Gordon Christian Fellowship

Daily Devotion - 2/17/09

The Lord is with us!

One hundred psalms.  It’s been quite a trip so far.  We’ve traveled through every imaginable expression of emotion and seen our authors take nearly every conceivable circumstance to God along the way.  We’ve lamented, expressed sorrow for our sins, praised God’s goodness, thrown ourselves on His mercy and asked Him to right the wrongs in our lives.  We’ve seen prayers for blessing and prayers that contain cursing.  As Gary and I have written over and over, the Psalter is, in many ways, the most authentic expression of humankind’s relationship with God found in the Bible and it offers us a prayer for every time and season in our lives.

Psalm 100 is a short psalm of thanksgiving and the last in the series of praise and worship hymns we’ve been looking at for the past few days.  Beginning with the theme of joy, it pulls together the ideas of praise, worship, faithfulness and God’s goodness on loving-kindness.  It is a lovely refrain that the follower of the Way might do well to memorize and “sing” each day while going about his or her business.  In this way, one might be able to follow the Apostle Paul’s instructions to “give thanks in all circumstances”, “be joyful in all things” and “pray without ceasing.”

But what I’d like to write about in relation to this psalm is the idea that it might be the basis of one of our Lord’s teachings found in the gospel account of John.  In the tenth chapter of John’s account Jesus related two of His famous “I Am” statements: “I am the Good Shepherd” and “I am the Gate for the sheep.”  In all of the “I Am” statements, Jesus both involves a version of God’s eternal name, “I am that I am”, but He also ties that name to something from the history of the people of Israel.  An example of such a tie-in would be Jesus’ claim, “I am the Bread of Life” and then discussing that in conjunction with God’s giving of manna to the nation in the wilderness.

In this case, I think that Jesus’ “I am the Gate for the sheep” reference refers back to Psalm 100.  In the psalm, the worshipper sings a desire to enter into the place of God, His gates and courts, in order to give thanks and praise.  This immediately follows the recognition that the worshipper is a sheep of God’s folk and His pasture.  In verses 10:1-10 of John’s gospel, Jesus makes the exact same identification in the exact same order.  He calls the people who know God the sheep of His fold and He identifies Himself as the Gate through which all may enter.  In my mind, there is no question that the priests, Pharisees and other devout Jews who were listening to Jesus’ words would have understood the association.

In this association then, one finds that the relationship Jesus promises His “sheep” is one of fullness; fullness of joy, of gladness, of thanksgiving and of love.  He doesn’t offer them riches or material wealth as His sheep.  He doesn’t offer them an “easy” life.  He doesn’t offer them a beautiful spouse or lots of children or many of the other things their (and our) society had come to associate with a full life.  He comes to offer them a life with God; with Him.

As we approach Lent and the identification of our lives with Christ’s time in the wilderness before He set out on His earthly ministry, I think that this is a thing we should take note of.  While Lent is certainly a season of reflection and self-examination which often should lead to repentance, it should be remembered that the goal of this time, as it is with all of our activities, is to have life with God.  And that life with God will be filled with all the good things He faithfully promises.  And as much as we need to repent for the things in which we fall down, we must also remember the joy God brings and give thanks for it.

Grace and Peace. 

In Him,

Chad

Psalm 100

A psalm. For giving thanks.

 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.

 Worship the LORD with gladness; 
       come before Him with joyful songs.

 Know that the LORD is God. 
       It is He who made us, and we are His ; 
       we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.

 Enter His gates with thanksgiving 
       and His courts with praise; 
       give thanks to Him and praise His name.

 For the LORD is good and His love endures forever; 
       His faithfulness continues through all generations.

Daily Devotion - 2/16/09

Christ is in our Midst!

Psalm 99 continues the psalms of praise that fill this portion of the Psalter.  In ringing words the psalmist reminds that God is the God of history.  For those of us who need proof of his sovereign power and saving strength, the writer of Psalm 99 does some important “name-dropping”:  Jacob; Moses, Aaron; Samuel.  One might suspect that this psalm was written to reassure the ancient Hebrews:  God was indeed the God of all peoples, but He certainly had an intimate and salvific relationship with His Chosen People. 

God is in charge, this song reminds again.  This is said so many times in Scripture that the importance of this idea can scarcely be overestimated.   Usually we think that we’re in charge; when things go bad, then I’m certain that you’re running the show.  But the psalmist tells us over and over again---despite our attempts not to hear him---that God in fact rules the universe.  Everything is happening according to His providential will. 

This fact should both comfort us---and sober us.  The God we worship is in control.  He has promised not to abandon His people.  He keeps His promises.  Therefore it is entirely appropriate that I live in hope.  No matter how black my real or imagined plight, God is there with me. 

But I should be likewise sobered by God’s sovereignty.  For what ought to be immediately clear (but often isn’t) is that when perfectly awful things happen, they occur with God’s permission.  The Fathers say that God, in giving us free will, has to live with His choice:  in order for men to be free to worship God, it also means that they are free to do perfectly horrendous things to themselves and each other and the world.  There is no other way.    

The result, of course, becomes like the classic modern lawsuit:  have you heard the one about the children who murdered their parents then demanded the mercy of the court because they had been orphaned; or the one about humanity disobeying God, bringing untold horrors to the world, then blaming Him for giving us free will.  In each case, sadly, the joke’s on us.  I cannot expect that God will intervene every time something bad is about to happen---even if it is about to happen to me.  Sadly, God has “discovered” that one of the few times He gets our almost undivided attention is when we think (or know) that something bad is about to happen to us. 

