April 10, 2011
Psalm 130
Psalm 130 (The Message)
1-2 Help, GOD—the bottom has fallen out of my life! Master, hear my cry for help!
Listen hard! Open your ears! Listen to my cries for mercy.
3-4 If you, GOD, kept records on wrongdoings, who would stand a chance?
As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit, and that's why you're worshiped.
5-6 I pray to GOD—my life a prayer— and wait for what he'll say and do.
My life's on the line before God, my Lord, waiting and watching till morning,
waiting and watching till morning.
7-8 O Israel, wait and watch for GOD— with GOD's arrival comes love,
with GOD's arrival comes generous redemption. No doubt about it—
he'll redeem Israel, buy back Israel from captivity to sin.
Because of it’s first verse, "Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord", Psalm 130 can be considered the classic lament because it expresses the two key components of lament (complaint and petition) and the appropriate attitude before God from which to pray.
It is a type of prayer seldom found in the church today. Think about it, when was the last time we complained in church about the injustice in the world (or in our own lives) and called on God to hear the cries of those who suffer? And when was the last time we praised God for what God would do… after all this time of waiting.
Walter Brueggemann, American Old Testament scholar and theologian, has called the current devaluation of lament as "the loss of genuine covenant interaction." If he is right, then a better understanding and use of lament on our part might be in order. So, let’s start with Psalm 130. It has four parts:
Verses 1-2 identifies the ‘complaint’ (or situation) – “the bottom’s fallen out of my life” – and offers the basic petition – “hear my cry for help! Listen to my cries for mercy.” There is confidence and faith in the psalmist voice because he believes God is present even now, during a time like this – when he seems so separated from God.
Verses 3-4 suggest the psalmist is where he’s at because of his own doing, even though there is no specific admission of his having done anything wrong. Rather, the psalmist focuses on the character of God who forgives regardless of our sin and does not count it against us in determining whether we are acceptable or not.
In verses 5-6, the psalmist confesses: "I am waiting and watching for the Lord”. To wait in the sense mentioned here is to live expectantly, with hope and an awareness of how God has acted in the past, and with eager anticipation of what God is about to do. Waiting is thus the opposite of despair and hopelessness and instead is ‘the hope of a new dawning’.
Verses 7-8 turns from personal confession to public charge: "O Israel, (in your failures as God’s people) wait and watch for GOD." In these verses, in Hebrew, two new words appear: “steadfast love" – God’s faithfulness to God's promises, even when it seems to be missing; and "generous redemption" – like family who pays to get you out of self inflicted bondage.
Thomas A’Kempis wrote, “The acknowledgment of our weakness is the first step in repairing our loss.” Although we are far from God, God’s love and mercy is near. When we ask for forgiveness, acknowledging our weakness, we reach out to God in hope – believing God hears our cry and will respond.
At such times, we look to make things right with others, to forgive, and to reestablish relationships. When we ask God for forgiveness, we are seeking a fresh start, a new balance. Unlike the uncertainty with human relations, we can be confident that God will hear out plea, accept our humble hearts, and give us a spirit of yearning for his presence.
In Chapter 12 of his new book, Naked Spirituality: A Life With God in 12 Simple Words, Brian McLaren says, “Confession connects us to God through God’s grace… It’s hard to imagine a more powerful word than sorry, but help comes close.” When we call out to God for help we become connected to God through our needs and weaknesses, our unfulfilled hopes and dreams, and our anxieties and problems.”
This is what petition is – prayers addressed to God – by me – for me. Such petitions can be either ‘immature’ or ‘mature’, having God become a personal assistant who makes ‘things happen’ for us or remakes the world in our image for our convenience – or asking God to remake us in God’s image so we can expand our capacity to respond to life as it is.
McLaren gives a good illustration. He says, “Immature petition asks God to give us an easier world with fewer annoying jerks to contend with, the mature petition asks God to help us become stronger, kinder people – and less annoying to our neighbors.” Legendary Bob Dylan was once asked if he was a prayin’ man and if he prayed for the world. His response was, “I never thought about praying for the world… I pray that I can be a kinder person.”
As followers of Christ and heirs to the kingdom, we wait and watch for the Lord. Paul Tillich, in The Shaking of Foundations, describes such waiting when he writes: “Waiting means not having and having at the same time. For we have not what we wait for; or, as the apostle says, if we hope for what we do not see, we then wait for it. The condition of man's relation to God is first of all one of not having, not seeing, not knowing, and not grasping. A religion in which that is forgotten, no matter how ecstatic or active or reasonable, replaces God by its own creation of an image of God.” We have God though not having Him.
