PSA Bible Reading Challenge 2023-2024

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.

This is actually from where the words to this song come.  I think in the past I copied one from where we had whales and stars singing together in this song.

I’ll never forget my first few years of ministry.  We went with the entire church community up a  mountain for the annual gathering of  the chestnuts.  We were on a precipe looking out over the mountains and I read the following: 

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+104&version=NR2006

That’s right, you found the right link.  It is Psalm 104 in Italian.  I couldn’t make it through the Psalm.  The sun was shining, it was a beautiful, beautiful day, the people were so excited to be there, the feeling was spectacular.  As I made it through the psalm where it talks about the greatness of God as exemplified in His creation, it was almost too much emotionally.  God is so good and His goodness is revealed so powerfully in His creation.  

You should also notice that this is a great Psalm for Pentecost Sunday.  The presence of the Spirit of the Lord is powerfully portrayed.  Look at vss. 29-30 and you find the Spirit of the Lord, or his breath, same word, that creates all the creatures and all that moves and has life.  Bless the Lord oh my soul, and all that is within me!

This has to be the song that comes to mind when I read this Psalm.  But if you only focus on the blessing and the praise then you miss the most powerful verses in this Psalm.  Look at vs.10-12 and we see the length, breadth, and width of the love that God has for us.

A very common assurance of pardon we can find in vs.12 as the author states “as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us.”  Right out of the Bible, right out of this psalm we recognize that the distance between east and west is unfathomable.  That is how much God loves us and forgives us.  Enjoy the song.  It is one of my favorites.  I could sing it every Sunday.

This is quite a transformation from Psalm 101.  Whereas in the last psalm we saw a very confident (I would probably even say at best brash and at worst cocky) author who was able to proclaim: “I will destroy the wicked in the land.”  In this Psalm we read the author humbly confess: “he has broken my strength in midcourse, he has shortened my days.”  Again, context is everything.  If Psalm 101 was written pre-Bathsheba and this psalm was written post, maybe even after the death of Absalom, it all makes sense.

We find in this Psalm a cry for help as the author bemoans the fact that his bones burn like a furnace (sounds like old age to me), and he is too tired to even eat bread.  But the contrast is found in vs.12 where he speaks that the Lord is enthroned forever and that His name shall endure for all generations.  

The author is able to lay down the perspective of this psalm by reaching back even to creation itself as he states: “Long ago you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.”  All of this is really for the purpose of leaving a legacy behind.  The legacy is so that “the children of your servants shall live secure, their offspring shall be established in your presence.”

This legacy is not anything material, but rather as vs. 18 states: that the faithfulness of the Lord will be recorded for generations to come and that even those who are unborn would praise the Lord.  That is strong statement for making sure that we make this world a better place for future generations.  This is an even stronger statement that we pass on our faith from one generation to the next.

My first thought upon reading this Psalm was: here is the pride that comes before the fall.  The person who is writing certainly knows what they think is right and wrong and noticeably lets us know what is acceptable and what is not.  I always do find it very interesting that those who are the most outspoken on certain moral topics have some very real and visible shortcomings in the realm of morality.  It is ironic that those who would speak the most forcefully have the least amount of room to speak because of their own lifestyle and their own judgment.

It is interesting that the first thing that this author points out is his loyalty to the Lord.  He then goes into the areas of life that he will be sure to hunt down and eliminate.  No evil shall pass in the presence of this person.  I’m guessing that this psalm was written by David before his encounter with Bathsheba.  Isn’t it interesting how failure humbles all of us.  This is before that humbling, in my thinking.

The first 100 days have been completed.  Congratulations!  We are 2/3rds of the way done.  You will find the first time that tennis is mentioned in the Bible here in Psalm 100…”enter his courts with praise”, get it?  Okay, I am so looking forward to spending an hour in prayer this morning at 1am.  I am so pleased with the response, there were only 3 open spots, and I am incredibly happy to take those spots.  The pastor has to pray too, after all!

Psalm 100 is one of those psalms that you learn in VBS by heart.  It is a great psalm and it is one, like Psalm 23, that remains with you and that sticks with you through thick and thin.  Make a joyful noise has often been misspoken by pastors as “make a noyful joise”.  My dad used to tell a story of how when he was interning as a seminarian he did that on Easter Sunday to greet the congregation.  He never recovered.  It reminded me of my brother who was reading Scripture and introduced it as Paul’s letter to the Philippines.   He’s still recovering.