As the Christian world prepares in its various traditions to enter into Lent, a fruitful line of meditation might deal with my own role in disordering the world.  Reading Psalm 99, I can see in outline what God seems to have in mind:  a world of symmetry and justice; a world where His precepts are obeyed; a world where He is worshipped.  In about a nanosecond I can begin to list the ways great and small that I have interfered with this order; ways that I have made God’s job harder; ways that I have attempted to thwart His will. 

Thus Psalm 99 should sober me in one more way.  God is in charge of history, the psalm insists, and a moment’s reflection reminds that those who have stood in God’s way ultimately have not faired so well.  All the great conquerors, the “beautiful people,” the rich and the famous of every era---all share one thing in common:  their power, beauty, wealth, fame, all lasted for a season.  Sooner or later, that season is no more.  My “season” too, will run its course.

Psalm 99, like many of the psalms, serves as a very useful sort of “lie-detector”:  can I pray this psalm with a “straight face?”  Or as I read it must I ruefully admit that I am in reality not all that interested or concerned with God’s sovereignty; much more important is “my space” than the idea of living in “God’s space.” 

You might think on this as you read Psalm 99.

Gary

Week of Meatfare; feast of the Holy Martyr Pamphilius and those with him.

Psalm 99

 The LORD reigns, 
       let the nations tremble; 
       He sits enthroned between the cherubim, 
       let the earth shake.

 Great is the LORD in Zion; 
       He is exalted over all the nations.

 Let them praise Your great and awesome name— 
       He is holy.

 The King is mighty, He loves justice— 
       You have established equity; 
       in Jacob You have done 
       what is just and right.

 Exalt the LORD our God 
       and worship at His footstool; 
       He is holy.

 Moses and Aaron were among His priests, 
       Samuel was among those who called on His name; 
       they called on the LORD 
       and He answered them.

 He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud; 
       they kept His statutes and the decrees He gave them.

 O LORD our God, 
       You answered them; 
       You were to Israel
 a forgiving God, 
       though You punished their misdeeds.

 Exalt the LORD our God 
       and worship at His holy mountain, 
       for the LORD our God is holy.

Daily Devotion - 2/13/09

Christ is in our Midst!

Today and tomorrow it is my sad duty to help serve the funeral services of the Orthodox Church for a newcomer to my parish, an older man who has died rather suddenly after an accident.  I do not know this man, Charles, very well.  I do know that his wife has borne her grief with stoic and comforting courage, seeking to put at ease all around her who try so inadequately to help her bear the unendurable.

Because I do not know this man---we’ve spoken the “polite, meaningless words” that T.S. Eliot talks about; I’ve seen him at Liturgy, laboring with halting steps to come forward to the Chalice for the Holy Communion---my thoughts on his death center not on the man I shall sadly never know, but on the entity I certainly shall know, death itself.  After all, as St. Paul reminds us in Hebrews (9:27)---as if we scarcely need reminding---that it is appointed for each man once to die.  So inevitably as I read over the Service books and try to prepare to help this man into eternity and offer some comfort to his bereaved family, I am also led to ponder the utter mystery of it all:  death, “the undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveler returns,” if I remember my Shakespeare correctly.

It is a timely meditation.  Yesterday I turned sixty.  However long or short the rest of my life may be, it is undeniable that most of it has already run its course.  In thinking about Charles’ death, I am forced to ponder my own.  

As usual, and is so comforting, I can find hope and consolation as close as the Psalter.  Today’s psalm, Psalm 98, offers both perspective and hope as I read it.  For in this song the psalmist reminds that our God has indeed performed wonders, that He has “made known his saving power.” (v. 2)  If I am to meditate on death, it must be from a Christian perspective, and that outlook insists that God is in charge of all the earth; that he has again and again demonstrated His power.  All creation He holds in His hands; life and death are His to utilize.  

Most important, all creation proclaims “Yahweh’s approach, for He is coming to judge the earth.” (v. 9)  Ultimately God will mend his marred creation:  wrongs will be put right; His kingdom established; his “saving justice” proclaimed.  

What’s all this have to do with death you might ask?  How does this help me deal with my own mortality?  Psalm 98 should remind me that death became a part of God’s plan with the Fall, and that as usual God takes something that is inherently evil---there’s nothing good or comforting or hopeful in death, the Fathers insist---and uses it for His glory, which is synonymous with His will.  By His own death Christ took something awful and transformed it; the Easter hymn proclaims that Christ “trampled down death by death”:  that by His death and Resurrection He restored fallen humanity.  While death is sadness and separation for those left behind, it is a door to the kingdom for those who believe:  those who once saw through a glass darkly, now see as it were face-to-face.      

The reason that the early Christian martyrs could accept their sufferings with such resolution---and yes, even joy---is because they knew this and believed this and lived this.  It is a mark, I suspect, of how far we have fallen from the Way that such ideas seem strange to us now.  Too often for too many death has resumed its ancient hold, a taboo subject that we shut out of our lives and try not to think about; yet all the while we know that with each tick of my watch’s second hand, the hour of my own death draws nearer.  

There is a Christian way to “handle” this, of course.  And it is simple:  the Fathers say we should live every day in death’s shadow; that we should understand that at any moment our earthly existence can be transformed into eternity.  Instead of shutting out such thoughts, we ought to embrace them; we ought to prepare each day for death.   

The world of course sees this as morbid, mad.  But remember the words of St. Anthony the Great:  the time is coming when the world itself will be mad, and mad men will accuse the sane of madness:  you are not like us; you are mad.  Christians certainly don’t need to judge the world, but they do need to keep their own values and beliefs.  

All around us are people, great and small, determined to avoid thinking about death---as if it can somehow be banished from our lives.  But Psalm 98 tells me that the Lord is coming to set all this right, to “judge the world with saving justice.”  I need to prepare for that judgment, and for the life to come.  

Remember us O Lord in Thy Kingdom.

Gary
Week of the Prodigal Son; feast of our Venerable Father Martinian

Psalm 98

A psalm.

