Tag: psalms

Delight in God’s Word (Psalm 119:41-48)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

Lord, give me your unfailing love,
    the salvation that you promised me.
Then I can answer those who taunt me,
    for I trust in your word.
Do not snatch your word of truth from me,
    for your regulations are my only hope.
I will keep on obeying your instructions
    forever and ever.
I will walk in freedom,
    for I have devoted myself to your commandments.
I will speak to kings about your laws,
    and I will not be ashamed.
How I delight in your commands!
    How I love them!
I honor and love your commands.
    I meditate on your decrees. (New Living Translation)

Christians often refer to the Bible as “God’s Word.” By that reference is meant that God has graciously given a self-revelation to us through the Holy Scriptures. 

The Jewish people refer to the first five books of the Old Testament as the Law of the Lord or the Torah. They understand God as a great, high and holy Being, who graciously accommodates and communicates to us on our level by giving the Law. 

Just as a parent coos and babbles and speaks in a very different way to a baby in a crib, so God speaks to us in a manner that we can understand divine care, concern, and love for us. Just as an infant cannot understand an adult conversation taking place, so God is a divine being well above our comprehension. We have no ability to understand anything God says unless the Lord graciously and lovingly bends down to speak to us on our level.

God’s Law, the Torah, was the curriculum for Israel’s religious instruction. The Law of the Lord is meant to be a behavior pattern, to be embodied in the lives of God’s people through both teachers and parents who learn God’s Word and, in turn, pass it along to others. Both those within the faith, such as children, and those outside of the faith, such as aliens or immigrants, can have a guide for how to live in the world.

God’s Law is an extension of God’s grace. And we can gratefully accept the grace of God expressed in God’s Word. We have the opportunity to ingest it, eat it, reflect on it, and dwell with it, in order to know God and be the sort of people God who can bless the world.

There are several Hebrew language words that come from the root word of Law, or Torah.  A teacher is a “moreh.” A parent is a “horeh.” Parents and teachers are to be living guides in the way of God’s Word. What’s more, the Hebrew word for teaching is “yarah.” 

So, in other words, the moreh’s and the horeh’s are to yarah the Torah. Parents and teachers are to point and lead others into the ways of the Lord. And how do they do this?…

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:4-9, NIV)

God’s Law (God’s Word) is to be as familiar to us as our back door; it is to be in front of us all the time. We might put a modern spin on the Deuteronomy passage to help us understand our privilege when it comes to God’s Word:

Attention, Church! God, our God! God the one and only! Love God, your God, with your whole heart: love God with all that is in you; love God with all you’ve got! 

Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. 

In order to do this, talk about God’s Word at home when you are eating supper together, and when you are working or playing with each other. 

Start your day with God’s Word when you get up, and end your day with God’s Word when you go to bed at night. Put God’s Word on your refrigerator, and your car’s dashboard; have it on your smartphones, and let it be available to you anywhere, anytime. Use every opportunity you have to incessantly chatter about God’s Holy Word.

Someone may say, “That’s pretty radical – I don’t need to do all that!” Then I would say you are missing out on living a blessed life, because people are blessed when they walk according to God’s Word and keep God’s Law in front of them, seeking God with all their heart. 

Eleanor Turnbull, a veteran missionary to Haiti, collected and translated some simple but powerful prayers of the Christians who live in the Haitian mountains. Here are four prayers that they pray every day – and take note of their high view of God, and their longing to know God’s Word: 

  1. “Our Great Physician, Your word is like alcohol. When poured on an infected wound, it burns and stings, but only then can it kill germs. If it doesn’t burn, it doesn’t do any good.” 
  2. “Father, we are all hungry baby birds this morning. Our heart-mouths are gaping wide, waiting for you to fill us.” 
  3. “Father, a cold wind seems to have chilled us. Wrap us in the blanket of your Word and warm us up.” 
  4. “Lord, we find your Word like cabbage. As we pull down the leaves, we get closer to the heart. And as we get closer to the heart, it is sweeter.”

Let’s not be so busy, pre-occupied, or worried that we push God’s Word to the margins of our lives as only something for our discretionary time. 

Instead, let’s commit ourselves, like the psalmist, to learning and loving God’s commands and decrees.

Let’s be intentional about connecting with the God who has so graciously given us a guide for grateful living. 

Let’s lay solid plans to catechize people into the basics of faith and holy living. 

May your efforts both honor God and build up Christ’s Church. Amen.

