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

Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd”, is a favorite psalm. A friend recently asked why I thought Psalm 23 is often used at funerals. I replied, “Because it’s comforting to think of Jesus leading someone through the valley of the shadow of death and giving them rest in quiet pastures beside still waters and inviting them to dwell in his house forever.”  I said, “The funeral would feel very different if the text was Psalm 22, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’”

At first glance, the psalms seem to be placed in a random order, but I think there is wisdom in placing Psalm 23 after Psalm 22. After meditating last week on, “Why have you forsaken me, God?”, we are ready this week for the comforts of the Shepherd Psalm. Part of the genius of the psalms is to open our lives to a wider experience of God. If last week was filled with abandonment and despair, perhaps this week God will be present to us as a shepherd. If last week God was a sheepdog nipping at our heels, herding us into the corral of righteousness, perhaps this week he will lead us gently into green pastures, to a table overflowing with food and wine.

Let’s pray.

Jesus, we walk in a dry desert world. We drink our fill of news and Facebook and movies and meetings and shopping and work and play. But still we are thirsty.
    Lead us, good shepherd, beside quiet waters. In silence may we drink from your river.

We walk in a barren world. Our road is littered with plastic and pop cans and broken glass, we walk on asphalt and cement through in a haze of pollution and smoke.
    Lead us, good shepherd, to green pastures.

We walk in a noisy world. We hear the sound and fury of sports and advertisements and celebrity gossip and politics and wars. But our souls are empty and wasted.
    Restore our souls, good shepherd. Breath into us the breath of life.

We walk in a wasteland of evil. The world, the flesh, and the devil are ever near. “We see the sights that dazzle, the tempting sounds we hear” (John Bode, hymn O Jesus, I Have Promised).
    Lead us, good shepherd, in paths of righteousness for your name’s sake.

We walk in a world of sickness and death, in a valley strewn with the wreckage of accidents, natural disasters, cancer, moral failure, and mortality.
    Walk with us, good shepherd, in this dark valley. May your rod and your staff comfort us and deliver us from anxiety and fear.

We walk through a land filled with enemies. The world invites us to escape into pleasures of mind and body, to choose philosophies of existentialism and despair, to numb our pain with drugs and music.
Prepare for us a table, good shepherd, in the presence of our enemies. Feed us true food, serve us true wine. Anoint our heads with oil, fill our cups to overflowing.

We walk in a world filled with violence and abuse .
Follow us, good shepherd, with goodness and mercy all the days of our lives, until we dwell in your house forever.

Amen

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

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

I asked my parents once why they named me Daniel.  They said “Because we liked the name, and because it’s in the Bible.”

The Book of Daniel tells stories about his life while he served in the court of Babylon. He interpreted bizarre dreams for King Nebuchadnezzar and mysterious handwriting on the wall for King Belshazzar. Daniel’s three friends were thrown into a raging fire but were unharmed. Daniel was thrown to the lions but was not eaten. Daniel had a series of disturbing dreams about an apocalyptic future where evil dictators persecute the saints, where the whole earth experiences disaster and chaos, and finally a son of man comes riding on the clouds of heaven to sort it out. I can see why the Hebrew Bible doesn’t group Daniel with the prophets, but with the Ketuvim which are books of miscellaneous writings and poetry and history and stories.

Today we look at Daniel in the lions’ den. An upper class Jewish exile serving in the Babylonian court, he was a true survivor. He outlived King Nebuchadnezzar’s mental health problems and transitioned successfully to the Medo-Persian rule when they deposed the Babylonian king and claimed the empire. King Darius the Mede made Daniel a chief ruler in his administration, where Daniel gained both power and powerful enemies. His enemies scrutinized Daniel’s administration for signs of corruption or negligence, but when they came up empty, they decided to go after his religious life. (In my years as a working man, I’m fortunate that nobody scrutinized my management or my religious practices for corruption and negligence).  

Meanwhile, Daniel’s enemies arranged for King Darius to proclaim a new law: For 30 days, no one could pray to any god or human except the king. Violators would be thrown to the lions. Daniel, of course, ignored the law and continued praying three times a day at an open window facing Jerusalem.

When Daniel’s enemies reported this to Darius, the king realized he’d been had. But it was “the law of the Medes and Persians” that even the king could not immediately repeal his own law. So he regretfully threw Daniel to the lions, spent a sleepless night worrying, and in the morning hurried to the lions’ den and shouted “Daniel, has your God been able to rescue you?”

