Wait Upon and Praise the Lord-Psalm 33

The model Prayer Jesus taught us starts with Praise:  “Our Father, Who art in Heaven Hallowed be thy name.”  Psalm 33 gives us one example of Praise.  If you are looking for words of praise, here you can find them.  If you are looking for modes of Praise, here you can find them.  If you are looking for attributes of God, here you can find them. 

            We are called to Praise the Lord through songs and instruments and through shouts.  We are called to Praise God through our acts of right relationships and justice!. 

            God is faithful always.  Through the very ordering of creation God provides for our every need.  God watches over every single one of us and has a plan for us individually and collectively in the communities we serve.   We can make all the plans we want but in the end, if it’s not God’s plan-the plan we’ve made will surely fail. 

            We need to lean into God for our hope, our protection and our salvation.  The Psalmist ends with a prayer I pray for each of you today:  “Lord, let your faithful love surround us, because we Wait for the Lord. “  Remember friends They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.  In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit!  Amen!  

Answered Prayers-Do we really want them-A reflection on Psalm 32

            Have you ever prayed about something and when you got the answer you wanted to run as far as you could from it.  Last night as I talked with a friend I acknowledged that I felt like I should stop praying.  Twice in the last several weeks I had prayed about something and twice God clearly answered that prayer.  Twice I didn’t like the answer and wanted to run as far in the opposite direction as I could.  Clearly, I am not going to stop praying.  Clearly God is hearing my prayers and is present with me.  Thanks be to God.  As much as I hate the answers and the grief that goes along with them I am so very thankful that God is showing up and is present with me.  That is what prayer does.  Prayer draws us to an awareness of God’s presence with us.

            The Psalmist of Psalm 32 knows this well.  In this psalm he acknowledges that when he is silent to God that his “bones grow old.”  He acknowledges that communication with God brings blessing and forgiveness and life.  God should be the place we go to hide.  God delivers us, God protects us, and God forgives us.  When we trust God with our inner most being, God’s “mercy surrounds us.” (vs. 10) 

            Edward M. Bounds in The Possibility of Prayer writes:

It is answered prayer which brings praying out of the realm of dry, dead things, and makes praying a thing of life and power.  It is the answer to prayer which brings things to pass, changes the natural trend of things, and orders all things according to the will of God.  It is the answer to prayer which takes praying out of the regions of fanaticism, and saves it from being Utopian, or from being merely fanciful.  It is the answer to prayer which makes praying a power for God and for us, and makes praying real and divine. 

For us to hear those answers, though, we must begin by devoting ourselves to prayer.   Prayer can take many forms.  Scripture gives us many forms of prayer.  People pray silently, people write prayers, people speak prayers aloud, and people sing prayers and people draw prayers.  There is no set formula.  Pick one or some of these methods and commit yourself to a life of prayer.  Start with one prayer time a day.  I like to begin and end my day in formal prayer.  Throughout the day I may think or whisper many other prayers.  Whatever works for you, commit today to develop the habit of praying.  You will soon find that the habit evolves into a necessity for your life when you begin recognizing the answers and recognizing the overwhelming presence of God in your life.  In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen. 

The Language of Love-A Reflection of Proverbs 31

The book of Proverbs ends with some advice from King Lemuel that he attributes as advice he learned from his mother.  We do not know who King Lemuel was but his mother gave him some good advice.  Among the advice in Proverbs 31, is the description of a “virtuous woman.”  This scripture is used by many as a description of a good wife or a good woman and is often used at the funerals as a description of a saintly woman. 

I believe this description of a virtuous woman applies as a description to any person who is living a life worthy of the kingdom of God.  I believe this passage describes what it means to live a life of love for others.  That love extends not just to spouse but also to children, to the poor, to anyone in that persons circle of influence.  This person works hard, provides for her household, not depending on anyone else, she willingly and lovingly pulls her weight.  Not only does she pull her weight in the household but she cares for those in need outside of the household.  She makes her family proud. 