What is Your View of God? (Psalm 33:1-12)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
God’s Love… by Hope G. Smith

Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous.
    Praise befits the upright.
Praise the Lord with the lyre;
    make melody to him with the harp of ten strings.
Sing to him a new song;
    play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.

For the word of the Lord is upright,
    and all his work is done in faithfulness.
He loves righteousness and justice;
    the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made
    and all their host by the breath of his mouth.
He gathered the waters of the sea as in a bottle;
    he put the deeps in storehouses.

Let all the earth fear the Lord;
    let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him,
for he spoke, and it came to be;
    he commanded, and it stood firm.

The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;
    he frustrates the plans of the peoples.
The counsel of the Lord stands forever,
    the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord,
    the people whom he has chosen as his heritage. (New Revised Standard Version)

One of the reasons I adore the biblical psalms is that they present a majestic God who is full of goodness and steadfast love. The Lord’s very character is disposed toward justice and righteousness. Every word of God comes from this place of control and compassionate care.

I agree with the psalmist’s view of God because it resonates with my own experience. I have found that the God of the Psalms is high above all creation as the sovereign ruler, as well as intimately close as a friend.

The words, then, which proceed from the mouth of God are always just, right, good, fair, and loving. If God’s basic character is love, then everything God says and does comes from love. And that is precisely why I am completely devoted to this Lord.

Believers can sing a new song and revel in the Lord’s presence because they discern that everything comes down to God. That is, the way we view God is the way we will live our lives. 

For example, if we tend to see God as a stern Being whose main activity is to continually rebuke and punish people for their sin, then we will live with a constant sense of guilt and anxiety for fear of angering such a God. We will invariably live a performance-based life trying to pull ourselves up by our spiritual bootstraps in order to please or placate such a God who is always looking over our shoulder to make sure that we do not mess up.

That’s a miserable life, indeed! This is why many people internally say to themselves, “To hell with it!” and live in outright rebellion against a God who seems not to care a wit about their happiness. 

The cruelties of this world seem only to be God mocking their abysmal failure at being decent people. It would be like telling my grandson with epilepsy to stop having seizures, as if my love for him is dependent on him being seizure-free. Most people would consider it abusive for a parent or grandparent to yell at a kid for having seizures. With that kind of view of God, I wouldn’t want to know him either. And if that’s the sort of god you’re buying into, you need a new god.

But, on the other hand, if we understand God as a loving parent who is pained by the damage guilt and shame has done to the souls of people, then we are open to seeing the grace of God coming to set broken spirits right again.

With Christianity, the death of Christ is the ultimate act of love in taking care of the sin issue once for all. God in Christ did for us what we could do for ourselves; he gave his life so that we could live as we were intended to live: enjoying God and God’s creation forever.

In this view of God, the task of spiritual formation is one of constantly replacing destructive understandings of God with the kind of thoughts of God that filled the mind of Jesus himself. 

And the only good way of doing that is through the basic spiritual disciplines of Scripture reading and prayer, hearing the words of God. In order to listen well, we engage in practices of silence and solitude, as well as praise and celebration, that helps us connect with God’s Word. 

The grand redemptive story of the Bible is that the steadfast love of God has found its apex and fulfillment in the incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord Jesus. Therefore, all of Holy Scripture is to be viewed through these lenses of the grace of God in Christ. It is a very different picture than the one of an indifferent God.

Seeing God from the perspective of grace brings a joyous way to live because it views God as generous and hospitable. From such an angle, the logical and appropriate response is one of gratitude. 

All false gospels have at their core a kind of you-are-bad-try-harder approach. Preachers of such an ilk only rail against people as being scum buckets of sin and offer no real hope of transformation in Christ. It promotes a grace-less religion, and it is nothing less than biblical malpractice.

I take heart that if we have trouble seeing God as we ought, or experience difficulty viewing life as it is meant to truly be lived, we can ask God to give us wisdom. And the promise connected to that encouragement to pray is that God will give generously to all without finding fault and it will be given to them. (James 1:5)

In the psalmist’s view of God, prayer is not a chore but a delight; service is not drudgery but a willing response; reading Scripture is not a mandatory exercise but a wonderful practice of knowing God better; and praise organically erupts from the depths of our being, because we have spiritual eyes to see that everywhere we look, the whole earth is filled with the steadfast love of God.

Bless us with Love, O Merciful God;
That we may Love as you Love!
That we may show patience, tolerance,
Kindness, caring and love to all!
Give me knowledge; O giver of Knowledge,
That I may be one with my Creator and all creation!
O Compassionate One, grant compassion to us;
That we may help all people in need!
Bless us with your Love, O Lord.
Bless us with your Love. Amen.

