Posts

Posted on

A Culture of Mockers

Links for today’s readings:

Feb 23  Read: Proverbs 14 Listen: (3:45) Read: Mark 4 Listen: (5:01)

Scripture Focus: Proverbs 14.6-9

6 The mocker seeks wisdom and finds none, 

but knowledge comes easily to the discerning. 

7 Stay away from a fool, 

for you will not find knowledge on their lips. 

8 The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways, 

but the folly of fools is deception. 

9 Fools mock at making amends for sin, 

but goodwill is found among the upright.

Reflection: A Culture of Mockers

By John Tillman

The writers of Proverbs would have loved first generation Twitter.

In 2006 Twitter used SMS texts which had a 160 character limit. Twitter reserved twenty characters for usernames, leaving 140 for messages. (The previous sentence is 139 characters.)

The technological limit sparked a cultural moment for brevity. On blogs, news sites, and rival social media platforms, people posted thousands of words per day. “Tweets” were a tight 140 characters and were with you everywhere you could get a text, not just on a computer. Necessity made brevity the soul of the platform and a differentiating feature in the early days of social media.

That appreciation of brevity was brief. The old limits have stretched to 280 characters. The current site, X, sees longer posts as a value-add. They charge users a monthly fee for the privilege of being a “verified” premium user who can post up to 25,000 characters. (Our devotionals are 400 words and average 2200-2500 characters.)

But length does not automatically equal value when it comes to wisdom. Each phrase in Proverbs packs a punch. Proverbs is one of the most quotable (or “tweetable”) books of the Bible. The punchy phrases and well balanced opposites are intended to be memorable and meaningful.

The writers of Proverbs would find plenty of the people they called “mockers” on modern social media. I’m sure you have found them too.

“Mockers” in the Bible refuse instruction, scoff at knowledge, and hate correction. (Psalm 1.1; Proverbs 15.12) They reject wisdom and enjoy insolence and provoking anger. (Proverbs 21.24) If you call them ignorant, expecting to humble them, they’ll be proud. Mockers are those for whom cruelty is funny. They call empathy weakness. They call love being a sucker.

Our culture is rife with mockers, and social media algorithms love them. Mockers get highlighted and pushed to new viewers. Mockers are given power and influence. Mockers are praised, hired, applauded, and even elected. In our culture, it is easy to become a mocker. Proverbs helps us see a better way.

Instead of mocking, be discerning. Knowledge comes effortlessly to the discerning. Mockers search but never find wisdom.

Instead of rash falsehoods, be prudent. The prudent think ahead, taking care with words and actions. Mockers rush to tell lies, even foolish ones.

Instead of prideful unrepentance that scoffs at confession or recompense, admit wrongdoing and self-correct by making right what was wrong.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Let those who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; let those who love your salvation say forever, “Great is the Lord!” — Psalm 70.4

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Faith After the Storm

Jesus commanding the storm is intimidating and disturbing. He is no longer someone we can shake awake and push around…

Faith After the Storm
Read more: Hardest Words to Say: “I’m Sorry”

Is it easier to smooth things over with certain people? What prevents you from restoring peace?

Hardest Words to Say: “I’m Sorry”
Posted on

Greed Versus Integrity

Links for today’s readings:

Feb 20  Read: Proverbs 11 Listen: (3:41) Read: Mark 1 Listen: (5:05)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Feb 21  Read: Proverbs 12 Listen: (3:07) Read: Mark 2 Listen: (3:55)
Feb 22  Read: Proverbs 13 Listen: (2:45) Read: Mark 3 Listen: (3:41)

Scripture Focus: Proverbs 11.1-4

1 The Lord detests dishonest scales, 

but accurate weights find favor with him. 

2 When pride comes, then comes disgrace, 

but with humility comes wisdom. 

3 The integrity of the upright guides them, 

but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity. 

4 Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath, 

but righteousness delivers from death.

Reflection: Greed Versus Integrity

John Tillman

Proverbs may feel like lists of unrelated aphorisms. However, most sections have common themes. Proverbs 11 repeatedly returns to greed and integrity.

