Gordon Christian Fellowship

Daily Devotion - 12/09/2008

The Lord is with us!

As we bring this semester's devotionals to a close I am sort of surprised to find us standing here at Psalm 75.  It seems like it was just yesterday that I was writing the first words of the semester about the two paths found in Psalm 1.  I don't know about you, but to me the entire body of the psalms has always seemed a little intimidating.  Anytime you have a hundred and fifty of anything it seems like a lot and that's especially true here.  Yet, to paraphrase an old saying, a journey of a hundred and fifty psalms begins with a single devotional and so four months later we find ourselves halfway through.

Psalm 75 is a good place for us to pause for two reasons.  The first is that it somewhat echoes the themes of the first psalm.  There we looked at the paths taken by the righteous and the unrighteous and where they led.  Here we have a mediation on how God will cut off the strength of the wicked as opposed to how He will lift up the righteous.  In Hebrew literature, the horn is consistently a symbol for the strength or power of something.  Thus, when the psalmist writes;

To the arrogant I say, 'Boast no more,'
      and to the wicked, 'Do not lift up your horns.

Do not lift your horns against heaven;
      do not speak with outstretched neck.' "

No one from the east or the west
      or from the desert can exalt a man.

But it is God who judges:
      He brings one down, He exalts another. 

he is instructing the singer to not try to use his or her power or strength against God because it is useless.  History is replete with the stories of men who forgot this maxim and who found that their enduring legacies and thousand year kingdoms crumbled like sand castles before the tide.

This psalm is also appropriate at this time of Advent and Christmas as we wait in anticipation for the in-breaking Kingdom of God.  It is a Kingdom that will not come to Earth in the form of a powerful king born in an important place with announcements sent to all of the surrounding monarchs and authorities.  It is a Kingdom that begins in a stable, announced to simple shepherds, in a tiny town in a backwater place of a huge empire. Herod claimed rulership over all of Palestine but God did not uphold his strength.  Caesar Augustus claimed to be Lord and Savior but he didn't understand what dawned on that early morning.  Both of their kingdoms would crumble and fall; their temporal strength unable to overcome the designs of enemies and corruption within.  

At the beginning of the psalm we read,

We give thanks to You, O God,
      we give thanks, for Your Name is near;
      men tell of Your wonderful deeds.

You say, "I choose the appointed time;
      it is I who judge uprightly.

When the earth and all its people quake,
      it is I who hold its pillars firm. 

This season, the wonderful deeds we tell aren't of pillars of smoke and fire or of water from a rock or of water turned into wine.  In this season we tell of a tiny light, come into the darkness of the world, that will not be overcome by the world's strength.  In this season we tell of the triumph of humility over power, submission over power and love over death.

I wish you and yours a blessed Advent and Christmas.  May the Light of the World shine into your life in this season.

Grace and Peace.

In Him,

Chad

Psalm 75

For the director of music. To the tune of "Do Not Destroy." A psalm of Asaph. A song.

We give thanks to You, O God,
      we give thanks, for Your Name is near;
      men tell of Your wonderful deeds.

You say, "I choose the appointed time;
      it is I who judge uprightly.

When the earth and all its people quake,
      it is I who hold its pillars firm.

      Selah

To the arrogant I say, 'Boast no more,'
      and to the wicked, 'Do not lift up your horns.

Do not lift your horns against heaven;
      do not speak with outstretched neck.' "

No one from the east or the west
      or from the desert can exalt a man.

But it is God who judges:
      He brings one down, He exalts another.

In the hand of the LORD is a cup
      full of foaming wine mixed with spices;
      He pours it out, and all the wicked of the earth
      drink it down to its very dregs.

As for me, I will declare this forever;
      I will sing praise to the God of Jacob.

I will cut off the horns of all the wicked,
      but the horns of the righteous will be lifted up.

Daily Devotion - 12/08/2008

The Lord is with us!

