the misconception just becomes more underscored.

David writes that the “lowborn are but as breath.” This seems to be a thought that kings have had for centuries. Those of low status were also ones born without significance. And, therefore, traditionally the kings spent very little time considering the challenges of those born without status. Some national religions entrenched the idea, asserting that those born without status had stumbled in a former life and now were paying penance for their sin. So for David to speak of the worthlessness of the low born would not have been a surprise to anyone. But David does not stop there. He goes on to say that the lives of the highborn are but lie. The image here is that the lives of the lowborn are but a vapor, one which exists and can be seen for the moment, but then quickly disappears. But the highborn are deluding themselves that that is not their reality – that their reality is somehow more substantive. And David asserts that this is not the truth. In fact, if both the lives of the lowborn and those of the highborn were placed on a scale – with nothing on the other side – the scale would not move. In some way, all of our stories are simply meaningless.

For the Christian, our stories only begin to take significance when we begin to be transformed into the image of Christ - when we start to take on his form, leaving judgment and status behind, and reaching out to each other in love. In fact, our lives may be without substance, but the weight of our love would crush any scale.

In our world, love is the only story that needs to be told – and the only story that gives to our lives any meaning. And when we come to the end of this life, the only question that we need to ask is this one - “how well did we love?”   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 65

From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. – Psalm 61:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 3, 2013): Psalm 61

I am a bit of a home body. In fact, there is no place I would rather be than home. I think my fantasy might be being able to travel around the world without leaving the comforts and confines of my house. There are a lot of things that I would love to see – and a lot of places that I would love to go – if I could just take the familiar things with me. And I do not think that I am alone. That one simple idea might be the reason why I see so many motor homes on the road everywhere I go – they give to us the privilege of going out and seeing the world – and seeking adventure - without ever leaving home.

David says he call out to God “from the ends of the earth.” But for a Jew that phrase simply could mean anywhere away from Israel. For David, anyplace on the other side of the Jordan River would have been the ends of the earth – it was simply away from home. And when David found himself away from home, he was in anguish. The reality was that as long as David was separated from his home territory he also felt separated from his God. And in a few generations David’s feeling of anguish and separation would be shared by the entire nation of Israel as they are forced into exile in Babylon - in those days a new generation would feel the truth in David’s words - then it would seem that the entire nation was being carried “to the ends of the earth.”

So David, clutched in the anguish of being sick away from home, cries out to God for the rock that was too high for him to climb in his own strength. For ancient Israel, that Rock was a symbol of the love and the protection of God; it was the image of security, serenity, and safety that David and a nation found in the simple act of belief in the one true God.

For Christian Church, our Rock that is higher than we can climb is Jesus. It is in him that we find the security that we need in the world in which we have to live.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 62

... that will not heed the tune of the charmer, however skillful the enchanter may be. – Psalm 58:5

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 2, 2013): Psalm 58

The Pied Piper of Hamelin is a story about a piper (a man who plays some sort of musical pipe) who lures a group of children away from the city of Hamelin in Germany never to be seen again. In one of its many versions of the story, the Piper was someone who was skilled at leading rats away from the city using his music. In the Middle Ages, rats were a significant problem, not just because there were a lot of them and they were a pest – but they were also the carriers of disease and the reason for the many plagues that infested this period in time. So, in this version of the story, the Pied Piper is actually a necessity – the people need him. But in the tale of the Pied Piper, the townsfolk refuse to pay the Piper (and yes, this is where the phrase “paying the piper” comes from) and the Piper takes his revenge on the town by turning his music on the children. The story actually would seem to have a dual moral. The first is that bad things will happen if we refuse to pay our debts (somehow, we all have to pay the piper.) But there is a second moral warning within the pages of the story, and that warning is that it is dangerous to be influenced by other people.

For our Western culture, we have taken this second moral and raised it to impossible heights. We take pride in the fact that we are independent – which really simply means beyond influence. We have trained ourselves and our kids to be deaf to the music of the piper – to be not influenced by others around us. Often we explain this by simply saying that we are a people who make our own decisions. And this brings us into direct conflict with the Bible story.

The Biblical story is based on the idea that we should live in community – and be influenced by community. We are told within its pages that it is good to bring up our children in the Lord – and that means that we as parents should make the commitment to be an influence for God on our kids. Repeatedly we see the conversion experience of the Bible being a community experience - because the community was committed to the influence  of each other.

Part of our problem is that our starting point is evil. If we become the independent person that we seem to believe that we need to be, then we will be forever evil because we will be the only influence on our life that we will ever know. The psalmist sees the plight of men and he recognizes that what we really need is a reverse Pied Piper – each one of us needs the Piper that will come and lead us into good. And that the real difference between people that are committed to the good that they can do and people who do evil is that the ones who do evil are deaf to the charmer – the good piper. In the imagery of the psalmist, they are like the adder snake – which because it is deaf cannot be charmed and led into good.      

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 61

But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend ... Psalm 55:13

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 1, 2013): Psalm 55

Have you ever wondered why former lovers have such a problem just being friends? It seems that the journey away from the one that we used to love is not a journey from love to less love or from love to like – it is a journey that very quickly traverses the distance between love and hate. It almost makes us really believe that love and hate live only a hairsbreadth away from each other.

But that is really not true. The problem is that we allow those that we love inside of our defenses – over time we gradually remove the walls that we have built up around us. But that makes us vulnerable – those we have let within our walls can hurt us like no enemy on earth. The pain is incredible – and very real. To be honest, while the pain is real, I am not sure that the hate we seem to grow into is real. If we are truthful with ourselves, we have to admit that in the open moments of our life we long for the restoration of the relationship we once had with them. But we also know that we could never allow them behind our walls again – never allow them to return to the place where love and the ability to inflict pain exist as close partners in a weird dance of their own making.

Theologians have long argued about the companion and close friend David mentions in Psalm 55. Some want to argue that the man really does not exist in the mind of David. He is no more than an invention created for the poetry and the message that David is drawn to write. But a more logical conclusion is that, once more, we are revisiting the rebellion of Absalom and the betrayal at the hands of Ahithophel. The return to that event should not be surprising; the betrayal of David by the one who was a close advisor caused pain to David, but his relationships with both Absalom and Ahithophel were so close and intense that they would never be totally dismissed; his love for the two men meant that Absalom and Ahithophel would always be with him.

So the combination of love and intense pain continually brought him back to the scene of the crime – and it would never let him go. For some, that is enough of a reason for them to keep their guard up and never fall victim to love. But David’s truth was that he had gained much through his relationship with Absalom and Ahithophel – and in spite of the pain, I think he recognized that the positives he had shared with the two men were worth the risk. And the positives of love are worth the risk for us as well – even in the midst of the pain. In fact, we actually need those kinds of relationships with the people who are just like us.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 58