Bible Reading Challenge Blog

Here is another psalm that has great imagery.  Look at vss. 3-4.  Do you see the sea fleeing?  That must have been a reference to the parting of the Red Sea.  I don’t have a direct correlation to the next image.  Can you see the mountains and the hills skipping?  I don’t have a biblical image that correlates directly with that image, but I like it.  The closest thing that I can think of is when Jesus says that if we would have the faith even the size of a tiny mustard seed then we could tell a mountain to move, and it would!  That works for me.

This isn’t what I was looking for, but I guess it will work.  I was looking for a song that I used to sing that said:  “From the rising of the sun, to the going down of the same, the Lord’s name is to be praised”.  It is interesting that there are some phrases that elicit some great childhood memories for me.  That song was associated with VBS and those times that I went to Christian camp.  

Once again we find the psalmist pointing to the needy as those for whom God has favor.  He lifts the poor from the dust and the needy from the ash heap.  The ash heap would have been the place that the poor would have gone to collect charcoal which could be sold or used in the home for fuel for the fire.  It truly was a place where only the poor would find themselves.  We also see a reference to God who looks with favor upon the barren.  So much of the Old Testament is centered upon the role of the woman being somewhat singular.  She was responsible for bearing children.  We read in many different Scriptures that those women who could not bear children were ashamed and felt worthless (Sarah, Rachel, Rebecca, Hannah and others).  They felt like God had cursed them and had withdrawn His presence from them.

But here we find quite the opposite.  We find him giving her a home.  But it again centers back on her being gifted with children.  Not a word of comfort for the families today who are not able to bear children.  

This is a really different psalm from those we have seen before.  We have the somewhat traditional, and I would even say somewhat mistaken, claim that those who trust in the Lord can rely upon earthly blessings and riches.  There simply is no quid pro quo when it comes to faith.  But we do see a change in what we normally see in these types of psalms.  There is a very pragmatic approach to faith. 

Start at vs. 5 and you see where the psalmist says: “It is well for those who deal generously and lend, and conduct their affairs with justice.”  First of all Scripture says that the people of Israel should not lend with interest.  They can lend, but not with interest.  Any type of interest is called usury.  Now, if there is a foreigner in the land, then they can charge interest to that person.  

But then again in vs.9 we find that same extolling of the one who has distributed freely and given to the poor.  It is a psalm that seems filled with two different messages, and yet if we could pick and choose I would go from vs.5 on.  

I have said quite a few times that one of the aspects that I love about the church is that it is filled with sinners just like me.  There is not a sense that the church is populated with people who are good, or perfect, or live a sin free life.  This is not a green light to go and sin boldly, but it is a recognition that there is no place for hypocrisy in a church.  This psalm does call those who are in the congregation the “upright”.  I’m thinking that this might be a desire of the author, and not so much a recognition of who is actually within the group that he calls the “upright”.  

Now, it is our desire and our goal to be “upright”.  We ought to try to live our lives in a way that reflects the desire of Jesus that we be “upright”.  I have always seen humanity as God’s utopia.  We have not arrived nor have we become that which God wants us to be, but He so hopes that we would and that we do.  There is a godly desire that we reflect the same nature as God.  While it is impossible, it is still something after which we strive.  

But this psalm has much less to do with the “upright”, than it does with the one whose works of his hands are faithful and just.  This Psalm does point to all that God has done for us.  It uses that experience of God’s love and faithfulness as that which ought to build up trust and confidence in God.  In fact, it ought to build up a wisdom within each person which helps us rely upon God for all things.  Look at vs.10 and you should hear a verse with which you are familiar.  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  

Wisdom does not find its culmination in the fear of the Lord, but rather finds its mere beginning with the fear of the Lord.  It is nice to be wise.  It is important to have a certain respect and awe of the Lord that may only come through experience.  Trust in the Lord with all your heart and soul.  Fear the Lord.  Rejoice in that fear.

