Medicine Hat Joe

Week 6  Psalm 36

David begins with a short list – Characteristics of an Evil Person:
He flatters himself
He’s deceitful
He lacks wisdom
He avoids doing good
He plots evil
He acts-out evil
He endorses wrong action.
The whole list is pretty unhappy-sounding. But it was the first item that really caught my attention: in his own eyes (an evil person) flatters himself too much to detect or hate his own sin.
It looks like the guy is congratulating himself so much that his self-congratulation ends up masking any ability he might have to identify his own evil-ness.
I draw a quick graph with an X & Y axis.
Self-congratulation is at the bottom-left where the X & Y axes meet.
Evil-recognition is up near the top of the Y-axis. David says there’s an inverse relationship between self-congratulation and evil-recognition. Along the X-axis I start angling the self-congratulation line…up-up-up. Then I start drawing the evil-recognition line…down-down-down. They cross. Eventually my self-congratulation line peaks – meanwhile my evil-recognition capacity has bottomed-out.
It’s a tricky thing since boosting myself is pretty normal. But David is saying that if I let my Self-Promotional instinct evolve there’ll be a side-effect: I’ll lose my ability to recognize evil. And even though he doesn’t spell it out in so many words David seems to be saying two other things. 1) that NOT jacking myself up is what gives me the best view of my own evil-ness. And  2) that being aware of my evil is a beneficial thing.

Note: quote from Psalm 36:2 (NIV)

Week 5  Exodus 21-40

The second half of the book of Exodus is the first big block of demanding reading in my through-the-bible year.
I took some time to map out the whole book section-by-section to see what I had:
From Egypt to Mount Sinai (Exodus 1-19)
The Ten Commandments (20)
A list of laws (21-23)
Israel accepts the covenant (24)
Instructions for building the Tabernacle (25-31)
Israel worships an idol (32-34)
The Tabernacle gets built (35-40)
So I can see that the book is made up of two kinds of writing: Story-telling & Instructional lists. I decided to reorganize Exodus along those lines:
Story-telling…
• From Egypt to Mount Sinai (1-19)
• The Ten Commandments (20)
• Israel accepts the covenant (24)
• Israel worships an idol (32-34)
Instructional lists…
• A list of laws (21-23)
• Instructions for building the Tabernacle (25-31)
• The Tabernacle gets built (35-40)
The stories in chapters 1-20 are pretty interesting (and some of them are really interesting). Apart from the Golden Calf fiasco the story-telling in the second-half of the book tails-off quite a bit.
I wondered if it would help to read the Stories first and then batch the Instructional Section into a 16-chapter quick-read blitz (or vice versa). I think it’d work (for instance I looked at the transition from 25-31 to 35-40 and it was seamless – a jump straight from the building planning into the building project).
I guess I could try it sometime. Realistically I’m not sure how much difference it would make. One way or the other I have to read it all.

Week 5  Psalm 32

I altered the language in the first couple of verses. I was trying to make the message clear for myself:
Blessed is the person whose transgressions are forgiven
Blessed is the person whose sins are covered
Blessed is the guy whose sin the Lord does not count against him
Blessed is the person in whose spirit is no deceit.
The big question for David was: how do I get to the “blessed” stage?
How do I get my transgressions forgiven?
How do I get my sins covered?
How do I avoid getting my sins counted against me?
How do I get a spirit that is deceit-free?
These are four pretty depressing questions because the answer to all of them is: you don’t (and I think that’s why David is physically & psychically depressed in the third & fourth verses).
So then verse five arrives as a huge relief:
Then I acknowledged my sin to you (the Lord) and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord” – and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
In the normal day-in-and-day-out of things people are chalking up an inventory of sins – all of them automatically & unavoidably registered. And the only way to nullify them – if I’m concerned about nullifying them – is to confess my transgressions to the Lord.
I will confess is David’s solution. And personal disclosure is one of the hardest things to do.

