Christ is in our Midst! I can never read or hear Psalm 68 and not think of Pascha---Orthodox Easter. Toward the end of Resurrection Matins, the Church uses this mighty song as the framework for one of the most beloved hymns of this music-rich service: “Let God arise,” the choir sings, “let His enemies be scattered. Let those who hate Him flee from before His face. “Today, a sacred Pascha is revealed to us, a new and holy Pascha, a mystical Pascha, “a Pascha which is Christ the Redeemer….” Just as the Church uses Psalm 68 to meditate on the triumph of the Resurrection, so might we today “borrow” this psalm to consider our own Thanksgiving Day. Thanksgiving is perhaps the quintessential American holiday: religious in sentiment, “squishily-broad” in theology, easily adaptable to every race, creed, color, sentiment and Weltanschauung, it allows faith, state-sponsored religiosity, gluttony, business (only 27 shopping days ‘til Christmas) and football all to mix in a virtually seamless web. Is this a great country or what? Now much that passes at Thanksgiving is perfectly harmless, and some of the annual foolery, like football, for example, is a positive good (what else would families do every year when they gather if not for food and football?). But the one thing usually missing in this “feast of St. Martha the Stewart” is, I suspect, “thanks.” We are all so busy greeting guests, cooking, eating, fighting with our families, watching football---that we too often forget what the day really is about: giving thanks. It may not seem immediately apparent what we should be thankful for. After all, the nightly headlines blare of an economy soured, of renewed threats to our security; as is ever the case after a national election, approximately half the country is looking with some trepidation to a new administration. There are national championships not won; courses failed; relationships---marriages, courtships, friendships---sundered. There is disease and ever-present death that threaten each of us. All too often, the bright promise of the holidays is extinguished when an “ancient grudge” breaks to “new mutiny.” One can always find a million reasons not to be thankful. That this attitude is remarkably selfish and short-sighted we all know. We live in a land of abundance---beyond the dreams of most inhabitants of the planet. Then there are all the things that God in His permissive will spared us last year: all the dogs that didn’t bark; all the planes that didn’t crash; all the cars that didn’t wreck; all the friends and family who didn’t desert; all the bad things that didn’t happen…. But we know all that. The problem with all these perspectives is that they are in a way deeply un-Christian. They suggest an absolute focus on the here-and-now. Even our “thanksgiving” is remarkably materialistic. Thanks God for all the stuff (please send even more), and for not giving me what you gave to those other guys this year. The study notes in my Bible suggest that Psalm 68 was a prayer used when the people of Israel moved the Ark of the Covenant. It is easy to extrapolate from this a meditation for the here and now. But Psalm 68 invites us to rise to an entirely different plane---the world of faith. For if we truly believe, then this world, however grand and appealing, is not our goal and focus. David’s words urge us to consider God’s kingdom, “God in his holy habitation,” where He is “a Father to the fatherless”; where He has “prepared of [His] goodness for the poor”; where He has “led captivity captive.” David reminds us that our God “is the God of salvation; and unto God the Lord belongeth the discharge from death.” So let us give thanks this Thursday---for all the good things that we have received, and to be sure for all the bad stuff that we were spared; but above all let us thank our God for an abiding love that promises so much more than turkey and football games, than avoidance of accident and misfortune: that points instead to the manger and the Nativity star. Gary Leavetaking of the Feast of the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple; feast of St. Katherine the Greatmartyr. Psalm 68 For the director of music. Of David. A psalm. A song. May God arise, may his enemies be scattered; As smoke is blown away by the wind, But may the righteous be glad Sing to God, sing praise to his name, A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, God sets the lonely in families, When you went out before your people, O God, the earth shook, You gave abundant showers, O God; Your people settled in it, The Lord announced the word, "Kings and armies flee in haste; Even while you sleep among the campfires, When the Almighty scattered the kings in the land, The mountains of Bashan are majestic mountains; Bashan Why gaze in envy, O rugged mountains, The chariots of God are tens of thousands When you ascended on high, Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, Our God is a God who saves; Surely God will crush the heads of his enemies, The Lord says, "I will bring them from Bashan that you may plunge your feet in the blood of your foes, Your procession has come into view, O God, In front are the singers, after them the musicians; Praise God in the great congregation; Israel There is the little tribe of Benjamin, leading them, Judah Summon your power, O God ; Because of your temple at Jerusalem Rebuke the beast among the reeds, Envoys will come from Egypt Cush Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth, to him who rides the ancient skies above, Proclaim the power of God, Israel You are awesome, O God, in your sanctuary;
may his foes flee before him.
may you blow them away;
as wax melts before the fire,
may the wicked perish before God.
and rejoice before God;
may they be happy and joyful.
extol him who rides on the clouds —
his name is the LORD—
and rejoice before him.
is God in his holy dwelling.
he leads forth the prisoners with singing;
but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.
when you marched through the wasteland,
Selah
the heavens poured down rain,
before God, the One of Sinai,
before God, the God of Israel.
you refreshed your weary inheritance.
and from your bounty, O God, you provided for the poor.
and great was the company of those who proclaimed it:
in the camps men divide the plunder.
the wings of my dove are sheathed with silver,
its feathers with shining gold."
it was like snow fallen on Zalmon.
rugged are the mountains of
at the mountain where God chooses to reign,
where the LORD himself will dwell forever?
and thousands of thousands;
the Lord has come from Sinai into his sanctuary.
you led captives in your train;
you received gifts from men,
even from the rebellious—
that you, O LORD God, might dwell there.
who daily bears our burdens.
Selah
from the Sovereign LORD comes escape from death.
the hairy crowns of those who go on in their sins.
I will bring them from the depths of the sea,
while the tongues of your dogs have their share."
the procession of my God and King into the sanctuary.
with them are the maidens playing tambourines.
praise the LORD in the assembly of
there the great throng of
and there the princes of Zebulun and of Naphtali.
show us your strength, O God, as you have done before.
kings will bring you gifts.
the herd of bulls among the calves of the nations.
Humbled, may it bring bars of silver.
Scatter the nations who delight in war.
sing praise to the Lord,
Selah
who thunders with mighty voice.
whose majesty is over
whose power is in the skies.
the God of Israel gives power and strength to his people.
Praise be to God!
