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Lament and Transformation

Scripture Focus: 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: Lament and Transformation
By John Tillman

Psalm 40 begins with thanksgiving, but Psalm 70 (identical to verses 13-17 of Psalm 40) dives directly into desperation. It is pure lament, with no bright resolution at the end, only grim determination.

Federico Villanueva finds Psalm 70’s focus on pure lament a liberating message. He reflects, “It affirms the fact that there are times when the life of faith consists purely of desolation. We do not have to see ourselves always lacking in faith when we cannot find the answer to our situation right away. The psalm can be our companion as we wait for God.”

In the 16th century, St. John of the Cross described the “Dark Night of the Soul.” The term has become a cliche for any difficult experience. However, St. John saw it as not a minor misfortune but a major crisis. For spiritual growth to occur, he believed all Christians must experience it.

Our souls will go through dark times. We may weep at the beginning, the middle, and all the way through. It may help us navigate our souls’ dark nights to remember that Jesus went before us.

We memorialize Jesus’ dark night of the soul yearly during “Passion Week.” In this usage, “passion” does not mean strong emotions. The original Greek word meant suffering. His suffering began with the Triumphal Entry.

Jesus wept before entering the city. (Luke 19.41-44) He knew they welcomed him with impure desires. They wanted Rome’s power broken, but Jesus came to break the power of a far more dangerous empire—Satan’s empire of sin and death. Christ’s dark descent continued from the streets to the Temple, the garden, the cross, and the tomb.

Jesus is our companion in darkness and weeping, even when it is so dark, we lose our sense of his presence. Christ’s suffering, his dark night of the soul, had a glorious ending. The same can be true for us.  “We share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” (Romans 8.17b)

Don’t feel pressured to produce praise, happiness, or thankfulness during your dark nights. Feel the freedom of pure lament. Holding on to happiness is not the point of the dark. Transformation is.

May dark nights of lament lead to glorious transformation in our lives. Don’t waste the dark. Lament, weep, and transform. Following Christ’s example, our dark nights of the soul can go from crisis to chrysalis.


Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
Early in the morning I cry out to you, for in your word is my trust. — Psalm 119.147

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


​Today’s Readings
Song of Songs 2 (Listen 2:15)
Psalm 70-71 (Listen 3:29)

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Jesus is more than death can hold. It tried. Death can hold worlds, countries, massive unnumbered masses. But Christ could not be contained or held back. 

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The Mire and the Monster

Scripture Focus: Psalm 69.1-2, 14-15
1 Save me, O God, 
for the waters have come up to my neck. 
2 I sink in the miry depths, 
where there is no foothold. 
I have come into the deep waters; 
the floods engulf me. 

14 Rescue me from the mire, 
do not let me sink; 
deliver me from those who hate me, 
from the deep waters. 
15 Do not let the floodwaters engulf me 
or the depths swallow me up 
or the pit close its mouth over me. 

Reflection: The Mire and the Monster
By John Tillman

Jesus taught that David was a prophet and spoke through “the Holy Spirit.” (Mark 12.36) As the “Son of David,” Jesus took up and lived out many of David’s psalms of salvation and lament. Psalm 69 is one of the psalms that the Holy Spirit brought to the gospel writers’ minds when they recorded the life of Christ. 

Jesus did not quote this psalm from the cross, as he did with Psalm 22, however, gospel writers quoted both verse 9 (John 2.17) and 21 (Matthew 27.34; Mark 15.23; Luke 23.36; John 19.28-30) as pictures of Jesus.

The imagery of death by drowning may not sound, at first, like language describing the cross. Jesus, however, thought of his coming death in these precise terms. Jesus described his death as similar to Jonah’s. (Matthew 12.38-41; Luke 11.29-32) Sinking in deep water, with seaweed wrapped around his head, swallowed by a monster of the deep and taken down to the depths with no hope of return. (Jonah 2.1-9)

The psalmist describes his fate in this way. First, he is stuck in mirey mud. He cannot pull his feet out. The mire rises. He is sinking in his muddy trap as the watery mud rises up his body, trapping his limbs and restricting his movement. The weight of the mud restricts his breathing as it rises to his neck and above his chin. He is thirsty yet about to drown. He pleads with God not to allow the depths of the pit to swallow him.

David’s prayers in Psalm 69 were answered. He was pulled out. For the Son of David, God had a different answer.

The death Psalm 69 describes is a fitting image for us to reflect on Christ’s final journey to Jerusalem. On Palm Sunday, he stepped purposefully into the muck and mire and allowed himself to sink. On Good Friday, Jesus hung on the cross as the muddy mire of sin itself rose up his neck, over his chin, covered his mouth, nose, and eyes, and he was swallowed up. The monster’s mouth closed over him as the stone rolled over the tomb’s entrance.

