Psalm Reading for December 3, 2023

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This Psalm appeals to the Lord for intervention in a time of adversity.  It is described as a Psalm of Lament.  It is difficult to tell from the context alone if the Psalm was written before or after the exile of Israel.  It doesn’t really matter to the reader, because it is clearly a cry for help in any event. One clue, though, might be the mention of the tribes of Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh, which would suggest that the Psalm was written before the Northern Kingdom of Israel was destroyed and scattered by the Assyrians in 722 B.C.

The imagery of the Lord as Shepherd is familiar to us, and comforting — but then there is the imagery of the Lord sitting enthroned between the cherubim. The cherubim are those terrifying angelic figures who are depicted as the guardians of Eden with a sword of flame, and the close companions of the Lord who bear him up with wings of the wind.  This description of Yahweh is much more intimidating.  There may also be a reference to the winged cherubim made of gold who flank the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies within the temple.

But what does the Psalmist seek? Restoration, revival, salvation.  He cries out for the Lord to awaken, and to make his face shine on them again.  This hearkens back to the Deuteronomic blessing that Aaron was instructed to give as High Priest:

Yahweh bless you, and keep you.
Yahweh make his face to shine on you,
and be gracious to you.
Yahweh lift up his face toward you,
and give you peace (Numbers 6:24-26).

There may also be a reference to the glory of God that accompanies his presence — the same glory that made the face of Moses shine after he’d been in the presence of the Lord.

But there’s a catch — God is now angry with Israel.  The result of his anger is the deep grief of Israel and the derision and mockery by their enemies.  Their grief is expressed in a very concrete image — their very food is drenched by tears, and their drinking bowls are full of tears!

We don’t really know the specific cause of this disruption in their relationship with their God, but it could be any one of many of Israel’s historic setbacks.

The refrain recurs as a kind of litany three times:

Revive us, and we will call on your name.
Turn us again, Yahweh God of Armies.
Cause your face to shine, and we will be saved.

And what is the source of that salvation?  The Christian reader can’t help but read into the Psalm a messianic prophecy:

Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand, the son of man you have raised up for yourself.

The phrase son of man may have many meanings, but one that is inescapable for the Christian is Messianic.  Jesus uses this phrase repeatedly in the Gospels when referring to himself.

APPLY:  

At some point we all know how it feels to be defeated, demoralized, in despair — as a nation, a family, an individual.  The cry of the Psalmist isn’t far from the experience of any of us.

We have all tasted our own tears of grief or shame; and we probably know what it feels like to be despised by someone because of our mistakes.

What we cry out for, in our nation, our church, our family, our own lives, is revival and restoration.  If once we have experienced the presence of God in our lives — if we have known the shine of his face — and it has faded for us, we earnestly yearn for it again.

We will find our revival and restoration in the life and the light of Christ, who brings not only salvation from our sins but healing to our hearts, and the power to live the holy lives to which he calls us.

RESPOND: 

I find myself from time to time dealing with my own drift away from God.  I have to cry out again for renewal and revival.  As with the Psalmist this happens when I begin to call out God’s name and seek to live according to the claims of his name.

Our Lord, our nation experiences victories, but also sees defeats — the disabled veteran who wonders ‘was it worth it?’ The ambiguity of race relations in a divided country.  And our own personal struggles with grief or depression.  We don’t have the wisdom to provide all the answers.  But you have provided a Person who is wisdom incarnate, and salvation, and new life!  May we find our source of healing and salvation in Christ! Amen.

PHOTOS:
“Psalm 80” by Brett Jordan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Psalm Reading for December 18, 2022

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This Psalm appeals to the Lord for intervention in a time of adversity.  It is described as a Psalm of Lament.  It is difficult to tell from the context alone if the Psalm was written before or after the exile of Israel.  It doesn’t really matter to the reader, because it is clearly a cry for help in any event. One clue, though, might be the mention of the tribes of Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh, which would suggest that the Psalm was written before the Northern Kingdom of Israel was destroyed and scattered by the Assyrians in 722 B.C.

