Introducing Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes 1-2

            The very first Bible study I ever taught was on the book of Ecclesiastes, when I was in high school. I can’t say it was the best Bible study I ever led; nor can I say that I fully understood it.  (Mr. Harks, our youth counselor, took me aside afterward and spent some time on the distinction between Law and Gospel.) The truth is the book appealed—and still does appeal—to my dark side. And read on a surface level, the book itself is pretty glum. Reduce it to a t-shirt and you have, “Life sucks and then you die.”

            Derek Kidner, a respected scholar of the wisdom literature, comments that there are two main options in interpreting the book. First, it could be Solomon’s own interior debate about the value and purpose of life, a “debate with himself, torn between what he cannot help seeing and what he still cannot help believing,” a struggle between faith and sight (2 Cor. 5:7). Second, it could be understood as a “challenge to the man of the world to think his own position through to its bitter end, with a view to seeking something less futile.” That is, it could be understood as a response to the nihilist, the atheist, the one who says this life is all there is. “If this life is all there is,” the Preacher seems to say, “you’ll have a pretty dismal time of it. Want to reconsider?”

            Under the first view, one of the more poignant verses in the book is 3:11, “He has made all beautiful in its time; moreover, He set eternity in man’s heart.” On the one hand, the author is aware of the beauty of the world; on the other, he is keenly aware of its trials, travails, and contradictions. Yet he knows that he is more than a beast: a beast wouldn’t even notice the tension; an animal doesn’t live in dread of its death or of its legacy. He senses there must be something more and can’t turn his heart from that confidence.

            On the second view, it is the believer who can look the futility, the nonsense, the contradictions of life full in the face. And he does so, to drive the unbeliever to the deciding point: either it is glum, depressing, and pointless … or there’s more—one who sets eternity in human hearts, who provides, who determines. Sometimes you have to push the argument to its bitterest conclusion to cause someone to draw back and create space for the Gospel.

            On either view, I find this a strangely, darkly compelling book—even if I can’t teach it with any more clarity than I mustered 25+ years ago.

            One more introductory technicality: nowhere does the author identify himself as Solomon. He identifies himself as the Preacher, a son of David, a king in Jerusalem. Frankly, those titles could make him any of a number of people from kings before the exiles to kings-in-name only after it. For myself, I see no reason to think the author is anyone but Solomon.

The Wife of Noble Character

Proverbs 30-31

            When reading about the wife of noble character, it is important to imagine life before the Industrial Revolution. In a pre-industrial world, the home was the center of life, the household the basic economic driver. In this context, the wife of noble character is not some little homemaker; she doesn’t engage in ‘crafts.’ No, she is an economic engine: she is diligent, rising early, working industriously. She buys land, expands opportunities, engages in trade. She turns the fruit of the earth (traditionally the purview of a man) into goods for sale and for the support of the family.

            How do we translate this into an industrial age? Many in our day long nostalgically for a day when wives stayed at home and raised the children. But in some ways, the picture of the wife of noble character is very modern. She has a career; she creates wealth for the household. Now, of course, in a pre-industrial age, that work happened at home; but so did the work of the father, who taught especially his sons to engage in the family’s work. In an agrarian age, fathers and mothers raised children. So, yeah, we haven’t figured out all the questions that industrialization has raised, especially around work and childrearing, but the wife of noble character suggests that our options aren’t quite as limited as we sometimes think.

The Rich and Rulers

Proverbs 28-29

            Jesus famously says that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God (Matthew 19:24 and parallels). Proverbs 28 also has some things to say about the rich and the poor. The poor are not to be oppressed (28:3, 8). It’s better to poor and righteous than rich and perverse (28:6). Relatedly, stinginess and greed produce strife. The implication is that this is more a problem of the rich, that those who have little are more likely to share it. That’s not universally the case, but it is a warning that wealth can be a snare to us, if ever we start to value maintaining wealth more than we value people.

            Luke’s telling of the story in which the saying from Jesus dwells is interesting. Not only is the man in dialogue with Jesus rich; he is also a ruler. Proverbs has some things to say to those who rule, too. He is not to oppress his people (28:3), presumably through high taxes or a lifestyle out of proportion to his people (28:16). Such a ruler runs roughshod over his people (28:15).

            Lessons: regarding wealth, wealth is a blessing from the Lord, but it is a blessing that can turn our heads. Jesus tells us to use it wisely (Luke 16). Such wise use includes generosity (Matthew 10:8; 2 Corinthians 9:6).

            Lessons: Not many of us are rulers in the sense of governing cities, counties, etc. But many of us do exercise power of some sort, either over our children or as supervisors at work or as business owners. Fair treatment and understanding are called for (Luke 18:1-7; Ephesians 6:4; Colossians 4:1).

Engaging Fools

Proverbs 26-27

            Proverbs 26:4-5 offer an interesting contrast; they would be contradictory if we didn’t know that they were proverbs (generally true, not ironclad guarantees). On the one hand, we are advised not to answer a fool in his folly or we risk stooping to his level. Sounds like the modern adage, “If you wrestle with a pig, you’ll only end up cover in dirt.” On the other hand, answer him in his folly in order to expose his folly. Sometimes bad behavior has to be named. Wisdom is found in knowing when each is called for. In which situations will addressing foolishness just result in everyone being reduced to folly? In which situations will addressing foolishness lead to folly’s exposure? As an example: I hate talking about politics. People are so sure of their own rightness that they can’t hear opposing viewpoints and everybody just ends up deeper in their own echo chamber. Still, politics is part of our life and if truth is really a thing, then sometimes you have to call untruth what it is.

Proverbs in the New Testament, Again

Proverbs 24-25

            I mentioned about a week ago how I was seeing connections between Proverbs and the New Testament. There are two more of them in Proverbs 25.

            First, St. Paul directly quotes Proverbs 25:21-22 in Romans 12:20. This seems to be the original observation of “killing them with kindness.” On the surface, it seems a little strange, that the motivation for being kind to an enemy is their discomfort. On reflection, I’m not sure that’s quite where the proverb is headed, though. I think instead the heaping of coal’s refers to the enemy’s own sense of shame at realizing the other is not his enemy at all.

            The whole notion of enemies is troubling to me. In Romans 5, Paul states that Christ died for us while we were still enemies of God. If God so loved His enemies, how can we, His holy people, look at someone and name them an enemy? Unfortunately, when people hurt us, disappoint us, betray us, it’s very easy to name them enemies. How blessed it would be if we could see them as objects of the same mercy that we have received from God.

 

            The second example of a New Testament reference to Proverbs is 25:6-7 which rings of Jesus’ saying in Luke 14:7-11:

When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

The temptation is always to exalt ourselves, to speak of what we deserve, to seek our own honor. But the way of the kingdom, the way of wisdom, is to act humbly. The Lord will exalt in His due time. On this Jesus is completely in line with many proverbs.

Discipline, Drinking, Getting Older

Proverbs (18-21) 22-23

Proverbs 19:21—Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.

            Here’s one of those proverbs that encourages true humility because it encourages true dependence on the Lord. No matter how careful, how thorough, our plans, we cannot account for everything. Sometimes the things we don’t account for don’t make any difference and things go our way; sometimes the things we don’t account for have outsized consequences and things fall apart. In either case, we do well to count on the Lord.

 

Proverbs 20:20—The glory of young men is their strength, gray hair the splendor of the old.