Note: paraphrase & quote Psalm 32:1-2 5 (NIV)

Week 5  Exodus 19

A kind of awkward and indirect line-of-communication shows up in this chapter and Moses is the middle man – the intervenor – between the people and the Lord.
The Lord called out to Moses and said “Give this message to the Israelites”
Moses told the people what the Lord had said
They all responded
Moses brought the people’s answer back to the Lord
The Lord said to Moses…
So Moses went down to the people…
The pattern is: the Lord > Moses > the people > Moses > the Lord.
It looks to me like the one and only time that the Lord spoke directly and audibly to the people was when he gave the Ten Commandments (the first verse of chapter 20 seems to confirm that and so does the twenty-second verse). After having to go back-and-forth through Moses I’d think direct & immediate communication with the Lord would be a nice change for people. But it wasn’t. The people were petrified with fear. They told Moses: You tell us what God says, and we will listen. But don’t let God speak directly to us. If he does, we will die.
So by the end of chapter 20 it’s back to the old pattern: the people > Moses > the Lord > Moses > the people. The people stood in the distance while Moses entered into the deep darkness where God was. And the people seemed to be happy with that arrangement.

Note: quotes from Exodus 19:3-6 7 8 9 14 19 21 (NLT). Month-end report: 121-chapters. 10% of the bible read in 8.33% of the year.

Week 4  Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall lack nothing.
I think about what David means by saying I shall lack nothing. I take it to mean that “I shall lack nothing of real importance” (not “I shall lack absolutely nothing”).
David goes on to talk about things like soul-restoration & righteousness & fearlessness & comfort & goodness & love. Those are some of the elements where he won’t  be lacking for anything. He doesn’t say anything about other “lacks”. Nothing about a bigger house. A better job. Better health. More money in the bank. Nothing like that.
I think David is focusing on only one of the Two Worlds where he lived.
He definitely lived in the in-your-face rock-solid Material World.
At the same time he was trying to manage a semi-independent parallel life in the Non-Material World. And it was in that Non-Material World where he wasn’t troubled by material needs. He lacked nothing.
One of the delicate problems with life in Two Worlds is that at the exact same instant that David lacked nothing in the one he might be feeling some anxiety about – let’s say – paying the rent in the other. It’s a bit of a tightrope. Lacking nothing and lacking some things at the same time.
David was living his life here in the Lower World. At the same time he was living a different sphere of his life in the Upper World…and in it he had what he needed.

Note: quote from psalm 23:1 (NLT)

Week 4  Exodus 3

There was a yellow sticky note in my bible that blocked out the first three verses of Exodus 3. It was a reminder from last April 15 about a verse in psalm 103 that said the Lord had ‘revealed his character to Moses’ (NLT). My post-it note told me ‘the next 135 chapters are about the Lord revealing his character to Moses’. It was a half-baked synopsis of Exodus-to-Deuteronomy. But a reminder of something to look out for.
As I get started on Exodus the psalm’s tip-off is: “now you’re going to read material that describes what the Lord is like”. So I’ll hope for some clarity (even though Moses’ last four books don’t exactly jump out at me as a Making-Things-More-Clear section).
I was talking to someone a couple of days ago who was reading the chapters that came after Exodus 20. She didn’t know how things would go. Wondered if she’d get stalled. I knew the feeling. Knew that halfway through Exodus I’m starting into an uphill grind.
Which means that the prompt from 103 is pretty helpful. I normally think the big focus in Exodus Leviticus Numbers & Deuteronomy is on laws & regulations. But the psalm says that – in addition to that – the Lord is revealing his character to Moses.
So I’ll have to be on the lookout for that. Maybe there’s more character revelation than meets the eye. Maybe I’ve been selling Moses’ last four books short.

Note: quote from psalm 103:7 (NLT)

Week 3  Psalm 20

In the first half of this psalm David prays for an unknown person. His pattern is may-the-Lord do x for you… May-the-Lord do y for you… May-the-Lord do z for you.
His requests go like this: I pray that the Lord will…
• Answer you when you’re in distress
• Protect you
• Help you
• Support you
• Remember your sacrifices
• Accept your offerings
• Give you the desire of your heart
• Make your plans successful
• Grant all your requests
While I’m reading the psalms I look for examples of prayers. I look for psalms that model good prayers. I look for psalm-prayers that are worth imitating. And this is one of them.
I don’t know how many prayers there are in the psalms where the writer prays for himself. A lot I guess. It’s not hard to find a Self-Interested Prayer. I think that a Self-Interested Prayer might be the most common (and totally understandable) prayer since I know that my own top-priority interest is myself. No one’s more concerned about me than me. Which means that Self-Interested Prayers are a big component of praying. So psalm 20 is a good reminder that Prayers For Me aren’t the only ones. There’s also Prayers For the Other Guy.

