Gordon Christian Fellowship

Daily Devotion - 2/02/09

Christ is Born!  Glorify Him!

 Psalm 89 is a wonderful example of the fertile ground the Psalter offers for prayer and meditation.  The notes to the KJV (1611) version of this psalm describe the psalmist praising “God for His covenant, for His wonderful power, for the care of His Church, for His favor to the kingdom of David.  Then, complaining of contrary events, he expostulateth, prayeth, and blesseth God.”  As a wonderfully economical summary of this psalm, these Jacobean notes are difficult to improve upon. 

But today is a special day on the Church’s calendar, and by marvelous coincidence---is anything coincidental, by the way, when we brush against the kingdom of God?---the feast established by the Ancient Church, commemorated today, absolutely fits with the editors’ snippets of commentary written 400 years ago.  

 The feast is the “Meeting of the Lord.”  On His fortieth day the Lord Jesus was taken to the Temple, to fulfill the Law of Moses.  There He was recognized by the elder Simeon, and the righteous Anna, two elderly believers St. Luke tells us who had been waiting for the “consolation of Israel,” as the Evangelist puts it.  Their prophetic speech has become enshrined in the Canon of Scripture, and in the prayers of the Church.

 The Church Fathers tell us that this Meeting of the Lord is important because it marks the moment when the “New Covenant” between God and man is revealed---in the face of a tiny baby, offered to His God by poor parents.  St. Simeon’s wonderful prayer, called in the West the “Nunc dimittis” (the first two words of the Latin version), the closing prayer of each day’s Vespers in the Orthodox Church, illuminates the profound mystery: 

“Lord now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace,

according to Thy Word,

for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation,

which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people,

a light to lighten the Gentiles,

            and the glory of Thy people Israel.”  (Luke 2: 29-32)

What Simeon says in these few words is amongst the most sublime---and important prayers in all of Scripture.  The Old Covenant had been established by God to root His presence in the world.  He had chosen a people to be His own, that through their experience the worship of the One God might be established and maintained in the world.  But the realization that there was only One God posed a dilemma of sorts:  the Old Covenant was a relationship between God and the Hebrews; but how did this One God relate to the rest of His creation?  How were the gentiles to know, love and serve the One God?

The answer, Christianity affirms, lies in the mystery of salvation:  that at a moment in time, He Who was “eternally begotten” deigned to become man for our sake, that through His life and death He might reveal the love of God for all men.  So when Simeon takes the Babe into his arms, he speaks to, and for, all of us. 

If one reads Psalm 89 in the light of the feast day, this song becomes one of praise and invocation to the Infant-King.  

“The heavens are thine; the earth also is Thine;

            As for the world and the fullness thereof,

            Thou hast founded them.” (v. 11) 

“Justice and judgment are the habitation of Thy throne;

            mercy and truth shall go before Thy face.”   (v. 14)

Indeed, at one level, the entire psalm might be read as a “dialogue” between the Father and His Son, with the prayer of us suppliants “complaining of contrary events” entering into the final verses.

There are many different ways to “pray “ Psalm 89, of course.  This song may speak very differently to your heart on this particular morning.  But the profundity of the Psalter, and the richness of the Church’s calendar illustrate once again how this marvelous prayer book might be prayed by believing Christians, and why the Fathers insist that Christ is to be found on every page of Holy Scripture.

 Gary

 Feast of the Meeting of the Lord 

Daily Devotion - 1/30/09

Christ is Born!  Glorify Him!

 The richness of the Psalter lies in its multiplicity of meanings, layer upon layer of themes and interpretations that inform and illuminate people across the centuries, across cultures, and into the deepest reaches of every human heart.  The Psalter is rich because it can stand for so much, and reveal so much---if we but listen. 

 Psalm 88 is an excellent example of these multiple levels of meaning.  One interpretation of the psalm centers around the introductory phrase, “a song…in sickness; in suffering.”  Psalm 88 can certainly be read, and has much to say, about the idea of suffering, and one could indeed profit from a thoughtful meditation on what this song relates about the mystery of suffering, and God’s role in it.

 For the Fathers of the Church, however, Psalm 88 was read with much more in mind than simply this idea.  The Fathers insisted that Christ appears on every page of the Bible, both Old and New Testaments.  For them, Psalm 88 was both meditation and prophecy:  a thousand years before the mystery of the Cross unfolded, the psalmist composes ideas that apply to Christ’s death, burial, and Resurrection---and especially here, the Lord’s burial. 

 The Church has long believed that at death, while Christ’s Body resided in the grave, His soul descended into Hades [Sheol] (v. 4).  The psalm speaks over and over again of the pit, the dead, the grave, the lowest pit, the darkness, in the depths:  the Fathers insist that in this psalm there is foreshadowed the sufferings of the Christ.  We are asked to contemplate the mystery that He Who was “true God of true God, begotten not made,” in the words of the Creed, somehow knew in His humanity the separation and alienation from God that is so often a part of the human condition.