            My uncle used to have a plaque on his desk that read, “Old age and treachery will overcome youth and vigor.” There does come a time when our bodies fail us, when the vigor of youth gives way. When that happens, we do well to lean more on our brains. Just recently I had to move a couch. In younger days, I would have horsed that thing around. This time I called a friend. “Work smarter, not harder.”

 

            We had several sayings recently about raising children: Proverbs 22:6, 22:15, and 23:13-14. The first one says that if we raise a child in the way he should go then they will stay on that way even when they are old. Here’s one where it’s good to remember that the proverbs are general statements, not ironclad guarantees. It’s good to remember that because everyone of us knows someone whose children did not follow in their ways; maybe it even happened in our family. I’ve often had parents ask what they did wrong that their children chose different paths, and I’ve often said that parents ultimately aren’t responsible for their grown children’s choices; those children also have agency. The best we can do is set them on the right path and pray that the Lord will keep them in it.

            The next two sayings encourage the use of the ‘rod.’ In a modern world, that sounds really brutal. Spanking has fallen out of favor in our parenting tool kit. And I think, in general, rightly so. Sometimes corporal punishment is the right choice—when for example there has to be urgency to the discipline. But corporal punishment dare not be executed in an atmosphere of anger. It cannot be perceived as retaliatory. It cannot teach that violence is the right response when one is upset. There are so many ways that corporal punishment can spill over into abuse that we do well to consider whether it should be used at all.

            On the other hand, the proverbs still ring true without corporal punishment. There are many ways to raise children in a disciplined environment without it. We need a broader understanding of discipline. Discipline is not punishment but an ordered life. Discipline begins with structure and routine. From the time they were only a few months old, our children had a bedtime routine—pjs, brushing teeth, read a book, say prayers, lights out. We rarely had to fight about it because that is just what we did. Morning routines came with school. Household chores were on a schedule. Children thrive on structure, and we only rarely had to resort to punishment.

 

            Proverbs 20:1, 21:17, 23:19-21, and 23:29-35 all warn against the dangers of alcohol. Psalm 104 says that wind gladdens the heart, and that’s true But alcohol must be treated with care. Too much and we say and do things we will regret. So, a drink eases the heart, but too many drinks have potentially disastrous risks.

The Ways of God

Proverbs 16-17

            The first section of Proverbs 16 reminds me of a modern proverb: “Man proposes; the Lord disposes.” That is to say, there is a limitation to human plans. We can be careful, cover all our bases, think through contingencies, wrap the thing in prayer, but ultimately our success rises or falls on the will of the Lord. This calls for humility, a key aspect of wisdom. We can’t think of everything and we certainly can’t control all factors. Proverbs 16:18 suggests the consequences of abandoning that humility. “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.” So, we work and plan and pray, and cast it on the Lord.

            A few others that stood out for me today:

            Proverbs 16:31: there was a time I fretted about my gray hairs. Anymore I see them as well-earned. It would be well if we didn’t try to feverishly to hold aging off. It would be well for our society if we weren’t so youth-obsessed. It would be well for us if we could regain a sense of honoring our elders.

            Proverbs 17:3: here’s one I don’t much like, but it’s still worth pondering. It is only by testing that we discover our mettle. People often (mis)quote 1 Corinthians 10:13, “God won’t let you be tested beyond what you can bear.” Here’s a think I note: only God really knows what our limits are; we only discover it in the fiery test. Consider Job, whose suffering was as much for his benefit as for anything, so that he could have his doubts burned off and be left with his absolute dependence on his God.

The Burdens of the Heart

Proverbs 14-15

            Solomon understands the experience of suffering. First, in Proverbs 14:10 he notes, “Each heart knows its own bitterness, and no one else can share its joy.” Suffering isolates us. Lamentations 1:12, “Is any suffering like mine?” Job felt deeply misunderstood by his friends. On and on it goes. Suffering is like a cage, like invisible bars around us. We feel like no one understands, like we can’t express it. Now, St. Paul says that things are different in the body of Christ, that we suffer and rejoice together (1 Corinthians 12:26), and that is something to rejoice in. Still, in our human experience, we often fall back into our fallen loneliness and reject any empathy given.

            Second, in Proverbs 14:13, Solomon notes that we hide our grief behind laughing faces. Consider the casual greeting, “How are you?” The expected answer is, “I’m fine, thank you.” It’s just polite conversation; nothing more is expected. How surprised we are when someone takes the question seriously and answers it honestly! Our age has a proverb of its own, “Don’t judge a man until you’ve walked a mile in his shoes.” People who seem well-adjusted and happy may well be bearing griefs we know nothing about.

            Third, Proverbs 15:13, “A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit.” The weight of our emotional troubles is every bit as heavy as the more obvious  burdens of life.

God’s Created Order

Proverbs 12-13

            Proverbs has no use for get-rich-quick schemes: that’s a theme through the first half of Proverbs 12. “Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies have no sense.” We sure live in an age of such schemes. My social media is filled with ads about earning thousands of dollars from the comfort of your home with only a few hours needed. I have a theory, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” In this matter, Proverbs overlaps the wisdom of say, Aesop, who told a story of an ant who worked diligently in preparation for the winter and a grasshopper who did not and starved, and who told a story of a tortoise and a hare in a footrace only to have the tortoise win because “slow and steady wins the race.” The wrinkle of Proverbs is that it sees such behavior as righteousness, acting as the Lord intends, according to His created order of things.

            In our age, we need to see a created order of things, especially since so many voices are saying that any such order is just a social construct, rules made up by men that don’t necessarily have to be followed. The German philosopher Frederich Nietszche articulated it in the 1800s, arguing that morality of all sorts is just a bunch of human rules and the truly strong person can break them because he is strong enough to see that they’re just human. Whether we recognize it or not, that kind of thinking undergirds a lot of our modern life. You can see it in the way that we ‘freed’ ourselves sexually so that everything is permissible. You can see it in the corruption that taints our government. You can see it in the unchecked pursuit of profit in business. Anywhere that the created says, “No,” humans are capable of saying, “Who says?”

            Proverbs reminds us that it is God Himself who says, “No,” who says, “There’s a way things should be done,” who says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

Proverbs in the New Testament

Proverbs 10-11

            I’ve read the Bible for a long time, and I love it when I make a new connection. Today I noticed several connections between St. Paul and the book of Proverbs.

            First, take a look at Proverbs 10:12, “Hatred stirs up conflict, but love covers over all wrongs.” I had never noticed how much that resonated with 1 Corinthians 13:5, that love keeps no record of wrongs. (Peter makes a similar comment in 1 Peter 4:8.)

            Second, Proverbs 10:16, “The wages of the righteous is life, but the earnings of the wicked are sin and death,” rings with Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is everlasting life in Christ Jesus.” Of course, Paul modifies it a little bit. Proverbs make life seem like a reward and Paul sees it as a pure gift, neither earned nor deserved.

            Finally, Proverbs 11:24, “One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty,” reminded me of 2 Corinthians 9:6, “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.”

            I don’t know what the great significance is. The New Testament regularly quotes the Old Testament, reminding us that our salvation is a single story about the fulfillment of a singular promise of salvation. But I looked it up, and Proverbs is quoted only four or five times in the New Testament, yet its influence goes deeper. If nothing else that teaches us that Proverbs is a book worth our time and effort.

