John Tillman - The Park Forum

March 17, 2026March 15, 2026

Good Discipleship but Wrong Master

Links for today’s readings:

Mar 17 Read: Ecclesiastes 5 Listen: (2:50) Read: Psalm 55 Listen: (2:43)

Scripture Focus: Psalm 55.12-14; 17-21

12 If an enemy were insulting me,

I could endure it;

if a foe were rising against me,

I could hide.

13 But it is you, a man like myself,

my companion, my close friend,

14 with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship

at the house of God,

as we walked about

among the worshipers.

20 My companion attacks his friends;

he violates his covenant.

21 His talk is smooth as butter,

yet war is in his heart;

his words are more soothing than oil,

yet they are drawn swords.

Reflection: Good Discipleship but Wrong Master

By John Tillman

I recently made a comment on a friend’s post that was misinterpreted. He thought I was disagreeing and saying something political instead of theological.

He felt attacked and he counter-attacked. This friend (a pastor I went to seminary with and ministered with) replied with a meme from the Ace Ventura films of Jim Carey emerging from the rectum of a rhinoceros. The implication was that I, and my opinion (that he imagined I said), were comparable to animal feces

There are two lessons here related to Psalm 55.

One is that friends can hurt you worse than enemies. (Ps 55.12) Online insults and attacks from “trolls,” strangers, or non-human spam bots are distressing, but endurable. Attacks from friends are uniquely disheartening.

The second is that partaking means shaping. The wicked in the psalm were shaped by partaking in violence, strife, threats, and lies. (Ps 55.9-11) War entered the heart of the psalmist’s friend. (Ps 55.21)

There are politicians, podcasters, and pastors with “war” in their hearts. Even official government social media accounts use cruel, insulting memes about serious issues of war and death. And some Christians praise or approve it.

We become like what we behold, especially when we praise it. What many Christians behold and praise is not Christlike. Too many Christians (including pastors) are “discipled” by those peddling politics and pseudo-Christianity with memes, insults, fear, and hatred. It’s good discipleship, but the wrong master.

I gently confronted my friend (though I wanted to respond in anger) and he apologized, removing the offensive comment. But this isn’t about me or him or right or left. Whatever theological or political tribe you listen to has vitriolic voices and we are susceptible to becoming like them. We are being attacked by algorithms that are financially motivated to form echo-chambers and sow war into our hearts.

Christians should excel in love, not unkindness. We should excel in respect, not vitriol. Instead of throwing insulting punchlines, we should extend lifelines of engagement and care. We do not have to let go of orthodoxy to be loving, kind, and respectful. We can hold both.

We must be shaped by scripture, not culture, follow Jesus, not political leaders, and embrace truth and truth-tellers, not lies and lie-sellers.

Be prepared for yourself and others to fail. Be prepared to repent and to forgive. And when you are hurt, say with the psalmist, “as for me, I trust in you.” (Ps 55.23)

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Be pleased, O God, to deliver me; O Lord, make haste to help me. — Psalm 70.1

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

Don’t Wait for Self-Reflection

Links for today’s readings:

Mar 16 Read: Ecclesiastes 4 Listen: (2:18) Read: Psalms 52-54 Listen: (3:18)

Scripture Focus: Ecclesiastes 4.13-16

13 Better a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer knows how to heed a warning. 14 The youth may have come from prison to the kingship, or he may have been born in poverty within his kingdom. 15 I saw that all who lived and walked under the sun followed the youth, the king’s successor. 16 There was no end to all the people who were before them. But those who came later were not pleased with the successor. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

1 Kings 11.34-35

34 “ ‘But I will not take the whole kingdom out of Solomon’s hand; I have made him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of David my servant, whom I chose and who obeyed my commands and decrees. 35 I will take the kingdom from his son’s hands and give you ten tribes.

Reflection: Don’t Wait for Self-Reflection

By John Tillman

Ecclesiastes can be read as Solomon’s long, self-reflective confession of and repentance from his lavish life of experimentation in search of meaning.

