Tag: Psalms

Links for today’s readings:

Mar 12  Read: Proverbs 31 Listen: (2:50) Read: Psalm 48 Listen: (1:28)

Scripture Focus: Psalm 48.1-3, 14

Reflection: A Hill That Defeated the Mountains

By John Tillman

In the 1995 film, The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain, a surveyor making a new map finds a Welsh village’s beloved “mountain” is 20 feet too short and would be designated a “hill.” The villagers won’t accept this downgrade and carry dirt to the peak to raise the hill’s height.

It was a mountain in their hearts, so they labored to ensure it remained a mountain on the map. The film’s tale was fictional. However, new measurements have upgraded hills to mountains in modern times. One example comes from Wales, in 2018.

In the Bible, mountains were considered divine places where Heaven touched Earth. The greater the mountain, the greater the god.

Zion is Yahweh’s “holy mountain” (Psalm 2.6), the home of Jerusalem and the Temple. Zaphon (known today as Jebel Aqra on Syria’s border with Turkey) was the “holy mountain” of the Canaanite god Baal.

Zion, at 2,460 feet in elevation, is dwarfed by Zaphon at 5,669 and other, closer mountains like Mount Hermon at 9,232. This psalm is not contradicting geographical facts or calling for human efforts to “build up” Zion to match Zaphon’s height. The psalm’s claims are theological.

No mountain compared with Zion because no god compared with Yahweh. No matter how high Zaphon or Hermon rise toward Heaven, their gods are gods of darkness and death, not light and life. The “loftiness” and “beauty” of Zion is the loftiness and beauty of God who chooses to dwell there.

Jesus doesn’t dwell with us on a mountain, but through the Holy Spirit, the scriptures, and the church. That’s our “Zion.” However, we do have competing “divine mountains” and mapmakers trying to “downgrade” the way of Jesus. They say loving God, neighbor, and enemy is a nice “hill,” but we need a mountain. They say the way of Jesus doesn’t work in the real world. They say love is weak, forgiveness is complicity, integrity equals losing, and character is cowardly.

Don’t you believe them; they are wrong. Their gods are false. Calvary’s “hill” defeated their mountains.

Survey “Zion’s citadels” and walk with her king, Jesus. He is “our guide, even to the end.” (Psalm 48.14) In the end, no mountain will be higher than his. It is better to be in his city on a hill than on any mountain that makes false promises of greater things.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Send out your light and your truth, that they may lead me, and bring me to your holy hill and to you dwelling. — Psalm 43.3

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

Read more: The Impossibility of Proverbs 31

She sets a high bar…If she is the ideal for all women, she is also the ideal for all men

Read more: A City to Live In

Zion hints at Heaven, described by biblical writers as a city of healing, peace, justice, and mercy, from which the river of life flows.

Links for today’s readings:

Mar 10  Read: Proverbs 29 Listen: (2:44) Read: Psalm 45 Listen: (2:17)

Scripture Focus: Psalm 45.6-7, 9-11

Reflection: A Strange Musical Mashup

By John Tillman

What do the cries of a threatened nation, the pleas of a drowning prophet, and the praises of a royal wedding have in common? Apparently, it’s the tune they are set to.

In college in the 1990s, as a mediocre guitar player, I was excited to learn that I could sing and play “Amazing Grace” to the tune of “Peaceful Easy Feeling” by the Eagles. It brought a unique touch to the familiar lyrics and caused a few double-takes.

A few Psalms have tunes mentioned in their headings. Some might even be non-Israelite, non “worship” tunes. “Gittith” used in Psalm 81 probably isn’t “Peaceful Easy Feeling” but it could refer to Gath or the grape harvest.

One tune, “Lilies,” seems to be shared by Psalm 45, 69, and 80. A tune named “Lilies” seems perfect for Psalm 45’s royal wedding. But the other psalms have a very different tone.

In Psalm 69, the poet is drowning in miry depths, wearing out his voice calling for help (Psalm 69.1-3). In Psalm 80, the nation is crying out for help like a rebellious lost sheep to God, their shepherd (Psalm 80.1-6). This musical mashup doesn’t seem like it would work.

Many kings got married. Most of them far too many times. Probably every single royal wedding had a wedding psalm, but only one became part of scripture. Psalm 45 is in our Bible because it pointed beyond the unnamed couple to something (and someone) greater.

The couple is celebrated, but God is praised. The moment is hyped up, but God is honored. The marriage vows are vaunted, but God’s promises are longed for. Beyond the marriage of the moment, this was about the Messiah.

New Testament authors recognized the Lamb’s Marriage Feast in this psalm and that we are the bride. We should also recognize ourselves as the lost sheep and the sin-mired singer.

I’ve never heard the tune, “Lilies,” but I feel confident that, whether celebrating a wedding or calling for salvation, it is a song of hope. Sing along with the psalmist and remember, this psalm is about us too.

We are the bride from a rebellious people, sunk in sin’s mud and mire. We are not just saved from something but for something. Our rescue has a reason and our propitiation a purpose. No matter how muddy our moment is now, our destiny is glorious.

That is a reason to sing!

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

Sing praise to the Lord who dwells in Zion; proclaim to the peoples the things he has done. — Psalm 9.11

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

Read more: When Nations Pray — Worldwide Prayer

When nations pray, humbling themselves before him, great moves of God are more than possible—they are likely.