The imagery of the Lord as Shepherd is familiar to us, and comforting — but then there is the imagery of the Lord sitting enthroned between the cherubim. The cherubim are those terrifying angelic figures who are depicted as the guardians of Eden with a sword of flame, and the close companions of the Lord who bear him up with wings of the wind.  This description of Yahweh is much more intimidating.  There may also be a reference to the winged cherubim made of gold who flank the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies within the temple.

But what does the Psalmist seek? Restoration, revival, salvation.  He cries out for the Lord to awaken, and to make his face shine on them again.  This hearkens back to the Deuteronomic blessing that Aaron was instructed to give as High Priest:

Yahweh bless you, and keep you.
Yahweh make his face to shine on you,
and be gracious to you.
Yahweh lift up his face toward you,
and give you peace (Numbers 6:24-26).

There may also be a reference to the glory of God that accompanies his presence — the same glory that made the face of Moses shine after he’d been in the presence of the Lord.

But there’s a catch — God is now angry with Israel.  The result of his anger is the deep grief of Israel and the derision and mockery by their enemies.  Their grief is expressed in a very concrete image — their very food is drenched by tears, and their drinking bowls are full of tears!

We don’t really know the specific cause of this disruption in their relationship with their God, but it could be any one of many of Israel’s historic setbacks.

The refrain recurs as a kind of litany three times:

Revive us, and we will call on your name.
Turn us again, Yahweh God of Armies.
Cause your face to shine, and we will be saved.

And what is the source of that salvation?  The Christian reader can’t help but read into the Psalm a messianic prophecy:

Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand, the son of man you have raised up for yourself.

The phrase son of man may have many meanings, but one that is inescapable for the Christian is Messianic.  Jesus uses this phrase repeatedly in the Gospels when referring to himself.

APPLY:  

At some point we all know how it feels to be defeated, demoralized, in despair — as a nation, a family, an individual.  The cry of the Psalmist isn’t far from the experience of any of us.

We have all tasted our own tears of grief or shame; and we probably know what it feels like to be despised by someone because of our mistakes.

What we cry out for, in our nation, our church, our family, our own lives, is revival and restoration.  If once we have experienced the presence of God in our lives — if we have known the shine of his face — and it has faded for us, we earnestly yearn for it again.

We will find our revival and restoration in the life and the light of Christ, who brings not only salvation from our sins but healing to our hearts, and the power to live the holy lives to which he calls us.

RESPOND: 

I find myself from time to time dealing with my own drift away from God.  I have to cry out again for renewal and revival.  As with the Psalmist this happens when I begin to call out God’s name and seek to live according to the claims of his name.

Our Lord, our nation experiences victories, but also sees defeats — the disabled veteran who wonders ‘was it worth it?’ The ambiguity of race relations in a divided country.  And our own personal struggles with grief or depression.  We don’t have the wisdom to provide all the answers.  But you have provided a Person who is wisdom incarnate, and salvation, and new life!  May we find our source of healing and salvation in Christ! Amen.

PHOTOS:
“Psalm 80” by Brett Jordan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for December 18, 2022

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Isaiah 7:10-16
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This is one of those passages that clearly has a double meaning prophetically.  On the one hand, there is the meaning for the time of Isaiah, who is prophet in the time of King Ahaz of Judah (reigned 736-716 B.C.). On the other hand, Matthew’s Gospel interprets this oracle as a prophecy concerning the birth of Jesus.

Ahaz ruled Judah in turbulent times. Early in his reign, Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the king of Israel forged a military alliance in order to invade Judah and divide it between them under a puppet ruler (Isaiah 7:1-6).  The Northern Kingdom shared common heritage and religion with Judah as part of the original 12 tribes of Israel, until Israel rebelled against Rehoboam’s harsh rule in 931 B.C (1 Kings 12).  From that time on there was intermittent strife between Israel and Judah.  Israel is also known variously as the Northern Kingdom, Ephraim, and Samaria.

