Tag Archives: Grace

Psalm 106 Confessing the Unfaithfulness of the People of God

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Grigory Mekheev, Exodus (2000) artist shared work under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

Psalm 106

1Praise the LORD! O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever.
 2Who can utter the mighty doings of the LORD, or declare all his praise?
 3Happy are those who observe justice, who do righteousness at all times.
 4Remember me, O LORD, when you show favor to your people; help me when you deliver them;
 5that I may see the prosperity of your chosen ones, that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation, that I may glory in your heritage.
 6Both we and our ancestors have sinned; we have committed iniquity, have done wickedly.
 7Our ancestors, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wonderful works; they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled against the Most High at the Red Sea.
 8Yet he saved them for his name’s sake, so that he might make known his mighty power.
 9He rebuked the Red Sea, and it became dry; he led them through the deep as through a desert.
 10So he saved them from the hand of the foe, and delivered them from the hand of the enemy.
 11The waters covered their adversaries; not one of them was left.
 12Then they believed his words; they sang his praise.
 13But they soon forgot his works; they did not wait for his counsel.
 14But they had a wanton craving in the wilderness, and put God to the test in the desert;
 15he gave them what they asked, but sent a wasting disease among them.
 16They were jealous of Moses in the camp, and of Aaron, the holy one of the LORD.
 17The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the faction of Abiram.
 18Fire also broke out in their company; the flame burned up the wicked.
 19They made a calf at Horeb and worshiped a cast image.
 20They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass.
 21They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt,
 22wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.
 23Therefore he said he would destroy them — had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him, to turn away his wrath from destroying them.
 24Then they despised the pleasant land, having no faith in his promise.
 25They grumbled in their tents, and did not obey the voice of the LORD.

 26Therefore he raised his hand and swore to them that he would make them fall in the wilderness,
 27and would disperse their descendants among the nations, scattering them over the lands.
 28Then they attached themselves to the Baal of Peor, and ate sacrifices offered to the dead;
 29they provoked the LORD to anger with their deeds, and a plague broke out among them.
 30Then Phinehas stood up and interceded, and the plague was stopped.
 31And that has been reckoned to him as righteousness from generation to generation forever.
 32They angered the LORD at the waters of Meribah, and it went ill with Moses on their account;
 33for they made his spirit bitter, and he spoke words that were rash.
 34They did not destroy the peoples, as the LORD commanded them,
 35but they mingled with the nations and learned to do as they did.
 36They served their idols, which became a snare to them.
 37They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons;
 38they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; and the land was polluted with blood.
 39Thus they became unclean by their acts, and prostituted themselves in their doings.
 40Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against his people, and he abhorred his heritage;
 41he gave them into the hand of the nations, so that those who hated them ruled over them.
 42Their enemies oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under their power.
 43Many times he delivered them, but they were rebellious in their purposes, and were brought low through their iniquity.
 44Nevertheless he regarded their distress when he heard their cry.
 45For their sake he remembered his covenant, and showed compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love.
 46He caused them to be pitied by all who held them captive.
 47Save us, O LORD our God, and gather us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise.
 48Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. And let all the people say, “Amen.” Praise the LORD!

Psalms 105 and 106 form two complementary but very different lenses to examine the history of God and God’s people. Like the yin and yang in Chinese philosophy represents two opposite but connected forces, these two psalms are connected by an understanding of God’s steadfast love operating throughout the story of Israel, but where Psalm 105 is a psalm which accentuates the positive aspect of the relationship Psalm 106 eliminates the positive aspects of the relationship from the side of Israel. (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, p. 796) God has remained faithful despite Israel’s history of unfaithfulness. Psalm 106 reminds us that any telling of the story of God’s people is a story of a people who are disobedient and unworthy of the steadfast love they have received, and the psalmist cries out to God not because they are worthy but because the LORD is a God nature is to be a God who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. (Exodus 34:6)

The confession of Psalm 106 emphasizes the unworthiness of God’s people of receiving the gracious actions of God on their behalf. It echoes the sentiment of Isaiah standing before God stating, “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” (Isaiah 6:5) For the psalmist, the LORD is good, and God’s steadfast love endures forever but in contrast none of the people of God can utter the mighty works of God without the realization that they are a people of unclean lips and actions. Yet, this psalmist joins himself to the people in need of rescue and God’s unmerited provision and protection. Happy/blessed[1] are those who observe justice is “an ironic beatitude”[2] (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, p. 801) since the remainder of the psalm will demonstrate how the people have failed to observe justice and maintain righteousness throughout their journey with God. The psalmist longs to enjoy the prosperity of God’s chosen ones, the gladness of the people of God, and the glory of God’s heritage but they also know that they and their ancestors have fallen short of their calling as the people of God. Instead of living in justice they have lived in iniquity, instead of righteousness they have produced wickedness. The psalmist’s words of confession place them before God needing forgiveness and redemption. Unworthy of grace but longing for it. This is an act of remembering what has been forgotten that they may learn from the mistakes of their ancestors and live into their calling under the covenant.

