For the Storms of Life--Psalm 29

Psalm 29 is meant to be read during a thunderstorm. Maybe that's because a lot of people are afraid during storms and they need to be reminded that God is in control of every single molecule. When I was a little girl, there would sometimes be thunderstorms in the middle of the night. My dad would come into our rooms and get us up and we would all go into the living room and sit on the couch by the picture window to watch the storm. He told us that the thunder was God's voice! I didn't know it at the time, but he got that idea from this Psalm.

Ascribe to the Lord Glory

A Psalm of David.

29 Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings,[a]
    ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
2 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
    worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.[b]

3 The voice of the Lord is over the waters;
    the God of glory thunders,
    the Lord, over many waters.
4 The voice of the Lord is powerful;
    the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

5 The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;
    the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
6 He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf,
    and Sirion like a young wild ox.

7 The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire.
8 The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;
    the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.

9 The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth[c]
    and strips the forests bare,
    and in his temple all cry, “Glory!”

¹⁰ The Lord sits enthroned over the flood;
    the Lord sits enthroned as king forever.
¹¹ May the Lord give strength to his people!
    May the Lord bless^[d] his people with peace!

Did you know that this psalm used to be read to children or to entire congregations during a storm? To appreciate this psalm, you need to get out into field and experience a real storm. The psalm marches to the tune of thunderbolts. You can almost hear the thunder as the psalm is read out loud. Let your imagination run with the imagery in the psalm--cedars are breaking, fire is flashing everywhere, there are earthquakes, and the forests are stripped bare. 

I bet you saw the devastation of the hurricanes on our east coast and saw the fires on the west coast on TV. And the volcanoes in Hawaii. Seeing these things should make us praise God! In this psalm even the angels are petitioned to give glory to God for these wondrous works. 

A lot of people today would not praise God for that kind of stuff. Instead, they get mad at God for sending storms--not even realizing that he is trying to get their attention in order to save them from a worse fate--forever. Sometimes it takes a devastating storm or great loss for people to realize what is really important. 

Did you notice that right in the middle of all the storms, the Lord is still helping the deer give birth? And when you get to the last line--He gives his people peace. God is perfectly calm during the whole storm. Who does that remind you of? It reminds me of Jesus falling asleep in the boat when the poor disciples were going out of their minds during the storm on Galilee. 

The bottom line is this: God gives us storms not only to show his great power, but as a warning of future judgment. The storms of life help to keep us on track and to fear God. 

Here are a couple of pics from a recent snow storm we had:

The Good Shepherd--Psalm 23

Most people know Psalm 23 by heart. I think it is the first Psalm I ever memorized when I was in first grade. But we don't live in a place where we see a lot of sheep and we probably don't even know any shepherds. In Bible times, a shepherd's work was considered the lowest of all work. So when the LORD of the universe takes on the lowest of all work, it is extreme condescension. 

Shepherding was considered the lowest of all work because sheep are so stupid. They can't do a thing for themselves and left on their own, they would make all the wrong choices. They are completely helpless. They can't find their own food. If they fall down, they can't get up. And they can't fend off predators. 

The shepherd has to make sure that four things happen before he can make the sheep lie down: 1) They have to be free from fear, and sheep are fearful creatures, so that is a big undertaking. 2) They have to be free from friction with other sheep and sheep have a way of constantly annoying each other, so that is another hard job for the shepherd. 3) They have to be free from flies and other tormenting parasites. And 4) they have to be free from hunger. A hungry sheep will be on the prowl for food. 

And yet, a good shepherd gets the sheep to lie down and relax. If you haven't figured it out yet, the Bible is comparing us to sheep. People are also full of anxiety and fears and they like to pick fights with each other. But the good shepherd leads them beside still waters and restores their souls. That means he is the one who makes their souls come alive. He leads us to repentance and he has to keep doing it over and over. If a sheep falls on its back, it begins to panic because it can't turn itself over. It starts to paw the air frantically and gases build up in its body cutting off its circulation to its legs. The sheep will die in a few hours if the shepherd doesn't get there in time. Sometimes wolves will get the sheep first. So the shepherd has to be on duty 24/7. No lingering lunches or days off for the holidays. 

