Psalm 133-134

Two psalms today, three verses each. Interestingly, for Carol and me each of these psalms has associated music. Our leader at the Bible Study where we met was a talented musician who wrote guitar music for Psalm 133. And Psalm 134 is one that we’ve sung regularly at church services. It’s difficult to simply read the words without singing them!!

My Study Bible was helpful with Psalm 134; they suggested that it’s a verbal interchange between people leaving the Temple area (vv. 1-2) and the Temple guards (priests) responding (v. 3). That rings a bell with me – servants … night … sanctuary / holy place all make sense in that context; likewise with verse 3 set apart. I’m thankful for Kathy and John commenting yesterday on the Lord’s dwelling on the Temple Mount – past, present, future. We see that today: May the LORD bless you from Zion… (134:3). His blessing is “from Zion”.

Psalm 132:11-18

For the LORD has chosen Zion; He has desired it as His dwelling place. “This is My resting place forever; Here I will dwell, for I have desired it…” (vv. 13-14) One wonders. Often we Christians ask whether we are to take the Bible literally or figuratively or whatever’ly. Taking these verses literally is difficult. Typically Zion refers to Israel, Mount Zion more specifically to the Temple Mount. These verses say that the Lord has chosen Zion / Israel / Mount Zion as His eternal dwelling place. But as I understand it (I am not an Israeli expert), it’s not the Jews or the Christians worshiping on the Temple Mount, but the Moslems have it under their control. So, did the psalmist get it wrong? Did he hear incorrectly from the Lord? Or has the Lord continued to inhabit Mount Zion, in spite of Israel’s enemies in control? These verses leave me confused. Anyone out there with more wisdom?

Psalm 132:1-10

Psalm 132, the first half. December 8, in the Catholic Church, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a Holy Day of Obligation. We say in our Nicene Creed, “Begotten, not made…” and we believe it. How miraculous is this, that God, the God of the Universe can come to earth as a tiny seed implanted in a young girl’s womb! And then live among us for 30+ years, then die a horrible death, then to rise again in glory and ascend to the throne that He abandoned those many years earlier. How can this be? The same question that the young Virgin asked, “How can this be!” But nothing is too great for our Almighty!

I mention the Immaculate Conception today because I read ahead in Psalm 132. My Study Bible noted that verses 17-18 were read by early Christians as Messianic: There I will make a horn to sprout for David; I have prepared a lamp for My anointed. His enemies I will clothe with shame, but on him his crown will shine. During this season of Advent, even though we Anglicans don’t celebrate the Immaculate Conception as such, we do honor the Annunciation. And as we await His coming again, we also celebrate His first coming. How can this be…??!! GLORY!

Psalm 131

Only three verses. Psalm 117 was shorter – two verses – but we read it in conjunction with Psalm 116. So, only three verses today.

O LORD, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty; nor do I involve myself in great matters, or in things too difficult for me. (v. 1, NASB 1977) PRIDE. Is there anything that draws us further from the Lord than pride? Our self. Our human spirit. Our independence. Control. One of our children used to say, “I can do it myself!” I daresay, it is THE human problem. Our fierce determination to do it ourselves:

I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.

Invictus, William Ernest Henley, 1849-1903

How to “let go and let God”? Questions, no answers.

Psalm 130

I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in His word I hope… (v. 5) While reading through Psalm 119 we had a number of e-mail and face-to-face discussions on those seven or eight synonyms for God’s “word”. Those discussions have stayed with me. My favorite synonym was “His ways”, so whenever I see “His word” in the psalms now I quickly translate it to “His ways” and find some greater sense of peace, of contentment, of understanding. That to say, in the past I had always thought of “His word” as “The Law” – statutes, commandments, decrees, etc. “His ways” seems more loving, more forgiving – as is the focus of the rest of Psalm 130: …and in His ways I hope…

Psalm 129

A very different psalm today. It’s all about Israel’s enemies and God’s consistent deliverance of Israel from those enemies (Ps. 129:4) – from Israel’s infancy (Ps. 129:1-2) through to her growth years. Although Israel has seen the Lord’s deliverance, the enemies remain.

Is that a picture of our Christian culture today in the USA? It seems that with the COVID shutdowns that the church has lost membership throughout the USA. We see political battles over same-sex issues and for abortion rights. Christians are mocked as judgmental and discriminatory – a same-sex issue is going before the Supreme Court today, where a wedding website designer chooses not to do websites that celebrate same-sex marriages, but the LBGTQ-rights people want to force the issue instead of moving on to a more accommodating company.

It’s not just the USA. European Christianity has seen huge declines; Christians are no longer the majority in some European countries. Plus there are atheistic Communist countries and Middle Eastern and African and Asian lands where Christians are actively, physically persecuted. Where is God in all this? How will His people respond? As Kerry told us yesterday, pray “Maranatha, Come Lord Jesus, Come!”

