Web Theologian

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92:1 It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
to sing praises to your name, O Most High;
2 to declare your steadfast love in the morning,
and your faithfulness by night,
3 to the music of the lute and the harp,
to the melody of the lyre.
4 For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work;
at the works of your hands I sing for joy.

5 How great are your works, O Lord!
Your thoughts are very deep!
6 The stupid man cannot know;
the fool cannot understand this:
7 that though the wicked sprout like grass
and all evildoers flourish,
they are doomed to destruction forever;
8 but you, O Lord, are on high forever.
9 For behold, your enemies, O Lord,
for behold, your enemies shall perish;
all evildoers shall be scattered.

10 But you have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox;
you have poured over me [1] fresh oil.
11 My eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies;
my ears have heard the doom of my evil assailants.

12 The righteous flourish like the palm tree
and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
13 They are planted in the house of the Lord;
they flourish in the courts of our God.
14 They still bear fruit in old age;
they are ever full of sap and green,
15 to declare that the Lord is upright;
he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

This Psalm I come to today needing to hear.  The bridge tragedy in MN has left me sad and frightened. I am thankful that the Psalms remind us. That God is good, and he deserves our praise. God’s acts are deep and the stupid cannot understand.  It defies their logic, the fool refuses to understand and is left questioning.

You have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox.  You have made me stand out?  Special?  The comparison to a ox is lost on me, but I get that it is a good thing.  One thing I do know is I wouldn’t want to mess with a wild ox.

We have a banana palm tree in our dining room.  We brought it all the way from Orlando.  It was less than an inch tall.  Now it is about five feet tall with two other shoots!  It continues to crow and shed leaves.  I have enjoyed having it and hope it continues to live to a ripe old age.

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91:1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”

3 For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
and from the deadly pestilence.
4 He will cover you with his pinions,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
5 You will not fear the terror of the night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
6 nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.

7 A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
8 You will only look with your eyes
and see the recompense of the wicked.

9 Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place—
the Most High, who is my refuge—
10 no evil shall be allowed to befall you,
no plague come near your tent.

11 For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways.
12 On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.
13 You will tread on the lion and the adder;
the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.

14 “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him;
I will protect him, because he knows my name.
15 When he calls to me, I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and honor him.
16 With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation.”

This is the favorite Psalm of the guy who’s funeral I did just before I left Oakland, CA.  Bruce Powell and I would read together this Psalm, and others, everyday of the last two weeks of his life.  It will always be very special to me because of that.

God is the place we can go to when things get out of control.  Just last night I was telling Karin how I become overwhelmed when I get too many things going in my head in a day.  So we ended the night in prayer together.  God is my refuge, God is my fortress.

He moves into our daily life to rescue us from the traps that we find ourselves in.  He also protects us the way a mother would protect her young.  In night and day I have no reason to fear but God is present with me.

I have yet to see the movie 300 yet that is the picture I have of 1,000 falling.  There is an intensity to protecting us, the sharpness of picture, and the image of me standing there with so many lost and fallen around.  No wonder I have rough days occasionally, many do not believe, and therefore do not yet have the ability to see what we see in the world.  They are either turned over to themselves by God, or God is breaking down their view of the world and building up His.  Both alternatives are often hard for people.

God protection is physical, over sickness.  It is spiritual, with the angels.  And it is over the natural world, related to the animals.  There is no place that is out of his reach.  That can lead to many questions, such as the problem of evil and others.  So we can take these to God because he can handle them.

After all these wonderful things are described to us, we have a word from our sponsor, God.  He reminds us of his love and promise to us directly.  The gift of long life he gives to those who love him.  For the first time in my life that is something I desire.

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This morning is funny.  Last night Karin and Aidyn returned safely from Montana!  I was so happy to see them and we had a very good night together. 

This morning we are all waking up early and heading to breakfast with my old boss, Rev. Lewis Ruff of All Nations Church.  We had a very dramatic end to our time working for that church, which is no surprise if you know me and how God and I communicate…I really am learning to listen to God’s whispers not just screams:)  So this is the first time we are seeing each other since that time.  I am looking forward to this new chapter of our friendship, Lewis is a great man of God.

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9 For all our days pass away under your wrath;
we bring our years to an end like a sigh.
10 The years of our life are seventy,
or even by reason of strength eighty;
yet their span is but toil and trouble;
they are soon gone, and we fly away.
11 Who considers the power of your anger,
and your wrath according to the fear of you?

12 So teach us to number our days
that we may get a heart of wisdom.
13 Return, O Lord! How long?
Have pity on your servants!
14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
and for as many years as we have seen evil.
16 Let your work be shown to your servants,
and your glorious power to their children.
17 Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
and establish the work of our hands upon us;
yes, establish the work of our hands!