The good shepherd takes the sheep through the valley of the shadow of death. They don't stay in the valley and they don't run through the valley. They just keep going through at a steady pace. The valley is scary. There are shadows that freak the sheep out. Of course we know that a shadow can't hurt anybody, right?  But if there is a shadow, we know there must be a monster making the shadow, so we get scared. But we also know that if there is a shadow, there must be a light behind the shadow that is bigger than the shadow. It kind of reminds me of the song, "God is bigger than the bogeyman." 

We are going to walk through a lot of scary places in this life, but God is leading the way and his rod and staff comfort us. He uses his rod against the scary monsters to beat them off, and he uses his staff to pull us back if we start to wander off. He feeds us well, so we never go hungry and he anoints us with oil. Well, that seems kind of weird because we don't do those things anymore, but the anointing with oil just means that he is keeping all those pesky flies and other parasites away from us. He gives us so much that it overflows. 

Finally he is preparing a permanent home for us and we will be able to live with him forever. Here is the whole psalm. If you haven't already memorized it, you probably should. 

The Lord Is My Shepherd

A Psalm of David.

23 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2     He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
3     He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
    for his name's sake.

4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
    I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
    your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
    my cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
    forever.

Lullabies and Other Important Songs

Songs are important and we communicate important things with songs. People who fall in love choose songs to commemorate their relationships. Grandmothers sing lullabies to their grandchildren. When my grandchildren were little, they each had their own song. We even made a recording of all six songs so they could listen whenever they wanted to. 

They are a little too old for lullabies now, but there is one song that makes me think of them every time I hear it. And so I will dedicate this song to the young people that I loved best of all in my life--Alice, Sadie, Katy, Meagan, Kristen and Grady. Here are the words:

"In My Life / If We Never Meet Again"

There are places I remember all my life though some have changed
Some forever, not for better, some are lost and some remain

All these places have their moments with people and friends I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living but in my life I loved them all

But of all these friends and loved ones, there is no one compares with you
And as memories lose their meaning when I think of love as something new

Though I know I'll never lose affection for people and friends that went before
I know I'll often stop and think about them but in my life I loved you more

Soon we'll come to the end of life's journey

And perhaps we'll never meet anymore
Till we gather in Heaven's bright city
Far away on that beautiful shore

If we never meet again this side of Heaven 
As we struggle thru this world and its strife
There's another meeting place somewhere in Heaven 
By the beautiful River of Life

Where the charming roses bloom forever
Separations come no more
If we never meet again this side of Heaven 
I will meet you on that beautiful shore.

Click here to hear the song.

Why Psalms?

The Psalms as a Map of our Lives

I love the Psalms because they are the map of the Bible. The Psalms take us on a journey that begins in childhood and ends at our final destination—heaven. They begin by pointing out the two roads that one can take in life—much like the two trees in the Garden of Eden—one leads to life and the other leads to death. Book 1 teaches the child who God is, who man is, and what their relationship means. It builds the child’s confidence in God’s care for his creation and for the child in particular before he is hit with the major crises of life. 

    In Book 2 we begin to see the disturbances of adolescence—there is strife, enmity, betrayal, and lots of emotional upheaval—and yet the Psalmist shows the value of commitment to God’s kingdom and staying the course.

Book 3—the central book—guides us through every conceivable crisis we can face in this life. It shows us how to navigate our way through discouragement, depression, severe illness, profound loss, injustice, slander, abuse, betrayal, abandonment, and outright despair. There will be times in the life of every Christian that despite our Bible reading and prayer and close fellowship with God, it will feel like the doors of heaven have been slammed shut in our face and God’s utter silence will make us feel like he has abandoned us. This is where Christians will get derailed if they don’t have the map. It is these tests of life that will make or break a person’s faith.

Book 4 brings us the comfort of God’s faithfulness and immutability, and Book 5 gives us the amazing Psalms of Ascent which are a microcosm of the entire book—focusing on the journey of life itself. The last 5 Psalms are an explosion of pure praise—like the fireworks finale on the 4th of July. No more sadness, no more tears, no more crises. The destination has been reached. 

