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Week 16  Psalm 106

It’s difficult not to come away from 106 thinking that the point of the psalm is that: both we and our ancestors have sinned. We have done wrong! We have acted wickedly!
The writer hammers away on that idea…gives eight historical instances where Israel acted wickedly. I recognize the eight stories. I’ve been reading them over the last couple of months…
Egyptian slavery
Sea of Reeds
Dathan & Abiram
Gold Calf
Spying Canaan
Baal-Peor
Meribah’s water
Worshipping idols.
Eight readily recallable and indisputable historical events. Eight open-ended opportunities where Israel could act in one way or another. Eight times where they made a choice and acted wickedly.
41 of the 48 verses make that point.
When 85% of a psalm’s content emphasizes We Have Done Wrong then I’d tend to think that’s a high enough percentage to qualify it as a Negativity Psalm.
But the remaining 15% of the psalm carries weight too. Verse one says: give thanks to the Lord for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.
And the psalm ends: blessed be the Lord…from everlasting to everlasting.
So maybe 106 is more a Contrastive Psalm. We have acted wickedly…but the Lord’s faithful love endures forever.

Note: quotes from Psalm 106:6, 1, 48 (NLT)

Week 15  2 Samuel 13

The book begins with the pathway open for David to become king of Israel. The skies are clear & blue. They stay like that for ten chapters.
But then the horizon begins filling with cumulonimbus after David’s sexual and homicidal gangsterism. From then on the book’s dark episodes impress on David the rule that evil actions come with vicious aftermaths.
One example: David’s first son – Amnon – had a goliath-sized lust for his half-sister – Tamar. Sexual intercourse with your sister wasn’t legal so…what to do?
A crafty guy named Jonadab doped out that Amnon was preoccupied about something. When he found out what it was then he began reflecting…what to do?
Jonadab could have advised in a couple of directions. For instance he could have said: there’s a law against that kind of sexual intercourse so you can’t do it. It’s illegal. But he affirmed Amnon’s sexual tilt: ok…so you want to have sexual intercourse with your half-sister…let’s figure out how we can make that happen.
With Jonadab’s bad advice in hand Amnon tried to seduce Tamar but then raped and humiliated her. Tamar’s brother – Absalom – found out and eventually murdered Amnon.
That’s an example of how the blue started washing out of David’s sky. From there the colours faded to late-evening greys.
In the end David did recover within his own spirit. But mentally & psychically & emotionally & domestically & nationally he lived his later life in the twilight.

Week 15  Psalm 103

For me it’s a slightly odd (but also helpful) way for David to begin the psalm: praise the Lord, I tell myself (another version says bless the Lord, O my soul).
What I notice is that David’s not saying praise the Lord. That would be saying something to the Lord.
David is saying praise the Lord, I tell myself. That means he’s speaking to himself…telling himself what he ought to say: praise the Lord.
On that day David needed to remind himself: praise the Lord.
But he didn’t leave it at that. Praising the Lord was an abstract thing to remind himself to say. So he spelt out several concrete details that answered the questions “how-&-why do I praise the Lord?”
He forgives all my sins
And heals all my diseases
He ransoms me from death
(He) surrounds me with love and tender mercies
He fills my life with good things…
It was a short but useful list of things the Lord had done.
(David wasn’t finished. He went on to list fourteen more things. The majority weren’t things the Lord had done. They were what he was like. His qualities. Mercy. Love. Grace. Even-temper. Like that.)
For now I’m sticking with the first five. All of them are benefits the Lord has given to me too. I shouldn’t need to remind myself to thank the Lord for them. But – like David – I do.

Note: quotes from Psalm 103:1 & 3-5 (NLT & NASB)

