Psalm 8

No doubt Psalm 23 is the favorite for millions, maybe even billions of Christians worldwide, but inexperienced and unknowledgeable as I am in the Psalms, today’s reading, Psalm 8 is my favorite. It struck me early in my Bible reading and continues each time I read it anew.

David begins by ascribing glory and majesty to his (and our) Lord (vv. 1-2) and closes with that same thought (v. 9). Then he reviews the magnitude of the heavens and sees mankind as such a small bit of God’s creation. But God looks down on this small bit of His creation, each and every one of His created human beings and has …crowned him with glory and honor… (v. 5b) and set him above everything else in all creation.

And if all that is not awesome in itself, because of His love for all of humanity and to rescue His human creation from the depths of their sin, He sent Jesus to die for us and His Holy Spirit to live in each and every one of us – each and every one of us, personally! …what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You care for him? (v. 4) David, living a thousand years before Jesus had some knowledge of, some feeling for God’s love for him. But he did not know what we know from our perspective this side of the cross. God loves you, God loves me, eternally!

Psalm 7

I was struck today by the word “righteous(ness)”. The psalmist uses this word five times in today’s reading (vv. 8, 9, 11, 17). In his first use of this word he ascribes righteousness to himself; in the second he applies it to all those who turn away from wickedness, and in the last three uses he applies righteousness to God. I recall last year when we discussed righteousness in the epistles, especially Paul in Romans 1:17 citing Habakkuk 2:4, “The righteous shall live by faith…” and in Romans 3:10 citing Psalm 14:3, “There is none righteous, not even one.” I think we would all agree that there is only One who is fully righteous, God Himself, so any use of “righteous” with application to any earthly being must necessarily reflect a work in progress, not something accomplished. I’m thankful that I live among and worship with people who are “in progress”!

Verse 6 is interesting: Arise, O LORD, in your anger; lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies; awake for me… God never sleeps. However, even with this knowledge our psalmist is asking God to (1) Arise, (2) lift yourself up, and (3) awake! Should this repetition plea reflect the intensity of our own prayers? We would surely not be ordering God around, but would He be more responsive to a persistent request “in His will”? I wonder…

Psalm 6

My early thought on reading through the Psalms is that I can best understand them if I can put them into my own life. Yes, I can see applications in David’s life – his enemies, his confidence in deliverance, etc., but his prayers are often less relevant to me. But this morning’s Psalm 6 squarely got my attention.

I’ve had shoulder problems (rotator cuff) for a number of years – one of those four tendons attached to my shoulder bone is torn loose and another is damaged. I am disinclined to go through shoulder surgery like Bruce did last year and I’ve been treating it (mostly successfully) with daily physical therapy and cortisone shots two or three times a year. My last cortisone shot on 11/30 “promised” me relief for some four to six months. Then I fell on a frosty hill on December 23 and landed on that bad shoulder. The pain and the restricted movement that the cortisone relieves came back immediately. It made for a difficult Christmas season for me. Although time and light PT help, I can’t get another cortisone shot until the end of February so I have to work through it. The pain problem is most acute at night when I’m trying to sleep. Last night was particularly bad. So verse 2b and 6b both spoke to me this morning: …heal me, O LORD, for my bones are troubled… [and] …every night I flood my bed with tears…

Continuing, I also fully related to verse 9: The LORD has heard my plea; the LORD accepts my prayer. My first thought when I fell and felt the pain and the severely restricted movement was that the surgery that I had been avoiding was now inevitable. However, Carol (my personal prayer warrior) and I have prayed through it and I’m back to that “old normal”. The pain is mostly light and the movement range is mostly back, though still somewhat restricted. I’m praying that I can still avoid the surgery. But some nights…! I would appreciate the rest of you praying with me for this issue.

Psalm 5

[NOTE: Although I prefer the NASB, unless otherwise noted whenever I quote from the Bible I use the ESV translation, the one mostly used by St. Andrew’s.]