Sing to the LORD a new song, 
      for He has done marvelous things; 
      His right hand and His holy arm 
      have worked salvation for Him.
The LORD has made His salvation known 
      and revealed His righteousness to the nations.

He has remembered His love 
      and His faithfulness to the house of Israel; 
      all the ends of the earth have seen 
      the salvation of our God.

Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth, 
      burst into jubilant song with music;

make music to the LORD with the harp, 
      with the harp and the sound of singing,

with trumpets and the blast of the ram's horn— 
      shout for joy before the LORD, the King.

Let the sea resound, and everything in it, 
      the world, and all who live in it.

Let the rivers clap their hands, 
     Let the mountains sing together for joy; let them sing before the LORD, 
      for He comes to judge the earth. 
      He will judge the world in righteousness 
      and the peoples with equity.

Daily Devotion - 2/12/09

The Lord is with us!

Perhaps one way to read Psalm 97 is as a study in contrasts.  As Gary wrote yesterday in his thoughts about similar hymn of praise, all creation has within it the ability to praise God by being exactly what it was created to be.  This means that water worships, celebrates and praises God through it's ability to flow, cleanse and quench the thirst of land, beast and man.  Light through its ability to illuminate, dazzle and stream.  Trees through their ability to remain rooted while reaching, to provide shelter and shade from both the hot sun and the cold rain and to speak softly in the wind.

Human beings too worship God through the use of the gifts He created them to have.  One such gift is in the exercise of their free will to choose God while another is to use the creative nature and energy to imagine and create new ways to understand and worship Him.  Unlike nature, however, human being can use their free will and creative energy to create and worship "gods" of their own making.  Such is the central theme of this song.

After the Babylonians took the kingdom of Judah into captivity and deported them to the capital city with it's worship of idols of the god Marduk, the Israelites where faced with something of an existential dilemma.  If their God, Yahweh, was really more powerful and ruled over all the other "gods", why were His chosen people the ones conquered?  Why didn't He protect and preserve them?  Why were they brought to this place where it seemed that Marduk reigned in the hearts and minds of the people.  To these questions the prophet Isaiah offered answers designed both to lead the nation to redemption and to expose the ridiculousness of the idol worship in Babylon.  Verse 7 of this psalm echos Isaiah's writings that ask if the idols are able to feed themselves or do anything without the help of their priests and worshippers.   The people of Israel needed to see first hand that the idols were made by men to serve men.  They needed to see that the blocks of stone had no power of their own. They needed to remember that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob comes wrapped in light and clouds, can melt mountains, wields fire and creates righteousness and justice.  The Marduk idols couldn't do that and so those that worshipped them must be filled with shame.

For some reason there is a need in us humans to create idols to replace God.  There is some part of us that takes that gift that God has given us to imagine and create with our minds and our hands and uses it to fashion idols for us to worship.  In part, I think it's because we want a god that serves us, one that we control.  We want a god that we can turn to in our time of need but that we can hide away when it isn't convenient.  In times past those idols might have been made of wood or stone or polished metal.  Now days we've gotten a bit more savvy and our idols are things like money or power or prestige or ideas and ideologies.  And just like the idols of old that couldn't feed themselves, so too do our new idols need for us to offer the sacrifices of our lives and families and relationships to remain strong in our minds and hearts.  In time, our new idols even consume us, their makers, with our need to continue their place in our lives.  In time, we come to feel the shame of having such impotent idols.

One way to be reminded to set aside our idols is to remember who our God really is.  We do this through praise and worship wherein we strive to recall who God is in His majesty and power and love and justice.  We ask His light to expose our idols for what they really are and to rid us of our shame and restore us to joy.  It is in our worship and praise that our creative energies are turned back towards God and our imaginations are refocused on Him.  The praise psalms we have been reading over the last few days are striking examples of that sort of use of the gifts God has blessed each and every one of us with.  When we recall that we have been made, like all creation, to worship Him in doing what He designed us to do, we find ourselves freed of the need for idols and substitutes.

So let's try to do that.  Let's try and forget about the power and the status and the rest and focus on worshipping God with the lives He has given us.  Let's remember that if we are faithful and prudent, the money stuff will work itself out and we will have the things we need according to God and seek first the Kingdom of God instead.

Grace and Peace.

In Him,

Chad

Psalm 97

The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad; 
      let the distant shores rejoice.

Clouds and thick darkness surround Him; 
      righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.

Fire goes before Him 
      and consumes His foes on every side.

His lightning lights up the world; 
      the earth sees and trembles.

The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, 
      before the Lord of all the earth.

The heavens proclaim His righteousness, 
      and all the peoples see His glory.

All who worship images are put to shame, 
      those who boast in idols— 
      worship Him, all you gods!

Zion hears and rejoices 
      and the villages of Judah are glad 
      because of Your judgments, O LORD.

For You, O LORD, are the Most High over all the earth; 
      You are exalted far above all gods.

Let those who love the LORD hate evil, 
      for He guards the lives of His faithful ones 
      and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.

Light is shed upon the righteous 
      and joy on the upright in heart.

Rejoice in the LORD, you who are righteous, 
      and praise His holy name.

Daily Devotion - 2/10/09

The Lord is with us!

Psalm 95 is exactly what it looks like; a song of praise and thanksgiving probably used during temple worship.  But it is also a warning and a reminder to the people of Israel to remember a part of their story that isn't as glorious as parted seas or as awe-inspiring and dreadful as plagues upon the people of Egypt.  It reminds them of a time when they lost the plot of their own story and so spent time wandering in exile in a wilderness of their own choosing.

