Ep.071: Psalm 27: The Lord is my Light.
Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.
Psalm 27 starts, “The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?” It is a favorite psalm, brave, hopeful, encouraging, uplifting. The poet faced foes attacking, an army besieging, war breaking out, oppressors and accusers spreading false news, malicious lies, and hatred.
In this dangerous situation, the poet expresses deep trust in God. God is his light and salvation, God will hide him from his enemies, God will keep him safe and bring him goodness.
Let’s pray some of the best known phrases from the psalm.
Lord, we walk in the dark, in a world filled with strongholds of evil. We pray with the poet,
You are my light and my salvation,
Whom shall I fear?
You are the strength of my life,
Of whom shall I be afraid? (v. 1).
As America and Iran rattle sabres, as the Taliban destabilizes Afghanistan, as the bloody war grinds on in Yemen, as Syria lies in ruins; we place our confidence in you. Our hope is not in America policing the world, nor in the United Nations brokering peace, nor in Europe showing a civilized way forward, nor in China and Russia implementing their version of legitimate and stable rule. Our confidence is in you, Lord, that you will protect us in the midst of conflict, that you will light our way through a conflicted world.
Psalm 27 resonates with our world today:
Though an army besiege me,
My heart will not fear.
Though war break out against me,
Even then will I be confident (v. 3)
In the day of trouble
You will keep me safe in your dwelling;
You will hide me in the shelter of your tent
And set me high upon a rock (v. 5).
O Lord, we live distracted lives, we hear real news and fake news from all corners of the earth, we face pressures at work, we deal with endlessly people problems, we receive conflicting advice from a thousand voices. Even our own feelings and doubts assault us.
With the poet we pray,
One thing I ask of the Lord,
This only do I seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord
All the days of my life,
to gaze on your beauty,
And to seek you in your temple.
We turn our eyes from the turmoil of the world to the beauty of your temple, from places of evil to the house where you dwell.
My heart says of you, “Seek his face!”
Your face, Lord I will seek.
Do not reject me or forsake me
God my Saviour.
Though my father and mother forsake me,
You will receive me (vv. 9-10).
Show us your face, Lord. The Bible is empty words until you speak through them. Our songs are noisy distractions until you reveal yourself. Our sermons are irritating lectures until we hear your voice. Our prayers are vain repetitions until we feel your heart
Lord, our life is a labyrinth, our relationships a puzzle of difficulties, our motives a well of uncertainty. Show us the straight and simple way.
Teach me your way, O Lord;
lead me in a straight path
because of my oppressors.
Do not hand me over to the desire of my foes. (vv. 11 – 12)
Lord, we set aside our consternation, our anxious activity, our endless fretting, and constant distractions. We, pray with the poet:
I remain confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the Lord. (vv. 13-14).
Yes, Lord, we wait.
Amen
I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.
Ep070: Fight Injustice with Injustice? Podcast.
Ep070: Fight Injustice with Injustice?
Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.
Today we look at Habakkuk, one of the minor prophets in the Old Testament. He starts his prophecy with a chapter-long complaint that God is doing absolutely nothing about the injustice and violence in Judah. He says,
How long, Lord, must I call for help,
but you do not listen?
I cry out to you, “Violence!”
but you do not save? (Hab. 1:1)
Destruction and violence are before me;
strife and conflict abound.
Therefore the law is paralysed,
and justice is perverted. (Hab. 1:3-4)
Great prayer, Habakkuk. Sounds like our world today.
God was listening, and he answered Habakkuk. He said,
Look. . . and be utterly amazed (Hab. 1:5)
For I am going to do something in your days
that you would not believe,
even if you were told.
That’s great, God! Do something amazing and unbelievable. We’re ready.
So what was God’s amazing plan? He said he was raising up the Babylonians as a ruthless, godless, treacherous, violent, and self-serving nation. Their army would destroy and conquer nations. They would trample the injustice in Judah that Habakkuk complained about.
Habakkuk didn’t think this was an amazing solution — the Babylonian army replacing the unjust civilization in Judah with their own violence and injustice? What problem does that solve? This gave Habakkukk something new to complain about, so he said,
You have appointed them to execute judgment? (Hab. 1:12)
Why do you let the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves? (Hab. 1:13).
God replied that Babylon would plunder many nations, but they too would be punished for injustice. Those they plundered would rise up and plunder them.
Did Habakkuk find this comforting? A merciless empire will violently destroy unjust Judah and then God will send someone to violently destroy the merciless empire. Is this a biblical interpretation of world history? Is there no end to the cycle of violence and retribution?
Overwhelmed, Habakkuk turns from complaint to prayer. He says,
Lord, I have heard of your fame;
I stand in awe of your deeds . . .
Repeat them in our day,
in our time make them known;
in wrath remember mercy. (Hab 3:2)
Then he recounts some of God’s great deeds, like the plagues on Egypt and parting the Red Sea. Yes, God had acted powerfully in the face of angry nations, but he did not promise an Exodus-type deliverance in Habakkuk’s day. Facing a world war with no exit in sight, Habakkuk prayed a prayer of resignation and hope. Let’s pray with him, bringing to his ancient prayer our 21st century experience of injustice, war, and climate change.