God’s answer when we are stuck may be to pull us out, like David. But eventually, we will follow the path of the Son of David. We will be pulled under the muck into death, but that is not the end. That monster’s mouth has been broken, and Jesus himself will take our hand and pull us out.


Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
O Lord, my God, my Savior, by day and night I cry to you. Let my prayer enter into your presence. Psalm 88.1-2

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


​Today’s Readings
Song of Songs 1 (Listen 2:16)
Psalm 69 (Listen 4:04)

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Influence Beyond Aphorisms

Scripture Focus: Ecclesiastes 10.10, 20
10 If the ax is dull
and its edge unsharpened,
more strength is needed,
but skill will bring success.

20 Do not revile the king even in your thoughts,
or curse the rich in your bedroom,
because a bird in the sky may carry your words,
and a bird on the wing may report what you say.

Reflection: Influence Beyond Aphorisms
By John Tillman

Many biblical phrases entered English because the Bible is the most widely distributed and read book in history. Each year’s top-selling book comes in second to the Bible. They leave the Bible off the list since it would win every year.

Abraham Lincoln’s aphorism, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe,” remixes the teacher of Ecclesiastes. “If the ax is dull…more strength is needed, but skill will bring success.” (Ecclesiastes 10.10) “A little bird told me” also comes from this chapter. “A bird in the sky may carry your words…” (Ecclesiastes 10.20)

Escaping “by the skin of one’s teeth” comes from Job’s description of his life. (Job 19.20) “A drop in the bucket” comes from God’s description of the insignificance of national power compared to his power. (Isaiah 40.15) The terms “scapegoat,” (Leviticus 16.20-22, 26) “behemoth,” (Job 40.15) and “gird your loins” (Job 38.3; Jeremiah 1.17; Luke 12.35) all have biblical origins.

The Bible and Christianity’s influence has benefits. The widespread embrace of Christian concepts of equality, generosity, and service, makes today’s culture kinder, gentler, and more just. Society didn’t evolve this way. Christianity changed it.

This influence also has dangers. A culture steeped in Christianity produces “Cultural Christians.” Cultural Christianity is based on moralism enforced by social shame. When Cultural Christianity grows prideful, ambitious, and greedy, it grasps for the power of the state to enforce compliance.

But don’t we want a biblical influence on society that goes beyond quotes and aphorisms? Don’t we want just laws? Don’t we want moral order?

The Pharisees ruled their society with the strictest interpretation of biblical laws the world has ever seen. Jesus called them sons of hell and the devil. (Matthew 23.15; John 8.44) We could follow in the Pharisees’ footsteps, seize power, set up a “Christian” kingdom, and still be sons of the devil. History holds many examples of this as warnings.

The way of Jesus requires us to sharpen our axes by improving skills of witness and winsomeness. We must pull logs from our own eyes, improving skills of confession and humility. We don’t call down fire on our enemies. We pray for them. (Luke 9.54-56) We don’t allow violence in the name of Christ. We heal, rather than harm. (Luke 22.49-51; John 18.10-11; Matthew 26.51-54)

Influencing culture and politics is good. We should attempt it. But if we must abandon Christian principles to succeed, we are engaging in wickedness and all of our quoting of scripture will only amount to taking the Lord’s name in vain.


Divine Hours Prayer: The Small Verse
The people who have dwelt in darkness have seen a great light.

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


​Today’s Readings
Ecclesiastes 10 (Listen 2:33)
Psalm 64-65 (Listen 2:39)

​This Weekend’s Readings
Ecclesiastes 11 (Listen 1:40), Psalm 66-67 (Listen 2:42)
Ecclesiastes 12 (Listen 2:38), Psalm 68 (Listen 4:26)

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The Unknown Sage

Scripture Focus: Ecclesiastes 9.13-18
13 I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom that greatly impressed me: 14 There was once a small city with only a few people in it. And a powerful king came against it, surrounded it and built huge siege works against it. 15 Now there lived in that city a man poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom. But nobody remembered that poor man. 16 So I said, “Wisdom is better than strength.” But the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are no longer heeded.
17 The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded 
than the shouts of a ruler of fools. 
18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war, 
but one sinner destroys much good.

From John: The story of the unknown sage is probably a made-up parable, but I love wondering if it might have been true then or if it can be true today… We return to this devotional from 2022, praying that we will despise the shouts of rulers of fools rather than the quiet words of the wise.