The Deeper Meaning of Wisdom's Invitation

Proverbs 8-9

            Proverbs 8 begins with the image of wisdom, personified as a woman, calling out, inviting the people to embrace the best version of themselves. If folly invites us to indulge our most beastly desires, wisdom calls us to the noble ways of God. Again, I note two words: prudence and discretion (appearing 5 and 3 times in these first 9 chapters of Proverbs), Prudence can be understood as cautious, good judgment; discretion as carefulness—a carefulness that will not give offense or reveal what shouldn’t be revealed.

            Chapter 9 continues the image and contrasts the invitation of wisdom with the invitation of folly. Wisdom knows that she will not be universally accepted. Verse 7-8 point out that mockers will insult the wise and resent their insight; they are content to charge ahead in arrogance and they take pleasure in the power of having knowledge over another. But such a way leads to death.

            In between, we learn that wisdom is more than she appears (8:22-31). Wisdom existed before the creation of the world; indeed, wisdom was the Lord’s partner in creation. Later Christian reflection saw in this description of wisdom a nod toward Trinitarian theology. Wisdom was understood to be a way of referring to the pre-incarnate Christ, the second person of the Trinity. “But to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24).

            This changes how we look at the call and the warning. It’s not just a choice between good and bad behavior; it’s a choice between the ways of God, being renewed in His image, and the ways of sin which lead to death.

The Adulterous Woman, Or Is She?

Proverbs 7

            When is an adulterous woman not really an adulterous woman? When the image is a stand-in for folly. At least in part, that’s what is going on in Proverbs 7: it’s an analogy for wisdom and foolishness. That is clearer when we take chapters 7-9 as a unit. Even just in this chapter, though, there are clues. It is addressed to the simple, who wander unknowingly into dangerous situations. And the simple man is easily seduced with the offer of pleasure and food. Folly offers an easy route to a good life. Wisdom, by implication, is more difficult. Wisdom requires discipline, hard work, and lifelong faithfulness.

            Last week in my sermon, I was talking about the temptations of the world. I quoted the hymn, “Jesus, Grant that Balm and Healing,” about the world’s broad, easy way and its invitation to seductive, sinful vices. I said that the ways of the world are easy because they invite us to do what our basest instincts crave. The way of Christ means putting aside those desires. It means embracing the new creation that we are by our Baptism into Christ. It means setting aside base instinct and saying, “I am not an animal, a mere beast, that I should just act on my appetites. I am created in the image of God to live a godly life.” Many years ago, struggling with the question, “Why do we pray before we eat?” I settled on this answer: “We pray before we eat because we are not animals, who just tear into the food in front of them. We are children of God, and we can wait long enough to say, ‘Thank you,’ and to wait for everyone to be seated at the table together.” I continue to think it’s a good answer, and I think it’s indicative of the way of wisdom: wisdom means acting like a human, not some animal.

Adultery and Debt

Proverbs 5-6

            These two chapters contain two warnings against a sexually wandering eye and a warning against debt.

            The first warning against adultery uses the image of intoxication, which I think is apt. The problem is love and its perceptions. We tend to equate the obsessive longing of infatuation for love. Many relationships start with that feeling; many successful marriages begin with that feeling. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) that feeling evolves over time. The Greeks had more words for love than we do, and they characterized that feeling as eros. At its best eros keeps a place in a long-lasting marriage. But more needs to be added. Greeks distinguish philia, affection or friendship, and that is an important aspect of lasting relationships. They also not agape, a kind of love that serves another and puts their needs first. That’s the kind of love that sustains a relationship for the long-term. The intoxication of infatuation is powerful in an immediate sense, but intoxication is a good description, because that buzz is usually followed by weariness and a headache.

            The second warning against adultery uses the image of fire, again an apt picture. Eros burns hot; lust burns hot. But if that fire burns for another’s wife, it does not provide warmth but burns and injuries.

            In an age like ours, warnings against debt are difficult, because debt is so much a part of our lives. We go into debt for cars, for cellphones on payment plans, for houses. Credit cards are endemic among us. (According to Capital One, a credit card company, the average American had almost $6,000 of credit card debt in 2022.) Solomon’s advice sounds a great deal like Dave Ramsey: get out of debt as soon as you can: Allow no sleep, no slumber (6:5). Solomon dislikes debt because one becomes trapped by it, losing one’s agency because he is beholden to another. And he dislikes debt because it seems to him like an easy way out. Now, as a typical American who has some debt, especially a mortgage, I can’t say I love Solomon’s condemnation, but I certainly do see his point. Maybe a re-evaluation of how we operate in a modern economy is called for.

Knowing What You Need

Proverbs 4

            I’ve often said that there are three steps in fixing a problem: 1) realizing the problem exists, 2) brainstorming solutions to the problem, and 3) implementing a solution that works. I’ve also often said that the first step is often the hardest. I thought of that reading Proverbs 4:7 this morning, “The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom.” Now that seems redundant, but it’s actually quite insightful. Wisdom begins with humility. Most often in Proverbs, it is humility before the Lord God; here it is humility that says, “I don’t know it all.” Wisdom involves lifelong learning, and lifelong learning means realizing you never now all that there is to know.

The Way of Wisdom

Proverbs 1-3

            Proverbs is the quintessential book of wisdom. The books from Job to Song of Songs are often characterized as the “Wisdom” books, but Proverbs is the model for it: chapter after chapter of short, pithy sayings describing general principles of how the world works, what sort of behaviors lead to the best results, how to live with sanctified common sense.

            We’ll get to those chapters eventually. Today we have an introduction that tells us that the simple and the young need to be taught how to live wisely (1:4) and that the wise are those who continue to learn (1:5). And then we jump into the first section of the book, which contrasts the way of wisdom with the way of foolishness or folly. The section is cast as instruction from a father to a son to pursue wisdom and avoid folly. In this case, folly has an evil sense about it, not just foolishness as we would usually think of it, but an enticement to an actively wicked way of life. So, the call of wisdom is to leave that behind. For this reason, important theme of Proverbs is, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” What’s at stake here is not a prosperous life versus a needy life; what is at stake here is following the Lord or not. Everything else flows from that.

Psalm 138-150

Psalm 138-150

            Psalm 139 is a confession of the omnipresence and omniscience of the Lord. At first, David sees it as a good thing—awe-inspiring—that the Lord knows him so thoroughly. On reflection, though (verses 7-12), David realizes that that means there is no place in which he can hide from the Lord. There’s a certain fear in that. If God knows and sees all, then He knows and sees our sins, too, even the ones we think are in secret. But David quickly recovers; the Lord is not some kind of secret police, looking to catch us in wrongdoing. No, he is our Creator (vv. 13-16), who has known and loved us since we were in the womb. The psalm concludes with a prayer (vv. 19-24). It never explicitly mentions the Lord’s omnipresence, but the foregoing verses inform it. You can hear David wondering, “If God sees all, why doesn’t He do something about the evil?” a sentiment we certainly understand.

            In the order of Evening Prayer in our hymnal, Psalm 141:1-4 is the basis for one of the main canticles. That’s where I first learned Psalm 141, and I have cherished verse 3 ever since. “Set a guard over my mouth, Lord; keep a watch over the door of my lips.” For a man given to say whatever is on his mind at the moment, it’s a powerful prayer. James says that “the tongue is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body… a restless evil, full of poison” (James 3:6, 8). Many a conflict is sparked by careless words. It is good when the Lord sets a guard over our mouths, keeping thoughtless words from escaping.