O God,
I will wait patiently for the day of calamity
to come on the nation invading us.
Though the fig-tree does not bud
and the grape vine bears no fruit,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the sheepfold
and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will be joyful in God my Saviour.
The sovereign Lord is my strength,
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to tread on the heights. (Hab. 3:16-19)
Yes, Lord, be our sovereign, our king, our strength. Rule the warring nations. Cool the burning earth. Bring justice to the unjust world. Make our feet like the feet of deer, enable us to walk on the high places.
Amen.
I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.
Ep.069: Psalm 26: Vindicate me, Lord. Podcast.
Ep.069: Psalm 26: Vindicate me, Lord.
Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.
Psalm 26 starts, “Vindicate me, O Lord.” The word “vindicate” is a complex word with a simple meaning. Here’s a story to help us find the meaning.
Writer Ruben Navarette, Jr., a Hispanic American, attended Harvard law school. After graduating, he decided he’d rather be a struggling writer than a successful lawyer, so he abandoned law to become a freelance writer. His father was angry and disappointed watching him struggle as a writer when he could have been rich and successful. Navarette says two events vindicated his decision. First, after nine years of struggling poverty, he got a good job at the Arizona Republic. That affirmed him as a writer. And on a trip home, his doubting father introduced him by saying, “That’s my boy. He’s a writer.”
How sweet to be vindicated: to have a difficult decision finally work out well, to see our struggle as more than a string of meaningless sufferings. How sweet to lose the shame we felt when it looked like life was going off the rails, to have our good work and good reputation recognized and appreciated.
That’s the heart of the poet’s cry in Psalm 26. “Vindicate me, O Lord” (v. 1). For most of the psalm, he supplies God (and us) with the reasons he deserves to be vindicated:
– His life has been blameless (v. 1)
– He has trusted God and not faltered (v. 1)
– He doesn’t associate with deceivers, hypocrites, or the wicked (vv. 4-5)
– He loves going to God’s house (v. 8)
Interesting, isn’t it, that the poet does not believe his life will vindicate itself. He requires vindication from God. It’s not just the happy outcome he wants. He wants relationship with God, he wants God’s approval. It is important to him that God see and accept him.
Let’s pray.
Our father, we try to live right. We read our Bible and pray. We go to church and give money to good causes.We are honest in our dealings. We drive the speed limit or only a bit over, we do our civic duty, we vote and pay our taxes. We reduce our use of plastic, we recycle paper and other stuff. If we haven’t been friendly to our neighbours, at least we have been civil to them, which we hope meets the minimum standard for “Love your neighbour as yourself.”
Our father, despite all this, we do not feel vindicated. Our lives do not burn with love. Our hearts resist the deep purifying work of your spirit. You offer us a large life, but we are content with smallness.
Father, we need you to vindicate us. If we try harder to be good, it is never good enough. If we take on more work for you, we only resent it. We are not spiritually strong enough to seek you in fasting and prayer as we ought.
Vindicate us, Lord. We have been faithful where we can. But only when you come to us in love, only when you forgive our sins, only when you overlook our smallness and show us mercy will we hear you say, “Well done.” That is the only outcome we care about in our troubled lives. Accept our hearts and our service.Receive our small offerings. “Vindicate us, O Lord, for we trust in you.”
Amen
I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.
Footnotes:
Ruben Navarrette Jr. A Darker Shade of Crimson: Odyssey of a Harvard Chicano (New York: Bantam Books, 1994).
Ruben Navarrette Jr. Vindication, chapter in Canfield, Jack; Hansen, Mark Victor; Gardner, Bud Chicken Soup for the Writer’s Soul (California: Health Communications, Inc., 2000).
Ep.068: Jonah Scolds God. Podcast.
Ep.068: Jonah Scolds God.
Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.
Today, a quick look at Jonah.
Here’s the story: God told Jonah to go to Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire. His assignment was to warn the citizens that if they didn’t repent, God would destroy the city in 40 days. That’s like God sending you or me to the capital city of today’s evil empires — Washington D.C. or Beijing — to threaten destruction and preach repentance. Jonah wasn’t impressed. He liked the idea of God destroying Ninevah. So instead of going to Nineveh, Jonah took a Mediterranean cruise in the opposite direction, to a city where he could wait comfortably for news that God had carried out his 9/11 on Nineveh.
But God wasn’t so easily deterred. Jonah’s cruise encountered a fierce storm, and Jonah told the sailors he caused this by disobeying God. “Throw me overboard!” he told the crew. They did. The storm stopped, the ship was saved, and God provided Jonah a prayer room in the middle of the ocean — in the belly of a whale. Jonah took the hint and did some serious praying. Soon the whale got indigestion and vomited him up on the land. God said to Jonah, “Did I mention Nineveh?” and Jonah replied, “OK, maybe I’ll go.” So he preached to Nineveh until the king and the people of that evil empire sought God and changed their ways. God decided not to destroy the city after all.