I wish I had a cheerful psalm for you this morning; something that I could easily tie into the message of God coming into the world and light entering the darkness. Unfortunately, Psalm 74 isn’t one of those sorts of psalms.  It is a lament and a petition to God to remember His people in exile and to remember the destruction of His temple in Jerusalem.  I’m not sure when this psalm was written though my study Bible suggests that it may have been written during the period of exile and captivity.  As I read it, I can imagine it being written in response to Ezra’s returning with a remnant (around 537 BC) to a desolate Jerusalem and finding the broken and overgrown shell of what was once God’s dwelling place.  In either case, the psalm is a wrenching reminder of the loss of Israel and a powerful statement of a timeless question.  If God loves His people, why do they suffer?

In this case, the answer is laid out before us in the pages of the prophets.  The nation of Israel has failed to live according to its covenants with God and thus God has removed His favor from them.  He has taken back what He had given them due to their idolatry and adultery.  Nevertheless, the loss suffered by God’s people is overwhelming.  We read in the psalm that they are shattered by the loss of their place of worship.  The psalmist doesn’t understand how God could let such an atrocity occur and why He doesn’t, in His might and power, put things right.

I think we ask these sorts of questions a lot.  If God is such a great God, why do horrible things happen?  Why do child molesters walk free among us seeking to prey on the most innocent and helpless of all of us?  Why are drunk drivers allowed to get behind the wheel of a car?  Why do diseases like cancer kill and maim so many?  How can an all good and all powerful God allow such things to happen?

One of the things that make this so difficult is that there isn’t just one, simple answer.  For the psalmist, the answer is clear: the nation suffers because of God’s anger against them.  But that isn’t always the reason.  In fact, it’s probably not the reason very often.  Sometimes it’s because God allows flawed and sinful humans free will.  Sometimes it’s because God chooses to limit Himself to allow us to experience the consequences of our decisions.  Sometimes it’s because our view of evil is very different than God’s view of evil.  Sometimes we just don’t know the reason.  But what we must try and remember is that God is able to weave together all of those things that seem to be bad and wrong and unjust and bring from them His good and His righteousness and His justice.

Such a picture isn’t very comforting when we are standing in the ruins of our lives and wondering where God is.  That is why God gives us this example of a people crying out to Him not to be forgotten.  God welcomes our cry.  He may be silent but that doesn’t mean He didn’t hear it.  He may seem far away but just as He was there in the ruins of Jerusalem when Ezra brought the people back, so too is He found in the pieces and fragments of our lives at the worst times.

Grace and Peace.

In Him,

Chad

Psalm 74

A maskil of Asaph.

 Why have You rejected us forever, O God? 
       Why does Your anger smolder against the sheep of Your pasture?

 Remember the people You purchased of old, 
       the tribe of Your inheritance, whom You redeemed— 
       Mount Zion, where You dwelt.

 Turn Your steps toward these everlasting ruins, 
       all this destruction the enemy has brought on the sanctuary.

 Your foes roared in the place where You met with us; 
       they set up their standards as signs.

 They behaved like men wielding axes 
       to cut through a thicket of trees.

 They smashed all the carved paneling 
       with their axes and hatchets.

 They burned Your sanctuary to the ground; 
       they defiled the dwelling place of Your Name.

 They said in their hearts, "We will crush them completely!" 
       They burned every place where God was worshiped in the land.

 We are given no miraculous signs; 
       no prophets are left, 
       and none of us knows how long this will be.

 How long will the enemy mock You, O God? 
       Will the foe revile Your name forever?

 Why do You hold back Your hand, Your right hand? 
       Take it from the folds of Your garment and destroy them!

 But You, O God, are my King from of old; 
       You bring salvation upon the earth.

 It was You who split open the sea by Your power; 
       You broke the heads of the monster in the waters.

 It was You who crushed the heads of Leviathan 
       and gave him as food to the creatures of the desert.

 It was You who opened up springs and streams; 
       You dried up the ever flowing rivers.

 The day is Yours, and Yours also the night; 
       You established the sun and moon.

 It was You who set all the boundaries of the earth; 
       You made both summer and winter.

 Remember how the enemy has mocked You, O LORD, 
       how foolish people have reviled Your name.

