Psalms for Today ~ Prayer

 

Read Psalms 88-90

 

Prayer based on the Psalms today.

 

God of the blues, where minor keys don’t always resolve into major melodies; God of moments when life is not a half-hour sitcom where everything turns out just fine in the end, hear the heartbreak and soul ache for the brokenness and bruises of life.  Listen to our cries when our efforts for peace, justice, caring, and love to rule the day are laughed at by others.  When we feel our works and the church are in vain, let Your holy spirit revive our souls again with a balm in Gilead to heal, help, and hold us.  As we rest in Your refuge, may we find a song of truth that is Your love, even when all the exterior evidence seems to object, for Your love is still true and can be trusted.  Even when leaders scoff or sneer or gnash their teeth, may we find places and spaces to sing another song that life is measured by more than success, bottom lines, and followers on social media.  Even as the waves crash down, help us keep singing the story of Your endless love.  For the days are long and the years are short in Your time.  Even as I mark and measure time by my standards, remind me, O God, of Your wisdom that I can never understand but am called to stand under with hope in You.  May Your song continue to be written in me so that Your holy tune can be sung by we ~ Your Divine Diversity in life.  When the notes are sour, off key, call me back with a voice that tunes my soul to You, my rock and redeemer, and restorer.  Let Your melody carry me through the hours ahead.  Amen.  

Psalms for Today

Read Psalms 85-87

 

Show us Your steadfast love, O God, and grant us Your salvation (Psalm 85:7)

 

Teach me Your way, O God, that I may walk (go, incline my heart) in Your truth (Psalm 86:11)

 

Glorious things are spoken of You, O God (Psalm 87:3)

 

I love these three verses.  The verse from Psalm 85 reminds me, invites me, and calls me to live life with openness and wholeness that comes in community with the Creator and creation.  The second verse from Psalm 86 tells me I am still learning, I don’t have it all figured out.  And the third verse from Psalm 87 calls me to share my voice still to process what I am learning ~ as the cliché goes, those who teach learn more than their students.  These verses call me to notice and name: when, when, and how have I recently felt God’s affection?  When was the last time I showed up fully as myself and felt safe?  Where do I long to know more about God?  Who is God for me?  And what song would I sing to God today? 

 

I invite you to find one verse for each of today’s Psalms to lay side-by-side to mix and mingle in the Scriptural chemistry lab of reading.  I invite you not just to read these words, but to let them read your life and meet you today.  May this exercise offer you an experience of the Eternal that you can share with others.  And remember today to celebrate on this Juneteenth the God of liberation and transformation who is at work in the world, even (especially) here and now in, around, through, and sometimes despite us.  Amen.

Psalm for Today ~ Doing Our Best

 

Read Psalms 82-84

 

Yesterday, we prayerfully pondered communal laments.  Today, Psalm 82 reminds us that our human imaginations and incarnations are not the same as God’s justice.  I love how Psalm 82 is a lesson of living Micah 6:8 to do justice, embody love/kindness, and walk humbly with God.  Read Psalm 82 slowly, letting it sing to your soul and guide your decisions (where you go, how you go, and with whom you go) these days.  As you do that, hold the truth of Psalm 83, that just because we commit our hearts toward justice doesn’t mean that everything will be immediately and instantly better.  It feels to me like the Hebrew hymn writer got up, prayed Psalm 82, went out to be God’s love in the world to the least, lonely, left out, and left behind.  In the midst of experiencing the rough edges of our humanness, that was like sandpaper to the soul of the singer.  After seeing the brokenness, the Hebrew Hymnwriter comes back and writes Psalm 83.  The summary of this Psalm is, “Um God, I am doing the best I can, and it doesn’t feel like enough.  A little help here.  Let me tell You, God, what I would like You to do…I have some ideas to take care of those people.”  I view Psalms 82-83 as lessons we need today.  There is the Jewish wisdom from Pirke Avot: “It is not up to you to finish the task, but you are not free to avoid it.”  Or the wisdom of the brick layers who began great cathedrals in Europe they never saw completed.  Or the work of justice, which is ongoing and unfolding.  To be sure, this can be discouraging.  We love moving things from the to-do list to the to-done list.  We love checking and crossing something off, even if we add three more things right away.  But when it comes to our core values (worship, welcome, belonging, caring, justice, and faithfulness), these take more than our lifetimes because these words never stop expanding and evolving.  And, these words feed and fuel us so that we can sing out with Psalm 84.  You see, we commit to the work of justice not out of obligation but as holy joy with God.  We don’t need to be sober; we can be joy-filled.  We can sing with God, who has a hammer and nails, building a place for all people; we are not alone.  Let this truth simmer and sing to your soul, and let's keep talking about how justice doesn’t wear a frownie face all the time or a dour, sour tone, but can sing out for a world God is dreaming and designing, calling us to part-take with the Creator.  Amen.

