Psalm 50

It's a terrifying sight, this image of an angry, fiery God coming down to wreak havoc. Israel has seen it often, God devouring thier enemies. But this time is different.

This time, He is angry with them.

He has no problem with the sacrifices themselves, they are plentiful. God makes it clear that it is not the physical sacrifice He requires (OK, well He does, but just the physical sacrifice is not ALL He wants), rather it is a heart devoted, and serious about seeking Him.

It seems that Israel is guilty of offering sacrifice for sins, but not for thanks. I'm guilty on that one, too.

It seems that the sacrifices are offered, but the heart is far from meaning it. Dang, that's two.

Thankfully, God doesn't throw the strikeout accusation, instead, He offers us the way to get right: Give thanks, and be blameless. Giving thanks seems easy enough, but blameless? Not so much.

Unless you consider that God, the God of Grace, makes us clean when we sincerely repent and seek Him. Not when we offer hollow words and recite well-learned slogans, when we really mean it. We can be blameless, not because we do nothing wrong, but because we are truly contrite in our confession.

Psalm 49

No one can redeem the life of another
or give to God a ransom for them—
the ransom for a life is costly,
no payment is ever enough—
so that they should live on forever
and not see decay.

In the midst of this psalm about mortality, we get these three verses on the futility of trying to save yourself or anyone else. You CANNOT redeem the life of another. You CANNOT save them. No one can.

So it is interesting to think, then, that the entire plan of God for salvation relies on one man redeeming all men. If no payment is enough to redeem one life, how could there possibly be enough payment for all men (and women)?

Yet, Jesus gives His life as ransom for us all. One man's life WAS payment enough, after all. But this does not negate the truth of this psalm.

No, it shows how great the worth of the life of Jesus was- greater than any payment known to man.

Psalm 48

The city of God is an interesting concept.

Clearly, it's a safe place, and a beautiful one. I picture something like what the elf city looks like in Lord of the Rings combined with Gondor.

But, why does the Bible depict God as a city dweller? My best guess is that it's the closest description we can get on earth to what heaven is like. I don't like big cities- I like space. So it's hard for me to get this imagery and be excited.

But the idea that "God is in her citadels; he has shown himself to be her fortress" is one I do love. I've always been drawn more to the idea of the God of the Wild, the God who is a little bit dangerous. So, it helps me to dig the City of God idea to know that that powerful and dangerous characteristic of God is still present.

Psalm 47

I cannot clap and sing at the same time. Just ask my wife.

Yet there are times when the joy of the moment, or the emotion of the song remove my inhibitions and I clap- off beat- and sing- off key- at the same time. I believe that what is important in those moments is not my musical prowess or lack thereof, but rather my heart. I'm not standing before a crowd leading them, I'm just being joyous before my God.

I sing praises.

God wants my best- but more than that, I believe He wants my honesty, my true feelings. I'd rather sing off-key with a heart broken before God than sing the most beautiful notes known to man with an empty heart.

And I think I know which God would prefer as well.

psalm 46

"Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."

This short little phrase, after God has, in effect, been described as a storm, as a hurricane force. It seems that we are called to look at the power that is God and just take it all in. When we are tempted to make things work, to fight for our honor, to exalt ourselves, we need to remember that God is greater than anything we could muster. He is destructive to His enemies, He is protective of those He loves.

I can definitely say there have been times in my life when I've been faced with difficulties- ones that I could fight. Yet God has told me in many of those times to "Be still and know that I am God." And when He speaks that to me, the victory I've seen is far better than what I could have brought about myself.

Psalm 45

A wedding song.

Encouragement to a soon to be wedded king that God favors him because of his righteousness. The writer opens speaking of his heart being stirred when he thinks of what to say about the righteous king.

May we live that way. That our lives stir others when they think about it. That our integrity, our kindness, our love and other qualities are a noble theme for others.

Psalm 44

Psalm 44 poses an interesting question:

Does God sometimes leave us to fight our battles alone (and lose) even though we are not being rebellious against Him?

