my go to passage nowadays

A psalm of David.

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk
through the darkest valley,^[a]
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.

Psalm 23

Life is utterly crazy in a good number of ways. I wish it was more laid back and less eventful, really. That’s true at home, as well as in the news we’re inundated with. Life comes crashing in. And for some of us, the life inside has not been any kind of paradise. Really, just the opposite. We press on, but in spite of raging voices or feelings inside of us.

I’m finding for myself that Psalm 23 is becoming my go to passage from the Bible nowadays. Something I keep repeating it over and over again, praying about it, until finally it seems to take hold and become part of my own experience. Or even if it doesn’t.

I’m just a sheep in need of the good Shepherd. That doesn’t excuse me, or any wrongdoing. In fact, that gives me hope that no matter how I might get off track for a moment, or even more, the Lord is present to help me, to be my help. That he loves me no matter what. I’m one of his sheep.

That gives me all the hope I need in the faith and love that is in Jesus.

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is God really love?

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

1 John 4:7-21

I am having a hard time on my own believing that “God is love,” as the Scripture tells us here. There’s just too much evil, and even so-called “acts of God” to make one see God as love. Little children killed in accidents, or even in natural disasters, etc., etc. And on top of that one might have a hard time accepting love for themselves, since their experience because of sins against them and their own sins have made their inner life mostly a desert.

But this passage from the beloved disciple John, the one who leaned on Jesus’s breast, and seemed maybe more than all the others to have received God’s love in Jesus most deeply, is at least helpful to me. And a passage I need to dwell on, and take in more for myself.

I lament the lack of love in our world, and even among Christians, those who profess to follow Christ. If we don’t live in love then nothing else we do matters. Do we really believe that? What we believe is evident from just what we think, and  out of that, how we live.

In the end I have to trust the testimony of God in Jesus, in the good news: the gospel. That gives hope, and hopefully impacts life in a way that can make the much needed difference. So that one will really believe what they do, or even their existence matters. For one reason: love. From the source of all real love in creation and new creation, the God who is love, and is revealed in and through Jesus.

is God my shepherd?

A psalm of David.

The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk
through the darkest valley,^[a]
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.

Psalm 23

“Lord” in “the Lord is my shepherd” is an English translation capitalized in most English versions when it translates “Yahweh,” the personal Hebrew name for God. Of course in the New Testament Jesus is revealed as the human who not only enacts this, but does so because he in fact is the God-human. So what is meant in Psalm 23 is God, and later that is fulfilled in Jesus, certainly true of the Triune God.

We are called sheep in Scripture, and for good reason. We go astray, are easily lost, and are quite dependent. To understand sheep better would be a good study in itself, but we need to be careful not to press those analogies from Scripture too far. We need to consider them in their contexts in Scripture. No question that sheep in Scripture are said to go astray, to be vulnerable against attackers such as wolves, helpless and harassed in need of a shepherd. And interestingly, sheep know the voice of their shepherd, each of them having their own name so that they’re known individually by their shepherd.

I am glad that this psalm is attributed to David. David was a shepherd early on which prepared him to be king over God’s people. Kings in the best sense of what they were to fulfill were to be shepherds. David was certainly no perfect shepherd, especially evident from his horrific sin involving Bathsheba and her husband Uriah. He had other faults as well. Yet he was a man after God’s own heart, having a heart for the people.

As I recently picked up from Dallas Willard, Psalm 23 is a prime passage to memorize so that one can meditate, reflect and pray through it. I think one can do well to say it again and again, and talk to God about it. Asking God if God really is our shepherd.

Jesus calls himself “the good shepherd” in the classic passage in John 10. He calls his sheep by name and leads them out to find good pasture, even life to the full. And he lays down his life for the sheep.

The psalm is quite personal. God is “my” shepherd. Oftentimes to push against the individualistic emphasis in our culture in which little else matters except for “me and mine,” we neglect the reality that our faith is personal and that God really does care about and for us individually. Each sheep he knows by name. Yes, each of us are dear to the Lord. He knows us through and through, and really does love and care for us.

I don’t like a lot of things about myself, and have struggled to like myself at all. I often just put up with myself. But that’s not what God wants. The Lord wants us to accept the truth that he made each one of us, and that redemption and reconciliation is for each one of us in and through Jesus. In Jesus the shepherd analogy of Scripture fits to a tee. Do we see Jesus and God in Jesus that way?

We must not let go of this. Everything in Psalm 23 is meant for us, yes each one of us, individually. And we need to see it for others as individuals, as well. Each and every line. Here it is again, to be read and pondered and prayed over until it becomes more and more our own in and through Jesus.

A psalm of David.

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk
through the darkest valley,^[a]
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.

Psalm 23

 

we follow Abraham in and through Jesus

The Lord said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, “Look around from where you are, to the north and south, to the east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you.”

Genesis 13:14-17

Abraham’s story is remarkable for a number of reasons. He was an ordinary man in many ways, yet extraordinary as well. I really think that mirrors us. After all, though we’re ordinary too, we are made in God’s image which is extraordinary in itself. If you read Abraham’s story in its entirety in Genesis (11:27-25:11), you can readily see what I mean. In the above passage, he let Lot choose whatever land Lot wanted, so that there would be enough room for both of their flocks and herds, and to end the quarreling between their servants. Lot chose what was then the best land for himself. And then God gave the above promise that every direction Abraham could see would end up being his.