 Do not hand over the life of Your dove to wild beasts; 
       do not forget the lives of Your afflicted people forever.

 Have regard for Your covenant, 
       because haunts of violence fill the dark places of the land.

 Do not let the oppressed retreat in disgrace; 
       may the poor and needy praise Your name.

 Rise up, O God, and defend Your cause; 
       remember how fools mock You all day long.

 Do not ignore the clamor of Your adversaries, 
       the uproar of Your enemies, which rises continually.

Daily Devotion - 12/05/2008

The Lord is with us!

Psalm 73 is a psalm about envy and just how destructive it can be.  The psalmist, Asaph, confesses to God that he has almost slipped and lost his foothold on the rock that is God.  He says that his soul has become embittered by the wealth of the arrogant and wicked.  He has looked upon all the good things they have in their lives and he has desired it.  He has seen their pride and their malice and still he has wanted to adulation they have received from those around them who come to them for wealth and favor.  He begins to think that his pursuit of purity of heart has been a mistake.  When he tries to figure out how God could seem to bless these sorts of people so much, it's too much for him.  It doesn't fit into his view of how God is supposed to work.

How often are we like this?  How often do we look upon someone else and begin to envy and desire what they have.  For some of us it's wealth but there are so many other things I see people longing for.  In a culture obsessed with celebrity, a lot of people desire fame and stardom.  For others, all they seem to be able to think about is finding that one, right person that will make everything better and look around them at all the others who seem to have found that with envy and frustration.  Then there's the always present "keeping up with the Jones'" accumulation race where we try to have a better car or laptop or racing bicycle that those we spend time with.  We envy others' success, their good fortune, their good looks, their youth (for those of us who are losing theirs) and all sorts of other things.  We envy anything that we think gives someone an advantage over us.  I'm guessing that every single person who is reading these words right now (including the one writing them) has to admit to doing this sometime in the past.

So how do we deal with our envy?  How do we learn to be satisfied with what we have?

For the psalmist, the answer was a trip to the sanctuary to worship God.  Once there he understands that the wicked will reap a reward for their disdain of God.  Once in worship, he understands that his way of looking at the world is really pretty dumb. ("I was senseless and ignorant; a brute beast before You.")By renewing his relationship with God he sees that it is this relationship that has all the true value in the "real world" of God's kingdom.

So, too, is this the answer for us.  This is a time of year filled with envy for many.  In a flip side of what Gary wrote a few days back we look at those who lost the pounds that we didn't this last year, that took the vacations we wish we'd had, that got the promotions and the new cars and the new boyfriends or girlfriends and we ache with envy.  We look at all this and then we're offered the chance to "get back" by buying all the stuff we can. We can buy to make up for time we didn't spend and for hurts we may have caused and to dull the ache of what we didn't do or get this last year. The only solution for this "dis-ease" with ourselves is to come into worship.

Advent and Christmas are times of worship.  They are times when, if we choose, we can come before the humble manger throne of the Infant King of all creation and we can regain some perspective.  In singing, "O Come, O Come Emmanuel," we can ask to be ransomed from the envy and the pride and the desire that hold up captive.  In coming into the lowly cave with the materially poor family of our Lord we can see just how unimportant fame and wealth and success and looks and all the rest are apart from a relationship with God.  In stopping we can learn to wait on the Lord in joyful expectation of the light to come and the blessing we already have.  This is our time to sing, like the psalmist;

But as for me, it is good to be near God.
      I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge;
      I will tell of all Your deeds.

Grace and Peace.

In Him,

Chad

Psalm 73

A psalm of Asaph.

Surely God is good to Israel,
      to those who are pure in heart.

But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;
      I had nearly lost my foothold.

For I envied the arrogant
      when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

They have no struggles;
      their bodies are healthy and strong.

They are free from the burdens common to man;
      they are not plagued by human ills.

Therefore pride is their necklace;
      they clothe themselves with violence.

From their callous hearts comes iniquity;
      the evil conceits of their minds know no limits.

They scoff, and speak with malice;
      in their arrogance they threaten oppression.