I remember when I was first introduced to this psalm.  The first part of it had been turned into a praise chorus for our church's "college and young professionals" group and it was sung with great energy as is appropriate and when we sang it, we felt very good about having praised our God. As I considered the words, I realized that this was something that we were supposed to sing regardless of the circumstances of our lives and it was then that I began to understand that there was a big difference between happiness and joy.  The apostle Paul writes about the centrality of joy in the life of the Christian in his letter to the congregation in Philippi when he advised, "Rejoice in the Lord always.  Again I will say it; Rejoice!" Joy is such a main theme of the letter that Philippians is often called, "The epistle of joy" by scholars because Paul, writing while in chains under house arrest awaiting trial in Rome, calls for the congregation in Philippi, and indeed the entire church, to rejoice with him in his sufferings.  Just as is the case with the psalmist, Paul ties his joy to both the practice of worship and the giving of thanks.

Unfortunately, the broader world does not look to the people of God as a source of joy.  Recent surveys suggest that the last two generations in North America are much more likely to assign terms such as judgmental, harsh, homophobic and xenophobic to the church than think of her as something joyful or that gives thanks for the blessings it has received.  In fact, this may be the greatest indictment the modern and postmodern world can level against the body of Christ; it has lost its joy.

The second part of the psalm also is echoed from with New Testament teachings.  Here the familiar refrain of God as Shepherd is found and the worshipper is called to listen for and hear His voice from among the din of all the other wilderness noise.  The people are encouraged to listen to the Shepherd and to follow Him without grumbling or complaining.  This is the language our Lord uses  when speaking to the people of Israel. When He claims to be the Good Shepherd, He is calling for them to cease their quarreling and their divisions and to listen for His voice.  He calls for them to enter into the grand story of God's redemption and salvation through the Way of the Suffering Servant.  To each generation He issues the same call: come, take up your cross, follow me.  Today, right now, He calls to you and to me: offer yourselves as living sacrifices as your true act of spiritual worship.  The Suffering Servant calls us all into His story, to become the suffering servants to our world and to find our "pure joy" as James tells the church Jerusalem.

Ours is a Way of offering ourselves as servants.  Our servant song, shouted with joy and thanksgiving to a tone deaf world, is the same as Jesus'; self-emptying, God-glorifying and humble.  It is laying down our lives so that God can give it back again.  It is dying to ourselves so that we can be raised up again, both in this life and in the life everlasting.  The plot of our story is to be found in the narrative of the Good Shepherd whose voice we follow. It is in that story that we will find joy over happiness.  It is that story that we will be filled to overflowing and our lives will become like springs of living water.  It is that story we will hear the words, "Well done, my good and faithful servant."

Grace and Peace.

In Him,

Chad

Psalm 95

Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; 
      let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.

Let us come before Him with thanksgiving 
      and extol Him with music and song.

For the LORD is the great God, 
      the great King above all gods.

In His hand are the depths of the earth, 
      and the mountain peaks belong to Him.

The sea is His, for He made it, 
      and His hands formed the dry land.

Come, let us bow down in worship, 
      let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;

for He is our God 
      and we are the people of His pasture, 
      the flock under His care. 
      Today, if you hear His voice,

do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,
      as you did that day at Massah in the desert,

where your fathers tested and tried Me, 
      though they had seen what I did.

For forty years I was angry with that generation; 
      I said, "They are a people whose hearts go astray, 
      and they have not known my ways."

So I declared on oath in My anger, 
      "They shall never enter My rest."

Daily Devotion - 2/09/09

Christ is Born!  Glorify Him!

Justice!  It’s a persistent theme in modern affairs.  The advent of democracy, the idea that people should govern themselves, has made the almost millennial cry for justice seemingly attainable to ordinary men.  Not the kind of state-centered justice we think about in imperial Rome, or the sometimes rough justice of the American frontier:  instead, the modern state has encouraged the idea that at last real justice is available through the “system.”

For long periods of human history justice seemed unattainable in an earthly sense.  In times past, justice seemed to safeguard the state or protect the wealthy; fairness was often only a coincidental outcome of the judicial process.  Some such understanding doubtlessly informs the psalmist in Psalm 94.  Denied justice in an earthly sense, he asks that God “to whom vengeance belongeth, …render to the proud their due reward.” 

It’s certainly an attractive idea, even today.  For the truth is, we don’t have all that much faith in our “system” to render true justice:  doesn’t it always seem that the people I don’t like are twisting the system to their own advantage?  How appealing that God Himself should intervene for me, to right my wrongs, to deal with my enemies, to obtain the justice that is my right and my due!  Surely this is a psalm I can pray with “gusto,” to borrow from a Madison-Avenue-slogan that was old before most of you were born!

But here we enter again into the richness---and the danger, of the psalms, and of all prayer.  Do I really dare pray for such justice?  Do I really presume to ask God to deal “fairly” with me?  I, who have so much, who have squandered so much “in loose living,” as the parable of the Prodigal Son describes it, who have routinely done what was necessary to get ahead, to look out for number one, to work the system for all its worth:  do I really want God to render unto me what I really deserve? 

So often we forget that each one of us is the “prodigal son (or daughter)”:  each one of us has fled his Father’s house; each one of us over and over again has demanded what we think we deserve---our “fair share.”  Imagine our horror if God should heed such a prayer; if He should give me exactly what I deserve, as opposed to what I absolutely require---His clemency.  If given the choice, would I dare request justice instead of mercy?  In a world of want and suffering would I presume that I deserve even more of the good life than I already possess as an average American?  Do I really think that in asking God to take vengeance against evil-doers, I will somehow escape this retribution?