Week 14  1 Samuel 24 & 26

The trajectory of Saul’s life went from good to bad to terrible. I wondered if he could have turned things around.
There are two stories that look like potential turning points. Two incidents where Saul was hunting David in the Judean wilderness and he was brought-up-short. Given a bit of a shake-up. Offered some retrospection time.
First time was when Saul took a toilet-break in a cave. It was a bad choice of caves (since David was hiding there) but a perfect chance for David to assassinate the king. But David didn’t. When Saul was a safe distance away David revealed himself. Then: Saul called back, ‘Is that really you, my son David?’ Then he began to cry. And he said to David, ‘You are a better man than I am, for you have repaid me good for evil.’
Saul went home. Reflection Opportunity #1.
Two chapters later Saul is back on-the-hunt. David had a second chance to assassinate Saul but didn’t. When David was a safe distance away he called to Saul. Then Saul confessed, ‘I have sinned. Come back home, my son, and I will no longer try to harm you, for you valued my life today. I have been a fool and very, very wrong.’
Saul went home. Reflection Opportunity #2.
Both times sounded like I’m-sorry. A kind-of a sorrow. Half-a-sorrow. But as thing turned out for Saul half-a sorrow was about equal to no real sorrow at all.

Note: quotes from 1 Samuel 24:16-17 & 26:21 (NLT)

Week 14  1 Samuel 11-31

I sketched out a graph to trace Saul’s progress as king.
The x-axis was a simple time scale – the period of Saul’s reign.
The y-axis measured Quality of Leadership. It was more complicated and had to consider things like character stability mental-health integrity fairness objectivity rationality. I was asking if Saul was concerned with the betterment of the nation. Did he have a vision for Israel? Did he inspire followers? Was he focussed on concerns of state and the well-being of his citizens? Like that. Multiple factors along the y-axis.
In chapter 11 Saul became king and I started him high on the top-left of the graph.
In 13 he supervised a burnt offering. And in 14 disobeyed explicit battle orders. Serious offenses… Moving right I dropped Saul down a bit. And things continued to go-south.
In 18 David saved Israel from Goliath but Saul got screamingly jealous.
18: Saul set-up David to be killed by enemies.
19: Saul tried to murder David.
19: Saul tried to have David assassinated.
22 23 24 & 26: Saul tried again again again & again to kill fugitive David. Down down down & down drops the line on Saul’s Quality of Leadership chart – it looks like the buying power of the Canadian dollar.
The graph doesn’t lie. Saul seemed like a good guy at first. But he lived to show that good at-firsts don’t necessarily convert to good at-lasts.

Week 14  1 Samuel 11

There’s a strange conversation recorded near the end of the chapter:
The people then said to Samuel, “Who was it that asked, ‘Shall Saul reign over us?’ Bring these men to us and we shall put them to death.”
But Saul said, “No one shall be put to death today, for this day the Lord has rescued Israel.”
Then Samuel said to the people, “Come and let us go to Gilgal and there reaffirm the kingship.”
You have to read chapter 10 for the backstory. But 10’s not really the point. The point is that the people asked Samuel a question. But Saul answered it.
When I’m reading the OT histories I’m making mental adjustments allowing for the fact that the material is three-thousand years old. I guess it’s possible triangulated interrogations took place in the ancient near east. But I figure that normally when “A” asked “B” a question that he expected “B” to answer…not “C”.
So I’m not exactly sure what-all to make of this.
Samuel was a Priest / Prophet.
Saul was a King.
What did the Handbook of Division of Responsibilities say about who could do what (apart from answering the other guy’s question)?
I wonder if there was already an edginess between Samuel and Saul. More important – was there a point of conflict growing between the two power-roles?
I know that eventually kings and prophets will lock horns. And chapter eleven might be an early warning of just that.

Note: quote from 1 Samuel 11:12-14 (NIV)

Week 13  Psalm 92

Verse seven says: although the wicked flourish like weeds, and evildoers blossom with success, there is only eternal destruction ahead of them. So there’s two pieces. Piece #1: wicked people will be successful. Piece #2: evil people will end up in a state of permanent destruction. Taken together Pieces #1 & #2 make up the full picture. But today Piece #1 jumps out at me…evil people will be successful.
There’s no law of the universe saying a bad person can’t be successful. Evilness and success can go hand-in-hand. And even though there’s also no law says I have to be bad to succeed the main point in Piece #1 is that there are villains who are high-achiever villains.
Of course Piece #2 seems to balance things out in the end – the writer says: with my own eyes I have seen the downfall of my enemies. But I don’t get the impression a good person is guaranteed to witness the fail of an evil person. An evil guy might even live his whole life and outlive the good guy and then die a success.
That doesn’t mean he outsmarts and avoids Piece #2. But for me it’s a reminder that a ruthless violent corrupt person might be very successful. So I shouldn’t be surprised when I see it. And even if I know his success is only in the short-term it’s still a success (and for all I know a rogue’s short-term might still end up seeming pretty gallingly long).

