Psalm 95

I have been negligent.  I have found "better" things to do than write this blog.  So let me begin a new.  Let me come before the Lord God my maker.  Let me sing a new song, fresh and clear.  The lLord God is the foundation of my salvation God sees me in the depths of who i am and loves me, forgives me, redeems me.  I am God's and God is my God.  I sing God's praises.  I rejoices in the Lord.  God is quick to forgive and always there.  Always present.  God has been with me.
So I take this time today to rejoice in small victories, in new beginnings, to habit made new.  I rejoice that no matter how many times I fail, God is always there to forgive.
Praise be to God, my creator, my redeemer!  God it truly a great God.  God takes care of us, provides for and protects us.  In all things God is our God  God hold the depths of the earth and the highest, heights in hand.  All our highs and low, our victories and our struggles, in all God surrounds us, walks with us, guides us and sees us through.  I lift my voice and praise the God of my salvation who is there through it all; loving, forgiving, redeeming.

Psalm 22

"My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?!"  The Psalmist said it, Jesus quoted it.  We have all felt it.  There are times when we are broken, we are all out of joint, our hearts feel like wax within us and we can not seem to find the peace, the comfort, the strength of God.  We look around and we see nothing, no one.  We feel forsaken, abandoned, left to die, far from God.  We feel as if our cries go unheard, especially when God does not come rushing in scooping us us and make us feel all better.  Day after day, we trudge through, weak, despondent, so alone, so tired, so far gone, that there seems there is no way back.

When we are honest with ourselves and with God, even the best of us, all of us have all been there, some have spent more time in this place than others.  (some of us would deny even wanting to think such thoughts)  There are moments, days, years, seasons of our lives when the brokenness of the world around us and the darkness seems to consume us.

But we can still trust, that even when we feel alone, we are not, even when we rage against God for leaving us and abandoning us, we are not abandoned.  

God is still there, God is still king of creation, we are never left to our sorrow, our pain, our weariness, our brokenness, even when we are trudge through the dark valleys we are not ever a long.  God is there working with us, giving us what we need to  make it through.  

Psalm 131

My heart is not lifted up.  Oh how honest the Psalmist is.  Sometimes my heart is not lifted up.  Whether by lifted up the Psalmist means that the heart is not happy or filled with joy, or whether it means that the heart isn ot given up to God, not uplifted, with praise to God.  Eitherr way the Psalmist is oh so honest.  Not happy, not filled with joy not up to praising God.  

I think we have all been there.   There are times. The stress of the day is too much.  The events of the week weigh heavy upon us.  Too much sorrow, too much pain, too much bear. We find ourselves surrounded by what seems to be an impenatrible darkness There are valleys through which we walk where we find it hard to lift up our hearts, or we find that our hearts can not be lifted, they are heavey within our chest.  We feel lost, we feel alone and praising God is far from within our grasp.  We can not, we are unable, perhaps we are even at a point where we will not.  We are just not there.

But we can rest in the Lord, we can be be nourished, protected,  taken care of.  The Lord, draws us close to his breast.  In our fear, in our sorrow, in our pain the Lord does not turn to us and say, "suck it up."  "deal with it"  The Lord does not berate us for our lack of faith, our lack of praise, does not see it as a failing.

Instead the Lord draws us up, holds us close, gives us what we need, like a mother responding to the shrill cries of an infant child, lovingly draws us close.  Held close, protected, we are able to be like a milk drunk child, filled, cared for, protected.  

We can hope in the Lord.  Even when we can not lift up our hearts, are unable to lift them up.  In our pain, in our sorrow, in our darknes, our hope can be found in the Lord.

Trust, rely, be nourished, protected and cared for. 

Let me hope in the Lord, trust in the Lord, be cared for, nourished.  Let me  be a milk drunk child resting contently on God's chest.

