Numbers 14.10
Then all the congregation said to stone them with stones. But the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people of Israel. 

In 1944, C.S. Lewis spoke of our dangerous desire for exclusivity: “In all men’s lives… one of the most dominant elements is the desire to be inside the local Ring and the terror of being left outside.”

“Men tell themselves that it is a hardship to stay late at the office on some bit of important extra work. But it is not quite true. It is a terrible bore when old Fatty Smithson draws you aside and whispers, ‘Charles and I saw at once that you’ve got to be on this committee.’ A terrible bore… but how much more terrible if you were left out! It is tiring and unhealthy to lose your Saturday afternoons; but to have them free because you don’t matter, that is much worse.”

Throughout his life, Moses was in the inner ring of fellowship with God. He led God’s people out of Egypt and through the Red Sea. On Mount Sinai, the Lord would speak to Moses “face to face, as one speaks to a friend.” When God was angry with the grumbling Israelites, he almost started over with Moses only: “How long will these people treat me with contempt? … I will destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater.”

When Moses did not trust in God enough to honor him as holy in the sight of the Israelites, however, God denied his entry into Canaan and replaced him with Joshua: “After you have seen [Canaan from afar], you too will be gathered to your people … [for] you disobeyed my command to honor me as holy … Give [Joshua] some of your authority so the whole Israelite community will obey him.” Thus, God declared that no one—not even Moses—was immune from his justice, for his salvation was received by grace alone.

Prayer
Lord, Thousands of years after Moses, Jesus left the inner ring of fellowship with the Father to redeem us. He laid down his life and was killed outside the camp. If we are in him, we receive your unmerited grace to enter the only inner ring that matters. Forgive us for prizing others’ opinions more than yours. Work in us to crave being in your inner ring so that we will receive your grace to enter the Promised Land. Amen.

Today’s Readings
Numbers 14 (Listen – 6:15)
Psalm 50 (Listen – 2:26)

Finding Our Way
Part 3 of 5, read more on TheParkForum.org

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Psalm 49.16-19
Be not afraid when a man becomes rich, when the glory of his house increases. For when he dies he will carry nothing away; his glory will not go down after him. For though, while he lives, he counts himself blessed — and though you get praise when you do well for yourself — his soul will go to the generation of his fathers, who will never again see light. 

“In a hundred subtle ways,” writes Paul Graham, “the city sends you a message: you could do more; you should try harder … New York tells you, above all: you should make more money.”

“There are other messages too, of course. You should be hipper. You should be better looking. But the clearest message is that you should be richer … Power matters in New York too of course, but New York is pretty impressed by a billion dollars even if you merely inherited it.”

In 2011 an anonymous Twitter account was opened by a Texas man posing as a Goldman Sachs banker. The account chronicled alleged snippets from the firm’s elevator banks. His tweets were not all explicit, but their message was clear: 

“If riding the bus doesn’t incentivize you to improve your station in life, nothing will.” 

“If there’s a hot chick behind me at the ATM, I’ll always leave my receipt in the machine so she can see my balance.” 

“I never give money to homeless people. I can’t reward failure in good conscience.”

Since the city speaks to us subtly by window displays and overheard conversations, it is hard to believe the Psalmist in such a way that our lives and choices are changed. Therefore, we must be on guard, reminding ourselves daily that Jesus is infinitely valuable because he did the impossible – he ransomed his life for us: 

“Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice, that he should live on forever.” — Psalm 49.7-9

Prayer
Lord, Do we believe this – that Jesus ransomed his life for us – in such a way that we do not seek after the riches of this world and, instead, lay up treasures in heaven? Search our hearts and show us where the love of money has taken root. Forgive us and make us generous and cheerful givers, testifying that we cherish you above all else. Amen.

Today’s Readings
Numbers 12-13 (Listen – 5:53)
Psalm 49 (Listen – 2:10)

Finding Our Way
Part 2 of 5, read more on TheParkForum.org

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Psalm 48.9-10
We have thought on your steadfast love, O God, in the midst of your temple. As your name, O God, so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is filled with righteousness. 

As a general rule the psalms take more time to access than other sections of scripture, like the pastoral epistles. Take the excerpt above as an example. Each sentence holds a sermon’s worth of theology.

The psalmist opens by saying, “We have thought on your steadfast love.” When was the last time we thought on God’s unrelenting love in community? Or when have we confessed our sins to one another and celebrated God’s grace together — so that in the revelation of our brokenness and God’s faithfulness we discover a vivid and glorious image of God’s love? 

It is rare in modern Christianity to hear the psalms used in corporate prayer, worship, or teaching. This could be due in part to modern individualism’s befuddlement with public lament, corporate rejoicing, and communal singing. It may also be due to changes in the written word, as C. Richard Wells and Ray Van Neste explore in their book Forgotten Songs: Reclaiming The Psalms for Christian Worship.

“There are special reasons for neglect of the psalms,” they explain. “The language of poetry doesn’t easily connect in a sound-byte culture. The psalms call for time, not tweets — time to read, ponder, pray, digest. It’s easy to be too busy for the psalms.”

Perhaps the real reason doesn’t have as much to do with fads in technology as it does with the realities of sin in our hearts. The primary reason the psalms have fallen out of preaching, prayer, and singing, Wells and Van Neste conclude, is that, “We are fascinated with ourselves; the psalms are fascinated with God.”