Now, I know that generally speaking, God stopped fighting for Israel when Israel stopped worshiping God, so the claim here that the Israel is sinless is kinda suspect. And the scary thing is, this idea that God doesn't always intervene plays into the argument that many non-believers have against Christianity- that if God does exist, He is so far removed He doesn't care.

Personally, I think God does leave us to our own devices...sometimes. I also think He lets us fail on our own sometimes. Why? We haven't sinned, we've not rebelled.

Teachable moments.

God lets us go it alone, and fail, so we can be reminded that we need Him. Just like the psalmist realizes and cries out for. But I also think that maybe sometimes God allows us to go it alone and succeed. The reason? God is making us better, and I believe God wants us to succeed. So I think there may be times where God says "Go and do," and then sits back and watches His child succeed. In fact, I think this happens more often than not. It does not lessen or weaken the power and glory of God, instead it promotes it. It shows that when we succeed, even without God's direct intervention, it is still because of how He has made us and matured us.

Even when God does not act, He still demonstrates His glory through us.

Psalm 43

I'm confused by the idea that God is at once our stronghold and has rejected us.

Perhaps it is showing us that even if we have God as our Savior, our sin displeases Him. Perhaps it is a statement that God, like a parent, disciplines us with distance from time to time- yet never leaves us defenseless.

We return to the refrain of Psalm 42- why so downcast, hope in God. But I must say, it is hard to have hope in God when God seems distant-whether it is by His action or ours. It is hard to hope in God when we still feel the sting of regret for our sins- and though we know the facts that God forgives us by grace, we don't feel that we deserve it. Which we don't, but we deny ourselves the acceptance of this grace. That may be OK for a time, but we must eventually accept that God forgives, God restores, God gives hope. To deny God's grace is to accept defeat.

Psalm 42

I know the go to verses here are the ones about the deer, but I'm working off of a little more than an hour of sleep today, so I'm fixated on the ones about needing God at night and my soul being downcast.

I've had nights where I just can't get to sleep. I toss, I turn, I curse that Dr. Pepper I had late in the evening. I truly believe one of the more soul-crushing feelings in all of existence is wanting to go to sleep, but being unable to despite all the conditions being right. It is here that the downcast soul is born and nurtured. Watching the minutes tick away and with each shift of the glowing digital light that makes the numbers, hope fades.

Now, note that the Sons of Korah (the psalmists) say that God directs His love by day, but at night, at night it is the song of God that is with us. It seems to me that these guys are flip-flopping a lot. They go from downcast souls to talking about the lullaby that God gives them at night. But then, a night of insomnia is like that- hope dashed by wide awake overcome by hope which is dashed again. Come to think of it, life is like that as a whole.

It seems to me that what Psalm 42 is telling us is that it's best not to look at the circumstances. They will shift and change constantly and take our hope with them. Hope will always be fleeting if we look at the stuff going on around us. But if we long for God, thirst for Him like a deer searching for water, we will see His love by day, and hear His song by night.

Perhaps it is not the circumstances that break our hearts, afterall. Perhaps it is setting our minds attention on things other than God- especially our problems- that crushes our soul. So at night, when you can't sleep and your problems surround you like a forest of predators, listen for the song of God.

I didn't last night, and I'm paying for it today.

Psalm 41

It may just be the mood I'm in lately, but it's the first verse that spoke to me.

Blessed are those who have regard for the weak;
the LORD delivers them in times of trouble.

I've been thinking a lot lately about just who the 'weak' are in my life. And along that note, just who are the 'widows and orphans' we're supposed to look out for? I don't know about you, but there aren't a lot of orphans running around my streets lately. Widows, I've got. But what about the people I work with most- college students. They are not likely to have a lot of either around. So maybe we can take 'weak, widows, and orphans" as both literally AND figuratively.

Back in the day, widows and orphans were destitute, there were no orphanages or retirement homes around. They were the most needy of society. The argument could be made the new 'widows and orphans' are the homeless. But let's go further.

What if our 'widows and orphans' are everyone around us who is hurting, in need, weak, fearful, sick, sad, lonely, hungry, or destitute- physically or spiritually? We want God to help us in our times of need, but are we in fact helping those who are in their time of need?