            The superscription for Psalm 145 names it a ‘psalm of praise,’ and praise will characterize the last five psalms, too. Three themes bear comment in Psalm 145. First, “One generation commends your works to another.” Ronald Reagan once commented, “Democracy is never more than one generation from extinction.” I think in the last 20 years the church should have learned the same lesson. Young people have left the church in droves in that time, and that loss should remind us of the responsibility to pass the faith on generation to generation. Second, verse 8 repeats that common description of the Lord, a description we’ve read several times in the psalms, namely, that He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. There is a time, a place, and a necessity to preach the Law of the Lord, but as CFW Walther famously commented, “Let the Gospel have predominance.” Finally, as David recounts the Lord’s faithfulness, he notes that that faithfulness includes the food we eat. My language arts teacher in middle school often used verses 15-16 as our lunchtime prayer, and I’d suggest it makes a very nice addition to a family’s repertoire. “Come, Lord Jesus,” is a fine prayer; “The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing,” is a rich and deep prayer, too

            Psalm 146 contains a line we should take to heart, “Put not your trust in princes, in human beings who cannot save!” Way too often, we look to the powers of this world for our good, but we should look to the Lord for all good. Anything else is idolatry. 

Psalms 135-137

Psalms 135-137

            Notice in Psalms 135 and 136 how the psalmist recites God’s mighty actions, especially in the Exodus. For Israel, the Exodus was the foundational act of God, His great act of deliverance. Throughout the psalms we have heard references, allusions, and echoes of that act. This is what praise is: the recitation of God’s saving acts. For the Christian, the focus is on the personal exodus of Jesus Christ, passing over from the death of the cross to the new life of the resurrection. In this action, all of humanity was redeemed from the death of sin, so we recount it constantly.

            Psalm 137 expresses the longing of the exiles in Babylon to return home. The poignant question, “How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?” resounds. In the midst of grief and the troubles of life in a fallen world, we ask a similar question: “How can we be joyful under these circumstances?” The psalm doesn’t really offer an answer, except to remember Jerusalem, to remember the Lord’s past goodness, His fulfilled promises. In Christian terms, we cling to the cross and resurrection of Jesus, and remember Paul’s words in Romans 8, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (v. 32).

Psalms 126-134

Psalms 126-134

            I love the imagery of Psalm 126: the idea of relief that makes prior trouble seem like a dream; laughter and joy filling the mouth; streams in the desert. Very evocative images of what it is like when the trouble is past. I love the promise of verses 5-6, too: sowing tears but reaping joy. My own experience is that trouble doesn’t just suddenly go away; I have experienced precious few moments in which the turnaround is so immediate. For me, it seems like trouble fades: griefs are slowly healed, health and strength return after sickness in a few days. But still there comes a day when you realize you’re laughing again, that your joy has returned, and it’s a beautiful thing.

            Psalm 127 extols the virtues of children and a family founded in the Lord. I do think a word of caution is in order here. I’ve heard this psalm used to mandate large families, and I think that we should be careful. While we can in principle rejoice in the gift of children, we should also think of those who are unable to bear children and make sure we don’t accidentally make it seem like they are less than blessed or even under the Lord’s censure. Remember Zechariah and Elizabeth, John the Baptizer’s parents: they are described as righteous and blameless—and barren. Sometimes the Lord blesses differently.

            Psalm 130 is one of my absolute favorites. It begins with a common experience of life, namely, that we are in the depths, trouble surrounding us. It rejoices in the Lord’s faithfulness, that He is gracious and forgiving. And it encourages waiting on the Lord. I find that a really helpful outlook: life is hard sometimes; God is good all the time; and our calling is to wait until the Lord resolves those two things.

            Psalm 133 likens the unity of God’s people to oil and to dew. Oil on the head probably doesn’t sound all that pleasant to moderns; we shampoo often to keep the oil out of our hair. But in an ancient world without our fancy soaps and ointments, oil on the head was considered luxurious, keeping unruly hair in place. As far as the dew is concerned, Hermon is a snow-capped mountain in the north of Israel. It is the source of the Jordan River. For these reasons, it’s emblematic of fertility. In contrast, Mt. Zion is relatively arid. It’s surrounding region rockier, less given to growth. So, the image is one of transferring prosperity from Hermon to Zion. Unity creates a sense of being well-taken care of, well-provided for.

Psalms 120-125

Psalms 120-125

            The next 15 psalms (120-134) are all entitled “a song of ascents.” Nobody knows exactly what that means but the predominant understanding is that this collection of psalms was used as Israelite pilgrims made their way up toward Jerusalem. (Jerusalem sat on a hill and one always literally went ‘up’ to get there.) It seems to me that these psalms reflect a post-exilic origin and that they reflect both the longing for a home on Zion, technically the hill on which Jerusalem sat, and for the presence of the Lord.

            So, for example, in Psalm 120, the psalmist mentions living distant lands—Meshek and Kedar. Ancient place names are notoriously hard to track down, but Meshek may have been in what we know as Turkey and it seems likely that Kedar was in what we know as Saudi Arabia. These are not references to Babylon, but it’s possible an exile in Babylon would describe his banishment in those terms. Pair that with Psalm 121, in which the psalmist is looking up to the mountains, presumably to Mount Zion, and it is evocative of the return from exile and the anticipation of being again in the Lord’s presence. Psalm 121 is replete with the notion that the Lord protects even those who are far away from the Jerusalem, that He watches over those who are going away from His presence and those who are returning. Likewise, Psalm 123 suggests an exilic origin with its prayer for mercy because God’s people have ‘endured no end of contempt.’

            Hopefully the application to our lives is clear enough. We live in the exile of sin, but the gift of God in Jesus’ death and resurrection has brought us back into the presence of God.

Psalm 119

Psalm 119

            By far, the longest of the psalms, Psalm 119 is an extended paean to the Word of God. The psalm is an acrostic; it is composed of 22 sections, one for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and the eight verses in each section begin with the letter of the alphabet noted in the superscription. The form suggests order and completeness.

            Eight different words are used to name the Word of God: law, statutes, precepts, commands, laws, decrees, word (two different words). With such a heavy translational emphasis on law, the Lutheran reader might conclude that the psalm is all about God’s demands and condemnation, but the several of the words here have a wider sense that encompasses both Law and Gospel. For example, the Hebrew word torah, customarily translated law, refers to both the laws of Moses and the story of the Exodus. So, the psalm does highlight our behavior and obedience to the law, but it also stresses the promises that God has made.

Psalms 114-118

Psalms 114-118

Psalm 116 is an anthem about the Lord’s saving grace. The psalmist begins in the fear of approaching death, pivots to the confession of the Lord, that He is gracious and compassionate, and rejoices in his deliverance with the great line, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His faithful ones.” The word precious may be translated heavy, which adds a whole new dimension, echoing the Lord’s words in Ezekiel that He desires not the death of a sinner and Jesus’ weeping at the tomb of Lazarus. Death is no small thing, and the Lord seems to grieve at having to enforce that judgment.

Psalm 117 is the shortest chapter in the Bible.

Psalm 118 has a strong association with Passover and may have been among the psalms that Jesus and His disciples sang at the Last Supper.