 This idea that the eternal God suffered in His human flesh is fundamental to shaping a Christian understanding of the world.  Christ came so that by experiencing suffering and death He could transform them; He could remove the terrible hold they place on humanity.  He can comfort us in the depths of our hurt and despair because He Himself has “been there, done that,” in a way more fearsome and ferocious than any of us will ever have to bear.  He can point out that there is something more, much more, than the human and often sinful desires that chain us to this world.  In giving up things that are ultimately harmful to us we’re not “missing out.” 

 We tend to forget that the greatest pain Our Lord probably experienced in His Passion was not physical, as excruciating as the Roman “art” of crucifixion certainly was, but spiritual:  a Being Who had lived in Trinitarian Communion for ever, Who was Himself still part of this Trinity of Divine Love, somehow stripped Himself of this Presence, and experienced the loneliness, isolation, terror and hopelessness that are the world without God.  Psalm 88 can be read as a meditation on that pain---on the “cost” of salvation.

 Like virtually every psalm, Psalm 88 can thus be studied from several perspectives, from multiple levels.  For the Fathers, one of these levels was the insight the psalm suggested into the mind and experience of Jesus Christ. 

 Gary

Feast of the three Holy Hierarchs, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, and John Chrysostom.

 Psalm 88

A song. A psalm of the Sons of Korah. For the director of music. According to mahalath leannoth. A maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.  

       O LORD, the God who saves me, 
       day and night I cry out before you.

 May my prayer come before You; 
       turn your ear to my cry.

 For my soul is full of trouble 
       and my life draws near the grave.

 I am counted among those who go down to the pit; 
       I am like a man without strength.

 I am set apart with the dead, 
       like the slain who lie in the grave, 
       whom You remember no more, 
       who are cut off from Your care.

 You have put me in the lowest pit, 
       in the darkest depths.

 Your wrath lies heavily upon me; 
       You have overwhelmed me with all Your waves.

       Selah

 You have taken from me my closest friends 
       and have made me repulsive to them. 
       I am confined and cannot escape;

 my eyes are dim with grief. 
       I call to You, O LORD, every day; 
       I spread out my hands to You.

 Do You show Your wonders to the dead? 
       Do those who are dead rise up and praise You?

       Selah

 Is Your love declared in the grave, 
       Your faithfulness in Destruction?

 Are Your wonders known in the place of darkness, 
       or Your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion?

 But I cry to You for help, O LORD; 
       in the morning my prayer comes before You.

 Why, O LORD, do You reject me 
       and hide Your face from me?

 From my youth I have been afflicted and close to death; 
       I have suffered Your terrors and am in despair.

 Your wrath has swept over me; 
       Your terrors have destroyed me.

 All day long they surround me like a flood; 
       they have completely engulfed me.

 You have taken my companions and loved ones from me; 
       the darkness is my closest friend.

Daily Devotion - 1/29/09

The Lord is with us!

Psalm 87 is unique in all of the Psalter.  It alone suggests that not only will the nation of Israel be brought into the Kingdom of God but that all people's will have the opportunity  to come out of Jerusalem as members.  My study Bible says that there is a long tradition of scholarship in both the Hebrew and Christian tradition of this psalm foreseeing "the ingathering of the nations into Zion as fellow citizens with Israel in the kingdom of God."  Such an idea is not unique in the Old Testament and is found also in the prophetic words of Isaiah (2:2-4, 19:19-25, 45:14, 22-24, 56:6-8, etc.), Daniel (7:14), Micah (4:1-3) and others.  It is also found clearly in the accounts of the Gospel.  In John's account, Jesus Himself clearly states in His discussion of the Good Shepherd that there are sheep of other sheepfolds He will gather to Himself which many scholars take as a clear reference to a broader ministry than just an offer of redemption to the nation of Israel.

This may seem like an obvious idea to us but I wonder sometimes.  There is much in the Old Testament that suggests that God will not love those outside those He has picked as His people.  Even though the books of the Law and Prophets are filled with narratives of people from outside the tribes finding a place and home in God (mostly recently our group studied the story of Ruth from Moab who was the mother of Jesse and grandmother of David), there was a strong sense of exclusivity among the Hebrews that led many to come to the belief that God's love for them meant that He could not or would not love other peoples, even if they did come to recognize Him as the source of light and life in this world.

I wonder if the same is sometimes true with us now.  We are so sure that God loves us that we begin to think that God loves only us.  Sure we understand that God so loved the world that He sent His one, unique Son but we sort of hedge that.  We don't come right out and say it but we act in ways that make it pretty clear.  We suggest that God only loves those who have accepted Christ in some fashion that we're comfortable with. Maybe we're more open now in that members of other denominations might be loved but not those with obvious sins.  We wonder if God loves the drug addict or the prostitute, the liar and the thief (doesn't Christ tell a thief he'll be with Him in Paradise???), or the alien and stranger.  

You don't think so?  You think that maybe I'm being too harsh?  How would your church treat one of these people if they came into your church on Sunday morning and wanted to sit and worship with your congregation?  Would you run to greet them?  Would you embrace them with joy? Would you throw a robe around their shoulders and place a ring on their finger?  Would you kill the fatted calf?

