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Week 17  Psalm 107

The psalm begins with some general advice: give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story.
Then the writer tells four anecdotes about the experiences of four groups of people:
#1 Destitute vagabonds searching for a city
#2 Prisoners who were locked-up for rebellion against the Lord
#3 Rebellious & evil fools with one foot in-the-grave
#4 Terrified sailors caught in a ferocious storm.
Groups #2 & #3 look like people who disdained the Lord.
But Groups #1 & #4 just look like regular people who happened to be in a real bind.
Whoever & whatever they all are they’re all desperate and in each case they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. That’s the main point of these four Redemption Stories (which is what I think they are) and that point is repeated four times.
At first I thought the four groups might be referring to Israel’s history.
Then I wondered if the four groups were meant to represent different classes of people.
But I think they’re just four examples that the writer pulled out-of-a-hat. People in a jam who’ve run out of options. He might have chosen ten or a hundred others. The point is that they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress.
Different circumstances. Different stories. Same fortunate outcome.

Note: quotes from Psalm 107:1-2 28 (NIV). The Four Groups: Vagabonds 107:4-9. Prisoners 107:10-16. Fools 107:17-22. Sailors 107:23-32.

Week 17  2 Samuel 22 (& Psalm 18)

My bible added its own title at the top of 2 Samuel 22: “David’s Song of Praise”. Right underneath it added this: 22:1-51pp – Ps. 18:1-50. (I had to flip back to the front of the bible. The abbreviation list said that pp meant parallel passage.) Hmmm.
2 Samuel 22:1 said: David sang this song when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. I jumped over to Psalm 18. The subtitle there said that David: ‘sang the words of this song when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul’.
I read the first three verses of Psalm 18 then paged back and read 2 Samuel 22:2-4. They sounded similar. Very similar in fact. I found a second bible and opened it to Psalm 18 and started reading and comparing it with 2 Samuel 22. I kept my place in one bible using the edge of a plastic seed-packet and following the column of the other bible with my finger. Back-and-forth…line-by-line. The 50-verses in the one passage pretty much echoed the 50-verses in the other. Not 100% exactly the same word-for-word. But about 98% the same. A couple of word-changes. A couple of additions or omissions. A couple of lines flip-flopped. Pretty much exactly the same psalm.
The first week of April I looked at David’s On-the-Run psalms. I missed 18. Maybe I should have made it the concluding one. David’s After Being On-the-Run Psalm.

Note: quote from 2 Samuel 22:1 (NIV)

Week 16  Psalm 104

It’s a pretty-interesting and down-to-earth psalm. It talks about all the things that are ‘going on’. The oceans stay in the ocean. Animals drink from streams. Birds nest in trees. Grass grows & animals feed. Olive groves & vineyards & wheat fields produce and people can eat. The moon cycles through the months. Wild animals hunt for food. People put in a day’s work. Days-&-nights alternate metronomically. Ships sail the seas & submarine life swims beneath them. From all external observation life goes on in its normal natural necessitarian self-governing that’s-just-how-things-work kind of way.
But the psalm says that there’s more to it than meets-the-eye. These all look to you (the Lord) to give them their food at the proper time. When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things. So everything can carry-on normally since the Lord supplies everything for everything.
In the regular run of things container-traffic international-conflict birthday-parties court-proceedings cross-country-shipping canola-fields-growing human-trafficking and high-school-graduations are happening as usual. It seems like a big helter-skelter-ish melange – a mix of random-intentionalities and meaningful-ineffectualities. My As-Usual life moves along as usual.
From the inside it’s way easier to just live my life than to try making much sense of it. But the writer says that outside of my As-Usual life I’m surrounded by the dependable & reliable & hard-to-spot & easy-to-forget sense-making glory-of-the-Lord. The machinery of the Lord quietly humming along making it all happen.

