Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 3-181 Sundays 28 Sep to 12 Oct 2003

[Due to the recent disruption of the CLM service, as explained in CLB-3-006, this posting has three Psalms on Sundays messages to bring them up to date.]

Psalms on Sundays Reading: Psalm 27 – WAITING FOR GOD

(28 September 2003)

Ours is an ‘instant’ generation, not good at waiting for things. So how do you respond to the call to ‘wait for the LORD’ (v 14)?

This psalm begins with a confident assertion of trust in God (vs 1-6). The psalmist is sure that the most important thing in his life is his relationship with God. Here this is expressed in terms of the experience of worship in the Temple (vs 4-6).

The reality of that relationship gives him the confidence to believe that God will keep him safe from his enemies. After the confident tone of verses 1-6, the prayer for deliverance from enemies in verses 7-13, with its pleading tone, comes as a bit of a surprise. Has the psalmist lost his confidence? In fact the opposite is the case. It is his relationship with God that is the basis for the prayer. He seeks God’s face – that is, he comes into God’s presence – to ask for deliverance, because in his past experience God has proved to be his helper (v 9).

Indeed God has proved more dependable than the closest human relationships (v 10). Therefore the psalmist is confident that he will continue to ‘see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living’ (v 13). The psalm ends with a word of exhortation that was probably spoken by a priest as a response to the prayer (v 14). In its call to ‘wait for the LORD’ there is the implied promise that God will once again act as the psalmist’s saviour. But the call to ‘wait’ is a test of whether the psalmist’s expression of confidence is more than mere words. Will his confidence really enable him to ‘be strong and take heart’ so that he will ‘wait for the LORD’? If it does, the testing will develop perseverance, which, says James, is an important component of spiritual maturity.(James 1:2-4)

Think of someone you know who needs perseverance. Pray that they will ‘be strong and take heart’ as they ‘wait for the LORD’. Can you say or do anything to encourage them?

– Ernest Lucas

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Psalms on Sundays Reading: Psalm 28 – ARE YOU THERE, LORD?

(5 October 2003)

What image or aspect of God is on your mind as you approach him today?

Turning to prayer often initially brings out our anxious fears, rather than calming them. This psalm begins with the fear that prayer is all one way, like talking to someone who is deaf or deliberately ignoring us. The psalmist feels, almost literally, a ‘dead loss’. He fears God is condemning him, lumping him in with the wicked. He feels anxiety that good and evil are so mixed in people and appearances can be so deceptive. So he longs to be reassured that his vision of a godly life is right; that corrupt and malicious people, who do not acknowledge and trust in God, will not ultimately flourish.

Putting our fears into words can often dear the ground. No reassurance is actually given, but the second half of the psalm expresses faith that God is, in fact, listening and can be trusted. The three images he uses for God in verses 7-9 are so familiar from the psalms and songs we sing in worship that they may easily lose their impact. Here they represent a progression of thought, appropriate for a Sunday.

A shield (Gen 15:1) is a close personal possession. It speaks of a God who graciously allows us to reach out and place him protectively between ourselves and the dangers we fear. A fortress is a large and strong place of communal safety. We enter it with others for times of fellowship and recuperation. Then we disperse again into the daily routine of the coming week with our own personal concerns, but can also carry in our hearts a sense of being together with others in a flock with the shepherd walking alongside, carrying individuals in times of greatest need.(Isa 40:11)

We need space for our questions, doubts and fears to surface in times and places where we also encounter reminders of the strength and mercy of the Lord.

– Vera Sinton

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Psalms on Sundays Reading: Psalm 29 – FEARFUL YET MAJESTIC GOD

(12 October 2003)

What does the weather map of human affairs look like today? Bring to God any news headlines buzzing in your mind.

On a sunny day, looking out on a calm landscape, cultivated and domesticated by human efforts, it is easy to feel we are masters of our life and destiny. When a storm comes, we may be thrilled by the magnificence of lightning and energised by rumbling thunder, but we are right to be afraid. Despite all our technology, we are powerless before a wind that tears off roofs and fells trees, or rain that swells rivers into floods!

The original singers of this psalm will have seen many dramatic storms sweep in from the sea and extend across their land from northern forests (v 5) to southern deserts (v 8). In pagan myths, elements in nature are identified with particular gods and define their character; thunder is usually the voice of a powerful, unpredictable god. In the Hebrew Scriptures all of creation together points to the Creator but God is not defined by any one of its themes. He is like the white light that comes when the colours of the spectrum shine together.

So the psalm begins with the glory, strength and splendour, acknowledged at all times by choruses of angels (‘mighty ones’, v 1), deserving human wonder and praise. Then it picks out the colours of judgement and salvation. It reminds us that, at any moment, the voice of the Lord can break through into human affairs like a storm, washing away debris, blowing down decaying structures and leaving behind plentiful water and the peace in which new life can flourish. The commentator Kidner points out that the word for ‘flood’ (v 10) is found only in the story of Noah (Gen 6-10; Kidner, Psalms 1-72 IVP), an early picture of how God’s judgement and salvation fit together.

In modern cultures people easily panic when events seem disastrous. God’s people can be active in the clear up, but also calm in trusting that God’s winds blow for good (Rom 8:28).

– Vera Sinton

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Copyright Scripture Union, 2003, Encounter with God

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