The first verse proclaims that the Lord loves honest scales. The last declares the wicked and the righteous will receive “their due.” Before paying out what is due, God will weigh it out on honest and accurate scales. We anxiously await the rewards of integrity and long to see the greedy face justice.

To read, “The righteous person is rescued from trouble, and it falls on the wicked instead,” makes us expect a dramatic rescue or for trouble to fall on the wicked like pianos on cartoon villains. We long for verse 10: “When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices; when the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy.” But often, the wicked rack up win after win while committing sin after sin. When is God going to pay out what is due? “How long, O Lord?”

Proverbs are primarily wise principles. The upright bless their city. The deceitful destroy it. (Proverbs 11.11) Pride brings disgrace. Humility brings wisdom. (Proverbs 11.2) These proverbs assume that there will be prideful, deceitful people who are acclaimed as wise and accumulate wealth. If these people did not exist, we would not need the proverb to remind us of their fate.

The implied promises of proverbs not only will come true, but are true now. God’s wisdom forms rules in our moral universe that are as inescapable as the rules of the physical universe.

As I type this and you read it, we are falling through space, pulled by gravity, orbiting the Sun. Gravity is pulling us down. (“Gravity,” Lecrae) We live in a solar system motivated by gravity. We cannot stop falling. We only manage how we experience it.

We also live in a system motivated by greed. The great powers of our world, the corporations, governments, and the mega-wealthy, orbit greed like planets orbit the Sun. Greed is pulling them down.

What can we do? How do we navigate a greed-motivated solar system? One way is with integrity. 

Greed and integrity are enemies. Integrity short circuits greed. Greed corrupts integrity. The principles of Proverbs teach us to resist the wicked gravity of greed and many other temptations. However, we cannot do it on our own. We need the intervention of divine wisdom and help.

God gives the wisdom we need. We only need to ask. (James 1.5)

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

Keep watch over my life, for I am faithful; save your servant whose trust is in you. — Psalm 86.2

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Listen to: In Medias Res

We all meet Jesus in medias res, in the middle of our lives, our troubles, our tragedies, our deserts.

Consider Supporting Our Work

We need donors like you to continue our work. Please consider joining our donors to support our ad-free biblical devotionals.

Supporting our Work
Posted on

Hip-Hop Psalmists?

Links for today’s readings:

Feb 19  Read: Proverbs 10 Listen: (3:34)  Read: Psalms 40-41 Listen: (3:57)

Scripture Focus: Psalm 40.13-17

13 Be pleased to save me, Lord; 

come quickly, Lord, to help me. 

14 May all who want to take my life 

be put to shame and confusion; 

may all who desire my ruin 

be turned back in disgrace. 

15 May those who say to me, “Aha! Aha!” 

be appalled at their own shame. 

16 But may all who seek you 

rejoice and be glad in you; 

may those who long for your saving help always say, 

“The Lord is great!” 

17 But as for me, I am poor and needy; 

may the Lord think of me. 

You are my help and my deliverer; 

you are my God, do not delay.

Psalm 70

1 Hasten, O God, to save me; 

come quickly, Lord, to help me. 

2 May those who want to take my life 

be put to shame and confusion; 

may all who desire my ruin 

be turned back in disgrace. 

3 May those who say to me, “Aha! Aha!” 

turn back because of their shame. 

4 But may all who seek you 

rejoice and be glad in you; 

may those who long for your saving help always say, 

“The Lord is great!” 

5 But as for me, I am poor and needy; 

come quickly to me, O God. 

You are my help and my deliverer; 

Lord, do not delay.

Reflection: Hip-Hop Psalmists?

By John Tillman

The psalmists would have made good hip-hop artists—they love sampling.

Sampling is using part of a previous song in a new recording. “Rapper’s Delight,” the first top-40 hip-hop song, sampled the baseline and guitar riff from an earlier hit, “Good Times” by Chic. I noticed sampling more when I started recognizing the samples being used. That’s one sign of growing older. The “samples” used in new music are from old music you remember.

