Tag: Psalms

Links for today’s readings:

Jul 17  Read: Isaiah 46 Listen: (2:12) Read: Psalms 114-115 Listen: (2:18)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Jul 18  Read: Isaiah 47 Listen: (2:52) Read: Psalm 116 Listen: (1:34)
Jul 19  Read: Isaiah 48 Listen: (3:39) Read: Psalm 117-118 Listen: (2:52)

Reflection: Languages, Ladders, and Oppression

By John Tillman

Psalm 114 is a victory psalm in which God reverses curses and oppression.

Like many victory psalms, it references the Exodus story, but has a unique focus. The psalmist doesn’t mention escaping slavery or even the genocidal murder of newborns. They escape people of a “foreign tongue.” It’s an interesting twist. In Egypt, the Hebrews were “foreigners.” Wasn’t their language the “foreign” one in Egypt?

The psalmist is highlighting a common experience in history. Language differences are often weaponized. When immigrating to a new country or when their own country is conquered or ruled by others, many are mistreated using language.

Elsewhere in scripture, prophetic warnings about the coming exile tell Israel they will be conquered by lands with “foreign speech” and experience discrimination and mistreatment (Deut 28.49; Isa 28.11; Isa 33.19; Jer 5.15). Federico Villanueva, in the Asia Bible Commentary, relates this psalm to the language oppression native Filipinos experienced under Spain’s colonial rule of the Philippines.

Historically, language discrimination and oppression come in many forms and levels of severity. Often, government services, education, or even religious services are only provided in one language. Many have had their native languages banned in public or at work. Many have been persecuted for speaking native languages in their own communities, schools, or even homes. Many have been considered intellectually inferior due to their language.

This didn’t just happen in ancient Egypt or the colonized Philippines. It happens today. Many today use language discrimination as a mask to conceal and justify racial prejudices.

God led his people out of Egypt, where even the language was oppressive, into a land that was a sanctuary. Dangerous chaos waters fled before them and mountains leapt joyfully, welcoming them. Wordless wonders welcomed them home and they were commanded to pass on the blessing. Because Israel suffered as foreigners, they were to welcome and not mistreat foreigners.

God’s children become, like our God, curse-reversers. What God does on a cosmic scale, his children do on a community and individual scale. When God saves us from sin, oppression (both that which persecutes us and that which we perpetuate) becomes our enemy. Every form of oppression is born from sin. It is sin, made tangible.

When God rescues you, don’t pull up the ladder behind you. Turn to rescue people from what you escaped. As God’s children, work so that, “in his name all oppression must cease.”

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Turn to me and have pity on me, for I am left alone and in misery. The sorrows of my heart have increased; bring me out of my troubles. Look upon my adversity and misery and forgive me all my sin. — Psalm 25:15-17

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

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Visions of Perspective

Links for today’s readings:

Jun 10  Read: Isaiah 6 Listen: (2:24) Read: Psalm 102 Listen: (2:45)

Scripture Focus: Psalm 102:4, 17-18

Reflection: Letters for Tomorrow’s Folk

By Erin Newton

I was sitting by the pool with a friend, our kids swimming nearby. I was enjoying the sunshine and sounds of laughter when my friend turned and said, “How are you doing since her death?” The question jolted me out of my blissful daydreaming. “Oh, fine. I’m doing ok.”

I went home and got the kids dried off. Looking around my house, it was clear I was not ok. My house had become a mess. Every inch was a pile of neglected chores. Dishes piled and overflowing the sink. Laundry baskets spilling out into the kitchen and hallway. Wrappers of

half-eaten granola bars littering my desk. 

My best friend died unexpectedly a month ago today. The anguish and grief in my heart were visibly evident in my house. I often forgot to eat. Just like the psalmist’s prayer, eating was a task and no longer enjoyable. 

Pain, suffering, grief, depression, anxiety, and a host of other emotional states often have physical signs. As much as I like to muster up the “I’m fine” statements, one step in the door and you’d know.

I’m relieved to see that such reactions were common thousands of years ago. We are not sure what has happened to the psalmist, but the author is in pain. Appetites are poor; hope is fading. 

The prayer here is not a plea for amnesia. He does not ask God to make his troubles a distant memory. He simply states reality: I am miserable, emotionally and physically. 

And then he turns to looking at God. Words of praise and admiration fill the next verses. There is the recognition of God’s power and sovereignty, his love for his people, and his promise to hear their cries. 