Note: quote from 104:27-28 (NIV)

Week 15  1 Samuel 23 & 26

Here’s a story about some treacherous no-goods:
Now the men of Ziph went to Saul in Gibeah and betrayed David to him. “We know where David is hiding,” they said. “He is in the strongholds of Horesh on the hill of Hakilah, which is in the southern part of Jeshimon.”
So anyway now here’s another story:
Now some men from Ziph came to Saul at Gibeah to tell him, “David is hiding on the hill of Hakilah, which overlooks Jeshimon.”
I was thinking about how very very similar the two stories sound. Almost like the same story. I look for common details:
* There was a group of men from Ziph
* They hated David enough to betray him
* They travelled north to Gibeah
* They told Saul where David was
* David’s exact location was a hill named Hakilah – near Jeshimon.
It sounds like the same story to me.
I wondered about David. Why (in chapter-26) would he go back to the exact same location where Saul had almost nabbed him before (in chapter-23)?
I wondered whether the writer could be telling the same story twice – telling a “short” ending in 23 (Saul was called back home) but stretching it into a ‘long’ ending in 26 (David ghosted into the enemy camp).
I think that two stories that are this much alike stand the chance of confusing a reader.
I know these two stand the chance of confusing me.

Note: quotes from 1 Samuel 23:19 & 26:1 (NLT)

Week 15  Psalm 98

Down near the end of the psalm there’s a bunch of joy & excitement in the world. The whole world. Not just countries full of people. The psalm says shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth – and includes oceans rivers & mountains.
A question that comes to mind is: What’s All the Excitement About?
The answer is that the Lord is coming: to judge the earth. (And) He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity.
That’s a pretty intriguing thing to hear in the modern world since there’s already no shortage of laws & rules & regulations & statutes & bylaws & courts & lawyers & judges in Canada. There’s plenty of judgment-justice going on. But the writer’s point is that when the Lord comes he’s going to judge everyone-and-everything with a specific kind of justice. Righteous & Equitable Justice. So the issue is about the Quality of Justice.
I wonder about how much Righteousness & Equity there is in our justice system. I figure that if everyone-and-everything in the world is going to be cranked-up because justice will be Righteous & Equitable Justice then it sounds like currently departments-of-justice aren’t exactly exemplifying Righteousness or Equity.
If a justice-system is a regulatory scheme that mostly operates on – let’s just say – Unrighteousness & Inequity (meaning some people get unjustly advantaged and others get unjustly disadvantaged) – then how big a surprise is it if (almost) everyone is happy when Unrighteousness & Inequitable Justice gets replaced?

Note: quotes from Psalm 98:4 9 (NIV)

Week 15  Psalm 90

Today I’m thinking about yesterday: Numbering My Days. Wondering what-all’s involved.
For one it’s useful to think of my days as a resource. Days are doled-out to me one-by-one. Each one mine…almost by magic.
But for two I realize my days are limited. I have a top-end number – my Total Day Limit. Terminal & non-renewable.
For three I think about what ‘best use of my day’ means concretely. I start by thinking about definite things. Things to do in the next 12 hours.
But for four I have to convert my hypothetical ‘best use of my day’ list into do-able actions. (For instance if a ‘best use of my time’ idea is to help someone in-need then I have to convert the idea into action that actually helps someone.)
For five I have to realize that this is a combination exercise: a) ‘what best-use actions do I value most?’ But then also b) ‘what does the Lord value most?’
For six – and this is a tricky one – I keep in mind that the objective of numbering my days isn’t just to do things. It’s also to gradually ‘gain wisdom’. I’m Numbering-My-Days – Okay. But Wisdom Acquisition is the top-end outcome of ‘numbering my days’.
For seven I’ll be doing a cross-checking exercise. Trying to be sure my do-able actions are aimed in the general direction of wisdom-building / wisdom-finding.
If lack of wisdom is what’s behind all my wasted-time days then chasing down wisdom is my Objective #1.

 

Week 15  Psalm 90

So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom.
I thought about this verse because I once heard a story about a guy who used Psalm 90:12 in a literal way.
I think this guy lived in Victorian England. I don’t know at what point in life he came up with this idea…but let’s say it was at age 30. Let’s say the national life expectancy of people in England at the time was 60-years old. Since he was 30 he could project that – statistically-speaking – he’d live 30 more years.
So his Life Calculation was: 30 years x 365 days-per-year = 10,950 (he could say “I have ~10,950 more days to live”). So then when he was 31 years old he could figure he had ~10,585 days to go (10,950 – 365 = 10,585).
The guy kept a journal and each day he wrote that day’s number. So his journal recorded a steadily declining Number of Days Left as he counted in reverse through the years.
I checked six other bible versions to see what they said.
All seven versions began with the expression teach us.
Five out of seven used the expression to number our days.
Six out of seven had wisdom as being the preferred outcome.
It’s the outcome that intrigues me more. Asking myself “how much time do I have left?” seems kind of quirky (no disrespect to the Victorian guy). I’m really more interested in the goal of pursuing wisdom.