Our Place in the World (Psalm 8)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory
    in the heavens.
Through the praise of children and infants
    you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
    to silence the foe and the avenger.
When I consider your heavens,
    the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
    which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
    human beings that you care for them?

You have made them a little lower than the angels
    and crowned them with glory and honor.
You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
    you put everything under their feet:
all flocks and herds,
    and the animals of the wild,
the birds in the sky,
    and the fish in the sea,
    all that swim the paths of the seas.

Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth! (New International Version)

I adore the psalms. Many years ago, it was the biblical psalter which helped me come to faith. This little psalm for today is illustrative of why I was moved toward embracing a life with God. Psalm 8 grounds us by dealing with the ultimate questions of human existence:

  • Who am I?
  • Why do I exist?
  • What is the purpose of life?

The answers to those questions are supremely important because people throughout history, and now across the world, are asking what meaning their lives really have.

For example, depression is pervasive throughout the world, as well as the church. It’s a huge issue. Peeling back the layers of a person’s life, many have a deep sense of not truly belonging, and of being profoundly misunderstood by others. Many depressed persons are very aware of their own mortality and have a disconnected sense of their personal role in the world.

Put another way, some folks have lost their original purpose of being a person, that they belong to the human family in a way that makes a significant contribution to the world.

Living on such a big planet causes some people to feel small and wonder how they fit in. With such a large universe, which may at times seem cold and capricious, we may ask, along with psalmist, “What is humanity that you are mindful of them?”

That question forms the center of the psalm. Hebrew poetry is typically set up to have the front and the end of the poem point to the middle where the chief focus is found. So then, the psalmist purposely wrote this psalm so we would consider this great question of what God thinks of humanity within the scope of this immense universe.

And it is a staggeringly huge universe! To put it in perspective, if our galaxy, the Milky Way, were the size of the entire continent of North America, our solar system would fit in a coffee cup.

Even now, two Voyager spacecraft are hurtling toward the edge of the solar system at a rate of 100,000 miles per hour. For decades they have been speeding away from Earth, having now traveled billions of miles. When engineers beam a command to the spacecraft at the speed of light, it takes over half a day to arrive.

Yet this vast neighborhood of our sun—in truth, the size of a coffee cup—fits along with several hundred billion other stars and their planets in the Milky Way, one of perhaps 100 billion such galaxies in the universe. To send a light-speed message to the edge of that universe would take 15 billion years.

Out of the billions of galaxies in the universe, what is the planet Earth that God should care about it? 

Even on our planet there are billions of creatures. Yet, of all those bugs, animals, fish, and birds, God has a special relationship with us, humanity, and cares for us deeply. We know that God cares for us, according to this psalm, because he has entrusted us with the responsibility to care for creation.

We are the only creatures who have the charge to steward all that God has created. As people created in the image of God, we have a job that is befitting of a king. We are God’s vice-regents, in charge of tending and caring for all creation. This incredible job is both a duty and a delight.

God has us playing a crucial role in governing and caring for the world he created. Like a parent or grandparent patiently working with a child to teach them responsibility for all that is around them, God teaches us, and has entrusted to us, this large expansive world we live in. Literally everything in all creation is under our stewardship.

People alone have the self-awareness and perspective of the world that is needed to govern the world. Therefore, we can only find our true purpose and belonging in the stewardship of creation. Caregiving is at the heart of being a person.

The only glitch to all this, and why so many lose their way, is that the world is still living under a curse due to the original fall of humanity.

When we allow other dominions to supersede God’s dominion, then we have issues. Whenever the power of money or the significance of a position, job title, or the ability to do certain tasks is our basic identity and place of belonging, then we will likely succumb to anxiety. That’s because other dominions cannot help us find our true God-given majesty as people created in God’s image.

Living a way other than being a proper steward of the world is beneath us because we have inherent dignity as God’s vice-regents over creation.

Mother Teresa once said that there is no such thing as a small thing – only small things which are done with big love. Her sentiment perfectly captures the vision of the psalmist – that all people are crowned with glory and honor and rule with God to do all the small things of life with a love that comes from our Creator.

We continually have possibilities of engaging in good stewardship of all that God has given us. We have the chance to be attentive to all the little things of life, whether gardening, building a bird house, working with diligence and care at our jobs, or keeping our community clean and its citizens healthy and happy – it’s all important. It brings meaning to our existence as human beings.

