http://www.frankfortyotb.blogspot.com/
Check out the church site too!
http://www.frankfortpresbychurch.com/
Pastor's Reflection of the Day
Sheesh. I don't know about you, but I was getting a little impatient with the book of Lamentations yesterday and today.
I know that there is a place for lament in the life of a Christian. I have lived those times of lament--times of great loss or disappointment or estrangement from God. Lamentations is a great place to go when life is tough. I get that; I embrace that; I don't shy away from lamenting.
However, when I read through laments, I'm always looking for the "but." You know what I mean? Lamentations 1 and 2 are full of just that--lamentations . . . cries for mercy, pleading for release from sorrow. But I know there's always a "but."
And there it is, in all its magnificence: "But this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." (Lamentations 3:21, NRSV).
If there's anything I've learned from my "Ecclesiastes 3 kind of weekend" a month and a half ago(check out my post entitle: "Sunday Sermon: Ecclesiastes 3 sermon do-over" for the story), it's that life is full of seasons, like a time to be born and a time to die. And I've learned that each of those seasons has a beginning AND an end. So a season of lamenting (a time to tear down, a time to scatter, etc) will have an end; it will have a "but" that leads to a sliver of hope to be held on to.
It's appropriate, then, that Lamentations gives us the text for one of the most beloved hymns, "Great is Thy Faithfulness." I haven't included any music in my posts for a while so here's a youtube.com video of a solo jazz guitar performance of this very hymn.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcKGXPbeqSQ
Showing posts with label lament. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lament. Show all posts
Friday, October 30, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
From Aleph to Taw
www.frankfortyotb.blogspot.com
Check out the church site too!
www.frankfortpresbychurch.com
Pastor's Reflection of the Day
I took a class in Seminary called "Prophets and Psalms." The professor liked to open class by asking someone to read a psalm. Let me tell you, it didn't take long for someone to volunteer to open the class by saying, "I'd like to start today's class today by reading Psalm 119. . . " hoping that reading the entire psalm would take up a significant portion of the class!
Today's "Year of the Bible" reading is a part 4 of 7 of Psalm 119. The whole psalm is 176 verses long! One of my commentaries says this: Simply by virtue of its length, Psalm 119 is impressive and imposing, perhaps even intimidating. (Psalms, NIB Commentary).
I wonder how you feel about it. Are you impressed? Are you intimidated? Personally, I have always been fascinated by this particular psalm.
It is an acrostic of the Hebrew alphabet--which means it is made up of 22 sections using each letter of the Hebrew alphabet in alphabetical order. In the first section, all the lines begin with the letter "aleph" (or A). In the second section, all the lines begin with the letter "beth" (or B).
What ingenuity and thoughtfulness must have gone into this psalm! There are many other smaller patterns and repetitions within this poem, all of which must have taken an enormous amount of brain power. Though some people might consider this repetition tedious and boring, I think it is fantastic.
And it totally makes sense: the psalmist's point is that God's torah (or revelation) is pervasive and all encompassing--from aleph to taw in the Hebrew, or A to Z in the English. The poem is overwhelming because God and His revelation are overwhelming! (Psalms, NIB Commentary)
In today's particular section, verses 73-96, the psalmist is expressing that he (or she) belongs solely to God for His hands "made me and formed me." The psalmist explains that the Lord is central to his life--in His Word is his hope and that His law is his delight. There are a number of verses that fall in the lamentation category (indeed, the whole psalm is a lament) before the psalm turns back to God's revelation and Word.
Today's text ends with an affirmation of God's words, God's faithfulness to all generations, and the endurance of the truth and God's law. Again and again, the psalmist wanders from the path of thanksgiving for revelation but always returns to his main point; lament always gives way to a profession of faith.
I hope you find that pattern in your life too: that your times of lament always give way to your own profession of God's goodness and faithfulness! It's a theme that should permeate the lifespan of Christians; like Psalm 119, it should be overwhelming and imposing!
Check out the church site too!
www.frankfortpresbychurch.com
Pastor's Reflection of the Day
I took a class in Seminary called "Prophets and Psalms." The professor liked to open class by asking someone to read a psalm. Let me tell you, it didn't take long for someone to volunteer to open the class by saying, "I'd like to start today's class today by reading Psalm 119. . . " hoping that reading the entire psalm would take up a significant portion of the class!
Today's "Year of the Bible" reading is a part 4 of 7 of Psalm 119. The whole psalm is 176 verses long! One of my commentaries says this: Simply by virtue of its length, Psalm 119 is impressive and imposing, perhaps even intimidating. (Psalms, NIB Commentary).
I wonder how you feel about it. Are you impressed? Are you intimidated? Personally, I have always been fascinated by this particular psalm.
It is an acrostic of the Hebrew alphabet--which means it is made up of 22 sections using each letter of the Hebrew alphabet in alphabetical order. In the first section, all the lines begin with the letter "aleph" (or A). In the second section, all the lines begin with the letter "beth" (or B).