Gordon Christian Fellowship
Experience more... Gordon Christian Fellowship is an interdenominational ministry focusing on fellowship and discipleship. We serve Gordon College in Barnesville, Ga.
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November 2008
Nov 26, 2008
Daily Devotion - 11/25/2008
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Daily Devotion - 11/24/2008
The Lord is with us!
As I write this morning, we are approaching our national day of prayer and thanksgiving; first inaugurated by Abraham Lincoln and modeled after the feast day celebrated by the settlers of the community of Plymouth Rock. President Lincoln called for this day to be observed during one of the darkest periods in our nation’s history as a way to remember the blessing that we had and to lift up our concerns and needs to the Lord. One hundred and fifty years later many of us will gather together with our families and friends and we will fill our tables with the Lord’s bounty. For some it will be a Thanksgiving filled with anxiety and uncertainty as this year we, as a nation, find ourselves in the middle of hard times financially and with many of our citizens fighting overseas, separated from their loved ones. For others, the ascendancy of the commercial and consumerist nature of our times will call for them to be away from their families for work either due to the places their careers have taken them or because they are in a service industry that remains open on Thanksgiving Day. For many, this day will offer little time or incentive for remembrance or prayer.
But the truth is that such an attitude is something we, as a people of God, are called to each day and in every season. It is part of our relationship with our Creator who has provided us with the very life we have and who has shown His faithful love for us in all that He has given. The writer of Psalm 67 understood this idea when he wrote his call to praise and worship. In a sense, this psalm is the “front end” of a process that is fulfilled in the act of thanksgiving. The psalmist writes:
God! Let people thank and enjoy You.
Let all people thank and enjoy You.
Earth, display your exuberance!
You mark us with blessing, O God, our God.
You mark us with blessing, O God.
Earth's four corners—honor Him! (vss. 5-7, The Message)
Coming only one day a year to give thanksgiving is a bit like showing up for a class presentation without ever having attended a class. You don’t really know what to say because you haven’t really been a part of the flow of the course; its themes and dialogues, its issues and insights. Sure you can give the presentation and you will certainly present and provide information, but it won’t really be connected to the rhythm of the community and tie into what has grown from the interactions of the other participants. Like so many things in our faith, thanksgiving is a process. It begins with praise and supplication, it is nurtured through petition and lament, it is corrected through contrition and it culminates with a deep gratitude of being in relationship with God and the community He has placed you in.
So there is time to begin this process if you haven’t done it already. The spiritual feast does await but you need to come prepared. This week give yourself time to connect with God in prayer. Praise Him and ask for His blessing upon you and your life. Begin with this morning’s psalm. Recognize the bounty of the harvest He has given you, even when it seems like it isn’t what you thought it might be. Enter into a season of ingathering in your life where you count the blessings that God has poured out on you and your loved ones (and trust me, He has poured out much upon us all). Then, act out your thanksgiving not just by gathering with those near you but by returning to God a portion of what He has given. Give thanks by pouring grace into the lives of others. Give thanks by offering some of your bounty to those less fortunate than you. Give thanks by forgiving the slights and hurts that inhabit every relationship. When you give thanks, give back to God what He has given to you. By doing this you will begin the cycle anew by offering up praise.
Grace and Peace.
In Him,
Chad
Psalm 67
For the director of music. With stringed instruments. A psalm. A song.
May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make His face shine upon us,
Selah
that Your ways may be known on earth,
Your salvation among all nations.
May the peoples praise You, O God;
may all the peoples praise You.
May the nations be glad and sing for joy,
for You rule the peoples justly
and guide the nations of the earth.
Selah
May the peoples praise You, O God;
may all the peoples praise You.
Then the land will yield its harvest,
and God, our God, will bless us.
God will bless us,
and all the ends of the earth will fear Him.
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Daily Devotion - 11/21/2008
The Lord is with us!
Today we get a break from the psalms of lament or petition that ask God for protection and deliverance from enemies. Today we have a psalm of praise to the God and, to use an over used phrase, how awesome He is. The psalmist writes that God’s name is glory, His deeds are awesome and His love is steadfast. The writer praises that God has delivered humans, tested them to refine them and He has preserved their lives. All of this has been done with God’s great and ruling power. That’s what I would like to write just a little bit about today: God’s power.
In reading this psalm (and some others as well) it is easy for us to get this triumphal sense of God’s overwhelming power as being used in an aggressive muscular way. We can slip into thinking of God as acting with some sort of “shock and awe” campaign where His enemies are overwhelmed by His might, destroyed by His incomprehensible power and scattered to the four corners of the Earth by His mere breath. But if you read this psalm carefully, you see that the author is praising God’s power in a very different way. He praises that God has tested His people by humbling them, by throwing them into prison and by placing burdens on their backs. This powerful God has let His people suffer in order to develop their faith and reliance upon Him. His power is not in overwhelming His foes by the active use of force or power but in a more subtle, developmental way that changes the hearts and minds of his people.
The Christian Scriptures are full of similar references from Paul’s observation that he is being poured out like a drink offering in order to be saved while in prison to Peter’s writing that the suffering of his readers at the hands of those who hate them only serves to refine their faith. Of course, the most amazing example of all of this is that God Himself took the form of a human being. He was born a helpless infant, He lived a difficult and trying life and then He willingly offered Himself up to die on our behalf on the Cross of Calvary in order to defeat the sin and death that threaten to enslave all of humanity. He humbled himself in all of those ways to show the true power of love.
Now, if you’re ever wondering whether such an approach will work, using whatever power you might have in a way that humbles you while serving others you just have to compare it the methods of Jesus’ contemporaries. The way of the Roman Empire was to use the power to impose and enforce its will and way on those around it. Today, the only people who read about the lives and ideas of the men who advocated the use of power in that way are historians and the students they teach. Julius Caesar, Octavian (Augustus) Caesar, Marc Antony and all the rest are fascinating studies in history and personality but their ideas do not live on as ideals in our culture (though there always seem to be those more than willing to use their methods to advance themselves). But the teachings of an itinerant Jewish Rabbi and His disciples have fundamentally altered how we see ourselves as human beings and how are see each other. Those teachings are all about using power not to move oneself forward but to see to the needs of others, serve God more faithfully and reclaim and redeem the creation God so beautifully spoke into being.
