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.