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

Today we look at Psalm 80, a lament for the overthrow of Israel, and a plea for God to make a U-turn, to stop delivering the country to destruction and to begin restoring it. 

The psalm is marked by several striking pictures of God. It opens,
    Hear us, shepherd of Israel,
        you who lead Joseph like a flock.
    You who sit enthroned between the cherubim. . .
      Awaken your might;
      come and save us (v. 1-2).

In these two verses, the poet addresses God as shepherd of Israel, as king whose throne is in the temple, and as a mighty saviour who ought to rescue his people. 

Then follows a refrain that occurs three times in the psalm (vv. 3, 7, 19). The poet says,
    Restore us, God of Armies,
      make your face shine on us
      that we may be saved (vv. 3, 7, 19).

Do you find it odd asking God, the commander of armies, to smile at you? President Trump is the commander-in-chief of the U.S. army, but he isn’t famous for his smile.

As the poem continues, it describes God as a gardener who transplanted his vine, Israel, from Egypt into the Promised Land.There, he carefully tilled the ground and planted the vine, tenderly caring for it until it covered the whole Promised Land from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean. But now, God has let the wall around his vineyard crumble. Wild boars trample the vines, insects infest them, and passers-by help themselves to the grapes. “Why have you let this happen?” asks the poet. “After all the trouble you took transplanting and tending the vine, have you suddenly quit caring about it?” 

Let’s pray the pictures of God from this psalm. 

Our father, God of Armies, the nations of our world look for strongman leaders. 

• Leaders who project decisiveness and strength in the face of racial and economic and social conflict. 
• Leaders who express sympathy for the troubles and prejudices of common people. 
• Leaders who do not care about political correctness or moral values. 
• Leaders with simple solutions to complex problems. 

God of Armies, it is your strength we need, for the time is coming when the strength of human leaders will fail, when their power will be revealed as weakness, and their wisdom as foolishness.

Our father, shepherd your people in these times. Lead us to wisdom. It is simple to believe in you, but not easy. In much of your church we see rigid theological opinions, strange political affiliations, unscriptural belief in individual freedom, and little understanding of community. Bring us out of our worldly values into the fellowship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Expose our illusions of self-sufficiency and lead us into community.

You who sit enthroned in your holy temple, help us live as holy people, as members of your family, as people set apart to serve you. Anxiety disorders increase during COVID-19, government support for the unemployed draws to an end, the count of sick and dead surges. O God, repair the wall around your garden, care for your vineyard again, look in mercy on all you have created, for the sake of your son Jesus Christ, who shared our human condition.

Amen

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

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

Today we look at Psalm 79, a wrenching lament for the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 586 B.C. A hundred years earlier, when the Assyrians attacked Jerusalem, God protected the city and sent the invaders packing. So the people concluded that they lived in God’s special city with God’s special temple, and that God would provide special protection forever.

The Babylonians, however, ran their cruel army right through the heart of that theory. Listen to the poet’s prayer:
  O God, the nations have invaded your inheritance;
      they have defiled your holy temple,
      they have reduced Jerusalem to rubble.
  They have left the dead bodies of your servants
      as food for the birds of the sky,
      the flesh of your people for the animals of the wild (v. 1-2). 

The poet implicates God in the disaster, pointing out that God failed to look after his people and his property and his religion. 

The poet also blames Israel for the disaster, saying to God,
  Do not hold against us the sins of past generations;
      may your mercy come quickly to meet us,
      for we are in desperate need.
      …deliver us and forgive our sins (v. 8, 9c). 

The poet believes that sin in generation after generation contributed to Israel’s great disaster. He asks God to forgive the sins, and to stop the generational consequences. Tellingly, he includes himself among the sinners as he says, “Forgive our sins.” 

The poet also blames Babylon, and pleads to God to take measureless vengeance on that nation. He says,
  Before our eyes, make known among the nations
      that you avenge the outpoured blood of your servants.
  Pay back into the laps of our neighbours seven times
      the contempt they hurled at you (vv. 11-12). 

Like the United States after 9/11, the poet had a deep feeling that the destruction should be avenged, quickly, purposefully, violently, completely. He did not suggest a moderate eye-for-an-eye and tooth-for-a-tooth justice–he wanted God to pay back the perpetrators seven times over. 

Let’s pray. 

Our father, as I read Tolstoy’s War and Peace during the Covid pandemic, I am amazed by his vivid descriptions of violent battles, destroyed cities, looting peasants and soldiers, wounded and dying civilians and military as Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812. Like the destruction of Jerusalem in the poet’s time, the burning of Moscow left a stench in 1812, 9/11 left a stench in New York in 2001, and America left a stench in Afghanistan and Iraq. Will it never end, Lord? Do war and vengeance go on forever? 

We ask you, we expect you, to protect our country and our religion, for they are yours. But we see in this psalm your willingness to let empires rise and fall, to permit the endless suffering of war, to let even your holy places fall into ruin and decay, and to let your people suffer in the sufferings of the world.