I recently read a book by Gary Chapman called The Five Love Languages.[1]  While the book was originally written as a result of research that Dr... Chapman did regarding couples he had counseled, it can translate across various types of relationships including but not limited to friends and children.  In fact he has written follow up books such as the Five Love Languages for Teens, The Five Love Languages for Children and That Five Love Languages for Single Persons. 

The gist of the book is that Dr. Chapman went back and reviewed 12 years’ worth of marriage counseling notes and he saw a pattern of marriages or relationships in trouble because one or both persons in the relationship did not feel loved.  What he discovered is that the things that made these persons feel loves and noticed fell into 5 categories:  Acts of Service, Physical Touch, Words of Affirmation, Receiving Gifts, and Quality Time Together.  What he found was that people typically show love in the way they like to receive love, never knowing the other persons preferred way of receiving love. In story after story there was a miracle of reconciliation among couples who committed to learn to speak their partner’s love language.  This was seen not only in couple relationships but also in relationships between parent and child and among friends.  We make initial connections with people but once with have gone through the process of discovering each other we default to the way we like to receive love and the relationship begins to die out because it is very rare that two people speak the same love language. 

The good woman of Proverbs 31 knew the different love languages and she loved people in the language they could understand.  What relationship in your own life seems to be slipping away?  What relationship does there seem to be no hope for?  I urge you to read/listen to this life altering book.  Even if it doesn’t save your relationship it will give you great tools for the next relationship you enter and will breathe life into it in ways you can’t imagine. 

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[1] Gary Chapman, The Five Love Languages, (Oasis Audio, 2005) 

Joy comes in the Morning-A Reflection of Psalm 30

                From Psalm 30 comes the familiar verse:  “Weeping may endure for a night But Joy comes in the Morning.”  (vs. 5).  Verse 7 goes on to say “You have turned form me my mourning into dancing: You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness. “  It’s amazing how God’s grace does this for us and the Psalmist is quick to give God Praise. 

            I lost my job in 2011.  I thought it was the worst thing that could happen.  I cried for days.  Then God spoke to me one morning as I looked in the bathroom mirror, brushing my teeth.  That conversation with God that morning led me to apply for admission to Candler School of Theology.  God used this grief and mourning to remind me of the call he placed on my life so many years ago and to spur me forward into that call.  Today, 3 ½ years later I hold a master’s degree from Candler School of Theology and am appointed as pastor of three wonderful congregations.  What felt like the worst thing that could happen to me turned out to be the best. 

            This gives me hope in other moments that seem doomed for destruction.  The words of Psalm 30 serve as a reminder of that hope.  To live into that hope though we must make room in our lives for conversation with God. 

            I read another passage from Brother Lawrence’s The Spiritual Maxims of Brother Lawrence this morning.  He says:

Life is full of perils and of hidden reefs, on which we shall make shipwreck without the continual succor of the grace of God.  Yet how can we ask for it, unless we are with God?  How can we be with God, unless our thoughts are ever of God?  How can God be in our thoughts, unless we form a holy habit of abiding in God’s Presence, there asking for the grace we need each moment of our life? 

Where ae you making space for recognizing God’s presence in your life?  In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen. 

A life of Prayer, Beginning with Praise-A Reflection on Psalm 29

Do you ever find it hard to pray?  You are not alone.  Here we are, heads bowed, eyes closed, talking to one we cannot readily see and that we must train ourselves to hear.  It can seem one sided and it can feel like our prayers do not make it past the ceiling.  Brother Lawrence, a 17^th century lay brother in a Carmelite Monastery in Paris, wrote about this in The Spiritual Maxims of Brother Lawrence.”  He describes being a novice at prayer and what he did was devote all he was and did to prayer.  He describes working in the kitchen and as he worked he prayed.  He devoted his work to God and he thanked God for the work that had been completed.  If the work didn’t turn out as he had hoped he would commit that also to prayer.  Life, for Brother Lawrence, was a continual prayer. 