O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch. (v. 3) This verse opened my eyes to the importance of morning prayer. Our Book of Common Prayer has daily “Morning Prayer” rites embraced by many Anglicans, but not a pattern in my life. I recall my childhood when our Catholic school was on the church grounds and we would often see the priest wearing his biretta and reading his “Divine Office” from a book in his hand, no doubt with various Psalms included in those daily readings.

I looked further online and found this website: https://www.dailyoffice2019.com/church_year/2021-2022/, our ACNA “Daily Office” for our current (2021-2022) church year. Click, then slide down and you will see morning devotions (and midday and evening and compline) for every day of our church year. Not surprisingly the Psalms are part of every devotional. I’ll leave it at that!

Psalm 4

One of my Study Bibles labeled this Psalm as a “lament” – a crying out to God in a time of grief or sorrow. Today it seems that David is troubled over those Israelites who are abandoning God, possibly seeking favor from other gods of the surrounding nations. Interestingly, we just read in the past few months from Paul, Peter, and John about false teachers in the young Christian church who were espousing wrong doctrine and leading followers astray. As John S. said two days ago, those old problems never go away! They just show up in a new context.

I was struck by David’s confidence in the first verse. In three sentences he asks for God’s help; he reminds God of help that he has received in the past; and he begins to turn his attention to his current need. But surprisingly, as we read on, David’s new need, his new problem is not within his own life – it is with his fellow Israelites and their lack of confidence in God working in their lives.

The failure on the part of the Israelites in today’s Psalm may be weather or pest events leading to a poor harvest, since David suggests that that these folks are leading happy lives “when their grain and wine abound” (v. 7). So we can take a lesson from David: are we truly sorrowful when members of our body are hurting? Are we praying diligently for those in need of healing, for those who have lost loved ones, for those in financial need, for an end to this pandemic, or most relevant for me, friends and loved ones who don’t know the Lord and are actively rejecting Him? Our Archbishop continually exhorts us to pray. I fail at that and I appreciate His ongoing reminders. We need to be a praying people!

Psalm 3

In Psalm 3 David has an enemy – his son, Absalom. As he writes this Psalm he is fleeing Jerusalem away from Absalom who has attempted to usurp David’s throne (vv. 1-2). In the rest of the Psalm David expresses his confidence in God to be his protector, to save him from Absalom.

For the past many months our Men’s Group has been looking at Holy Spirit references in the Gospels and the Epistles. As we read and discussed these many verses I’ve seen that the Holy Spirit was alive and active in my life, and I’ve encouraged others in the group to look back themselves and see His work in their lives. So part of what I’m doing in the Psalms is seeing God at work in my life as I read words written by others many, many centuries ago.

My first thought on this Psalm was that I don’t see myself as having any enemies – other than Satan and his demons (and my own self!). And even when I look back I see people who have done me wrong, but I didn’t actively see them as enemies. At Texas A&M University and the University of Delaware there were people who had power over me and used it against me, but I never had any indication from them that I was going to be terminated or not offered a job. It was more a “knife in the back” outcome – I never saw it coming. At my most recent position (Eastern Kentucky University) I had active enemies and I knew it – they did what they could to undermine me. In one sense their actions against me succeeded, but in another sense I was able to rise above these difficulties and have a good career at EKU. My most prominent enemy back then has now become a very good friend.

I wish that I had been more in tune with the Psalms back then. As we read through the Psalms we’ll see a number of “enemies” Psalms, mostly from King David, and we’ll constantly see him expressing his confidence in the Lord’s protection and seeking His deliverance. Today we see that confidence in verses 5 and 6: I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the LORD sustained me. I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around. Most interesting to me is that David slept comfortably, even though he knew he was under attack. We also need to stay at rest when difficulties arise. There will be negative outcomes, but if we look back we’ll see God’s hand in all those outcomes. We can learn well from Joseph when his brothers did him wrong: But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear … you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good… (Genesis 50:19-20a).