Note: see Psalm 20:1-5. I paraphrased the requests.

Week 3  Genesis 37

A long time ago I heard a public sermon about the young Joseph (the Joseph of the first half of Genesis 37). The main idea was that Joseph was a spoiled & immature youth and that he only ‘grew-up’ because of his long and troubled years of adversity.
So then not too much later I heard another sermon about the young Joseph. The main idea was that Joseph had always been a responsible & mature-beyond-his-years kid and that his later life was an extension & proof of his quality.
I agreed with one of those sermons. At the same time I could see the other side as well. Which means that if it came right down to it – if a guy said “you have to choose” – then my answer would be: “I don’t know for sure”. Since the debate could go either way I’d decide to go neither way. I’d just admit that I’m uncertain.
This isn’t the only bible story where I could go one way or the other. And there are times when I prefer my way. And I figure that choosing to go in one direction and not the other is likely okay…as long as I remind myself that choosing A over B doesn’t make A right and B wrong. I have to remember that basically I’m just guessing that A is right.
I figure I’m on safer ground when I’m only certain about the things that are certain.

Week 3  Psalm 15

David begins: Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill? The answer he gets is that anyone who practiced the following 11 Qualities qualified to live on the Lord’s holy hill. (The list of 11 Qualities is in 5:2-5 and it’s a pretty interesting list that covers a lot of real life activities. Functional ethics.)
Anyway the psalm ends by saying that if a guy does these 11 Qualities then he will never be shaken. I already know from the first verse that if I do the 11 Qualities then I qualify to dwell in the Lord’s sanctuary. But at the very end I see that if I do the 11 Qualities then I’ll also never be shaken.
So it’s Both-And. If I do the 11 Qualities then I qualify to dwell in the Lord’s sanctuary AND then I will also never be shaken. Both-And.
Getting the double-barreled outcome is pretty nice. But I wondered for a second: if this was an Either-Or statement which would I pick? If I do the 11 Qualities then I’ll qualify to either a) dwell in the Lord’s sanctuary or b) never be shaken. Dwelling in the Lord’s sanctuary is pretty desirable for sure. On the other hand I like the idea of not getting shaken up by things.
But I don’t spend much time thinking about it. I figure that a) it’s an irrelevant exercise and that b) my bigger concern is trying to practice the 11 Qualities.

Note: quotes from Psalm 15:1 5 (NIV)

Week 2  Psalm 13

This psalm got more interesting for me when I realized it was giving me a prototype of Where Do I Land When Things Are Terrible?
David’s situation in the first four verses is this: BAD.
Q: what is his reaction-response to that bad situation?
A: But I trust in God’s unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to me.
I read this and my concern is: how does David get from verses 1-2-3-4 to verses 5-6? It’s a huge jump. I’m perplexed by it. My big wish is that David would have added a footnote…something like: And This Is How I Made This Difficult Transition! But he doesn’t.
His point here is not: How You Can Get from verses 1-2-3-4 to verses 5-6. David’s more basic point is: You Need To Go from verses 1-2-3-4 to verses 5-6.
Which I suppose is useful too. When a guy gets into a very seriously bad jam – a psalm 13-type jam – his immediate reaction might – for instance – be: God stinks. I hate God. Where is God? God is the devil. He’s a worthless useless apathetic terrible screw-around God. Like that. But David’s reaction – the Lord has been good to me – is completely counter-intuitive.
His simple advisory is: if you find yourself in Bad Situation X then the terminal point has to be Trusting-the-Lord Situation Y. (Exactly how you get there is a question for another day.)

Note: quote from Psalm 13:5-6 (NIV)