Popular culture always has a thread in it that wants us to praise the explicit use of power to achieve the ends we see as most beneficial to us. There are always loud voices that tell us to use power like Donald Trump does in his business dealings, like politicians in securing legislation that benefits their political careers or like entertainers who use their talents to primarily enrich themselves and live a life without limits. But our culture has a very different set of examples from a devout Jewish teacher who has been humbled by being thrown into prison and a headstrong fisherman who will be crucified upside down to a small, frail woman who reached out to touch the untouchable and offer dignity to all she met while living in poverty.
We praise our God not because He crushes and destroys our enemies but because He loves them. He lift up His name not because He removes all suffering and anguish from our lives but because He inhabits them and redeems us through them. We see just how awesome He is not because He can destroy all of His enemies with a mere thought but because in His grace and mercy He came to call them all to Him.
In your praise and worship this weekend, remember that it is in our and His weakness that we are made strong. It is in the benevolent use of His power that we have any hope at all. Remember this and then sing your praises to a God who comes with you to make all things new again.
Grace and Peace.
In Him,
Chad
Psalm 66
For the director of music. A song. A psalm.
Shout with joy to God, all the earth!
Sing the glory of His name;
make His praise glorious!
Say to God, "How awesome are Your deeds!
So great is Your power
that your enemies cringe before You.
All the earth bows down to You;
they sing praise to You,
they sing praise to Your name."
Selah
Come and see what God has done,
how awesome His works in man's behalf!
He turned the sea into dry land,
they passed through the waters on foot—
come, let us rejoice in Him.
He rules forever by His power,
His eyes watch the nations—
let not the rebellious rise up against Him.
Selah
Praise our God, O peoples,
let the sound of His praise be heard;
He has preserved our lives
and kept our feet from slipping.
For You, O God, tested us;
You refined us like silver.
You brought us into prison
and laid burdens on our backs.
You let men ride over our heads;
we went through fire and water,
but You brought us to a place of abundance.
I will come to Your temple with burnt offerings
and fulfill my vows to You-
vows my lips promised and my mouth spoke
when I was in trouble.
I will sacrifice fat animals to You
and an offering of rams;
I will offer bulls and goats.
Selah
Come and listen, all you who fear God;
let me tell you what He has done for me.
I cried out to Him with my mouth;
His praise was on my tongue.
If I had cherished sin in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened;
but God has surely listened
and heard my voice in prayer.
Praise be to God,
who has not rejected my prayer
or withheld His love from me!
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Nov 20, 2008
Daily Devotion - 11/20/2008
Christ is in our Midst
Psalm 65 can be an example of the thickets and complications that ensue when history and theology mix. Traditionally, Christians have solved such problems by insisting on the absolute historic (and sometimes) scientific accuracy of the Bible. Many modern Christians, on the other hand, have swung to the opposite extreme, insisting that those passages in the Bible that seem to contradict modern knowledge are little better than superstition and are to be completely rejected. Psalm 65, however, offers a third methodology for interpretation between the two ideas of absolute inerrancy and pious legend.
The introductory note to my Septuagint version of this psalm, (in fact, Psalm 64 in this ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament) calls this Davidic hymn a “song sung by Jeremiah and Ezekiel and the captive people, when they were about to depart.” The reference here is to two prophets who predicted the downfall of Judah, and who, according to the psalm’s subtitle, are preparing to return with the captive Hebrews to Judah after the fall of Babylon. Historically, there seems to be little chance that this ever happened; most historians seem to think that Jeremiah died in Egypt sometime after the capture of Jerusalem (586 B.C.); Ezekiel’s dates are even more problematic. The odds that they somehow led the former captives in song as they departed Babylon (538 B.C.) would seem rather long. So how might we approach our reading and understanding of Psalm 65? Does this allusion to events that probably never happened somehow render the text invalid or unworthy of our prayer and study?
The Orthodox Church insists that the central fact of our relationship with God is that He is an Infinite Being Whose nature is utterly unfathomable to us. Humans, the Church Fathers insist, can come to a knowledge of the existence of God through experience and human reason, but they can know absolutely nothing about Him except for what He reveals to us about Himself---for the simple reason that God’s infinite nature is quite simply above and beyond all human understanding. The Bible, in this sense, is a major piece of this revelation. It is not, therefore, a book of science, or history,… or myth. It is a record of what God wants human beings to know about Himself.
So whether or not Jeremiah and Ezekiel led the people in singing Psalm 65 as they left Babylon, whether or not the people even sang this psalm at all, is not the point. The compiler of the psalms, writing most of us profess under divine inspiration, wrote that this song was sung by the Hebrews as they left captivity for their homeland. We can use this knowledge, our understanding of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, prophets who warned of God’s impending judgment on Judah and urged a return to His commandments as “facts” of the psalm’s setting, to meditate and pray David’s words three thousand years after their writing.
Many modern commentaries claim that the psalm is a “harvest song”: fair enough. We can certainly meditate on God’s abundant goodness, especially as our own national day of Thanksgiving is but a week away. But the compiler’s depiction of the prophets leading a “return” to God adds an additional dimension to such a meditation. For read in this light, Psalm 65 goes far beyond a simple thanksgiving for the fruits of the harvest. It reminds us that God is indeed the God of history, that He is in charge of human destiny, that everything that happens only occurs at His permissive will, and that in the end He will use human history to work out the economy of salvation. “The nations shall be troubled; they also that dwell in the uttermost parts shall be afraid at Thy signs…,” David reminds us. Even those who find themselves, or deliberately place themselves far from God, shall come to know His presence and power. We, above all peoples, need to contemplate the warnings of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. They indeed need to lead us in a song of “return.”
Our task, this psalm seems to insist, is to “return,” from our selfishness, our shortsightedness, from our prodigal’s pigsty; to realize that God really is in charge, so that we “arise, and go to [our] Father, and … say to Him, ‘Father I have sinned against heaven and before Thee, and am no more worthy to be called Thy son. Make me one of Thy hired servants.’” And just as in the father’s abundant rejoicing in the parable of the Prodigal Son, the psalmist in the Old Testament insists that we will find “the river of God… full of waters”; that God will “bless the crown of the year with [His] goodness, and [His] plains filled with fatness.”