Samples (when done well and ethically) should enhance your enjoyment of music, not detract from it. It is something familiar mixed in a creative way with something new. Sometimes samples relate thematically to the new work, as is the case with “Good Times” and “Rapper’s Delight,” which are both about celebrating.

Many psalms list instrumentation notes or names of melodies and styles, but there’s no sheet music. We don’t know what they sounded like. However, it is obvious Psalmists loved sampling lyrics as much as hip-hop artists love sampling bass lines and drum riffs.

Psalm 40 says, “He put a new song in my mouth,” but samples an “old song” as part of the new one. The last five verses of Psalm 40 quote Psalm 70. Or is it the other way around? Psalm 40 could have been first and another psalmist sampled verses for Psalm 70. We don’t know. However, the compilers of the Psalms scroll viewed both poems as worthy of inclusion.

Psalmists aren’t the only biblical writers who “sample” other scriptures. Like increased musical familiarity enhances understanding and appreciation of music, greater familiarity with scripture enhances understanding of biblical author’s “samples.”

The part of Psalm 40 used as Psalm 70 is a lament. It is an urgent plea for help, beginning with, “Come quickly,” and ending with “do not delay!” In Psalm 40, this lament and plea follows the remembrance of God’s past salvation and praises for God’s character and goodness to those who follow him. Psalm 70 has none of that. It just dives into desperation.

We should remember the “Good Times” of God’s salvation. But when needs are urgent, we don’t need to delight God, rapping about his praiseworthy past. Lament can stand on its own. Drop the beat and lay down a verse, pleading with our loving God. God will be faithful, not because we placate him with praise, but because of who he is.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

Behold, God is my helper; it is the Lord who sustains my life. — Psalm 54.4

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: The Promise of Proverbs is Change

It is crucial to ask, “Are we becoming people of wickedness or righteousness?” What we become can change our world.

The Promise of Proverbs is Change
Read The Bible With Us

It’s never too late to join our Bible reading plan. Immerse in the Bible with us at a sustainable, two-year pace.

https://mailchi.mp/theparkforum/m-f-daily-email-devotional

Posted on

Existential Dread

Links for today’s readings:

Feb 18 Read:  Proverbs 9 Listen: (1:50) Read: Psalm 39 Listen: (1:49)

Scripture Focus: Psalm 39:4-7

4 “Show me, Lord, my life’s end
    and the number of my days;
    let me know how fleeting my life is.
5 You have made my days a mere handbreadth;
    the span of my years is as nothing before you.
Everyone is but a breath,
    even those who seem secure.

6 “Surely everyone goes around like a mere phantom;
    in vain they rush about, heaping up wealth
    without knowing whose it will finally be.

7 “But now, Lord, what do I look for?
    My hope is in you.”

Reflection: Existential Dread

By Erin Newton

Existential dread is a deep-seated feeling and anxiety about the meaning of life. We sometimes equate the experience with the proverbial “mid-life crisis.” As I entered the working world after college, I learned you can have a similar feeling at that time, called the “quarter-life crisis.” What may cause people to dye their hair, buy a shiny new car, quit their job, and pursue a new career is this deeply rooted concern about life. What are we doing? What is this all about?

As Christians, we are taught to exchange our initial ambitions for a life in Christ. Our plans become whatever God’s plans are for us. And that is all well and good. But I think we are sometimes shocked (and maybe embarrassed) when we reach a point that we’re asking the same questions as Psalm 39: What am I doing with my life? When am I going to die? How much longer do I have? Have I wasted it all? Isn’t it all rather pointless?

This psalm seems to ebb and flow between statements about being silent, then a burst of questions and pleading with God. This first half of the psalm focuses on the relatively short nature of our human lives. As if an echo from Ecclesiastes, the psalmist says, “Everyone is but a breath.” Vanity. Vanity. Everything is meaningless.

The fact that these words are preserved for us should give us some comfort. We all feel this way at some point in time. It is not being ungrateful for the life God has led us through. It’s simply a question that we often wrestle with.

So what do we do? “But now, Lord, what do I look for?,” the psalmist asks.

