Author: Daniel Westfall

Ep.057: Psalm 20: The King and Plan B.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Psalm 20 ends in a grand finale: “Lord, save the king. Answer us when we call” (v. 9). Using the same phrase as the psalm, we Canadians occasionally sing, “God Save the Queen”. Listen to some words from the song. Fortunately for you, I will quote them instead of singing them.

    God save the queen.
    Send her victorious,
    Happy and glorious . . .

    Oh Lord our God arise,
    Scatter our enemies,
    Confound their politics
    Frustrate their knavish tricks,
    On Thee our hopes we fix
    Oh save us all.

The psalm and the song bring together politics and religion in a way that we moderns find strange. What are we to make of this?

Here’s one perspective on God’s plan for the world.
In Plan A, God created the world and he delegated to humans the responsibility to be his representatives in creation, to care for it and rule over it. Adam and Eve and their descendants failed badly at this task and the world descended into chaos. Instead of declaring the project a failure and shutting it down, God initiated Plan B.

Plan B was a rescue operation for humanity and creation. It started with a human family, Abraham, and continued with the people of Israel. The goal was to bring God’s blessing and restoration back into the world. So how did Plan B work out? Instead of sticking with the plan, Israel imitated the world they were supposed to rescue, until they themselves were as bad as everyone else and they also needed rescuing.

The Psalms and the Old Testament carry a hint of Plan C, which God designed to rescue Plan B. The central feature of Plan C is a new kid on the block, a king in the line of Israel who will rule the world rightly, a Messiah and rescuer. This one will at last be God’s perfect representative caring for creation and implementing a just rule over all the nations.

That’s the space in which the psalms live. Sometimes in the psalms, Plan B, God’s rescue operation through Israel seems promising and possible. Other times, it seems completely hopeless, like when Israel persisted in idolatry and God sent them into Babylonian captivity. In times like that, the poets seem to be looking for someone to rescue Plan B.

Psalm 20 is a Plan B psalm. The poet sings to the king of Israel, “We will shout for joy when you are victorious and will lift up our banners in the name of our God” (v. 5). God gives the king victory!  Plan B is working out! Celebrate and shout for joy! But the poet also says, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God” (v. 7). God saved the king in battle and confounded the enemy. Israel’s horses and chariots gave the king victory, but the enemies’ horses and chariots were a vehicle of their defeat. The poet chooses to trust in in God rather than the military industrial complex. And later, in a complicated turn of history when Israel’s army fails and the king is defeated, the poet will still be praying, “We trust in the name of the Lord our God.”

Let’s pray.

Our father, your plans for the world haven’t worked out very well. Plan A with Adam and Eve, Plan B with Israel, and now Plan C with Christ and the church. Nations rage, kingdoms rise and fall, the human race plunders and destroys Creation. Yet with ancient Israel we share a vision of God’s Messiah ruling the world through humans, caring for creation, implementing peace and justice. But when will this happen?

Our father, some Christians expect the political solution only after Armageddon, when creation and humanity crash to destruction and fire. Others believe that Jesus began establishing his kingdom when he was here on earth and the church’s job is to continue his project. Our father, these details of politics and religion confuse us. We may not understand Plan C, but we pray:
  Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as in heaven.
  God save Christ the King, and give him victory and glory.
  Rescue us from those who believe that guns and missiles will bring peace and justice.
With the poet we pray “Now I know that the Lord rescues his anointed, he answers him from his holy heaven.” May Christ rescue us who serve him. Save us, Lord.

Amen

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Ep.056: House of Prayer.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

When Isaiah was writing about the return of exiles to Israel, he included non-Israelites, saying:
    Foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord . . .
        these I will bring to my holy mountain
    and give them joy in my house of prayer.
        for my house will be called
    a house of prayer for all nations.’ (Isa 56:6-7).