Jonah found this outcome intensely annoying. He pouted and went to the desert and said, “God, this is exactly what I warned you about. I was only trying to protect you from yourself. You bill yourself as loving and compassionate, but you had already given Nineveh all the love and compassion they needed. It was time to destroy them. But I preach a bit, and they repent a bit and you go all soft and decide not to punish them? How is that helpful? You were well on the way to implementing regime change in Assyria, but now we’re back at the unhappy status quo.”
God responded by providing another prayer room for Jonah. A leafy plant grew up over Jonah’s shelter in the desert, and he was comforted by the shade. But the next day, the plant died and Jonah was angry. God said to him, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” Jonah replied, “Yes, it is. I’m so angry, I wish I were dead!”
God said to him, “You have compassion on the plant that gave you shade? I have compassion on all the people I have made, even the ones in the evil empire.”
Some lessons from Jonah:
1. First, sometimes God is not a fan of violent regime change to solve the problem of evil. I wish someone would preach that message in Washington and Beijing.
2. Second, God is a fan of all the people he has made. He prefers mercy to punishment, but he thinks the merciful approach works best when people seek him and turn away from evil.
3. Third, a Mediterranean cruise might not be the answer to your current set of spiritual problems. You might just bring yourself and your troubles along on the cruise, and then where would you be?
4. And finally, God kept providing prayer rooms for Jonah, even when he was disobedient and angry. Why don’t you tell God you need a prayer room, or maybe use the one you have?
Let’s pray.
Our father, you love all the people you created. Send your prophets to Ottawa and Washington and Beijing and Mogadishu and Moscow. May the evil empires find their way to repentance and new life, instead of violence and perversion and destruction.
Amen.
I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.
Ep.067: Psalm 25: Praying our ABC’s. Podcast.
Ep.067: Psalm 25: Praying our ABC’s.
Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.
Psalm 25 is the first of seven acrostic psalms, in which each verse starts with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. This is a constrained way to write poetry, so why would someone choose this form?
The simplest reason is that the acrostic is a memory aid. For example, if I quote an acrostic poem in English, I can easily recite the A B C stanzas, and then confidently inform you that there are 23 more stanzas which I have forgotten. What a great aid to memory! We know how many verses there are and what letter each verse begins with. The acrostic form also presents an interesting challenge to the poet — it allows him to demonstrate his skill and vocabulary in a simple but difficult form — a bit like the sonnet in Shakespeare’s time. And finally, an acrostic psalm communicates that God is interested in all of life from A to Z.
Psalm 25 shows God in two roles that have been mentioned but not highlighted in previous psalms .
1. First, God is the one who forgives sin. Verse 7 says, “Do not remember the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways” and verse 11, “For the sake of your name, Lord, forgive my iniquity for it is great.” The poet is realistic about human stubbornness and failure. But he trusts God to offer forgiveness, instead of administering punishment, justice, and consequences. But sometimes of course, our sins receive both consequences and forgiveness.
2. Second, the psalm shows God as teacher.
Verse 4: Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths.
Verse 8: Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.
Verse 12: Who then fears the Lord? He will instruct them in the ways they should choose.
The tone of Psalm 25 is almost mellow. We see the poet as less desperate than in some earlier psalms, more somber or perhaps even melancholy. He says,
Turn to me and be gracious to me
For I am lonely and afflicted.
Relieve the troubles of my heart
And free me from my anguish (vv. 16 – 17).
Let’s pray.
Our father, the poet describes the precipice of shame on which we live. We are ashamed of our broken relationships, of our failures in serving you, of our slackness in seeking and loving you. We work for success and joy, but often fail. With the poet we pray, “We trust in you, do not let us be put to shame.” Form our lives and characters so they display your glory, God, instead of the shame of our inadequacy. May people see in us the radiance of your presence, not shadows of our fear and guilt. “May those who are treacherous without cause be put to shame” (v. 3). May those who trust in idols be ashamed they serve delusions. “Do not let us be put to shame, guard our lives and rescue us” (v. 20).
Our father, like the poet, we have unhappy memories of the sins of our youth. We pray, “Do not remember the sins of our youth and our rebellious ways. According to your love remember us, for you are good” (v. 7).
Our father, we need a teacher who instructs sinners in what is right, who teaches us to make good choices, who warns us when we are wrong and encourages us when we are right. With the poet we pray, “Show us your ways, O Lord, teach us your paths” (v. 4). Train us in the way of righteousness, lead us on the path of truth. We don’t need another course in behaviour management. Give us a change of heart, a new worldview, transparent motives, and stronger desire for you. Inform our choices, discipline our actions. Help us learn a way of being and a way of life that honors you as creator and respects us and our neighbours as creatures in your image.
Amen
I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.
Footnote: See http://www.scielo.org.za/pdf/ote/v21n2/17.pdf for a discussion of acrostic psalms.
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