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

Psalm 37 highlights three notable topics: land, moral logic, and the heart. Let’s look at these three.

First, the land. Five times, God promises that those who trust him will inherit the land. Jesus borrowed verse 11, “The meek will inherit the land” (v. 11) for his beatitudes, widening it to “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” The land is both local to Israel, and also a picture of God’s gift of the whole earth to the human race. I like this promise, I’d like to inherit some land, but I’m not expecting God to deliver a title deed to me any time soon.

A second striking feature in Psalm 37 is the confidence with which the poet states his moral logic: God blesses the righteous and punishes the wicked. Of the righteous he says,
  I was young and now I am old,
    yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken
    or their children begging bread (v. 25).
And of the wicked he says, 
   But the wicked will perish:
      though the Lord’s enemies are like the flowers of the field,
      they will be consumed, they will go up in smoke (v.

John Calvin commented his reservations about this moral logic, saying, “It is certain that many righteous men have been reduced to beggary.” He cites Jesus’ story in Luke (Luke 16:20) about the righteous Lazarus begging at the rich man’s door (Calvin, John. Commentary on the Psalms–Volume 2 (Christian Classics Ethereal Library: http://www.ccel.org/c/calvin/calcom09/cache/calcom09.pdf, p. 32)). Calvin’s opinion was that life isn’t as logical as the poet describes it: Sometimes God blesses the righteous with health and wealth, sometimes he doesn’t. 

To the poet’s credit, he also recognizes shades of grey. In the first verse he says:  
    Don’t fret because of those who are evil,
         Don’t be envious of wrongdoers (v. 1).
When evil succeeds, we are tempted to think, “Life isn’t working out right. God is supposed to reward good, and punish evil.” But the poet reminds us that God is in charge and we can afford to wait patiently because,
            The Lord laughs at the wicked, 
               for he knows their day is coming (v. 13). 

A third topic in this psalm is the heart. God’s promise of land, his moral logic, and his laws are not simply promoting good behavior. The poet looks beyond behavior to the heart. “Trust in the Lord,” he says (v. 3). Don’t just obey God or submit to him. Open your heart to him.  “Delight yourself in the Lord,” he says (v. 4). Our posture toward God is 
– not just to believe right doctrine, 
– not just to keep his laws, 
– not just to be afraid of judgement. 
No, our posture is to love him and delight in him. 

Let’s pray. 

Our father, once again we feel the smallness of our religion. We like the simple formula of moral logic: Obey and be blessed, disobey and be punished. We want our right behavior to earn an inheritance. We want a guarantee that we will never become beggars. 

But under the poet’s formula, he describes a heart turned to you. Whether our life is comfortable and well-behaved, or miserable and stumbling, you continue to care for us, God. When we stumble, you help us up (v. 24). When circumstances overwhelm us, you lead us to a future and an inheritance (vv. 6, 11. 37). When we envy the wealthy and comfortable, you offer us lasting delight and riches. 

Our father, with the poet we look to you in the present where you are our refuge and strength (v. 39) and we look to you in the future where you will give us the desires of our heart (v. 4). 

Amen.

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

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

Psalm 36 paints a dark picture of the unrighteous. Here’s how the poet describes them. They flatter themselves, not caring about sin or goodness. They operate in post-truth mode: if news annoys them they call it false news, if it flatters them they call it true. They are all image and no substance. Because they do not fear God, their only morality is self-promotion. Whatever enhances their ego and image, whatever get votes, whatever makes money, whatever paints their opponents in a bad light is OK by them. They lie in bed making evil plans.

Against this dark background, the poet sketches a colorful picture of God whose love reaches to the heavens, whose faithfulness is bigger than the skies, whose righteousness is like a high mountain, whose justice plumbs the ocean depths (vv. 5-6).  What a contrast to the small minded, self-interested, scheming perpetrators of evil.

God cares for people. We take refuge in the shadow of his wings, we feast in the abundance of his house, we drink water from his river of delights, in his light we see light (vv. 7-9). God’s generous gifts are in stark contrast to the greedy, grasping evildoer who schemes in the darkness.

Given this picture the poet says to God, “Continue your love to those who know you.”  

Let’s pray.

Lord, the news we read, both true and false, is often a meditation on darkness and evil. Each month brings mass shootings, crushing accidents, vicious wars, and economic collapse. 

But you invite us to turn away from our obsession with evil, and to turn toward evidence of your goodness. The world you have given us is good–each year it produces food for seven-and-a-half billion people. We live on the bounty of your faithfulness: wheat grows and we make bread, grapes grow and we make wine, olives grow and we have oil.