Even in Egypt, surrounded by the fearful power of God’s signs and wonders to bring this enslaved people out of their bondage to Pharoah, the people take God’s actions on their behalf for granted. Once they arrive at the Red Sea, they fail to trust in the God who delivered them from Egypt and again God acts for their deliverance, but early in this telling God is acting for the sake of God’s name. These mighty acts in Egypt and at the Red Sea bring a momentary faithfulness and trust in the LORD, but quickly the people resort to grumbling against both God and God’s emissaries. The psalm narrates in quick succession the rebellions of Israel articulated in Numbers 11-17 and the creation of the Golden Calf in Exodus 32. All of Israel’s rebellions are tied to their forgetfulness of the mighty works God had done on their behalf to bring them out of Egypt and to sustain them in the wilderness. Moses stands in the breach for the people and intercedes with God on their behalf, calling God back to God’s self-articulated identity in Exodus 34:6-7 and God continues to bring them to the promised land.

On arriving in the promised land, the people continue to forget what their God has done to bring them out of Egypt and through the wilderness and ‘they despised the pleasant land’ which leads to the generation falling in the wilderness prior to the entry into the promised land. They intermarry with women of Moab and begin to adopt the practices of the Moabites, including the worship of Baal of Peor (Numbers 25) when Aaron’s son Phineas zealously fights against the idolatrous actions of the people and turns aside God’s wrath. Even Moses is made bitter and claims to bring forth the waters at Meribah instead of continuing to point to God’s action of provision (Numbers 20).

Even when the people occupy the promised land under Joshua, they fail to carry out the LORD’s instructions for their claiming of the land. They do not drive the people out and they eventually intermarry with the residents of the land and adopt their practices. This brief retelling of the people’s history of unfaithfulness only alludes to the cyclical nature of disobedience and rescue articulated in Judges when it indicates that ‘Many times he delivered them.’ Throughout this narrative poem the people’s unrighteousness has been contrasted with God’s continuing actions of faithfulness to come to the people’s deliverance in their time of disaster and need.

The final verses of the poem indicate a time where they are in exile among the nations, and yet even in this exile away from the land God has caused them to be pitied by their captors. They long for a time when God acts to gather them from among the nations and bring them home, not because they have earned God’s favor but due to God’s gracious and forgiving nature. The final verse closes both this psalm and book four of the psalter. Psalms 105 and 106 belong together as two narrations of the history of God and God’s people and it is worth noting that while the psalm in 1 Chronicles 16 appointed by David begins with Psalm 105: 1-11 it ends with Psalm 106:35-36. These two narratives which close book four demonstrate that praise and the confession are two halves of the songs and stories of the people of God. God is a gracious God of steadfast love and faithfulness and yet the people and their ancestors have sinned and fallen short of their calling as the people of God.  

The scriptures that both Christians and our Jewish ancestors have inherited are a deeply varied collection of works that attempt to make sense of the encounter between the people of God, the world around them, and the God who has called them. The reality that our scriptures include a narration of Israel’s story that does not attempt to hide their history of unfaithfulness is exceptional because many ancient histories[3] attempt to hide the stories that paints a nation in an unflattering light. Confession is a part of the life of the people of Go and I believe that in a world that attempts to conceal or deny any foolishness, wickedness, or unfaithfulness it is essential for people of faith to begin with the reality that we have fallen short of God’s vision for our lives. We have failed to fear, love, and trust God above all things and that has led us not to love our neighbors as ourselves. Yet, the God of the scriptures is a God who is merciful and gracious who often responds not as we deserve but out of the abundance of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness.

[1] The Hebrew ‘asre is typically an indication of wisdom literature contrasting the way of the good/just/righteous/wise with the bad/unjust/evil/foolish. Is often translated ‘happy’ in the Old Testament. In Greek it is translated as markarios which is rendered ‘blessed’ in the New Testament (see for example the Sermon on the Mount).

[2] Rolf A. Jacobson captures this term insightfully since ‘beatitude’ comes from ‘blessed’ which is what ‘asre points to.

[3] This is not exclusive to ancient retellings of history as the ongoing debate about how to teach history in my own country shows. History can easily fall into propaganda and all true historical narratives have both heroic and tragic elements. Yet, history is often closely tied to identity and in an age of bespoke realities, to use a phrase I learned from studying social media, we often shape our historical remembrances to fit our preferred view of our group. We, like the ancient Israelites, also stand in need of narratives of confession.

