Wilderness Wanderings

Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart (Psalm 37:4).

These are not words I would have selected for our community this week, as we mourn a life tragically cut short. This verse seems to mock us in our grief.

It's been carved on many a plague to adorn our kitchen walls and encased in a picture frame for our living rooms. Sometimes preachers will choose it for a sermon text, leaving their congregations with the impression that if they just love the Lord enough, all will be well with them. As they define wellness.

The trouble is that these words are often ripped out of the context in which they have been passed down to us. Psalm 37 is not a "Don't worry, be happy" kind of prayer. It begins, "Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of those who do wrong..."

It's not about God giving us what we want. It is about worry, or rather, moving towards a worry-free life. But even that is not quite accurate. This psalm invites us towards lives in which we exchange despair for hope. Notice that its not quite a prayer, not directed towards God. If anything, it is directed towards God's community of faith.

Why is despair so prevalent in this song? Because of evil and people who commit evil. They are everywhere and appear to have the upper hand. They commit acts of injustice, and they get away with it. Such people seem to have all the power, and the powerless simply get walked on.

In inviting us away from worry, and I think, uncontrollable rage at injustice, the psalmist views life from the perspective of God's promises, his commitment to bring justice, in his own time.

This psalmist is getting impatient. We can relate to that: all the places in the world where human conflict is creating refugees and the constant killings in our communities are just few examples. But also, the tragedy of cancer, roadway accidents, and the deaths of those still in the prime of life. We can relate to the psalmist's desire for justice now.

As the piece is composed, this singer remembers that in the end, evil doers will get their due. And the righteous will inherit the land. Jesus' beatitude, "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth" is a succinct summary of this psalm.

Why doesn't the psalmist just give us Jesus' synopsis instead of going on and on? It's formed around the 22 letters of the Hebrew language, so as we read it and pray it, our hearts slow down. As our brain waves follow suit, we ingest the truth that God will set all things right in His time. God did say, "I am making all things new" (Revelation 21:5).

Along the way, we are offered advice that leads towards less worry: trust God (3), he is able and willing to bring justice; commit your lives to Him (5), entrusting our plans and futures into the loving arms of our heavenly Father. When Jesus said, "I am with you always, to the very end of the age", he was echoing one of the deepest melodies of the Old Testament.

We are encouraged to take delight in him (4), so that our desires change. We lose our own evil intentions and long only for the righteousness of His kingdom. God will fulfill those desires.

There is no mocking of grief here. There is a deep recognition that much is wrong in this world. The message is strong: evil will not have the final say. God's justice will come. God's justice means no more sickness and no more death; no more hunger and no more poverty. God himself will dry our tears.

Read this psalm again in light of the visions of the new heaven and the new earth in final chapters of Isaiah and Revelation. And let hope fill your heart.

Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep. You, Lord, preserve both people and animals. How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light. (Psalm 36:5-9)

Our community is once again rocked by a tragic death—Kevin's. This is not the way its supposed to be.

Our words largely fail in the face of what we face, particularly in the face of the overwhelming shock and grief of a family that so many of us are connected with in so many ways.

The psalms are there for exactly such times—the times when we don't know what else to say or pray. Psalms of lament give voice to our anger and grief. Psalms of petition give voice to our desires for comfort and grace. But there are also psalms that give voice to the God of refuge and love who meets us in such times.

With God is the fountain of life: the waters of baptism into Christ that marks each one of us as God's very own—no matter what tragedy might befall us. With God is the feast that nourishes us in the memory that we always have a home with Christ. God provides for, sustains, and saves his people still.

God's love searches us and finds us—no matter if we've flown to the highest heavens or sunk to the greatest depths—God is there. Still our refuge and hiding place when our circumstances have become more than we can bear.

There are dark places in our lives. Hard seasons with little hope. Surreal moments that shake us to the core.

This is the darkness that Jesus entered into: the light in the darkest of places. Our darkest places. And our darkness does not overcome him. Instead, in his light… ever so slowly… we begin to see light. In his life, we begin to find life again.

Not all at once, of course. But this prayer of God's people reminds us that it does happen. That this is what we believe and that this is the God in whom we believe. It is in him that we take refuge when all else is shaken and it is he that finds and saves us even when we don't. Because his light continues to shine in the dark places. And in his light we see light.

"O Lord, you have seen this; do not be silent. Do not be far from me, Lord. Awake, and rise to my defense! Contend for me, my God and Lord. Vindicate me in your righteousness, Lord my God" (Psalm 35:22-24).

