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Losing Cynicism in the Sanctuary

Links for today’s readings:

Nov 7   Read: 2 Kings 20 Listen: (3:39) Read: Psalms 73 Listen: (2:56)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Nov 8   Read: 2 Kings 21 Listen: (4:06) Read: Psalms 74 Listen: (2:34)
Nov 9   Read: 2 Kings 22 Listen: (3:45) Read: Psalms 75-76 Listen: (2:33)

Scripture Focus: Psalm 73.1-3; 16-17

1 Surely God is good to Israel, 

    to those who are pure in heart. 

2 But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; 

    I had nearly lost my foothold. 

3 For I envied the arrogant 

    when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 

16 When I tried to understand all this, 

     it troubled me deeply 

17 till I entered the sanctuary of God; 

     then I understood their final destiny.

Reflection: Losing Cynicism in the Sanctuary

By John Tillman

Psalm 73 begins with its conclusion: Surely God is good to the pure in heart. But the psalmist goes through disillusionment and cynicism before getting there.

The psalmist is distressed by disparity, to the point of despair. The wicked grow rich, healthy, wealthy, and (at least in their own eyes) wise. He begins to think God uncaring and unjust, sinking in a spiral of cynicism. He describes this as a trap he almost “slips” and falls into.

But there is more than one trap. The psalmist says the arrogant rich are also “on slippery ground.” (Psalm 73.18-20) Wealth that works like a charm in this life is, for many, a curse and a trap. (Proverbs 17.8)

We can be snared by both traps. Wealthy as we are, we may think that other wealthier ones are guilty of greed as we hoard our own resources. Poor as we are, we can be in denial of the blessings that God has given us and guilty of the same selfishness as the wealthy. All of us can be guilty of taking rest, ease, and luxury at the expense of others. How can we escape these traps of hubris, greed, jealousy, and despair? 

The psalmist loses cynicism in the sanctuary of the Lord. It is there he sees that all humanity’s unpaid debts to each other are ringing up interest in the Lord’s accounts and we will not avoid his justice. 

We mistake wealth in this world that will pass away as being more desirable than wealth in God’s kingdom that will not pass away. Tricks of perspective can make large things seem small and small things seem large. 

For the rich and the poor, worship of God is the doorway through which we see with a different perspective. This is why James speaks so harshly about treating the rich and poor equitably in God’s house. (James 2.1-13) This is why Jesus was zealous for God’s house, expelling the money changers. (John 2.13-17; Mark 11.15-17; Matthew 21.12-14)

God intends our worship to reflect heaven, not earth.

It will be in worship that we gain a better perspective to help us see things rightly. 
May the Holy Spirit confront us about equity and justice. 
May we question our justice, not God’s. Are we being prudent or greedy? Are we being responsible or cruel?

May moments of worship overwhelm our cynicism and reveal a perspective of eternity.

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 Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Greed and Envy

The trap the psalmist escapes is to mistake stored up justice for absence of justice.

Greed and Envy
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A “Righteous” Government?

Links for today’s readings:

Nov 6  Read: 2 Kings 19 Listen: (6:11) Read: Psalms 72 Listen: (2:21)

Scripture Focus: Psalm 72.1-4

Of Solomon.

1 Endow the king with your justice, O God,

   the royal son with your righteousness. 

2 May he judge your people in righteousness,

   your afflicted ones with justice. 

3 May the mountains bring prosperity to the people,

   the hills the fruit of righteousness. 

4 May he defend the afflicted among the people

   and save the children of the needy;

   may he crush the oppressor.

Reflection: A “Righteous” Government?

By John Tillman

What would a “righteous” government look like?

Remember, the Bible is not intended to dictate modern political policy. Beware anyone who tells you that it does. However, today’s psalm gives us an important picture of what characterizes a rule of righteousness and justice.

Psalm 72 is called “The Royal Psalm” because it describes a king of righteousness and justice. The “Of Solomon” is ambiguous. The Hebrew translated “of” could also mean “to” or “for.” The psalm ends saying, “this concludes the prayers of David.” Whether written by David for Solomon, by Solomon expressing his father’s prayers, or by some other author, the psalm speaks of David’s longing for a truly righteous rule, guided and blessed by Yahweh.