When Jesus drove the foreign exchange traders and merchandisers out of the temple, he quoted Isaiah saying, “‘‘Is it not written: “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations”? But you have made it “a den of robbers”.’” (Mark 11:17)

So what is this place Isaiah and Jesus call “a house of prayer”? It seems to be the temple in Jerusalem. Solomon built the original temple around 950 BCE, which the Babylonians destroyed about 400 years later in 587. About 70 years after that, some exiles returned from Babylon and built a second temple on the same spot, finishing it in 515 BCE. Five hundred years later, before and during the life of Jesus, Herod the Great did major renovations and additions to this second temple. Then about 40 years after Jesus’ death, the Romans destroyed it, and much of Jerusalem with it.

During Jesus’ life, the temple proper had three sections, one for priests, one for Israelite men, and one for Israelite women. Outside these exclusive areas was a general purpose area, the Court of the Gentiles, where  foreign exchange merchants set up their stalls and others sold animals and souvenirs.

Jesus’ anger at them seems odd to me.  Perhaps instead of getting angry and turning over tables, he could have invited some ecumenical dialogue about the problem. If I had been there I might have suggested that  there was room for everybody in the court of the Gentiles. Perhaps Jesus could build a small prayer chapel in one corner instead of overturning the whole operation.

Jesus, however, was decidedly NOT ecumenical. He was angry. The Jews said to him, “What authority do you have to do this?” Jesus replied, “Destroy this temple and I will build it again in three days” (John 2:19). The Jews were stunned and dismissive of Jesus’ claim that he could build the temple on a three-day weekend. After all, Herod’s renovations had been in progress for 46 years. But John gets round this by explaining that Jesus was talking about the temple of his body, not the temple of Herod.

Here are some observations.

1. Jesus chose not to defend his anger or his authority for his actions in the temple. Instead, he mysteriously switched the meaning of “temple” from “this place Herod is renovating” to “my body.” That was a weird and confusing direction to steer the conversation.

2. Despite its history of being built and destroyed, Jesus had a deep respect for the temple, including the outer court. Places were important to Jesus: he fasted in the desert, he was baptized in the river, he wept over Jerusalem, he met Moses and Elijah on the mountain, he cleansed the temple. We too live our lives in places that impact us spiritually. A temple or a church is not “just a building” — it is a place with a history, a place with meaning and memories, a place where we might pray or meet God.

3. Finally, today, two thousand years after Jesus spoke and almost two thousand years after the temple was destroyed, we still resonate with Jesus’ words, “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” Where is that house today?

Let’s pray.
Our father, your house is a house of prayer for all nations. Help us participate in your project. Help us build a house of prayer in the temple of our bodies. Help us build a house of prayer in the cathedral of creation. Help us build a house of prayer in the cities of human civilization.
Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel Pray with Me.

Ep.055: Psalm 19: The School of Words and Worlds

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

One summer, I backpacked with a friend into Kananaskis country in the Canadian Rockies. We walked through a high alpine valley with steep cliffs on left and right, and a  blue summer sky above. The valley opened onto a turquoise glacial lake, with black snow-capped mountains beyond. That view opened a window for me into a majestic creation, and into the heart of the creator. The winter that followed was difficult for me, but I was sustained by knowing that God was looking after my alpine valley in fierce blizzards, impassible snow, and relentless cold. Surely he was present also in the winter of my soul. In his time, the snow would go and the world would return to warm days and summer skies.

The poet who wrote Psalm 19 also experienced the beauty of God’s creation. He wrote,
    The heavens declare the glory of God,
    Day after day they pour forth speech;
        Night after night they display knowledge.
    There is no speech nor are there words,
        Their voice is not heard;
    Yet their voice goes out through all the earth,
        And their words to the end of the world.  (v. 1-4, see footnote 1 for translation)

Yes, that captures my experience of creation. The sky, the stars, the mountains, the valleys: “they have no speech, nor are there words” yet “day after day they pour forth speech”, “their words [go] to the ends of the world.”  Their language is silence, but they speak with the voice of God.