Do you recognize the parable?  Through Jerusalem God will offer salvation to ALL the world: Jew and Gentile, Slave and Free, Male and Female, Saint and Sinner (and most of us who are some of both).  Through Jerusalem He has to ANY who would come.

But do we stand in the way?  Do we put entrance requirements?  Do we think we have the right to stand at the gates of the city and decide who gets to come in?  Or do we see ourselves as among those who have had the grace of God poured out upon them by being named as coming from the city of Peace?

I love how our psalm ends today.  It ends with the joy of those who have come into it's walls.  It reminds me of the description of the New Jerusalem in the Apocalypse, "On no day will it's gates ever be shut for there will be no night there.  The glory and the honor of the nations will be brought into it."  All peoples who seek Him will walk in the city's light, given by the lamp that is the lamp the Revelator says.  Much like what our Psalmist writes:

They will all sing and dance;
    all good things come from Jerusalem. (New Century Version)

It's a dance we've been invited to.  A great big, wonderful, beautiful wedding dance.  Rather than sitting at the door checking tickets we should be inside singing with the Bridegroom.  Or better yet, inviting everyone we know to the party.

Grace and Peace.

In Him,

Chad

Daily Devotion - 1/28/09

Christ is Born!  Glorify Him!

Re-establishing relationship is always a difficult task.  When we part with a friend---of whatever degree of intimacy the relationship---resuming that friendship challenges us.  Often there’s a lot to forgive---and sometimes even more that needs forgetting.  There’s always some level of pride to be overcome:  how dare anyone, let alone a friend, treat ME like that.  There’s hurt and anger and usually just a little fear, of being hurt again, of being permanently separated from someone once relied upon, from being more alone in a lonely world.  It takes time to renew ties that have broken or frayed. 

Psalm 86 seems to be an effort at restoring a relationship.  The introductory notes in my version of the text, which date from the original KJV of 1611, speak of David:  “he desireth the continuance of a former grace.”  The theme is an important one.  How does one re-establish a relationship with God?

I think this is a very important question that we in contemporary Christianity don’t think enough about.  Certainly, we talk a lot about repentance, which is an integral aspect of relating to God.  But I think too often in our lives repentance tends to be a single moment---we feel compelled to “get right” with God, as the preachers used to say, and we try to do so.  All well and good.  Repentance is an absolute and necessary condition for a real relationship with God. 

But so often in my life I tend to treat God like an errand boy.  I am so busy with soooo much important stuff, that I scarcely have time to think about Him throughout a long and tiring day; by the time I get home and get ready for bed, I’m exhausted; who has time to really “relate” then?  The mornings are so rushed….  

You get the picture.  And yet I think nothing of turning to God at whatever point I finally do think about Him and pray to Him, I expect He’ll be there, waiting, with nothing really more important to do than whatever it is I think I need right now. 

Clearly there’s something really wrong with this picture.  As Metropolitan Anthony notes in Beginning to Pray,we too often presume that God’s real and abiding presence with us means that He is somehow obligated to answer our every prayer; that He is instantaneously available to us 24/7.

Yet sometimes God is indeed silent.  Doubtless He has His reasons….

One might be that we are not ready to be in His presence.  Metropolitan Anthony gives a terrifying example (which I paraphrase):

As a young priest Anthony had a man come to him who claimed he had never experienced God; who wanted to know God; who wanted to be in His presence.  To try to give the man a sense of Who God is, Anthony read him the famous story in Scripture of Christ and the woman taken in adultery (John 7:53 ff).  To try to awaken the man, the priest asked him, ‘whom do you most identify with in the story?’ 

There are plenty of ways to enter the story:  the woman’s accusers, presumably a crowd of onlookers, and the woman herself; identifying oneself with any of these might offer fruitful insights into the nature of God.  The man’s reply was, however, both unexpected and terrifying.  ‘I don’t identify with anyone in the story,’ he’s supposed to have said, ‘not with the sinful woman, or the onlookers, or those accusers who slunk away when Christ told them that the one who was sinless should cast the first stone.  Instead,’ the man said, ‘I’d be the one who would stone the woman.’

‘Be grateful,’ the young priest told his hearer, ‘that you have not met God.’

There are doubtless times when God hides Himself from us---when He is “silent.”  One such time is when we are manifestly not ready to receive Him. 

As we read and meditate on Psalm 86, one important focus might be this:  am I really ready to come into God’s presence?  What can I do to prepare for such an encounter?  Do I presume that God will be my errand boy?  Do I really want a deep and abiding relationship with Him?  How do I resume a relationship that I’ve neglected? 

Gary

Feast of St. Ephraim the Syrian

Psalm 86

A prayer of David.

 Hear, O LORD, and answer me, 
       for I am poor and needy.

 Guard my life, for I am devoted to You. 
       You are my God; save Your servant 
       who trusts in You.

 Have mercy on me, O Lord, 
       for I call to You all day long.

 Bring joy to Your servant, 
       for to You, O Lord, 
       I lift up my soul.

 You are forgiving and good, O Lord, 
       abounding in love to all who call to You.