David alternates between asking God to bless the king’s reign and describing the purposes or results of that reign.

He asks for wealth and prosperity. (v. 3, 7, 10, 16) 
He asks for a long life and a long, stable reign. (v 5, 15, 17) 
He asks for a peaceful rule in which enemies are subdued, territory is secure, and all nations turn toward them with respect, gifts, and service. (v. 8-11, 15) 

Why?

So the needy and afflicted can be saved from oppression. (v. 2, 4, 6, 12-14)
So the Lord’s name would be praised over the whole world and all nations, not just Israel, would be blessed and call him blessed. (v. 11, 15, 17-19)

The Bible gives us moral principles, not political policies. What principles do you see in this picture of a righteous government? A righteous government creates prosperity that does not leave the poor in want. A righteous government creates stability and safety without resorting to brutality or oppression. A righteous government creates peace that blesses other nations and will be blessed by them in return.

Solomon’s kingdom, with its forced labor, promiscuous sexuality, flaunting of wealth, and growing idolatry, failed to live up to David’s vision. Many who try to build God’s kingdom on earth resort to Solomon’s corrupt methods. We should also remember that, theologically, this psalm is a prophecy about Jesus. Christ’s kingdom is the only one that could live up to David’s dreams.

We should not fall into the trap of thinking we can build a perfect government. However, we can and should dream of and work for a government that better reflects our principles.

When governments stray from principles of righteousness and justice, our prophetic role demands we speak up. Don’t stop dreaming and don’t stop “prophesying.” Endow us with your justice, O God!

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Jesus went on to say, “What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it with? It is like a mustard seed which a man took and threw into his garden: it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air sheltered in its branches.” — Luke 13.18-19


– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Rulers with Borrowed Scepters

From Joseph’s beneficent Pharaoh to Moses’s genocidal Pharaoh, rulers are highly variable…None can be trusted to deliver us.

Rulers with Borrowed Scepters
Listen To: Apotheosis of Politics

Jesus is indeed a “foreign god” to us. (Acts 17.18) His kingdom is opposed to, not aligned with, any human government or party.

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Always the Rock of Refuge

Links for today’s readings:

Nov 5  Read: 2 Kings 18 Listen: (6:52)  Read: Psalms 70-71 Listen: (3:29)

Scripture Focus: Psalm 71:3a, 14

3 Be my rock of refuge,
    to which I can always go…
14 As for me, I will always have hope;
    I will praise you more and more.

Reflection: Always the Rock of Refuge

By Erin Newton

I remember sitting in the NICU with my twins hoping against the continual onslaught of bad news. Hope was hard to grasp; anxiety became a constant companion. I assumed that I would always feel that way.

Always. There is a constant and enduring essence to the word “always.” It is expected. It is reliable. For me, it was constant dread, then I latched onto Psalm 71 for dear life.

I needed a rock of refuge on day 1 of the NICU. I needed refuge on day 30, day 75, day 150 and on that last day, number 241. I read this psalm every day. It was my chant as I walked into the hospital. It was the prayer when I called each morning. It was the thought that helped me drift off to sleep.

I went to that rock of refuge again and again. And from that continual, enduring, and reliable source of refuge, I found hope.

Our story is a happy one. Just this week we celebrated the twins’ ninth birthday. Anxiety, doubt, and fear would have me think that maybe the Psalm 71 chant somehow guaranteed a positive outcome. But that’s not how Scripture and meditation work. It is not some magical spell (despite how much my dread wanted a solution). Prayers anchor our hearts against the ebb and flow of life.

For me, anxiety and fear continue to cling to the edges of my mind. I was right; I do always feel this way. I haven’t been freed of pain and suffering. New crises emerge. But what has changed is my relationship with that rock of refuge. I know he is reliable. I know he’s an open door for me any day or night. I know I can reach him with a faint whisper. I know I can reach him with a heartfelt scream.