Foundations Course: Session 1 God the Foundation

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Greenhouse for Faith Foundations Course: Session 1 (God the Foundation)

The Greenhouse for Faith: What We Grow Here is Meant to be Planted in the World

This is an introduction to a way of thinking about God that is ancient, but it is beautiful. It has brought life and meaning to one of the larger families of faith throughout the world. Yet it is very different from what many churches teach.

These reflections use the image of a greenhouse as a model for thinking about God, our relationship with God and the world God created.

The Foundation: that which everything else builds upon is a way of thinking about God.

This way of thinking focuses in on who God is and what God has already done.

“Let God be God” is a short summary of this way of thinking because we focus on God as the primary actor.

God is the creator, rescuer, and the one who renews this world and our lives.

God loves this world and is active, passionate, and engaged in the world and in our lives.

God also works in ways that may be mysterious, hidden, or unseen by us in our lives.

Questions for reflection:

  • When you think about your relationship with God do you begin with what you believe you need to do or what God has done?
  • Do you think that God is active in the world? In your life?
  • How do you walk through times where God’s working in the world seems hidden from you?
  • What in your life are you thankful for? What is something that is a part of the world that you are thankful for?

Foundations Course: Session 4 The Gift of Faith

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The Greenhouse for Faith: What We Grow Here is Meant to be Planted in the World

There are four pillars that will be used in this greenhouse: Christ, Word, Faith, and Grace that help us understand the God who is our foundation. We talked in the previous sessions about how we come to know about God in Christ and through the Word.

The third pillar is Faith. Faith is a word that is often used in churches but is rarely defined.

  • In many churches faith is the collection of beliefs which the person is expected to agree to or believe in. There is nothing wrong with good doctrine, but that is not the faith that we are talking about.
  • Faith for us goes back to God and it is a gift of God. God is the one who opens our eyes, our hearts, and our minds and gives us an openness to what God is doing in the midst of the world. This is one of the ways God is at work in the world continuing to create faith.

I am interested in seeing where God is already active in the world.

Faith allows us to see that we are both saint and sinner.

  • We can be honest about the times when we have missed the mark, where we have fallen short of God’s intent for our lives, where we have been caught up in sin. We can be honest about the brokenness in our lives and in our world.
  • Yet, it is primarily about what God has done in Christ and the gospel. God has forgiven, set us free, justified us and made things right between us and God. We as forgiven people are God’s saints set free to be a part of God’s work in the world.

Faith allows us to live in the tension of being saint and sinner. Therefore, I can rise us this day to live as a part of God’s kingdom.

Questions for reflection:

  • Does seeing faith as a gift from God impact other areas of your life?
  • How have you seen God being active within your own life?

Foundations Course: Session 5 It All Goes Back to the Grace of God

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The Greenhouse for Faith: What We Grow Here is Meant to be Planted in the World

There are four pillars that will be used in this greenhouse: Christ, Word, Faith, and Grace that help us understand the God who is our foundation. We talked in the previous sessions about how we come to know about God in Christ and through the Word and how God’s gift of faith opens us to be a part of what God is doing in the world.

The final pillar is grace which brings us back to the God who we come to know in Christ, through the scriptures interpreted through the key of Christ, and through God’s gift of faith which opens us up and reveals to us the gracious God who we come to know in creation, in Christ’s redemption, and through God’s continuing presence in our lives and in the world.

What do we mean by grace? Grace is God’s love which we come to encounter most centrally in Christ. It is the forgiving love that even when it is rejected does not let go of those who rejected it. It is a love that is willing to suffer for those that it cares about. It is the love that is summed up in what Luther called the gospel in miniature in John 3:16 where (to paraphrase) God so loved the world that God sent that which was most precious to God, the Son, God’s very self, to the world that God loves so that we may know that God loves the world and God loves us.

We live in light of this grace. We have been set free to live in light of this grace.

We live in a tension as people who are set free but also also people who follow a gracious God who comes to serve. As Luther expressed it:

“A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none.

A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant to all, subject to all.” The Freedom of a Christian (1520)

If we follow Jesus we follow a Lord who reminds us that he came not to be served but to serve, and we as followers of Jesus live our lives in service to this world and the people that God loves.

Questions for reflection:

  • How would you describe Grace in your own words?
  • What are some of the tensions in your own life that you live with?
  • When is responding to God’s grace easy in your own life?  When is it hard?

Foundations Course: Session 6 A Life Lived for God’s Glory

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The Greenhouse for Faith: What We Grow Here is Meant to be Planted in the World

This final session looks back on all the things that God has done for us and in light of that we consider how we are to live. We are ending where a lot of Christians begin.

  • Many communities of faith begin with what we need to do to be in a right relationship with God and how we need to live our lives to ‘get into heaven.’
  • We start with what God has done and that God is the primary actor in the world and in our faith. God is the foundation for all we do. God in Jesus Christ shows us what love is like. The word as we encounter it in both scripture and the proclamation of the church continually points us back to the love of God in Christ, the gracious God of our faith. Faith itself is a gift of God where God opens us to experience God’s love, forgiveness, and frees us to participate in what God is already doing in the world. Everything we have talked about points to the gracious God who refuses to give up on this world that God loves and the people that God created.