 Hear my prayer, O LORD; 
       listen to my cry for mercy.

 In the day of my trouble I will call to You, 
       for You will answer me.

 Among the gods there is none like You, O Lord; 
       no deeds can compare with Yours.

 All the nations You have made 
       will come and worship before You, O Lord; 
       they will bring glory to Your name.

 For You are great and do marvelous deeds; 
       You alone are God.

 Teach me Your way, O LORD, 
       and I will walk in Your truth; 
       give me an undivided heart, 
       that I may fear Your name.

 I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart; 
       I will glorify Your name forever.

 For great is Your love toward me; 
       You have delivered me from the depths of the grave.

 The arrogant are attacking me, O God; 
       a band of ruthless men seeks my life— 
       men without regard for You.

 But You, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, 
       slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.

 Turn to me and have mercy on me; 
       grant Your strength to Your servant 
       and save the son of Your maidservant.

 Give me a sign of Your goodness, 
       that my enemies may see it and be put to shame, 
       for You, O LORD, have helped me and comforted me.

Daily Devotion - 1/27/09

The Lord is with us!

After our brief vacation of Psalm 84, we have returned to a prayer of supplication to God to have Him turn away in His wrath and to forgive His people of their sin and end their suffering.  What makes Psalm 85 different that Psalms 79-83 is that while we do have an entreaty to the mercy and grace of God, there is a response and it is affirmative.

Psalm 85 is constructed in a way that leads some scholars to think that the writer intended for it to be seen as a model of a prayer that both pleads with God for His mercy (a supplication) and praises and thanks Him when it is delivered.  This is seen from the form of the psalm that has seven lines (vs. 1-7) for the plea and then seven more for the "hallelujah".  As some of you may know, seven is thought to be one of the Hebrew numbers of perfection or completion and here may represent the author's attempt to write the perfect psalm in a sense.

Scholars are less sure as to the occasion of the psalm.  Some suggest that it represents a psalm written upon Judah's return from exile under the leadership of Nehemiah and Malachi while others look to the words of verse 12 and see the drought and recovery during the time of Haggai's time of prophecy.  In either case, there was a time of trouble and difficulty that threatened the very survival of the people which was reversed by the will and workings of God.

Perhaps it is taking the verses out of context, but I would like for us to take a few moments to consider verses 10 and 11:

Love and faithfulness meet together;        
  righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Faithfulness springs forth from the earth,        
  and righteousness looks down from heaven.

In these passages I see a real synergy; an intertwining of ideas in such a way that one thing feeds off of the other while, in turn, enabling and energizing the first.  Here we see that, in God, our lives are to exhibit both love and faithfulness as one attitude and action.  Love is the sacrificial, servant-oriented devotion to the welfare of others while being full of faith means that one's life is lived in trust of and submission to the will of God. When one loves in the will of God there is a submission to the needs of those around us; a setting of their needs above our own in a way that not only satisfies those needs but that lifts them towards God.  It is in this movement towards God that one finds peace and more.  What one finds is not only a ceasing of hostility or an inner calm but a true sense of wholeness and health as a human bring created in both the image and likeness of God.  This is the idea of the Jewish word, Shalom, which is translated here as peace.

With such a wonderful characterization of a life lived in and with God, why is it that we seem to have so much trouble doing so?  As Gary and I have written, there is much within us, within the world and with the lies told us by the Adversary that want to contradict these words.  There's a sense that if we really so submit to others and we really do value them then we will some how be less.  From within us this arises as fear; fear that we 'll be walked over the top of, that we'll go unnoticed and unappreciated and that we'll miss out on something important.  This fear is fed by the message of the world that tell us that the only sensible thing to do is to look out for number one and to make sure we get our needs taken care of. Finally, there's the ironic lie that Satan tells us that if we really do indeed die to ourselves then we will die for real and so we must live life to it's worldly fullest, indulging in every sort of hedonistic pleasure.  And so we struggle to really trust God and His plan and design for how our lives are supposed to work as images or icons of Him.

The apostle James writes that faith without works is dead.  That's the same thing as saying that in a life truly lived for God, love and faithfulness must meet and, as some translations have it, justice and peace must be intimate companions.  It is in our acts of love towards others that our faithfulness towards God is expressed and without the justice that love brings, there is no deep, lasting, healing peace.

Grace and Peace.

In Him,

Chad

Psalm 85

For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. A psalm.

 You showed favor to Your land, O LORD; 
       You restored the fortunes of Jacob.
 You forgave the iniquity of your people        
      and covered all their sins.  
      Selah
 
You set aside all Your wrath        
    and turned from Your fierce anger.
Restore us again, O God our Savior,        
    and put away Your displeasure toward us.
Will You be angry with us forever?       
    Will You prolong Your anger through all generations?
Will You not revive us again,       
     that Your people may rejoice in You
Show us Your unfailing love, O LORD,      
    and grant us Your salvation.