 

Psalm 68 - Bearing God's Justice

Psalm 68

The Lord God is our salvation, the one who brings up, the one who settles the solitary, brings rest to the weary, takes care of the widow, bring rain to the parched land, restores the broken, and sets the prisoner free.  God  is in the business of setting right the wrongs.  There is famine, there is drought, there are those who are unjustly imprisoned, those who find themselves lacking, without anyone to whom they can turn, captives and those misused by others and the systems in our society, but there is hope.  God is in the business of setting things right.

But beware the Psalmist tells us, the unjust will be brought to justice, those who misuse other, to take captives, who ignore the widow and are participants in the breaking and misusing of others, God is also in the business of putting right those who are doing the wrong.  Justice will come, recompense and shall we say just desserts.  There are those who will find themselves on the wrong end of God's justice.  There are those who will suffer when God sets things right, those who ARE the wrong, are participating, perpetuating the wrong, they will be brought to justice

The question is who am I?  Am I perpetuating an unjust system?  Am I misusing others?  Am I apart of the wrong which needs to be set right?

Or am I on God's side.  Am I joining God as God works to make things right?  Am I lifting up the downtrodden?  Am I helping the widow and the orphan?  And I attempting to bring justice where there is none?

I can join God or I can not.  But the question still stands which side of God's justice will I find myself as God works to make all things right in this worls?

Luke 20:41-21:4

Give.  Give generously,give out of your poverty.

It is easy to give out of our wealth,out of the places we have the most, but what if where we find ourselves lacking, we gave from there.  What if we sought the places we are the weakest, where we have the most dirth and purposefully and calculatingly gave to God from there.  Giving from our strength, giving from our position of power and from our wealth is not only easy, but it is our place of pride.  If we are to give like the widow, if we are to seek to be unlike the scribes, then we can not give from our pride from where we are our best, because then we are giving of our best and can do so on display, for honor. This is my best see look see, I am worthy, I have so much.  But when we give out of where we have the least, out of our poverty, anything good, anything worthy, and thing breautoful the comes of it, is the strength, the wholeness, the power of God at work in and through our weakness and poverty.  Where am I least? Where am I lacking, help me to give from there, so that god's strength may be made known in me, and through me.

Luke 20:1-8

The chief priests and the scribes came to JEsus with a question.  Jesus is all about the questions .  Jesus often taught by asking questions and he very. Jesus encouraged the asking of questions. But the questions he is presented with in this passage are not Ernest question. They are designed to trap home, to trip him up.  Jesus is all about answering Ernest questions.  Jesus has no problems with doubt and reservations but Jesus wil not be waylayed by insincere questioning.  Jesus will not play into their hands he wil not allow himself to be sucked into their game.

It I'd good to remember that ther is nothing wrong with questions and doubts.  In fact in many ways Jesus encourages us to come to him with our reservations.  Jesus wants us to come to him to learn, to find the answers to delve deeper into the personhood of God and God's redemptive plan for this world and for us. But at the same time if I am coming to Christ with insincere questions and argumentative confrontation, Jesus will simply not comply.  Will not be baited.  Insincere questions will remain unsnwere, not because Jesus does not have the answers, but because that kind of questioning does not deserve answers.

Luke 18:1-8

The persistent widow. In a world where widows had very little to depend upon save the graciousness of friends and relatives, especial be she a sonless widow, justice for her would be important.  There would be someone who would be required to take care of her, to be her advocate but if that person was failing at their responsibilities she would need Justice.  But she does not sit around and be,on the broken system, she does not whine allow herself to be the victim of a society that has forgotten her, she crystal out for justice.  She cries out and cries out and cries out and does not stop until she recieves the justice she wants. And Jesus says that if this man is wiling to do that for this woman how much more will God respond when one of God's own so relentlessly cries out for justice.  Justice. Jesus tells us to persistently cry out for justice, to work to move, to advocate for justice and God will see, God will hear and God will act on our behalf and justice will come.  Too often we sees the woman's persistence and think Jesus is telling us that if we are This persistent with. God for the things thT we want, we will receive from God what it is we want.  But it does not tell us that.  It tells us yo call out for justice, to work for justice and we will find thT God is too.