Note: quotes from Psalm 92:7 & 11 (NLT)

Week 13  1 Samuel 3

The writer begins by saying that Samuel is a young apprentice in the tabernacle. Then he adds: in those days messages from the Lord were very rare, and visions were quite uncommon.
I’m reluctant to make anything more of it than that – when Samuel was young messages from the Lord were rare.
I draw a vertical line on a page and title it ‘Message Frequency’.
At the bottom of the line I write ‘Rare’ and at the top ‘Often’.
Beside ‘Rare’ I add extra words – infrequent uncommon seldom once-in-a-blue-moon. Direct and immediate contact wasn’t happening. Israel was in the communication doldrums.
At the top beside ‘Often’ I add frequent regular recurring common repeatedly often-enough. Communication initiatives are happening.
I wonder why the writer made this point about message frequency. I figure that for one thing he was saying that Samuel’s nighttime experience when he heard the Lord was an exception to the rule. And maybe too that this was the beginning of an uptick in message frequency. (That’s a pretty safe bet. I’ve read the story of Samuel before and know that he develops into a regular conduit of messages from the Lord.)
And I also wonder whether message frequency is a longer-term & recurring & cyclical thing. A repeatable pattern over periods of time. Stages when the Lord’s voice is rare. Then times when it’s regular. Back-forth. On-off. Open-shut. I wonder what regulates the interval. Wonder if and how it’s regulable.

Note: quote from 1 Samuel 3:1 (NLT)

Week 13  Psalm 90

It’s month-end so it seemed like good-timing to read: teach us to make the most of our time, so that we may grow in wisdom.
Just a couple of verses above the writer said: seventy years are given to us! Some may even reach eighty. So I have eighty years give-or-take and I’m supposed to make the most of them.
I personalize the verse: teach me to make the most of my time, so that I’ll grow in wisdom.
(The writer says that the Lord is: without beginning or end. It’s a reminder of one way that I’m totally different from the Lord. He doesn’t need to make the most of his time. Time doesn’t apply to him. (But it’s an important factor for me.))
I sit for a bit…wondering what-all’s involved in making the most of my time:
A good starter is to keep in mind that my clock is ticking down…
I figure I should focus-in on today (not time in the abstract)…
Third I remind myself that time is a limited & diminishing resource but I get to allocate it…
And it’s probably good to mentally rate what I’m doing today along a Most Valuable-Least Valuable assessment line…
Finally I remember that mindlessly zombie-ing my way through the day is something to avoid.
March 31 = 24.7% of the year gone. And I’m sitting here wondering how much I’ve made of it.

Note: quotes from Psalm 90:12 10 & 2 (NLT). First quarter reading report: 28.2% completed.

Week 13  1 Samuel

It’s been a few days since I read the stories of the judges. Othniel Ehud Shamgar Deborah Gideon Tola Jair Jephthah Izban Elon Abdon & Samson take up 16 of the book’s 21 chapters. Then there’s the last five demoralizing vulgar & brutal chapters – a kind of appendix to Judges. Then there’s the book of Ruth.
If the Judges ‘appendix’ and the book of Ruth were taken out of the bible you’d jump from the story of Samson straight into the story of Samuel.
Samson’s story begins: in those days, a man named Manoah from the tribe of Dan lived in the town of Zorah. His wife was unable to become pregnant, and they had no children.
Samuel’s story begins: there was a man named Elkanah who lived in Ramah in the hill country of Ephraim…Elkanah had two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. Peninnah had children, while Hannah did not.
Similar beginnings…
…two men
…two wives who couldn’t have children
…two angelic visits
…two promises of unexpected pregnancies
…two instructions for Nazarite upbringings
…two babies who’ll be important players
…both named Sam.
And there’s differences too…
…the two moms are completely different women
…and the two boys develop into completely different men.
The Lord made use of an incandescent but eccentric buffoon and he made use of a classy quiet rock-solid character-guy.
Both of them are in my Top Fifty list of bible biographies. But only one makes my Top Ten.

Note: quotes from Judges 13:2 & 1 Samuel 1:1-2 (NLT).