Psalms for Today

 

A prayer based on Psalms 43-45

 

God sometimes the world frustrates me so much smoke billows from my ears.  I see good people hurt and harmed by those with power and I wonder, “What can I do?”  I sign petitions and show up to stand in solidary and still feel like nothing has changed.  My soul gets disturbed and downcast.  God meet me in the messiness of muck because You are a God born in a barn and who faced the cross.  As that contradictory sentence interrupts my life, let me remember in You there is hope because You are not distant or disconnected but right here in the messiness of this life.  Awaken my sacred imagination to rewind and remember when and where this last month I felt Your love holding and enfolding me.  In times of laughter, in friends whose love means the world, in times where all of me (even that which I would never post on social media) could show up to another person.  Help me trust not in money or power, help me trust in the truth of Your vulnerable love; even as I recognize that is not the currency of the world I call, “home”.  When I stray from You, when I wander away seeking what my ego promises is a prize, call back to me.  Help me find that path of joy and gladness that leads me to the “home” which is Your presence.  Let the unfinished symphony of my life continue as I keep singing the Psalms and turn the calendar from May to June.  In the name of the One whose presence awakens and enlivens us in these day, Jesus the Christ. Amen. 

Psalms for Today

 

Read Psalms 40-42

 

I invite you to read all three psalms back-to-back-to-back. As you slowly read aloud each verse, letting the words sing and settle into your mind, heart, soul, and life ~ what emotions do you feel?  What thoughts are evoked?  What is your response to all three together?  Was there a verse in one that stuck and stood out?  Was there a verse that you struck you as odd or felt like it stomped on your toes?  Did you find yourself zoning out as you read all three, especially if you have been engaging the psalms in another way? 

 

You may want to try this practice again later today, reading all three back-to-back-to-back to see if you have new thoughts a second time through or find a different verse sticking out.  As we go through the coming days and weeks, it is good to vary how we are engaging the Psalms so this prayer practice doesn’t become some going through the motions way of prayer, but keep finding ways to let these words of the Hebrew hymnal meet you where you are at.  Amen.

Psalms for Today ~ Be Still

 

Read Psalms 37-39

 

Psalm 37 invites us to be still before for God.  Pause with me.  How do we not only read this invitation, but embody it?  I hope as you read these psalms a word or phrase or thought gets caught in your mind causing you to think new thoughts or feel emotions you had pushed to the cobwebbed corners of your soul.  Remember we are not racing through the psalms to complete a task or pass a test, we are reading these words for ancient wisdom to infuse and inspire and incarnate our living ~ and to remind us that people of faith have struggled in the past with enemies, brokenness, and fellow featherless biped who cause pain.  Keep reading this Psalm as it reminds you that often what evil declares and decrees as “success” will crumble as they stumble.  The Psalmist reminds us that what we think will offer salvation or healing or wholeness just leaves us empty.  When has this been true?  When have you sought something you thought would be amazing, only to be disappointed?

 

Psalm 38 reminds us that there are moments when our relationship with God is not roses and chocolate.  There are times when I get so caught up in my plotting and planning that I forget God is God.  Verse 5 vividly states, “My wounds fest and are loathsome because of my sinful folly.”  I want to be careful because much of religion can quickly turn to shame of self-loathing and feel like it is raining guilt.  But I appreciate that alongside the laments about our enemies, that we admit and accept some of what is broken is of my own doing.  This doesn’t mean all the pain in life is my own fault or that I have to save myself, but it does mean responsibility and accountability that I do not always love God with my full self.  I can get lured by gospels of the world that promise fame, fortune and followers on social media.  I can base my worth on the number of likes or admiration of others or external factors.  Hold this Psalm loosely and lightly letting the pain of the Psalmist meet you in the bruise of life right now and helping you process your ache rather than pass it along to someone else.  Remember, from last Sunday with Psalm 88, we name our pain honestly to God, because God can take it.

 

As you turn to Psalm 39, I love how the Psalmist is reflecting on moments we stood silent on the sideline watching evil take all the power.  Gulp!! It is like the Psalmist is reading my mail.  I find myself in these words.  The Psalmist invites us to turn to God for courage and crying out for guidance for the living of these days.  Where is Psalm 39 your prayer?  Where and with whom do you want to show up and be in solidarity?  Perhaps with our immigrant siblings or LGBTQ folx or those who are struggling financially or with our African American neighbors?  Find one way today to let loose and live the truth of God whose care holds those who are hurting and being hurt by the actions of the powerful ~ and may this Psalm stir in us a way to step off the sideline in some way today.  Amen.