Their mouths lay claim to heaven,
      and their tongues take possession of the earth.

Therefore their people turn to them
      and drink up waters in abundance.

They say, "How can God know?
      Does the Most High have knowledge?"

This is what the wicked are like—
      always carefree, they increase in wealth.

Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure;
      in vain have I washed my hands in innocence.

All day long I have been plagued;
      I have been punished every morning.

If I had said, "I will speak thus,"
      I would have betrayed Your children.

When I tried to understand all this,
      it was oppressive to me

till I entered the sanctuary of God;
      then I understood their final destiny.

Surely You place them on slippery ground;
      You cast them down to ruin.

How suddenly are they destroyed,
      completely swept away by terrors!

As a dream when one awakes,
      so when You arise, O Lord,
      You will despise them as fantasies.

When my heart was grieved
      and my spirit embittered,

I was senseless and ignorant;
      I was a brute beast before You.

Yet I am always with You;
      You hold me by my right hand.

You guide me with Your counsel,
      and afterward You will take me into glory.

Whom have I in heaven but You?
      And earth has nothing I desire besides You.

My flesh and my heart may fail,
      but God is the strength of my heart
      and my portion forever.

Those who are far from You will perish;
      You destroy all who are unfaithful to You.

But as for me, it is good to be near God.
      I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge;
      I will tell of all Your deeds. 

Daily Devotion - 12/04/2008

Christ is in our Midst!

Psalm 72 is a wonderful example of the multiple meanings one finds in Holy Scripture.  The notes from the Septuagint describe this psalm as “a Psalm of David for Solomon.”  As such it is a wonderful prayer of a father for his son.  David prays that God will give Solomon both “judgment” and “righteousness,” so that he may judge God’s people with discernment and justice.  And David’s prayer becomes a wish, a dream, perhaps even a prophecy of the glories of the reign of his son. 

For those who humbly claim the name “Christian,” however, David’s words are read on an entirely different plane.  We can certainly see in this song David’s deep love for his son.  We can, we should hope that our children live their lives as righteously as David describes in his prayer, and we could certainly use this Psalm in praying for our own offspring.  Here, however, another meaning, the mystery of prophecy enters in.  We cannot know what David “saw” as he wrote this hymn.  Did God reveal to him, however dimly, that One would come Who would embody the perfection that David wishes for his son?  Did David know, even as he wished for Solomon earthly triumphs---“The Ethiopians shall fall down before him, and his enemies shall lick the dust?”---that his wishes and hopes and dreams for his son would be fulfilled in another “Son of David” who would appear a thousand years after his own time?

Whatever David “saw” or “knew,” Psalm 72 is a classic example of the repeated maxim that the Christian should see Christ on every page of Scripture, both in the Old and the New Covenant.  The “reason for the season,” our Nativity celebration, is for the Incarnation of the God-Man whose Name we believe David described as “blessed forever; His name continueth before the sun.  And in Him shall the tribes of the earth be blessed; all nations shall call Him blessed.” 

Sadly for David, his prayer for his own son was only partially fulfilled.  If you know Solomon’s biography you know that he experienced both great wealth and happiness and great suffering in his life, the same pattern that, mutatis mutandis, virtually every other human being experiences.  Yet David in his great faith cries “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, Who only doeth wondrous things.  And blessed be His glory forever, yea, forever and ever.  And all the earth shall be filled with His glory.  So be it. So be it.” 

Fortunately for David, and for us, One was coming Who would more than fulfill David’s hopes and dreams; One Who would minister to all the nations, and before Whom every knee would bend and head bow; One whose glory would indeed be forever. 

As is so often the case, the psalms show themselves to be prayers for all times and all seasons. 

Let me wish for you all a blessed Advent/Nativity Fast and a joyous, festive, and holy Christmas.

Gary

Feast of the Great Martyr Barbara; 20^th day of the Nativity Fast

Psalm 72

Of Solomon.

 Endow the king with Your justice, O God, 
       the royal son with Your righteousness.

 He will judge Your people in righteousness, 
       Your afflicted ones with justice.

