Tag: Psalms

Links for today’s readings:

Jul 28  Read: Isaiah 57 Listen: (3:37) Read: Psalms 123-125 Listen: (1:32)

Reflection: Songs of Ascent Playlist — From Badlands to Highlands

By John Tillman

The fifteen “Songs of Ascent” following Psalm 119 are a divine playlist of rescue, restoration, and worship. These songs were sung on the ascent to Jerusalem and sung about the post-exile return to Jerusalem.

Jerusalem’s temple represented God dwelling with his people as he did in Sinai’s wilderness. Every trip to the temple was a lowercase “exodus” from life’s daily enslavements and temptations to seek freedom and forgiveness at the mountain of God. “Songs of Ascent” helped people sing their way from the badlands of sin, separation, and slavery to the highlands of freedom, forgiveness, and fellowship with God.

Have you ever needed more than a vacation? Have you needed an escape?

The psalmists of Psalms 123, 124, and 125 map out that kind of journey. They move from badlands to highlands using a similar pattern from the first triad, Psalm 120, 121, and 122. The pattern begins with lament, turns to praise, and ends with peace. 

Psalm 123 raises a cry for mercy. They are trapped in contempt, ridicule, and arrogance. In Psalm 124, they remember the Lord is the source of rescue. The trap is broken. They escape the attacks that tried to sweep them away. In Psalm 125, they remember where they are escaping to. Their destination and destiny is God’s righteous kingdom of justice.

My wife and I have taken many healing and freeing “escapes” to the mountains or desert highlands. In the wildest places, our phones lose their signal but our souls better detect God’s truths.

We return home with a reoriented reality. The temporary exodus reminds us an eternal one is coming. Contempt, ridicule, and arrogance may close their trap on us, but it will shatter in their faces. The scepters of swaggering tyrants will splinter. Corrupt thrones and powers will be overthrown. These truths ride home with us like a song we can sing.

I encourage travel as a spiritual discipline. Visit a National Park or your local city park. (We don’t take our inspiration from Central Park for nothing.) But even without leaving your house, “Songs of Ascent” can transport you to your true home.

Whatever kind of badlands you navigate, Jesus has opened the road to God’s highlands. No kind of sin, corruption, oppression, worry, or sickness can keep you from joining him on that narrow way. Sing your way there with these psalms. Sing your way into God’s peaceful highlands.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

Be joyful to the Lord, all you lands; serve the Lord with gladness and come before his presence with a song. — Psalm 100.1

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

Read more: How Did He Do It?

How did Jesus do it?…set aside his divinity and glory to live in flesh and struggle…worship in a corrupted temple and synagogue system?

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Links for today’s readings:

Jul 27  Read: Isaiah 56 Listen: (2:11) Read: Psalms 120-122 Listen: (2:12)

Reflection: Songs of Ascent Playlist — From War to Peace

By John Tillman

Fifteen “Songs of Ascent” follow Psalm 119. What are they?

Federico Villanueva (Asia Bible Commentary) highlights two theories. One says they were sung by worshipers “ascending” the steep roads to Jerusalem’s temple. Another says they were sung by post-exile Jews, struggling up the metaphorically steep path to resettlement. These explanations do not rule one another out and probably are both true.

The Psalms scroll is carefully edited and assembled. Human artistry and divine inspiration were partners not just in writing these poems but in curating and arranging them. These fifteen songs of ascent are a divine playlist of rescue, restoration, and worship.

Would you arrange a playlist of songs by date of release or alphabetically? Probably not, unless your only purpose was historical. Playlists are arranged for different reasons.

During one break from college, I made a “mix-tape” for the girl who is now my wife. I didn’t arrange the songs alphabetically or by release date. I arranged them so that each song added to the message that I loved her and (even though I wasn’t quite ready to ask) wanted to marry her. My father drove me back to college. During the three-hour drive, we listened to the tape. He picked up on the message and asked. “Son, are you trying to tell this girl something?”

These psalms of Hebrew poetry were gathered, curated, and assembled post-exile to tell us something. They tell us how God’s people, despite their sins and distress, are still wooed and welcomed by God, back into his presence.