The poet who met God in creation also met God in his word. Verse 7 says, “The torah of the Lord is perfect, giving life to the soul.” Most modern translations reduce the beautiful and evocative word torah to the plain and narrow English word law, as if legislation and lawyers and litigation are somehow at the heart of God’s life-giving words. The torah that gives life is the first five books of the Bible, telling God’s story from creation to the Promised Land. It is God’s verbal gift to the poet. It is not primarily a system of laws that tells him how to behave and threatens him with punishment if he doesn’t. God’s verbal gift includes teaching and laws and stories. In the torah, Adam and Eve found and lost the garden of Eden, Noah waited out the flood, Abraham looked for God’s country, Moses lead the slaves to the promised land.

In Psalm 19, then, the poet celebrates the God of creation who set the sun marching across the sky. He also celebrates the God of torah who told us about people he cared for, how he worked on their behalf to give them experiences and words that would lead them to freedom and community.

Let’s pray.

Our father, your creation continues year after year. We see it in the bleakness of winter and the warmth of summer, in the dying leaves of fall and the new growth of spring. The circuit of the sun and the shining stars speak to us without words. They speak to us in words we know are your language.

Our lives are stories in the theatre of creation. You made us, and we wander east of Eden, looking for food and pulling thistles and finding our way to the Promised Land.

Help us accept our place as creatures in your creation.
Help us to interpret our story by your story.
Help us receive your gift of created universe and sacred writings.
Help us listen to your voice in the silence of the cosmos and the teachings of torah.
Give us light by the burning of the sun and the radiance of your word.
Give us riches in the beauty of the night sky and in the story of your people.
Give us direction in the circuit of the sun and in the dictates of your law.

May the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. (v. 14).

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Footnote 1:  Brueggemann, Walter, and William H. Bellinger, Jr. Commentary. Chapter 19. In Psalms, pp. 99-101. New Cambridge Bible Commentary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
See also: Alter, Robert. The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary. New York: W.W.Norton & Co., 2009. Chapter 19. [Kobo Books edition].

Ep.054: Do-It-Yourself Gods.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

A story in the book of Isaiah tells about a man who chops down a tree. He uses the wood for two projects. First, he makes a fire over which he cooks a meal and warms himself. Then he uses he rest of the wood to make a god, his idol. He bows and worships it, saying “Save me! You are my god!” (Isaiah 44:16-17).

Isaiah says this person feeds on ashes, that a deluded heart misleads him, because he cannot see that is idol is a lie, it is not god (v. 20). I want to ask the idol builder, “How do you know which part of the tree is the god? If you get it wrong, are praying to firewood and roasting your meat over your god?”

In Isaiah’s time, an idol was a statue that represented a god. Today, we are more sophisticated. We don’t cut down trees and carve idols.  We build idols in our minds. We imagine that modern philosophy and technology and culture are the key to controlling and managing our lives.

Here are some modern idols, and the prayers we pray to them.

  • Money is an idol when we pray, “Keep us from want, keep us from poverty, help us live comfortably, bless our lottery tickets and help them to hit.”
  • Guns are an idol when we pray, “Protect us from enemies, keep us safe and secure, don’t let the government take our guns.”
  • Entertainment is an idol when we pray, “Keep us from boredom. Make us forget our anxiety. Help us escape the smallness of our lives and live vicariously in a story that is large and exciting and fun.”
  • Right doctrine is an idol when we pray, “I have learned the right way to interpret the Bible. I have the system that defines truth. I have the doctrines that make me right, and show me how wrong most others are.”
  • I am my own god when I pray, “I’m on a journey to find myself. I’m on a journey to live a full life. I can become whatever I choose. ‘I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul’” (William Henley, Invictus, stanza 4).

In each of these prayers we ask the idol to give us something only God can give.

  • Money can not keep me from need. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall lack nothing.
  • Guns can not keep me safe. The Lord is my refuge and strength.
  • Entertainment can not provide fulfillment. Jesus came to give us life to the full.
  • Right doctrine does not make us right. Jesus said, “You search the scriptures because you think they will give you eternal life, but you will not come to me. I am the one who gives life.”
  • I can not be my own god. My life is a one-way ticket to death, and I do not control the journey. As the psalmist says to God, “My times are in your hand” (Psalm 31:5).  