As the Christian world prepares for the Great Lent, it provides fruitful themes for meditation.  Yesterday was the “Sunday of the Pharisee and the Publican” in the Orthodox Church---you can read the parable in Luke 18: 9-14.  The lesson centers on the absolute need for humility.  Next Sunday is the “Sunday of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:  11-32); the lesson centers on the foolish pride of the prodigal, and the abiding merciful love of his father.  Psalm 94 fits these themes very nicely.  As I read it, I ought to be reminded that if God really acted as the psalmist urges, I would be lost!  I need the humility to understand my own sinfulness, and the late-arriving “wisdom” of the prodigal who throws himself on his father’s mercy.   

Fortunately, God’s justice is not like human justice---a crucial point.  So when I pray for God’s justice, what I am really crying for is His mercy.  As I read Psalm 94, it is this “justice” I must seek---and not merely for myself.  For as God makes repeatedly clear, it is with the “justice” that I mete out to the world that my own “case” will be judged. 

So as I read Psalm 94, my thoughts ought to turn to mercy:  mercy I hope to receive; mercy I must grant towards all around me.

Gary

Leavetaking of the Feast of the Meeting of the Lord in the 

Temple; feast of the martyr S. Nicephorus of Antioch.  

Psalm 94

 O LORD, the God who avenges, 
       O God who avenges, shine forth.

 Rise up, O Judge of the earth; 
       pay back to the proud what they deserve.

 How long will the wicked, O LORD, 
       how long will the wicked be jubilant?

 They pour out arrogant words; 
       all the evildoers are full of boasting.

 They crush Your people, O LORD; 
       they oppress Your inheritance.

 They slay the widow and the alien; 
       they murder the fatherless.

 They say, "The LORD does not see; 
       the God of Jacob pays no heed."

 Take heed, you senseless ones among the people; 
       you fools, when will you become wise?

 Does He who implanted the ear not hear? 
       Does He who formed the eye not see?

 Does He who disciplines nations not punish? 
       Does He who teaches man lack knowledge?

 The LORD knows the thoughts of man; 
       He knows that they are futile.

 Blessed is the man You discipline, O LORD, 
       the man You teach from Your law;

 You grant him relief from days of trouble, 
       till a pit is dug for the wicked.

 For the LORD will not reject His people; 
       He will never forsake His inheritance.

 Judgment will again be founded on righteousness, 
       and all the upright in heart will follow it.

 Who will rise up for me against the wicked? 
       Who will take a stand for me against evildoers?

 Unless the LORD had given me help, 
       I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death.

 When I said, "My foot is slipping," 
       Your love, O LORD, supported me.

 When anxiety was great within me, 
       Your consolation brought joy to my soul.

 Can a corrupt throne be allied with You— 
       one that brings on misery by its decrees?

 They band together against the righteous 
       and condemn the innocent to death.

 But the LORD has become my fortress, 
       and my God the rock in whom I take refuge.

 He will repay them for their sins 
       and destroy them for their wickedness; 
       the LORD our God will destroy them.

Daily Devotion - 2/06/09

Christ is Born!  Glorify Him!

Periodically through the Psalter one comes upon a short song that lights up the page.  Let’s face it, at whatever level and with whatever “spin” one approaches the psalms, many are “heavy” in their message and implication:  they’re about sin and suffering and the eternal things that the believer must grapple with every day.

Then comes Psalm 93! 

In a burst of praise the psalmist reminds us of the eternal order of the world.  Whether we are struggling on the “Way” or have absolutely no interest in God and His relationships with man, one fact above all he insists be granted: 

“The Lord reigneth;

He is clothed with majesty.” (v. 1)

For the believer, for the struggler, this verse should provide great comfort.  It clears away all the questions and doubts that sometimes afflict us.  God is in charge.  Everything unfolds according to His permissive will.  No matter how dark or foreboding the situation, He is there, with us.  The implications of all this, if we but think about it for a moment, are staggering.  Everything that happens to us---to me this day---somehow occurs because God allows it to happen. 

So what’s so hopeful about this, you might ask?  Are we saying that God is responsible for evil in the world?

Orthodox Christianity’s answer to this question is, in one way only, yes.  God gives us free will, and from Adam and Eve down to the present day, He has made it clear that He respects this crucial human attribute:  some of the Fathers would say that free will is one of the important qualities that is subsumed under the idea that man is made in “God’s image.”  And if God is to respect our free will, it has important implications for each of us, and for humanity as a whole.  God will allow us to choose eternal death over eternal life, hell over heaven, and this in turn means that each of us has the power, temporarily, to inflict hell and death on those around us.  Such is the power of man, and the nature of fallen humanity!

But as Psalm 93 reminds, God is still in charge.  We believe that this means that God will somehow use everything ever done, the noble and the base, the honorable and the horrific, to bring about His purpose in creation:  that He is indeed Lord of all, and that whatever may befall us in this life He will manipulate---if we but let Him---as a mechanism to establish our permanent relationship with Him.

It may be bold to say---and certainly I am not claiming to be one who, because of his faith, doesn’t fear death or suffering---but I sort of think such fears that we all have---for me right now, old age, disease, the twilight of my life, death itself---show how weak our faith is.  If I really were firm on the Way, would I be so concerned about temporal and inevitable things, and so little concerned about what I claim to be the center of my life?

So I turn to Psalm 93 again.  How it challenges my doubts and my worries and my feeble faith!

At every Orthodox Vespers service, the first service of the new day, there is a psalm verse called the prokeimenon.  It is sort of a theme-song that summarizes the ideas of the service.  Is it any wonder that on Saturday evening, the initial service of the Lord’s Day, like all Sunday services dedicated to the Resurrection, priest and people intone as the evening prokeimenon verses from Psalm 93?  (I particularly love this translation, which gets to the heart of the psalm---and cuts to the heart my fears and failings): 

Turning toward the people, the priest on the altar proclaims:

“Wisdom.  Let us attend.  The evening prokeimenon in the 6^th tone:

             The Lord is King, He is clothed with majesty!”

