Monthly Archives: August 2020

Psalm 73

            There is much about the world around me I don’t understand. I am confused. Why do some people appear to have all they need while others struggle mightily to survive one day at a time. The Psalmist struggled with the same question. (Isn’t it interesting the questions people ask don’t really change over time.) The psalmist goes into quite the detail of how some appear to have it all. 

            Years ago as my family traveled from the Pacific Northwest to the Midwest for vacation we used paper maps – some of you remember those large, neatly folded maps from service stations and AAA. Once unfolded they rarely every could be folded again! My wife navigated those trips. Reading the map meant knowing which direction we were headed. Orienting the map properly meant turning the map this way and that. The wrong orientation could be costly in time and gas. 

            “Then I entered the precincts of God’s temple, and understood the destiny of the wicked.” (Psalm 73:17, NET). Unfairness and inequality dominate. The solutions offered by people around us almost always begin with the wrong orientation. Most of the answers offered begin with self – what would bring me to an equal level as someone else. The solution the psalmist experiences begins when God’s perspective is sought. God’s presence, God’s purpose are the proper beginning place.

            The answer may continue to elude us, but the answer is clear:  “Yet I am always with You; You hold my right hand. You guide me with Your counsel, and afterward You will take me up in glory. Who do I have in heaven but You? And I desire nothing on earth but You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart, my portion forever.” (Psalm 73:23–26, HCSB).

Psalm 71

“Even when I am old and gray, O God, do not abandon me, until I tell the next generation about your strength, and those coming after me about your power.” (Psalm 71:18, NET) 

In 1836 Charles Simeon retired after fifty-four years of ministry at Holy Trinity, Cambridge. A friend, discovering that he was still rising at 4 a.m. to light his own fire and spend time alone with God, remonstrated, ‘Mr. Simeon, do you not think that, now you are retired, you might take things more easily?’ ‘What?’ replied the old man, ‘Shall I not now run with all my might when the winning-post is in sight!’ ^[1]

2020, or the year of COVID-19, challenges us. New information barrages us daily, sometimes hourly. As I write this public schools in this area are trying to make decisions while public health, state and federal officials change their counsel on a weekly basis. Parents are confused. Teachers and staff express concern. Students crave a return to normalcy. 

Psalm 71 is a backwards look at the constant presence of God over a long and challenging lifetime. The psalm is also forward look as the writer desires to communicate how God’s presence will shape an up and coming generation.

During these uncertain days the goal , the winning-post Charles Simeon refers to, is unchanged. The days God provides will be challenging. God’s uniqueness is unaltered. God’s standards are unchanged and God’s promises are undeniable. 

Who will tell the up and coming generation? 

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^[1] Motyer, J. A. (1994). The Psalms. In D. A. Carson, R. T. France, J. A. Motyer, & G. J. Wenham (Eds.), New Bible commentary: 21st century edition (4th ed., p. 530). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press.

Psalm 70

Much of our life seems to be lived in a hurry. Hurry Up! Our parents were regularly calling us to hurry up. As parents we call on our children to hurry up. At work our supervisors seem to be moving us along on this or that project by reminding us of deadlines. 

            What’s the hurry?

            For the psalmist, the urgency is in the real or perceived threat to life. Most of us have not been in a place where our very life was threatened. Yet most of us have been in a place when fullness of life felt threatened, when contentment was drowned out by enemies – both real and/or imagined.

            The urgency is real. Without God’s intervention none of us can survive, much less thrive. 

            The urgency is real. An honest assessment of our need  underlines the cry for help – “Your adversary the Devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.” (1 Peter 5:8, HCSB)

            The urgency is real, and so is the power of the One to whom we cry.