As we prepare for Thanksgiving, the first step is to gather, to return to our homes and families. Psalm 65 reminds that this is the identical step we need to take with our God: to return, to acknowledge His sovereignty and boundless goodness. On Thanksgiving Day, on every day, we shall find Him as the Prodigal did, as the Hebrews did twenty-five hundred years ago: our Infinite God scanning the horizon like an anxious Father, longing for the return of his prodigal sons and daughters---from Babylon, from Barnesville, and from every point in between.
Gary
Forefeast of the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple; feast of St. Gregory Decapolite; feast of St. Proclus, Archbishop of Constantinople
Psalm 65
For the director of music. A psalm of David. A song.
Praise awaits You, O God, in Zion;
to You our vows will be fulfilled.
O You who hear prayer,
to You all men will come.
When we were overwhelmed by sins,
You forgave our transgressions.
Blessed are those You choose
and bring near to live in Your courts!
We are filled with the good things of Your house,
of Your holy temple.
You answer us with awesome deeds of righteousness,
O God our Savior,
the hope of all the ends of the earth
and of the farthest seas,
who formed the mountains by Your power,
having armed Yourself with strength,
who stilled the roaring of the seas,
the roaring of their waves,
and the turmoil of the nations.
Those living far away fear Your wonders;
where morning dawns and evening fades
You call forth songs of joy.
You care for the land and water it;
You enrich it abundantly.
The streams of God are filled with water
to provide the people with grain,
for so You have ordained it.
You drench its furrows
and level its ridges;
You soften it with showers
and bless its crops.
You crown the year with Your bounty,
and Your carts overflow with abundance.
The grasslands of the desert overflow;
the hills are clothed with gladness.
The meadows are covered with flocks
and the valleys are mantled with grain;
they shout for joy and sing.
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Daily Devotion - 11/19/2008
The Lord is with us!
When the history of this decade is written, I believe that there will be two overarching events that will be the lenses through which all other events will be viewed. The first, of course, will be the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11th, 2001 while the second will be the global financial crisis that we are now going through and may go through for a number of years to come. Both of these events are the result of a complex web of cause and effect that led to enormous loss on both personal and national scales and the repercussions of their happening will likely carry forward for years and years. At least one generation will be defined by these events much like the “builder generation”, born between 1900 and 1920, were defined by the two world wars and the economic boom and Great Depression that were sandwiched between them.
In thinking of the September 11th attacked, I am reminded by the absolute sense of surprise many of us felt on that day. My wife, who was home sick on that Tuesday, recalls watching the morning talk shows and seeing that the hosts were as befuddled by the events as they were unfolding as anyone. That such an event could be taking place was so outside their (and almost everyone else’s) realm of thought that they struggled to accept that it could be taking place. As the day wore on and the horror and shock of what happened settled in, we began to search for both answers in the confusion and solace for our losses.
In the same way, but on a much slower time scale, we are watching as our economy is coming off of the tracks due to our shortsightedness and greed as a nation. Most people have failed to comprehend the magnitude of the crisis because the events are so far outside their experience (though I imagine that those who experienced the Great Depression aren’t caught quite as off guard as the rest of us). As families lose their homes and as entire industries teeter on the brink of collapse, we struggle to understand and accept the causes of our current difficulties.
I don’t know the circumstances of David’s writing of Psalm 64 but I imagine that he was having just the sort of moment as we just described. Maybe he wakes up one day as King of Israel and puts together the clues that many in his capital are plotting his overthrow. Perhaps this is written just before his son Absalom tries to and nearly succeeds in overthrowing the King. Whatever the events, we get the sense that David feels ambushed and in great peril. He looks around and all he sees are foes and enemies and murderers.
For us, our natural response in this situation is to take some strong defensive action of our own. We seek to strike back at our enemies as quickly as possible using our own resources and our own initiative. We “circle the wagons”, expel the strangers and aliens and prepare for a long siege. It’s the natural and instinctual thing to do and in many cases it is the appropriate response in order to protect ourselves from imminent danger.
David may do the same thing, I don’t know, but in this psalm I think that it is interesting that in his petition/complaint to God, David leaves it to God to deal with his foes. He expects that God will work to bring things to His proper conclusion using His methods for His glory.
In this I think there are two things we can learn (or at least be reminded of). The first is, as we’ve said many times, David takes everything to God. Perhaps things aren’t what David thinks they are. Perhaps it’s a misunderstanding or a misperception on David’s part. Instead of wondering and stewing and getting into the “maybe this and maybe that” game we all seem to play, David goes to God with his fears and complaints. We see again that David’s response to anything in his life is to take it to God and seek God’s action in his life. This is a lesson we all need to learn to live in our lives.
The second thing to recall is that God works all things to His glory. We can go to Him in prayer and ask Him for an outcome (and, as the psalms repeated show, we should) but for our prayer to be mature we should always pray that the results of our prayer be to God’s glory. Maybe I feel like I’ve been unduly put upon due my wife and my lack of a second car. Maybe I pray that the financial where-with-all come available to purchase or finance that second car. But for my prayer to be mature, I have to ask myself, “Where does God’s glorification fit into me having a second car?” “Do the methods I want to use to acquire this car bring Him glory?” If the answer to those questions are lacking, maybe I find a different way to pray for them or a different thing to pray for all together. David wants those who plot against him foiled and brought down but in this psalm the reason doesn’t seem to be so that he can gloat over their destruction or crow about how great he, the King of Israel, is. He wants them stopped so that people will see the glory of God, hold Him in proper respect and seek Him as their true source of refuge.
So as we approach the last couple of weeks of school, I know that a number of you students will begin turning to prayer as a source of solace, comfort and strength as you finish your semester long projects and prepare for you last exams and your finals. That’s a good thing and I encourage all of you to do so. For some of you the approaching storm of academic obligations may seem to be catching you by surprise and you may feel unfairly put upon by your professors and you may turn to God in prayer in petition and complaint. Again, as the psalms show us, that’s a completely understandable response to a time of crisis. What I will ask you, however, is to ask that whatever happens, God will be glorified. Don’t ask to be delivered from the vortex of end of the semester obligations because you want a sort of “get out of jail free” card, but ask for the strength and courage to follow through on your commitments so that God may be glorified in your actions and in the opportunities that will be opened up for you in the future if you are successful this semester. Try to make your prayers less about God in your life and more about your life in God. In your doing this, those around you “will proclaim the works of God and ponder what He has done.”