 Choir and people respond by repeating this beautiful refrain.

Then the priest chants the following verses; after each, the response is the same:  “The Lord is King, He is clothed with majesty!” 

            Verse 1:  “The Lord is clothed and has girded Himself with strength.”

            Verse 2:  “For He established the world which shall not be moved.”

             Verse 3: “Holiness becometh Thy house, O Lord, unto length of days.”

For some reason, I’ve always loved this moment of Saturday Vespers---and as I read and meditate on Psalm 93, I begin to see why:  in the deepest recesses of my heart, where lurk all the terrors and evils and awfulness that a man can accumulate, I am reassured.  Even here, in the darkest chambers of my soul, where my confessor is the only human who has ever had to penetrate its horrors, “the Lord is King!  He is robed in majesty!”

Gary

Afterfeast of the Meeting of the Lord in the Temple; feast of St. Bucolus, Bishop of Smyrna (1^st cen.)

 Psalm 93

 The LORD reigns, He is robed in majesty; 
       the LORD is robed in majesty 
       and is armed with strength. 
       The world is firmly established; 
       it cannot be moved.

 Your throne was established long ago; 
       You are from all eternity.

 The seas have lifted up, O LORD, 
       the seas have lifted up their voice; 
       the seas have lifted up their pounding waves.

 Mightier than the thunder of the great waters, 
       mightier than the breakers of the sea— 
       the LORD on high is mighty.

 Your statutes stand firm; 
       holiness adorns Your house 
       for endless days, O LORD.

Daily Devotion - 2/05/09

The Lord is with us!

Psalm 92 come to us with the title that it has been written to be sung on the Sabbath. From the first lines of the psalm we get a good sense of its purpose:

It is good to praise the LORD 
       and make music to your name, O Most High,
to proclaim your love in the morning ?       and your faithfulness at night,
to the music of the ten-stringed lyre ?       and the melody of the harp.

Unlike the laments and penitential psalms, Psalm 92 is a song written for the public worship of God through the singing of praise.  While in the minority, such psalms are vital to our own time of both public and private prayer because praise fills an important set of roles in our journey to come into relationship with a God that is both completely other in His divinity and tantalizingly familiar in His humanity through the person of Christ.

The first role of praise is to remind us that God is neither far away and impersonal nor just like us and some sort of "best buddy" whom we might hang out with for a few days.  In praise, we work towards an understanding that God is closer to us that we can possibly imagine through His indwelling Spirit that inhabits our praise and that He alone is holy.

The second role of praise to to take the focus off of ourselves.  While much has been written about how our culture is probably the most individualistic in all of human history, the real truth is that we're all pretty self-centered when it comes right down to it.  We tend to view this world as a stage for our own performance and everything and everyone else in it as either props or supporting actors.  What praise does is reminds us that the while the grand story does have a central figure, He is not us and He does not have our simple or specific goals in mind when writing that story.  That's not to say that we don't have a role in the grand story or that we don't have stories of our own that are being written and told in the lives we live but that our stories have much less meaning and coherence when they aren't connected to His story of love and faithfulness.

Finally, the third role of praise I want to remind you of is that the act of praise in worship helps us to remember the plot of the story.  One of the things I've been studying is the story of the Exodus and the powerful echoes of that narrative found all throughout Scripture.  One of the hardest things about the story is how the Israelites seem to lose the plot of the story.  Over and over we hear them grumbling and complaining after God has rescued and redeemed them from slavery in Egypt.  I think that we do the exact some thing.  I can't tell you the number of times I've logged onto facebook and read the status lines of students who are complaining about having to go to class, do homework or just learn.  These are students who have lost the plot.

I recall a time in my first year of graduate school.  A bunch of us rookies where hanging out in the big community office we call "The Bullpen" and we were bemoaning the injustices of graduate school.  As we were going on about how unfair it all seemed to be one of my fellow students, Phillipe who was from France, quietly said that he was thanking to be able to sit there and complain.  In his humble way, he said that he was glad to be in school, studying something he loved and pursuing his dreams even if the work was hard instead of working a hard manual labor job or living in a box on the streets somewhere.  As you might imagine, it pretty much ended the pity party.  For me, it reminded me of the plot of the story God was having me live out at that time.  In time I would come to praise God for the opportunity to live in a country that provided the opportunities that I had.

So, I encourage you to take time each day to praise God.  Reconnect with the plot by looking at something and Someone bigger than yourself.

Grace and Peace.

In Him,

Chad

Psalm 92

A psalm. A song. For the Sabbath day.

It is good to praise the LORD 
      and make music to Your name, O Most High,
to proclaim Your love in the morning 
      and Your faithfulness at night,

to the music of the ten-stringed lyre 
      and the melody of the harp.

For You make me glad by Your deeds, O LORD; 
      I sing for joy at the works of Your hands.

How great are Your works, O LORD, 
      how profound Your thoughts!

The senseless man does not know, 
      fools do not understand,

that though the wicked spring up like grass 
      and all evildoers flourish, 
      they will be forever destroyed.

But You, O LORD, are exalted forever.

For surely Your enemies, O LORD, 
      surely Your enemies will perish; 
      all evildoers will be scattered.

You have exalted my horn like that of a wild ox; 
      fine oils have been poured upon me.

My eyes have seen the defeat of my adversaries; 
      my ears have heard the rout of my wicked foes.

The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, 
      they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;

planted in the house of the LORD, 
      they will flourish in the courts of our God.

They will still bear fruit in old age, 
      they will stay fresh and green,

proclaiming, "The LORD is upright; 
      he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him."

Daily Devotion - 2/04/09

Christ is Born!  Glorify Him! 