I will listen to what God the LORD will say;      
    He promises peace to his people, His saints— 
    but let them not return to folly.
Surely His salvation is near those who fear Him,        
    that His glory may dwell in our land.
Love and faithfulness meet together;        
    righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Faithfulness springs forth from the earth,        
    and righteousness looks down from heaven.
The LORD will indeed give what is good,        
    and our land will yield its harvest.
Righteousness goes before Him        
    and prepares the way for His steps.

Daily Devotion - 1/26/09

Christ is Born!  Glorify Him!

Everyone wants a vacation.  Two weeks into the semester, and my thoughts are already running to “what I’m gonna’ do” on my summer break---this year, a trip out west to see two of my children, my grandsons, and oh by the way grade some AP exams for the College Board.  We all long to get away; we all think we work too hard and need rest. 

Some such thoughts inspire the Psalmist as he composes Psalm 84.  He too, wants rest.  But his vision is stronger, truer---or perhaps in the context of the psalms we’ve been reading, perhaps more desperate than you or I---for the “vacation” he describes is to be with his God.  

“How lovely are your dwelling places,

            Yahweh Sabaoth.

My whole being yearns and pines

            For Yahweh’s courts.”  (v. 1)

The psalmist points out an important truth that too often we forget.  So often we seek worldly remedies for our ills:  if I could just sleep more, lose weight, get in shape, make more money, find the right someone, get a good job, take a great vacation---then all my troubles would be over.

Now none of these things are bad in themselves; several are absolutely good things we all should strive to achieve.  But in setting up earthly goals, too often they become the end-all and be-all of our lives.  We forget the “one thing needful” that Jesus talks with Martha and Mary about:  that whatever we do, no matter how exalted or wonderful or self-sacrificing or humanitarian our impulses, THE important thing is that we find time to sit at the Lord’s feet, to listen to His call, to abide in His house. 

“Better one day in your courts

            than a thousand at my own devices,

to stand on the threshold of God’s house

            than to live in the tents of the wicked.”  (v. 10)

This week, as you rush through a thousand tasks and trials and hurts, it’s ok if you stop for a minute and think about the beach at spring break, or the mission trip this summer, or graduation, or your first job, or finding the right partner:  those things are the stuff, the rewards if you will, that help all of us keep going.  Just don’t let all this be your entire focus, your ultimate goal.  After all, it rains a lot at the beach; mission trips are hard and demanding---more than you’ll know until you do one; graduation forces us to leave a world that is remarkably carefree and relaxed (just wait! You’ll see!) compared to what will follow; first jobs usually turn out to be… jobs, filled in equal parts with hard work and boredom and unremitting responsibility---ask one of our nursing graduates how glamorous work at 3 am in the hospital turns out to be; and even that special someone, assuming that you have indeed made the “right choice,” will bring you into a relationship that will be demanding and at times difficult---the Orthodox Church literally “crowns” the newly married (crowns being the symbol in the early Church of someone who had given his life for the faith) to remind them that a successful marriage is in essence a mutual “martyrdom,” each partner giving virtually everything to the other.

So earthly “rest” usually proves not all we expect it to be. 

We need to enjoy this life, to savor its many blessings; after all, it is a gift from our God.  But we must never forget the one thing needful.  Whether life at this particular moment is sweet or sour, something more awaits us, indeed is available to us now.  For unlike all the “earthly delights” described above, the “one thing needful” can be as close to us as the chambers of our heart.

Gary

Feast of the Venerable Xenophon and Mary, and their sons, in Constantinople; (5^th cen.)

Psalm 84

For the director of music. According to gittith. Of the Sons of Korah. A psalm.

 How lovely is Your dwelling place, 
       O LORD Almighty!

 My soul yearns, even faints, 
       for the courts of the LORD; 
       my heart and my flesh cry out 
       for the living God.

 Even the sparrow has found a home, 
       and the swallow a nest for herself, 
       where she may have her young— 
       a place near Your altar, 
       O LORD Almighty, my King and my God.

 Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; 
       they are ever praising you.

       Selah

 Blessed are those whose strength is in You, 
       who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.

 As they pass through the Valley of Baca, 
       they make it a place of springs; 
       the autumn rains also cover it with pools.

 They go from strength to strength, 
       till each appears before God in Zion.

 Hear my prayer, O LORD God Almighty; 
       listen to me, O God of Jacob.

       Selah

 Look upon our shield, O God; 
       look with favor on Your anointed one.

 Better is one day in Your courts 
       than a thousand elsewhere; 
       I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God 
       than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; 
       the LORD bestows favor and honor; 
       no good thing does He withhold 
       from those whose walk is blameless.

 O LORD Almighty, 
       blessed is the man who trusts in You.

Daily Devotion - 1/24/09

Christ is Born!  Glorify Him!

Everyone wants a vacation.  Two weeks into the semester, and my thoughts are already running to “what I’m gonna’ do” on my summer break---this year, a trip out west to see two of my children, my grandsons, and oh by the way grade some AP exams for the College Board.  We all long to get away; we all think we work too hard and need rest. 

 

Some such thoughts inspire the Psalmist as he composes Psalm 84.  He too, wants rest.  But his vision is stronger, truer---or perhaps in the context of the psalms we’ve been reading, perhaps more desperate than you or I---for the “vacation” he describes is to be with his God. 