Your faithfulness reaches the heavens; the sun shines each day, the moon and stars rule the night. Like the mountains, your righteousness watches over us. Like the ocean, your justice plumbs the depths of our unjust world. Like the mother eagle, you spread your wings over our precarious lives. 

You are at home in this world (v. 8), and you wine and dine us at your table. You are the host who delights us with stories, who gives us gifts of welcome and well-being and life. We drink at your river of delights, in your light we see light (vv. 8-9).

With you is the fountain of life. You teach us to leave our fears and to play in the fountain. Nothing can separate us from your love, so we need not fear sickness or death or darkness or evil. With the poet we pray,
  Continue your love to those who know you,
      your righteousness to the upright in heart (v. 10). 

Amen.

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

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

In Psalm 35, the poet asks God to punish his enemies. He suggests that God should:
– Brandish spear and javelin against them (v. 3)
– Turn them back in dismay (v. 5)
– Clothe them with shame and disgrace and confusion (v. 26)
– Make their path dark and slippery while an angel of the Lord chases them (v. 6)
That’s an ominous list of curses. I don’t want this poet as my enemy! 

The psalm suggests the poet’s enemies are pursuing false legal claims against him. He says he tried to help his accusers–when they were sick, he wept over their distress (v.14). He fasted and prayed for their healing (v. 13). So much for gratitude–his enemies did not respond in kind. So now the poet is in trouble, his enemies gather gleefully (v. 15), they slander and mock and gloat (vv. 15,-16, 19). They invent false accusations (v. 20). They hate without reason, they sneer and crow (vv. 19, 21) and repay evil for good (v. 12).

In verse 17, the poet calls on God to take action saying, 
  How long, Lord, will you look on?
      Rescue me from their ravages,
      My precious life from these lions. 
The poet says, “The lions attack me, God. Rescue me from their jaws.”

If God does this, the poet promises:
    I will give you thanks in the great assembly;
      among the throngs I will praise you (v. 17).
    My tongue will proclaim your righteousness, and
      your praises all day long (v. 28).  

Let’s pray. adopting the poet’s worldview and language for our prayer today.. 

Lord, bring shame and disgrace on those who gouge insurance companies to profit illegally. Like the man who needlessly hit his brakes so my relative would rear end him, doing almost no damage to the vehicle but enabling a $20,000 payout. 

Lord, bring shame and disgrace to insurance companies and their lawyers who reject legitimate claims from poor people who can’t afford to fight.

Lord, bring shame and disgrace to politicians who game the system for personal benefit instead of promoting the common good. Bring shame and disgrace to citizens who complain endlessly about the politicians but don’t vote or participate.  

Lord, bring shame and disgrace to those who profit from soul-destroying businesses like gambling and pornography and drug addiction and violence. Rescue their victims. 

Lord, bring shame and disgrace to those who return evil for good: to managers who lord it over employees, to parents who abandon spouse and children, to lovers who violate trust and betray confidences. 

Lord, bring shame and disgrace on the promoters of injustice and violence in the world and in our personal lives. Hide us and protect us in the powerful name of Jesus, from divisive politics, rampant consumerism, oppression of the poor, and religious hypocrisy. 

And Lord, as you rescue us and our world, we will give you thanks and praise. We will say with the poet, 
     The Lord be exalted,
         he who delights in the well-being of his servant.
     We will proclaim your righteousness,
         your praises all day long. (vv. 27-28).

Amen.

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

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

Psalm 34 paints a bright picture of hope against a bleak background of suffering and terrors that break the heart and crush the spirit. Poet Luci Shaw wrote, 
    A piece of hope spins out
    bright, along the dark, and is not
    lost in space. . . 
    (Luci Shaw, “But Not Forgotten” in Listen to the Green (Colorado Springs: Harold Shaw Pub, 1973) 

Yes, that summarizes Psalm 34.

The first part of the psalm is a hymn of praise as the poet tells how the Lord delivered him. The second part encourages us to seek God because he rewards those who seek him. The last part is another section of praise for God’s deliverance. 

When my brother was in his early twenties, he suffered a broken hip on a mission trip to Sudan. He declined their medical treatment when they produced a used needle to inject painkillers. Back in Canada, he spent a year in and out of hospitals trying to save the hip. It never recovered, so the doctors finally fused it with a metal rod. My brother said that verses 19-20 of Psalm 34 tormented him all year. They read,
      The righteous person may have many troubles,
        but the Lord delivers him from them all;
      he protects all his bones,
        not one of them will be broken.
In the hospital, as my brother lay awake long nights in pain, he did a lot of thinking and feeling about that verse, “God protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.”

