Category: Psalms

Lent Spent with the Psalms Day Eleven

imageThe Lord reigns forever; he has established his throne for judgment.

He will judge the world in righteousness; he will govern the peoples with justice. (Psalm 9:7-8)

Easter is the antithesis of justice. We do not receive the punishment that is so obviously due us. Rather, God, in His infinite mercy, sacrificed that which was so precious to Him on our behalf. The righteousness of Christ becomes our righteousness. We are able to stand before His throne without guilt, a condition that we could never achieve otherwise.

The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.

Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you. (vv 9-10)

As recipients of the gift of Grace, our meditation becomes action. We identify those oppressed spiritually and by the injustice of the world and point them to the Forgiver. Knowing the location of the refuge, it is our responsibility as Saints to lead others to its safety. Look about today and find those looking for direction.

Grace and peace to you.

image john linwood

Lent Spent with the Psalms Day Ten

imageThe psalmist expresses his despair in Psalm 129 as he speaks of his (their) oppression from youth. His enemies have not given a moments rest in their persecution and he prays to God for their destruction. We can identify with these feelings so many centuries later. Who among us has not wished evil on someone else?

We’re often puzzled as we read near the crucifixion event when the crowds are given a choice to free Jesus or Barabbas and they choose the murderer. Were the crowds more evil than us? A better question for reflection today is whether or not we do the same thing in our daily life. Do we deny Christ in favor of something else? God knew our ways as He spoke through the prophet Isaiah:

He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground.

He had not beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.

Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. (vv 52:2-3) 

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Lent Spent with the Psalms Day Nine

imageAs we considered yesterday, our perspective is more limited than we can even imagine. Not only is our vision limited, but our concept of time is constrained by our imagination as well. Forever for us ends upon our own expiration. We can’t see it any other way. The psalmist, in Psalm 13, cries out to God in this pinched voice:

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart?

How long will my enemy triumph over me? (vv 1-2)

The Cross that we are approaching day by day holds the answer to these plaintive questions. God had planned for the Cross before time, knowing that creatures with will posed a risk in their love and devotion. How long has God loved us? Forever. How long has he planned to redeem us? Forever. How long will he continue to love his creations? Forever.

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Lent Spent with the Psalms Day Eight

imageCome, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;

for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. (Psalm 95:6-7)

Golgotha is still distant, its horror not yet in view. We feel secure but can’t quite identify why that is. Our pride may tell us that we have created a hedge around ourselves. We can protect ourselves and provide for all of our needs.

Rarely do we recognize how limited our perspective is.

God views us from His unparalleled perspective, seeing everything that approaches us no matter how distant. He sees us as His lambs, innocent and carefree in not knowing all that threatens us. The Good Shepherd scans the horizon without rest to keep the lambs and the good sheep reward him with loyalty.

Kneel down and worship.

image jen chan

Lent Spent with the Psalms Day Seven

imageRestore us, O God Almighty; make you face shine upon us, that we may be saved. (Psalm 80:7)

From John’s cry at the Jordan river to dark day of the Cross, Jesus made it clear that everything was changing in relation to man and God. Repentance would no longer take the form of external sacrifice of a prescribed nature. True repentance would require allegiance to the One Ultimate Sacrifice. Though there would be momentary darkness at Calvary, Resurrection morning would shine a warm, sustained light upon us.

We can meditate on the grace extended to us through that sacrificial act and be thankful that we no longer must plea to the heavens as the Pslamist does in Psalm 80,

Hear us, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock; you who sit enthroned between the cherubim, shine forth before Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh.

Awaken your might; come and save us. (vv 1-2)

God has extended salvation to all who will repent and name Him as Lord in their lives. The light shines on all and yet, some will continue to see the darkness. Let them see the effect the light has had on you and invite them out. God is good and His face shines upon us.

Grace and peace to you.

 

image rusty russ

Lent Spent with the Psalms Day Six

imageThe Lord has dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me. (v20)

In a moment of blinding clarity, meditating on this verse from Psalm 18 jolts your heart and mind to the reality. We are blessed beyond our ability to express it that God has not dealt with us according to the cleanness of our hands. Walking toward the still distant cross of Easter, the reality of the resurrection casts a searing white glow on the dirt still in our lives, despite our professions of Christ and the fact that we follow hard behind Christ. Continued repentance scrubs the hands cleaner but there are still stubborn spots.