Many characters in the final paragraph of today’s chapter fit Solomon’s later years. This points to him writing it near the time of his death. It doesn’t seem to be a prophetic statement or a statement inserted afterward because it doesn’t get enough details exactly correct. Instead it seems like the human musings of a king finding the wisdom to diagnose his foolishness. He seems to realize that, because of him, things will turn out badly when he is gone.

The “poor but wise youth” fits Jeroboam. Jeroboam’s mother was a widow, so he grew up poor. The quality of his work in repairing the wall caught Solomon’s eye. Solomon elevated him, putting him over the labor force from Joseph’s tribes. (1 Kings 11.26-28)

The “old but foolish king” who cannot “heed a warning” fits Solomon himself. (1 Kings 11.9-13) The prophets told him God would take tribes away from his son’s kingdom. Yet, when a prophet chose Jeroboam to be that king, Solomon tried to kill him, forcing Jeroboam to flee to Egypt.

God sent other “young men” to be Solomon’s enemies. Hadad the Edomite and Rezon of Zobah were sons of kings conquered by David. They escaped as children and grew up to attack and harass Israel during Solomon’s rule. (1 Kings 11.14-25)

The “successor” that the people were “not pleased with” fits Solomon’s son, Rehoboam. After Solomon’s death, the people brought Jeroboam back from exile as their spokesman. The former forced labor supervisor requested a lighter load of labor and taxes for the people. Rehoboam’s spiteful and angry answer tore the kingdom apart. Ten tribes followed Jeroboam, “the youth” instead.

“This too is meaningless,” Solomon said. With all his wealth, wisdom, and advantages, Solomon squandered his opportunities. Instead of faithfulness, he chose idolatry. His lavish lifestyle poisoned his son’s heart against prudence and humility. Solomon, Rehoboam, Jeroboam, and the whole nation were harmed by Solomon’s foolishness.

Whether from Solomon or the thief on the cross, deathbed confessions are honored. It’s never too late for self-reflection and honesty, confession and repentance. But it’s never too early either. Why wait?

It is better to repent and serve God while you are young. (Ecc 12.1) Imagine the difference in Israel’s history if Solomon had done so. Imagine the difference in your life if you start now.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

Love the Lord, all you who worship him; the Lord protects the faithful, but repays to the full those who act haughtily. — Psalm 31.23

The Conservation of Wisdom

Links for today’s readings:

Mar 13 Read: Ecclesiastes 1 Listen: (2:21) Read: Psalm 49 Listen: (2:10)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Mar 14 Read: Ecclesiastes 2 Listen: (4:03) Read: Psalm 50 Listen: (2:26)
Mar 15 Read: Ecclesiastes 3 Listen: (3:02) Read: Psalm 51 Listen: (2:19)

Scripture Focus: Ecclesiastes 1.9-11

9 What has been will be again,

what has been done will be done again;

there is nothing new under the sun.

10 Is there anything of which one can say,

“Look! This is something new”?

It was here already, long ago;

it was here before our time.

11 No one remembers the former generations,

and even those yet to come

will not be remembered

by those who follow them.

Reflection: The Conservation of Wisdom

By John Tillman

The Teacher of Ecclesiastes says, “no one remembers the former generations.”

Watch kids interact with a record player from the 1980s or the first iPod from 2001 and you’ll agree. It’s a shocking reminder of how quickly “new” gets “old.”

However, these same videos also remind us that new things are based on old things. The vinyl record, the cassette tape, the compact disc, the MP3 player, the iPod, and today’s music players are just new versions of past things. Tomorrow’s way to play and listen to music will be an innovation based on today’s technologies.

When the Teacher, Solomon, said nothing is new under the sun, he meant more than just art or technology. He described the waters of streams and rivers moving to the sea and then returning to their source. There are glimpses of science in this wisdom. We’d be reading too much into it to say Solomon identified the conservation of mass centuries before Antoine Lavoisier in 1789. (We should, however, remember that Lavoisier proved the conservation of mass through precise experimentation. He didn’t discover it. Ancient thinkers, such as Mahavira in India described it as early as 520 BC.)

However, Solomon grasped that “new” water is not infinitely created. Instead, water that reaches the sea “returns” to the mountains and the heavens in an infinite cycle. Solomon found this “wearisome, more than anyone can say.” (Ecc 1.8) Why?