Psalm 2

At St. Andrew’s the Bible translation that we mostly use is the English Standard Version (ESV). For me, however, my favorite Bible translation is the New American Standard Bible (NASB). Naturally others may favor the old English language in the King James Version (KJV) or a more academic Revised Standard Version (RSV) or an easier-to-read New International Version (NIV). Finally, there are a couple of other “translations” that are not nearly exact translations as they are “interpretations”, like “The Message” (MSG) or the New Living Translation (NLT). Occasionally I will go to one of these when I am having a really difficult time understanding what the writer is saying. But I go there with caution, in that those “translations” have the author(s)’ interpretations that may not be true to the original text.

Whatever version you read, your prayer on the front end of your reading can help you with your understanding and bless you with the content of what you will read. My encouragement to you is that you read at least two versions of our assigned reading every day. You’ll see differences in words and phrases – and often reading that second translation can help you understand the first better.

One big difference between St. Andrew’s ESV and my favored NASB is deific capitalization of pronouns. A case in point comes up right away today in verses 7b and 12a: The LORD said to me, You are my Son; today I have begotten you… and Kiss the Son, lest he be angry… (ESV translations) In these verses the pronouns “me”, “my”, “you” and “he” are not capitalized in the ESV, but are capitalized in the NASB and other translations. That capitalization clearly suggests a Messianic interpretation to this Psalm. Very possibly (very likely?) this Psalm in its original context referred to David being anointed as king of Israel. But early Christian writers saw this Psalm as looking forward to Jesus. See Peter and John speaking in Acts 4:25-28 and the author of Hebrews in Heb. 1:5 and Heb. 5:5. Capitalizing those pronouns leads the reader’s interpretation that this Psalm does, in fact, look forward to Jesus. Not being a Biblical scholar, I am happy to be led in that way.

Surprisingly the word “Son” in these two verses is capitalized in the ESV (and in the NASB), again a clear indication that the Psalm looks forward to Jesus. Now why would the ESV capitalize “Son” and not those related pronouns? Intriguing…!

Psalm 1

Happy New Year to this RTB 2022 Psalms/Wisdom searchers! What a year this is going to be. It’s a whole new direction for me. I recall Ben preaching a few weeks back, talking about Jesus’ forthcoming birth and acknowledging that he was out of his element talking about pregnancy. I feel the same way in writing to you about the Psalms. I daresay my knowledge of the Prophets is weaker still, but the Psalms are right there in my inadequacy to discuss these writings. Maybe some of you feel the same way… Whatever! We’re all in this together.

My plan for this year is to read and reflect a bit on each day’s reading, then to get a note out to you all reasonably quickly (it seems some of you wait for my note to begin your own reading), then to go back and reflect and pray some more. So a couple of musings about today’s Psalm 1. Right off we see the “law of the Lord” in verse 2. Very quickly we go back to Exodus and the Ten Commandments or to Moses’ many instructions in Deuteronomy. Other than what I’ve read when I’ve read through the Old Testament, I don’t know much about “the Law”. I certainly have very little knowledge as to what the scribes and teachers in Jesus’ time had to say about the Law and the many instructions they offered as to what the Israelites should do or not do. But what I can do is go to Jesus’ teaching on this topic: Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. (Matthew 5:17) So when I see “the Law” in our readings, my first thought is to translate forward to Jesus’ commandment to love one another and Paul’s instruction to Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. (Galatians 6:2) I’ll leave the “jots and tittles” for another time.

My second thought from today’s reading had to do with the “assembly (congregation) of the righteous” in verse 5. I could imagine people centuries ago gathering in the Temple or in synagogues and presuming (reasonably correctly) to be part of the “assembly of the righteous”. But I also go back to our own time, to our Sunday and midweek gatherings and see us as that assembly. And if we are to be among the “righteous”, there are surely some expectations that we need to meet. My Study Bible helped me with this thought concerning “the righteous”: “One of several terms in the OT for God’s people, it presents them as those who honor God and order their lives in all things according to His will. In every human relationship they faithfully fulfill the obligations that the relationship entails, remembering that power and authority (of whatever sort: domestic, social, political, economic, religious, intellectual) are to be used to bless, not to exploit.” Let’s ourselves in RTB be among those in the “assembly of the righteous”, with a responsibility in all things to bless one another!

Looking forward to hearing your own reflections on these readings…

A blessed 2022 to you all!