Perhaps our spiritual lives are more complex than naming and claiming the simple, straightforward promises. My brother’s experience connects with my prayer life. Jesus’ promise:  “I will do whatever you ask in my name” (John 14:13) does not work for me every time. In Psalm 34, the bright promises are painted against a backdrop where the poet describes the experience of the righteous as afflicted, troubled, fearful, crying, broken-hearted, and crushed in spirit. God is always present to us, sometimes protecting our bones or healing them, sometimes strengthening us to endure seemingly endless troubles.

Let’s pray. 

     I sought the Lord and he answered me,
        he delivered me from all my fears (v. 4).
Yes, God, you are the one who can drain the swamp of our fears.

      Those who look to you are radiant;
        Their faces will never be ashamed (v. 5).
May it be you, God, and not the cosmetics industry, who brings light to our eyes and joy to our faces. 

       This poor man called, and the Lord heard him,
          And saved him out of all his troubles. 
Yes, Lord, you hear, and you deliver us from our troubles (v. 6). 

        Taste and see that the Lord is good,
            Blessed is the one who takes refuge in him (v. 8).
Lord, we have tasted that you are good. We feel it when your face shines on us, we feel it when you give us peace in our confusion and light in our darkness. Turn our tasting into feasting, until we experience with all our heart that you are good.  

          Whoever loves life
             and desires to see many good days,
          Turn from evil and do good;
            Seek peace and pursue it (vv. 12, 14).
Yes, Lord, we love the life you offer — not a life of wealth and safety and escape from troubles, but a life of turning from evil to do good, a life of pursuing peace.

       The Lord is close to the broken-hearted,
            and saves those who are crushed in spirit (v. 13). 
Lord, we feel the brokenness of our spirit, our life, our world. Thank you for drawing near to broken hearts and crushed spirits.

        The Lord will rescue his servants;
            No one who takes refuge in him will be condemned (v. 22).
Thank you for looking out for us. Thank you for freeing us from all condemnation. Thank you for being our refuge in life and our hope in death. We wait quietly in your presence.

Amen.

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

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

In Psalm 33, a hymn of praise, the poet encourages us to sing a new song, accompanied by stringed instruments. Perhaps the poet had composed something new and wanted an enthusiastic and skillful performance. Today, we still need new songs. But when the worship team at my church strikes up an unfamiliar tune, old curmudgeons like me grumble, “Really? Aren’t the old songs good enough?”

The poet introduces two reasons for praise: The first is God’s word in creation (vv. 6-9) and the second, God’s role in history (vv. 10-19). Let’s look at both these reasons.

At creation, God spoke and the universe came into being. The poet says,
  By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
      and the stars by the breath of his mouth (v. 6).
What a beautiful picture. In winter, my breath creates a  small puff of water vapor and ice. But’s God’s breath at creation sent the the galaxies and stars and planets spinning into space. 

When God spoke again at creation, the world organized itself into sea and dry land and sky. The poet says, 
   He gathered the waters of the sea into mounds,
      the deep into storehouses (v. 7). 

After reviewing creation, the poet moves on to a history lesson, comparing God’s words with the words of humans. He says,
   The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing,
      he frustrates the plans of the people.
  The counsel of the Lord stands forever
    the thoughts of his heart to all generations (vv. 11-12). 

Yes, God is the overseer of human history, overriding the words and plans of the superpowers and the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund, and Republicans and Democrats and conservatives and liberals everywhere. Perhaps God is not as supportive of your political opinions as you imagine!

Let’s pray. 

Our father, Psalm 33 says,
    A king is not saved by his great army,
      A warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
  Truly, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him,
      on those who hope in his steadfast love (vv. 16, 18). 

O you who breathed the stars into place, look upon the history of our time. Confuse the counsels of the nations, frustrate the plans of the people.  As the US rachets up the trade war with China and shuts out immigrants, as Britain brexits and Canada elects a new leader; as Russia seeks to resurrect the Soviet glory days, as China flexes its military muscle and oppresses Uighurs and Tibetans, as India reasserts control over Kashmir, and Pakistan threatens nuclear retaliation; we come to you, O God of the nations. We pray to you, O God of history. 

Bring the nations to sanity. Frustrate the plans of the leaders. Stay the engines of war, guard the nuclear arsenals, keep your eye on those who hope in your steadfast love. Protect your people. 

O Lord, ours is a fearsome time in history as nations vy for power and reject your word. But you called the world into being, you supervise the rise and fall of empires, you watch men wage war and peace, but mostly war. In our lives and sometimes in our churches, we see your gracious hand heal the sick and bring peace and unity. We look to you to guide our personal history and the history of the world with your same steady hand that holds the universe in place. 

With the poet, we say
  Our soul waits for the Lord,
    you are our help and our shield.
  Our heart is glad in you,
    because we trust your holy name.
  Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,
    even as we hope in you. 

Amen.

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