Do we look for success? Do we look for companionship? Do we look for achievements? Do we look for a legacy? Do we look for a pain-free existence? These things are not necessarily wrong.

“My hope is in you.”

The psalm asks, “Show me,” and “What do I look for?” We want God to be a fortune-teller instead of a hope-holder.

Existential dread asks to see the future, assure us how this all turns out. We don’t get an answer to that question. There lies our hope.

We ask God the same questions century after century. The answer remains the same: We look to God for our hope and then we keep living.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

O God of hosts, show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved. — Psalm 80.7


– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Listen to: RSVP to Wisdom or Folly

Two banquets are prepared.
Two invitations go out.
Two hostesses beckon.
Which banquet will you enter? Who gets your RSVP?

Consider Supporting Our Work

Please consider becoming a donor. Support ad-free content that brings biblical devotionals to inboxes across the world.

Supporting our Work
Posted on

Spiritual Hypochondria and Anosognosia

Links for today’s readings:

Feb 17  Read: Proverbs 8 Listen: (3:26) Read: Psalm 38 Listen: (2:14)

Scripture Focus: Psalm 38.4-8

4 My guilt has overwhelmed me 

like a burden too heavy to bear. 

5 My wounds fester and are loathsome 

because of my sinful folly. 

6 I am bowed down and brought very low; 

all day long I go about mourning. 

7 My back is filled with searing pain; 

there is no health in my body. 

8 I am feeble and utterly crushed; 

I groan in anguish of heart.

Reflection: Spiritual Hypochondria and Anosognosia

By John Tillman

Do you go to the doctor at the first scratchy feeling in your throat? Or do you delay until you can barely breathe without a fit of coughing and hacking?

Hypochondriacs obsessively worry about getting or being ill, usually while perfectly healthy. Hypochondriacs annoy their friends, family, and doctors who know they are not as sick as they think.

Hypochondria’s opposite is less well known. Anosognosia is a lack of awareness of one’s illness. It can refer to simple denials in which patients refuse to stay home from work when sick. But its more severe forms include patients who deny they are having heart attacks or are paralyzed. Of the two conditions, hypochondria is annoying, but anosognosia is dangerous.

In Psalm 38, David describes horrific symptoms of both physical and mental illness. David’s descriptions have the ring of true life experience. David used his sickness as a metaphor for his spiritual state. David was guilt stricken and sickened by his sin.

“Feeling sick” is often the effects of fighting illnesses. Physical symptoms, like fever, mucus, and even vomiting are ways your body fights. These feelings are unpleasant and when your body is weak or your system is malfunctioning and overreacting, they can be dangerous, however, your situation would be worse if your immune system did not respond to threats.

What is true physically is true spiritually—guilt over sin is a good sign. It means our God-given spiritual “immune system,” our conscience, is functioning. (Romans 2.14-15; 1 Timothy 4.2; Titus 1.15-16; Hebrews 9.14) The discomfort of guilt should drive us to confession. David sought God’s forgiveness. We seek forgiveness from Jesus, who said,  “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” (Luke 5.31) However, it is a very bad sign when we become aware of sin and refuse to admit we are sick.

Does your sin sicken you?

It is possible to become a spiritual hypochondriac, obsessed with maintaining sinlessness and overburdened with false guilt. To combat this, we must trust in our doctor, Jesus, whose forgiveness gives us a clean bill of health.

The more dangerous condition, however, is spiritual anosognosia. Those with consciences seared and burned away continue in sin and refuse to “go to the doctor” for diagnosis, treatment, or therapy.

Listen to your spiritual “immune system.” Don’t let it die. When sickened by sin, thank God for your conscience and seek Jesus’s merciful care and cure for our sinful condition.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

You strengthen me more and more; you enfold me and comfort me. — Psalm 71.21

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Listen to: Lady Wisdom

“Does not wisdom call out?” She does, indeed. And those with ears to hear will hear her call.

Read more: Choices and Hard Hearts

Hardened hearts happen in stages. Do we hear and obey? Our heart will grow softer…
Do we hear and turn away? Our heart will grow harder…

Choices and Hard Hearts—Readers’ Choice