Grace and Peace.
In Him,
Chad
Psalm 64
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
Hear me, O God, as I voice my complaint;
protect my life from the threat of the enemy.
Hide me from the conspiracy of the wicked,
from that noisy crowd of evildoers.
They sharpen their tongues like swords
and aim their words like deadly arrows.
They shoot from ambush at the innocent man;
they shoot at him suddenly, without fear.
They encourage each other in evil plans,
they talk about hiding their snares;
they say, "Who will see them?"
They plot injustice and say,
"We have devised a perfect plan!"
Surely the mind and heart of man are cunning.
But God will shoot them with arrows;
suddenly they will be struck down.
He will turn their own tongues against them
and bring them to ruin;
all who see them will shake their heads in scorn.
All mankind will fear;
they will proclaim the works of God
and ponder what He has done.
Let the righteous rejoice in the LORD
and take refuge in Him;
let all the upright in heart praise Him!
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Nov 18, 2008
Daily Devotion - 11/18/2008
Christ is in our Midst!
We are a society that often prefers (empty) symbols over substance. We talk a good game, wear all the right colored ribbons, yet somehow remain absolutely detached and aloof from many of the causes we claim to espouse. “Environmentalists” who live in giant houses, whose utility bills for a month approach those of a middle class family for a year, athletes who wear the ribbon de jour, yet live sybaritic life styles, politicians who routinely damn their opponents for policies that they themselves practice, all are symptomatic of a culture of emptiness and hypocrisy. Showing “solidarity” through symbols has become our favored form of compassion.
Such hypocrisy is not confined to the secular world, a world we Christians take continually delight in condemning (as I myself have in the above paragraph). In fact, I would argue that we Christians are often the ultimate hypocrites, and our “two-facedness” contributes much to the ills of the society we routinely damn. Now it is easy to find all kinds of hypocrisy and practicing hypocrites in modern Christianity; I routinely “trot them out”---my own form of sanctimonious puffery---in justifying why I don’t go to church or keep my rule of prayer or fast or do whatever I know I should be doing as a believing Christian.
But let me focus on the one hypocrisy that underwrites all the rest, that turns so much of what I do into sheer sanctimony: a cant that is powerfully illustrated and challenged by David in Psalm 63.
Ponder the opening of Psalm 63: “O God Thou art my God; early will I seek Thee. My soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh longeth for Thee, in a dry and thirsty land where no water is….” David seeks God; he longs to be with Him. David’s life is centered on the quest to know, love, and serve God. Scripture makes clear that this is the goal of David’s life---that no matter how far he falls away from his God, or how many times he falls, he returns again and again. David’s life is built around God.
How different we are---I am from David! Would that I could claim that God was the very center of my life!
A fairer depiction of my spiritual life---and perhaps of yours, as well---is that God often seems like a hobby. I enjoy Him from time to time, sort of like my golf clubs or a stamp album. I can put Him away in a closet when I’m busy with other things. He forms an important part of my daily “to do” list: gotta make sure I say my prayers, read the day’s Scriptures, keep the fast. But do I really thirst for God in the same way, say, that I thirst for a new driver, or for the end of the semester, or even for my team to win its next game?
I submit these attitudes are much more common than we as Christians realize. Consider how we talk about heaven. It’s a place with “heavenly choirs”; there are clunky streets of gold, with beautiful houses and fantastic golf courses; it’s a place first and foremost where we will be reunited with our loved ones. How many times have we heard “heaven” described in these terms? To some degree, granted, these are simple and good-natured attempts to conceptualize the inconceivable. But note the one thing missing in all these traditional descriptions of the kingdom: God Himself.
It’s clear from Christ’s own words that heaven is first and foremost our being with God, our unification with the Almighty. It’s the reason Our Lord talks about the kingdom of heaven being within each one of us. In this sense heaven is not so much a place as it is a condition: it is our invitation to join in the “communion of love” that is the Holy Trinity---to join now and abide for all eternity.
Thus Psalm 63 ought to be for us a powerful didactic meditation. What we seek is nothing less than the Eternal God---and if we aren’t really interested in finding Him here and now, why on earth do we think we’ll somehow develop that interest in eternity?
The beloved nineteenth century Russian elder, St. Seraphim of Sarov, emphasized the centrality of seeking God in the Christian life.
“Prayer, fasting, vigils, and all other Christian practices, however good they may be in themselves, certainly do not constitute the aim of our Christian life; they are but the indispensable means of attaining that aim. For the true aim of the Christian life is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God.
Seraphim’s counsel, like David’s meditation a thousand years before Christ, reminds us that everything we do, even our efforts to “get to heaven,” are but steps to our real goal.
Gary
Feast of the Martyrs Plato and Romanus; fourth day of the Nativity Fast.
Psalm 63
A psalm of David. When he was in the Desert of Judah.
O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek You;
my soul thirsts for You,
my body longs for You,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.
I have seen You in the sanctuary
and beheld Your power and Your glory.
Because Your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify You.
I will praise You as long as I live,
and in Your name I will lift up my hands.
My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise You.
On my bed I remember You;
I think of You through the watches of the night.
Because You are my help,
I sing in the shadow of Your wings.
My soul clings to You;
Your right hand upholds me.a
They who seek my life will be destroyed;
they will go down to the depths of the earth.
They will be given over to the sword
and become food for jackals.
But the king will rejoice in God;
all who swear by God's name will praise Him,
while the mouths of liars will be silenced.a
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Nov 17, 2008
Daily Devotional - 11/17/2008
The Lord is with us!
I’m a big Oakland Raiders fan. I have been since I was about six years old. While the Raiders’ fortunes of late haven’t been very good, I can remember the times in the 70’s and 80’s when they were one of the elite teams in the AFC, regularly playing for the conference championship and winning three Super Bowls. Back then my fall Sundays were dominated by the Raiders games (they were the only team we got to see in southern Oregon with any regularity) and I remember the epic battles between my hero Kenny Stabler and Terry Bradshaw of the hated Pittsburgh Steelers. When we won, I was on cloud nine and my friends and I would celebrate by playing touch football in the street until the sun went down or chores like leaf raking and wood cutting interrupted our impersonations of our grid iron idols. Conversely, when the Raiders lost I would mope around for a couple of hours berating the officiating, the other team and the poor fortune in the bounce of an oblong ball. Whether I had a good day was largely dependant on whether the Raiders had won or lost.