God called Abraham out of a culture of idolatry, to simply trust God and God’s promises. He promised Abraham land, and descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and the sand on the seashore. Abraham believed God, and God credited that to him as righteousness.

But Abraham was not perfect. He and his wife Sarah both struggled since they were now old, and had no child, no son to be the heir. The general tenor of his life was an unwavering faith, just as Paul says in Romans 4. But we can see that along the way he and Sarah tried to help God fulfill the promise. Of course to no avail, though a son did come out of it: Ishmael, through Hagar a servant given to Abraham by Sarah for that purpose. God would bless Ishmael too, but not in the blessing of the promise God had given to Abraham. Finally 25 years after the initial promise, Isaac was born. And more follows.

We read in the New Testament that we’re to walk in the footsteps of our father of faith, Abraham (Romans 4). Which seems to me a major point of the Abraham narrative in Genesis and of the passage quoted above. As Abraham learned to walk by faith in what humanly speaking was an impossible situation, so we are to walk in that very same faith, as a way of life for us. Through everything, come what may. In and through Jesus.

turning our attention to that which will last

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Philippians 4:8

Discernment is the call of the day. I suppose people will pay attention to different things, depending on what they consider valuable and good. We have to go back to God’s revelation in Jesus, found in Scripture. We need the Holy Spirit to guide us, and faithful leaders and teachers in the church committed to such.

There’s much that clamors for our attention. We need to be careful what we give our attention to both in terms of substance and time. Some things may be fine here and there, but not incessantly. While other things we may need to turn away from, or avoid all together.

As we practice this, we will more and more be able to see through that which is hollow, not meeting these standards. We need to humbly push toward what is the best and leave the rest behind. Even as we seek to help those caught in the lesser things. In and through Jesus.

 

 

 

politics and love for neighbor

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Luke 10:25-29

Without getting into the politics and technicalities (philosophy, etc.) of everything, since it’s really more complicated than what many people on different sides make it out to be, I want to press home what should be our chief consideration as Christians when it comes to politics. I’m assuming that you like most Christians have some interest in it, from at least considering voting, to actual participation in the process.

Love for God and for neighbor should trump every other concern. It’s not like we shouldn’t take care of our own, but that we should use the freedom we have to help others. Of course that includes the unborn, the war torn refugee, the down and out- the homeless, etc., etc.

Jesus tells the parable of the good Samaritan to press home the teaching that we’re to be a neighbor to whoever is in trouble. That we’re to show them love by being present for them to bind up their wounds and take care of their needs so that they can recover.

At the heart of Christianity is a devoted love for God and for our neighbor as ourselves. It’s not just about how well we are. It’s about others flourishing, also. Only Jesus can help any of us be well. We as Christians seek to be present in Jesus for each other, and for others. We should want to be a neighbor to everyone.

For the Christian, the church is where the life of Christ is present and where we’re commissioned to be a witness to the good news in Jesus, and to do good works. What moves us  is not in a political party or candidate of this world. It’s only Jesus. Not to say good as well as evil isn’t done by political parties and candidates. But that our work is in Jesus with the distinctive of love for God and neighbor.

when there’s no fear of God

I have a message from God in my heart
concerning the sinfulness of the wicked:
There is no fear of God
before their eyes.

In their own eyes they flatter themselves
too much to detect or hate their sin.
The words of their mouths are wicked and deceitful;
they fail to act wisely or do good.
Even on their beds they plot evil;
they commit themselves to a sinful course
and do not reject what is wrong.

Psalm 36:1-4

At work we just finished running “The Wisdom Books: Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes” in the Our Daily Bread Ministries Discovery Series, Understanding the Bible, by Tremper Longman III. Quite good. One part that stood out to me is just how apart from the fear of God, little else matters if you’re looking for godly wisdom. Or just wisdom period as spelled out in the Bible, specifically Proverbs. Longman points out how there are sayings in the book of Proverbs that anyone might agree with, but that all of them are to be seen in the context of the fear of God. Which is awe and respect, even reverence for who God is, God’s mighty power and even love.

This is a fundamental difference between those who are Christians and those who are not. I’m not saying that no others have any fear of God. But only in Christ who himself is the ultimate wisdom does one come into a saving relationship with God. And the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs). Without it there’s no godly wisdom at all.

The psalm quoted above makes the point that those who don’t have the fear of God don’t have any of the humility that goes with that. The fact of the matter is that God is God and we’re not. That should help us pay attention to our thoughts and attitudes, and put many of them on check with some repentance along the way.

After thoughts on those who don’t fear God, the psalmist turns their attention to God, asks God for his protection, and expresses certainty of the wicked’s downfall and demise. A primary difference between those who fear God and those who don’t is that the former turn to God, while the latter most certainly don’t. Christians pray for those who persecute them. So looking to God when troubled by others is both prayer for God’s intervention and their salvation. In and through Jesus.

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.

Continue your love to those who know you,
your righteousness to the upright in heart.
May the foot of the proud not come against me,
nor the hand of the wicked drive me away.
See how the evildoers lie fallen—
thrown down, not able to rise!

Psalm 36:5-12