Westerners praise inventors and worship technology and “progress.” The Age of Reason reared us to seek power, control, and purpose through knowledge. Solomon bursts that bubble.

Solomon sees the eternality of the material universe and the trivial span of human lives. “Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.” (Ecc 1.4) Our hearts hint at eternity, but we can’t hold it. (Ecc 3.11) We can conceive eternity but we can’t birth ourselves into it.

Anything we say, do, or build is less lasting than the water flowing to the sea. If we grasp it in our hands, it drips or evaporates away. The cliffhanger ending of this chapter is that the wisest man can’t find meaning in his universe—his wisdom brings sorrow and his knowledge, grief.

Solomon’s doubts are valid, and his struggle instructive, but don’t join his despair. The conservation of God’s wisdom does not rely on the wisest men. Little children can find it, staggering toward Jesus. (Luke 10.21; 18.16) Read on, pray, seek the Holy Spirit, and find wisdom.

Divine Hours Prayer:

The span of our life is seventy years, perhaps in strength even eighty; yet the sum of them is but labor and sorrow, for they pass away quickly and we are gone.
Who regards the power of your wrath? Who rightly fears your indignation? So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. — Psalm 90.10-12

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

A Hill That Defeated the Mountains

Links for today’s readings:

Mar 12 Read: Proverbs 31 Listen: (2:50) Read: Psalm 48 Listen: (1:28)

Scripture Focus: Psalm 48.1-3, 14

1 Great is the Lord, and most worthy of praise,

in the city of our God, his holy mountain.

2 Beautiful in its loftiness,

the joy of the whole earth,

like the heights of Zaphon is Mount Zion,

the city of the Great King.

3 God is in her citadels;

he has shown himself to be her fortress.

14 For this God is our God for ever and ever;

he will be our guide even to the end.

Reflection: A Hill That Defeated the Mountains

By John Tillman

In the 1995 film, The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain, a surveyor making a new map finds a Welsh village’s beloved “mountain” is 20 feet too short and would be designated a “hill.” The villagers won’t accept this downgrade and carry dirt to the peak to raise the hill’s height.

It was a mountain in their hearts, so they labored to ensure it remained a mountain on the map. The film’s tale was fictional. However, new measurements have upgraded hills to mountains in modern times. One example comes from Wales, in 2018.

In the Bible, mountains were considered divine places where Heaven touched Earth. The greater the mountain, the greater the god.

Zion is Yahweh’s “holy mountain” (Psalm 2.6), the home of Jerusalem and the Temple. Zaphon (known today as Jebel Aqra on Syria’s border with Turkey) was the “holy mountain” of the Canaanite god Baal.

Zion, at 2,460 feet in elevation, is dwarfed by Zaphon at 5,669 and other, closer mountains like Mount Hermon at 9,232. This psalm is not contradicting geographical facts or calling for human efforts to “build up” Zion to match Zaphon’s height. The psalm’s claims are theological.

No mountain compared with Zion because no god compared with Yahweh. No matter how high Zaphon or Hermon rise toward Heaven, their gods are gods of darkness and death, not light and life. The “loftiness” and “beauty” of Zion is the loftiness and beauty of God who chooses to dwell there.

Jesus doesn’t dwell with us on a mountain, but through the Holy Spirit, the scriptures, and the church. That’s our “Zion.” However, we do have competing “divine mountains” and mapmakers trying to “downgrade” the way of Jesus. They say loving God, neighbor, and enemy is a nice “hill,” but we need a mountain. They say the way of Jesus doesn’t work in the real world. They say love is weak, forgiveness is complicity, integrity equals losing, and character is cowardly.

Don’t you believe them; they are wrong. Their gods are false. Calvary’s “hill” defeated their mountains.

Survey “Zion’s citadels” and walk with her king, Jesus. He is “our guide, even to the end.” (Psalm 48.14) In the end, no mountain will be higher than his. It is better to be in his city on a hill than on any mountain that makes false promises of greater things.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Send out your light and your truth, that they may lead me, and bring me to your holy hill and to you dwelling. — Psalm 43.3

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

A Strange Musical Mashup

Links for today’s readings:

Mar 10 Read: Proverbs 29 Listen: (2:44) Read: Psalm 45 Listen: (2:17)

Scripture Focus: Psalm 45.6-7, 9-11

6 Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever;

a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.