 The mountains will bring prosperity to the people, 
       the hills the fruit of righteousness.

 He will defend the afflicted among the people 
       and save the children of the needy; 
       he will crush the oppressor.

 He will endure as long as the sun, 
       as long as the moon, through all generations.

 He will be like rain falling on a mown field, 
       like showers watering the earth.

 In his days the righteous will flourish; 
       prosperity will abound till the moon is no more.

 He will rule from sea to sea 
       and from the River to the ends of the earth.

 The desert tribes will bow before him 
       and his enemies will lick the dust.

 The kings of Tarshish and of distant shores 
       will bring tribute to him; 
       the kings of 

Sheba

 and Seba 
       will present him gifts.

 All kings will bow down to him 
       and all nations will serve him.

 For he will deliver the needy who cry out, 
       the afflicted who have no one to help.

 He will take pity on the weak and the needy 
       and save the needy from death.

 He will rescue them from oppression and violence, 
       for precious is their blood in his sight.

 Long may he live! 
       May gold from 

Sheba

 be given him. 
       May people ever pray for him 
       and bless him all day long.

 Let grain abound throughout the land; 
       on the tops of the hills may it sway. 
       Let its fruit flourish like 

Lebanon

; 
       let it thrive like the grass of the field.

 May his name endure forever; 
       may it continue as long as the sun. 
       All nations will be blessed through him, 
       and they will call him blessed.

 Praise be to the LORD God, the God of Israel, 
       who alone does marvelous deeds.

 Praise be to His glorious name forever; 
       may the whole earth be filled with His glory. 
       Amen and Amen.

 This concludes the prayers of David son of Jesse.

Daily Devotion - 12/03/2008

The Lord is with us!

We human beings like to be strong.  We like to stand on our own two feet, take care of our own needs and look to our own affairs.  When we are able, we try to be strong for those around us in times of crisis and trouble.  We train to be strong in the gym, we strive to be strong in our minds and we hope to be strong in our moral leanings.  If you ask almost anyone about a time when they felt weak, they will tell you how uncomfortable and resistant they were.  But in everyone’s life there are those times when we are weak.  When we are young we are weak.  In times of illness and injury we are weak.  In our old age we are weak.  Psalm 71 is about that I think.

Twice in the psalm, the author (who is unnamed but is presumably David) fears the inevitable weakness that comes with old age.  In verse 9 he asks God not “cast me away when I am old, do not forsake me when my strength is gone.”  In verse 18 he repeats this request, “Even when I am old and grey, do not forsake me, O God, till I declare Your power to the next generation and Your might to all who come.”  The commentary in my study Bible suggests that the psalm is written David has grown old as king and is beset by those who are maneuvering for power in his presumably weakened state.  In this time of personal crisis, David realizes, as always, that it is to God he must go.

So the psalm begins with petitions of protection and strength; 

“In You , O Lord, I have taken refuge;

            Let me never be put to shame.

Rescue me and deliver me in Your righteousness;

            Turn Your ear to me and save me.

Be my rock and my refuge, to which I can always go;

            Give the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.

Deliver me, O God, from the hands of the wicked,

            From the grasp of evil and cruel men.”

David is able to recognize his weakness and so turns to God in strength.  Instead of allowing himself to be swallowed by the despair that often comes with the lose of one’s ability to take control of one’s own affairs, David finds hope in the power and righteousness of God to be his strength for him and to deliver him from those who seek his downfall.

There was a figure from Christian tradition who also suffered from weakness.  You might not know it but this pillar of the first century church had a physical weakness that we might see now as almost incapacitating.  We’re not exactly sure what it was actually.  Some say it might have been that he was blind.  Others suggest that he had a severe tremor caused by contracting some sort of disease from his travels.  What we do know is that the figure could barely write and had to dictate most everything that he wrote for someone else to transcribe.  We can probably imagine that he couldn’t travel alone and there never seems to be a time of his Christian life where he is alone.  The man, of course, is the apostle Paul, who wrote, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  It’s not that he didn’t beg God to take away his infirmity but when God told Paul that His grace was sufficient, Paul went right on traveling the known world and planting new Christian communities.  For Paul, his weakness just showed how strong God was because he knew that no one would expect that a person so weak could do so much.