When I went to grad school I was introduced to a whole new level of this behavior. Southern Oregon State College didn’t have what you might call a strong football tradition but moving to the University of Florida was a real eye-opener. For the first time I saw people whose entire week might be determined by the playing of a game by their beloved Gators. I had never seen 90,000 people stream into a town for a football game before and when the Gators started winning a lot it was amazing to see the reaction of people. When Steve Spurrier was hired, you might have been forgiven for thinking that it was something like the Second Coming overhearing the jubilation of the Gator faithful.
They were exciting times for sure but the reaction and response opened my eyes to something I hadn’t really seen before. Just prior to moving to Gainesville I had followed the sexual and corruption scandal that surrounded the fall of the Jim Bakker and the PTL Club. It was during my years in Gainesville that Bill Clinton was elected to the Presidency to the dismay and outrage of many of my Christian and conservative friends. In each case I saw how so many people were placing their faith (or at least their identity) in the hands and lives of human beings and that the fortunes of these teams or individuals began to dictate how they lived their lives much like it had mine when I followed the Raiders’ every play.
In the last couple of weeks, I have seen this play out again with the most recent election. Supporters of the various political tickets for the Presidency waxed and waned hopeful and angry as the campaign wound along to its conclusion. Supporters of Obama celebrated their victory while those backing McCain cursed their defeat and vocally questioned whether the country was ruined (in fairness, this situation was exactly the opposite in the previous two elections when those supporting the Bush/Cheney tickets reveled in their candidates success while those who opposed them vocally questioned the intelligence of other voters and suggested that the country was being destroyed). In each of these cases, what seems to have been forgotten is that the people being discussed are merely that: people. Barack Obama and John McCain are just human beings. The parties they represented in this election are filled with human beings. The positions they hold and the things they do are important and meaningful but they aren’t worth placing our identities in.
Psalm 62 seeks to remind us of what is and is not important. In this psalm David contrasts the weight of God’s influence in his life with that of the human being that surround him. On the God side David writes:
My soul finds rest in God alone;
my salvation comes from Him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation;
He is my fortress, I will never be shaken.
Trust in Him at all times, O people;
pour out your hearts to Him,
for God is our refuge.
One thing God has spoken,
two things have I heard:
that you, O God, are strong,
and that you, O Lord, are loving.
In reference to humans, David has this to say:
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.
Do not trust in extortion
or take pride in stolen goods;
though your riches increase,
do not set your heart on them.
The message here is clear and welcome in these times. As followers of The Way we are to find our value in the strength and love of God. Unlikely my Raiders who have lost their way and are now amongst the worst teams in the NFL, God will not change. He will not ever be anything He has not been. He can be trusted to be there in both good times and bad and he can be trusted to remain strong and steady (is this beginning to sound like a political ad?).
What we have to ask is whether we are willing to seek Him in His strength. Are we willing to let go of the things and people who we look to for security and take the humbling step of placing our lives at the foot of God’s throne and the foot of the Cross of Calvary? Can we accept that Mark Richt and Urban Meyer are just a couple of guys? Can we understand that Barack Obama and Sarah Palin are just people who are more or less just like us? Can we learn to understand that Rush Limbaugh and Al Gore are literally “only a breath”? Yes, they represent ideas and cast visions that can encourage and inspire us, but they should only do so insofar as they echo the eternal truths of our God who loves us and saves us and who calls us away from lives of judgment to lives of gratitude and mercy.
As you go forward into this week and as you consider your lives as we approach this national time of thanksgiving, I would ask you to think about David’s words in Psalm 62. Do you live these words? Where do you place your trust? What controls your attitudes and your sense of security? Where is your identity found and do your words and, more importantly, your actions reflect the answer to that question?
Grace and Peace,
In Him,
Chad
Psalm 62
For the director of music. For Jeduthun. A psalm of David.
My soul finds rest in God alone;
my salvation comes from Him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation;
He is my fortress, I will never be shaken.
How long will you assault a man?
Would all of you throw him down—
this leaning wall, this tottering fence?
They fully intend to topple him
from his lofty place;
they take delight in lies.
With their mouths they bless,
but in their hearts they curse.
Selah
Find rest, O my soul, in God alone;
my hope comes from Him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation;
He is my fortress, I will not be shaken.
My salvation and my honor depend on God ;
He is my mighty rock, my refuge.
Trust in Him at all times, O people;
pour out your hearts to Him,
for God is our refuge.
Selah
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.
Do not trust in extortion
or take pride in stolen goods;
though your riches increase,
do not set your heart on them.
One thing God has spoken,
two things have I heard:
that you, O God, are strong,
and that you, O Lord, are loving.
Surely you will reward each person
according to what he has done.
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Nov 14, 2008
Daily Devotional - 11/14/2008
The Lord is with us! “Hear my cry, O God; Listen to my prayer.” So begins today’s psalm; a call to prayer. You can hear these words as they are cried out from the streets. You can hear them whispered in hospital waiting rooms. You can hear the chants of the faithful. You can feel the screams of the angry and hurt and dispossessed. You can hear them in the thoughts of the parent waiting up for a child out past curfew, in the late night sighs of unemployed looking at the mounting bills and in the confessions of the sinner coming before God aware of his illness. “Hear my cry, O God; Listen to my prayer.” This is our cry to our God; a God who is not distant and uninvolved, a God who cares for His creation and His people. In technical terms it is our petition to God but really it is us reaching out to Him in the most basic way. “Hear us,“ we ask from a noisy life in a noisy world. “Please listen to us,” we beg. Like David, we ask God, when our courage is at its lowest point and when we feel farthest away, to place us upon a rock that is higher than what assails us. I love how Eugene Peterson translates parts of this psalm. In his version, David asks God for “a lifetime pass to Your safe house” and to be post “Steady Love and Good Faith as lookouts” to protect him. Too often we look to other things to protect us in our lives. We hope wealth will insulate us from hard times. We isolate ourselves from those we see as “the other” to protect ourselves from being hurt in relationships. We move further away from people in hopes of being protected from crime and the inconvenience a neighbor’s request. We try to elect political officials that will preserve or enhance our status quo and look to security in armies and police forces and stronger laws. But what about Love and Faith? Do we see those things as the true source of our security? Do we see God’s Providence as protection from all bad times or as sustenance through them? Do we pay lip service to the idea that God is our Shepherd or do we actually listen to His voice when He calls to us? And do we call back with the words, “Hear my cry, O God,…”? For me, this is such a perfect prayer of petition because David never asks for stuff, never asks for his enemies to be destroyed, never asks for easy times. He asks for God to hear him and to establish him in a safe place through love and faithfulness. It is a prayer to come before God and to dwell with Him in His “house for all of my days.” “Hear my cry, O God; Listen to my prayer.” Let this be our prayer as well. Grace and Peace. In Him, Chad Hear my cry, O God; From the ends of the earth I call to You, For You have been my refuge, I long to dwell in Your tent forever Selah For You have heard my vows, O God; Increase the days of the king's life, May he be enthroned in God's presence forever; Then will I ever sing praise to Your name Psalm 61
For the director of music. With stringed instruments. Of David.