People, like all creation, are meant for growth. Putting effort into developing our skills and honing our craft, whatever that may be, is what helps us tap into our God-given purpose for being in this big world.

So, may we continually improve what we do, no matter what it is, so that it befits us as God’s people crowned with honor. May we realize joy and contentment – knowing the majesty we share with God in his wondrous world. 

Almighty God, Creator of the heavens and the earth, words are not enough to express your awesome majesty. Our highest expressions of theology are but baby talk next to you.

Grant us awareness through your Spirit that you are here with us. May this awareness lead us to approach life carefully. The words we speak, the songs we sing, the thoughts we think, the joy and sadness we feel – may it all be pleasing to you, O Lord.

For, despite the inadequacy of our words and actions, our life and worship are addressed to you alone. May you make that life complete, whole, and full to overflowing through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns forever.  Amen.

The Steadfast Love of God (Psalm 33:12-22)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord,
    the people whom he has chosen as his heritage.

The Lord looks down from heaven;
    he sees all humankind.
From where he sits enthroned he watches
    all the inhabitants of the earth—
he who fashions the hearts of them all
    and observes all their deeds.
A king is not saved by his great army;
    a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
The war horse is a vain hope for victory,
    and by its great might, it cannot save.

Truly the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him,
    on those who hope in his steadfast love,
to deliver their soul from death
    and to keep them alive in famine.

Our soul waits for the Lord;
    he is our help and shield.
Our heart is glad in him
    because we trust in his holy name.
Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,
    even as we hope in you. (New Revised Standard Version)

God is in control of the world. I am not. Neither are you.

Although the myth of self-sufficiency and self-reliance completely permeates individualist societies, this in no way lessens the immense transcendence and sovereignty of a hugely big God.

In today’s psalm, the scene of God looking down from heaven portrays the Lord as above all, firmly in control, clearly seeing the big picture of the entire world. And yet, the Lord is also attentive to all that is happening on the earth.

Individual human creatures subscribing to a narrative of personal independence will inevitably run into the Creator God with a story as big as history itself.

Success may give us the illusion that our own strength, intelligence, and/or ingenuity has brought us the good things we possess – not God. “I worked hard for my money and I will do whatever I want with it!” and the even more crass, “It wasn’t God who put food on my table!” are just a few of the power delusions I have heard from others, as if personal accomplishments are unconnected to any other force in the universe.

What’s more, looking at individualism from the converse angle, our lack of success may cause us to pause and wonder if God is really observing all our deeds, or not. Perhaps the Lord is reclining in his La-z-God chair and watching old baseball game replays of the Angels.

More likely, we have become so expectant of satisfactory service and immediate results as consumers in a capitalist culture that we fail to discern the virtue of patience – that God is not slow in keeping divine promises as some would understand it.

The sheer fact of the matter is that we need God. And God feels no compulsion from us to be hurried along with divine purposes for humanity. Since God is the ever-present gravity in this world, the way of realizing the good life on this earth is to conform ourselves to the Lord’s purposes, and not the other way around.

When we learn to exercise the inherent gifts of hope and patience which a gracious God has fashioned in our hearts, then we begin to discover persevering trust, enduring happiness, a settled sense of gladness, and steadfast love. We awaken to the true passion of God for us. Rather than a capricious or indifferent deity, the Lord God looks upon us with endearing faithfulness.

God’s heart is forever drawn to us. Therefore, there’s no need to take every matter into our own hands, as if we are alone in the world. If we can see a vision of God high and lifted-up, observing us with a gaze of delight, then our spirits open to mercy and we find grace to help us in our time of need.

The Lord your God is in your midst—a warrior bringing victory. He will create calm with his love; he will rejoice over you with singing.

Zephaniah 3:17

God labors on our behalf. God has our back. God establishes a safe environment for us. And never forget: God delights in you. And so much so, that, this very minute, the Lord is singing songs of joy over you.

Trust and hope cannot be coerced by another or willed into being by the mind; it can only be generated through the deep conviction of God’s broad love for you and me.

The best self-help program I know of is not self-help at all – it is the self-care of opening to a loving God and allowing God’s joy and delight to fill us. God is watching us, and it is the gaze of adoration, not condemnation.

Dear God, the One who watches all, love comes from you. Anyone who loves is your child and knows you. And anyone who does not love does not know you, for God is love. Thank you for showing me love by sending your one and only Son into the world so that I might have eternal life through him. 

Precious Lord, since you loved me that much, I surely ought to love others. May you live in me and may the love of Jesus be brought to full expression in me through the power of the Spirit. Amen.