Psalms for Today

 

Read Psalms 79-81

 

Psalm 79 is a communal lament.  That sometimes the brokenness isn’t just in us, it is shared between us.  This happens in times of war, hatred, racism, homophobia, sexism, xenophobia, and all forms of discrimination.  We, as humans, are not the “we” God created us to be.  We smudge and smear the image of God we are called to let loose through us.  How does a country lament?  On Thursday, we honor Juneteenth, the day federal troops arrived in Galveston, TX, in 1865 (two and a half years after signing the Emancipation Proclamation) to ensure all enslaved people were free.  It is so easy to skim and skip through history, thinking Lincoln signed that proclamation and that next day there were chocolate rivers and pony rides for everyone.  Let’s face it, we also know that even after June 19, 1865, racism still persisted and pervaded people’s hard hearts right up until today.  Communal laments ask for God to interrupt and intercede, not just for those people over there, but for us people right here.  Psalm 79:11, “Let the (collective) groans of the prisoners (because all of us can feel caged and confined in life) come before God.”  Too often, the church, especially in America, has idealized the individual and forsaken the communal.  We shine a spotlight on each person as an end to him/her/them self, rather than caught in a web of mutuality.  The tension is that both are true.  There are places where I am free to choose, and there are spaces where systems of brokenness give me the privilege to take an easier path.  What would you have us lament as a church, community, country, and creation today?  Then, as you turn to Psalm 80, I love verse 8, remember God brought a vine out of Egypt, God listens to God’s people, our collective cry, even when it comes from individual beds.  We are part of a chorus even when we feel like we are singing a solo.  While there are concerns about social media, this tool allows us to connect in both healthy, healing ways as well as ways that hurt and harm.  What does it mean that God will bring a vine, something that could be easily transported and transplanted?  A vine isn’t splashy or spectacular, but Psalm 80 says it is sacred.  What is that vine, that one part of life, God is tending to in your life?  What and where would you like God to be the Gardener of your life today?  Where do you need restoration or recitation, or release this day?  Where do you need good news, like our enslaved siblings back on June 19, 1865, to come into your life so that you can sing Psalm 81?  May these questions provoke prayers in and through you this day. Amen.

Psalms for Today

 

Read Psalms 76-78

 

God’s abode, home, dwelling, residence, and resting place is not some heaven light years away, Psalm 72:2 declares, God is here ~ right here.  This is one of the great spiritual truths that we never fully explore or exhaust.  It is easy for me to sense God in creation, where in communion and communication with the towering trees, we are exchanging carbon dioxide for oxygen.  Where the trees, whose rings I cannot see, tell a story of life through sunshine, floods, fires, and storms.  Where the squirrels and rabbits race and run, and where my heart rate slows down and my mind stops endlessly spinning.  Yes, I like Jacob says, God is here, and I didn’t know it (Genesis 28:16).  But then I come back to my car, look at the newsfeed on my cell phone or pull up my email, and suddenly all the good vibes vanish and seem vanquished.  Where is God now?  That is where Psalm 77 comes in.  Once again (just like in Psalm 22 and 23 sitting side-by-side without a lot of human explanation), we have a Psalm that praises God only to turn the page and read, “I cry aloud to God, aloud to God for God to hear me.”  Wait, wasn’t the Psalmist just frolicking in the forest?  Wasn’t the Psalmist just walking on sunshine?  Where did those good vibes go?  Then, I think of my own experience above.  How a good walk in the woods can be spoiled when I decide that the news has more sway on my soul than the trees that just gave me oxygen.  When I choose to pour my attention toward that which is bruised and broken rather than life-giving, to be sure, it takes a lifetime to hold both loosely.  I believe the theology of the Psalms is trying to tell us that in human life, there are Psalm 76 moments and 77 times too.  And that leads many to be pessimistic, waiting for the other shoe to fall, believing that somehow the goodness and God-ness of one moment is negated because of the brokenness of another.  What if the goodness is there in Psalm 76 to give us strength for the 77 moments?  Look at verses 7-9 of Psalm 77; those are the questions each human answers daily in our lives.  Can we hold the brokenness and forsakenness with an earnest, honest trust that God has been God in the past, present, and future, even when we cannot perceive what will happen?  Can we stay curious about the Creator to the point of collaboration?  If we can, then Psalm 78 gives us something to say.  This Psalm preaches and proclaims that I am not going to wear rose colored glasses, that the sun will come out tomorrow, it may rain for forty days, and we can feel caught in the waves of life.  In those moments, we seek to stay open to the One who surfed the chaos in the beginning.  Remember, we are approaching Psalm 88, which I preached on at the end of May.  I invited you to the wisdom of the mystic that says, “If you are going to walk through hell, don’t come out empty-handed.”  There are some moments in human life bursting with goodness, where our cup overflows.  There are some moments when the coffee mug shatters on the floor, spilling all that delicious brew before you had a single drop.  The Psalmist is encouraging us to practice the presence of God wherever, however, and whenever we are.  While there is a universalness to this invitation, there is a uniqueness in how each of us will live this spiritual walk ~ and we do not do it alone.  I pray you will find a partner today to share how these three Psalms sing to your life.  Amen.