Psalms for Today ~ Can we say that to God?!?!

 

Read Psalms 34-36

 

Taste and see that the Lord is good ~ Psalm 34:8.  I invite you today to live that prayer practice as you munch on your Cheerios or chew your sandwich or pull up the chair to the dinner table.  How does the food you consume connect you to the Creator who crafted the carrots on your plate; the cows that contributed milk to your yogurt; and the bushes that produced the pecans?  Your plate of food represents the work of farmers, items grown in rain and sunshine, and were delivered by drivers to the store ~ or even your doorstep.  There are fingerprints on your food that reflect our Creator.  Hold the vastness in that bowl of granola.  Connect to the soil that nourished your broccoli.  Remember we are in a web of mutuality both as humanity and with our fragile planet. 

 

When you turn the page to Psalm 35 all that goodness of contemplation for the food that nurtures us goes out the door as the Psalmist lets loose with anger toward his/her/their enemies.  I encourage you to read this Psalm in the Message because the translator of that version, Eugene Peterson, is playfully faithful with his words.  He translates verse 1, “Harass these hecklers, God, punch these bullies in the nose.  Grab a weapon, anything at hand; stand up for me!”  Perhaps your first reaction is, can we say that to God?  The reality is that most of us have thought those words, but didn’t want to say the quiet part out loud.  I think these words when I read the news about billionaires making more money off the backs of the most vulnerable ~ which is painful history repeating itself.  I think this when I see our leaders fail to intervene on behalf of the vulnerable.  I think these words when I get frustrated and flummoxed by the state of the world, country and community.  We are not the “we” God has called us to be.  Because of that I say, “Ugh, God, do something!  Now please.”  As you read Psalm 35, pay attention to verses 13 and 14, when the enemy is ill, the Psalmist mourns.  Wait, what?  The psalmist doesn’t gloat, “What goes around comes around”.  Or “serves ‘em right”.  Hold the tension in this.  Or how can we live the tension of this?  Do we want to?

 

Psalm 36 continues to lament the way people can be so cruel and cause each other such pain.  I find verse 4 powerful, “Even on their beds they plot evil; they commit themselves to a sinful course and do not reject what is wrong”.  While on the one hand, I want to think, “You tell ‘em Psalmist!  You preach prophetically about those people who are plotting and planning all kinds of bad things.”  But then, I remember sometimes I am the one who lies in bed at night reviewing the day, dreaming of snappy sarcastic comeback I could have said to that person.  Ugh.  You mean that sometimes I have a mouthful of wicked and deceitful words that are bitter to my tongue and cause brokenness?  Eek!  Let the emotions of these three psalms from goodness of God meeting you in your life to the bruises and brokenness that we all have on our souls.  Let these psalms give you permission to pray honestly to God what is stirring in your life in these days.  Amen.

Psalms for Today ~ And Yet

 

Quote for the week: A theology of weakness is a theology that shows a God weeping for the human race entangled in its power games and angry that these same power games are so greedily used by so-called religious people. Indeed, a theology of weakness is a theology that shows how God unmasks the power games of the world and the church by entering history in complete powerlessness. But a theology of weakness wants, ultimately, to show that God offers us, human beings, the divine power to walk on the earth confidently with heads erect.  Henri Nouwen

 

Read Psalms 31-33

 

As you read Psalm 31 notice how the Hebrew hymn writer swings from emotions of trust to terror/trauma.  The Psalmist is honest that life is not all chocolate rivers and yet God is present.  We live in an either/or world.  You are either good or evil, you are either a hero or zero, you either win or lose.  We are, as Nouwen says above, entangled in power games that fuel and feed anger, anxiety, greed, and hurt each other.  And yet, in God’s expansive, inclusive embrace there is room for the contradictions and incongruencies that won’t be solved by our thinking.  As you slowly savor Psalm 31, which verse stirs your soul?  Which verse causes you to scratch your head thinking, “I don’t get it!”?  Which verse is like sandpaper, or do you find yourself skimming over?  For me, I love the images of God being a refuge and I wonder, when and where is God sheltering me now?  Or how I can feel like my soul and body are consumed by grief/anguish.  Or I look at verses 9-10 and I hear about how the vulnerable are being treated by the powerful, especially those who need help financially, medically, or emotionally.  And yet, I trust in God rather than nihilism or numb out with Netflix.  Slowly read this Psalm as a prayer meeting you in your life today.