Once again David is in trouble. It seems like his life is nothing but trouble. Many of his Psalms are requests for liberation. And David thinks God tends to be slow in responding to his pleas. Sound familiar?

The bold opening of this prayer is worth some reflection. David asks God to fight against his enemies. Have we ever made such a prayer? Would we? Should we? What should such prayers sound like today? What would we want God to do with our enemies?

Further, should God consider our enemies His enemies? Maybe we ought to turn that around: do we consider God's enemies our enemies?

Certainly, these reflections ought to be tempered with the biblical instructions to love our enemies and to bless them (Romans 12:9-12). What would it look like for God to bless our enemies? How would we articulate a prayer for God to do good by them?

As we read this psalm, it is difficult to miss David's impatience. He is being harassed from all sides. He is wearied to the bone by the mocking taunts of his accusers. He wants some relief, some space, some quiet. And he tells God that he wants it now.

Yet, the psalm weaves together despair and hope. The despair comes because of those who stand against him. At least some of these have been close friends, people he has prayed for (13). David is distressed because of their schemes, slander, and scorn. They are scheming against him, they are making false accusations against him, and they are laughing at him, gloating over his anticipated downfall.

Yet, as he voices his complaint, David's perspective began to change. Hope is born. He begins to anticipate the day when God will respond. He remembers that God takes care of "the poor and needy" (10).

David's perspective is enlarged as he waits on God. So often we live in the moment and the pains of life make everything revolve around "the now." But God has a better perspective. There may be more important things at hand than our immediate relief. Like David, we need to learn to wait on the Lord. While we wait, we remember who he is.

As David waits for the Lord's deliverance, he does not hide. Instead, he enters the company of the faithful. Like good food, sorrows and pains need to be shared. It is too difficult to carry them alone. We do well to develop the friendships that can be counted on in trouble. Yet, for David, at least some of these friends turned against him.

Maybe some of you can relate to David. Or maybe you have let your friends down. You left them alone in their time of sorrow. An admission of guilt is a good way to start afresh. As Christians, we do need to develop the courage to walk with those in pain and the courage to admit our faults.

Into his complaint, lament, David weaves hints of praise. Even as he wrestles with God's silence, he insists that he is a worshipper of the Lord God. Though he has no clue as to what God may be up to, though he can't fathom God's silence, he will continue to put his hope in the Lord.

Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. Fear the Lord, you his holy people, for those who fear him lack nothing. The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Psalm 34:8-10

David wrote this psalm as a song of praise for the way God delivered him from a life-threatening encounter. David could have focused on the pain of the situation or continued to fear for his life, but instead he lifts up his voice in song to the Lord in a psalm of thankfulness.

Even for David, a man after God's own heart, he experienced hardship, trials, and life-threatening situations. Time after time, David chose the high road, the righteous way, yet he still experienced these trials and tribulations.

Psalm 34 begins in an explosion of exuberance. "I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips." This begs the question, what then does it mean to taste and see that the Lord is good? And what about the fear of the Lord which is brought up throughout this psalm?

I believe that the psalmist is inviting believers into a reorientation of thought and action. What would it look like to go through life with each day filled with reflection on the presence of God and God's activity in our everyday? In the things that are too mundane, or perhaps too painful, or even too far removed from the Christian life to invite Jesus into them?

I believe that as we learn to live like God is present in every aspect of our lives that our orientation slowly shifts from fear and anxiety to fear of the Lord and joy in the goodness of the deliverance and salvation God graciously gives to us in Jesus. When the righteous cry out, God hears them and delivers them from every trouble (v 17).

Psalm 34 speaks repeatedly of a person's mouth. For the praise of God (v 1). If we love life, we are to keep our tongue from speaking lies and evil (v 13). The Lord hears those who cry out to Him (v 4, 6, 15, 17). Taste and see that the Lord is good (v 8). The deliverance of God comes through relationship with God through prayer. Prayer filled with both exuberant praise and heartfelt tears. God wants us to open our mouths and talk to Him. He already knows our every need and want. And He is close to us through every moment of our lives.

This psalm reminds us also that each of us has a story to tell of the goodness of God. Whether we feel as though we have lived a ho-hum kind of life, or we've been through giant peaks and valleys, each life holds a testimony of God's goodness. When the righteous seek the Lord, they lack no good thing. Even lions grow weak with hunger. But even though the righteous in God should go through heartbreak and troubles, when we find refuge in God, we will lack no good thing and will never be put to shame.