7 You love righteousness and hate wickedness;

therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions

by anointing you with the oil of joy.

9 Daughters of kings are among your honored women;

at your right hand is the royal bride in gold of Ophir.

10 Listen, daughter, and pay careful attention:

Forget your people and your father’s house.

11 Let the king be enthralled by your beauty;

honor him, for he is your lord.

Reflection: A Strange Musical Mashup

By John Tillman

What do the cries of a threatened nation, the pleas of a drowning prophet, and the praises of a royal wedding have in common? Apparently, it’s the tune they are set to.

In college in the 1990s, as a mediocre guitar player, I was excited to learn that I could sing and play “Amazing Grace” to the tune of “Peaceful Easy Feeling” by the Eagles. It brought a unique touch to the familiar lyrics and caused a few double-takes.

A few Psalms have tunes mentioned in their headings. Some might even be non-Israelite, non “worship” tunes. “Gittith” used in Psalm 81 probably isn’t “Peaceful Easy Feeling” but it could refer to Gath or the grape harvest.

One tune, “Lilies,” seems to be shared by Psalm 45, 69, and 80. A tune named “Lilies” seems perfect for Psalm 45’s royal wedding. But the other psalms have a very different tone.

In Psalm 69, the poet is drowning in miry depths, wearing out his voice calling for help (Psalm 69.1-3). In Psalm 80, the nation is crying out for help like a rebellious lost sheep to God, their shepherd (Psalm 80.1-6). This musical mashup doesn’t seem like it would work.

Many kings got married. Most of them far too many times. Probably every single royal wedding had a wedding psalm, but only one became part of scripture. Psalm 45 is in our Bible because it pointed beyond the unnamed couple to something (and someone) greater.

The couple is celebrated, but God is praised. The moment is hyped up, but God is honored. The marriage vows are vaunted, but God’s promises are longed for. Beyond the marriage of the moment, this was about the Messiah.

New Testament authors recognized the Lamb’s Marriage Feast in this psalm and that we are the bride. We should also recognize ourselves as the lost sheep and the sin-mired singer.

I’ve never heard the tune, “Lilies,” but I feel confident that, whether celebrating a wedding or calling for salvation, it is a song of hope. Sing along with the psalmist and remember, this psalm is about us too.

We are the bride from a rebellious people, sunk in sin’s mud and mire. We are not just saved from something but for something. Our rescue has a reason and our propitiation a purpose. No matter how muddy our moment is now, our destiny is glorious.

That is a reason to sing!

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

Sing praise to the Lord who dwells in Zion; proclaim to the peoples the things he has done. — Psalm 9.11

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

Author: John Tillman

Good Discipleship but Wrong Master

Links for today’s readings:

Scripture Focus: Psalm 55.12-14; 17-21

Reflection: Good Discipleship but Wrong Master

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Read more: Praising Christ’s Righteousness

Read more: Unsurprising Oppression

Don’t Wait for Self-Reflection

Links for today’s readings:

Scripture Focus: Ecclesiastes 4.13-16

1 Kings 11.34-35

Reflection: Don’t Wait for Self-Reflection

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

Read more: Existential Dread

Read more: Betrayal and Failure — Guided Prayer

The Conservation of Wisdom

Links for today’s readings:

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Scripture Focus: Ecclesiastes 1.9-11

Reflection: The Conservation of Wisdom

Divine Hours Prayer:

Read more: More Wisdom, More Grief

Read more: The Promise of Justice

A Hill That Defeated the Mountains

Links for today’s readings:

Scripture Focus: Psalm 48.1-3, 14

Reflection: A Hill That Defeated the Mountains

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Read more: The Impossibility of Proverbs 31

Read more: A City to Live In

A Strange Musical Mashup

Links for today’s readings:

Scripture Focus: Psalm 45.6-7, 9-11

Reflection: A Strange Musical Mashup

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

Read more: When Nations Pray — Worldwide Prayer

Read more: Miracles of Deliverance and Judgment