 

Psalm 32 speaks about forgiveness, which is a word that has a lot of weight.  What is provoked and evoked when you read that word, “forgiveness?”  I recently read from the Greater Good website this, “Forgiveness, according to this research, does not mean condoning or endorsing anything that was done that caused harm to you. Forgiving also does not necessarily involve trying to reconcile or resume any kind of meaningful social connection with the person who wronged you. Rather, forgiveness involves imagining the perspective of the harm-doer and actively letting go of the painful association between them and yourself. Forgiveness means embracing your feelings of hurt with self-nurturing and compassion, so that you can recover from the painful experience in a more lasting and purpose-inspired way.”  How might you practice forgiveness, because the difficult and demanding truth is the way that I might forgive someone who wronged me is not the same as how you will find your way to a place of forgiveness.  This is because we are distinctive and because what we are forgiving the other person for is different.  Ponder when was the last time you forgave someone?  Is there a grievance or grudge you are holding on to right now?  Don’t worry, I am not going to ask you to forgive.  When you decide to forgive and how you embody that needs grow from your soul, not just outsider telling you “should” do.

 

When you get to Psalm 33, I am reminded of a morning meditation from the beginning of this month, May 2, when I ask what was on the playlist of your soul.  I named a few songs that were meaningful to me.  I might add to that list today some additional songs.  If you still have your soul’s playlist, review it ~ or better yet ~ listen to some of those songs.  Then, consider what would it mean for you to “sing joyful to God” today?

Psalms for Today

 

Read Psalms 28-30

 

Yesterday, I invited you to select one verse from each of Psalms for the day.  You are welcome to do that again.  Or sometimes I love to write a prayer inspired and infused by the Psalms we are reading.  So here is a prayer based on Psalms 28-30:

 

Listening and Loving God, hear the words that pour forth from my soul today.  I can feel tripped up and trapped by the bad news of today.  I can feel powerless from those who bully others, discriminate, and hate.  The world makes my stomach feel like I am on an endless rollercoaster.  I confess, I want to serve up a dish of revenge to some people.  I want the evil people to pay and feel hurt of others.  I want to believe God that You are on my side, rather than asking the harder question, am I on Your side?  Am I following Your way? 

So I look out and sense, like Job, the wonders of creation.  Trees towering that have lived through hurricanes and droughts and beautiful days ~ just like the rings in my soul.  I see the clouds sailing past in creative shapes.  Grass that slowly stretches its arms and lizards basking in the sun and birds soaring.  What are humans, O God, that we think we are the only ones who are “enlightened”?  Help me be open to my human-size-ness amid the order, disorder, reorder all at work today. 

Thank you, God.  Thank you for the grace that leads and a love that heals and a presence that calls out.  Let praise be a prayer that pours forth from my lips not just today but for each moment this day to come.  Amen. 

Psalms for Today ~ Side-by-Side

 

Read Psalms 25-27

 

Show me how you work, God; School me in your ways. Take me by the hand; Lead me down the path of truth. You are my Savior, aren’t you? Psalm 25:4-5

 

Examine me, God, from head to foot, order your battery of tests. Make sure I’m fit inside and out So I never lose sight of your love, But keep in step with you, never missing a beat. Psalm 26:2-3

 

I’m asking God for one thing, only one thing: To live, dwell, in God’s house my whole life long.  I’ll contemplate God’s beauty; I’ll study at God’s feet. That’s the only quiet, secure place in a noisy world, The perfect getaway, far from the buzz of traffic.  Psalm 27:4-5

 

One of the ways to engage the triplet of Psalms each day is to find ONE verse from each psalm and sit with it.  To let that verse sing to your soul and see how your soul joins in the chorus.  I also love laying a verse from each of the three Psalms for the day alongside each other to watch them interact or argue or dance with each other.  I call this “Scriptural Chemistry”.  Just like baking soda and vinegar and red dye are used to make a volcanic eruption in a science fair, so too letting scripture verses dance/play/pray/ and interact can do things in us and through us beyond words. 