Psalms 107-113

Psalms 107-113

            The point of Psalm 107 is in the last verse: “Let the wise heed and ponder the loving deeds of the Lord.” Of course, the body of the psalm talks about all sorts of judgment and trouble, sometimes well-earned as the rebels in the 3^rd stanza (verses 17-22), others from simply following their vocation, as the sailors in the 4^th stanza (verses 23-32). In it all, the wise person will see not only the judgment but also that the Lord delivers.

            Peter quotes Psalm 109 in Acts 1, when the earliest believers are faced with replacing Judas. It’s rather common in the psalms for the psalmist to bemoan treacherous friends even more than treacherous enemies. (I guess one expects enemies to be treacherous…) This is especially true of Judas, whose betrayal runs deep, to the very heart of things. Whatever trouble we face in life, whatever disappointment, whatever betrayal, Jesus suffered it first and He suffered it worst. We truly have a high priest who is like us in every way (Hebrews 4:15).

            One author says that Psalm 110 is quoted or alluded to 30 times in the New Testament. I generally trust his work, so I didn’t check his math. Whether it’s 30 or less, Psalm 110 is all over the New Testament. Jesus Himself uses it to support His claims to be the Messiah. In Holy Week, after His triumphal entry and His cleansing of the temple, the Pharisees and Sadducees mount a series of challenges to Jesus, and He finally silences them by asking,

Then Jesus said to them, “Why is it said that the Messiah is the son of David? David himself declares in the Book of Psalms: “‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”’ David calls him ‘Lord.’ How then can he be his son?” (Luke 20:41-44)

Psalm 110 becomes the proof text par excellence of Jesus’ messiahship.

            Psalm 113 has one of those features so common in the psalms—contrasting the Lord’s exalted nature with His care for the lowly. It’s a mistake to make God too immanent, that is, too present, too common, too friendly. God is wholly other. It is also a mistake too make Him too glorious, as if He was above the mess of human life. The incarnation of the Son of God is proof of His desire to be in the mess with us. So, we balance a God who is high and exalted and who is treated with respect, even fear, and a God who is present for us in our worst times. I’m reminded of that great conversation in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Mr. Beaver has just told the Pevensie children about Aslan, the great lion. Lucy asks if he is quite safe, and Mr. Beaver say, “Safe? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the king, I tell you.” Something to consider about our God!

Psalms 102-106

Psalms 102-106

            One of the classic expressions of what forgiveness means is in Psalm 103. David starts with the Lord’s prototypical self-identification: He is the Lord, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in love (chesed, faithfulness). Some dozen times the Lord is so identified through the Old Testament. This God’s love (chesed, again) is as high as the heavens are above the earth. (The author of the children’s book, Guess How Much I Love You¸ with its answer, “To the moon and back,” has nothing on the Lord!) Then, the description of His forgiveness—“as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions.” It’s a beautiful statement that when God forgives our sins, He means it: there is no lingering effects in the heart of God.

            Psalms 105 and 106 make a pair. In the former, the psalmist extols the Lord’s faithfulness to His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He recounts His protection of them until their time in Egypt, and he reminds of the plagues and the Exodus. This God can be trusted. In the latter, the psalmist recounts Israel’s failures: their despair by the Red Sea, their craving for different food, the golden calf, their refusal to enter the land of promise, the idolatry at Beth Peor. God is faithful, but His people are not. I would seem that these psalms were written in the Exile, because Psalm 106 ends with a prayer to gather them again out of the nations. Because God is faithful, there is reason to believe He will.

Psalm 96-101

Psalm 96-101

            Today’s psalms are a series of songs of praise, in many ways overlapping each other in theme and content. If we look for a progression it seems to be that they move from the world in general toward a more specific focus on Israel. Psalm 96 calls for the Lord to be exalted among the nations and looks for His righteous judgment. His people will be judged faithfully. Psalm 97 describes the Lord in His majesty in terms redolent of Mt. Sinai, “clouds and thick darkness.” This is very much Israel’s God who comes to judge, who will put to shame idolaters. In Psalm 98, this majestic God is the one who does marvelous things, especially making his salvation and righteousness known to the nations. That is, His rescue of Israel is His claim to fame, even among the pagans. Psalm 99 continues the trend: the nations tremble. Why? Because the Lord is with Israel. I’m reminded of the fear of Jericho because the Lord was with Israel. Without the Lord Israel is just a ragtag band of immigrants; with Him, she is a force to be feared despite the greatness of their walls and army. By Psalm 100, then, what is left to do but to go to the temple and rejoice that we are His people, the sheep of His pasture. Psalm 101 is again a psalm of David, and he has internalized the struggle: he hates evil, conducts himself according to the Law of God, and so the raging of the nations doesn’t bother him.

Psalms 90-95

Psalms 90-95

            What a great collection of psalms! Psalm 90, the only psalm attributed to Moses, is a lament about old age and the fear of dying. But it ends with wisdom—“Teach us to number our days,” to use our days well and profitably, not to waste the precious time given to us—and with the prayer that the Lord would establish the work of our hands.

            Psalm 91 has been made well-known among us because it is the basis for the well-loved song, “On Eagle’s Wings,” even though the psalm never mentions an eagle… Still, it’s a loving psalm about the Lord’s loving care and protection. Of course, we have to understand it at least partially in an eschatological kind of way: nothing will ultimately hurt us. Maybe we can understand Psalm 91 a little better if we hold it against Romans 8:38-39, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” It’s not that the Christian life will be trouble free; it’s that the love of God will see us through.

            Psalm 92 continues the theme with its promise that the righteous will thrive like a tree, bearing fruit even into old age. Pastor and author Eugene Peterson redeems and a phrase from the atheist philosopher Frederick Nietzsche, describing our Christian life as “a long obedience in the same direction.” There is a blessedness to following the Lord through all of life’s trials and on into a blessed death and an even more blessed future.

            Psalm 95 is familiar to generations of church goers because it forms the basis for the Venite, one of the main canticles of the order of Matins. (My current congregation doesn’t use the order of Matins, and it’s one more case where I wonder what we’ve lost. As I observed when we started reading the psalms, I do wish we used the psalms more often in public worship, as the church has for most of its existence.) Psalm 95 is a beautiful expression of praise and of the confidence of God’s people, “We are the people of His pasture and the flock under His care.” I do find it interesting that the first part of the psalm is so well-known but that the concluding portion—the warning—is all but unknown. It’s as if the psalmist were saying, “Yes, we are the Lord’s flock, but that doesn’t mean we can’t fall into devastating sin. Let’s not be presumptuous.”

Psalms 83-89

Psalms 83-89

            Psalms like Psalm 83 are hard to read. Jesus teaches us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:44). How, then, are we supposed to pray for the destruction of our enemies? I find it helpful to make a distinction between God’s enemies in general and individual cases. That is, I think it is acceptable, even anticipated, that we would look for the final judgment, when all the forces that oppose the Lord will be condemned—from the cosmic forces of Satan and his demons to the worldly institutions and attitudes that oppose Him. I try really hard not to personalize, though, as if I knew what was going on in any one person’s heart. I think it is my responsibility to pray for the salvation of any one person, even as I long for the world to be straightened out.

            Psalm 84 reflects an attitude that I wish was more prevalent in our world today. “Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere”? Too often, we act like an hour is too much! Rain keeps people away; snow keeps people away; sunshine and moderate temperatures keep people away; sports, vacations, you name it. We are not a people who honor the Sabbath much anymore!

