Tag: Psalm 42

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Sing to the Beasts — Love of Advent

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Nehemiah 5 Listen: (3:29)
Read: Revelation 14 Listen: (3:51)

Scripture Focus: Revelation 14.1-3

1 Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. 2 And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. 3 And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.

Psalm 42.8

8 By day the Lord directs his love,
at night his song is with me—
a prayer to the God of my life.

1 John 4.8

8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

“When he awoke, the song was there.
Its melody beckoned and begged him to sing it…” — The Singer, by Calvin Miller

Reflection: Sing to the Beasts — Love of Advent

By John Tillman

Throughout the Advent story, angels, shepherds, and prophets express themselves poetically. The scriptures, strummed by the Spirit, vibrate into song.

The scriptures, especially the gospels, were not written by documentarians but by artists.

The gospel writers did not merely take Jesus’ driver’s license photo or mugshot to record his identity. They didn’t simply take evidence photos of his birth, deeds, death, or resurrection. They painted portraits of each moment of his life that are more true than photographs and wrote songs that are more real than transcripts of speeches.

Songs go beyond entertainment in scripture. Songs are lessons, prophecies, sermons, memory aids, and weapons of the truth. John’s Revelation looks far into the future to see a choir of chosen followers who will stand with the Lamb and learn to sing a new song. This song pierces the universe, proclaiming the truth and defeating the beast. (Revelation 15.2)

We have beasts to be defeated around us. Beasts of lies. Beasts of violence. Beasts of abuse. Beasts of despair. Beasts of doubt. We don’t defeat their growls with our own. Instead of growling back at beasts, we must sing the song of the gospel. Music helps defeat the Beast of Revelation. The beasts around us can be tamed and transformed by the gospel’s tune. We must keep singing the tune of God’s love.

Some may scoff at the idea of singing at beasts. They think singing of God’s love is weak, diminishing, or enabling, or that it ignores reality.

Singing of God’s love is not weakness because God’s love demonstrates his strength. Singing of God’s love does not diminish him because God’s love makes him glorious. Singing of God’s love is not enabling sin because God’s loving-kindness pulls us toward holiness. Singing of God’s love is not ignoring reality because God’s love is the central reality upon which the universe spins.

God’s love is his distinguishing characteristic. It should be ours. Don’t allow the world’s beastliness to bristle your brow. Don’t allow the world’s brutality to make you a brute. Don’t allow the din of battle to cause you to trade your musical instrument for an instrument of hate or violence. If we are discipled by beastly methods, instead of fighting beasts, we become them.

Sing to beasts about their defeat.
Sing to liars about the truth.
Sing to haters about God’s love.
Sing.

Music: “How Can I Keep from Singing?” — Author unknown, recording by Enya.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Morning Psalm

When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, then were we like those who dream.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy.
Then they said among the nations, “the Lord had done great things for them.”
The Lord has done great things for us, and we are glad indeed. Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the watercourses of the Negev.
Those who sowed with tears will reap with songs of joy.
Those who go out weeping, carrying the seed, will come again with joy, shouldering their sheaves. — Psalm 126

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

Read more about Truth and Love — Love of Advent

Make us instruments of your peace…prophets of your hope…singers of your love…founts of your joy.

Truth and Love — Love of Advent

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Sluggish Grief

Scripture Focus: Psalm 42:5-7
5 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
    Why so disturbed within me
Put your hope in God,
    for I will yet praise him,
    my Savior and my God.
6 My soul is downcast within me;
    therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
    the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
    in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
    have swept over me.

Psalm 43:5
5 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
    Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
    for I will yet praise him,
    my Savior and my God.

Reflection: Sluggish Grief
By Erin Newton

In the movie, Paddington, one character reflects on his emotional journey of settling into a new place: “My body had traveled fast, but my heart… she took a little longer to arrive.” The heart can be sluggish during grief. It’s frustrating and discouraging.