The psalms have such beautiful imagery.  Look at vs.3 and the words which speak of the young who will be birthed in order to fight on the side of the Lord.  It speaks of the youth coming over the mountains as if from a womb just as the dew comes from the early morning.  It is beautiful, feminine imagery.  We have often seen imagery used that describes God in a masculine sense, but it is not exclusive to male imagery.  We find Jesus wanting to gather his people as a mother hen gathers her chicks.

Here in the Old Testament it is refreshing to hear about God in a way that uses feminine imagery.  I hope that is not threatening to anyone.  I have no problem seeing God in a feminine way, nor in a masculine way.  You see God completely transcends gender.  God is not male, God is…well, God.  Sure, Jesus was a male, but his maleness did not influence his divinity.  Jesus could have been Gelsomina, but he wasn’t.  But God could have chosen to come in the flesh as a woman, and can choose to do the same in God’s second coming.  The nature of God transcends our understand of male and female.  This psalm reflects the presence of God in a beautiful, artistic way which incorporate female imagery.  I like that.

It seems that we hear from the author that one bad deed deserves another.  The whole beginning of this Psalm we find the author speaking out strongly about how he has been abused and treated scandalously by those around him.  His request at the end of the psalm is that his accusers would be put to shame.  It really doesn’t seem to be the example that we ought to be following.

The redeeming aspect of this psalm is found in vs.31 where we see that God stands at the right hand of the needy.  This can be used as the basic foundation to discerning how we are seeing our own lives and what happens around us.  Are we seeing God standing at the right hand of the needy, or is God simply standing on our side and all others who are not on our side should suffer.  We would never pose it that way, but we could pose it in a more gentle way: God is on our side and all those who don’t agree with us are wrong.  It is an equally compelling argument that at times we feel as if we are an island to ourselves and our views and our perspectives trump the views and perspectives of those around us.  

When we are able to lift up the cause of the needy then our own needs seem to dissipate into the needs of the others.  It works well if we are committed to it.

This is a prayer for victory.  It is difficult for me to put myself in David’s position where every single day he had to think about which enemy might be on his border and which troops he would have to deploy where.  It was such a different world for David as he was writing these psalms than for me as I am reading them.  I think it is pretty obvious that the author is David since he speaks about the harp and the lyre and how his songs will exalt the name of the Lord.  He is an interesting character, a real Renaissance man who loved music and yet was a warrior.  

I’m not sure why I haven’t run across this Psalm in a way that it would influence my preaching upon a certain passage.  The passage I have in mind is either Mark 4:35-41 or Matthew 8:23-27.  I was thinking of vss. 28-30 where we find people crying in  distress as the storm rages and the Lord rises and calms the storm.  Pretty amazing that it took me that long to figure that even that act was an act of prophecy as seen in Psalm 107.  But then it took me to this song, and I’ll leave you with this.  

I was born in the wrong era.

First of all, Happy Easter!  What a celebration we had to honor the resurrection and recognize the significance of it.  This Psalm starts off so well.  It starts off with a well known call and response as we hear Give thanks to the Lord.  And then the response, for his steadfast love endures forever.  But then the psalmist launches into the historical unfaithfulness of Israel from the time that they grumbled in the wilderness to the time that they forsook the covenant they made with God.  It is pretty much all bad news from after the first verse until we get to verse 47 and 48.

The ending of this psalm reminds us that God continues to deserve our honor and praise even if we have messed up so much that he has every right to withdraw his grace and mercy from us.  We can still say “Praise the Lord” even after a recounting of all the events that took place.

This is David looking back over the past powerful presence of Almighty God who led his people out of Egypt and created a nation that would love and serve him.  He focuses specifically on the the story of old patriarchs of the faith from Abraham through Moses and all of the history that took them into and out of Egypt.  It was good enough for the Hebrew children as Mahalia Jackson sang.  It is nice to be able to look back and see the faithfulness of the generations that allows us to be where we are.  We are especially blessed at First Presbyterian to be able to look back over 180 years and see that faithfulness play itself out.