While pain and suffering (and anxiety and dread) are always with me, so is hope. Verse 20 reminds us of the reality of life: “Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up.”

Our life is restored when we learn that we can run back to God, our rock of refuge. Maybe we stumble and crawl, but this return to the rock is a defiant effort against darkness. God, our rock is always there, even in the depths.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield.
Indeed, our heart rejoices in him, for in his holy Name we put our trust.
Let your loving-kindness, O Lord, be upon us, as we have put our trust in you. — Psalm 33.20-22


– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: Embracing Uncertainty

Anxiety was always part of my life, so adding it to my faith was natural…I assumed my doubt meant my faith was in jeopardy.

Embracing Uncertainty — Readers’ Choice
Read more: Discipline for the Anxious

The psalmist writes of being “too troubled to speak,” yet he cries to God. He writes of insomnia, yet he rests in God.

Discipline for the Anxious

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Everyone Is Doing It

Links for today’s readings:

Nov 4  Read: 2 Kings 17 Listen: (7:19) Read: Psalms 69 Listen: (4:04)

Scripture Focus: 2 Kings 17.22-23, 26-29, 33, 40-41

22 The Israelites persisted in all the sins of Jeroboam and did not turn away from them 23 until the Lord removed them from his presence, as he had warned through all his servants the prophets. So the people of Israel were taken from their homeland into exile in Assyria…

26 It was reported to the king of Assyria: “The people you deported and resettled in the towns of Samaria do not know what the god of that country requires. He has sent lions among them, which are killing them off, because the people do not know what he requires.” 27 Then the king of Assyria gave this order: “Have one of the priests you took captive from Samaria go back to live there and teach the people what the god of the land requires.” 28 So one of the priests who had been exiled from Samaria came to live in Bethel and taught them how to worship the Lord. 

29 Nevertheless, each national group made its own gods…

33 They worshiped the Lord, but they also served their own gods in accordance with the customs of the nations from which they had been brought. 

40 They would not listen, however, but persisted in their former practices. 41 Even while these people were worshiping the Lord, they were serving their idols. To this day their children and grandchildren continue to do as their ancestors did.

Reflection: Everyone Is Doing It

By John Tillman

Israel failed to bless the nations by teaching them to follow Yahweh, following their gods instead. After Israel’s exile, we see the nations literally brought into the promised land and taught, by imperial decree, to worship him.

The non-Israelite settlers were being killed by lions due to not worshiping Yahweh. So Assyria sent back an exiled priest tasked with teaching the people “what the god of the land requires.” This priest was only partially successful. “Even to this day,” the author says, the people continued mixing the worship of God with that of idols. 

It can be easy for us to shake our heads in judgment at ancient idolaters. “How simple and foolish they are,” we may think. We underestimate the impact of cultural influence.

”Everyone is doing it” only seems lame when you don’t have to live among the “everyone.” Children say “everyone is doing it” to their parents. Parents don’t live among their children’s “everyone” and so dismiss it as foolish. When children challenge their parents about adult behaviors, parents respond with the same answer, “everyone is doing it.”

We find it easy to not worship a fertility god who guarantees good crops because we aren’t farmers living in a culture in which everyone around us is doing it. (Instead, we live in a culture that believes “knowledge is power” and we are all addicted to streams of content, articles, feeds, news channels… “Everyone is doing it.”)

We underestimate the cultural influence that we are under. Some who are baked in the culture of western Christianity THINK they operate from neutral theological and cultural ground but our culture’s yeast is worked all through our dough. Culture can greatly influence our theology and the way we live out our faith. It is hubris to think otherwise. 

Why do we worship God? So that we may not fall prey to lions? So that our kings may not be conquered? So that we can dwell in the land in peace? Selfishness and power can’t grow faith.

Assyria conquered the land but couldn’t enforce worship. We also will fail to force others to faith. Faith cannot be crushed, no matter how powerful the government, but it can’t be forced either. It must grow on its own. All we can do is plant seeds like the priest and pray that God will make them grow.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting

With my whole heart I seek you; let me not stray from your commandments. — Psalm 119.113


– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Come Out of Captivity

We are not beyond hope. His arm is not too short to save. Come out of captivity to cultural idols and into the light.