            Psalm 85 has a collection of some of the most important words in biblical Hebrew, “Love (chesed) and faithfulness (emeth) meet together; righteousness (tsedek) and peace (shalom) kiss each other.” Each of these words carries a lot of freight, so they are hard to translate in a way that captures all their nuances. Chesed refers to the Lord’s faithfulness to His promises; it encompasses His fidelity, His faithfulness, His dedication. (The NIV translates it ‘love’ and I suppose that’s fine, even though Hebrew has another word that more exactly corresponds to what we mean by love.) I learned that emeth should be translated truth, and that can be extended to someone’s trustworthiness, so NIV’s faithfulness is, again, ok. Tsedek means righteousness, and it refers to the Lord’s rightness, that He determines what is right, and that He is the One who will eventually set all things to right. Setting all things right is contained, too, in the Hebrew notion of shalom, or peace. Peace in the Old Testament is not just the absence of war, but it refers to a condition not just in which there is an absence of conflict but also that all things are set right, maybe what we would use the word reconciliation for.

            One last note for today: Psalm 87 seems to allude to a future in which the nations are counted among God’s people. The Old Testament has several places in which the Gentile becomes part of the people of God. For instance, the Law of Moses makes several provisions for the stranger in their midst and Ruth is famously a Moabite. Still, a missionary impulse is relatively rare in the OT, so to read that Egypt (Rahab) Babylon, Philistia, Tyre, and Cush will be recorded among those who acknowledge the Lord reminds us that the Lord’s desire has always been for all humans to be saved.

Psalms 35-41

Psalms 35-41

            The persecution of the righteous seems to tie a lot of today’s readings together. The betrayal of friends, the injustice of success, the final judgment of the faithless—we see these themes in several of today’s psalms. Of course, they reflect David’s own experience, and in some ways they reflect our experiences, but here is a case when we do well to focus them in Christ.

            Jesus is the true righteous sufferer, because He is the only truly righteous man. When Jesus protests that the wicked have risen against Him, that His friends have betrayed Him, that His suffering is unjust—those protests are true. (In our cases, there’s always some sense in which we have to ask, “How did I contribute?” because we are not perfect.) So, when Jesus prays, “Vindicate me, O Lord,” (35:24), He is perfectly right.

            Run this through Jesus’ experience. The Pharisees become increasingly agitated with Him. The chief priests and Sadducees fear Him. Both collaborate with the Romans to turn the people against Him and to have Him crucified. His disciples abandon Him, despite Peter’s insistence that he would die alongside Jesus rather than ever renounce Him. Luke records the centurion’s words at the foot of the cross as, “Surely this was a righteous man,” and that centurion was right. One of the themes of Jesus’ resurrection is that his resurrection was exactly the vindication He was longing for, the Father’s declaration that His Son had not deserved what He got.

            When we’re feeling the injustice of it all, we do well to remember not to protest our innocence too heartily, but to remember that we are “in Christ.” He’s suffered it all already and in perfect innocence. By faith, we are Christ’s and what is true of Him is given to us. Consider Romans 8:17, “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” We share in His suffering now; we will share in His vindication forever.

Psalms 29-34

Psalms 29-34

            Psalm 30 merits a comment for two reasons: first, it causes us to reflect on the Israelite view of death and the afterlife. Ancient Israel did not have the fully developed sense of the afterlife that we see in the New Testament, especially say in Revelation. The Hebrew name for the place of the dead was sheol. The word itself doesn’t appear in the 2011 NIV, where it’s translated realm of the dead, nor does it appear in older NIVs, where it is translated grave. Whether you see the word in translation or not, it’s there. Sheol is described as a pit, sometimes a slimy pit. Sometimes it’s described as a swampy place where the muck and weeds will pull a person under the water, a far cry from the new Jerusalem’s golden streets! Israel knew that death was beyond human experience and human existence after death was conceived as a shadowy kind of half-reality. As Israel reflected and developed under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, they understood more and more that the God who cared and protected them in life would also care and protect them in the afterlife. (Consider Psalm 6:5: “Among the dead no one proclaims your name. Who praises you from the grave?”) So, Psalm 30 gives us a glimpse of an era in which God’s people were unsure about what happened after death but they clearly saw it as something they wished to be delivered from.

            The second thing in Psalm 30 that I note is in verses 5 and 11, and that is the beautiful promises of God’s intervention, “His anger lasts only a moment; weeping stays for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. You turned my wailing into dancing and my sackcloth into garments of joy.” I observed in connection with Psalm 13 that this confidence is coupled with the troubled cry, “How long?” And certainly Christian experience demonstrates that God’s blessings aren’t always immediately apparent. I used the word eschatological twice in yesterday’s blog. The word means pertaining to the last things, and it is a way to refer to the great restoration of the creation that will occur when Christ returns in glory. Our confidence, that the Lord will transform weeping into joy, is thoroughly eschatological. We may mourn every day of our life, but we live in the hope that on that day all things will be transformed for our good. It makes waiting an essential part of Christian experience, but as Paul says, “For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently” (Romans 8:24-25).

            Psalm 31 is quoted by Jesus on the cross. It’s a prayer of confidence, even in trying circumstances. Verse 22 captures the point of the psalm, “In my alarm I said, ‘I am cut off from your sight!’ Yet you heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help.” God hears and cares, even when we think He doesn’t.

            Psalm 32 is a classic expression of confession and the joy of forgiveness.

            Psalm 33 contains an expression of the Biblical view of creation which affirms the basic thrust of Genesis 1, namely, that the Lord created all things out of nothing, simply by speaking them into existence. It’s also a reminder of the power of God’s Word. What He says happens.

Psalms 23-28

Psalms 23-28

            Psalm 23 is, of course, the most well-known of all the psalms, its idyllic imagery bringing comfort to generations of Christians. The image of a shepherd is appropriate for David, who famously was a shepherd before he was called to both royal service under Saul and to the kingship itself. In some ways, a shepherd is the ideal image of Israel’s king, because it’s an image appropriated by Yahweh Himself, both here and in other places. Contrary to the world around them, Israel saw a true king as a caretaker and protector of the people under his care, just as Yahweh was a different kind of god, a god who cared for and knew and redeemed His people.

The 2011 update of the NIV makes what I consider the strange choice to translate verse 4 as walking through the darkest valley. I still prefer the more literal translation, “the valley of the shadow of death.” The latter translation sees the eschatological implications of verses 5-6, about which theologian Miroslav Wolf makes this interesting note. In a book about forgiveness and remembering, he tells a story of an army officer who had mistreated him in his native land, then he imagines two ways to understand a table in the presence of his enemies. He comments that he had always imagined that verse as himself at the table and his enemies looking on with jealous. Then he reimagined it that his enemy was at the table with him, equally forgiven and them reconciled. That’s a powerful image of the healing that occurs for us on the last day.

            Psalm 24 is often associated with the season of Advent. The first Sunday in Advent has traditionally had Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem as its Gospel reading, and the psalm certainly plays on the image of the triumphant Lord coming to the gates of Jerusalem in victory. (Since the word advent is a Latin word that simply means coming, the appropriateness of both Scriptures is apparent.)

