The Last Three Psalms

 

Read Psalm 147-150!

Insert confetti being thrown, trumpets being blown, and let it be known ~ you have read the psalms this summer.  Woo hoo!  Pause and ponder with me:

What is one lesson, truth, or insight you carry away from this experience?  Maybe it is that the Psalmist knew how to throw a pity party, and some felt like they were written by Oscar the Grouch.  Or maybe you carry with you how often you read the word “Steadfast love,” to describe God.  The Psalmist is adamant that God’s affection toward us is unceasing and unconditional.  Or maybe you found two or three Psalms that were meaningful, and you want to go back to those words again in the coming days.  Reflect on how this experience has left an impression and influenced your life.

 

What questions do you carry?  One trip, or even one hundred trips, through the Psalms is not going to solve everything in life.  We keep coming back to the Psalms because each time, a new word can leap off the page and land in our souls.  We keep coming back because each time we are different, and so the experience will be unique.

 

Finally, where might your soul be longing to go next?  You may want to take a breath, to soak and simmer in this Spiritual experience.  You may want to go back to some of the Psalms you marked to re-read.  You may want to go to the hymnal to read modern-day words of prayer and praise to God. 

 

My prayer for you is to continue to engage and encounter God in these days.  Please pray with me.

 

Hymn-writing, melody-making, chord-composing, Conductor of my life, thank You for Psalms that have nurtured and nourished us over the last several weeks.  Thank You for Psalms that let our Spirit soar like an eagle or where we felt like a deer lapping at the refreshing stream of Your presence.  Thank you for even those moments when the Psalmist's lament gave us permission to pray our pain and when the Psalmist's words felt like sandpaper to our soul, for Your truth is there too, O God.  Continue to sing to us and through us and inspire us to be instruments with all Creation in sharing Your on-going, unfinished, beautiful symphony here and now.  Amen. 

Winding down the Psalms

 

Read Psalms 144-146

 

What are humans that you are mindful of them?  Psalm 144:3

 

God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.  Psalm 145:8

 

Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals, in whom there is no help. Psalm 146:3

 

Today, one last time, I invite you to select one verse from each of the above three Psalms to sit and simmer in the laboratory of your soul.  Why do you think you chose that verse?  I know I chose verse 3 from Psalm 144 because that is my question.  I often wonder, why does God continue to desire a connection to us as humans?  Hasn’t God read the paper lately?   I know I am drawn to verse 8 in Psalm 145 because this is a consistent description of God in the Hebrew Bible and I deeply desire to dive into the Divine.  Note how 144 and 145 connect.  God desires us, and we desire God; our hearts are restless until we rest in God.  I know I need to hold in my heart verse 3 from Psalm 146, because I can be led and lured to put my trust in politicians, pundits, and marketers who are promising me the good life. 

 

Remember, the verses you select are yours.  I believe this is one of the many ways God shows up and speaks into our lives.  When we read Scripture slowly, chewing on the words, there are certain spices that will tickle our tongue and God can move through these ancient words in a fresh new way.  May your reading today draw you into words and linger in your life.  Amen.

Winding Down the Psalms

 

Read Psalms 141-143

 

The three Psalms today all ask for God to respond in some tactile, tangible way, preferably according to our timetable.  God, You can call, text, direct message, or email me; I am okay with neon signs or a cloud-shaped message sailing across the sky.  How does God get a word in edgewise, especially in a world where there are so many voices clamoring for your attention?  How does God respond amid the cacophony, in a world that sounds like a toddler banging on pots and pans, and leaders who join in making more noise and belittling others? 

 

Throughout Scripture, God walks in the garden seeking out Adam and Eve ~ God sings through creation.  God shows Noah a rainbow and then Abraham and Sarah the stars.  God wrestles with Jacob and dances in Joseph’s dreams.  God whispers in a still, small voice to Elijah and then sends a chariot to carry him away.  God works with steadfast love through Ruth’s care for her mother-in-law, Naomi, and God gives Esther courage to raise her voice.  God evokes Isaiah to dream of a peaceable realm, Amos to splash in a stream of justice, and Micah to call us to be about God’s justice, showing loving kindness, and walking humbly with God.  That is only a quick survey of a few passages. In book after book of the Bible, we hear testimony of how the writers are experiencing God. 