A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is Romans 6:1-14 from the New International Version of the Bible. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection!

To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca

DIVE IN

1. What is the background to this text? What is this a case study of?
2. In the first mess, what is pride doing in the church? How does Paul apply Jesus' crucifixion? How would your experience of church have been different if more of such yeast was infiltrating the church?
3. What is the second mess dealt with? What kind of people is Paul referring to? Have you experienced misapplications of this text? Do you know situations in which such action should have been used?
4. What is at stake in the final mess of this passage? Have you been gripped by the impulses which lead to this mess? How can we avoid such situations?

Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise him. For... (Psalm 33:1, 4a)

The opening part of the worship services in many Christian congregations include "a call to worship". Most often this is a passage of scripture like the beginning of Psalm 33. These verses are like invitations that cannot be declined. They call us to worship God and they give us reasons why we ought to do so.

This is an important component of Christian faith and spirituality. It is true that worship is multi-faceted and singing "joyfully to the Lord" is only one facet. Yet, this invitation comes to all God's people, even to those who do not feel like it; maybe, especially to those who do not feel like "singing joyfully to the Lord."

Jesus tells us that we need to approach God in "spirit and truth". He says that true worshippers of God come this way (John 4:24). This means we need to acknowledge to him that we are currently finding joy difficult.

That was my reaction when I opened my Bible to Psalm 33 this morning. The feeling of joy is not present. The past couple of days, I have been listening to the deliberations of my denomination's Synod meeting. They have disturbed me deeply.

As some of you know, I have my doubts that the Christian denomination I am part of will survive her current struggles. This week that doubt has deepened. We live in a culture in which our ears are closed. We don't hear each other. We live in silos. I had hoped that our Synod would be different. But I don't think it has been. I might be wrong. But I did not get the impression that the delegates listened to each other in order to weigh the issues at hand. They had made up their minds before they came. I fear that our ruptures have grown.

But Psalm 33 is a balm for the distressed soul. It does not tell us to come and sing joyfully because we feel like it. It tells us to come because "the word of the Lord is right and true; he is faithful in all he does" (4).

A significant reason why the church gathers to worship the Lord our God is "to remember." Life in this world is difficult. We come battered and bruised to our weekly Christian reunions. Often, we batter and bruise each other. Life causes our faith to weaken, our hope to get dented and our love to dim. By the time Sunday dawns, we are all mixed up, scratched, and confused.

Therefore, we gather to remember. We remember who our God is as we recount the things He has done and said. As we remember, our faith is renewed, our hope is varnished, and our love is strengthened.

No one is sure of the context in which Psalm 33 was first composed and sung. Verse 20 suggests that Israel may have been in some difficulty. The psalm was used to renew the hope of His people.

There is value for Christians to sing joyfully before the Lord when they are all alone. Yet, worship is naturally a communal activity. Partying alone is, well, lonely. God uses our communal worship to renew those who are dented and banged up. Worshipping God together ought also to renew fellowship.

Psalm 33 sings of three things about God: He is large and in charge, He is everywhere and always here; and He is passionate for those who look to Him in faith.

Through worship we renew our faith that God is able to weave all the circumstances of our lives together to create a wonderful tapestry that accomplishes His purposes. We see this most thoroughly in Jesus' life. He was able to endure the Cross because of the joy set before Him (Hebrews 12:2). In baptism our lives are wrapped up in His destiny. In worship, we remember.

So, people of God, gather together and worship our great God together. Whose knows what he has in store for us.

Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight! Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt, whose lives are lived in complete honesty! When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long. Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. (Selah) Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, "I will confess my rebellion to the Lord." And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone. (Selah) Therefore, let all the godly pray to you while there is still time, that they may not drown in the floodwaters of judgment. For you are my hiding place; you protect me from trouble. You surround me with songs of victory. (Selah) Psalm 32:1-7 (NLT)

To many Christians, the message of the Old Testament is that sin equals judgement and the wrath of God. And the New Testament then equals grace and forgiveness of sins. How do you view the God of the Old Testament? He is the same God who gave up His only Son, Jesus, so that we could be fully redeemed and forgiven.

Yet, we as Christians often live as though this were not true. We ruminate on the things we've done wrong, quarrel with others because we know better than them. Some days, weeks, and even seasons, whether we always realize it or not, we seem to marinate in our own sinfulness.