            We have many models of prayer in scripture.  The most famous being the Lord’s Prayer.  Jesus begins the Lord’s Prayer with praise for God.  “Our Father in Heaven Hallowed be thy name.”  Psalm 29 gives us another example of praise.  We can turn to scripture to examples of prayer as we seek to make our own lives a continuous conversation with the source of Love, our Creator, and our God.  Thanks be to God.  

A reflection on Psalm 28

            The Psalmist in Psalm 28 once again cries out to God for help with those he considers his enemies.  Nothing particular jumps out to me about this Psalm today.  When we make scripture reading part of our everyday lives, there will be days that nothing particular speaks volumes into your heart.  Then there will come a day that the very thing you read a week ago will suddenly speak volumes to you in the moment.

            The important thing about this Psalm for me today is the understanding that our prayers may very well be the same with a bit of a different variation every day.  That is okay.  The important thing is that we recognize that it is God that we go to with our troubled hearts.  It is God that we put our trust in.  It is God who we hand over our lives to and allow to hold in his loving and faithful arms.  People will fail us.  God never will. 

            The Psalmist recognizes that it is to God he should cry.  The Psalmist also feels like there are times that God feels silent to him.  Yet even in those moments that he feels God is silent, it is God that he turns to and asks not to be silent.  The Lord does hear our prayers even when we don’t feel like it.  The Lord is our strength!  In that and that alone we can trust. 

            In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit!  AMEN!  

Stop: Go to God rather than Facebook: A reflection on Psalm 27

                Who are your enemies?  Where is there adversity in your life?  Who makes your blood boil? Who has betrayed you?  Whose actions fill your heart and mind with obsessive thoughts of how to respond or seek revenge?  I bet most of you have an image of someone or more. 

            Social media has been full of more hate filled vitriol in the last two weeks then I care to see.  A friend reminded me this morning that since the birth of Facebook we are apt to judge people solely based on their Facebook profile and news feed.  We do not take the time to sit down and have a conversation with someone before we make a judgement on whether they are friend or foe.  Enemy lines are quickly drawn between political parties, between left and right, conservative or liberal, and between and within denominations. 

            As I have driven around over the last two weeks I have been saddened by the eerie feeling I have that we, as a country, are regressing.  People are driving around with their war flag raised on their vehicles and on their porches.  Confederate flags, rainbow flags, American flags, they are proudly flying everywhere to alert the public to whose side you are fighting for.  I myself find myself easily judging the persons who are flying the “wrong” flag and I am ashamed that I am judging a person I don’t even know. 

            The Psalmist of Psalm 27 didn’t deal with his enemies by taking it up on Facebook.  He took it up with God.  First he recognized who God is to him.  “The Lord is my light and my salvation:  whom shall I fear?  The LORD is the strength of my life of whom shall I be afraid?”  (vs. 1)  He then acknowledges what he himself will do.  “I will seek.” (vs. 4)  “I will sing.” (vs. 6).  “I will seek your face O Lord.”  (vs. 8) The psalmist recognizes that no matter who betrays or forsakes him God will take care of him.  (vs. 10)  After a prayer of deliverance from his enemies, the psalmist concludes his psalm with some very wise advice.  He says:  “Wait on the Lord: Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart.  Wait, I say, on the LORD!.”  (vs. 14)

            I challenge you the next time you are faced with adversity whether it is in your personal life or through something you read in social media that makes your blood boil, to be still, to Wait on the Lord and to take your cares to the Lord through the praying of Psalm 27.  Make this Psalm your prayer in those moments of adversity. 

            I further challenge you to practice this habit in regards to Facebook:  Before you comment on someone’s status or before you post a Facebook status to your own page about something divisive, STOP and pray before you comment.  Chances are you will change your mind about writing that post or comment. 

            I offer these words in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.