 

Pause and recall some of the images you have noticed and noted in the Psalms.  What image stays with you, besides the whole smashing a head against a rock yesterday, although I get that is hard to shake.  What image of God warms your heart?  What image of God do you resist or even reject?  What image of God does your sacred imagination create, because you have a psalm in your soul?  (More on that last question next week).  As we begin to wind down and wrap up this Psalm summer project, don’t race to the finish line; stroll and savor what this experience has meant to you and how this experience has left an imprint on your head, heart, soul, and life in these days.  Amen.

Winding Down the Psalms

 

Read Psalms 138-140

 

If the only prayer we ever prayed is, “Thank you,” it would be enough ~ Meister Eckhart

 

Research tells us that gratitude matters and makes a difference.  For what, whom, where, and when do you give thanks as you read Psalm 138?

 

When I read Psalm 139:1, “O Lord, You have searched me and known me,” I wonder, is that good news or bad?  I mean, do I really want God to know every part of me, especially that part that holds anger at family members who hurt me, or that part of me that puts on a happy face when inside I am exhausted, or that part of me that wants harm to befall those who are hurting others?  Do I want God to know that, while I follow Jesus, Mr. Turn-the-Other-Cheek, at times I am much more invested in eye-for-eye justice and revenge being a dish best served cold?  I invite you to read Psalm 139 slowly and then do a full body scan.  This is a prayer practice where you draw a stick figure.  Around the head, write down the thoughts that are running and racing around your mind like a hamster on a wheel.  For me, I might write down concerns I have about my family, being a pastor, members of the church, and problems that keep waking me up at 4 a.m. to talk ~ because that is the best time to solve problems ~ I say sarcastically!  Then, move to your heart, what causes your heart, like the Grinch’s, to grow three sizes so far in July?  What has broken your heart recently?  Then, move to your physical body, where do you feel aches and pains ~ from your shoulders to stomach to legs to pinkie toe.  Finally, how is it with your soul ~ your soul which seeks to receive information from your head, heart, and whole self to integrate and inspire your living?

 

If you sit with Psalm 139 for a minute, or ten, suddenly Psalm 140 makes sense.  To be open to God and our fullest self is vulnerable, which will lead us to pray for God’s protection, especially because we know humans out there who seem to delight in preying and profiting off those who are least.  May these three Psalms today meet you where you are in gratitude, openness, and need for God’s sheltering, shielding, shepherding, and sustaining steadfast love.  Amen.

Winding Down the Psalms

 

Read Psalms 135-137

 

The ending of the Psalms is a rousing and roaring rendition of singing praise at the top of our lungs for all our neighbors to hear.  This week is a Gospel of joy and delight.  Joy that doesn’t need everything perfectly polished or some reward at an imaginary finish line, this is joy uncontained and uncontrolled.  Today, the word “Praise” or “Hallelujah” is repeated.  Where do you feel praise rising from your pinkie toe toward your tongue to be let loose in the world?  Part of Psalm 135 is to look in the rearview mirror of life to remember when and where God showed up.  I am not always good at recognizing God in the moment.  I miss God right in front of me. The mystics say that life is lived forward but understood backwards; we make meaning based on where we have been and what we are experiencing right before us.  Hold this truth.  Praise is not only based on what is, but on what was and the hope of what might be.  When we lean forward, trusting that God is not finished yet, even though the world is bruised and broken, we stay open to God’s unfinished symphony. 

 

That leads right to verse 1 of Psalm 136, “God’s steadfast love endures forever”.  God’s love is unceasing.  Over 25 times, the Psalmist in 136 repeats that refrain of “God’s steadfast love.”  This either means that the Psalmist needed Chat GPT to come up with an alternative suggestion of what to improve the repetition, or that this is one of the main points of the book of Psalms.  God’s steadfast love is the thread and theme that is woven by our Seamstress God into the fabric of life.  Right now, in this beautifully imperfect moment, where do you sense God’s steadfast love knit into your life?  Can you name and notice one place where God’s love holds you?  Remember, it doesn’t have to be splashy or spectacular, in fact, most of the ways God enters our lives is through the holy ordinary of friends, family, fun, honest tears, and being seen as fully ourselves ~ created in God’s image. 