In the history of the Christian church, small children have been taught to memorize the Psalms in order to get the map in their heads to prepare them for the trials of life. We no longer have the original music scores of the OT Israelites, but in the Reformed tradition the Psalms have been set to music and sung in our worship services since their revival during the Protestant Reformation. They infiltrate every part of our worship service as they teach us how to worship God in every circumstance. 
       A very wise person once told me to read 5 Psalms every single day. I did it and I think it would be a good idea for you to do it too. If you do, you will have the map of life in your pretty little heads and when all the tests and trials of life come your way, and you undergo severe suffering, you will not get derailed and lose your faith. 

Arguing With God Can Be A Good Thing: Psalm 17

Did you know that arguing with God can be a good thing? In the Psalms David always presents his arguments to God to make his case about why God should answer his prayers. God wants people to do this. God told Isaiah to say to the people, "Come, Let us reason together." God wants us to give reasons for our prayers because it helps us to evaluate whether we are praying for the right things and it builds our faith to know that our prayers will be answered. One of the most common reasons David gives about why God should answer his prayers is based on God's character. To do this, we need to have a good understanding of God's character. Psalm 17 is the first real prayer in the Psalter and it is a good one to illustrate this point because David uses 4 arguments in it.

Hear a just cause, O Lord; attend to my cry!
    Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit!
 From your presence let my vindication come!
    Let your eyes behold the right!

 You have tried my heart, you have visited me by night,
    you have tested me, and you will find nothing;
    I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress.
 With regard to the works of man, by the word of your lips
    I have avoided the ways of the violent.
 My steps have held fast to your paths;
    my feet have not slipped.

As you can see, David's first argument is his innocence. In the Bible, when people claim innocence or blamelessness, they do not mean sinlessness. They mean that they are innocent of the charges brought against them by others, and that they are innocent of deliberate defiant sins against God. Leading an upright life is a strong basis for appeal to God. You need to ask yourself: Am I breaking any of God's commandments? Are there important duties I am neglecting? Am I being selfish? Is there some wrong that I should make right? Are my priorities in order?

I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God;
    incline your ear to me; hear my words.
7 Wondrously show your steadfast love,
    O Savior of those who seek refuge
    from their adversaries at your right hand.

The second argument David uses is based on God's character and love. "Hesed" is the Hebrew word that is translated "steadfast love," and it refers to God's covenant love for His people. So David is appealing to what God has already revealed Himself to be. Now he can be confident that his prayer will be heard and answered.

Keep me as the apple of your eye;
    hide me in the shadow of your wings,
 from the wicked who do me violence,
    my deadly enemies who surround me.

 They close their hearts to pity;
    with their mouths they speak arrogantly.
 They have now surrounded our steps;
    they set their eyes to cast us to the ground.
 He is like a lion eager to tear,
    as a young lion lurking in ambush.

 Arise, O Lord! Confront him, subdue him!
    Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword,
 from men by your hand, O Lord,
    from men of the world whose portion is in this life.[b]
You fill their womb with treasure;[c]
    they are satisfied with children,
    and they leave their abundance to their infants.

David's third argument is based on the danger he is in. He says of his enemies, "they close their hearts to pity" which in the Hebrew literally means "they are enclosed in their own fat" --LOL!  This means our enemies can be implacable. No matter what we do, they will never be satisfied. They have no mercy and they speak with arrogance. And they track us down, intent on destroying us. Our biggest enemy is Satan, but he often gets others to do his work. 

As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness;
    when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.

Finally, David's last argument is that he is on intimate terms with God. So much so that he reflects God's image. 

David is teaching all of us how to pray. We need to evaluate our prayers to see if they are truly founded in God's character and promises and if they are, we can be assured they will be answered because God's character never changes. Here are just a few of His character traits that we can rely on: His steadfast love, his (outrageous, scandalous) grace and mercy, his righteousness and justice, and his kindness. And it is OK to argue your case before God! He loves  it!