 

Above are the three selections from the Psalms today that sang to my soul.  You don’t have to go with my choices.  Maybe you liked the 6^th verses or thought the truth was in the first verse of each.  Great!  Find the verses that sing to you.  Maybe you didn’t like any of the verses in Psalm 26, and you can’t believe the editors included that Psalm in the 150!?!  The mystery of the Psalms (and this goes from hymns too, is that you can return to them time and time again because each time you are different and so a different verse might just sneak up on your soul unaware).  Your soul might think tomorrow, “Oh I love that 4^th verse of Psalm 25, only to be struck by verse 8 (God is fair and just) tomorrow because of something that happens today.  So, hold these words, let them work and wiggle in your heart and life.  Take them with you.  Pray these words at red lights out in traffic and before you go into a meeting with that person or before a doctor’s appointment.  The Psalms are meant to be wisdom to go with you, truth that travels and guides you through your day.  May whatever verse or verses you find in this triplet of Psalms today, may these words we read awaken your awareness of God activity your one precious and wild life.  Amen.

Psalm for Today

 

Read Psalms 22-24

These are three of my most favoritest Psalms!  First, I love that they sit side by side with no commentary.  Psalm 22 is one of disorientation; the Psalmist is singing the blues of feeling deserted and devasted by God.  Then, Psalm 23 comes in with its green pastures and cool waters, which feels a bit like going back to orientation.  Psalm 24 is a reorientation.  Notice that sometimes the framework of orientation to disorientation to reorientation can be shuffled like cards of a deck.  It doesn’t always have to follow a linear, logical line.  In fact, the Psalmist loves to be creative with weaving together moments of laying out an orderly way to the chaos to the continuing “And yet” of our Eastering God.  In the span of a few verses, you can find all three dancing together. 

 

Today, hold these three Psalms with me.  What is evoked and provoked as you read?  For example, in Psalm 23, when God prepares a meal for me in the presence of my enemies, does that mean that God has invited both of us to the feast??  Does that mean I don’t get to pick the guest list?  Or, in Psalm 22, after lamenting about God who is distant or distracted or at some exotic location destination vacation, suddenly the psalmist is in worship singing with people.  The orientation to disorientation to reorientation moves at a dizzying and soul shifting or shaping pace.  Finally, I love in Psalm 24, the Hebrew Hymn writer sings, who is God?  And who am I?  Who is this God we are singing to?  Who is this God we are encountering (and I pray experiencing) as we read these Psalms?  This is one of the reasons why I return to the Psalms, because these words open me to God in new ways, stretch me in the shape of the sacred and remind me that people for centuries have wrestled with the Divine ~ it isn’t just a modern problem.  Who is God, who is this table-setting, forsaking, praise-evoking, leading, shepherding, waking us up, God?  May that question continue to stir your soul today and keep you reading the Psalms for the weeks to come.  Amen.

Psalm for Today ~ Authored by Creation

 

Read Psalms 19-21

 

Psalm 19 is meant to be read outside in creation.  More than that, Psalm 19 is meant for you to stop reading the words of the Hebrew Hymnal and start being read by creation.  Psalm 19 celebrates that we are connected to a web of life.  You are the soil ~ because the carrots and corn and strawberries you eat grew in the dirt and now it is in you.  You are like the trees because the oxygen we breathe is given to us by this holy part of creation that exchanges our carbon dioxide for that which gives us life.  You are like the birds when you sing ~ remember back to the Morning Mediations from April 28 ~ your unfinished life is a symphony.  More than that, you are being authored by creation.  God sings through the earth to you ~ but as we have paved over paradise, as we binge watch Netflix, as we spend more and more time inside ~ we miss the Creator’s hymn to our souls.  When we spend too much time inside ~ we miss the beauty of the outside.  Go outside and let God sing to you today.