The psalmist did this too. He talks about how his body wasted away, his strength was sapped, and God's hand was heavy on him when he held his sin too closely to his heart and refused to confess it. That's because we are not meant to do this life alone.

The Lord is a secret hiding place for us. Not a place to wile away from the world and to avoid and put off and ignore the sin within us. No, God is the place where we can bring everything within us, knowing that He is our Shelter, our Protection, our Covering, and He holds the wisdom that we need for this life.

As we come to God more and more with all the sinful, broken and hurting places within us, the Lord will surround us with songs of deliverance. Not only our own deliverance, but that of believers around us that have also been set free through the forgiveness, grace, and compassion of God. God will never move in one life without impacting lives all around. Just like the expanding riffles, after dropping a stone into the water.

That means that there is a role for the Christian community here as well. The forgiven psalmist ends this poem by calling the community to rejoice. For one sinner has found forgiveness! This is a counter-cultural notion in a culture that celebrates not forgiveness, but rather Schadenfreude. That is, enjoying the punishment of others. When someone is forgiven, we often label them as "having gotten away" with something. But this psalm reminds us that we have a role to play when someone is forgiven. We are to take joy in the new life of the one who was pardoned, and, in this way, we welcome back a fellow believer who had been lost.

Don't be like the horse or mule of verse 9 which must be controlled by bit and bridle. When we bring ourselves willingly before God, He instructs us and teaches us and slowly transforms and molds us more and more into His own image-bearers. And what greater joy in the world is there than that?!

In three locations in Psalm 32 there is the word "Selah." It means to pause or reflect on what has just come before it. Selah positions us to hear God's voice and to be in His presence. It is found after verses 4, 5, and 7. Often in times of pausing, God gives us a revelation that transforms something inside of us, bringing us closer to Him. I encourage you today, to read back through Psalm 32 and to pause after these verses and to reflect on their meaning for you in your own life and the life of your Christian community.

Give praise to the Lord. He showed me his wonderful love when my enemies attacked the city I was in. I was afraid and said, "I've been cut off from you!" But you heard my cry for your favor. You heard me when I called out to you for help (Psalm 31:22-23).

"All prayer is prayed in a story, by someone who is in the story...Spiritualized prayer is denatured prayer, prayer in which all the dirt and noise of ordinary life is boiled out" (Eugene Peterson, Answering God 47, 49).

I think we might pray too often. Now, before you call for me to be defrocked me of my credentials, let me explain. As I was growing up, our family gathered around the table three times a day for meals. No meal began without prayer and no meal ended without it. They were all about the same length and the content was similar.

The greatest variation was on Sunday mornings. Breakfast would end with a longer prayer than usual. As children, we knew to settle in for the long ride on Sunday morning. These were good rhythms for us.

But there was also a routineness that led to a lack of engagement. The words were being said, but the mind and heart were elsewhere. This is the problem Peterson identified: our prayers are somehow separated from the life we live. Faith and prayer become an add on to life. Something perfunctory.

This same problem sometimes surfaces in our Sunday worship. I hear people pray that we leave the business of the week at the door and worship God without all that stuff cluttering our spirits.

I believe that God wants us to bring all that stuff into our prayers and worship. What else did Jesus mean when He said to the Samaritan woman that God's "worshippers must worship in Spirit and in truth" (John 4:24), but that we should not leave our baggage at the door? How can we worship God in truth if we our hiding our lives from Him?

Seventy-three of the psalms are linked to David, one of the people in scripture we know a lot about. The Bible records stories of David as a boy, a teen, an adult, and an old man. He is shepherd, soldier, outlaw, and king. He is son, brother, husband, and father. He is wondrously obedient and disastrously disobedient.

His story is told as from the outside. But his prayers tell the inner story. It shows his passions and fears, his longings, and his revulsions. Read Psalm 31 and identify all the inner workings of David's soul. Note all the things it tells us about him.

Jesus tells us that prayer is not meant for long recitations of empty expressions (Matthew 6:5-15). Rather, it begins, "Our Father who is in heaven..." Prayer then is connecting the story of our lives with the story of God our Father.

Prayer should deepen our lives, laying their insignificance and their significance before God so He can shape and deepen it. It is about ex-changing false gods for the God of the Bible; admitting our idolatry and longing to pray to God alone.

It is not really that we pray too often but that our prayers are too routine. So, if your prayers have become routine, do something about it. Change the way you prepare to pray. Let your prayers be honest. Speak to God from your heart about your life.