Note: Psalm 90:12 (NASB and also NIV Modern-KJV Amplified Living-Bible NLT Contemporary-English)

Week 15  1 Samuel

Last week I focused on David’s on-the-run psalms.
I wanted to see what David was thinking & feeling when he was under serious pressure. What was his reaction to actual life-and-death threats?
Coming at it from the front end I wished-hoped I’d find out if there was a pattern of interaction with the Lord (maybe even a formula I could plug-in). What did Duress Praying look like?
So anyway I only looked at four psalms. I was uncertain about 34 & 63. And 52 – the Doeg psalm – wasn’t really an on-the-run psalm. That left: 59 56 54 & 57.
One thing that showed up in all four cases – the pretty obvious thing – was that David more-or-less just blurted out: “HELP!”:
Rescue me from my enemies, O God
O God, have mercy on me
Come with great power, O God, and rescue me
Have mercy on me, O God. I look to you for protection.
The second thing – an unexpected thing – that came out each time was an assured confidence in the Lord:
You are my strength; I wait for you to rescue me
When I am afraid, I put my trust in you
God is my helper. The Lord is the one who keeps me alive
The Lord will send help from heaven to save me.
Asking for help was predictable. No surprise there.
What wasn’t predictable was David’s solid confidence in the outcome. I’m left thinking about how he arrived there. Wondering how long it took for him to arrive.

Note: quotes from 59:1 56:1 54:1 57:1 59:9 56:3 54:4 57:3 (NLT)

Week 14  1 Samuel

David seems like one of the most resourceful talented decisive and also cunning & ruthless outlaws imaginable. But Psalm 57 shows he was sometimes fearful and discouraged too.
David described his opponents as being like fierce lions – and he prayed a couple of when-a-lion-is-standing-growling-at-me prayers:
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy!
I cry out to God most high.
But he only asked for help a couple of times before moving on to other things. Here’s two of them:
First David had a forecastive-sense that things would turn out okay: (the Lord) will send help from heaven to save me.
Second he repeated this (seemingly unrelated) phrase:
Be exalted, O God, above the highest heavens! May your glory shine over all the earth.
David started with a conventional Please-Help-Me-Lord type of prayer. But he moved forward to a (surprisingly) settled sense that help would be coming. And he made a point of ‘exalting’ the Lord.
Three key elements of David’s prayer were:
1. Please help me
2. I’m confident that I’ll get Help-From-Heaven
3. You – Lord – are the Greatest.

Note: quotes from Psalm 57:4 1 2 3 5 & 11 (NLT).
Psalms 57 & 142 both say that they’re Cave-Psalms. The Psalm 57 subtitle says: ‘the time David fled from Saul and went into the cave’. But so does Psalm 142: ‘David’s experience in the cave’.
And there are also two Cave-Stories in 1 Samuel: 22:1-2 & 24:1-22.
1 Samuel 24 is the better story but it looks to me like which psalm refers to which story is an open-question.

Week 14  1 Samuel

Ziph – in my bible map – is in Judah’s territory – latitude-wise at about the midway-point of the Dead Sea and maybe 15 kilometers to the west. That’s where David had run to: the hill country of Ziph.
The locals knew he was there and some of the men of Ziph went to Saul in Gibeah and betrayed David to him. They had to make what looks like a two-day trek – maybe 45-kilometres – to connect with Saul. The king was murderously happy with the news and was soon headed south.
In the end nothing much came of it. David had already left the region so the Ziph treachery didn’t pan-out. But Psalm 54 was written at (or about) that time (the subtitle says: ‘the time the Ziphites came and said to Saul, “We know where David is hiding”’).
As you’d expect in an on-the-run psalm David asked for help. But two other things stand out:
The first one is that David said two things about the Lord: God is my helper. The Lord keeps me alive!
The second one is a kind of confident sense that the Lord heard him and would help him: I will praise your name, O Lord, for it is good. For you have rescued me from my troubles.
Saying something true about the Lord seems like a wise & safe thing to do.
Predicting that the Lord had already intervened seems slightly overconfident. Like crawling out-on-a-limb.

Note: quotes from 1 Samuel 23:14 19 & Psalm 54:1 4 6-7 (NLT)