A Snowy Day, A Day in the Psalms

It’s Sunday morning. Last evening we made the call to call off worship services in the morning. The weather forecast indicated we were going to be experiencing a good snow storm. As dawn breaks, the snow is coming down in small flakes. The winds are blowing. Visibility is about 700 feet.
I began this morning, like most, making coffee. I’m a big fan of Michigan Cherry, or Traverse City Cherry - something in that flavor range that combines cherry and good coffee. On a recent trip to Ohio, Anna and Asa stopped at a Meijer store in Indiana and picked up several pounds. It tastes so good on a morning when the ambiance is filled with snow, wind, the darkness before the dawn - a good storm.
In addition to coffee, I longed for some time in worship. In the summer of 2018 Schweitzer had a preaching series on the Psalms. The creative team decided they would turn each Psalm into a song, and together they would create a musical album: "Psalms Greatest Hits" (available on iTunes, the Google Play store, and the Schweitzer App). They gathered a great team of vocalists and instrumentalists around them and began a major work. The style of the music is broad; there is rock-a-billy, techno, notes of Chicago, and a some Ska along the way. Musically, there is something for everyone, unless you are a rock anthem fan, if so, you’ll have to wait for another album.
Listening this morning took me beyond the music - as impressive as it is. The texts of the songs draw me in.
Psalm 8 and Psalm 148 both reflect the cosmic and personal wonder in God and desire to worship.
Psalm 23 is there, reminding us of the Good Shepherd who leads us, and, who doesn’t live in a moment when we need someone walking alongside us, guiding us, leading us!
Psalm 37, a plea for justice, gains the voice of a very fun guy in Taylor Likes. The dissonance between the text, music, and voice do not strike me as making justice not essential. Instead, it makes me think that a plea for justice can arise from happy voices. This is a missing virtue in almost every circle I’ve been a part of. Psalm 88 is a haunting plea for God to appear in the midst of great sorrow. Sometimes the only voice we hear is ours.
Psalm 131 invites us to wait on God. On this day, when not much is moving or going to be moving, waiting is a an opportunity to see the Lord work. Somehow too, when we wait on God, and do it in God’s arms, in God’s house, with God’s people, we become like a contented baby - waiting with hope, now and always.
This album speaks - it’s creative, beautiful, filled with variety, and singable.
There’s one more thing that stood out to me as I listened. Unlike most songs I’ve heard in life, I know these vocalists better than any other I’ve known before. I know a bit of their story. While the text is all scripture, as it springs from their voice the text is new, in them, for them. Knowing the vocalist(s) one can see how the Psalms are embodied, incarnated if you will. Their faith is reflected in the songs, and God’s presence is being reflected back to them. Here in this album is a living witness - similar to the standing stones pillars Israel would put up to remind themselves of God’s work on their behalf and how the people trusted God - this album calls for faith, trust, and worship, on a stormy day, in the midsts of other storms.
May the Lord, who is the Good Shepherd, be your shelter and leader, now and always. May joy fill your voice. May the best coffee overflow in your cup. May snow fall deep and beautiful, to help us rest and enjoy the fair beauty of God.      

This year has held a few firsts, today was one of those days. I ran a 1/2 marathon.
In the spring Anna and I started running together.  When we arrived on campus at Asbury we kept it up.  We run about 2 miles 4 times a week. 
In August Ken Nash, another Beeson pastor from Grand Rapids, took me for a 6 1/2 mile run around Notre Dame.  The next day we did another 5 1/2.  He started to say, you can do a 1/2 marathon.  So a plan went into motion and this morning at 7:45 we commenced.  I finished in 2 hours, 7 minuets and and a few seconds. 
The Psalm below can truly be a runners Psalm, for there were moments in the race when I was indeed calling for mercy, and when my strength was gone. 
The Psalmist prays a joyful regard for God's shepherding.  I'm thankful for the wonderful encouragement of Ken Nash, who coached me through the entire race and chided me to finish strong.
I am glad the Lord is my strength and tonight my heart is leaping for joy.
The next endeavor is coming up this Saturday when Anna, Moses, Asa and I will run a 5K here in Wilmore.   

From Psalm 28
 ⁶ Praise be to the LORD,
   for he has heard my cry for mercy.
⁷ The LORD is my strength and my shield;
   my heart trusts in him, and he helps me.
My heart leaps for joy,
   and with my song I praise him.
 ⁸ The LORD is the strength of his people,
   a fortress of salvation for his anointed one.
⁹ Save your people and bless your inheritance;
   be their shepherd and carry them forever.

Seek His Face - A Prayer

This prayer I worked on for corporate worship at CMFMC, January 23, 2011.  I have returned to it several times, finding it says more than I had originally thought.  The Spirit helps us pray.
____
 The Intro to Prayer -

"Come my heart says, seek His face!  Your face do I seek." Ps. 27.8

These words are penned by David.  They are written in a time of thanksgiving and confidence.  David had found the Lord faithful and his heart urged him to pray - to seek the face of the Lord.  Whether we are in need or everything is smooth sailing, David and our hearts call out to us to seek the Lord.  He is our Help, our Stronghold. 

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The Prayer -
Lord God Almighty, as David has described you as a great stronghold, as the one who is always true and reliable, our hearts teach us to seek Your face, to be found within Your living room.  You are our Hope, our Salvation.