 

“How lovely are your dwelling places,

            Yahweh Sabaoth.

My whole being yearns and pines

            For Yahweh’s courts.”  (v. 1)

 

The psalmist points out an important truth that too often we forget.  So often we seek worldly remedies for our ills:  if I could just sleep more, lose weight, get in shape, make more money, find the right someone, get a good job, take a great vacation---then all my troubles would be over.

 

Now none of these things are bad in themselves; several are absolutely good things we all should strive to achieve.  But in setting up earthly goals, too often they become the end-all and be-all of our lives.  We forget the “one thing needful” that Jesus talks with Martha and Mary about:  that whatever we do, no matter how exalted or wonderful or self-sacrificing or humanitarian our impulses, THE important thing is that we find time to sit at the Lord’s feet, to listen to His call, to abide in His house.

 

“Better one day in your courts

            than a thousand at my own devices,

to stand on the threshold of God’s house

            than to live in the tents of the wicked.”  (v. 10)

 

This week, as you rush through a thousand tasks and trials and hurts, it’s ok if you stop for a minute and think about the beach at spring break, or the mission trip this summer, or graduation, or your first job, or finding the right partner:  those things are the stuff, the rewards if you will, that help all of us keep going.  Just don’t let all this be your entire focus, your ultimate goal.  After all, it rains a lot at the beach; mission trips are hard and demanding---more than you’ll know until you do one; graduation forces us to leave a world that is remarkably carefree and relaxed (just wait! You’ll see!) compared to what will follow; first jobs usually turn out to be… jobs, filled in equal parts with hard work and boredom and unremitting responsibility---ask one of our nursing graduates how glamorous work at 3 am in the hospital turns out to be; and even that special someone, assuming that you have indeed made the “right choice,” will bring you into a relationship that will be demanding and at times difficult---the Orthodox Church literally “crowns” the newly married (crowns being the symbol in the early Church of someone who had given his life for the faith) to remind them that a successful marriage is in essence a mutual “martyrdom,” each partner giving virtually everything to the other.

 

So earthly “rest” usually proves not all we expect it to be. 

 

We need to enjoy this life, to savor its many blessings; after all, it is a gift from our God.  But we must never forget the one thing needful.  Whether life at this particular moment is sweet or sour, something more awaits us, indeed is available to us now.  For unlike all the “earthly delights” described above, the “one thing needful” can be as close to us as the chambers of our heart.

 

Gary

Feast of the Venerable Xenophon and Mary, and their sons, in 

Constantinople

; (5^th cen.)

 

Psalm 84

For the director of music. According to gittith. Of the Sons of Korah. A psalm.

 How lovely is Your dwelling place, 
       O LORD Almighty!

 My soul yearns, even faints, 
       for the courts of the LORD; 
       my heart and my flesh cry out 
       for the living God.

 Even the sparrow has found a home, 
       and the swallow a nest for herself, 
       where she may have her young— 
       a place near Your altar, 
       O LORD Almighty, my King and my God.

 Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; 
       they are ever praising you.

       Selah

 Blessed are those whose strength is in You, 
       who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.

 As they pass through the 

Valley

 of 

Baca

, 
       they make it a place of springs; 
       the autumn rains also cover it with pools.

 They go from strength to strength, 
       till each appears before God in 

Zion

.

 Hear my prayer, O LORD God Almighty; 
       listen to me, O God of Jacob.

       Selah

 Look upon our shield, O God; 
       look with favor on Your anointed one.

 Better is one day in Your courts 
       than a thousand elsewhere; 
       I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God 
       than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; 
       the LORD bestows favor and honor; 
       no good thing does He withhold 
       from those whose walk is blameless.

 O LORD Almighty, 
       blessed is the man who trusts in You.

Daily Devotion - 1/23/09

Christ is Born!  Glorify Him!

 Psalm 83 deals with one of the most powerful and provocative ideas in theology---the “silence” of God. 

 “God, do not remain silent,

            Do not stay quiet or unmoved, God.”

 It is easy to explain away some of God’s activities---whether we have in fact penetrated His thought processes and actually understood the Infinite or not---in His dealings with us humans.  When bad things happen to our enemies, when for example the fire and fury of the Combined Bomber Offensive rained down on Nazi Germany, it is easy to say that Hitler’s Reich got exactly what it deserved:  having sown the wind, it reaped the whirlwind.  I confess that at times, when as a historian I wade through the sheer horror of what this regime did to millions of people, I have been moved to think that perhaps the Nazis weren’t bombed enough.

 This is a seductive image that we utilize all the time---bad things happen to bad people:  God is on our side.  We need to think on this---it’s too easy, too pat.  But before dealing with the problem of evil befalling evil, we need to consider the problem of horrific evils befalling the good---or at least, the innocent. 