So, while none of us ever really asks to be weak, we should understand that it is in our weakness that God works most strongly.  The whole story of God redeeming the world back to Himself begins with the weakest and most helpless of circumstances.  God places Himself in a feeding trough, in a cave used to hold the animals of an innkeeper in a small, insignificant little village.  God is born into a family that cares for and protects Him in His weakness.  The story climaxes in another place of weakness, with God taken to a hill and nailed to a cross by the love He has for each of us individually and all of us together.  Yet through this, the Son conquers sin and death.  Just as Paul says that in his weakness God’s strength is shown.  God, in His weakness, offers us His strength.  Do you see the power of submission in the Christian story?  For us, weakness is strength and submission is redemption.

Grace and Peace.

In Him,

Chad

Psalm 71

 In You, O LORD, I have taken refuge; 
       let me never be put to shame.

 Rescue me and deliver me in your righteousness; 
       turn Your ear to me and save me.

 Be my rock of refuge, 
       to which I can always go; 
       give the command to save me, 
       for You are my rock and my fortress.

 Deliver me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, 
       from the grasp of evil and cruel men.

 For You have been my hope, O Sovereign LORD, 
       my confidence since my youth.

 From birth I have relied on You; 
       You brought me forth from my mother's womb. 
       I will ever praise You.

 I have become like a portent to many, 
       but You are my strong refuge.

 My mouth is filled with Your praise, 
       declaring Your splendor all day long.

 Do not cast me away when I am old; 
       do not forsake me when my strength is gone.

 For my enemies speak against me; 
       those who wait to kill me conspire together.

 They say, "God has forsaken him; 
       pursue him and seize him, 
       for no one will rescue him."

 Be not far from me, O God; 
       come quickly, O my God, to help me.

 May my accusers perish in shame; 
       may those who want to harm me 
       be covered with scorn and disgrace.

 But as for me, I will always have hope; 
       I will praise You more and more.

 My mouth will tell of Your righteousness, 
       of Your salvation all day long, 
       though I know not its measure.

 I will come and proclaim Your mighty acts, O Sovereign LORD; 
       I will proclaim Your righteousness, yours alone.

 Since my youth, O God, You have taught me, 
       and to this day I declare Your marvelous deeds.

 Even when I am old and gray, 
       do not forsake me, O God, 
       till I declare Your power to the next generation, 
       Your might to all who are to come.

 Your righteousness reaches to the skies, O God, 
       You who have done great things. 
       Who, O God, is like You?

 Though You have made me see troubles, many and bitter, 
       You will restore my life again; 
       from the depths of the earth 
       You will again bring me up.

 You will increase my honor 
       and comfort me once again.

 I will praise You with the harp 
       for Your faithfulness, O my God; 
       I will sing praise to You with the lyre, 
       O Holy One of Israel.

 My lips will shout for joy 
       when I sing praise to You— 
       I, whom You have redeemed.

 My tongue will tell of Your righteous acts 
       all day long, 
       for those who wanted to harm me 
       have been put to shame and confusion.

Daily Devotion - 12/02/2008

Christ is in our Midst!

As we sit in the midst of papers and tests and finals (you gotta take ‘em, I gotta grade ‘em), how absolutely appropriate is Psalm 70!  “Make haste, O God, to deliver me,” David writes, “make haste to help me O Lord.”  

Psalm 70 is a song asking for immediate, unconditional aid.  “Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul; let them be turned back and put to confusion that desire my hurt.”  While this invocation may be a bit strong in reference to either side of the student-professor relationship, it does capture the harried, irritated, sometimes angry, occasionally desperate tones that mark the coming of December. 

December often brings similar thoughts and emotions regarding our lives in general.  Another set of New Year’s resolutions consigned to the “’wish I’d stuck with that’ folder”; another year older, grayer, heavier, duller; another year to nurse all the hurts and wrongs (some imagined, some self-inflicted, some searingly real) that fester into self-pity and spiritual laziness; another year to ponder the “grass-is-always-greener” road not taken:  for so many of us, December, not April, is the cruelest month. 

