Great and Mighty and Close

Scripture Focus: Psalm 147:1-3
1 Praise the Lord. 
How good it is to sing praises to our God, 
how pleasant and fitting to praise him! 
2 The Lord builds up Jerusalem; 
he gathers the exiles of Israel. 
3 He heals the brokenhearted 
and binds up their wounds. 

Student Writers Month is here: The student writers featured from July 15 to August 9 have received free coaching, ministry training, and seminars by special guests in addition to this publishing opportunity, the ability to re-publish their work elsewhere, and a stipend/scholarship for their work. A portion of all donations during these dates will be applied to the students’ stipends/scholarships. Find out more about the students at this link or give a one-time or recurring gift at this link.

Reflection: Great and Mighty and Close
By Doug Hibbard

We shout, “Hallelujah!”

For the Lord our God made the heavens, the earth, the seas, and all that dwells in them! As we look at the wonders of creation, we see the amazing work of God.

We shout, “Hallelujah!”

For in his goodness, the Lord our God feeds the animals, makes grass grow, teaches birds to sing, and causes rain to fall! When we see the abundance of God’s provision and the grace of his providence, we can see that God cares for his creation in ways we cannot comprehend.

We shout, “Hallelujah!”

For the Lord our God numbers the stars, calls them by name, and understands all things beyond limit! We think of all we have yet to learn, all that we cannot understand, and yet we know our God is never baffled, stymied, or confused.

We shout “Hallelujah!”

For the Lord our God frustrates the wicked, casts evil to the ground, and reigns forevermore! We see dictators rise and fall, elected officials rally and disperse, and laws change with the views of the many, but God is stable. He is righteous and true, no matter what the world becomes.

We shout “Hallelujah!”

For the Lord our God is great and mighty, above and beyond all the lowliness of his creation.

And yet, he is not only great and mighty. He also comes close. He turns to the cause of the oppressed. He gives food to the hungry and sets prisoners free, lifting up those who carry great weights and sustaining those who are alone, abandoned, and worthless in the measure of the world.

He is not a god who is distant from those in need. In Jesus’s first sermon, he makes clear that he came specifically to be the one who binds up the broken and sets free the prisoner. (Luke 4:19-19, Isaiah 61:1-2)

When we cannot soar with the eagles or see his limitless provision, he comes to us. When we cannot look down from lofty mountain grandeur and behold his rule and reign, still he is there, lifting us up in our brokenness. He is there, standing for the oppressed. He is there in the darkness that weighs upon us as our years pile atop one another. He is not so lofty with majesty that we are left alone.

And so, whether in victory or defeat, in light or in darkness, we shout “Hallelujah!”

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading
Blessed be the Lord, God of Israel, for he has visited his people, he has set them free, and he has established for us a saving power in the house of his servant David, just as he proclaimed, by the mouth of his holy prophets from ancient times. — Luke 1.68-70

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


​Today’s Readings
Jeremiah 2 (Listen 5:54)
Psalms 146-147 (Listen 3:09)

Read more about God’s Not Deaf
The fear that God may ignore your peril, the doubt that your pleas are being offered to a deaf God are not founded in truth.

Read more about Supporting Our Work
A portion of every donation during Student Writers Month goes toward stipends/scholarships for these students. Donate today.

No Princes :: A Guided Prayer

Psalm 146.3
Do not put your trust in princes,
    in human beings, who cannot save.

Reflection: No Princes :: A Guided Prayer
By John Tillman

How many believers veil their trust in men as trust in God? This can cause problems in two ways. 

In the first, it can cause otherwise faithful people to bend over backward to defend a corrupt leader because to admit that the leader failed or that corruption was present would reflect badly on God’s work. Or it might even mean that the man was never “God’s man” in the first place and we had been duped by him. Unable to admit this, we rally to support and deny any accusation or attack, deaf to evidence or appeal.

The second is, in a way, the equal and opposite reaction. It causes people to believe that they must abandon faith in God because of a leader who broke faith or gave into corruption or abused his power. (It is almost always a man who does this…) Unable to separate their faith from the identity of the leader, they abandon faith.

In both of these cases, the followers’ faith was never in God in the first place.

Let us pray using some of the words of Psalm 146, asking God to protect our faith from even resting a little finger on the unworthy foundation of princes or kings or leaders. May our faith be built solely and solidly upon Jesus, his cross of suffering, and his glorious resurrection.

No Princes
Do not put your trust in princes,
    in human beings, who cannot save.


The princes of this land cannot save us, nor do they intend to.
Their fine bracelets are shackles.

When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
    on that very day their plans come to nothing.


Even the greatest of princes will die, will fall, will fail.
Their plans will come to nothing and that nothing will come to those who trusted in them.

There is only one prince we must serve—the Prince of Peace…

He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets prisoners free
The Lord gives sight to the blind,
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down,
The Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.


May we befriend the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow.
And may we live to see the ways of the wicked frustrated, the chains of the prisoners fall, the blind lead us on with new sight, the bowed down rise up to run.

Prayer: The Greeting
My heart is firmly fixed, O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and make melody. — Psalm 57.7

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

Today’s Readings
Joshua 14-15 (Listen – 9:20)
Psalm 146-147 (Listen – 3:09)

Thank You!
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Readers’ Choice Submissions

It is once again time for us to seek out the voices of our readers and hear from you about posts from the past eleven months that have challenged and comforted you and helped you find new meaning in the scriptures.

Readers’ Choice posts will be republished during the month of August and periodically throughout the Fall.

Follow the link to fill out the form. Feel free to fill out the form multiple times for multiple submissions. Please limit your submissions to posts published this calendar year, between September of 2018 and today.

For any questions about The Park Forum, or to make suggestions of posts via email, contact John Tillman at john@theparkforum.org

Read more about God’s Kingdom Versus God’s Reign
As Christians today, we are often tempted, as the Israelites were, to put faith in shaping society through the exertion of governmental power.

Read more about The Commission of Truth
Whenever the light of truth shines, may we never join in trying to cover up or deny what is revealed.