 

If you hold Psalm 20 close to your ear, you can hear the Rocky Theme music or Chariots of Fire or Queen singing, “We are the champions.”  So often in the Christian church we have a humble-mumble approach.  We are taught and caught to say, “It was nothing,” when someone compliments or thanks us.  We are told to not think highly of ourselves, because we don’t want to catch narcissism.  Here is the truth: a narcissist is never concerned about being ego centric or getting a big head.  So the very fact that you want to be careful means that you are okay.  So, what/when was a moment recently you felt the joy of accomplishment?  It doesn’t have to be splashy or spectacular, sometimes just making your bed and calling a friend is a holy day.  Let God celebrate with you in that moment. 

 

Finally, read Psalm 21, which reminds you that part of your human condition is that there will always be people cheering us on and others who criticize.  There will be those who embody God’s unconditional love and those who think it is their job (even though you didn’t ask for them to apply or hire them or pay them) to cut you down.  People are messy.  When you hold Psalm 20 and 21 together, let them speak to your story right now.  Maybe there was a moment when you felt joy at crossing off something off the list you had been working on ~ like completing a brand-new Lego set.  And there is someone right now saying, “Humph, a 50-year-old man working on a Lego set??  Sounds like someone needs to work out his childhood issues.”  Did you know that negative comments need mere seconds to wedge and work their way into our soul, while positive comments take at least three times as long.  You must sit with a compliment more than a criticism, because the criticism immediately we think is true, while the compliment we are skeptical of.  Wait!  What?  Why???  Why do we automatically believe that the one who is criticizing us is being honest while the person sharing love has an agenda and is blowing smoke?  Hold this today.  Open your ears to someone who shares God’s love, and may you trust the honesty of me saying to you, “You are God’s beloved!”  Amen.

 

Psalms for Today ~ Running to God

 

Read Psalms 16-18

After Psalms of dizzying disorientation last week, perhaps wondering, why are we doing this again??  Wait!  Stay with me and read Psalm 16.  Slowly savor the first four verses of Psalm 16 with me from the Message translation: “Keep me safe, O God, I’ve run for dear life to you. (Where and when do you find yourself running for dear life to God?  When and where do we accept/admit – maybe only to ourselves - our own powerlessness, need for God?)  Let’s keep reading, “I say to God, “Be my Lord!”  Without you, nothing makes sense.  And these God-chosen lives all around— what splendid friends they make!  Don’t just go shopping for a god. Gods are not for sale.”  (And yet, how often do commercials and books and continuing education and even the church make promises that you will thrive for $19.95?)  Let’s keep reading, “I swear I’ll never treat god-names like brand-names. My choice is you, God, first and only.  And now I find I’m your choice!” 

 

Pause on this last line because the Psalmist declares that not only do we have faith in God, God has faith in us.  God is relationship (which is what the Trinity is all about).  God seeks connection and communion and community.  What would it mean for God to choose you today, right now?  How does that feel in your body?  What do those words provoke/evoke in your mind (does your inner critical color commentary want to object to this idea?  Do you find yourself resisting thinking this is all psychological hogwash??).  How does that line, of God choosing you, land in your heart and soul?  What would it mean to live from a place where God chooses you?  Sit with me in this question for a few moments ~ breathing in and out.

 

Then, as you turn the page to Psalm 17, the Hebrew hymn writer sings out a heartfelt, honest prayer.  The writer takes God at God’s word.  If God chooses us, you and me and we, then we can ask God to listen to us.  Notice how the Psalmist lets loose with how the person feels about enemies in verse 10-14.  The Message translation has the Psalmist lament that the enemies’ hearts are hard as nails and blast hot air ~ it is the like the Psalmist just read our newsfeeds!  How we can feel chased by those who wish us ill like lions ready to rip us apart.  Wait.  I want you to hear how part of the human conditions is fear.  It is woven into the original operating system of your brain ~ and it is there to help protect you.  In many ways the fight, flight, freeze, fawn, and flock part of your brain is good.  It keeps you alert and aware.  And I think it can also go looking for places where things are not all chocolate Easter bunnies and pastel prints.  Life is beautiful and broken.  Life is terrible and tremendous.  Life is.  With the psalmist hold your fascinations and fears in this moment.  Breathe and be. 

 

Then, read psalm 18 slowly letting the syllables of God who is wholeness and holiness to enfold us in all our humanness.  Amen.