So Psalm 70 resonates deep within us.  We want our enemies confounded; we want to be rewarded and protected, especially now, in the dying embers of another year.  We want God to save us from our enemies to be sure, but in our “deep heart,” as the Fathers call it, what we want more than anything else is for God to save us from ourselves. 

I am on very safe ground when I assert that it is no accident that Christmas is celebrated at precisely this time of year---nothing, after all, that God does occurs by “accident.”  Historians and religious scholars will tell you that we have absolutely no idea when the Lord Jesus was born; that the celebration of His birth in December was a typical example of how Christianity “redeemed” cultures.  In Rome, for example, Christmas replaced the Saturnalia, a riotous and licentious celebration of the “Feast of the Invincible Sun,” the idea apparently being that Christ indeed was the “invincible sun,” and that the commemoration of His Incarnation in the flesh could be a way of deflecting the culture from days of riotous promiscuity and bacchanal. 

Now all of this is certainly true, as far as we can tell.  But I think there is a more ontological reason for the celebration of Christmas in December, and it ties in to the end of the year, and the sentiments of Psalm 70.  “But I am poor and needy,” David exclaims, “make haste unto me O God.  Thou art my helper and deliverer; O Lord make no tarrying.”  As king of Israel, David is no more poor in a material sense than most of us who join here to contemplate his psalm.  He, like most of us, is materially rich.  But he, like us, feels overwhelmed; his enemies are everywhere and they seem in control.  Material riches mean little when one is drowning in real or imagined turmoil. 

Unlike most of us, however, David’s first thought is to turn immediately to God, confident that He will protect David from his adversaries.  I like to think that Christmas is celebrated at this time of the old year to remind us of God’s saving love:  that no matter how desperate or pathetic our circumstances may seem, the “Nativity in the Flesh of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ,” to use the feast’s official title, is meant to remind us that God has already intervened decisively in human history---and that He stands ready to intervene in our lives, if we would but let Him.  In answer to our prayers, to our fears, to our longings and desires, God has indeed come in the flesh, and this fact, we affirm, radically reorients all of human history.  This Incarnation can fundamentally reorient my own life, if I will but let it.

As we push through these anxious and toilsome days, let us strive to remember the central point of our Christian faith:  that God has indeed at a moment in time come to us in the flesh; that to all the prayers and cries of millennia He came to sanctify and save.  Such is the message of the Christmas season; such should be our heart’s reflection as the old year fast passes away. 

Gary

Feast of the Prophet Habbakuk; 18^th day of the Nativity Fast.

Psalm 70

For the director of music. Of David. A petition.

 Hasten, O God, to save me; 
       O LORD, come quickly to help me.

 May those who seek my life 
       be put to shame and confusion; 
       may all who desire my ruin 
       be turned back in disgrace.

 May those who say to me, "Aha! Aha!" 
       turn back because of their shame.

 But may all who seek You 
       rejoice and be glad in You; 
       may those who love Your salvation always say, 
       "Let God be exalted!"

 Yet I am poor and needy; 
       come quickly to me, O God. 
       You are my help and my deliverer; 
       O LORD, do not delay.

Daily Devotion - 12/01/2008

The Lord is with us!

 

“Save me, O God!

            For the waters have come up to my neck!”

As we return from a five day break for the last week of classes and finals week, I imagine that there are a number of students here at Gordon that are praying prayers that sound much like this one.  As they find themselves at the of the semester, the pile of papers, projects, quizzes, exams and finals begin to seem as if they will become all too overwhelming.  While they may not use these words, they echo the sentiment of the psalmist: 

“I sink in the miry depths,

            Where there is no foothold.

I have come into deep waters;

            The floods engulf me.

I am worn out calling for help;

            My throat if parched.”