However, Ahaz is assured by Isaiah that Syria and Israel will not be a threat to Judah — he predicts that in 65 years Israel itself would be broken up (Isaiah 7:8-9). This is what did happen when Assyria invaded and conquered the Northern Kingdom in 721 B.C., and deported its inhabitants, scattering them throughout the Assyrian empire.

So, Isaiah’s question on behalf of Yahweh is significant:

Yahweh spoke again to Ahaz, saying, “Ask a sign of Yahweh your God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.”

This is an invitation to seek even more blessing and success.  What Isaiah says to Ahaz in the verse prior to this is very revealing:

If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established (Isaiah 7:9).

This seems to be the problem for Ahaz — he lacks faith.  He is too timid to ask anything of Yahweh, even though the prophet himself has offered on behalf of Yahweh:

But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, neither will I tempt Yahweh.”

Yahweh has lost patience with Ahaz’s timid faith, and promises a sign:

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.   

The Hebrew word for virgin is almah, which many modern commentators point out means simply a young woman of childbearing age who has not yet had children.

As the oracle continues it does apply to the time of Ahaz:

For before the child knows to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land whose two kings you abhor shall be forsaken.

In other words, the child will eat of the abundance of the land, and before he is old enough to have moral accountability, the kings of Syria and Ephraim will face disaster.

Obviously, the New Testament interpretation of this text takes us in a very different direction.  Let’s take that up in the Apply section.

APPLY:  

Again, we return to one of the dilemmas of Biblical interpretation.  There is a definite historical context for Isaiah’s prophecy in chapter 7 — the threat of invasion that Ahaz’s kingdom of Judah faces from Syria and Israel.  The prophet is advising the king that his sign will be the birth of a male child who will be named Immanuel — and that before he is old enough to know right from wrong, the threat will be eliminated.

But Matthew’s Gospel makes it clear that there is a dual nature to this prophecy.  When Mary conceives prior to her marriage to Joseph, Joseph is alarmed.  But an angel appears to Joseph in a dream to reassure him that he is to marry her, because the child has been conceived by the Holy Spirit of God (Matthew 1:18-21).  Matthew then quotes Isaiah’s prophecy as evidence of this miraculous conception:

Now all this has happened, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying,
 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child,
and shall give birth to a son.
They shall call his name Immanuel”;
which is, being interpreted, “God with us” (Matthew 1:22-23).

If there is any doubt that Mary is truly a virgin, Luke’s Gospel corroborates Matthew’s claim.  The Angel Gabriel appears to Mary and tells her that she will conceive and give birth to a son whom she will name Jesus.  But Mary is deeply troubled:

Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, seeing I am a virgin?” (Luke 1:34).

In other words, Mary knows that this is an impossibility based on normal human biology.  She’s not naive.  But the angel assures her:

The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore also the holy one who is born from you will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35).

There will be more to say about this in the Gospel reading for this week, from Matthew 1:18-25.  But for now, suffice it to say that at least two Gospel writers were convinced that Jesus was virgin-born, and this was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy.

This has also been the belief of the church for nearly 2000 years, and this faith is reflected in the Nicene and Apostles’ Creeds.  The reason for this is very simple — Jesus fulfills this prophecy more completely than a child born in the 8th century B.C.  Only Jesus can truly be described as Immanuel — God with us. 

RESPOND: 

I recently had a conversation with a close friend who speculated about the Virgin Birth, and wondered how important it really is.  After all, he suggested, wouldn’t it be just as meaningful if Mary had conceived Jesus by the normal human process, and God lifted him up from his humble origins?  Isn’t that something that God often does in Scripture, he said — lift up the humble and the lowly?