Daniel replied, “My God sent his angel and shut the mouths of the lions.” The happy king had Daniel pulled out and the tricky advisors thrown in. When I was a child, my favorite bit was the statement that  “Before [the advisors] reached the floor of the den, the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones” (Daniel 6:24). I wonder if I should talk with my therapist about why I found that so satisfying?

Instead of drawing lessons from Daniel’s experience, I give you two pictures from his story.

First, the classic picture of Daniel standing safely among the lions. It has inspired many artists.

And second, the picture of Daniel praying at his window. Over the years, my religious life has shifted from fantasizing about becoming a major Christian politician like Daniel, giving dream interpretations and advice in the high courts of international intrigue, to a more simple vision of a life spent praying at some window. I hope your life takes a similar direction.

Let’s pray.

Our father, we see the picture of Daniel standing quietly among the lions. Teach us to live among our lions with faith and wisdom and integrity.

And we see the picture of Daniel praying at his open window, facing Jerusalem where your temple was in ruins and your people lived in poverty.  May we pray faithfully as he did.

Amen.  

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

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

The prophet Ezekiel lived at the same time as Jeremiah. He was exiled to Babylon in the first round of deportations, along with King Jehoiachin and much of upper class Judah. So while Jeremiah was prophesying in Jerusalem, Ezekiel was prophesying in Babylon.

Ezekiel is responsible for the famous prayer metaphor, “stand in the gap”.  He quotes God by saying, “I looked for someone . . . who would build up the wall and stand . . . in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one. So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger” (Eze. 22:30 – 31).

This raises two questions:
First, what does it mean to stand in the gap?
And second, it seems to me that Jeremiah and Ezekiel were busy standing in the gap, so why couldn’t God find anyone to do the job?

First, what it means. Imagine a fortified wall, like the Great Wall of China or the wall Israel built against Palestine or the one President Trump wants along the Mexican border. Wherever there is a door or a gap in the wall, you need guards to keep out the undesirables. So the guards stand in the gap to protect the mother country.

One example of standing in the gap occurred during the exodus from Egypt. When God became angry at the Israelites for making a golden calf and calling it their god, Moses intervened. Psalm 106 tells the story this way:
    So [the Lord] said he would destroy them –
       had not Moses, his chosen one,
    stood in the breach before him
       to keep his wrath from destroying them (Ps 106:23).

Moses faced down God’s anger. He advised God that it was a bad idea to destroy the unfaithful people, and he persuaded God to change his mind.

Today, websites such as “Guardians of the Gap” and International House of Prayer in Kansas City are created by people who want to stand in the gap for their nation. A quick study of modern movements shows that they change the vision Moses and Ezekiel created in these ways:

1. They assign God’s interest to all nations of the world, not just to his special people Israel in Old Testament times. So they encourage “standing in the gap” for your nation, wherever it is in the world, even if the nation doesn’t have a contract with God like Israel did.
2. They don’t say much about facing down God’s anger and advising him not to act on it. God’s anger is a topic that gets lots of publicity in the Old Testament, but not much today.
3. They suggest a broader application than just standing in the gap to prevent national disasters like the exile. They stand in the gap for people they know, for churches, for parachurch ministries, and of course for various countries. Ezekiel might be surprised, but probably not opposed, to see how his turn of phrase has become a standing metaphor for Christian prayer two and a half millennia later. I’m pretty sure that two and a half millennia from today, my turns of phrase will be long forgotten.

Let’s pray.

Our father, the people of Israel didn’t create just a gap with the golden calf, they pretty much demolished their relationship with you. But when Moses argued on their behalf, you changed your mind and did not destroy them. Jeremiah and Ezekiel stood in the gap for Judah, watching the people violate their contract with you. But these prophets were unable to avert your fierce anger, and Babylon destroyed the city, the temple, and the political system.

Our father, are you angry with our western civilization as you were with Judah and Jerusalem?  Are you angry with modern Israel for their sins against you and their neighbours? If we stand in the gap, confessing the sins of our country, asking you to lose your anger and spare us from judgment, will you do it? In our time, are you willing to preserve our nation — our civil society and our national security and our way of life? Where does your kingdom fit into our world of 21st century nations?

Our father, shelter us under your wings of mercy. Help us keep faith with Christ in our living and our dying. Be our God and our Saviour in the preservation of our civilization or in its judgment and destruction.

Amen.  

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