listen to my prayer.
I call as my heart grows faint;
lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
a strong tower against the foe.
and take refuge in the shelter of Your wings.
You have given me the heritage of those who fear Your name.
his years for many generations.
appoint Your love and faithfulness to protect him.
and fulfill my vows day after day.
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Nov 13, 2008
Daily Devotional - 11/13/2008
Christ is in our Midst!
As I read Psalm 60 this morning, I see again just how timeless and immediate and appropriate the Psalter really is. How the psalms speak to our human condition! How they express the depths and secrets of our hearts!
Over the past several years my own Orthodox Church in America has been embroiled in scandal and controversy. Now when Orthodox fight…and fail, fortunately it is not over the Faith. The good news is that one cannot be Orthodox without subscribing unconditionally to the “Symbol of Faith,” the historic Nicene Creed. That’s the good news…. The bad news is that when we fight and fail---it’s always over goofy things, like beards and pews and calendars, or over worldly things, like power and money. But whenever the leaders of the Church fail, sin, their failures all too often strike hardest at the ordinary members. Because my faith is weak, because I’m always looking for an excuse to avoid my own responsibilities as a Christian, it’s easy to accuse others, to see the failings of my bishops as an excuse for me to do what I want---not what God wants me to do.
Psalm 60 expresses well the feelings that have nearly overwhelmed me. “O God, Thou hast cast us off, Thou hast scattered us. Thou hast been displeased; O turn Thyself to us again!” As I read this psalm this morning, as I read it now, how perfectly David encapsulates exactly how I have felt for so long.
And yet, just yesterday, in the midst of so much gloom and doubt and hurt, came electrifying news that at least suggest that God will not abandon us, any of us, no matter how much we may deserve abandonment. For yesterday came word that the Church in council has elected a new leader, a humble monk, Bishop Jonah, who until eleven days ago was a simple archimandrite (abbot) of a small monastery in California. He had been chosen to be the assistant bishop of my own Southern Diocese, and thus was only raised to the episcopal status on the first of this month. On Tuesday of this very week, the new Bishop Jonah was asked to preach to the All-American Council, and by all accounts his words were so searching and inspiring that the idea began to form that he should be the new leader of the
American Church. And so the man who on Halloween was a simple monk today finds himself “Archbishop of Washington and New York, Metropolitan of All-America and Canada.” I can reasonably hope for renewal and reform.
Forgive me this deeply personal reflection, but as I read the rest of Psalm 60 this morning King David’s words seem to put all my feelings of almost three years into a historical and spiritual context. “God has spoken in His holiness: ‘I will rejoice,’” David’s God says. The psalm makes clear that everyone, everything, and every place, is under God’s authority. Whole regions of the world, God says, He can use as mere possessions: Moab is a mere wash basin; all of Edom will serve simply as place for God to fling down His shoe. All the things we think are so important, powerful, massive, are mere utensils that God can use as He wills. God rejoices in His holiness, in His power, in His meekness. Like pieces in a puzzle, everything fits together to reveal God’s glory. Even man’s sad and sordid failings ultimately reveal the omnipotence of God.
Perhaps most of all, David reminds us that God has never, will never abandon us. “Give us help from trouble,” David, and we too, pray, “for vain is the help of man. Through God we shall do valiantly, for He it is that shall tread down our enemies.” David’s faith is unswerving; God will sustain His people. Would that over the past three years my faith had been like David’s.
So appropriate, so timeless, so meaningful are the psalms. (And for Metropolitan Jonah: Many Years!)
Gary
Feast of St. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople.
Psalm 60
For the director of music. To the tune of "The Lily of the Covenant." A miktam of David. For teaching. When he fought Aram Naharaim and Aram Zobah, and when Joab returned and struck down twelve thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt.
You have rejected us, O God, and burst forth upon us;
You have been angry-now restore us!
You have shaken the land and torn it open;
mend its fractures, for it is quaking.
You have shown Your people desperate times;
You have given us wine that makes us stagger.
But for those who fear You, You have raised a banner
to be unfurled against the bow.
Selah
Save us and help us with your right hand,
that those you love may be delivered.
God has spoken from His sanctuary:
"In triumph I will parcel out Shechem
and measure off the Valley of Succoth.
Gilead is Mine, and Manasseh is Mine;
Ephraim is My helmet, Judah My scepter.
Moab is My washbasin,
upon Edom I toss My sandal;
over Philistia I shout in triumph."
Who will bring me to the fortified city?
Who will lead me to Edom?
Is it not You, O God, You who have rejected us
and no longer go out with our armies?
Give us aid against the enemy,
for the help of man is worthless.
With God we will gain the victory,
and He will trample down our enemies.