I was pretty emphatic in my response. The Virgin Birth points to a truth about the nature of Jesus.  That truth is not that Jesus was lifted up to God; instead, Jesus is God in the flesh who has humbled himself and come down to us from heaven!  My friend’s view, I said, is Arian — that God looked with favor on Jesus and adopted him as his son.  But the view that Jesus is God who has become human is consistent with the Scriptures:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…. The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:1, 14)

Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men (Philippians 2:5-7).

This is why the Virgin Birth matters — other than the obvious fact that it is a doctrine of the church.  It reveals something about the nature of Jesus. Jesus isn’t a human being aspiring to be close to God.  Jesus is God who becomes a human being in order to lift us up to God.  He alone is Immanuel. 

Our Lord, we find it hard to wrap our minds around what you have done because it seldom matches our expectations and boundaries. You reveal yourself through a Virgin Birth, and you become like we are so that we can become like you because it is unique.  Thank you for humbling yourself so that we might be exalted with you by faith.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
“Isaiah 7_14” by Baptist Union of Great Britain is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for July 31, 2022

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Hosea 11:1-11
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This prophetic oracle from Hosea captures God’s deep sense of ambivalence about Israel.  The Lord loves Israel as a father loves a child; and yet, Israel has estranged itself from the Lord by worshiping other gods.

The Lord begins by focusing on the salvation history of Israel, with the bondage of Israel in Egypt.  In one brief sentence, he sums up his fatherly relationship with Israel:

When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.

This deep parental love increases the sense of grief that God expresses at the puzzling behavior of Israel:

The more I called them,
the more they went from me;
they kept sacrificing to the Baals,
and offering incense to idols.

In vivid imagery, God describes his relationship with Israel in terms that a grieving parent might use when remembering the childhood of his rebellious offspring.  His language is tender and caring:

Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
I took them up in my arms;
but they did not know that I healed them.
I led them with cords of human kindness,
with bands of love.
I was to them like those
who lift infants to their cheeks.
I bent down to them and fed them.

But this isn’t mere nostalgia, or a parent reminiscing over a family photo album.  This is a warning to the child that he loves.  He warns Israel that their behavior will return them to bondage in Egypt, and to the new imperial power of Hosea’s time — Assyria.

He warns that the sword will consume cities and also the oracle-priests who are devouring the people by their plots.  The oracle-priests were the false priests who used magic incantations and consulted idols to offer guidance to King Jeroboam II and his people.

Curiously, Israel pursues a kind of “both/and” policy in their religious practices.  They consult these oracle-priests and worship their Baals, but they also call upon the Most High, who is the Lord.  But the Lord doesn’t heed their call.

Still, the Lord’s attitude toward his Israel is like that of a father who grieves over a wayward child. In a passage filled with pathos, he cries out:

How can I give you up, Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, O Israel?
How can I make you like Admah?
How can I treat you like Zeboiim?
My heart recoils within me;
my compassion grows warm and tender.

Admah and Zeboiim were cities that were destroyed as part of the collateral destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.  Part of the warning to the people of Israel in the days of Moses 500 years earlier included stern admonitions against idolatry, and used these cities as an example of divine judgment (Deuteronomy 29:21-29).

And yet, God’s love for Israel still burns so warmly that he is reluctant to enact this warning against them:

I will not execute my fierce anger;
I will not again destroy Ephraim;
for I am God and no mortal,
the Holy One in your midst,
and I will not come in wrath.

Ephraim, of course, was one of the two sons of Joseph; and Ephraim became one of the tribes of Israel. In this context, Ephraim is a synonym for Israel, the Northern Kingdom.

God expresses his patient mercy by declaring that he is God and no mortal and won’t come in wrath.  But if there is any doubt of his power, he describes himself with a mighty metaphor:

They shall go after the Lord,
who roars like a lion;
when he roars,
his children shall come trembling from the west.