Maybe you find yourself in this place.  I’m sure that there are those of you who receive this who aren’t students and who are struggling with other things that threaten to overwhelm you.  Maybe you’re struggling to find or keep a job.  Maybe you feel overwhelmed by a flood of debt.  Perhaps you are engulfed by the weight of holiday expectations, unable to find a foothold in the rising tide of consumerism and the incessant urgings to “buy, buy, buy” if you really love those around you.  Maybe you find yourself alone and struggling at a time when you feel as if you should be filled by the light that seems to come from everywhere and everything (Did you ever think light could drown a person?). 

If so, psalm 69 is a lament you understand.  My study Bible suggests that while the original form of this psalm was likely written by David, its final form was arrived at during the years where the enemies of the southern kingdom of the larger people of Israel, 

Judah, came under increasing siege from more powerful nations and peoples.  It’s a lament and petition to God by a people and their king under incredible strain and struggle just to survive.  They had seen what happened to the northern tribes of Israel just a few generations earlier and now it looked like being conquered, subjugated and exiled might happen to them too.  Some suggest that it is sung by Hezekiah as he struggles to save Judah from a series of poorly thought out alliances and invading armies.  If this is true, I can see the king on his knees in the temple singing the lines above as he struggled to find his way. 

In the psalm the king accepts the fact that his own actions have contributed to his state: 

“You know my folly, O God;

            My guilt is not hidden from You.”

May those who hope in You

            Not be disgraced because of me,

            O Lord, the God Almighty;

May those who seek You

            Not be put to shame because of me,

            O God of 

Israel.”

For you such an acknowledgment may be accepting that you’ve put off working on your projects or studying for your exams for too long.  Maybe you realize now that you’ve overextended yourself financially without thinking about what it’ll cost to pay everything back.  Maybe your identity has become more about what you can buy or have than who you are as one of God’s beloved children.  Maybe you’ve confused love with desire, need with want and service to others with gratification of self.  Your sin, whether it be rebellion, disease or a desire to wander, has added to your plight.  Like the king in our psalm, we must all endeavor to acknowledge our own responsibility in our troubles as we come to God.  It is by doing this that we set the stage for our renewal. 

“But I pray to You, O Lord,

            In the time of Your favor;

In Your great love, O God,

            Answer me with Your sure salvation.

Rescue me from the mire,

            Do not let me sink;

Deliver me from those who hate me,

            From the deep waters.

Do not let the floodwaters engulf me

            Or the depths swallow me up

            Or the pit close its mouth over me.”

We can pray this to God because He knows our suffering and He understands our plight.  One of the striking things about this psalm is that with only the exception of Psalm 22, this psalm is quoted more often by the writers of the New Testament than any other psalm.  The early church and its writers identified with this psalm more than any other.  In the sufferings of Jesus the Anointed they saw the words, 

“You know how I am scorned,

            Disgraced and shamed;

            All my enemies before You.

Scorn has broken my heart

            And left me helpless;

I looked for sympathy, but there was none,

            For comforters, but I found none.

They put gall in my food

            And gave me vinegar for my thirst.”

However, in all the words of lament and petition, they saw hope too.  Just as we might.  Too often, I think, we tend to become defined by what might overwhelm us.  When our security is threatened, we become defensive and, perhaps, violent in defending it.  When we find ourselves in financial trouble, we become defined by money and give ourselves over to serving it.  When we find validation in our possessions, we horde them even more closely.  When we feel isolated, we close more doors and we push people even further away.

But the psalm promises redemption and restoration.  We seek not just to be rescued from our trials but to be elevated above them.  We are not just left with a Cross and a crucified Savior but with an empty tomb and a promise to be returned to God’s blessing if that is where we wish to be. 

“I will praise God’s name with song

            And glorify Him with thanksgiving.

This will please the Lord more than an ox,

            More than a bull with its horns and hoofs.

The poor will see and be glad—

            You who seek God, my your hearts live!

The Lord hears the needy

            And does not despise His captive people.

Let heaven and earth praise Him,

            The seas and all that move in them,

For God will save 

Zion

            And rebuild the cities of Judah.

Then the people will settle there and possess it;

            The children of His servants will inherit it,

            And those who live His name will dwell there.”

Grace and Peace.

In Him,

Chad