 One only needs to go to place like Mauthausen, a concentration camp outside Linz, Austria, where I have worked the past four summers, to move into the uneasy area of the “silence of God.”  In the Nazi roll of death, Mauthausen was sort of “small potatoes”---here only about 200,000 people died, far fewer than in the great killing centers of the east, Auschwitz, Treblinka, Maidenak, Sobibor, Belzec, Chelmno.  Yet one can’t be at Mauthausen very long without wondering, “where was God?”  One walks up the “stairs of death,” where inmates in close formation spent all day carrying 100 pound blocks of granite from the quarry below up almost 200 steps, uneven and difficult to walk today, despite being worn smooth by so much time and blood and tears; one looks down from the high cliff nicknamed the “parachute jump,” where inmates were forced to push other inmates onto the rocks of the quarry below; one stands numbly in the camp’s gas chamber, trying not to think…:  and one wonders, “where was God?” 

The psalmist in Psalm 83 details all the evils that are being prepared against God’s people.  His tone is confident:  God, do what You have always done to protect us.  Show them that You are “the Most High over all the earth.” 

Powerful words.

But what if God’s answer is silence?

This is the existential question that each of us must answer.  It’s easy to be a “happy-talk,” Christian.  You’ve met the type:  he’s the one who tells you immediately upon meeting that he just “loves Jesus so much”---without giving the least thought to the epochal, life-changing implications of such a claim; she’s the one who tells you that since she’s become a Christian everything has just been wonderful:  prosperity, no illness, a happy family---the good life.  But put these same people in the tempest---when bad things happen to good people---and see how they handle it. 

Six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust:  like everyone else, some were sinners and a few were saints and all were innocent---two million of the victims were children.  One can imagine at least one of these six millions, as the grotesque net of evil and annihilation closed around him, praying this psalm.  “God, do not remain silent, do not stay quiet or unmoved, God.” 

So why was God silent?

Gary

Feast of the Hieromartyr Clement, Bishop of 

Ancyra

Psalm 83

A song. A psalm of Asaph.

 O God, do not keep silent; 
       be not quiet, O God, be not still.

 See how your enemies are astir, 
       how your foes rear their heads.

 With cunning they conspire against your people; 
       they plot against those you cherish.

 "Come," they say, "let us destroy them as a nation, 
       that the name of Israel be remembered no more."

 With one mind they plot together; 
       they form an alliance against you-

 the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, 
       of Moab and the Hagrites,

 Gebal, Ammon and Amalek, 
       Philistia, with the people of Tyre.

 Even Assyria has joined them 
       to lend strength to the descendants of Lot. 
       Selah

 Do to them as you did to Midian, 
       as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon,

 who perished at Endor 
       and became like refuse on the ground.

 Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, 
       all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,

 who said, "Let us take possession 
       of the pasturelands of God."

 Make them like tumbleweed, O my God, 
       like chaff before the wind.

 As fire consumes the forest 
       or a flame sets the mountains ablaze,

 so pursue them with your tempest 
       and terrify them with your storm.

 Cover their faces with shame 
       so that men will seek your name, O LORD.

 May they ever be ashamed and dismayed; 
       may they perish in disgrace.

 Let them know that you, whose name is the LORD—
       that you alone are the Most High over all the earth.

Daily Devotion - 1/22/09

The Lord is with us!

I have to say that reading Psalm 82 was a bit like getting hit in the head by a 2 x 4.  While many of the psalms contain direct messages for the singer, I have to say that no other psalm is as blunt regarding God's judgment of the leadership of Israel.

The first striking feature of the psalm is that the writer twice refers to "gods" if it is read for the NIV translation.  Once they are referred to as part of the congregation or gathering and the second reference is as "sons of the Most High".  Who is it that the psalm is talking about.  Eugene Peterson, in his Message version of Scripture, translates this a "judges" while the translators of the New American Standard Bible render this word as "rulers".  From this I take it that the author of the psalm is writing about the members of Jewish society whose role it was to ensure that justice and fairness were protected.

If this is the case then it is clear that God has come down amongst the assembly to specifically judge these people; to hold them accountable for what they have done or, in this case, failed to do.  You see, these people's job was to make sure that those who didn't have much protection under the Jewish law, either because they were poor or alien or handicapped in some way, were represented and protected against the avarice of the rich and powerful.  It was the charge of these men to look after the orphan and the widow, the diseased and destitute, the weak and feeble. They were supposed to be the voice of those too young or too old, too sick or too invalid to be able to speak for themselves.

Instead, God accuses them of siding time and time again with the wicked and evil who sought to take advantage of, defraud or exploit the weakness of the marginalized in society.  They participated in the destruction of the very ones they were supposed to protect and so, in this psalm, God has come to call accounts due.  These advocates or judges may think they they are "gods" with the right to pass judgment in any way they see fit but He reminds them that they'll die just like any other prince and that they will fall.  A measure of the wrath of God here is that the very foundations of the earth shake with the rage of the real God over the poor treatment of His children.

It may not be popular political talk to stand up for the poor or the weak these days.  As belt tightening takes place and we look for ways to slash expenses one tempting place to look for savings is in our care for the disadvantaged in our society.  Not just on a national level but in our personal lives as well.  As we see uncertainty looming there is a temptation to hoard the blessings we have received "just in case".  I know this because it is an impulse I have been fighting for some time now.  It is something that I hear and read from many others.  Yet, in this psalm there is a sense that God will judge us on how we represent and protect the least in our society.  