            Psalm 27:1 is a common confirmation verse, with its promise that the believer has nothing to fear with the Lord as his light, salvation, and stronghold. The rest of the psalm bears reflection, too. Verse 2-3 advance the idea of fearlessness, and verses 4-6 define the believer’s hope: on the one hand, David longs to be in the tabernacle; on the other hand, the tabernacle is just an earthly reflection of God’s heavenly throne room, so there is an eschatological sense here, too. The believer’s deliverance and vindication may not be obvious in this age of the world, but in the age to come… Verses 7-12 are a prayer to be heard by the Lord because that end-time vindication hasn’t appeared yet and a prayer to know the Lord’s ways, a good prayer in a time when the evidence seems to indicate the Lord’s disengagement from us. Finally, verse 12-13 express the believer’s confidence and conclude with the exhortation to wait for the Lord. Sometimes, oftentimes, it seems like that is all the believer can do—wait for the Lord. (I’ve often commented that in the New Testament faith, hope, and love are the chief virtues and that the fourth virtue is patience endurance, mentioned time and again!)

Psalms 18-22

Psalms 18-22

            Four of today’s five psalms are of David. (About half the psalms are his.) What’s interesting in a few of them is how they offer a lesson in interpretation. In the first instance, Psalm 18, for example, is a song celebrating David’s deliverance from Saul. He recounts his sense that death was impending; he celebrates the Lord’s intervention in mythic terms; and he rejoices that he was rescued from his enemies. Secondly, though, it’s a psalm we can imagine on Jesus’ lips. On the cross, death reached out for and in the resurrection the Father intervened powerfully. Now Jesus has victory over His foes and ours—sin, death, and the devil. Finally, in some ways, we can read this psalm in exactly as David did: we see the troubles of our lives, rejoice in God’s powerful intervention (which we apprehend by faith in Christ Jesus), and exult that those cosmic foes that Jesus defeated, he defeated for us and for our benefit.

            Similarly with Psalm 22. In the first instance, it’s about David’s personal experience. In the second, Jesus famously quotes the opening verse on the cross, appropriating the psalm as a description of His experience. Finally, we come to it in the ordinary trials of life, as David did, but we also come to it in faith in the One who has gone through everything we go through. Only He came through it to victory, so for us, in Him, we recognize our ultimate victory, too.

            Psalm 19 is of a different sort, but it’s important to consider. It begins by rejoicing in the way that the creation “declares the glory of the Lord.” Call this natural knowledge of God, the evidence of God in creation. The psalmist sees God’s glory in the stars and in the sun. But there’s a hiccup: on the one hand, he says “they pour forth speech;” but on the other hand, “They have no speech.” There is a clear limitation to this natural knowledge. We might learn of a God who is powerful, orderly, glorious. But we don’t learn anything about His grace. The second half of the psalm pivots almost completely to the Lord’s revealed will. (Notice that in verses 1-6, it’s always God, never the Lord. You can’t make too much out of it, but the Lord is the name He revealed to Moses as He brought Israel out of Egypt; the Lord is His saving name.) It’s in the Lord’s revealed words that we have guidance, instruction, comfort—certain knowledge of His will and His grace. Natural knowledge is fine so far as it goes, but if you really want to know the God of grace, you need His revealed knowledge. You need to read the Scriptures, hear the Scriptures read and explained. That’s where salvation is found.

Psalms 12-17

Psalms 12-17

            One of the things that many Christians find helpful in understanding the psalms is to understand Jesus as the most proper speaker. It’s a useful exercise in some cases to ask the question, “What would this sound like, what would this mean, on the lips of Jesus?” I say “in some cases,” because although people I respect a lot understand the psalms this way, I’m not sure it’s always as useful as it could be.

            I bring it up today, because in Psalm 12, I can see it. The psalmists opening lament that no one is faithful draws my mind to Jesus in Gethsemane where even His closest friends abandon Him to the cross. (Yes, Peter follows at a distance, but that’s a far cry from Peter’s earlier, “I will stand with you!”) And you can imagine the promise that the Lord would protect the plundered poor and the groaning needy on Jesus’ mind as the cross loomed in front of Him.

            The phrase, “How long?” appears some 17 times in 10 psalms, four times in the first two verses of Psalm 13 alone. Whether we’ve expressed it that way or not, I think it’s a question often on our minds: how long until the Lord finally and fully intervenes? How long until He sets everything to rights in fullness as He did in principle when Jesus dies and rose again. The last verse is important: “But I trust in your unfailing love.” And we New Testament believers have seen the fullness of that love in Jesus.

            Psalm 14 is well-known both for its famous opening line, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God,’” and for its use in Romans 3, where Paul adds it to the list of verses proving the point that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

            “The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.” That’s a line I’ve often reflected on. Ministry has taken us to three congregations in two states, and we’ve been blessed by our relationships with them. Whatever boundaries the Lord has set on our lives, we are blesse there—if we but open out eye s to see it.

Psalms 7-11

Psalms 7-11

            One of the surprising features in Psalm 7 is David’s claim for his own righteousness in verse 8, “Vindicate me according to my righteousness.” Here’s a place for some careful distinctions. It’s not that David (or any of the other psalmist) think they are perfect. Psalm 51, also of David, makes that point with David’s abject repentance! But he does think, as Job did, that he has live a life that by human standards has been good, that he has integrity. A useful distinction is between how things look from God’s point of view (coram Deo) and how they look from a human point of view (coram hominibus). David here is speaking from that human point of view. Even our Lutheran Confessions make space for what they call civic righteousness. Think of it this way: just because every human carries the corruption of original sin, that doesn’t make every human Jeffrey Dahmer…

            Psalm 8 is well-known, if for no other reason than that there is a famous praise song that uses verse 1 as a chorus. It is also quoted four times in the New Testament. Verse 2 is cited in Matthew 21 in regard to Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. And verses 4-6 are quoted in Hebrews in regard to the divinity of Jesus. In its original context, Psalm 8 is a paean about the role that humans play in God’s order for his creation: they are, in a sense, lower than the angels, without that power and splendor, yet they are, in a sense, higher than the angels because they bear God’s image and are his regents on earth.

            Psalm 9 intriguingly compares the Lord to the avenger of blood. The avenger of blood was a close relative whose duty it was to make sure that those who hurt a member of the family paid the price. So, the psalmist calls on the Lord to remember his troubles and those who have caused it. That the Lord is not some vigilante is seen in the confident assertion that the Lord judges with equity.

            Psalm 10 begins with a lament that the Lord seems to delay his intervention for his people. The bulk of the psalm (verses 2-11) recount how awful the wicked are. And it ends with a stirring call for the Lord to act. Sometimes the language of the Psalms can seem vicious. “Break the arm of the wicked!” For Christians, we understand that the ultimate day of God’s punishment is the last day, and the ultimate punishment is not vicious so much as untellingly severe: an eternity in hell.

Introducing Psalms

Psalms 1-6

            Ah, Psalms! We’re going to read it in just over 4 weeks, and that’s no way to read this delightful book. Until we started Today’s Light, I had been in a discipline that included reading the psalms in 6 months—twice a year.

            Psalms is at once a hymnal and a prayerbook, a combination that makes sense once we think about how often our hymns speak to God in prayer. Israel sang the songs in the temple and in the synagogue and there is clear evidence that some psalms were assigned to certain festivals, too. (The church has used the psalter the same way, although in our modern, time-conscious times they have fallen more and more into disuse. More’s the pity!) Here you will find expression of all sorts of human experience: praise, thanksgiving, anger, lament, guilt. If you’re feeling it, chances are there is a psalm that expresses it.