What ingenuity and thoughtfulness must have gone into this psalm! There are many other smaller patterns and repetitions within this poem, all of which must have taken an enormous amount of brain power. Though some people might consider this repetition tedious and boring, I think it is fantastic.
And it totally makes sense: the psalmist's point is that God's torah (or revelation) is pervasive and all encompassing--from aleph to taw in the Hebrew, or A to Z in the English. The poem is overwhelming because God and His revelation are overwhelming! (Psalms, NIB Commentary)
In today's particular section, verses 73-96, the psalmist is expressing that he (or she) belongs solely to God for His hands "made me and formed me." The psalmist explains that the Lord is central to his life--in His Word is his hope and that His law is his delight. There are a number of verses that fall in the lamentation category (indeed, the whole psalm is a lament) before the psalm turns back to God's revelation and Word.
Today's text ends with an affirmation of God's words, God's faithfulness to all generations, and the endurance of the truth and God's law. Again and again, the psalmist wanders from the path of thanksgiving for revelation but always returns to his main point; lament always gives way to a profession of faith.
I hope you find that pattern in your life too: that your times of lament always give way to your own profession of God's goodness and faithfulness! It's a theme that should permeate the lifespan of Christians; like Psalm 119, it should be overwhelming and imposing!
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
A Psalm of Lament
www.frankfortyotb.blogspot.com
Check out the church site too! www.frankfortpresbychurch.com
Good to see you again! Thanks for stopping by.
Here's the question and answer from yesterday:
Tuesday: Fill in the blanks: “For to me, to live is _________ and to die is _________.” (Phil 1)
Philippians 1:21 21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
And here's the question of the day:
What is the psalmist’s closest friend? (Psalm 88)
And here's the reflection of the day:
Wow. This is a day of heavy reading in the "Year of the Bible." Not only are we continuing to read through Job, but we also have Psalm 88--a lament of deep, deep suffering.
It ends up being oddly appropriate these are our texts on the day we learn more details about the gunman who shot up the LA Fitness Center in Bridgeville, just outside of Pittsburgh. Could not the families of those wounded and killed pray this psalm today?
Psalm 88 sharply poses paradoxical two statements: the psalmist asserts that God has caused his suffering ("You have taken from me my closest friends and have made me repulsive to them. I am confined and cannot escape" verse 8), indicating that GOD is the problem (McCann, Jr, NIB Commentary, "Psalms").
But McCann claims that Psalm 88 ALSO declares that God is the solution. He writes, "The psalmist's prayer itself is evidence that she or he is convinced that even life's worst moments somehow have to do with God. So the psalmist's cries continue to arise out of the depths (see Psalm 130:1)."
In the face of tragedies, God is sometimes seen as the problem; frequently, God is seen as the solution. God is inevitably tangled up in the threads of our lives, one way or the other. The anger toward God that often erupts in the midst of tragedy is not a wholly negative thing. That very same anger acknowledges "that even life's worst moments somehow have to do with God."
Though the psalmist is full of anger at God for the circumstances of his life, it is to the very same God he cries out for help and for mercy "from the depths."
I don't think God minds when we cry out to him, even in anger. Because to cry out to him is to acknowledge that, in life's worst moments, God is still involved. . . and present . . . and perhaps even hurting as well.
Check out the church site too! www.frankfortpresbychurch.com
Good to see you again! Thanks for stopping by.
Here's the question and answer from yesterday:
Tuesday: Fill in the blanks: “For to me, to live is _________ and to die is _________.” (Phil 1)
Philippians 1:21 21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
And here's the question of the day:
What is the psalmist’s closest friend? (Psalm 88)
And here's the reflection of the day:
Wow. This is a day of heavy reading in the "Year of the Bible." Not only are we continuing to read through Job, but we also have Psalm 88--a lament of deep, deep suffering.
It ends up being oddly appropriate these are our texts on the day we learn more details about the gunman who shot up the LA Fitness Center in Bridgeville, just outside of Pittsburgh. Could not the families of those wounded and killed pray this psalm today?
Psalm 88 sharply poses paradoxical two statements: the psalmist asserts that God has caused his suffering ("You have taken from me my closest friends and have made me repulsive to them. I am confined and cannot escape" verse 8), indicating that GOD is the problem (McCann, Jr, NIB Commentary, "Psalms").
But McCann claims that Psalm 88 ALSO declares that God is the solution. He writes, "The psalmist's prayer itself is evidence that she or he is convinced that even life's worst moments somehow have to do with God. So the psalmist's cries continue to arise out of the depths (see Psalm 130:1)."
In the face of tragedies, God is sometimes seen as the problem; frequently, God is seen as the solution. God is inevitably tangled up in the threads of our lives, one way or the other. The anger toward God that often erupts in the midst of tragedy is not a wholly negative thing. That very same anger acknowledges "that even life's worst moments somehow have to do with God."
Though the psalmist is full of anger at God for the circumstances of his life, it is to the very same God he cries out for help and for mercy "from the depths."
I don't think God minds when we cry out to him, even in anger. Because to cry out to him is to acknowledge that, in life's worst moments, God is still involved. . . and present . . . and perhaps even hurting as well.
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