Let’s pray.
Our father, we live in a world of management and control. Our jobs require competence, our vehicles maintenance, our bodies exercise and food, and our mental health requires positive thinking. We want to manage you too. A few prayers, a bit of devotion, church occasionally — surely you should respond by blessing our lives and work. But you are a God we cannot control. Help us place our lives and talents at your disposal, and say with Job, “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Footnote.  Eugene Peterson’s description of idols: “An idol is god with all the God taken out. . . . “ (Christ plays in Ten Thousand Places, p. 254)
– The idol is a [god] that requires no personal relationship.
– The idol is a [god] that I can manipulate and control.
– The idol reverses the God/creature relationship: now I am the [creator] and the idol is the creature.”


Ep.053: Psalm 18: The Warrior King and the Warrior God.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Today we look at Psalm 18. On average, the psalms have 17 verses. Psalm 18 weighs in at 51 verses, three times longer than average. This poses a difficult problem: Is one episode sufficient for this psalm?  Or should we divide it into two or even three episodes? This question will become pressingly important when we get to Psalm 119 which has 176 verses, 10 times longer than average.

For what it’s worth, here’s my opinion. One episode is not enough to do ANY of the Psalms justice. They all deserve more. However, I am planning to get through all 150 Psalms in three years, including time off for summer vacations. So I’m sticking with a Psalm a week.

This week’s psalm, Psalm 18, has an astonishing first line. It says, “I love you, O Lord, my strength.” The Bible gives a high profile to the command, “Love God.” But this is the only time in my Bible where someone says to God, “I love you.” This is probably not a good model for how often you should say “I love you” to your partner.

Another astonishing thing is that Psalm 18 casts God as the God of war. David, the warrior king, celebrates God’s military adventures. Listen to the martial themes in the psalm:
    Smoke rose from his nostrils,
        Consuming fire came from his mouth,
   He soared on the wings of the wind. (v. 8-10)
    The Lord thundered from heaven
        . . . he shot his arrows and scattered the enemies,
       great bolts of lightning and routed them. (v. 13-14)
    He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
       From my foes who were too strong for me. (v. 17)
    He is the God who avenges me
       Who subdues nations under me. (v. 47)

Wow. Is your God out there in the fray doing battle for you, taking revenge on your enemies, delivering you from attacks, subduing nations under you, guiding your military adventures to victory?

It looks like God is providing air support for David’s combat mission on the ground. Picture God riding the cherubim across the stormy sky, shooting arrows and bolts of lightning at the enemies until they retreat with David pursuing. He’s how the Psalm puts it:
    He parted the heavens and came down,
        He mounted the cherubim and flew;
    Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced,
        With hailstones and bolts of lightning
    You made my enemies turn their backs in flight,
        And I destroyed my foes.
        I crushed them so they could not rise;
    They cried for help
        But there was no one to save them
    To the Lord
        But he did not answer.
That’s God, thundering about the heavens harassing the enemies, supporting David’s on the ground to overrun and crush them. Warrior God supports warrior king in battle.

The psalm ends with thanksgiving for the great rescue and the great victory God has given the king. David says,
    The Lord lives!
    Praise be to my Rock!
    Exalted be the God who rescues me! (v.46).

Let’s pray.

Our father, in the Narnia books, Susan asks about Aslan, the lion, “Is he safe?” Mrs. Beaver replies, “Of course he’s not safe, but he’s good. He’s the king I tell you.” In Psalm 18, you are not a safe God, but you are a good God, a God who can be trusted and loved by those who trust you and love you.

Thank you for being a strong God. In our world of tanks and F18s, of land mines and assault rifles, of  nuclear submarines and hydrogen bombs, we need you, a strong God, a warrior God. Engage with our world today. Mount your strategies against persons and nations who destroy each other and creation. Be for us a warrior  God.

Thank you also for your gentleness and love. As the psalm says,
    You brought me into a spacious place,
       You rescued me because you delighted in me. (v. 19)
   To the faithful you show yourself faithful. (v. 25)
    You, O Lord, keep my lamp burning,
       You turn my darkness into light. (v. 28)
    Who is God, besides you, Lord?
        And who is the rock except you? (v. 31)
   You show unfailing kindness . . . forever. (v. 50)

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.