Psalms for Today

 

Read Psalms 73-75

 

These three Psalms are lengthy, filled with countless emotions, cries for help, complaints that things are not okay, and then (just for funsies) even praise and thanksgiving.  Rather than trying to dissect and discuss every single verse, I simply invite you to find one verse in one of the Psalms today to carry with you.  For me, I am taking Psalm 73:28 with me in the hours ahead. But for me it is good to be near God I have made the Lord God my refuge, to tell of all your works.  Or from the Message translations, I’ve made Lord God my home.  God, I’m telling the world what you do!  How can my actions sing praise of God’s love?  How can my words get caught up in the unending symphony of God?  How can I breathe and be in God’s presence with joy and honest frustration?  How can I let God get a word in amid all the scrolling and noise of the world today? 

 

Let us pray: Conductor and Composer of life, let loose Your presence in my life.  I pray You will listen to what is in my heart and all that sings from my soul ~ the good, the bad, and the ugly.  When I get frustrated and flummoxed, incline Your ear.  When I get caught in a cycle of cynicism or convinced that the world is not worth trying to help, interrupt and disrupt my pity party.  When I am unsure of what to do, God, sing with a wisdom that maybe I need a nap or to roll up my sleeves or to phone a friend or dare to stop doing and listen to You!  God, who inspired the songs of the Psalms, infuse my life with a melody I need and help me realize that I am not the only one singing!  Tune and turn my ear toward the chorus of people who come together in places and spaces to praise You this day, every day.  Open me to that truth amid all that I encounter and experience this day.  Amen. 

Psalms for Today

 

Read Psalms 70-72

 

Yesterday, we let loose our inner Aretha Franklin and sang out praise to God from whom all blessings flow.  Today, we join B.B. King in singing the blues.  This began yesterday with Psalm 69, the thread and theme of brokenness continues in Psalms 70 and 71.  Remember, over one-third of the Psalms are lament, so every week you are getting a healthy dose of the Psalmist crying out, pleading with God to be God.  I am aware of how often we have sold Christianity as a commodity in our world.  As clergy, we lay out a formula of Psalm 1 ~ be a good person, pray, help others, and don’t let Darth Vader sell you a set of steak knives ~ equals ~ all will be well.  So many people have walked away from the church because that formula was practiced in their life…and their life turned out to be more tragic than beautiful.

Then, to add salt to the wound, the pastor told them that they just needed to pray harder and trust or that it was their fault.  Ouch!!  No wonder people think, “I’m outta here.”  This way of Christianity is our human desire to reduce religion to something we can control or comprehend.  But remember, “Praise is the final mystery”.  There is more than an orientation or a formula to religion.  Faith is a messy chemistry experiment in our lives.  This is the disorientation or the reality that bad things happen to good people.  Sometimes my prayers, passionate as they are, don’t seem to be answered in the way I want, when I want, exactly how I want.  When I face the obstacle of pain, I can either walk away from God, or wonder who is this God I seek and how is God seeking me?  Recall the Parable of the Prodigal family where the father does not go out seeking either of the wayward sons (because I believe both sons left ~ one physically and the other emotionally).  God watches, actively waits, and runs toward us as we move toward the Divine.  God doesn’t swoop in and save us from all brokenness and bruises of life, because in life and faith, we are free to choose; we need only face the consequences.  How am I living?  What are my expectations, and why am I living this way?  That is, am I living kindness because I believe this will earn me a gold star for my heavenly sash?  Or am I living kindness because I feel deep in my soul that is God’s way?  Can I live in the tension that while I choose love, others do not and will not?  Can I be in the uncomfortable place of affirming/celebrating others as fully formed in God’s image, while others cling to rating and ranking?  The Psalms cannot be reduced to some formula for life, but rather hold a mirror to our beautiful human messiness!  I pray today you won’t hide from your one wild, precious, broken, beautiful life, but let all of that be part of the praise you offer God, others, and the world.  Amen.