Come Out of Captivity
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Vassals Become Vessels

Links for today’s readings:

Nov 3  Read: 2 Kings 16 Listen: (3:46) Read: Psalms 68 Listen: (4:26)

Scripture Focus: 2 Kings 16.14-18

14 As for the bronze altar that stood before the Lord, he brought it from the front of the temple—from between the new altar and the temple of the Lord—and put it on the north side of the new altar. 15 King Ahaz then gave these orders to Uriah the priest: “On the large new altar, offer the morning burnt offering and the evening grain offering, the king’s burnt offering and his grain offering, and the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their grain offering and their drink offering. Splash against this altar the blood of all the burnt offerings and sacrifices. But I will use the bronze altar for seeking guidance.” 16 And Uriah the priest did just as King Ahaz had ordered. 17 King Ahaz cut off the side panels and removed the basins from the movable stands. He removed the Sea from the bronze bulls that supported it and set it on a stone base. 18 He took away the Sabbath canopy that had been built at the temple and removed the royal entryway outside the temple of the Lord, in deference to the king of Assyria.

Reflection: Vassals Become Vessels

By John Tillman

Assyria, the world’s first superpowered empire, was growing.

Judah’s neighbors, Israel and Aram, pressured Judah’s king, Ahaz, to join them in resisting Assyria. When he would not, they conspired to replace him as king and attacked him. As Isaiah promised Ahaz, the coup collapsed. (Isaiah 7.2-7) However, Ahaz failed to follow Isaiah’s advice and stand firm in his faith.

Rather than resist Assyria, Ahaz chose appeasement. Forsaking God’s promise through Isaiah, Ahaz forged an alliance with Assyria to protect himself from his neighbors. To pay Assyria for this protection, Ahaz stripped the temple of gold, silver, and bronze. When visiting Tiglath-Pileser as his newest vassal, Ahaz saw an Assyrian altar and had a copy of it built for the temple in Jerusalem. As a vassal of Assyria, Judah became a vessel for Assyrian ways, worship, and corruption.

First, Ahaz placed the Assyrian altar in front of the altar of God, between it and the temple’s entrance. Then Ahaz moved God’s altar to one side, out of its place. Ahaz instructed the priest to offer sacrifices on the new Assyrian altar, but kept God’s altar for “seeking guidance.” Ahaz not only sidelined Yahweh’s altar, he also worshiped Assyrian gods and sacrificed his son to them. Ahaz distorted and corrupted the temple “in deference to” the Assyrian king. He eventually shuttered the temple and filled the city with altars to many gods. (2 Chronicles 28.24-25) Ahaz’s kingdom and temple became indistinguishable from Assyria.

We are not kings like Ahaz, and the powers of the world rarely threaten us like an empire. Sometimes they woo us like algorithms, seduce us like sins, numb us like drugs, deceive us like politicians, or corrupt us like wicked or reckless friends.

When such powers of the world approach us, it is dangerous for us to choose appeasement. Appeasement soon becomes approval, and approval soon becomes adoption.

Have we become vassals of worldly powers (cultural or political) and vessels of their ways? Have we sidelined part of our theology to center the priorities of powerful allies? Does our deference to powerful forces erase the difference between us and them?

We must not be conformed to or discipled by worldly powers or leaders. (Romans 12.2) Rather than showing deference, we must demonstrate our difference. 

Let us stand firm in our faith, using winsome persuasion, determined persistence, and uncompromising principles to distinguish ourselves and defend our neighbors from the world’s powers.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

“New Day”, by David Adam

This new day you give to me

From your great eternity

This new day now enfold

Me in your loving hold

You are the star of the morn

You are the day newly born

You are the light of our night

You are the savior by your might

God be in me this day

God ever with me stay

God be in the night

Keep us by thy light

God be in my heart

God abide, never depart

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Kingdoms Breaking Bad

As Israel fractures, each dynasty hopes to be the answer. But each one, especially in the northern kingdom, “breaks bad.”

Kingdoms Breaking Bad
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