O father, bring us to the place the poet came to in this psalm. A place where instead of planning our own vengeance, we wait for your judgement. A place where we are content to be the sheep of your pasture, and to praise you forever.  

Amen

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

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

Today we look at Psalm 78, the second longest psalm in the Bible. It is one of four historical psalms which teach lessons from Israel’s history. 

The poet explains that we should teach these lessons to our children: 

     So they will put their trust in God
        and not forget his deeds
        but keep his commands.
    Then they won’t be like their ancestors –
        a stubborn and rebellious generation,
    whose hearts were not loyal to God (vv. 7 – 9).

Yes, we want our children to learn their lessons from the history books, instead of the bitter trials of life where we learned them. May your children be so wise.

Psalm 78 covers three periods of history. 

The first period is when the children of Israel wandered in the desert for 40 years. This was a wonderful time in their history: God leading them with a cloud by day and fire by night, feeding them with manna and meat, making water flow from solid rock. Even though the Israelites had recently escaped slavery in Egypt, they brought their slavish attitudes into the desert, complaining of life’s burdens, complaining of hunger and thirst, complaining that God mistreated and oppressed them. They accused God of being as bad as the Egyptian slave owners. The poet says,
  In spite of all God’s wonders, they did not believe (v. 32b).
  How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness
      and grieved him in the wasteland (v. 40). 

After that wilderness history lesson, the psalm flashes back  to the plagues God sent on Egypt, showing his power and love as he transferred ownership of the slaves from Pharaoh to himself. As their new owner. God gave the slaves many reasons to rejoice and to believe that he was powerful and loving. But they just kept complaining.

The psalm presents a third period of history, when the Israelites settled in the Promised Land. The poet says,
    Once again they were disloyal and faithless,
      and unreliable like a faulty bow.
    They angered God with their high places
      and aroused his jealousy with their idols (vv. 57-58).
The poet highlights a shocking story when the ark of the covenant, that special sign of God’s presence, was captured in war and desecrated by enemies, because God was angry at his people for their unfaithfulness. 

The poet’s history lesson concludes on a happy note. Despite Israel’s stubborn, rebellious, and uncomprehending ways, God didn’t abandon them. Instead, he sent the good king David to be a kindly shepherd, leading the people to a time of peace and plenty. 

Let’s pray. 

Our father, we are like the Israelites. You have delivered us from our slavery to sin and made us your children. But we cling to our old habits. Habits of unbelief, habits of complaining and gossiping. We hide behind a victim mentality, blaming you and others for the fault lines in our lives. We hoped that the freedom you offered us would let us easily conquer sin, would free us from trouble and conflict, would let us live in prosperity and ease. But life continues to be difficult, even with you as savior and teacher. Have we simply exchanged the slavemaster of sin for a slavemaster of salvation? 

Our father, today we take this psalm to heart. With the poet, we believe that your goodness in history proves that you are not just another slavemaster. You are the God of freedom, of love, of faithfulness, of hope. Change our desires, change our hearts until we grow beyond our slave mentality into the freedom of your sons and daughters, O God.

Amen

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

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

Do you ever have sleepless nights, lying awake and worrying about everything that’s going wrong? In Psalm 77, the poet recounts his sleepless night, full of worry and distress and desperate cries to God for help. 

He tells us three things he remembered that night. 

First, he says, “I remembered you, God, and I groaned.” No comfort there! He complains to God,
    You kept me from falling asleep,
      I was too troubled to speak (v. 3). 

Thinking about God only increased the poet’s discomfort and distress. Was God present and helpful in his sleepless night? No. Did God sooth his anxiety and send him sleep? No. It seemed to the poet that God was part of the problem, not part of the solution. All the poet could do was lie in bed and groan.

The second thing the poet remembers is when he used to sing songs in the night (v. 6). Night was not always a terror to him. He remembers a singing God’s praises at night. Back then, God was near, he warmed the poet’s heart and lifted his spirits. But that’s not happening any more. Instead of finding comfort in those happy memories, the poet uses them as fuel for despair, asking:
    Will the Lord now reject for ever?
        Will he never show his favour again?
      Has his unfailing love vanished completely?
        Has his promise failed for all time? (vv. 7-8).

Like the poet, how we use good memories is a choice. We can use them to praise the “good old days” and to complain that it’s not so good today. We can remember amazing answers to prayer, and resent God’s silence and absence today.  We can remember loving fellowship with God, and become bitter that he ignores us now. 

The poet soon tires of asking unanswerable questions about where God disappeared to, and he moves on to the third thing he remembers. He says,
    Then I thought, “To this I will appeal:
      the years when the Most High stretched out his right hand.
    I will remember the deeds of the Lord;
      yes, I will remember his miracles of long ago.” 