The answer to this problem isn’t self-loathing — which is another form of self-obsession — but to use the psalms as a guidebook for our prayers, songs, and understanding of God. When we think on God’s steadfast love together we rediscover our lives in light of the glorious grace of our Savior.

Prayer
Father, you are beautiful. Shine your light on our lives, that we might see you more clearly. Kindle our hearts, that we may experience you more deeply. Renew us you through your word. Guide and encourage us through your church.

Today’s Readings
Numbers 11 (Listen – 5:22)
Psalm 48 (Listen – 1:28)

Finding Our Way
Part 1 of 5, read more on TheParkForum.org

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Psalm 44.6-8
For not in my bow do I trust, nor can my sword save me. But you have saved us from our foes and have put to shame those who hate us. In God we have boasted continually, and we will give thanks to your name forever. 

As a nonconformist Issac Watts had been banned from Oxford and Cambridge, which were exclusively Anglican at the time. Even though he was an accomplished poet, hymnodist, teacher, educational theorist, logistician, pastor, and author, Watts faced enormous pressure from the Church of England.

Yet in the face of trial and loss Watts clung to his savior. He articulated his faith with thoughtful precision in every field he practiced and dedicated himself to the church throughout his life.

Each day this week we’ve looked at works from Isaac Watts book, The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament. Today, Psalm 44:

Lord, we have heard thy works of old,
  Thy works of power and grace,
When to our ears our fathers told
  The wonders of their days.

How thou didst build thy churches here,
  And make thy gospel known;
Amongst them did thine arm appear,
  Thy light and glory shone.

In God they boasted all the day,
  And in a cheerful throng
Did thousands meet to praise and pray,
  And grace was all their song.

But now our souls are seized with shame,
  Confusion fills our face,
To hear the enemy blaspheme,
  And fools reproach thy grace.

Yet have we not forgot our God,
  Nor falsely dealt with heav’n,
Nor have our steps declined the road
  Of duty thou hast giv’n;

Though dragons all around us roar
  With their destructive breath,
And thine own hand has bruised us sore
  Hard by the gates of death.

     PAUSE.

We are exposed all day to die
  As martyrs for thy cause,
As sheep for slaughter bound we lie
  By sharp and bloody laws.

Awake, arise, Almighty Lord,
  Why sleeps thy wonted grace?
Why should we look like men abhorred
  Or banished from thy face?

Wilt thou for ever cast us off,
  And still neglect our cries?
For ever hide thine heav’nly love
  From our afflicted eyes?

Down to the dust our soul is bowed,
  And dies upon the ground;
Rise for our help, rebuke the proud,
  And all their powers confound.

Redeem us from perpetual shame,
  Our Savior and our God;
We plead the honors of thy name,
  The merits of thy blood.

Today’s Readings
Numbers 8 (Listen – 3:27)
Psalm 44 (Listen – 2:44)

Melodies of Heaven
Part 5 of 5, read more on TheParkForum.org

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This Weekend’s Readings
Saturday: Numbers 9 (Listen – 3:20); Psalm 45 (Listen – 2:17)
Sunday: Numbers 10 (Listen – 4:11); Psalms 46-47 (Listen – 2:15)

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Psalm 42.1, 5
As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.

“As congregational song, hymns were an extraordinary kind of poetry,” notes the Poetry Foundation in their biography page for Isaac Watts. “It is no coincidence that Watts, as [the] originator [of hundreds of hymns], was both an accomplished poet and a recognized religious leader and teacher. His admiration of dramatic effects and familiarity with devotional imagery served him particularly well. Indeed, hymns depended for their success on real pleasures, on their value as entertainment. Insipid or obtuse poetry would fail to provoke the desired response.”

For Watts the real pleasure wasn’t simply the craft, at which he was immensely talented, but the glory and beauty of the Savior his words beheld. 

“If a transtemporal, transfinite good is our real destiny, then any other good on which our desire fixes must be in some degree fallacious,” writes C.S. Lewis in The Weight of Glory. 

Watts found God’s beauty in the community of the church. His hymn drawn from Psalm 42 reveals this even in its alternative title: Complaint of Absence from Public Worship. Desertion from the church lead him to cry out — hope was found when he returned to the wonders of God incarnate in the joy and trial of community.

Today we look at Isaac Watts’ words, from his book The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament, inspired by Psalm 42:

With earnest longings of the mind,
  My God, to thee I look;
So pants the hunted hart to find
  And taste the cooling brook.

When shall I see thy courts of grace,
  And meet my God again?
So long an absence from thy face
  My heart endures with pain.

Temptations vex my weary soul,
  And tears are my repast;
The foe insults without control,
  “And where’s your God at last?”

’Tis with a mournful pleasure now
  I think on ancient days;
Then to thy house did numbers go,
  And all our work was praise.

But why, my soul, sunk down so far
  Beneath this heavy load?
Why do my thoughts indulge despair,
  And sin against my God?

Hope in the Lord, whose mighty hand
  Can all thy woes remove,
For I shall yet before him stand,
  And sing restoring love.

Today’s Readings
Numbers 7 (Listen – 12:50)
Psalms 42-43 (Listen – 2:32)

Melodies of Heaven
Part 4 of 5, read more on TheParkForum.org

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