Monthly Archives: November 2019

Psalm 33

Are you one who plans out every hour of the day? Or do you prefer to just let things happen? In my day job I have some hard deadlines – Wednesday Prayer Meeting material has to be prepared before Wednesday Prayer Meeting. Sunday sermon needs to be finished prior to Sunday. Other meetings with church committees and teams mean agendas and documents need to be prepared prior to the meeting. Most of what I do in my job – caring for souls – doesn’t have the same kind of pressure to meet a hard deadline.

The psalmist acknowledges what all of us have learned

“The Lord frustrates the counsel of the nations; He thwarts the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart from generation to generation.” (Psalm 33:10–11, HCSB)

How many times has God interrupted my carefully orchestrated day? A random phone call. A few months ago I had finished preparing my breakfast when I received a message asking me to pull together a team of chaplains for an emergency in our community. That day’s plans disappeared quickly as breakfast grew cold and I ate a granola bar on the way to the emergency. In another instance, I was leading a team preparing for worship services for the ensuing weeks. My phone rang and my dad asked how quickly I could get to Tucson. Carefully laid plans were laid aside for a much more important priority (helping my dad deal with my Mom – this was a year or so prior to her passing).

You would think I might learn to allow God to set my plans, or at least to consult Him prior to my careful scheduling. NOT. I still like my carefully laid out schedules, my orchestrated days. But God, may I learn to wait on You (Psalm 33:22).

I have been absent but I am not abandoning my quest to blog through the Psalms. My first thought was I could quickly move through the Psalms. WRONG. Each psalm represents more than just a moment, an hour, or even a day in the life of the author. Each of the psalms represents a season – perhaps lasting a few hours, days, weeks, months – of the writer’s life. So it is with me. Some of the psalms sparked quick and immediate responses. Others are requiring me to slow down, so it is going to take some time to work through this remarkable collection of prayers, songs, and acts of worship.

Psalm 32

When I was a child I had a recurring dream that our home was under attack by WW 2 vintage tanks. (Don’t psychoanalyze me…it’s my dream!). One of the memories I have of those dreams is of my desperation in seeking a hiding place, a place where I would be overlooked (I said – don’t psychoanalyze…I love my family!). I usually dreamt of hiding in some bushes just outside the window of my bedroom (which I shared with my younger brother…STOP IT – I know you are tempted to see some psychological issue regarding my relationship with my brother with whom I shared a bedroom…).

A remarkable gift is expressed in the opening lines of this psalm – God’s gift of overlooking sin, God’s gift of covering sin in a way that it disappears from His sight. This gift leads the psalmist to have the courage to openly admit their sin. We have heard that confession is good for the soul and that rings true for most of us. The real value in confession, though, is in the promise that God overlooks our sin, that He conceals our sin much like I sought to conceal myself from those fearsome tanks rumbling through my dreams.

The promise of God’s gift is a response of joy that must be expressed. Oddly enough I don’t recall how those dreams of mine resolved themselves. I must have succeeded in concealing myself so that the tanks rumbled on down the street where I lived.

I don’t dream of tanks rumbling through my neighborhood any longer. I can’t recall a dream where I have tried to conceal myself either. What I can affirm is that in Christ my sin has been concealed, hidden, and taken as far as the east is from the west by the gracious provision of my gracious God.