Psalms for Today ~ How Long

 

Read Psalms 13-15

 

I love Psalm 13:2, How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart?  It feels like the psalmist has read my journal!  To be sure, I read enough popular psychology to know that thoughts are just thoughts, and I don’t need to act on them.  But when the color commentary in my mind keeps shouts “Fire,” suddenly that thought doesn’t feel so neutral.  Hold this line with verse 5, “But I trust in Your unfailing love”.  What would that look like for you today?  What would you do differently today if the safety net of Sacred affection would catch you no matter what?  Don’t rush or race past this question, ponder prayerfully and then, join me as I try to live a response to that question.  As you continue to read the Psalms you notice how often there is a sense that some combination of Darth Vader, Lord Voldemort and the Kraken are conspiring together!  What do we do with the problem of evil?  So far, the psalmist seems to say, “We cry out to God.”  And, that in some way, somehow, God responds.  When has this been an experience for you?  When have you felt let down or left out from God’s quick text back to you?  Hold these holy questions as we continue to swim through the sea of the Hebrew’s hymnal in these days.  Amen

Psalms for Today ~ Side-by-Side

 

Read Psalms 10-12

 

But You, God, see/know/feel the trouble of the afflicted (Psalm 10:14); 

For the Lord is righteous, God loves justice; the upright sense God’s presence (Psalm 11:7); 

Help, God, for no one is faithful anymore; those who are loyal have vanished from the human race.  Everyone lies to their neighbor; they flatter with their lips but harbor deception in their hearts. (Psalm 12:1-2).

 

Today, I invite you to a prayer practice of picking out one meaningful line from each of the three assigned Psalms and putting them side-by-side.  One example is above.  Maybe you can find a thread or theme running through the three quotes that leap off the page onto your heart.  Or maybe there is tension between the three lines you are drawn to.  Why did you select these?  Don’t worry if you cannot reasonably, rationally explain what is stirring and swirling in your decision making.  Sometimes, as the cliché goes, the heart wants what it wants.  Sit with three phrases from the Psalms, you connect to, as you do trust that is enough.  Amen.

Psalms for Today ~ A Little Help Here...PLEASE!

 

Read Psalms 7-9

 

By now, you are starting to hear a rhythm in the cadence and chorus of the Psalms.  Psalm 7 cries out, “God, a little help here!  I am being chased by the enemies.” Wait, I wonder if sometimes the enemies are not only out there ~ but also in here ~ in my soul.  When I open the garage door to my soul, who knows what kind of wild creature might be living or luring or wander too close for comfort.  The Psalmist bravely and boldly, maybe with brashness, says, “Arise God in your anger and rise up against the rage of my enemies.”  How many times do we say these words, maybe not to God, but nevertheless I certainly pray them in a way.  And yet, I also know that I want mercy for myself and justice for others.  When I stumble and bumble, I long for forgiveness.  But if someone else does that thing?  I am right back to eye-for-eye justice with anger feeding and fueling my outrage.  To be honest, I get emotional whiplash when I start to sing Psalm 8.  After all the Psalms of help we’ve been reading and saying and singing, now we get to a psalm of wow.  (Remember the three most basic prayers/songs are help, thanks, and wow).  I encourage you to go outside and sing Psalm 8 to a tree or bird or grass; letting the soil beneath your feet meet the soil in your soul.   Finally, Psalm 9 offers a prayer of thanksgiving.  To be sure, the writer does still long for enemies being defeated and deflated and even destroyed.  How do we hold tension between orientation (the way we want to live) and disorientation (the way we actually live and how life keeps being beautifully tragic) and reorientation (the way we may not solve or sort out this mystery so we praise as a way of prayerful protest).  As the poet J. Drew Lanham says, “Joy is the justice we give ourselves.”  Joy (hope/love/peace) may not have external evidence, but very well may be a state in our soul.  Joy (hope/love/peace/grace) is not something we earn ~ it is who God is and what we might wake up to as we read the psalms each day.  May these words you sing sustain and strengthen you in these days.  Amen.