As we seek you, some of us are in need of your teaching, your leading

Some of us lead lives that are a tangled mess, our emotions run the length of a football field and we are not as we wish we could be
Some of us hear Jesus calling us to follow Him in some new way, maybe for the first time, yet we feel our inabilities, our unpreparedness is heavy

Teach us Holy Spirit, Your wisdom, Your truth

Grant us a thirst for your Scriptures and the wisdom of the Church

Bless with mercy those who led and teach; their task is holy

Some of us find ourselves in need of your protection
 - a protection of our health, or well being
 - a protection from those who would do us harm, or from those who would take advantage of us
 - a protection from ourselves

Some of us are waiting
 - in our waiting we find it hard to be patient.  When it's hard to be patient, relationships are strained.  Forgive us for hurrying things up, when we are on Your good time.
- grant to us courage and wisdom in waiting, that we may act well and rest confident in Your goodness.

David also says, I believe I shall see the Goodness of the Lord.  This is our desire.  Lead us in this way to your Glory.  Amen.

A Cultural Tragedy - Getting Close to God

This past week I was privileged to visit the class room of a parishioner. The class room is an alternative High School. I visited to give some impression about President Lincoln. I did some work on Lincoln in seminary and have been fond of him since then.
As I shared with the class about Lincoln, I mentioned recent participants in the depiction of Lincoln, chief among them was Colin Powell. What I discovered was that the students in the class room were unaware of Mr. Powell and his many contributions to the country.
One of the great challenges faced by our parishioner is a vacuous cultural context. The teacher is to teach US history from 1870 forward and there's little to any engagement by the students in the world.
Not only did I find the task of sharing about Lincoln difficult, but as I stayed and interacted, the conversation revealed a greater tragedy. Many of the students are what we might call, soulless. That is ask them what they want to do after graduation - they haven't thought about it, or they can't think about it. Ask them what they dream of being - the concept of a dream is devoid in their vocabulary. Ask them about what they like to study, learn, or do - nothing.
Some of the students are not fully enmeshed in this spirit, but on balance - they reflect a great cultural tragedy.
Psalm 34.18 depicts their status: "The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and he saves those who are crushed in spirit."
These young people are best described as brokenhearted, crushed in spirit. One girl, 19 years of age presently, spoke of taking a full time baby sitting job at the age of 14, that's when she left a traditional school. By the age of 15 she was renting her own house, running her own business. I'm not sure what compelled her to return to school, but by all outward appearances - she reflected a broken heart.
Psalm 34 depicts their status, it also depicts a God who stays near these beloved souls. While society tends to speak of these young people in terms of getting them ready for a life spent in prison, their faces depict that they've assumed this - the Psalmist sees another story. These are beloved of God, souls to whom He is close, souls to whom He seeks to give hope, a recreated spirit, a new heart.
In the Church we often speak of desiring to get close to God. Maybe getting close God would be getting to know a young person who is brokenhearted or who has a crushed spirit.
Join me in praying for those who host classrooms filled with brokenhearted young people, those who crushed spirits. What they've been asked to do is impossible apart from a renewal of our personal and corporate spirits. Apart from God's pledge, their task is impossible.

Athanasius on the Psalms

Recently I revisited a beloved little book, On the Incarnation, written by St. Athanasius (296 – 373 A.D.). Athanasius is a profoundly influential pastor and Bishop within the church. In 325 at the Council of Nicea, he took a significant role in helping the church to understand and proclaim that Jesus was human and divine. The heresy that he countered was known as Arianism, which understood Jesus to be a great example, but not God in the flesh. Athanasius helped the church form the Nicean Creed which we find as #717 in our hymnal and serves as a concise confession of what we believe about God. (You can read more about St. Athanasius by going to: www.ccel.org/a/athanasius/

In the copy of On the Incarnation that I have there is an appendix which is a letter that Athansisus wrote on the interpretation of the Psalms. Like many other interpreters of his time he viewed all of Scripture as pointing to the person of Jesus, as its first task. Each book of the Bible he held pointed to Jesus in some particular way, just as it told a particular message of its own. The Psalms he noted were a little different, “Each of the books is like a garden which grows one special kind of fruit; by contrast the Psalter (Psalms) is a garden for which, besides its special fruit grown also some of those of all the rest.” The Psalms span pre-creation to the celestial city and everything in between.

But there’s more to the Psalms than revealing the fullness of the story of God and the human story. One purpose of the Psalms is to be sung or prayed in private and in public. The scripture tells us to “give thanks always” (I Thess. 5) and the Psalms provide the fitting words to say. “In fact,” writes Athanasius, “under all the circumstances of life, we shall find that these divine songs suit ourselves and meet our own souls’ need at every turn.” Further he writes, “the marvel of the Psalter is that, barring those prophesies about the Saviour and some about the Gentiles, the reader takes all its words upon his lips as though they were his own, and each one sings the Psalms as though they had been written for his special benefit, and takes them and recites them, not as though someone else were speaking or another persons feelings were being described, but as himself speaking of himself, offering the words to God as his own heart’s utterance, just as though he himself had made them up.”

Since reading Athanasius’ work I’ve been re-visiting the Psalms. I’ve been reading the Psalm numbered for that day of the month, and then using that number to skip through the remainder of the Psalms. At times I’ve found them speaking to different matters, of creation, of repentance for sin, of seeking God in tough times, of seeing God’s righteous arm descend upon the wicked, of pleading for mercy for the wicked, of joy at God’s great and grand mercy. At other times they speak with a solitary voice – in God is our trust, and He is indeed trustworthy to walk with us through the valleys of life and set before us a good table.

Let me encourage you to join me in re-visiting the Psalms, especially during the season of lent. Hear and sing the good news delivered to us through these many writers and let these words shape your heart. Jesus knew the Psalms, and on the cross he quoted from Psalm 22 – “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Many believe that in saying the first line Jesus had the whole Psalm in mind, which concludes with trust and praise and a look to future generations. Let us listen to and sing the Psalms and may our hearts and bodies be shaped by the truth of God’s word. “For a soul rightly ordered by chanting the sacred words forgets its own afflictions and contemplates with joy the things of Christ alone.” (Athanasius)