To you, Lord, I called; to the Lord I cried for mercy: "What is gained if I am silenced, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it proclaim your faithfulness? Hear, Lord, and be merciful to me; Lord, be my help." You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent. Lord my God, I will praise you forever. (Psalm 30:8-12)

Jesus said of his disciples at the time of his triumphal entry: "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out." Praise is a necessary aspect of being human. It is so fundamental, in fact, that psalm 30 uses it as a reason for the Lord to intervene with mercy. For who praises God from the grave?

Harkening back to some earlier psalms, there is a realization that the silence of God toward us can feel like death. But psalm 30 suggests that our silence is also significant. Our participation in giving voice to the praises of God is essential to life.

And so the psalmist cries out for mercy not by making any claim to their own goodness or deserving, but rather to the silence that results when a faithful person no longer proclaims the saving work of the Lord in praise. Because that is a loss of the necessary vitality of life and a diminishment of the glory that is due to God. So will God not step in with mercy and help so that his very own mission in this world and through his people may go on?

Jesus expands this notion beyond where the psalm does: not only is human praise necessary to life, but the praise of God is a necessary work of all of creation—including the dust and the stones.

We, together with everything else in the world, are created to give thanks. We are created to tell good stories of God's faithfulness, provision, and salvation. We are created to point back to God in all that we say and all that we do. We are created to witness to God through our words of praise and our grateful living that is ever more fully conformed to the likeness of Christ. This is the mission of God that continues and broadens in the work of Jesus.

Psalm 30, therefore, is deep at the heart and foundation of everything it means to be a person of faith. Not only because it places witness and praise of God at the heart of human life, but also because it tells the story of God's faithfulness in praise.

God does save. He does bring from death to life. He does turn our wailing into dancing, clothes us with joy, and transforms our silence into singing. Not merely so that we can sing his praises, but so that we might know, deeply and personally, the song of God that is ours to sing!

And as we do: all creation joins, and all the world listens in as the mission of God in Christ goes forward into the world in the power of the Spirit.

Do you know the story of the dad trying to get a kiss from his daughter?

"Honey," he said, "come give Daddy a hug." To his surprise, she calmly replied, "You know I'm nine years old now. I'm busy." To which the father replied, "Do you know who gave you those Barbie dolls?"

After gathering a Barbie in both hands, she clambered into his lap and delivered a hug and a quick peck on his cheek. That light peck on the cheek just didn't make a big enough deposit in the Daddy account. "No, no, no. Come on. Give me a big hug."

That was when she rolled those big brown eyes and said, "That's the problem with you daddies." "What?" he said. "You always want too much love."

Do you sometimes feel the same about your Father in Heaven? He demands too much. Do you sometimes feel like saying after Sunday morning worship, "There, that ought to do you! See you next week!"?

Psalm 29 is an invitation to stay a while longer. Its intention is not to induce guilt. This is an invitation to take a second look at God, to linger on his lap, to stay awhile. God is not begging for our worship. He is simply worthy of it.

The song begins in heaven calling the mighty heavenly creatures to worship the Lord. From there we take a roller coaster ride through the created realm, catching the briefest of glimpses of God's wonder and power displayed in His creation.

There is no small hint of laughter in this Psalm. Many nations worshipped Baal as the god of the waters and the thunders. There's an "oh ya, really?" attitude here; a rhetorical question gleefully ringing through the skies, "Can Baal do what our God does?"

The psalm looks forward to Jesus sleeping in a boat being tossed about in a storm. His disciples are petrified, believing their doom approaches. But Jesus chuckles, telling the wind and waves to relax. He is the God of Psalm 29. With a wave of his hand, he demonstrates that He has full control.

As the psalm says, "He sits enthroned over the flood; He is enthroned as King forever" (10). This is the God who gives strength to his people; the Lord who blesses his people with peace (11).

Our circumstances change. But our peace does not depend on them. Our peace depends on the Lord, enthroned in holy majesty. As storms break upon us, He gives us strength and peace. Whatever problems we face, God is still on the throne. Its worth our time to linger on his lap.

When the voice of thunder threatens, read this psalm. Hear the voice of God. Then remember that His Voice became flesh and dwelt among us. Now, that Voice, the Son of God, beckons us to follow Him. He is still the same Lord.

This voice speaks to his disciples, "I leave my peace with you. I give my peace to you. I do not give it to you as the world does. Do not let your hearts be troubled. And do not be afraid" (John 14:27).

Shall we not stay a while longer and say, "No, it is not enough"? How can our worship ever be too much?