When we wait in hope and patience, the power of God’s Spirit becomes ‘real’ within us, making us stronger. God is not reduced to either knowing or understanding; or limited to a certain place. God is grasped only when we realize we don’t know Him but can only wait. We are believers in our unbelief, and accepted by God in spite of our separation from Him.
Tillich writes, “Waiting is not despair. It is the acceptance of our not having, in the power of that which we already have. Time itself is waiting, waiting not for another time, but for that which is eternal.”
Once again, this is what petition is for – to stand with God and see yourself as needy, weak, limited, imperfect, edgy, stressed, driven, frightened, or troubled. But you don’t criticize, condemn, chide, or reject yourself. Rather, you join God in God’s desire for your own growth and wellbeing. You join God in wanting the best for you, and in that light you make your request for your friend, yourself.
Nine hundred years ago, St. Bernard of Clair-vaux wrote about the three stages of love. As I close today’s message, and the lesson about prayers of petition, let me leave you with his words, still true today. St. Bernard wrote, “In the first stage we love God for our own sake, for what God can do for us. In the second stage, we love for God’s own sake, for who God is in God’s own character and glory and beauty. It’s hard to imagine anything better than that, but Bernard said in the third stage, we love ourselves for God’s sake. We join with God in seeing ourselves in a gracious and compassionate light.”
Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord. Lord hear my voice.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
My Soul Waits
April 10, 2011
Psalm 130
“My Soul Waits”
Psalm 130 (The Message)
1-2 Help, GOD—the bottom has fallen out of my life! Master, hear my cry for help!
Listen hard! Open your ears! Listen to my cries for mercy.
3-4 If you, GOD, kept records on wrongdoings, who would stand a chance?
As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit, and that's why you're worshiped.
5-6 I pray to GOD—my life a prayer— and wait for what he'll say and do.
My life's on the line before God, my Lord, waiting and watching till morning,
waiting and watching till morning.
7-8 O Israel, wait and watch for GOD— with GOD's arrival comes love,
with GOD's arrival comes generous redemption. No doubt about it—
he'll redeem Israel, buy back Israel from captivity to sin.
Because of it’s first verse, "Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord", Psalm 130 can be considered the classic lament because it expresses the two key components of lament (complaint and petition) and the appropriate attitude before God from which to pray.
It is a type of prayer seldom found in the church today. Think about it, when was the last time we complained in church about the injustice in the world (or in our own lives) and called on God to hear the cries of those who suffer? And when was the last time we praised God for what God would do… after all this time of waiting.
Walter Brueggemann, American Old Testament scholar and theologian, has called the current devaluation of lament as "the loss of genuine covenant interaction." If he is right, then a better understanding and use of lament on our part might be in order. So, let’s start with Psalm 130. It has four parts:
Verses 1-2 identifies the ‘complaint’ (or situation) – “the bottom’s fallen out of my life” – and offers the basic petition – “hear my cry for help! Listen to my cries for mercy.” There is confidence and faith in the psalmist voice because he believes God is present even now, during a time like this – when he seems so separated from God.
Verses 3-4 suggest the psalmist is where he’s at because of his own doing, even though there is no specific admission of his having done anything wrong. Rather, the psalmist focuses on the character of God who forgives regardless of our sin and does not count it against us in determining whether we are acceptable or not.
In verses 5-6, the psalmist confesses: "I am waiting and watching for the Lord”. To wait in the sense mentioned here is to live expectantly, with hope and an awareness of how God has acted in the past, and with eager anticipation of what God is about to do. Waiting is thus the opposite of despair and hopelessness and instead is ‘the hope of a new dawning’.
Verses 7-8 turns from personal confession to public charge: "O Israel, (in your failures as God’s people) wait and watch for GOD." In these verses, in Hebrew, two new words appear: “steadfast love" – God’s faithfulness to God's promises, even when it seems to be missing; and "generous redemption" – like family who pays to get you out of self inflicted bondage.
Thomas A’Kempis wrote, “The acknowledgment of our weakness is the first step in repairing our loss.” Although we are far from God, God’s love and mercy is near. When we ask for forgiveness, acknowledging our weakness, we reach out to God in hope – believing God hears our cry and will respond.
At such times, we look to make things right with others, to forgive, and to reestablish relationships. When we ask God for forgiveness, we are seeking a fresh start, a new balance. Unlike the uncertainty with human relations, we can be confident that God will hear out plea, accept our humble hearts, and give us a spirit of yearning for his presence.