How then do we live? Here are five markers of what a well live life looks like:

  • We live in Gratitude: We say thank you to God for all God has done for us and for this world. We live in ways that give thanks back to God. All that we encounter is a gift: life is a gift, faith is a gift, and when we can encounter this day as a day that God has made, we can rejoice and be glad in it and respond with gratitude.
  • We live in Freedom and forgiveness: We do trust that we can rise up each day as a child of God who has been forgiven and set free. We can go into each day with trust, faith and hope and we can let go of the things that have bound us in the past.
  • We encounter the world and our neighbor in grace, love, and forgiveness: We lift people up when they need to be lifted up. We forgive when people believe they are unforgivable. Forgiveness is one of the hardest things that we do but it is also one of the greatest gifts of our faith. Forgiveness refuses to allow the past to determine the future.
  • We live in service to our neighbors and the world that God loves: We follow a Lord who came to serve, and in following Christ we will serve both the neighbors we encounter, and this world God loves. God sends that which God loves into this world to both put down roots and bear fruit, and we are a part of what God is sending to this world God loves.
  • We live solely for God’s glory:  When we baptize a person we say “let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” We pray that our life is a mirror that reflects the love, grace, and forgiveness that we have received from God. We live our lives so that God may be glorified. Our lives of gratitude, freedom, love, and service ultimately a lived to give glory to the gracious God who is at work in our lives and in our world.

Questions for reflection:

  • How do you define gratitude? What does it look like for someone to be gracious as an action instead of feeling it?
  • How does Christ’s example of gratitude inform your relationships?

Psalm 78 Telling History to Change the Future

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Grigory Mekheev, Exodus (2000) artist shared work under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

Psalm 78

<A Maskil of Asaph.>
1 Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old,
3 things that we have heard and known, that our ancestors have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children; we will tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might, and the wonders that he has done.
5 He established a decree in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach to their children;
6 that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and rise up and tell them to their children,
7 so that they should set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments;
8 and that they should not be like their ancestors, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.
9 The Ephraimites, armed with the bow, turned back on the day of battle.
10 They did not keep God’s covenant, but refused to walk according to his law.
11 They forgot what he had done, and the miracles that he had shown them.
12 In the sight of their ancestors he worked marvels in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.
13 He divided the sea and let them pass through it, and made the waters stand like a heap.
14 In the daytime he led them with a cloud, and all night long with a fiery light.
15 He split rocks open in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.
16 He made streams come out of the rock, and caused waters to flow down like rivers.
17 Yet they sinned still more against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
18 They tested God in their heart by demanding the food they craved.
19 They spoke against God, saying, “Can God spread a table in the wilderness?
20 Even though he struck the rock so that water gushed out and torrents overflowed, can he also give bread, or provide meat for his people?”
21 Therefore, when the LORD heard, he was full of rage; a fire was kindled against Jacob, his anger mounted against Israel,
22 because they had no faith in God, and did not trust his saving power.
23 Yet he commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven;
24 he rained down on them manna to eat, and gave them the grain of heaven.
25 Mortals ate of the bread of angels; he sent them food in abundance.
26 He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens, and by his power he led out the south wind;
27 he rained flesh upon them like dust, winged birds like the sand of the seas;
28 he let them fall within their camp, all around their dwellings.
29 And they ate and were well filled, for he gave them what they craved.
30 But before they had satisfied their craving, while the food was still in their mouths,
31 the anger of God rose against them and he killed the strongest of them, and laid low the flower of Israel.
32 In spite of all this they still sinned; they did not believe in his wonders.
33 So he made their days vanish like a breath, and their years in terror.
34 When he killed them, they sought for him; they repented and sought God earnestly.
35 They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God their redeemer.
36 But they flattered him with their mouths; they lied to him with their tongues.
37 Their heart was not steadfast toward him; they were not true to his covenant.
38 Yet he, being compassionate, forgave their iniquity, and did not destroy them; often he restrained his anger, and did not stir up all his wrath.
39 He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes and does not come again.
40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert!
41 They tested God again and again, and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not keep in mind his power, or the day when he redeemed them from the foe;
43 when he displayed his signs in Egypt, and his miracles in the fields of Zoan.
44 He turned their rivers to blood, so that they could not drink of their streams.
45 He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them.
46 He gave their crops to the caterpillar, and the fruit of their labor to the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamores with frost.
48 He gave over their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to thunderbolts.
49 He let loose on them his fierce anger, wrath, indignation, and distress, a company of destroying angels.
50 He made a path for his anger; he did not spare them from death, but gave their lives over to the plague.
51 He struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the first issue of their strength in the tents of Ham.
52 Then he led out his people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
53 He led them in safety, so that they were not afraid; but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
54 And he brought them to his holy hill, to the mountain that his right hand had won.
55 He drove out nations before them; he apportioned them for a possession and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
56 Yet they tested the Most High God, and rebelled against him. They did not observe his decrees,
57 but turned away and were faithless like their ancestors; they twisted like a treacherous bow.
58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places; they moved him to jealousy with their idols.
59 When God heard, he was full of wrath, and he utterly rejected Israel.
60 He abandoned his dwelling at Shiloh, the tent where he dwelt among mortals,
61 and delivered his power to captivity, his glory to the hand of the foe.
62 He gave his people to the sword, and vented his wrath on his heritage.
63 Fire devoured their young men, and their girls had no marriage song.
64 Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation.
65 Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a warrior shouting because of wine.
66 He put his adversaries to rout; he put them to everlasting disgrace.
67 He rejected the tent of Joseph, he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;
68 but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loves.
69 He built his sanctuary like the high heavens, like the earth, which he has founded forever.
70 He chose his servant David, and took him from the sheepfolds;
71 from tending the nursing ewes he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel, his inheritance.
72 With upright heart he tended them, and guided them with skillful hand.