Then he recounts how God freed Israel from Egypt, how he parted the Red Sea to save them from Pharaoh’s army, and how he gave them the ten commandments at Mt. Sinai with powerful signs of thunder and lightning.  

Let’s pray. 

Our father, we often use our memories in the same way the poet used his. 

Sometimes when we lie sleepless at night, we groan when we wonder why you don’t do more about evil. Why are our lives so anxious. Why our health fails. Why those we love are in danger.

Sometimes even the memory of past joys feeds present despair. We remember when we loved to pray, when newfound faith filled us with joy, when hope lifted us out of depression, when we fell in love with you. But where are you now, God? The night is dark, and you do not light it up. It is filled with oppressive silence, and you do not speak. Have you forgotten that you love us? Have you rejected us forever? 

And finally, with the poet, we choose a different way of responding to our memories. We choose to use them as building blocks of hope. We remember the dry summers when you sent rain, and we trust you will do that again. We remember the gladness we had in hearing your word, and we trust you will speak to us again. We remember your power helping us conquer sin and sickness, and we trust you to bring us through this long night of despair. 

With the poet we remember that:
    You led your people like a flock,
      by the hand of Moses and Aaron (v. 20). 

Yes, God, you are a shepherd. We are the flock. Be our shepherd in the long dark nights of our lives.

Amen.

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

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

Psalm 76 is a hymn of praise to God, the great warrior. Today, instead of following the poet into a prayer that asks God to be our warrior, let’s reflect on the topic of war as the Bible presents it.

The theme of killing to solve relationship problems surfaces in the first book of the Bible. After Adam and Eve were evicted from the Garden of Eden, they had two sons. Cain, the elder, felt God was showing favoritism to Abel, his younger brother. Cain’s solution was to kill Abel. Today, individuals and nations still use this approach to address difficult relationships. 

Much of the Old Testament details the Israelite conquest of Canaan, the Promised Land. The Bible describes the conquest not as a “holy war” or “genocide”, but as a “divine war”, in which God demonstrates his power against false and evil gods to establish worship of the one true God. This is why the psalms celebrate God’s victory over evil and idolatry, and urge God into further battles. (See Thomas, Heath. The Old Testament, “Holy War” and Christian Morality. Blog post, 21 November 2011 at https://www.cardus.ca/comment/article/the-old-testament-holy-war-and-christian-morality/).

But when God’s chosen nation, Israel, fell into idolatry, God showed that he is no respecter of nations. He sent  warring nations against Israel to expose and correct their errors. And what of Israel today? Does God protect them as his chosen nation? Or is Israel balanced on a sharp edge of violence and corrupt politics, as their ancestors were when God decreed the Babylonian exile? 

In the New Testament, Jesus and Paul are realists about war. The Israel they lived in was conquered and occupied by Rome. Using a battle metaphor, Jesus said, “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Mat 10:34), and he predicted a future filled with “wars and rumors of wars” (Mat 24:6). Paul told Timothy to “fight the battle well” (1 Tim 1:18). In the book of Revelation, John had a vision of “divine war” at Armageddon at the end of time, when God will attack and destroy the enemies of his persecuted and oppressed people (Revelation 16).

I make three comments on war in the Bible

1. First, wars and killing are pervasive in biblical stories and imagery. Just as they are in human history, for as long as people have written their stories and painted pictures on the walls of caves.
   
2. Second God is present and active in human history, including wars. We’re fortunate that he doesn’t abandon us when things get messy and violent.
   
3. Third, I find it helpful to interpret my life using metaphors of war. There are Goliaths within I must kill–hate and lies and envy. There are enemies in the world we must fight–injustice, poverty, and ignorance. Whether the psalms speak literally or metaphorically of war, they paint a true picture of the life we live and the God we serve.

Let’s pray, using some of the images from Psalm 76. 

    O God, you are radiant with light,
        more majestic than mountains rich with game.
    The valiant lie plundered,
        they sleep their last sleep;
    not one of the warriors
        can lift his hand.
    At your rebuke, God of Jacob,
        both horse and chariot lie still (vv. 4-6). 

O God, we have caught a vision of your radiant light, more majestic than mountains. As we journey, stumbling in darkness toward this vision, we encounter enemies everywhere. The world and our own hearts are rampant with prejudice, with lust, with pettiness and anger. As you waged divine war on behalf of Israel, so wage divine war in our lives. Lay waste the enemies of our souls, rebuke  them until horse and chariot lie still, until evil sleeps its last sleep. 

  You, God rose up to judge,
    to save all the afflicted of the land.
  Surely your wrath against mankind brings you praise,
    and the survivors of your wrath are restrained.

You are a God to be feared and obeyed, because nothing stops your plan to bring righteousness and justice and peace. The violent will be deposed, the unjust punished, and the wicked rebuked. O God, cleanse us from unrighteousness, purge the violence from our hearts, that we may greet you with joy and not with fear when you come. 

Amen.

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