Only the grace of the Lord will finally succeed in scrubbing these last final imperfections from our hands. Loyal discipleship will mature us in cooperation with the Spirit to rid ourselves of the barriers that separate us from our Father. We recognize that we will not be perfected in this life, that our enemy as well as our own brokenness will forever conspire to ensnare us to our final days. This is why we stay close to our Shepherd, despite our propensity to wander.

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. (John 10:11)

Grace and peace to you.

image NKGUX

Lent Spent with the Psalms Day Five

imageWe’ll begin this week of meditations by thinking not of ourselves but of the people we pass by each day without remembering that God loves them intensely. Our repentance is necessary to the degree that we have allowed ourselves to become hardened to them.  Psalm 10 can serve as the foundation of our prayer today

Arise, Lord! Lift up your hand, O God.

Do not forget the helpless. (v12)

We often take for granted that everyone is able to follow the Lord and repent should they choose to do so, but this isn’t true. Many of the people that become invisible to us are suffering from incapacities that cannot be readily identified. Those brought down by drink and drugs are easy to categorize. Mental suffering is much more difficult to pinpoint since the sufferer is often unable to voice the problem. The good news can become just so many words until we have helped a person deal with the underlying issues.

You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,

defending the fatherless and the oppressed, in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more. (vv 17-18)

Grace and peace to you.

image ronn ashore

Lent Spent with the Psalms Day Four

image“’For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.” (Ezekiel 34:11-12)

It’s easy to misread the skies and come to a faulty conclusion. Here in Colorado, the mountains can point you in the wrong direction as they hide the truth. Just yesterday a clear sky in the morning would have let you leave the house in a light jacket that would have offered little protection as you scraped the snow and ice from your car in the evening. We can fall into the same error in our spiritual lives, looking at the clouding skies and believe that God has let us go beyond his loving grasp.

The faith built of our ever more intimate relationship with our Father tells us something quite different. Look at the final verse of Psalm 11,

For the Lord is righteous, he loves justice;

upright men will see his face. (v7)

Though it might seem as though we have been lost by him and surrounded by trouble and challenge, His people will see His face. He will seek you out, there is no place you can go from which God will not bring you back. As we walk toward Calvary, faith lights the way. As we near the Cross, the light will lead us on.

The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord is on his heavenly throne.

He observes the sons of men; his eyes examine them. (v4)

Grace and peace to you.

image m angel herrero

Lent Spent with the Psalms Day Three

imageThe focus of Lent is often on the deprivation that Christians volunteer to engage. The question “what are you giving up for Lent?” is often an introductory comment heard. I believe when we answer this question and go no further, we diminish the depth of this season of the Church year. To see the days as simply a fast from something runs dangerously close to self glory in unsophisticated eyes, even though this is not our purpose in the response. A better response perhaps is to say simply, “I am relieving myself of those things that fall between God and me.” Today we turn to Psalm 126 for a brief reminder of why we rid ourselves of worldly burdens.

The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. (v3)

That single verse sums up our life in Christ. Even if the only(!) thing He ever did for us was to open the avenue for a restored relationship with Him, we would know unending joy. Earthly blessings and daily sufferings would both vanish in the passing of time as we process the magnitude of what we have been given to us through Calvary. We have been brought back from the wilderness.

When the Lord brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men who dreamed.

Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy.

Then it was said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.” (vv 1-2)

Let one person know see this joy today so that they too can say, the Lord has done great things for you.

Grace and peace to you.

image rickz

Lent Spent with the Psalms Day Two

imageMost of us know the sense of depression that weighs on us when we feel as though our words with God are met with silence. Maturity tells us that He says much through the silence. Perhaps it is to wait or a sign for us to draw nearer, to drape ourselves in holiness and creep closer to hear the whispered responses. The silence of the Lord can also be a result of something that we have allowed to interfere with the conversation. It might be something that is tarnishing our holiness, something that displeases the Father who will wait until we have purged it.

David issues a plea seeking an end to the silence in Psalm 28. Should God continue in His quiet ways, all hope would be lost.

To you I call, O Lord my Rock;

do not turn a deaf ear to me.

For if you remain silent, I will be like those who have gone down to the pit. (v1)

When His voice is again heard in the wind or in our hearts, we rejoice. God has heard our cries. This shouldn’t strike us as odd since He has known of and planned for our need for a Savior since the creation. The first Easter was no random event. It was a debt that God demanded of Himself in love. Are we squandering the price He paid?

Grace and peace to you.

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