Then we get a lesson that still rings true today: This can be recorded for someone else’s benefit. Why record your misery? Why put on paper a time when life sucked? Why testify to your own frustrations? The answer, for others. 

The psalmist is suffering for an unknown reason. Perhaps it was deserved, or natural consequences, or completely unwarranted. We have no information to claim his suffering was for others—but his testimony is. 

Have you told someone a story of God working in your life? Take time to record your own story. We might think our lives are too simple for archiving, but testimonies are an act of remembrance and a light for the future.

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 Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

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Uzziah angrily claimed purity and was made unclean. Isaiah fearfully confessed uncleanness and was made pure.

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Baring Your Soul

Links for today’s readings:

May 7  Read: Micah 7 Listen: (3:36) Read: Psalms 88 Listen: (1:58)

Scripture Focus: Psalm 88.18

18 You have taken from me friend and neighbor— 
darkness is my closest friend.

Reflection: Hello, Darkness, My Only Friend?

By John Tillman

Many psalms of lament have a “turn.” They pivot toward hope, toward praise, or hint at a coming salvation. Not Psalm 88.

Psalm 88’s only glimmer of light is in verse one, and it descends into darkness from there. The poet holds a gloomy course, turning neither to the right nor to the left. The poem’s last word is “utter darkness.”

Resist the urge to “fix” Psalm 88. Stop looking for the bright side. Don’t manufacture what isn’t there. The psalmist doesn’t need cheering up. We shouldn’t sing, with insensitivity, “songs to a heavy heart.” (Proverbs 25.20) This darkness has lessons. Like its author, we need to sit in it for a while.

One reason to sit in this darkness is that there will be a time that darkness covers you. We need to learn endurance in the dark. We need to learn to pray in the dark. We need to toughen our faith against times of testing.

Study the psalmist’s cries in the dark as a model. Cry out, based on God’s identity as “the God who saves.” (v. 1) Cry out expecting God to hear. (v. 2) Cry out consistently and persistently. (v. 9) Cry out honestly. Hold no grievance back. (v.6-9, 10-12, 14-17)

Sitting in darkness also drowns false forms of faith. There are versions of Christianity that can’t (and shouldn’t) survive darkness.

There is a version of Christianity that thinks the faithful shouldn’t suffer. There is a version of Christianity that markets miracles, victory, success, and “winning.” There is a version of Christianity that manufactures grievances and claims persecution in a culture war when all they’ve ever faced is the consequences of their prideful actions (1 Peter 2.20; 3.17; 4.15-17). Psalm 88’s darkness lands like a sledgehammer, shattering these trite, toxic, and worthless forms of faith. Leave the shattered pieces where they lie.

Even when causes of dark times are evil or intended for evil, God can use darkness for good (Genesis 50.20). Darkness can be a teacher to us, strengthening our faith and disciplines. Darkness can be a surgeon to us, cutting out cancers of trite, cheap, and toxically positive Christianity. In these ways, darkness, even that intended for evil, can be an unexpected and unintentional friend. (Psalm 88.18)

Don’t rush through darkness without learning from it but never forget that we don’t belong there. One way or another, in this life or the next, God will rescue us, bringing us into the light.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Jesus taught us, saying: “Can you not buy two sparrows for a penny? And yet not one falls to the ground without your Father knowing. Why, every hair on your head has been counted. So there is no need to be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” — Matthew 10:29–31

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

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In most individuals, one hand is more skilled than the other…Micah says both hands of his nation and their leaders are equally skilled at wickedness.

Equally Skilled Hands — Readers’ Choice

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In order to hope in the light, we first have to notice and confess that we live in the dark.

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Links for today’s readings:

Apr 30  Read: Jonah 4 Listen: (1:56) Read: Psalm 78.38-72 Listen: (7:12)

Reflection: Exit the Spiritual Rollercoaster

By John Tillman

Israel has spiritual ups and downs. Depending on where you start or stop the story, it’s inspiring or tragic.

The second half of Psalm 78 begins in the wilderness with Israel rebelling against God. They forget God’s goodness in bringing them out of Egypt and they suffer the consequences. Despite being oppressed in Egypt, the wilderness struggles caused Israel to recall enslavement fondly. They were willing to go back to slavery just to get some cucumbers. (Numbers 11.4-5) If the story stops there, it’s a tragedy. Israel needed their hearts, not just their bodies, freed from enslavement.