When it all comes down to it, there isn’t much to our lives.  Not many years, some pain and heartache and then gone.  Even as I write that I don’t believe it.  I think it takes being old, older than I am to really embrace that life is made up of so little.  Though when we look at life through the power and perspective of God, it is easy to see how we could think such a thing.

Numbering our days.  Look at them, set them apart.  See how few we have and make each one count.  One of my goals right now is to have my goals written out by December and to find a business mentor.  My hope is that this will give me the time and focus to put my heart’s desires before God and allow him to lead me in the direction of accomplishing them.  It is like running my first marathon, that changed me.  I trained and planned and then accomplished, it was very spiritual and life changing.  God placed in me a hope and trust that I had not experienced with Him after that.

There was trust.  That even if something took a long time (the marathon goal took at least five years before I accomplished it) that God was not going to leave me out to dry.  He would see through the hard work I put in, guiding me the entire time.  I really believe that and want to learn what that means for other areas of my life; my family, my home, my work, my ministry.  Let God establish the work of our hands!  What a wonderful prayer for each day.

Currently my daily prayer is, “God allow me to meet and talk to the people you desire me to.”  In the beginning that is all you have when it comes to sales.  Now that  a few of these accounts are buying I do need to have another prayer, establish the work of our hands.

>It has been hard for me to do much of anything with Karin gone. Yesterday was the worst; after church I basically spent the entire day in bed, not very motivated to do anything without my girls. Today I was distracted with work for awhile, but really wasn’t excited to get home. The girls come home tomorrow night and I am very excited.

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>^88:1 LORD, you are the God who saves me;
day and night I cry out to you.

² May my prayer come before you;
turn your ear to my cry.

³ I am overwhelmed with troubles
and my life draws near to death.

⁴ I am counted among those who go down to the pit;
I am like one without strength.

⁵ I am set apart with the dead,
like the slain who lie in the grave,
whom you remember no more,
who are cut off from your care.

⁶ You have put me in the lowest pit,
in the darkest depths.

⁷ Your wrath lies heavily on me;
you have overwhelmed me with all your waves.

⁸ You have taken from me my closest friends
and have made me repulsive to them.
I am confined and cannot escape;

⁹ my eyes are dim with grief.
I call to you, LORD, every day;
I spread out my hands to you.

¹⁰ Do you show your wonders to the dead?
Do their spirits rise up and praise you?

¹¹ Is your love declared in the grave,
your faithfulness in Destruction?

¹² Are your wonders known in the place of darkness,
or your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion?

¹³ But I cry to you for help, LORD;
in the morning my prayer comes before you.

¹⁴ Why, LORD, do you reject me
and hide your face from me?

¹⁵ From my youth I have suffered and been close to death;
I have borne your terrors and am in despair.

¹⁶ Your wrath has swept over me;
your terrors have destroyed me.

¹⁷ All day long they surround me like a flood;
they have completely engulfed me.

¹⁸ You have taken from me friend and neighbor—
darkness is my closest friend.

(So the ESV website is down this morning so I copied from the TNIV, but I am still reading my ESV) There are only a hand full of times in my life that I have truly cried out to the Lord. The were important moments for me, the last of which was when we were moving out of our home in Oakland, CA. Most of the time I just sort of smile and wink at God. Crying out takes time, emotion, and soul often these are lacking in how I relate to God on a daily basis.

There is a biblical understanding that God brings us through hard times. Last night while reading in preparation for the Communicants class that I will teach the children of Grace Seattle, I started to wonder how to talk about this with kids. To me it seems like something of the human experience and I am wondering if children will be able to name the fallen state of the world around them, and if they can believe in a God who is more powerful even when their hopes are disappointed in the short term.

This prayer reminds me more than any other of my prayers the night our house partner screamed at me and told me one of us had to move out. I was sad broken hearted and was left wondering why God would put us through this. My faith was not shattered, I still believed, I just did not like the actions of a holy God, who seems to “cause my companions to shun me”.

So even in our pain we go to God. A very Godly mad asked me a simple question, “Name one person who’s spirituality you respect that has time with God at night?” You start your morning with God, you might have a time for evening prayers and chat with God, but the morning is where it all springs from. We are forced to face our lack and fear as we go into another day where we are forced to have faith.

This Psalm is also challenging to most of us because it has no resolution. What do you do with that? For me it seems to fit with life. Sometimes there are questions that don’t get wrapped up in twenty lines or even on hundred lines. Why do friends lose babies? That is one question I look forward to having God satisfy after death, because right now I cannot see it. Each one of us come with our own set of unanswerables, if you don’t have them you are in denial.

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