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.