But this Psalm has so much which is comforting but also it is just sheer joy.  That is what is memorable about it.  Psalm 23 is memorable because of the imagery.  Psalm 100 is memorable because of the unmitigated joy.  I pray that you are able to be in a Psalm 100 mindset this evening.

This is a bit of a blast from the past.  The author goes through some of the best and some of the most historic priests in Israel’s history.  He speaks about Moses and Aaron and even throws in Samuel.  He basically says that if these people of God spoke to the Lord and the Lord answered them, then if you speak to the Lord, he will also answer you.  

The cherubim would have been on top of the ark of the covenant, which was the holy of holies and really considered where God resided.  So as this psalmist speaks about the great priests of years past, and the presence of the Lord in the ark of the covenant, then it really seems as if this psalm is a psalm of worship.  

There has always been a major distinction in the worship of the people of Israel, and the worship of the people of the New Covenant, followers of Jesus Christ.  Our primary purpose as disciples of Jesus to gather and worship is not so that we can feel good about being together in one place.  We can do that at a church picnic, which we do, and it works wonderfully.  Our primary purpose of gathering on Sunday morning is so that someone who does not know Jesus just might come to know him and want to give their life to him.  This is so crucial.  If we are just gathering in order to enjoy our time together, that is not worship.  That is just a gathering.  Worship has at its core transformation, worship has at its core the preached sermon, at least for Presbyterians, and that Word ought to transform.  Any other reason may be good for the whole body, but it is not worship.

In the Old Testament the purpose of worship was simply to celebrate the presence of the Lord.  It was not to bring others into the fold, it was to celebrate the presence of the Lord.  Moses and Aaron were also responsible to make sure that the worship of the Lord was done in a correct manner.  The people didn’t have a say in how that was to be done, God entrusted Moses and Aaron to do it.  They were the ones who told the people what type of worship God required.  

That type of mentality existed before the Protestant Reformation came about.  Before the Reformation it was the priests who were allowed to read Scripture and interpret it, and only they were allowed to do that.  With the Reformation everyone was encouraged to read Scripture.  Now worship was still relegated to those who had been trained and studied worship and had experience in worship.  In many ways that is still the case.  We know what we like, but is worship about getting what we like?  Maybe it is, but I wonder.

It is fitting that tomorrow is Palm Sunday because Palm Sunday, next to Easter and Christmas, is one of the biggest celebrations in the Christian calendar.  The author of this Psalm guides us on a journey of musical delight as we find before us a whole slew of instruments which are recommended for usage in order to praise the Lord.  We find listed the harp and the lyre.  We see the drums roar with the sea and the clapping of hands.  We see the horn and the voices lifted up in singing.  There is a real choir present in the all of God’s creation and it is being used in order to praise the Lord.

I like the first verse of this psalm.  It states: Sing to the Lord a new song.  There is nothing like an oldy but goody when it comes to hymns to lift up the congregation’s voice and spirit.  When we try to introduce a new song, well, it kind of falls flat.  So what is God thinking when he says sing to the Lord a new song?  I’m sure it has to do with a celebration that is not the same as usual.  This is something special that God has done for us so we will prepare him something new and something that hasn’t been used on anyone else.  

Sing a new song means treat God as if he is the one and only.  Because He is.

What you think about vs.10.  The first part of that verse can also read in Hebrew: “You who love the Lord hate evil.”  How you translate it will have a significant meaning on the interpretation of this verse.  If you take it as “The Lord loves those who hate evil”, then it follows that he will guard the lives of his faithful and rescue them from the hand of the wicked.  If you take it as a command which must be followed by those who love the Lord, well, then you better do it or else!!  I like the former because the latter doesn’t follow logically.

Vs. 2 makes me think of this song.  Not nearly as appropriate as the others that I have sent out, but I like it.

The author sure is full of joy when he is writing this psalm, and he maintains that attitude throughout the psalm.  Sing to the Lord, the psalmist repeats over and over again.  What a great testimony to the presence of the Lord in our lives.