I wish grief was a cycle; instead, it is a web. Our bodies are bound to the linear progression of time. We are moving from one event to another, but our hearts and minds are stuck in a tangled web of emotions and thoughts.

The repeated phrase, “Why, my soul, are you downcast?” reflects this emotional tangle. The psalmist tries to soothe himself with words of counsel. “Hope in God…Remember the good times.” Oh, I’ve heard those platitudes from others. And I’ve tried to use them to urge my heart into better spirits.

But grief is not linear. The stages—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance—don’t happen sequentially.

Psalms 42-43 show this type of tangled emotional experience. At first, we see the depth of sadness, “tears have been my food day and night” (Psalm 42.3). Then a joyous memory, “How I used to go to the house of God…with shouts of joy and praise among the festive throng” (Psalm 42.4). Then the declaration of depression, “all your waves and breakers have swept over me.”

The journey of emotional experience is like traveling across the mountains. There is the bright ascent to the peak, the crisp breeze, and clear skies. We gaze upon the view and see the other mountaintops, each basking in the pure sunlight. But to get there, we must descend into the valley, the dark woods.

Amy Carmichael calls this “The Ravine.” It is the painful memory of better days: “Yes, we were one of a festive crowd; was there any happy thing that we did not do? And we think of what used to be, so different from all that is now.”

Our minds know of God’s goodness, the joy of his presence, the hope of better days, but our hearts take a little longer to get there.

“We know that it is true. And yet there is something in the trend of our thoughts that is like the backwash of the waves, as wave after wave breaks on the shore…We have seen the lovely radiance of that upper air. But our feet must walk the ways of earth down that dreary hill, past those somber trees, and into the valley…”

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Those who sowed with tears will reap with songs of joy.
Those who go out weeping, carrying the seed, will come again with joy, shouldering their sheaves. — Psalm 126.6-7

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

Today’s Readings
1 Kings 21 (Listen 4:19)
Psalms 42-43 (Listen 2:32)

Read more about Be With Me
The weight of our sadness reflects the hope of a beautiful life that has been tragically altered.
But we are not alone. God is near to the brokenhearted…

Be With Me

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Prayer Is Our Tent of Meeting

Scripture Focus: Psalm 42.2
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. 
When can I go and meet with God? 

Numbers 7.89
89 When Moses entered the tent of meeting to speak with the Lord, he heard the voice speaking to him from between the two cherubim above the atonement cover on the ark of the covenant law. In this way the Lord spoke to him.

From John: Our church has a common saying, a mantra, “Prayer precedes power.” This power implies that there is action to be carried out. As discussed in this post from 2019, in prayer, we are preparing to act.

Reflection: Prayer Is Our Tent of Meeting
By John Tillman

In today’s reading from Numbers, we get a description of Moses talking with God in the Tent of Meeting. The Tent of meeting described here is not the first tent of meeting, but the one that replaced it, in the newly finished tabernacle. There in the Holy of Holies, Moses hears the voice of God from between the cherubim above the place of atonement.

Scripture tells us that the conversations of Moses with God were intimate. God spoke to Moses as a man speaks to his friend. But this communication was not only personal—it was communal.

Moses entering the Tent of Meeting was a communitywide event. When Moses entered, the entire community would come and stand at the entrances to their own tents as Moses spoke with God on their behalf.

The design of the Tabernacle and the Tent of Meeting was a tool for community prayer and connection. Prayer—even individual prayer—is an act of community, because God is a God of community.

At the center of this community are the symbols of the atonement that God has set in motion. It is through the atonement that Moses heard God’s voice. The voice from between the cherubim came from the spot where the blood of the atonement sacrifices were placed by the high priest.

For us, prayer is our tent of meeting, where the deepest thirsts of our souls may be satisfied. When we pray as Jesus taught, we enter into God’s presence through the torn curtain of the Tent of Meeting, and hear his voice because of his atoning sacrifice.