Psalm 91 is another example of the necessity of spiritualizing and internalizing the Psalter.  The psalms are truly of limited utility if we see in them only a commentary on ancient Israel---or even, from a Christian perspective, as prophetic utterance treating Christ and His earthly life.  Certainly these are all levels that can and should be considered as we read these ancient songs, but a real and important question as we pray the Palter ought to be:  what’s this got to do with me?

So---to Psalm 91:  this psalm is seen by the holy Fathers as a prayer and exhortation against the evil one, and a description of the defenses available to one who “shall abide in the shadow of the Almighty.”  Things that might overwhelm us---“…terror by night, …the arrow that flieth by day,…pestilence that walketh in darkness,…destruction that layeth waste at noon day,…the thousand that fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand,”(vv. 5-7)---will be turned aside---“ but it shall not come nigh thee.”    God, the psalmist says, will protect those who seek Him out. 

There is much to ponder in these words.  They seem to suggest, for example, the old adage that God will never allow us to be tempted beyond our strength; that whatever the temptation, no matter how serious, God stands ready to succor us.  The key to obtaining God’s help seems to be described in verse 2:  “I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him will I trust.’”  That is, we must really put ourselves in God’s hands; we must actually rely upon Him, and cooperate with the help that He sends us. 

This theme of God’s readiness to assist us in temptation is important in Scripture and Holy Tradition.  Thirteen hundred years after this psalm was probably composed, the Desert Fathers spoke of temptation, and God’s help, and the necessity of our cooperation with God.

“It happened that Abba Moses was struggling with the temptation of fornication.  Unable to stay any longer in his cell, he went and told Abba Isidore.  The old man exhorted him to return to his cell.  But he refused, saying, ‘Abba, I cannot.’  Then Abba Isidore took Moses out onto the terrace and said to him, ‘Look toward the west.’  He looked and saw hordes of demons flying about and making a noise before launching an attack.  Then Abba Isidore said to him, ‘Look towards the east.’  He turned and saw an innumerable multitude of holy angels shining with glory.  Abba Isidore said, ‘See, these are sent by the Lord to the saints to bring them help, while those in the west fight against them.  Those who are with us are more in number than they are.’  Then Abba Moses gave thanks to God, plucked up his courage, and returned to his cell.”  (The Sayings of the Desert Fathers)

In returning to his cell, St. Moses cooperated with God.  He returned to the spiritual battlefield, his monastic cell, where he confronted the thickets and valleys and secret places of his own heart. 

One further point about Psalm 91 drives home the theme of temptation and cooperation with God’s help.  It is of course this very psalm that the devil quotes in tempting Our Lord. 

“Then the devil took Him into the holy city, and set Him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto Him, ‘If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down.  For it is written:  ‘He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee; and in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at anytime Thou dash Thy foot against a stone.’” (Matt 4: 5-6)

We will be tempted.  The evil one is ever present, seeking to lead us astray.  God’s love, also ever present but immensely more powerful, is our surest defense against these assaults.   But, like Father Moses, we must “go back to our cell”; we must cooperate with God, we must want and actually try to do His will. 

For as certain as God’s abiding presence is in our lives, it is equally certain that God will not save us if we do not want to be saved. 

Gary

Afterfeast of the Meeting of the Lord; feast of Venerable Isidore of Pelusium

Psalm 91

 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High 
       will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

 I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress, 
       my God, in whom I trust."

 Surely He will save you from the fowler's snare 
       and from the deadly pestilence.

 He will cover you with His feathers, 
       and under His wings you will find refuge; 
       His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

 You will not fear the terror of night, 
       nor the arrow that flies by day,

 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, 
       nor the plague that destroys at midday.

 A thousand may fall at your side, 
       ten thousand at your right hand, 
       but it will not come near you.

 You will only observe with your eyes 
       and see the punishment of the wicked.

 If you make the Most High your dwelling— 
       even the LORD, who is my refuge-

 then no harm will befall you, 
       no disaster will come near your tent.

 For He will command his angels concerning you 
       to guard you in all your ways;

 they will lift you up in their hands, 
       so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

 You will tread upon the lion and the cobra; 
       you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

 "Because he loves me," says the LORD, "I will rescue him; 
       I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.

 He will call upon me, and I will answer him; 
       I will be with him in trouble, 
       I will deliver him and honor him.

 With long life will I satisfy him 
       and show him my salvation.

 

Daily Devotion - 2/03/09

The Lord is with us!

Have you have had one of those days?  Of course you have.  We all have.  You know the day.  The one that starts with spilling your breakfast all over your new pants and ends with finding out that the dog has peed on the carpet.  The one with the speeding ticket and the quiz you forgot about and the bad news that either they're going to cut your hours at work or make you work a bunch more meaning you'll have either less time to study or not enough money for gas.  Or maybe it's worse than that.  It's the day you got hit on the way to a friend's and your car and the life you've built around using it is in shambles.  It's the day when you got the call saying someone you love has cancer and the outlook isn't very good.  It's the day when you were robbed or assaulted and all the security disappeared from your life.

It's the day when you really began to wonder if God was really good.  It's the day when you wondered if He cared.  It's the day when you reached the end of your rope and couldn't hang on and God didn't seem to catch you or someone you loved.  Maybe you haven't had THAT day but chances are you will.  Someday will be that day.  I think Psalm 90 was written by someone having that day.  Or that week.  Or that year.  

While I'll put the NIV's translation of the psalm at the end of this devotional, I found myself taken by the plain language of Eugene Peterson's version of it from the Message.  I think he captures the sense of the psalm which is attributed to Moses and must have been written by him after the nation of Israel was forced to wander in the wilderness for a generation due to their lack of faith when God had brought them to the Promised Land the first time.  His people have no home.  They have no rest.  They are aliens and strangers and exiles from every single place that they can think of.  I can see Moses, the man of God, in his tent one night looking out over the wilderness in the place where the nation of grumblers and complainers have settled for the season.  He can feel his frustration and his fatigue and even a bit of despair.