Psalm 128

Not a whole lot this morning, ahead of our RTB gathering after coffee hour.

Family. The psalmist specifically mentions the wife (spouse), the children, and the grandchildren. Each is his/her own blessing! He uses the vine (fruit, wine) and the olive tree (oil, food, lubricant, wood) as metaphors of the blessedness of family life. I’m regularly thinking of our new vision at St. Andrew’s, specifically “community” this morning, seeing St. Andrew’s as “family”. So often I’ve heard Christians say something like this or that person is closer than my own brother. That’s nice, especially if we are not disparaging our own blood relatives! I’ve long believed that we already have a good community at St. Andrew’s, a wonderful congregation. But “Bread Breakers” is a nice start for something even stronger. And we need to grow more, to get to know one another outside the church building, to encourage one another. Let’s do our part, folks. Get to know those faces at church you’ve never met. We can do this!

Psalm 127

The header of today’s Psalm 127 includes the addition, “…of Solomon”. And the Psalm itself truly sounds like Solomon’s writings – proverbs not unlike the book of Proverbs!

Ps. 127:2 speaks of an addiction that we have seen in Freedom Road: “workaholics” are addicted to work! And to what end? Verse 2 suggests that excess labors are “in vain”, especially if those labors are “anxious” (ESV) or “painful” (NASB). Solomon is not rejecting our daily toil; he is suggesting that adding more hours to that daily toil is not in our best interests. Do the work responsibilities given you and trust God to meet your needs. Additional painful or anxious work is of no benefit.

Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. (v. 1) I was in charge of funding for a new church building at our old church. I had this verse at the top of every piece of correspondence that I wrote to our congregation. They’ve got their new building now, but it was the Bishop who funded it for them. With that particular Bishop, I was never confident that it was the Lord who was building that house!

But for us today at St. Andrew’s, we’re not talking about physically building a house. I think verse 1 serves as an apt metaphor for us growing spiritually as a congregation. The Lord has to lead if we truly desire to “Glorify Jesus Christ as a Community of Disciples on Mission”.

Psalm 126

My NASB phone Bible labeled Psalm 126, “Thanksgiving for Return from Captivity”. The most obvious reference to a return from captivity is when the Israelites were released from their Babylonian Exile, sometime around 500 BC. As they returned to Jerusalem they would find that the Temple had been destroyed, likely not one stone standing on another. What a loss that would have been to the few who remembered it so well. They still had the site of the Temple, the “Temple Mount”, but not the Temple itself. However, their approach to Jerusalem would not have changed. Jerusalem was, itself, a city on a hill: Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah… (II Chronicles 3:1). Mount Moriah was the hill where Abraham went to offer his son Isaac. (Genesis 22) So their joy would have been strong as they approached the city.

I was thinking of our own returns from captivity. The closest that I can relate to that is my appointment to EKU after five years in a government non-teaching job at USDA in Washington, DC. It had not been “captivity”, but it had also not been fun! I attend Freedom Road on Thursday afternoons. I daresay some of the folks there can relate deliverance from alcoholism or other addictions to freedom from captivity! But the most prominent return from captivity to which I can relate is when Carol and I were working with refugees from Kosovo in 1999. One six-person family had waited in a refugee camp for six months before being approved to come to Kentucky. They still celebrate November XX as their personal independence day. Another relative family, the Maliqi’s had earlier come to Kentucky in July 1999 and were waiting for them when they arrived. The later story of the Maliqi family is an even stronger “return from captivity”. I’ll share that story when we gather as an RTB group this Sunday after coffee hour.

Psalm 125

Back to Psalms, to close out our reading for the year. Continuing with the “Songs of Ascents” that began with Psalm 120 – psalms that the pilgrims sang or prayed as they journeyed to Jerusalem for the annual feasts. As we think back to these earlier psalms and even in these first two verses today, we get a feel for the depth of love that the Jewish people had for Jerusalem. This psalm may have been written before, during, or after the Exile and the Temple could have been in place or been destroyed in years past, but in whatever state Jerusalem or the Temple was in, the pilgrims loved the city. No doubt Jesus was among those who loved that city: Jerusalem, O Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings… (Matthew 23:37)

I can remember the first time that I saw the White House, the Capitol Building, the Lincoln Memorial – I was taken with pride!! Humbled at the sight of being so close to those places that I had only seen on television… I felt a sense of patriotism – joy at having been born in this great land! That hasn’t changed these 44+ years later. Whenever I go back to the DC area and have a chance to go downtown, I remain in awe at the beauty, the history, the messages that these structures send to my heart. That’s as close as I can come to the pilgrims on their journey, having arrived at Jerusalem and the Temple. Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all. (I Chronicles 29:11)