We narrate the story of our past to attempt to understand our present reality, and yet our narrations of the past are always shaped by our present experiences and questions. Psalm seventy-eight is a long narration of the rebellion of the people in the wilderness and God’s judgment of Egypt to force the release of the people of Israel. Yet, the narration is told not merely to relay historical information but to point to the impact of Israel’s failure to keep the covenant (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, p. 623) Within this historical retelling it focuses on God’s wrath as it is shown towards Israel even after God’s gracious action to deliver them from slavery and to provide food and water in the wilderness. God’s exercise of power for deliverance and provision does not seem to compel the people to obedience and it is only God’s wrath appears that the people change their ways and sought God’s ways. Martin Luther referred to God’s wrath as God’s alien work which reflects the belief that God is fundamentally gracious, but that disobedience provokes this alien expression of punishment or wrath from God. Living much of my life in Texas or the southeastern United States I have always wondered why so many people were drawn to churches that focused on God’s judgment and wrath which articulated clear but rigid definitions of insiders and outsiders having been raised and formed in a tradition that focused heavily on the grace of God, but perhaps for some the God of judgment is more comforting and the rigid boundaries are comfortable. Yet, the God presented by the Bible is both gracious and demanding. God hears the cries of the people and is roused to deliver them, but this same God who is the mighty warrior who delivers refuses to be taken for granted. The narration of the central story of the people of Israel, perhaps in a time where a portion of that people has fallen away, with an emphasis on obedience is to bring about fidelity to God and God’s covenant.

There is no scholarly consensus on the historical background of this psalm, but my suspicion is that it is probably written sometime after the fall of the northern kingdom in 722 BCE but prior to the Babylonian exile in 586 BCE. There are several pointed phrases about Ephraim, Shiloh, and Israel which indicate a perspective of the kingdom of Judah and there is an indication of a disaster in the northern kingdom which seems to be one more example of God’s judgment upon the unfaithful ones in the view of the psalmist.[1] Narrating the ancient and perhaps recent past to learn from it is one of the reasons for revisiting the memories of the people. We live in a world where the written scriptures are readily available, but in a world where the written word is painstakingly handed on and typically only available to priests or royalty this psalm may have been an important way of impressing the historical memory on the current and future generations.

The memory of the past is recited to the community to help it learn how to properly relate to its God. As Walter Brueggemann and William Bellinger can memorably state, “In the recital of memory there is hope for the future.” (Brueggemann, 2014, p. 340) The initial eleven verses are a call to listen and sets the expectations for the hearers to, “not be like their ancestors, a stubborn and rebellious generation…they did not keep the covenant, and they refused to walk according to his teaching:” (8,10) Ephraim, synonymous with the northern kingdom of Israel, is highlighted as being turned back in battle and as mentioned above this may suggest a situation after the conquest of Israel by the Assyrians. Recent events may set the backdrop for the hearing of this examination of the disobedience of the people during the Exodus.

There are two major narrations of the past in this psalm. Both share a common pattern of narrating God’s gracious act, a rebellion by the people, God’s response in anger to the disobedience of the people and a summary of the section. (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, p. 623) In the first section verses twelve through sixteen narrate God’s action to deliver the people from Egypt, pass them through the sea, lead them in the wilderness, and provide water in the wilderness. Yet, the response of the people in verses seventeen through twenty is to speak against God and to question God’s provision. Their lack of trust or gratitude provokes God and many of the strongest of the people die in this time. Yet, when God responds in judgment they seek him but even this seeking is halfhearted. Their words are deceitful, and their actions do not hold fast to the covenant God placed before them. Yet, God’s compassion restrains God’s wrath even though their actions cause God grief.