In Chapter 12 of his new book, Naked Spirituality: A Life With God in 12 Simple Words, Brian McLaren says, “Confession connects us to God through God’s grace… It’s hard to imagine a more powerful word than sorry, but help comes close.” When we call out to God for help we become connected to God through our needs and weaknesses, our unfulfilled hopes and dreams, and our anxieties and problems.”
This is what petition is – prayers addressed to God – by me – for me. Such petitions can be either ‘immature’ or ‘mature’, having God become a personal assistant who makes ‘things happen’ for us or remakes the world in our image for our convenience – or asking God to remake us in God’s image so we can expand our capacity to respond to life as it is.
McLaren gives a good illustration. He says, “Immature petition asks God to give us an easier world with fewer annoying jerks to contend with, the mature petition asks God to help us become stronger, kinder people – and less annoying to our neighbors.” Legendary Bob Dylan was once asked if he was a prayin’ man and if he prayed for the world. His response was, “I never thought about praying for the world… I pray that I can be a kinder person.”
As followers of Christ and heirs to the kingdom, we wait and watch for the Lord. Paul Tillich, in The Shaking of Foundations, describes such waiting when he writes: “Waiting means not having and having at the same time. For we have not what we wait for; or, as the apostle says, if we hope for what we do not see, we then wait for it. The condition of man's relation to God is first of all one of not having, not seeing, not knowing, and not grasping. A religion in which that is forgotten, no matter how ecstatic or active or reasonable, replaces God by its own creation of an image of God.” We have God though not having Him.
When we wait in hope and patience, the power of God’s Spirit becomes ‘real’ within us, making us stronger. God is not reduced to either knowing or understanding; or limited to a certain place. God is grasped only when we realize we don’t know Him but can only wait. We are believers in our unbelief, and accepted by God in spite of our separation from Him.
Tillich writes, “Waiting is not despair. It is the acceptance of our not having, in the power of that which we already have. Time itself is waiting, waiting not for another time, but for that which is eternal.”
Once again, this is what petition is for – to stand with God and see yourself as needy, weak, limited, imperfect, edgy, stressed, driven, frightened, or troubled. But you don’t criticize, condemn, chide, or reject yourself. Rather, you join God in God’s desire for your own growth and wellbeing. You join God in wanting the best for you, and in that light you make your request for your friend, yourself.
Nine hundred years ago, St. Bernard of Clair-vaux wrote about the three stages of love. As I close today’s message, and the lesson about prayers of petition, let me leave you with his words, still true today. St. Bernard wrote, “In the first stage we love God for our own sake, for what God can do for us. In the second stage, we love for God’s own sake, for who God is in God’s own character and glory and beauty. It’s hard to imagine anything better than that, but Bernard said in the third stage, we love ourselves for God’s sake. We join with God in seeing ourselves in a gracious and compassionate light.”
Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord. Lord hear my voice.
Psalm 130
“My Soul Waits”
Psalm 130 (The Message)
1-2 Help, GOD—the bottom has fallen out of my life! Master, hear my cry for help!
Listen hard! Open your ears! Listen to my cries for mercy.
3-4 If you, GOD, kept records on wrongdoings, who would stand a chance?
As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit, and that's why you're worshiped.
5-6 I pray to GOD—my life a prayer— and wait for what he'll say and do.
My life's on the line before God, my Lord, waiting and watching till morning,
waiting and watching till morning.
7-8 O Israel, wait and watch for GOD— with GOD's arrival comes love,
with GOD's arrival comes generous redemption. No doubt about it—
he'll redeem Israel, buy back Israel from captivity to sin.
Because of it’s first verse, "Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord", Psalm 130 can be considered the classic lament because it expresses the two key components of lament (complaint and petition) and the appropriate attitude before God from which to pray.
It is a type of prayer seldom found in the church today. Think about it, when was the last time we complained in church about the injustice in the world (or in our own lives) and called on God to hear the cries of those who suffer? And when was the last time we praised God for what God would do… after all this time of waiting.
Walter Brueggemann, American Old Testament scholar and theologian, has called the current devaluation of lament as "the loss of genuine covenant interaction." If he is right, then a better understanding and use of lament on our part might be in order. So, let’s start with Psalm 130. It has four parts:
Verses 1-2 identifies the ‘complaint’ (or situation) – “the bottom’s fallen out of my life” – and offers the basic petition – “hear my cry for help! Listen to my cries for mercy.” There is confidence and faith in the psalmist voice because he believes God is present even now, during a time like this – when he seems so separated from God.