Read more: Miracles of Deliverance and Judgment

We pray for more than just miracles of weapons that do not prosper…We pray for the more miraculous deliverance of the hearts of evil leaders to change.

Links for today’s readings:

Feb 19  Read: Proverbs 10 Listen: (3:34)  Read: Psalms 40-41 Listen: (3:57)

Reflection: Hip-Hop Psalmists?

By John Tillman

The psalmists would have made good hip-hop artists—they love sampling.

Sampling is using part of a previous song in a new recording. “Rapper’s Delight,” the first top-40 hip-hop song, sampled the baseline and guitar riff from an earlier hit, “Good Times” by Chic. I noticed sampling more when I started recognizing the samples being used. That’s one sign of growing older. The “samples” used in new music are from old music you remember.

Samples (when done well and ethically) should enhance your enjoyment of music, not detract from it. It is something familiar mixed in a creative way with something new. Sometimes samples relate thematically to the new work, as is the case with “Good Times” and “Rapper’s Delight,” which are both about celebrating.

Many psalms list instrumentation notes or names of melodies and styles, but there’s no sheet music. We don’t know what they sounded like. However, it is obvious Psalmists loved sampling lyrics as much as hip-hop artists love sampling bass lines and drum riffs.

Psalm 40 says, “He put a new song in my mouth,” but samples an “old song” as part of the new one. The last five verses of Psalm 40 quote Psalm 70. Or is it the other way around? Psalm 40 could have been first and another psalmist sampled verses for Psalm 70. We don’t know. However, the compilers of the Psalms scroll viewed both poems as worthy of inclusion.

Psalmists aren’t the only biblical writers who “sample” other scriptures. Like increased musical familiarity enhances understanding and appreciation of music, greater familiarity with scripture enhances understanding of biblical author’s “samples.”

The part of Psalm 40 used as Psalm 70 is a lament. It is an urgent plea for help, beginning with, “Come quickly,” and ending with “do not delay!” In Psalm 40, this lament and plea follows the remembrance of God’s past salvation and praises for God’s character and goodness to those who follow him. Psalm 70 has none of that. It just dives into desperation.

We should remember the “Good Times” of God’s salvation. But when needs are urgent, we don’t need to delight God, rapping about his praiseworthy past. Lament can stand on its own. Drop the beat and lay down a verse, pleading with our loving God. God will be faithful, not because we placate him with praise, but because of who he is.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

Behold, God is my helper; it is the Lord who sustains my life. — Psalm 54.4

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

Read more: The Promise of Proverbs is Change

It is crucial to ask, “Are we becoming people of wickedness or righteousness?” What we become can change our world.

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Links for today’s readings:

Feb 18 Read:  Proverbs 9 Listen: (1:50) Read: Psalm 39 Listen: (1:49)

Scripture Focus: Psalm 39:4-7

4 “Show me, Lord, my life’s end
    and the number of my days;
    let me know how fleeting my life is.
5 You have made my days a mere handbreadth;
    the span of my years is as nothing before you.
Everyone is but a breath,
    even those who seem secure.

6 “Surely everyone goes around like a mere phantom;
    in vain they rush about, heaping up wealth
    without knowing whose it will finally be.

7 “But now, Lord, what do I look for?
    My hope is in you.”

Reflection: Existential Dread

By Erin Newton

Existential dread is a deep-seated feeling and anxiety about the meaning of life. We sometimes equate the experience with the proverbial “mid-life crisis.” As I entered the working world after college, I learned you can have a similar feeling at that time, called the “quarter-life crisis.” What may cause people to dye their hair, buy a shiny new car, quit their job, and pursue a new career is this deeply rooted concern about life. What are we doing? What is this all about?

As Christians, we are taught to exchange our initial ambitions for a life in Christ. Our plans become whatever God’s plans are for us. And that is all well and good. But I think we are sometimes shocked (and maybe embarrassed) when we reach a point that we’re asking the same questions as Psalm 39: What am I doing with my life? When am I going to die? How much longer do I have? Have I wasted it all? Isn’t it all rather pointless?

This psalm seems to ebb and flow between statements about being silent, then a burst of questions and pleading with God. This first half of the psalm focuses on the relatively short nature of our human lives. As if an echo from Ecclesiastes, the psalmist says, “Everyone is but a breath.” Vanity. Vanity. Everything is meaningless.

The fact that these words are preserved for us should give us some comfort. We all feel this way at some point in time. It is not being ungrateful for the life God has led us through. It’s simply a question that we often wrestle with.

So what do we do? “But now, Lord, what do I look for?,” the psalmist asks.

Do we look for success? Do we look for companionship? Do we look for achievements? Do we look for a legacy? Do we look for a pain-free existence? These things are not necessarily wrong.

“My hope is in you.”

The psalm asks, “Show me,” and “What do I look for?” We want God to be a fortune-teller instead of a hope-holder.

Existential dread asks to see the future, assure us how this all turns out. We don’t get an answer to that question. There lies our hope.

We ask God the same questions century after century. The answer remains the same: We look to God for our hope and then we keep living.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

O God of hosts, show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved. — Psalm 80.7

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

Listen to: RSVP to Wisdom or Folly

Two banquets are prepared.
Two invitations go out.
Two hostesses beckon.
Which banquet will you enter? Who gets your RSVP?

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