Psalm 78 closes with Israel in the promised land, settled under David’s rule. Stopping the story there gives it a happy ending, but we know dark things happened during David’s reign and the rest of the story wasn’t pretty.

Our stories also have ups and downs. Our faith oscillates, turning fully toward Jesus then turning away again. We might turn away because of sin and shame, or due to tiredness or burnout, or when experiencing suffering or struggle.

Jesus bears with us and understands our sufferings and our temptations. As God did for the psalmist and Israel, Jesus does for us. He remembers that we are “flesh…like a passing breeze.” (Psalm 78.39)  As he said to his disciples in the garden, “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” (Mark 14.38) He is merciful, forgiving our iniquities (Psalm 78.38). Jesus awaits the moment we turn to his face in repentance to be healed, restored, and accepted.

This does not mean that God does not grieve our wandering, our failures, our sin, and our rebellion. He does. Jesus works in us to destroy and eliminate sin and its influence. Like Israel, we need our hearts, not just our bodies, freed from sin and death.

With maturity, our roller coaster of rebellion and repentance smooths out to higher highs and fewer drops and dives. Eventually, Jesus, the true and better David, comes and we exit this rollercoaster for good. Instead of up and down, it will be, as CS Lewis wrote, “further up and further in.”

As desires for Egypt still affected Israel, desires for sin still affect us in our wanderings. Reflect on the destruction of Egypt described in Psalm 78.42-55 as you imagine God destroying the pull and power of sins in your life.

Moses told Pharaoh to let Israel go. Speak to your sins, saying “Let me go.”

Divine Hours Prayer: The Prayer Appointed for the Week

I thank you, heavenly Father, that you have delivered me from the dominion of sin and death and brought me into the kingdom of your Son; and I pray that, as by his death he has recalled me to life, so by his love he may raise me to eternal joys; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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

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Links for today’s readings:

Apr 28  Read: Jonah 2 Listen: (1:20) Read: Psalm 77 Listen: (2:12)

Photo Note: Today’s image is of a Baptist church in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia struck by a Russian KAB-1500L laser-guided precision bomb during a prayer meeting this month, killing at least one person, a minister, and injuring at least eight others. (The Christian Post)

Reflection: Marks of Identity and Destiny

By John Tillman

Federico Villanueva’s commentary on Psalm 77 begins with a story.

“In the aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda…newspapers printed a photo of a woman standing in front of the ruins of a chapel after the typhoon devastated the city of Tacloban. Alone and soaked in the rain, the woman’s face is turned towards the place where the altar had stood. This image captures the persistent faith of Psalm 77.” (Asia Bible Commentary Series)

Something horrible happened to the psalmist. In context with the surrounding psalms, the event the psalmist mourned seems to be the destruction of the temple. Why else would the poet fear that God’s promise failed? Why else would the poet wonder if God’s unfailing love vanished?

Have you experienced something that inspired similar doubts? Have you stood, like the Filipino believer and the psalmist, witnessing a wrecked place of worship? Maybe one wrecked by something other than a physical storm? Have you lamented wreckages, damages, abuses, or failures that challenged your picture of God?

Defining moments leave marks of identity. Holocaust survivors have physical tattoos from Nazi camps, but also carry tattoos on their souls and psyches. Other traumatic events such as mass shootings, sexual abuse, unjust incarceration, violent crimes, or acts of war or terrorism can leave similar marks. These marks don’t ruin you unless you let them, but they also can’t be ignored or swept away.

Without experiencing such things, you might struggle understanding those who have. You might cringe at the honesty of someone saying, “It is all the same…He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.” (Job 9.22) You might want to plead, “You shouldn’t say that!” But God welcomes brutal honesty.

The psalmist was irrevocably marked by the temple’s fall, however, a greater event left a greater mark. The psalmist reflected on God’s saving work in the Exodus. This defined God’s and Israel’s identities. This reflection didn’t erase suffering or doubt but provided reassurance of God’s holiness and love which sustained the souls marked by tragedy.

For Christians, the cross and resurrection are our Exodus story. In moments of loss, confusion, doubt, and pain, reflecting on the cross sustains us. The cross is the event upon which Jesus stakes his identity and in which we find ours.

No matter what has marked you, it doesn’t have the final word on your identity or destiny. The cross settles both our identity and destiny as united to Christ.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

When the Lord restores the fortunes of his people, Jacob will rejoice and Israel be glad. — Psalm 14.7b

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

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