Verses 3-4 suggest the psalmist is where he’s at because of his own doing, even though there is no specific admission of his having done anything wrong. Rather, the psalmist focuses on the character of God who forgives regardless of our sin and does not count it against us in determining whether we are acceptable or not.
In verses 5-6, the psalmist confesses: "I am waiting and watching for the Lord”. To wait in the sense mentioned here is to live expectantly, with hope and an awareness of how God has acted in the past, and with eager anticipation of what God is about to do. Waiting is thus the opposite of despair and hopelessness and instead is ‘the hope of a new dawning’.
Verses 7-8 turns from personal confession to public charge: "O Israel, (in your failures as God’s people) wait and watch for GOD." In these verses, in Hebrew, two new words appear: “steadfast love" – God’s faithfulness to God's promises, even when it seems to be missing; and "generous redemption" – like family who pays to get you out of self inflicted bondage.
Thomas A’Kempis wrote, “The acknowledgment of our weakness is the first step in repairing our loss.” Although we are far from God, God’s love and mercy is near. When we ask for forgiveness, acknowledging our weakness, we reach out to God in hope – believing God hears our cry and will respond.
At such times, we look to make things right with others, to forgive, and to reestablish relationships. When we ask God for forgiveness, we are seeking a fresh start, a new balance. Unlike the uncertainty with human relations, we can be confident that God will hear out plea, accept our humble hearts, and give us a spirit of yearning for his presence.
In Chapter 12 of his new book, Naked Spirituality: A Life With God in 12 Simple Words, Brian McLaren says, “Confession connects us to God through God’s grace… It’s hard to imagine a more powerful word than sorry, but help comes close.” When we call out to God for help we become connected to God through our needs and weaknesses, our unfulfilled hopes and dreams, and our anxieties and problems.”
This is what petition is – prayers addressed to God – by me – for me. Such petitions can be either ‘immature’ or ‘mature’, having God become a personal assistant who makes ‘things happen’ for us or remakes the world in our image for our convenience – or asking God to remake us in God’s image so we can expand our capacity to respond to life as it is.
McLaren gives a good illustration. He says, “Immature petition asks God to give us an easier world with fewer annoying jerks to contend with, the mature petition asks God to help us become stronger, kinder people – and less annoying to our neighbors.” Legendary Bob Dylan was once asked if he was a prayin’ man and if he prayed for the world. His response was, “I never thought about praying for the world… I pray that I can be a kinder person.”
As followers of Christ and heirs to the kingdom, we wait and watch for the Lord. Paul Tillich, in The Shaking of Foundations, describes such waiting when he writes: “Waiting means not having and having at the same time. For we have not what we wait for; or, as the apostle says, if we hope for what we do not see, we then wait for it. The condition of man's relation to God is first of all one of not having, not seeing, not knowing, and not grasping. A religion in which that is forgotten, no matter how ecstatic or active or reasonable, replaces God by its own creation of an image of God.” We have God though not having Him.
When we wait in hope and patience, the power of God’s Spirit becomes ‘real’ within us, making us stronger. God is not reduced to either knowing or understanding; or limited to a certain place. God is grasped only when we realize we don’t know Him but can only wait. We are believers in our unbelief, and accepted by God in spite of our separation from Him.
Tillich writes, “Waiting is not despair. It is the acceptance of our not having, in the power of that which we already have. Time itself is waiting, waiting not for another time, but for that which is eternal.”
Once again, this is what petition is for – to stand with God and see yourself as needy, weak, limited, imperfect, edgy, stressed, driven, frightened, or troubled. But you don’t criticize, condemn, chide, or reject yourself. Rather, you join God in God’s desire for your own growth and wellbeing. You join God in wanting the best for you, and in that light you make your request for your friend, yourself.
Nine hundred years ago, St. Bernard of Clair-vaux wrote about the three stages of love. As I close today’s message, and the lesson about prayers of petition, let me leave you with his words, still true today. St. Bernard wrote, “In the first stage we love God for our own sake, for what God can do for us. In the second stage, we love for God’s own sake, for who God is in God’s own character and glory and beauty. It’s hard to imagine anything better than that, but Bernard said in the third stage, we love ourselves for God’s sake. We join with God in seeing ourselves in a gracious and compassionate light.”
Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord. Lord hear my voice.
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