The second narration begins in verse forty-three looking back to God’s actions to bring the people out of Egypt. This second narration looks in amazement at all the actions God did in comparison to the continual rebellion of the people. There are some differences between the narration in Exodus 7-11 and the remembrance here, but it is clear they are pointing to a common memory. Yet, in the psalm time begins to compress as the hearers are moved from God’s action to deliver the people from Egypt, lead them through the wilderness and into the promised land seems to move to a more recent judgment beginning in verse fifty-six. The central focus of the judgment seems to be on the northern kingdom of Israel which is rejected with its holy place at Shiloh abandoned by God. God’s arousal from sleep liberates Judah, but Ephraim (northern Israel) is rejected. The psalm ends with Judah being delivered by God and cared for by David (and the Davidic line). Yet, just like Ephraim and the northern kingdom, Judah’s position is due to the gracious provision of God but carries the expectation to live within the covenant. The psalmist encourages the people to choose the way of faithfulness instead of the disobedient and stubborn ways of their ancestors and their brothers in the north.

The bible narrates a theological interpretation of history which focuses on the interaction between God and the people of God. Interpreters of scripture in both Jewish and Christian traditions have seen within the scriptures a witness to a tension within a God who desires to be gracious but whose people only seem to respond to punishment or wrath. In Beth Tanner’s words this psalm,

tells of God’s great passion for humans, even when those humans turn away. It also tells the sad story of human determination to ignore the good gifts of God and to remember God only when the way becomes hard or violent. (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, p. 625)

God’s anger and wrath may be, to use Luther’s term, God’s alien work but the God of scripture refuses to be taken for granted. God is jealous for the people’s attention and allegiance and when the people turn away from God’s gifts God responds. I tell my congregation that “God wants to meet you in grace and love and peace, but if you can only hear God in judgment God will meet you there even though it creates a struggle within God.” We still come together and remember these stories to learn from the wisdom and the struggles of our ancestors in faith, to seek God in grace, to live in obedience and faithfulness but also to attempt to interpret our world in light of God’s gifts and God’s discipline. This may be harder in our very secular world but just as we attempt to learn from our more recent history, we listen to the narration of the psalmist to the memory of the people and learn from their life with God under grace and under judgment.

[1] See for example verses 9, 56-64, and 67

Psalm 36: The Way of God and the Way of the Wicked

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Psalm 36

<To the leader. Of David, the servant of the LORD.>
1 Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in their hearts; there is no fear of God before their eyes.
2 For they flatter themselves in their own eyes that their iniquity cannot be found out and hated.
3 The words of their mouths are mischief and deceit; they have ceased to act wisely and do good.
4 They plot mischief while on their beds; they are set on a way that is not good; they do not reject evil.
5 Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.
6 Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your judgments are like the great deep; you save humans and animals alike, O LORD.
7 How precious is your steadfast love, O God! All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
8 They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights.
9 For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.
10 O continue your steadfast love to those who know you, and your salvation to the upright of heart!
11 Do not let the foot of the arrogant tread on me, or the hand of the wicked drive me away.
12 There the evildoers lie prostrate; they are thrust down, unable to rise.

Martin Luther, borrowing from St. Augustine, could talk about sin as a state of incurvatus in se (being turned/curved inward on oneself) in contrast to the will of God which curves the individual outward towards both God and neighbor. I borrow this phrase because I find it helpful in the psalms thinking about the contrast between the wicked and the righteous. The righteous one in the psalms is the one who trusts and depends on the LORD for their protection and provision through life. The righteous life is directly connected to the presence and life of God and is open to seeing the way that the LORD’s steadfast love, faithfulness, righteousness and judgements are exhibited even in the fabric of creation itself. The wicked in contrast have no fear of God before their eyes and are blind to the presence and power of God in their world and so their words and actions become curved inward on their own interests and glorification.

Psalm 36, like Psalm 1, devotes its beginning to discussing the wicked as a contrast to the type of life the faithful one is to live. However, now the character of the wicked will be contrasted with the character not of the righteous, but instead with the character of the LORD the God of Israel. The wicked are those who have transgression or rebellion speaking to them from deep inside their hearts. They are those whose inward curved lives provide an environment where sin thrives. There is no external source for their morality, there is no fear of God, for their lives are self-directed and self-governed. They believe that their words and actions are either unable to be criticized by others or are above others. They live a life oriented around their own self-interest rather than the way in which the law attempts to orient peoples’ lives around the neighbor’s interest. Their orientation on their own words, actions and interest blind them from seeing the character of God that the psalmist discusses as they turn to God’s steadfast love.