Appropriately, this story begins with lament in Psalm 120. If you are ascending to a high place, you start from a low place. The singer of Psalm 120 is in a low place, captured among those hungry for war, and far from the peace of God’s temple.

Psalm 121 lifts our heads to our destination and source of help and hope. We do not rely on the strength of our legs to make this climb. God will not let us slip.

Psalm 122 celebrates the enduring hope still ahead of us—the peace of God that is beyond understanding and beyond this world.

Whatever low place you are at, God’s love calls you to ascend. Wherever you are in your ascent, keep your eyes on the heights to come. No matter how war clamors around us, peace is coming to drown it out.

Keep singing. And keep climbing.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

Be joyful in the Lord, all you lands; serve the Lord with gladness and come before his presence with a song. — Psalm 110.1

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

Read more: Awake, Awake! Amaze! Amaze!

How awake are you?…are you rising up?…liberated? Cleansed? Empowered? God says to us, “Awake! Awake!.” Say back to him, “Amaze! Amaze!”

Read The Bible With Us

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Links for today’s readings:

Jul 24  Read: Isaiah 53 Listen: (2:39) Read: Psalm 119.97-120 Listen: (15:14)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Jul 25  Read: Isaiah 54 Listen: (3:14) Read: Psalm 119.121-144 Listen: (15:14)
Jul 26  Read: Isaiah 55 Listen: (2:11) Read: Psalms 119.145-176 Listen: (15:14)

Scripture Focus: Psalm 119.113-120

Samekh

Reflection: Be Single-Minded

By John Tillman

How can the psalmist say, “I hate double-minded people” and claim to love God’s law? Shouldn’t we love our neighbors and even our enemies?

“Hate the sin; love the sinner,” even when well-intentioned, is easily abused and easily misunderstood.

It is important to understand that the psalmist is not using “hate” as we usually use it. Hate groups hate others categorically and completely, based on unchangeable aspects of their being, identity, or origins. The psalmist and other biblical writers use hate to poetically emphasize choosing what is good over what is evil.  Those who are “hated” by God or God’s representatives are not hated for any unchangeable part of who they are, but for their choices. And they are lovingly called to repent.

The psalmist doesn’t use hate to justify attacking or harming the double-minded. He just doesn’t want to become like them. The psalmist is concerned with his own actions and choices. 

What does double-minded mean? How do we avoid double-mindedness and how should we treat the double-minded?

From the psalmist we learn how the double-minded reject taking refuge in God or his word, stray from God’s decrees, and spread delusions which come to nothing. They act wickedly with no fear of God.

In Kings, Elijah didn’t use the word “double-minded,” but scolded the people for “wavering between two opinions.” They wavered between worshiping God and Baal. (1 Kings 18.21)

In the New Testament, James described the double-minded as lacking wisdom. Instead of asking and trusting God, they doubted what God called good. Their doubt made them like chaotic waves of the sea, blown back and forth. The double-minded would not humble themselves, submit to God, or resist the devil. (James 1.5-8; 4.8)

The double-minded have no convictions or principles that ground their lives and actions. They do whatever seems right or “wise” to them at the moment. Any false idol or leader convinces them. They celebrate sins even as sins destroy them. We should rightly hate this and resist it in our own lives. But this kind of “hate” for outcomes and actions does not extend to people.

For this reason, we must be single-minded about sharing the gospel with the double-minded. As Elijah and James called sinners to “come near,” so must we. If we are humble enough to share with them, and they are humble enough to listen, God will lift us up together. No one is beyond hope.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting

You are my hope, O Lord God, my confidence since I was young. — Psalm 71.5

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

Read more: Cry, Creator, Cry!

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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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My early life was one filled with extensive legalism. The daily spiritual checklist that I thought defined my worth was burdensome.

Read more: Visions of Perspective

Daniel has seen things…He is perhaps (like some of us) a bit cynical about the current state of the government.

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.

Read more: Baring Your Soul

When strangers ask, “How are you?” we’ll mumble, “Fine. How are you?” …How can we share deep hurt with those we do not trust deeply?