  God, it seems You've been our home forever; 
     long before the mountains were born, 
  Long before You brought earth itself to birth, 
     from "once upon a time" to "kingdom come"—You are God. 

  So don't return us to mud, saying, 
     "Back to where you came from!" 
  Patience! You've got all the time in the world—whether 
     a thousand years or a day, it's all the same to You. 
  Are we no more to you than a wispy dream, 
     no more than a blade of grass 
  That springs up gloriously with the rising sun 
     and is cut down without a second thought? 
  Your anger is far and away too much for us; 
     we're at the end of our rope. 
  You keep track of all our sins; every misdeed 
     since we were children is entered in your books. 
  All we can remember is that frown on your face. 
     Is that all we're ever going to get? 
  We live for seventy years or so 
     (with luck we might make it to eighty), 
  And what do we have to show for it? Trouble. 
     Toil and trouble and a marker in the graveyard. 
  Who can make sense of such rage, 
     such anger against the very ones who fear You?

Can you hear Moses' cry for mercy?  Now I wont you to remember that this is Moses.  This is the guy God picked to lead His people from exile; the guy who had witnessed all of God's power and might wielded to free His captive people.  This is the guy who had stood on Mt. Sinai in the presence of God and saw that He had claimed the nation of Israel as His own.  If there was anyone who might have been able to resist the very human tendency to doubt God's goodness it would have been Moses.  Yet there is his question to God, "Are we no more than a wispy dream, no more than a blade of grass that springs up gloriously with the rising sun and is cut down without a second thought?"  If there was anyone who might be immune to the despair of death, it would be the guy who had called forth manna from the sky and water from the rock and had followed the pillar of smoke and light through the parted sea.  Yet we can read his words, "We live for seventy years (eighty if we're lucky) and what do we have to show for it?  Trouble.  Toil and trouble and a marker in the graveyard."

Maybe you can relate to what Moses is saying here.  Maybe in the long, dark night of the soul you've asked God the same questions.  And when you did maybe you wondered if you had spoken blaspheme.  Maybe you've always been told that you're supposed to be a happy little Christian whose life is always blessed and who never questions the goodness of God.  And when you did ask these sorts of questions, the people around you looked at you with those horrified looks and began to wonder if you were really one of them.  And so the day got longer.  And the exile seemed deeper.  And God seemed more angry and farther away than He had ever been.

But the truth is that many,many people who try to follow God ask these kinds of questions when they have "those" days.  St. John of the Cross wrote whole books about his journey in the wilderness and his words are among the most beautiful and moving ever written by a follower of the Lord.  Even Christ asked these kinds of questions.

And know that even in the wilderness there is life and in the darkness there is hope.  For God is still God in the wilderness and He inhabits even the darkest places.  Read what Moses writes in the second half of the psalm.

  Oh! Teach us to live well! 
     Teach us to live wisely and well! 
  Come back, God—how long do we have to wait?— 
     and treat Your servants with kindness for a change. 
  Surprise us with love at daybreak; 
     then we'll skip and dance all the day long. 
  Make up for the bad times with some good times; 
     we've seen enough evil to last a lifetime. 
  Let Your servants see what you're best at— 
     the ways You rule and bless Your children. 
  And let the loveliness of our Lord, our God, rest on us, 
     confirming the work that we do. 
  Oh, yes. Affirm the work that we do!

Even with his questions and his despair, Moses still goes to God.  His prayer is that his people somehow find the wisdom to live well.  He still desires the love of God.  He still wants to dance the eternal dance of love.

Sometimes it's so easy to let our world define us; so easy to take in the evening news and the cable TV specials and splashy newspaper and internet headlines and see all the evil this world has and let that be the lens through which we interpret everything.  But the prayer of Moses here gives us an alternative.  He asks for the loveliness of God to rest on him and his people and on their work.  Think about that for a minute.  On "that" day, what if, even as we acknowledge our pain and frustration and despair, we were to ask for the beauty of the grace of God to come into our lives and the work we do?  What if we were to seek His peace, His wholeness, His shalom as we work through what has happened to us.  In a world filled with evil, what if we endeavored to live well (i.e. without dis-ease) in the work of our lives?  What then would we find on "that" day?

Grace and Peace.

In Him,

Chad

Psalm 90

A prayer of Moses the man of God.

Lord, You have been our dwelling place 
      throughout all generations.
Before the mountains were born 
      or You brought forth the earth and the world, 
      from everlasting to everlasting You are God.

You turn men back to dust, 
      saying, "Return to dust, O sons of men."

For a thousand years in Your sight 
      are like a day that has just gone by, 
      or like a watch in the night.

You sweep men away in the sleep of death; 
      they are like the new grass of the morning-

though in the morning it springs up new, 
      by evening it is dry and withered.

We are consumed by Your anger 
      and terrified by Your indignation.

You have set our iniquities before You, 
      our secret sins in the light of Your presence.

All our days pass away under Your wrath; 
      we finish our years with a moan.

The length of our days is seventy years— 
      or eighty, if we have the strength; 
      yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, 
      for they quickly pass, and we fly away.

Who knows the power of Your anger? 
      For Your wrath is as great as the fear that is due You.

Teach us to number our days aright, 
      that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Relent, O LORD! How long will it be? 
      Have compassion on Your servants.

Satisfy us in the morning with Your unfailing love, 
      that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.

Make us glad for as many days as You have afflicted us, 
      for as many years as we have seen trouble.

May your deeds be shown to Your servants, 
      Your splendor to their children.

May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; 
      establish the work of our hands for us— 
      yes, establish the work of our hands.