Next week, on Thursday, The United States will observe a National Day of Prayer. As you pray this weekend and next week, be reminded that you are entering the tent of meeting in priestly capacity and carry the ability to bring before God the sins and concerns of your nation.

May we all be empowered to pray beyond a personal conversation and approach God on behalf of our communities and our world.

Like Moses, we approach prayer as an individual, speaking to God through the atoning sacrifice of Christ. But we bring with us all the concerns and cares of our communities and our world. As we pray, the world stands at our backs waiting for us to exit the tent of prayer, and act.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
I call with my whole heart; answer me, O Lord, that I may keep your statues. — Psalm 119.145

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle

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

This Weekend’s Readings
Numbers 8 (Listen – 3:27), Psalms 44 (Listen – 2:44)
Numbers 9 (Listen – 3:20), Psalms 45 (Listen – 2:17)

Read more about Maintaining Sacred Space
Prayer, Bible reading, meditation, intercession, are our tabernacle walls, frames, and sacred tools.

Maintaining Sacred Space

Read more about Unveiled
Seek regular and deep intimacy with God through prayer and the scriptures…then, let us walk through our world alight with his love.

Unveiled
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Prayer, Our Tent of Meeting

Psalm 42.2
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
   When can I go and meet with God?

Numbers 7.89
When Moses entered the tent of meeting to speak with the Lord, he heard the voice speaking to him from between the two cherubim above the atonement cover on the ark of the covenant law. In this way the Lord spoke to him.

Reflection: Prayer, Our Tent of Meeting
By John Tillman

In today’s reading from Numbers, we get a description of Moses talking with God in the Tent of Meeting. The Tent of meeting described here is not the first tent of meeting, but the one that replaced it, in the newly finished tabernacle. There in the Holy of Holies, Moses hears the voice of God from between the cherubim above the place of atonement.

Scripture tells us that the conversations of Moses with God were intimate. God spoke to Moses as a man speaks to his friend. But this communication was not only personal—it was communal.

Moses entering the Tent of Meeting was a communitywide event. When Moses entered, the entire community would come and stand at the entrances to their own tents as Moses spoke with God on their behalf.

The design of the Tabernacle and the Tent of Meeting was a tool for community prayer and connection. Prayer—even individual prayer—is an act of community, because God is a God of community.

At the center of this community are the symbols of the atonement that God has set in motion. It is through the atonement that Moses heard God’s voice. The voice from between the cherubim came from the spot where the blood of the atonement sacrifices were placed by the high priest.

For us, prayer is our tent of meeting, where the deepest thirsts of our souls may be satisfied. When we pray as Jesus taught, we enter into God’s presence through the torn curtain of the Tent of Meeting, and hear his voice because of his atoning sacrifice.

This week, on Thursday, The United States will observe a National Day of Prayer. As you pray this week, be reminded that you are entering the tent of meeting in priestly capacity and carry the ability to bring before God the sins and concerns of your nation.

May we all be empowered to pray beyond a personal conversation and approach God on behalf of our communities and our world.

Like Moses, we approach prayer as an individual, speaking to God through the atoning sacrifice of Christ. But we bring with us all the concerns and cares of our communities and our world. As we pray, the world stands at our backs waiting for us to exit the tent of prayer, and act.

Prayer: The Morning Psalm
Look upon me and answer me, O Lord my God; give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death… — Psalm 13.3

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

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

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Read more about Sewing up the Veil
The scriptures tell us that the veil of the temple was torn in two. Mark and Matthew add the helpful detail that it tore “From top to bottom” implying heavenly agency in its destruction.

Sewing up the Veil :: Readers’ Choice

Read more about Praying as Priests
Blessing others may go beyond simple kindness as we take on our role as a royal priesthood. Just as the family of Aaron were priests under Aaron, we are priests under Jesus, our high priest.

https://theparkforum.org/843-acres/praying-as-priests/