Psalms for Today

 

Read Psalms 4-6

 

I love the opening line of Psalm 4!  God, give me answers.  If Google can do it in the blink of an eye…if AI can summarize a sermon in a split second…if my microwave can cook a meal in two minutes, why, O God, is Your realm dragging its feet in delay?  Hold that question.  Pray that question.  Let that question sink into your soul, when you have wondered why God doesn’t swoop in and save you.  4:2 could be God’s response, as if God is pointing out that we (that is you and me) are not exactly punctual either.  I know I can push aside prayer time for more “important” work.  I know I can miss the color purple in the field because the news still has my brain in fight or flight.  I know I complain and get cynical.  Notice, how this psalm of soft verbs with lament ends again with lying down.  I wonder if the psalmist, like me, had insomnia?  If the psalms wrestled with God at 2 a.m.?  How I keep hungering for external evidence as some kind of proof that God does in fact care.  When you turn to Psalm 5, we hear echoes of Psalm 1.  There is a part of me that both is offended by how the Psalmist classifies and compartmentalizes people ~ that some are “wicked”.  And yet, so do I.  Read and re-read 5:7-8 as another echo of Psalm 1.  Only this time, the metaphor is not a tree but being in God’s presence.  No sooner to we think that things are going to calm down, then Psalm 6 comes rumbling and roaring in singing about how God rebukes the Psalmist.  The phrase, “How long, Lord, how long” is found in verse 3.  Waiting is not easy.  This is true today and was true when Psalm 6 was penned and put down those words years ago.  Remember that some Psalms are ones of orientation.  Other Psalms belt out feelings of disorientation/feeling dizzy/mind racing like a hamster on a wheel, like verse 1, feeling God has not only deserted the Psalmist but is demanding answers now!  I am moved by verse 6 in Psalm 6 ~ where are you worn out by groaning and moaning?  Where is your bed soaked or soggy with tears?  Hold the heartbreak that is honest meeting us in these days.  Psalm 6, a lament, does end with a hopeful note that the enemies will be overwhelmed.  And yet, when?  It is good to sing, “We Shall Overcome some day,” but as Rev. Dr. Ottis Moss asks honestly, “When is someday??”  Hold this question today letting it open the garage door to your soul in these May days.  Amen. 

Psalms for Today

 

Read Psalms 1-3

 

We leap and launch into the world of the Psalms, the Hebrew Hymnal this week.  In these pages you will encounter the passionate pleas and praise and painful prayers to God.  Remember, you are welcome to go at the pace that works best for you, if three Psalms are too many, slow down to the pace of your soul.  Remember, to read the psalms aloud ~ this helps you hear your own voice and let the words sink/settle/sing to your soul in these days in a different way than we normally engage things we read.  We read Scripture aloud every Sunday for this exact reason.  Finally, notice which words cause you to feel lost in wonder, love and praise ~ and which words feel like sandpaper to your soul?  It is okay if you read a Psalm in the coming weeks and think, “Meh.  I could take or leave that one.”  Not every psalm is going to cause your heart to pitter patter and your soul to shout, “Alleluia”! 

 

Read slowly, saving the syllables of the first three psalms.

 

This coming Sunday, May 18^th, I will preach on Psalm 1 ~ this is a Psalm of orientation.  Psalm 1 lays out a promise ~ that if you plant yourself in the soil of the sacred then you will be like a tree sipping on a cool stream every day.  Psalm 1 encourages us not to be trapped or tripped up by the voices of the so-called experts or those who write with eloquence dripping from every word.  Rather, “chew” or “meditate” or “root” yourself in Scripture.  That is what we are doing in the coming weeks.  We want to feast on the Word, sing these hymns together, and talk about what is happening within us as we do.  Now, I know you’d like to yell, “Objection, Wes!  I do my best and bad things still happen.”   Life is not a mathematical equation where good behavior plus reading your Bible daily plus avoiding jerks equals your best life ever.”  Exactly, which is why we turn the page to Psalm 2, where (according to the Message translation) the Psalmist sings “Earth-leaders push for positions, demagogues and delegates meet for summit talks, the God-deniers, the Messiah-defiers (say): “Let get free from God!”  The Psalmist goes on to say at first God is amused and then angry our human show of thinking we got this all planned out God.  The juxtaposition of Psalms 1 and 2 creates poetic and powerful tension.  We hear in Psalm 1 how we are to chew on the word and all will be well.  Well, then Psalm 2, interrupts and sings, except when leaders fail and falter to be adults in the room and remember who God is.  These words ring true in my soul today.  I sit with both these chapters as if the Psalmist just read the headlines with me.  Finally, Psalm 3 sounds like me when my anxiety takes the wheel of my brain.  “Um, God, a little help here?  Please!!”  Moments we are overwhelmed.  Did you catch that in verse 5, the Psalmist relaxes?  Not because all enemies are evaporated or eviscerated ~ indeed even in Genesis 1, there is a hint that chaos persists even after the seventh day.  God rests on that day and we are called to do the same.  Not because the to-do list has become a to-done list, but because rest is holy and healing, especially in the face of feeling overwhelmed.  May your soul find moments to chew on these words and close your eyes resting in God who isn’t going to quiz you on this, but longs for you to listen to the wisdom of these words.  Amen.