 They shall come trembling like birds from Egypt,
and like doves from the land of Assyria;
and I will return them to their homes, says the Lord.

The fact is that Israel will be exiled.  But the roar of the Lord will summon them back home from their places of exile.  The father will welcome the prodigal child home again.

APPLY:  

While there are many metaphors and images that are used in Scripture to describe the relationship between God and his people, none is more powerful and more intimate than Hosea’s description that God is a loving father who cherishes his children.  The people of God are God’s family.

However, this image also brings with it deep feelings of regret and even grief.  Just as Israel was loved, taught to walk with God, and cherished as a father cherishes a young child, so have we all been loved by God.

And just as Israel rebelled against their Father, and worshiped their own pleasure and sought alternate sources of power, so have almost all of us who are honest with ourselves.

The parable Jesus tells of the two sons and their father in Luke 15 seems almost a commentary on Hosea 11.  Except it is not only the  “prodigal” son who leaves his father’s house — the “dutiful” older son refuses to enter the house because of his jealousy and pride.  I say that whatever separates a person from God is sin — whether it is carnal sin and profligacy, or self-righteous pride.

The bad news in this passage from Hosea is that there are consequences for our departure from God.

The good news is God, like the father in Jesus’ parable, is always ready and eager to welcome us back.

RESPOND: 

This passage has a two-edged blade.  On the one hand, I’ve been the parent who loved and grieved a child who was going through a rebellious phase.  I can identify with God’s self-description of tenderness and affection — and with God’s deep grief at feelings of rejection.  I do rejoice that for me those relationships are healed and hopeful.

But on the other hand, I’ve also been the rebellious, self-willed, self-seeking child who sought happiness and fulfillment outside of God.  And it grieves me to have caused my heavenly Father such sorrow.  I am so grateful that he has given me ample opportunity to repent and return to him.

Lord, your love for your children is infinite.  Thank you that you never give up on us, though we may turn away from you.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
“Hosea 11:8-9” by Sapphire Dream Photography is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Psalm Reading for November 29, 2020

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This Psalm appeals to the Lord for intervention in a time of adversity.  It is described as a Psalm of Lament.  It is difficult to tell from the context alone if the Psalm was written before or after the exile of Israel.  It doesn’t really matter to the reader, because it is clearly a cry for help in any event. One clue, though, might be the mention of the tribes of Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh, which would suggest that the Psalm was written before the Northern Kingdom of Israel was destroyed and scattered by the Assyrians in 722 B.C.

The imagery of the Lord as Shepherd is familiar to us, and comforting — but then there is the imagery of the Lord sitting enthroned between the cherubim. The cherubim are those terrifying angelic figures who are depicted as the guardians of Eden with a sword of flame, and the close companions of the Lord who bear him up with wings of the wind.  This description of Yahweh is much more intimidating.  There may also be a reference to the winged cherubim made of gold who flank the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies within the temple.

But what does the Psalmist seek? Restoration, revival, salvation.  He cries out for the Lord to awaken, and to make his face shine on them again.  This hearkens back to the Deuteronomic blessing that Aaron was instructed to give as High Priest:

Yahweh bless you, and keep you.
Yahweh make his face to shine on you,
and be gracious to you.
Yahweh lift up his face toward you,
and give you peace (Numbers 6:24-26).

There may also be a reference to the glory of God that accompanies his presence — the same glory that made the face of Moses shine after he’d been in the presence of the Lord.

But there’s a catch — God is now angry with Israel.  The result of his anger is the deep grief of Israel and the derision and mockery by their enemies.  Their grief is expressed in a very concrete image — their very food is drenched by tears, and their drinking bowls are full of tears!

We don’t really know the specific cause of this disruption in their relationship with their God, but it could be any one of many of Israel’s historic setbacks.

The refrain recurs as a kind of litany three times:

Revive us, and we will call on your name.
Turn us again, Yahweh God of Armies.
Cause your face to shine, and we will be saved.

