A reflection on Psalm 91
Sagrada Familia
I have …
… a God who covers his children
like a mother hen,
and whose feathers
become a fortress that is
a refuge from danger,
evil
and all that destroys.
… a God who lifts me up
beyond the harm
and hatred swirling ’round me.
… a God who gathers me
in his arms
and gives me
more,
far more,
than I deserve.
… a God
whose son is,
right now,
busy making a home for me,
forever.
“If you’ll hold on to me for dear life,” says God,
“ I’ll get you out of any trouble.
I’ll give you the best of care
if you’ll only get to know and trust me.
Call me and I’ll answer, be at your side in bad times;
I’ll rescue you, then throw you a party.
I’ll give you a long life,
give you a long drink of salvation!” Psalm 91:14-16 (The Message)
One of my daughters pointed me to ‘The Message’ translation of Psalm 91. As a family we are in need of a party right now and here we find God promising us one. In the NIV and KJV it speaks of “honouring” us. I like the “party” idea better. It has a sense of joy and celebration and also echoes forward to the story of the prodigal son and the party his dad throws for him.
When you read Psalm 91 it becomes obvious that there is nothing in our own strength that we can do about our broken human condition. All we can do do is “dwell”, “rest” and seek “refuge”. God however “covers”, guards”, “lifts up” and “protects”. God is active in His care for us and all we can do is flee into His arms. But that is what we must do – fall helplessly into His arms. It is not easy. We are by nature arrogant and stubborn. Like a little child we stand stubbornly stamping our feet, arms crossed defiantly thinking we know best.
Our heavenly dad says, “Come to me my little child. I will hold you and because you have obeyed my call to fall helplessly into my arms, we will have a party.”
I don’t know about you, but a party with God sounds brilliant!
And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore. Hebrews 11:12
Anglesea (Australia) on a Summer’s day.
Today, before one of our daughters returns to sea-less Switzerland, we went to the beach. It was 30 degrees C and we hired a boat to paddle for a while. Quite idyllic.
However, the thing I hate about beaches is the sand – it gets into everything. For God however it is an object lesson. Grains of sand remind us that His promises are boundless. He promised Abraham a family – a spiritual family. That family is now spread throughout the whole world. From that family the Messiah came. Every Christian believer is beholden to that patriarch from 4000 years ago.
So I might find sand annoying but God tells me through each scratchy grain in my shorts, that his promises are amazing. Yet I still hope the beaches by the Sea of Crystal are nice cool, manicured lawns.
I was trying to think of something positive to write about. Burglary and house fires – no. An eye for an eye – no again. Family -yes. It is one of my favourite topics. Even students at school get sick of my “family” stories.
Briefly, there are two family anecdotes I want to highlight:
A while ago, and again recently (The Providence of God), I reflected on how my wife’s parents met. A few days ago their grandchildren had a reunion. Although my wife’s father has been dead for nearly 50 years, I am sure sure he would have been proud of the brood that gathered – fine young (and some less so!) people all of them. Their grandmother, who died more recently, was able to tell them how proud she was of them. The cousins had a great time remembering and celebrating the bonds they have.
My second story relates to the burglary and house fire two of my daughters had recently. (Which I am not going into!) What impressed me as a dad was how the sisters and lone brother in law went into action to help. Some cleaned, some made meals, others carried and fetched (over long distances) and each person’s shoulder was a available to lean and cry on. As a dad, it chokes me up to see the family at work like this. It is another reason for which to thank God!
So once again, I am compelled to proclaim how important family is. It is a jewel to protect, nurture and celebrate. I know for some readers your experience differs. If you have a young family, make an effort to set a foundation in which mutual care and love is a key guiding principle. In the future times will come when these bonds will be extremely important. So build them when they are young.
I have finally found a moment to stop and reflect. The last few days have been spent sorting through charred remains and retrieving anything worthwhile or important. The emotions have been going through the “Elizabeth Kubler Ross cycle”. And then, some of us are starting to smell like walking fire victims!
As an exercise it reveals a lot about yourself. As we go through the rubble, the TV, fridge, washing machine or camera mean very little. The treadmill was a little more difficult because my daughter remembers the hours it took to put the thing together. But the tears flow for the lost memories of baby clothes, a cross stitch from a departed oma, cards and presents from students, toys kept for thirty years and so on – of no value to anyone but the owner. On the bedroom door of one daughter were charred quotes and passages from Scripture which all seemed very apt – that left a lump in our throats. Yes, God “will help us through the difficult times”.
Just as with a physical assault victim, this assault, although not directly physical on a person, is still real and will take time to heal. All the documents, passports, certificates, tax information will need to be replaced. This takes time. The cost is enormous: the emotional cost – trusting people, and the physical cost – for days now and for days in the future friends and family will be cleaning, scrubbing, replacing and moving things from one city to another, and then back again when a new house is found. Just to this point we have spent well over 100 man hours, and we are nowhere near the end. I haven’t included house hunting, police interviews and time on the telephone changing details and etc.
For me, as a dad, I am praying desperately not to become bitter and vengeful. This is of no help to anyone. Constantly I am seeking God’s grace and being reminded how forgiving He was of me. That is a humbling reminder. Sanctification, daily being made into Jesus, is an ongoing process. God is having to work quite hard on me just at this moment. Then again, He has had to that on many other occasions.