The character of God is poetically anchored in the elements of the earth through the psalm’s beautiful language. God’s steadfast love extends to the heavens and God’s faithfulness to the clouds linking these elements of God’s character into the skies above the earth while the righteousness of God and the judgments of God are linked to the highest and lowest expanses of the earth, the mountains and the deep. As in Psalm 33:5 the heavens and the earth are full of the steadfast love of God and the creation points to God’s majesty. The psalmist’s poetically opened eyes see the character and nature of God written all throughout the creation while the wicked remain only able to flatter themselves in their own eyes.

The poet behind Psalm 36 rejoices in their connection and their reliance upon God. The steadfast love of God is a precious thing to them, the shadow of God’s wings become yet another place of refuge within the psalms. God is the great provider who provides a feast in the house of the LORD and drink from the river of delight. God is, for the psalmist, the source of life itself and the light by which all things can be seen. As C. S. Lewis’s famous proverb states, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it but because by it I see everything else.” (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, p. 346f.) For the poet who celebrates God’s steadfast love, faithfulness, righteousness and justice the LORD becomes the very means of understanding the world and everything in it.

Even in the beauty of the psalm’s beholding of God’s character written into the structure of the cosmos there is still an allure to the blindness of the wicked. Particularly in modern times where the myth of the self-made and self-directing individual who generates their own standards of life has become the assumed orientation we would be wise to consider that this glorifies the state of incurvatus in se that Augustine and Luther warned about and the psalmist’s way of the wicked. The allure of the self-directed life means turning away from the character of God that is written on the cosmos itself. There will continue to be times where the prosperity of those who have become their own moral compass blind even the faithful to the presence of God’s steadfast love, righteousness, justice, and faithfulness. We, like the poet, continue to pray for our eyes to see God’s steadfast love on those who seek God and God’s salvation on the uprightness. We continue to seek the refuge of God’s wings when the ways of the wicked threaten us and drive us away. Perhaps there will come a day when the wicked will lie prostrate, as in prayer, so that they can heal and they too can see the character of God written on the creation itself. Yet, the lure of sin continues to turn people inward on themselves seeking their own interests and away from the steadfast love of God which permeates the entire world.

Psalm 33 The Earth is Full of the Steadfast Love of God

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Psalm 33

 1 Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous. Praise befits the upright.
2 Praise the LORD with the lyre; make melody to him with the harp of ten strings.
3 Sing to him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.
4 For the word of the LORD is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness.
5 He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD.
6 By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth.
7 He gathered the waters of the sea as in a bottle; he put the deeps in storehouses.
8 Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
9 For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.
10 The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples.
11 The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
12 Happy is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage.
13 The LORD looks down from heaven; he sees all humankind.
14 From where he sits enthroned he watches all the inhabitants of the earth —
15 he who fashions the hearts of them all, and observes all their deeds.
16 A king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
17 The war horse is a vain hope for victory, and by its great might it cannot save.
18 Truly the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love,
19 to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.
20 Our soul waits for the LORD; he is our help and shield.
21 Our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name.
22 Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us, even as we hope in you.
 
This psalm is a majestic psalm of praise that takes the fundamental trust throughout the psalms that God will take care of the author and the faithful ones and extends that care to all of creation. If you read Psalm 32 and 33 together then this psalm becomes the shout for joy by the righteous ones (shout for joy in 32 and rejoice in 33 translate the same Hebrew verb). Martin Luther’s well-known explanation of the first commandment that we are to “fear, love and trust God above all things.” could explain the dynamic of many psalms, but we hear in this psalm why God is trustworthy and many of the things that seem to be powerful are not. The faithful one understands that the earth is full of the steadfast love of God and that the poet’s role is to praise this creative love of God which permeates everything.

Structurally the poem is designed to give a sense of completeness. The poem’s 22 lines, mirroring the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet even though the poem is not acrostic, speak a complete message of God’s power and trustworthiness in all of creation. (Actemeir, 1997, p. IV:809) The act of praise is an act of hope and faith, of speaking trust amid a world that trusts in other sources of power. It protests trusting in military might, physical strength, financial resources or political power. The Psalmist can rejoice because at its heart the world is full of the steadfast love of God that nothing can separate the poet from.

The LORD is described as committed to a stance of uprightness, faithfulness, righteousness and justice. The God of the psalmist is not an unmoving or unengaged deity, but one that chooses and defends those who attempt to live in accordance with God’s will for the world. Even though the word shalom (peace, harmony) is not mentioned in this new song the poet lifts before the LORD, it underlies the trust that the one who created and ordered the world protects and guards the one who lives in righteousness and faithfulness. The words of the LORD given through the law and the prophets echo the order that the LORD has spoken into creation itself.