 

In Psalm 137, the writer offers the truth that in moments of captivity, when we feel confined or caged, stuck and stymied between a rock and a hard place (like when Israel was defeated by the Babylonians and sent into Exile), we hang up our harps…the music may stop.  Or maybe tears are their music.  Weeping has a melody of a minor key that God still hears and moves through. To be sure, Psalm 137 doesn’t hold back.  The Psalm ends with the Psalmist gritting his/her/their teeth and demanding God to smite and strike the enemy's children ~ smash their heads against the rock.  Gulp.  Um, that turned violent quickly.  First, it is shocking that this is in the Bible.  Second, I think the Psalmist is encouraging and empowering us to pray our pain, our prayers of revenge to God, rather than taking matters into our own hands.  Sometimes, when I say aloud, “Dear God, kill my enemies.”  Those words shock me spiritually.  And, God already knows that I say things in hushed tones to friends.  Praying our anger, out loud, when we feel in exile ~ when we feel unseen, unheard, and unloved.  You can either process or push down the pain.  The three Psalms today are a rollercoaster from praise to pain ~ which verses connect to your soul?  Which verses did you think went to one extreme?  Which verses might God be asking you to sit with, the heartfelt honesty alongside the holiness we all need in these days?  May these words provoke our prayers and praise and openness to the Presence of God this week.  Amen. 

Friday Prayer

 

Read Psalms 132-134

 

Prayer based on Psalms 132-134: God, You are my resting, residing, and refuge place.  How I long to linger and never leave You!  Yet, I have to get groceries and go to the doctor, so I am about to leave now.  Guide me, lead me, move through me, especially when other people have the gall to use the same road as me!  Especially when someone cuts in front of me.  Especially when the doctor is running 10 minutes late.  Especially when that person says something that hurts and harms me, and I struggle to live out forgiveness.  I long to live in harmony.  I know what it is like, O God, to sing in Your divinely diverse chorus.  I can still hear music over my head and in my heart from last Sunday.  But the sound diminishes to a whisper with each passing moment.  Drench me with Your presence and help me notice Your goodness and enough-ness of what has filled my life this week.  God, I know that Your blessing doesn’t just live on the cul-de-sac of my soul, You long to empower me to let loose with Your Eternal presence.  Go before me, leading the way.  Go beside me to help when I stumble and bumble.  Go behind me when fear says, “turn around”.  God beneath me when the road gets too rough and rocky.  Go above and within me, awakening me to Your goodness and grace and love that longs to author my life and sing through me this day.  Amen.  

Waiting with the Psalms

 

Read Psalms 129-131

 

As you read the three Psalms for today, I wonder, who do you feel like is attacking you?  This may not be literal, but we all feel threatened by “the other” today.  We live in a constant state of fight/flight/freeze/flock/fawn ~ fear is the currency that is pontificated from pulpits to pundits to politics to economics.  Yesterday, we prayed, Dayenu, enough-ness of the Eternal, even or especially when we don’t get what we want, when we want it, how we want it.  We live in an age of abundance, but all feel like we gotta get ours while the getting is good, because someone else will take it.  We live in a time when we are more connected than ever, but loneliness and isolation are an epidemic to our health.  We live in a time when we are told and taught that only winning matters, even as we worship God born in a barn and crucified on a cross.  Good Lord, no wonder we are confused, because the messages we receive sound like Chicken Little, “The Sky is falling!”  No wonder, Psalm 129 flows and is followed by Psalm 130, “Out of the depths I cry to you, O God, hear my voice.”  I gravitate toward verse 5 in Psalm 130, “I wait for the Lord; my soul waits.”  To be sure, waiting can feel like an affliction, especially when we don’t feel, “safe and secure from all alarms”.  Waiting can feel like an attack when our Spidey senses are always searching for something that isn’t good enough.  Waiting can feel like an offense when we are oppressed.  We don’t like that the Israelites wandered for 40 years in the wilderness, a whole generation.  We don’t like that the Exile was at least that long, if not longer.  We want to see progress, and we want to see it yesterday.  But waiting need not be passive, read Psalm 131:

 

God, I’m not trying to rule the roost, I don’t want to be king of the mountain.
I haven’t meddled where I have no business or fantasized grandiose plans.

I’ve kept my feet on the ground, I’ve cultivated a quiet heart.
Like a baby content in its mother’s arms, my soul is a baby content.

Wait, Israel, for God. Wait with hope. Hope now; hope always!

 

Can/do I trust that these words are true?  Can I live these words resting in the enough-ness of God?  Those questions are never answered once and for all.  These questions are not one-and-done, but continually creep around the crevices of our lives each day.  May God, who cradles you with love, enfold and hold you in real ways and remind you that you are enough and you are beloved.  Amen.