            Like any good hymnal, the psalter is a sort of greatest hits album. Psalm 90 is attributed to Moses, 3500 years ago. About half of the psalms are attributed to David, a good 500 years later. Still others come from the period after the exile, still another 500 years. So, we have the best prayers and songs of Israel from a period of about 1000 years.

            So much more could be said about the psalms! Last time I did a Bible study on this precious book, it took thirty weeks. I’ll try to hit some of the high points as we go. But I would strongly suggest that you make this collection a part of your regular devotion. For what it’s worth, this is the schedule I have followed the past few years:

 

Week 1            Psalms 1-8

Week 2            Psalms 9-15

Week 3            Psalms 16-19

Week 4            Psalms 20-25

Week 5            Psalms 26-31

Week 6            Psalms 32-36

Week 7            Psalms 37-40

Week 8            Psalms 41-46

Week 9            Psalms 47-52

Week 10          Psalms 53-59

Week 11          Psalms 60-67

Week 12          Psalms 68-70

Week 13          Psalms 71-74

Week 14          Psalms 75-78

Week 15          Psalms 79-85

Week 16          Psalms 86-89

Week 17          Psalms 90-96

Week 18          Psalms 97-103

Week 19          Psalms 104-106

Week 20          Psalms 107-111

Week 21          Psalms 112-118

Week 22          Psalm 119

Week 23          Psalm 120-132

Week 24          Psalms 133-140

Week 25          Psalms 141-146

Week 26          Psalms 147-150

 

With that, let’s take a brief look at today’s psalms. Psalms 1 and 2 are usually considered as a pair, introducing the major themes of the psalter. Reasons for this include the fact that neither has any attribution or introductory comment; they are framed by a statement of blessing (1:1, 2:12); and they introduce two major themes.

The first major theme is about wisdom, a gift which is found in delighting in the Lord’s law (1:2). Law here is used in a different way than Lutherans typically use it. We hear “law” and think of God’s condemnation for our sin. Here, as in many other places in the Old Testament, the underlying word is torah, which often refers to the first five books of the Bible. So, here, to delight in the torah of the Lord is to delight in His act of creation, his choice of Abraham (and hence Israel), and especially the deliverance from Egypt and the joy of being God’s holy people, expressed in the laws of Moses.

            The second major theme encompasses God’s reign over all the earth. Here, as often, it is expressed in terms of His anointed. God’s anointed often refers in the first instance to the Davidic king, but equally often we hear messianic overtones in that language.

Psalm 3 laments that although David is the Lord’s anointed, his enemies surround him. (The introduction specifically tells us David wrote this psalm while he was fleeing during Absalom’s revolt.) Typical of many psalms, Psalm 3 juxtaposes David’s frustration with his circumstances with his confidence in the Lord.

Just a few quick notes on the remaining psalms today. Psalm 4: I love verse 8. For a guy who has a hard time turning his brain off and sleeping, this is a promise I cherish. Psalm 5:8-9: a visceral description of one’s enemies. Psalm 6:7 expresses a common sentiment in the psalms, namely, that no one sings God’s praises from the grave. Keep this one in mind. Hopefully at a future point we can talk about Israel’s understanding of the afterlife.

Summing Up

Job 42

            In the end, Job is repentant. Not for some presumed fault that led to his suffering but for his presumption in how he talked to and about the Lord. Verse 5 suggests a different kind of knowledge of God: “I’d heard of you but now I see,” Job says. It’s one thing to have a sort of abstract head-knowledge that God is omnipotent; it is a whole other thing to have lived through terrible suffering and to know in your very bones that the Lord can be trusted. Of course, for New Testament believers like us, that lesson is centered in God’s ultimate act of mercy, the death of His Son, Jesus. If the Lord loves us like that… Or, as Paul puts it in Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”

            The Lord condemns Job’s friends for not speaking the truth about Him. They had lots of theologically true and interesting things to say, but they misconstrued the character of God. They had prioritized His justice over His grace. In terms of Lutheran theology, they had confused His alien work, the work that He does because He has to although He takes no delight in it, such as punishing sin, with His proper work, the work that is most true to His character, namely, showing compassion to His beloved creatures. Job, for his part, had spoken the truth about the Lord. As we have seen, he may have gone too far in his presumption, but he looked for mercy from his God.

            Ultimately, Job is doubly blessed. He accumulates twice the livestock he had before. He is blessed with seven more sons and three more daughters, as beautiful women as could be found. And he dies an old man. (There is some question whether Job lives an additional 140 year or if 140 is his age at death. Either way, it’s an age worthy of the patriarchs.) In our suffering, there is no guarantee that we will be so abundantly blessed with the things of this age of the world. But we who are in Christ will be blessed in the age to come, with eternal life in the very presence of our God. Christians look at these things eschatologically, that is, with the End in mind 

The Lord’s Turn

Job 38-41

            At long last, the Lord makes an appearance—in a storm. The storm, it seems to me, has two purposes. On the one hand, it makes the Lord’s appearance terrifying. Job is put in his place; he doesn’t fully appreciate Who he is dealing with. The Lord spends chapters 38 and 39 cataloguing His works of creation, and reminding Job that a human has no ability to do all the things the Lord does. From the earth’s foundations to the springs of the deep to the stars in heaven to the secret wisdom of the animals’ character—it is all the Lord. “Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge,” indeed!

            On the other hand, the storm is reminiscent of God’s appearance on Mt. Sinai and the cloud in which He dwelt in the tabernacle. The all-powerful Lord condescends to talk to his unruly servant. There is a certain kind of grace in that, demonstrating that He has heard Job’s cries, that He has seen, that He does care. The Lord’s purpose is not only to put Job in his place but also to comfort Job with His presence.

            It turns out young Elihu was closest to correct: Job needs to learn humility; the sufferer needs to learn his place. We readers know from chapters 1 and 2 that the Lord is not punishing Job. Indeed, the Lord has been bragging about Job. The whole thing is a chance for Job to prove his faithfulness, a faithfulness the Lord never doubted. If in his suffering Job has overreached and has become too strident in his objections, the Lord still considers him faithful. Job just needs to be reminded that the Lord is God and that Job is but one of His creatures. Job needs to learn what he confessed in chapters 1 and 2, namely, that the Lord can be counted on in trouble as in blessing.

            That seems like an apt lesson for all of us.

The Words of Young Elihu, Part 2

Job 35-37

            Elihu points out the inconsistency that Job wants to declare his own righteousness and at the same time to cast doubt on God’s justice. God is so far above humans, Elihu argues, that our behavior doesn’t affect Him or change Him. Job’s problem, as Elihu sees it, is an arrogance that expects the Almighty to answer a human’s petty demands.

In a different metaphor, one might say that humans are like toddlers, stomping their feet, threatening to run away or hold their breath until they die, and God is an adult, ignoring their baseless threats. Well, not ignoring exactly. The Lord listens; He knows what His people need. But He doesn’t take our ranting very seriously.

In chapter 36, Elihu argues for God’s justice. The Lord does listen to the cries of His children. If Elihu sees a sin in Job, it’s that instead of simply laying his cries before the Lord, Job has demanded an explanation. To grab my previous metaphor, the problem is not that Job is upset; it’s that he’s throwing a tantrum.

For most of chapter 37, Elihu warms to his theme that God is great; he exalts in the power of the Lord shown in the storm. In verse 14, he brings it back to Job: “The Lord is so much bigger than you,” he says. How would Job ever even formulate his question to the one who dwells in unapproachable light (1 Timothy 6:16)?