Psalm 33 shares a common vocabulary with Genesis 1, where the creation comes into being and is given form by the word of the LORD. In the beginning when the LORD created the heavens and the earth reverberates as the heavens are created by the word of the LORD and the host are created by the breath of God. The limits for the oceans and sea become playfully like a bottle and the LORD has storehouses that can contain the immeasurable (at least at the time of the psalm’s composition) depths of the oceans. If the world itself is an act of imagination and speaking for the LORD and the seas and the stars find their place due to the word of the LORD, then the promises uttered passed on to the psalmist are a faithful foundation to build the poet’s trust and hope upon. If earth is full of the steadfast love of God, then the psalmist can rest in the comforting embrace of that love.

Philip Melanchthon, one of Martin Luther’s close associates in the reformation, once said, “to know Christ is to know his benefits rather than his natures…” and similarly Rolf Jacobson can parallel:

the Psalter bears witness that to know the Lord is to know the benefits of being in relationship with the Lord, rather than to know the Lord’s natures. In Psalm 33, the emphasis first of all upon the relationship with that the Lord forges with humanity through the act of creation (vv. 6-7, 9, 15) and also upon the special relationship that God forged through Israel through the election of the chosen people. (v.12) (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, p. 319)

Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, who trusts in God rather than the military might, financial prosperity or political influence. Faith enables the individual and the faithful ones to see that the benefit of the LORD’s trustworthiness. I’ve said in other forums that I believe that the greatest idol in the United States is security and we are willing to sacrifice almost anything to that idol. We may inhabit a place where great armies and military technology can create incredible damage and vast amounts of death, but ultimately it is the LORD who looks down from heaven who can control the course of humanity. God sees all of humanity, fashions the hearts, observes the deeds, and the eyes of God watches those who trust in the LORD. Nothing can separate them from the seeing eyes and the pervading love of the LORD, not death and not famine nor anything else under the heavens.

The grace of God that can forgive sin and bring about peace and reconciliation is the same steadfast love of God that creates and fills the earth. The word of the LORD, whose utterance brought creation into being continues to shape the hearts of humanity and the course of the nations. Even though might and power may appear to reside in the strength of the military or the wealth contained within the vaults of banks or the political power of various groups these are ultimately illusions. The steadfast love of God fills the earth and faithful ones have learned to rest within this gracious presence of God’s creative might. This praise of the upright and new song of the faithful ones proclaim the trustworthiness of the LORD and stands among the blessed ones chosen for the joyous task of praising the LORD and knowing what the steadfast love of God is creating in their midst.

Living Brave Week 6- Manifesto

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So for the final exercise of the first have of the Living Brave semester which closes out Daring Greatly, we were challenged to create a manifesto to help us stay true to our core values. I put mine together next to one of my favorite mythical creatures, the phoenix, which reminds me of resiliency, resurrection and new beginnings.Slide1
Slide2Slide3

Living Brave Semester Reflection 1- Central Values

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candle

I have found Brené Brown’s work incredibly helpful in my personal and professional life and I am excited to be taking part in her Living Brave semester. In addition to the exercises I wanted to reflect on something that came out of each session for me that I want to spend a little more time reflecting upon. The final exercise of the initial session involved identifying the 1-2 values that light the way in our lives, and she presents a huge list to choose from. I tried to get down to two, but ended up with three-two being in perhaps tension or paradox to make sense of the third one. The three values for me were authenticity, grace and competence.

Competence- I have always been a person who is driven to be good at whatever I do. This has its benefits and challenges, but it is a part of my personality that is not going to change. I am naturally curious and want to continually learn and grow as well as teach and I have extremely high standards for myself. The benefit of this is that I am a self-directed learner and worker who probably does far more than what is expected of me in most circumstances. I can set my mind to a task, almost any task, and I will find a way to learn and master it. On the weakness side this means my default is to judge myself and others by their competence (and at its worst to even assign value based on competence). While this fuels my creativity it can also be a harsh taskmaster and I need the next value to be its paradox and provide the (hopefully) healthy tension that I live within.

Grace- There are a cluster of faith and forgiveness related words that help flesh out what grace means to me, and the understanding of grace does come out of my faith. Fundamentally I believe that God is a gracious God and that God’s calling to me is to be a gracious person. Grace helps me to be far less judgmental towards others than I would otherwise be inclined to be.  It also helps me to own my failures and to learn from them, or to acknowledge the times when I am driving myself mercilessly and unrealistically.  It has also allowed me to acknowledge creativity as something that is sometimes not within my control, but like a muse visits for a time and may depart at another. It has allowed me to find peace in the midst of the work and significantly more joy in life.

Authenticity-To me this is that place where the grace and the competence meet to make me the complex person that I am. I try very hard to be open and honest in my personal and professional life, no longer striving to fit in but rather embracing who I am and claiming my gifts and struggles. I can be hard on myself when I feel a disconnect between my beliefs and my actions, which comes from the competence side, but I have also learned that forgiveness and grace are a fundamental part of who I am and hope to be and I want others to see that embodied in my life.