In Psalm 11 David asks the question, which many of us have asked when we peruse the condition of the world, “When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
David recognises that evil, so often, seems overwhelmingly strong. I am sure there are many times when we too have felt overwhelmed. Just looking over the past year, whether it is our own life or the news, evil has been rampant. Social values are in decline, greed, murder and injustice are seen as “normal”.
David was undergoing his own trial, probably with either Absolom or Saul, but gives us the answer. God in His time will deal with the rebellious because he loves the righteous. The righteous, of course, are those who in their brokenness come to God in faith. It is a Christ bought righteousness. David was acutely aware of his own lack of holiness. God was his only hope.
So as another year ends and a new one begins, David’s Psalm points us to our hope and security – God’s divine promises. And David adds, we will see his face. There is a place for us in His presence where evil is eliminated. In the meantime we have His Word, His Spirit and each other to remind us of this hope in the midst of heartbreaking evil. God is indeed, good!
I am not a good communicator. Let me rephrase that. I am not good at keeping communication channels open. This weekend two friends phoned whom I hadn’t seen or spoken to in a long time. The mere fact that they phoned showed me that I had a place in their lives. I feel guilty that the idea to phone hadn’t come from me.One friend came from the my days at High School (see the recent blog, “Queenscliff and the field of memories”. He is one of the friends who were “figments” of my imagination) and the other had been at theological college with me and later we served churches around Brisbane.
Both these calls meant (and still mean) a lot to me. They reminded me that I have, we have, significance in each others lives. That is the way God intended us to be. That is the way He made us. We were meant for community. As human beings we are only fulfilled when we are in a body – specifically the body of Christ. Here I am not necessarily speaking of institutional churches, which can become obsessed with programs and rules, but interconnected networks of Christians revealing the many facets of Christ and His Kingdom to the world.
Christ doesn’t just come to us through the Word or Holy Spirit, (as miraculous and amazing as that is!) but also through each other. Here I have been remiss but these two friends revealed aspects of God: concern, encouragement, love and challenge, that can only happen in true community.
Of late I have had a tendency to withdraw. My two friends, unintentionally, yet powerfully, reminded me that I am not really complete, and the body isn’t complete until my piece of the puzzle fits into the greater jigsaw called the body of Christ.
Thank you brothers.
This year has given me a real sense of time passing. It has reminded me of the frailty of humanity and the relentless tide of generations. At the beginning of the year my mum died, three days later an uncle, my father’s youngest brother, and then mid year another of dad’s brothers and, just recently, my mother’s youngest brother. Death has been a companion all throughout 2012.
In my father’s line of the family I am now he oldest with the family name. I am not certain what that means. At least it means that a generation has nearly gone, my generation is getting older and there is another following.
For me, the loudest message must be, pass on the baton of faith in words and deeds. I fear, in places, I see the baton being dropped – or it has dropped altogether. That is exceptionally sad, especially when preceding generations have been so faithful to keep the covenant chain alive. There is no greater and lasting treasure that we can pass on to our children than a living knowledge of Jesus Christ. I know we can’t force faith on our children but we can reveal its vitality and life through our own lives and words.
Another lesson for me is to live each day. Our time this side of heaven is finite. There is no time to waste as we promote the Kingdom. There is so much to do to prepare for the king’s return!
And for ourselves, personally, we don’t know the day or the hour we will be called home so we need to be prepared for that call.
The palace:
the backyard of
a small town inn.
The throne:
a manger
The courtly attendants:
Shepherds.
The king is born!
Long live the King!
David’s throne
has reached its destiny.
In infant frailty,
the power of God.
Last Year’s Poems
Surrounded by brokenness,
holy perfection.
Dad playing the violin – strings tensioned.
“How can God be sovereign, be in control and still give man freedom to choose? How can God be three yet one? How can Jesus be God and man? Will God condemn people who have never had the chance to hear the gospel?” … and many, many more. Hence the frustrated professor. The Bible has many imponderables – conundrums that we simply have to accept by faith. Our tendency is to choose a side and try to justify it. Wesley and Whitefield were friends but took opposing views on the sovereignty of God and the free agency of man. We have those, like Wesley, who follow Arminius’ line and make man the master of his own spiritual destiny and you have the hyper-Calvinists who won’t act because God is sovereign and in charge after all so all they need to do is sit on their sanctified behinds. It makes mission a non – priority too.
My (non) answer to these dilemmas is what I have called the “theology of the violin”. If a violin string is not under tension you cannot get a note out of it. I know because my dad played the violin and when he wasn’t watching I would “fiddle” with it. (Pun intended!)
These conundrums are like that. Say, for example, we choose man’s freedom over God’s sovereignty, then our problem is that we have an impotent God waiting for Johnny or Mary to make a “decision” for Him. He won’t act unless we choose first. This doesn’t fit with many examples in Scripture from the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart (another of my dad’s stumbling blocks) to Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus. On the other hand, if we have a God who is sovereignly in control and gives us no real choice, we become automatons – robots. We have no real life of our own. Yet the Bible calls us, often, to repent and believe.
In Scripture however, these two sides are held in constant tension – like a violin string. We are called to repent and believe and, yes, the Holy Spirit is instrumental in this, and God is sovereign over every hair on our head. We see the same in some of the other examples I mentioned earlier and in many other places in the Bible. Our act of faith, knowing how immense our God is, is to accept that both sides of the string are true. Loosen one end of the violin string or the other and we find our belief or doctrine will not play a tune that glorifies God.
Travels from Ur 