Reflection: The Unknown Sage
By John Tillman

Who was this nameless poor man who saved his city from military aggression? What did he do? How did it save the city? We don’t know. That’s the point the teacher is trying to make. Wisdom is not always recognized or celebrated unless it comes from people we already think of as wise and worthy of respect.

The poor were then and are now considered by many to be unreliable, lazy, morally questionable. Even today, many people doubt the poor when they tell us about their own experiences. “Don’t give them money. They can’t be trusted.” Perhaps the better question we should ask is, who was the person in power who listened to the wisdom of the poor man? And how was he forgotten after wisdom he shared saved the city?

We often distrust the word of “nobodies.” When a recommendation, a critique, or an accusation is spoken we often say, “Who is this?” Buried in that question are assumptions. We distrust people based on status. We are suspicious of critiques from those “below” us who we suspect have inferior understanding. Positional distrust can cut across many categories, such as authority, status, wealth, age, race, gender, or denominational or political affiliation. “Her word isn’t trustworthy. She’s _________.” “Don’t listen to him. He’s _________.” It can cause us to read wisdom and call it foolishness. It can cause us to hear a blustering fool and call him wise.

The teacher describes the king of the city as blustering and shouting and says fools followed him. In contrast, the wise words of the poor man were quiet. Whatever weapons were bested by the poor man’s wisdom, they weren’t bested by force, volume, or vicious rhetoric. We would do well to retune our ears to listen for quiet yet powerful words.

Many places in our world are under siege—some literally, some metaphorically. Violent voices of brash, blustering, chest-beating, powerful leaders of our world shout out plans, war strategies, and lies.

May we listen to the lowly voices God chooses to send to us, speaking wisdom.
May we ask the Holy Spirit to give us ears to hear quiet wisdom that can silence weapons of war.
May we honor those who speak God’s quiet wisdom, both now and in the future.
May quiet wisdom be remembered long after the siege ramps of the violent are crumbling in dust.


Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; let the whole earth tremble before him. — Psalm 96.9

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


​Today’s Readings
Ecclesiastes 9 (Listen 3:13)
Psalm 62-63 (Listen 2:44)

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Joy Despite It All

Scripture Focus: Ecclesiastes 8:10, 14-15
10 Then I saw the wicked buried. They used to go in and out of the holy place and were praised in the city where they had done such things. This also is vanity.

14 There is something else meaningless that occurs on earth: the righteous who get what the wicked deserve, and the wicked who get what the righteous deserve. This too, I say, is meaningless. 15 So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad.

Reflection: Joy Despite It All
By Erin Newton

When evil takes its final breath, we would rather bury it beneath the earth in an unmarked grave. No splendor. No memory should be afforded those who cause the suffering of others.

But that isn’t how it always goes.

There are grand ceremonies for people who have orchestrated atrocities. It doesn’t matter if the person was good; if they were popular, admirers flock to the funeral singing their praises. Leaders like Lenin and Stalin drew thousands of mourners who enshrined their bodies in continued reverence.

We cling to the hope that justice will be served—in this lifetime. We desire for all wrongs to be made right. Watching an evil person be celebrated is, as the writer of Ecclesiastes says, meaningless. It is absurd and confusing. It goes against all that we believe to be right and true.

I am glad these verses are in the Bible. It helps to ground me in the reality of our world. As we sing psalms that herald God’s justice and the inevitable judgment that will befall the wicked, sometimes we see nothing happen. A wicked person may live to be a hundred, while children perish at too young an age. Abusive men and women will live to see their hair turn gray and their eyes dim, while charitable and loving believers will watch their youthful bodies succumb to the ravages of cancer.

When we see this topsy-turvy injustice happen, we try to preach to our hearts that God will vindicate everything eventually. It is true, thank goodness for that. But what do we do now? How do we wake up each day knowing things will not go fairly?

Sometimes I read Ecclesiastes with pursed lips and an oft said “tsk, tsk” in judgment over what reads like instructions for a “you only live once” lifestyle. Eat! Drink! Be Merry! Enjoy your spouse! Get a hobby! (Perhaps a little Ralph Waldo Emerson— “Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air’s salubrity.”)

Is this silly, unspiritual advice? Many of us have been taught the way of the cross, living a life of suffering, as the true spiritual way. But what of the resurrection? What of the re-creation that brings joy despite injustice?

Life is unfair, but we do not cease to try and love this life. He came to give us abundant life—here in joy and forever in his presence.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading
He said to his disciples, “Causes of falling are sure to come, but alas for the one through whom they occur! It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone round the neck than to be the downfall of a single one of these little ones. Keep watch on yourselves!” — Luke 17.1-3

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


​Today’s Readings
Ecclesiastes 8 (Listen 2:41)
Psalm 60-61 (Listen 2:27)

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