Preparing to Pray the Psalms

 

God, You belt out the Psalms with people and creation since the beginning of time.  God, You continue to write a holy harmony inside every cell of our bodies.  We pray for You to awaken our awareness that faithful people of all times and places have sought to share with You their praise, pain, petitions, and pleas for Your presence to inspire, interrupt, and infuse their lives right where they were.  People of all times and places have gone back to these words of the Psalms to embrace all the emotions of this fragile and fabulous experience of life.  May we, as people of this time and this place, open the pages of the Psalms to find ourselves afresh and anew.  May the coming days embolden us in unexpected ways.  May the coming days have moments when we feel Your embrace.  And may the coming days remind us that all of us (from the top of our head to pinkie toe) is enfolded by You.  Help us realize that in the pages of the Psalms we can glean more than we currently do from doom scrolling, constantly clicking, or binge watching.  Dare us, O God, to dive into Your lake of love that is recorded in the Hebrew Hymnal of the Psalms.  Help us find our unique voice to join the choir to share who these words are working in us and through us for the sake of the world You so love.  Amen. 

Preparing to Pray the Psalms

 

As we prepare to plunge and pray the Psalms in the coming weeks, perhaps my invitation to read all 150 is feeling a bit too much.  So, I have a wonderful alternative assignment for you from Eugene Peterson.  He decided to read five Psalms repeatedly. 

 

Psalm 3 is a Psalm for praying our troubles and tells when David fled from Absolm in fear!  Who/what/where are you singing, “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen”?

 

Psalm 8 is a psalm of creation ~ to remember the web of mutuality that ties and tethers us to all that was, is, and will be in the worlds around/within.

 

Psalm 23 is a psalm to release our honest fears ~ the shadows and presence of evil.

 

Psalm 137 is to pray our hate ~ that faith is more than neckties and dress hats.  God longs for more than your carefully guarded public persona that you post on social media. 

 

Finally, Psalm 6 is to pray our tears as a cathartic release.

 

Perhaps this summer you want to return, repeat, replay and re-pray these five Psalms over and over again as a way to explore and examine the anatomy of your soul (see quote from John Calvin in Monday’s Morning Mediation).

 

A few more logistics as you prepare for Monday to launch your raft of life into the pond of the Psalms.  One, find a rhythm that works for you.  Some people will read a Psalm at breakfast, one at lunch, and one after dinner.  Some will read all three for each day at the same time.  Two, when you read the Psalms, read them out loud!  Just as we don’t listen to music from some objective, science-like, arms-length place (or at least I don’t!)  Just like I cannot hear the soundtrack of Wicked without joining in, the Psalms were meant to be heard in your ears ~ listening to the sound of your own voice.  Third, read the Psalms for each day slowly, savoring the syllables.  I encourage you to circle words/phrases that fascinate you and put a square around words/phrases that frustrate you.  You may want to draw a picture in response to the Psalm.  Or what get out your colored pencils to underline words/phrases of praise in green or blue; words/phrases of lament in red/purple (the color of Lent); words/phrases of thanksgiving in yellow/orange.  I encourage you to write down your first response to the Psalm.  Do not edit yourself, be honest and whole-hearted.  I do encourage you, if possible, to read each Psalm in two different translations side-by-side.  You can read the Message or Voice Version for a more contemporary translation.  You can read the King James for a translation that sought to be as close to the Hebrew as possible for the scholars of the day.  You can read an inclusive version of the Psalm.  Finally, feel free to re-write the Psalms when you feel particularly moved.  If a Psalm stirs in your soul, let your shy soul sing out with the words you long to express.  It is my prayer that engaging the Psalms will help us explore all that is within us and around us in these days.  Amen.