Grace and Peace.

In Him,

Chad

Psalm 82

A psalm of Asaph.

God presides in the great assembly; 
      He gives judgment among the "gods":
"How long will you defend the unjust 
      and show partiality to the wicked? 

     Selah

Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; 
      maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.

Rescue the weak and needy; 
      deliver them from the hand of the wicked.

"They know nothing, they understand nothing. 
      They walk about in darkness; 
      all the foundations of the earth are shaken.

"I said, 'You are "gods"; 
      you are all sons of the Most High.'

But you will die like mere men; 
      you will fall like every other ruler."

Rise up, O God, judge the earth, 
      for all the nations are Your inheritance.

Daily Devotion - 1/21/09

Christ is Born!  Glorify Him!

Psalm 81 contains an important insight into just how God “works” in our lives.  The Psalmist mystically speaks in God’s voice, recounting His deliverance of His people, demanding an absolute and uncompromising adherence to Him: 

 “There shall be no strange god among thee;

                Neither shalt thou worship any strange god.” (v. 9)

 We all know what happened, of course; what happens so often every day in our own lives.

 “But My people would not hearken to My voice,

                And Israel would have none of Me.

So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust,

                And they walked in their own counsels.”  (vv. 11-12)

 When Christians insist that our God is a God of love, they sometimes overlook the consequences of that assertion.  They forget that since God truly loves us, He wants a relationship with us that is based in love.  Whatever else love may be, it is absolutely a relationship that cannot be forced on some else.  So God will not compel us to love Him.  Instead, He yearns for an intimate and whole-souled relationship with each of us. 

 From our perspective, such a relationship requires work---and honesty.  We need to realize that we lie to ourselves---and to God---if we claim we love Him yet do not try to keep His commandments.  To say that we love God and then to blatantly disregard what He requires of us shows either an infantile notion of what love is---usually some kind of feel good emotion---or self-deception on a large and damaging scale. 

 What the Psalmist has God say here is especially revealing.  If we chose to ignore God, God will allow us to do so.  It is, if you will, the “flip side” (now there is a dated and perhaps useless analogy---in a phonograph record-less world, does the “flip-side” have any meaning any more?) of God wanting a loving relationship with us.  Not even God will force us to love Him. 

 But as the Psalmist and the whole of Scriptures make clear, to ignore God is to court disaster and death.  Not because God somehow is waiting out there to “get us” for our rejection, but because God is Life, and to reject Him is thus to confront directly the kingdom of death.  The idea is made more complex when we allow that God certainly uses misfortune and disaster to “wake us up,” to call us back to Him.  But God using whatever mess we have made to work out His plan for salvation and God causing the mess to begin with are two very different concepts. 

 Our God is not schizophrenic; He does not transform Himself from the God of Love to a god of retribution at any slight.  A better analogy to understand Him certainly is that of the “compassionate father” in the parable of the Prodigal Son.  Sorrowfully, the father allows his foolish son to do stupid things because of the father’s unconditional love.  Once the young man has separated himself from his father, the father is said to be anxiously patrolling the “fence line” of his estate, scanning the horizon  for the prodigal’s return.   

 Psalm 81 suggests these same ideas.  God wants what is best for us---which is, after all, to be in a free and loving relationship with Him.  He will respect our refusal to join Him, and allow us to pursue our own desires.  But we should not be surprised when such a course leads to unhappiness and real sorrow.  For where else can we walk but in darkness, if we have spurned the Light.

 Gary

Feast of St. Maximos the Confessor 

 

Psalm 81

For the director of music. According to gittith. Of Asaph.

 Sing for joy to God our strength; 
       shout aloud to the God of Jacob!

 Begin the music, strike the tambourine, 
       play the melodious harp and lyre.

 Sound the ram's horn at the New Moon, 
       and when the moon is full, on the day of our Feast;

 this is a decree for Israel, 

       an ordinance of the God of Jacob.

 He established it as a statute for Joseph 
       when He went out against Egypt, 

       where we heard a language we did not understand.

 He says, "I removed the burden from their shoulders; 
       their hands were set free from the basket.

 In your distress you called and I rescued you, 
       I answered you out of a thundercloud; 
       I tested you at the waters of Meribah. 
       Selah

 "Hear, O my people, and I will warn you— 
       if you would but listen to me, O Israel!

 You shall have no foreign god among you; 
       you shall not bow down to an alien god.

 I am the LORD your God, 
       who brought you up out of Egypt. 

       Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.

 "But my people would not listen to Me; 
       Israel would not submit to Me.

 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts 
       to follow their own devices.

 "If my people would but listen to Me, 
       if Israel would follow My ways,

 how quickly would I subdue their enemies 
       and turn my hand against their foes!

 Those who hate the LORD would cringe before Him, 
       and their punishment would last forever.

 But you would be fed with the finest of wheat; 
       with honey from the rock I would satisfy you."