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Nov 12, 2008
Daily Devotional - 11/12/2008
The Lord is with us! As many of you know, one of the activities I enjoyed while growing up in southern Oregon was Scouting. As a member of the Boy Scout Troop 14, I spent at least one weekend every month camping, hiking, orienteering and whatnot in the great outdoors. Our troop’s biggest weekend was an annual father/son outing in a region known at the Grand National Lava Beds in northeast California where we spent time spelunking through the many lava tubes and ice caves of the region. On the way back from the Lava Beds we always stopped at a place near Tule Lake known as Captain Jack’s Stronghold. The Stronghold was a labyrinthine geologic formation formed by the same volcanic activity that had made the lava tubes further to the south and east. Our troop always took a break from driving there on the Sunday on the way back home for lunch and time of good, old-fashioned Scouting exploration. The formation got its name from a local Native American Chief who, with a band of 51 other warriors, from a group of Native Americans known as the Modoc, held off the a group of US Calvary and local volunteers for over six months who wanted to capture them and return them to a local reservation. I remember very clearly walking through the formation, guided by the various signs that had been placed around the fortress to explain its history, and thinking about what it must have been like to have been at the site through the bitterly cold early months of 1873. As I looked out of the fortress across the plains that surrounded it, I always tried to imagine what it would have been like to see the US Cavalry camped and knowing that there was no way they could break into my fortifications. Not that the cavalry didn’t try but on each occasion they were repulsed with some considerable loss of life while the Modoc Indians suffered no casualties. As I wandered the fortress I saw the places where provisions were stored for the long cold winter and blazingly hot summer, I climbed to the defensive firing positions and ran the paths that allowed the defenders to escape and confuse those few soldiers who managed to get into the fortress. What occurred to me was that how unfair the fight was. Had there been no Stronghold, the Native Americans would have been able to offer no resistance to the Army. Instead, with the Stronghold, they were nearly unbeatable even though they were outnumbered and outgunned. The Army only succeeded in obtaining their surrender through an act of treason that allowed them to cut the tribe off from their water supply in June of that year. What I learned on those trips was how important it was to have a stronghold when in battle. At roughly this same time, I had developed a fascination with the Middle Ages in Europe and enjoyed reading about the castles, keeps and fortresses that housed nobility and knights and that protected those inside their walls. While Captain Jack’s wasn’t as romantic in a classical sense as these, it appealed by my western, frontier sensibilities in much the same way. In both cases I saw that the fortress allowed those who were weak and with little defense to stand up to the strong and powerful. They allowed people to hold off the forces of the outside world and live with a sense of security and provision, at least for a time. In each case, the fortress gave strength and courage to the defenders it protected from the marauders and Army. Psalm 59 is the third in a series of three psalms sung to the same tune; “Do Not Destroy”. Much of the psalm is similar to Psalm 58 which Gary wrote about yesterday. To understand those elements I refer you to his comments. There are however differences between the two psalms and the most notable of these is David’s identification of God as his fortress. He writes: “O my Strength, I watch for You; You, O God, are my fortress, my loving God.” (vs. 9) “But I will sing of Your strength, In the morning I will sing of Your love; For You are my fortress, My refuge in times of trouble. O my Strength, I sing praise to You; You, O God, are my fortress, my loving God.” (vs. 16-17) David was a military man who understood the value of good fortifications. He had used them, I’m sure, and had had to find a way to attack and defeat them. He understood what a huge advantage it was to have such strongholds. So in this time in his life when his enemies pursue and hunt him and he seems to be struggling to stay one step ahead of Saul and his armies, David recognizes how important the grace of God is in his life. It is to God that David can retreat when things get hard. It is behind God’s strength that David can find defense against the seemingly overwhelming forces that he faces. Because he can rest in God’s protection and provision at night, he is able to awake in the morning and sing. In God, David feels that he can weather the attacks of his enemies and he can hold out against overwhelming odds. I think that the same is true for us today. Paul uses analogies to warfare frequently in his letters and Peter describes the Devil as a roaring lion prowling about seeking whom he may destroy. We are in warfare on many levels; with ourselves and our own desires to follow the will of our flesh rather than the will of God, with our culture and its “if it feels good, do it” ethic and the Adversary Peter so frighteningly describes. If we were, like some sort of modern day Modoc Indian, try to meet these forces on the open field of battle, chances are than we would be defeated and, perhaps, destroyed. And, of course, that’s exactly what the Adversary wants us to do. He’s going to try to convince me that we’re strong enough, smart enough and righteous enough all on our own and that we can stand outside of the walls of the fortress and take on the army arrayed against us. That’s one of those big lies the Father of Lies tries to get us to believe and far too often we do. We need to understand that we’re never going to take on all of the things that stand against us all on our own. We, like David, have to understand that God has got to be the fortress that we use to even the odds and hold off the enemies. Paul writes that he “can do all things through Christ that strengthens me.” He and other writers say that when we are baptized, we are sealed by God’s indwelling Holy Spirit as a sign of our inheritance into His way of life. Christ says that this Spirit, this counselor and comforter, will guide, lead and teach us all that we know to stand up to the lies and temptations of our own flesh and the culture that is always threatening to overwhelm us. We need to understand that God is our fortress just as he was David’s. Only then will we be able to overcome this world and participate in the process of transforming it into God’s Kingdom. Grace and Peace. In Him, Chad Deliver me from my enemies, O God; Deliver me from evildoers See how they lie in wait for me! I have done no wrong, yet they are ready to attack me. O LORD God Almighty, the God of Israel, Selah They return at evening, See what they spew from their mouths— But You, O LORD, laugh at them; O my Strength, I watch for You; But do not kill them, O Lord our Shield, For the sins of their mouths, consume them in wrath, Selah They return at evening, They wander about for food But I will sing of Your strength, O my Strength, I sing praise to You; Psalm 59
For the director of music. To the tune of "Do Not Destroy." Of David. A miktam . When Saul had sent men to watch David's house in order to kill him.
protect me from those who rise up against me.
and save me from bloodthirsty men.
Fierce men conspire against me
for no offense or sin of mine, O LORD.
Arise to help me; look on my plight!
rouse Yourself to punish all the nations;
show no mercy to wicked traitors.
snarling like dogs,
and prowl about the city.
they spew out swords from their lips,
and they say, "Who can hear us?"
You scoff at all those nations.
You, O God, are my fortress, my loving God.
God will go before me
and will let me gloat over those who slander me.
or my people will forget.
In Your might make them wander about,
and bring them down.
for the words of their lips,
let them be caught in their pride.
For the curses and lies they utter,
consume them till they are no more.
Then it will be known to the ends of the earth
that God rules over Jacob.
snarling like dogs,
and prowl about the city.
and howl if not satisfied.
in the morning I will sing of Your love;
for You are my fortress,
my refuge in times of trouble.
You, O God, are my fortress, my loving God.
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