And what is the source of that salvation?  The Christian reader can’t help but read into the Psalm a messianic prophecy:

Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand, the son of man you have raised up for yourself.

The phrase  son of man  may have many meanings, but one that is inescapable for the Christian is Messianic.  Jesus uses this phrase repeatedly in the Gospels when referring to himself.

APPLY:  

At some point we all know how it feels to be defeated, demoralized, in despair — as a nation, a family, an individual.  The cry of the Psalmist isn’t far from the experience of any of us.

We have all tasted our own tears of grief or shame; and we probably know what it feels like to be despised by someone because of our mistakes.

What we cry out for, in our nation, our church, our family, our own lives, is revival and restoration.  If once we have experienced the presence of God in our lives — if we have known the  shine  of his face — and it has faded for us, we earnestly yearn for it again.

We will find our revival and restoration in the life and the light of Christ, who brings not only salvation from our sins but healing to our hearts, and the power to live the holy lives to which he calls us.

RESPOND: 

I find myself from time to time dealing with my own drift away from God.  I have to cry out again for renewal and revival.  As with the Psalmist this happens when I begin to call out God’s name and seek to live according to the claims of his name.

Our Lord, our nation experiences victories, but also sees defeats — the disabled veteran who wonders ‘was it worth it?’ The ambiguity of race relations in a divided country.  And our own personal struggles with grief or depression.  We don’t have the wisdom to provide all the answers.  But you have provided a Person who is wisdom incarnate, and salvation, and new life!  May we find our source of healing and salvation in Christ! Amen.

PHOTOS:
“Psalm 80-7” by tea4judy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Psalm Reading for December 22, 2019

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This Psalm appeals to the Lord for intervention in a time of adversity.  It is described as a Psalm of Lament.  It is difficult to tell from the context alone if the Psalm was written before or after the exile of Israel.  It doesn’t really matter to the reader, because it is clearly a cry for help in any event. One clue, though, might be the mention of the tribes of Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh, which would suggest that the Psalm was written before the Northern Kingdom of Israel was destroyed and scattered by the Assyrians in 722 B.C.

The imagery of the Lord as Shepherd is familiar to us, and comforting — but then there is the imagery of the Lord sitting enthroned between the cherubim. The cherubim are those terrifying angelic figures who are depicted as the guardians of Eden with a sword of flame, and the close companions of the Lord who bear him up with wings of the wind.  This description of Yahweh is much more intimidating.  There may also be a reference to the winged cherubim made of gold who flank the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies within the temple.

But what does the Psalmist seek? Restoration, revival, salvation.  He cries out for the Lord to awaken, and to make his face shine on them again.  This hearkens back to the Deuteronomic blessing that Aaron was instructed to give as High Priest:

Yahweh bless you, and keep you.
Yahweh make his face to shine on you,
and be gracious to you.
Yahweh lift up his face toward you,
and give you peace (Numbers 6:24-26).

There may also be a reference to the glory of God that accompanies his presence — the same glory that made the face of Moses shine after he’d been in the presence of the Lord.

But there’s a catch — God is now angry with Israel.  The result of his anger is the deep grief of Israel and the derision and mockery by their enemies.  Their grief is expressed in a very concrete image — their very food is drenched by tears, and their drinking bowls are full of tears!

We don’t really know the specific cause of this disruption in their relationship with their God, but it could be any one of many of Israel’s historic setbacks.

The refrain recurs as a kind of litany three times:

Revive us, and we will call on your name.
Turn us again, Yahweh God of Armies.
Cause your face to shine, and we will be saved.

And what is the source of that salvation?  The Christian reader can’t help but read into the Psalm a messianic prophecy:

Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand, the son of man you have raised up for yourself.

The phrase  son of man  may have many meanings, but one that is inescapable for the Christian is Messianic.  Jesus uses this phrase repeatedly in the Gospels when referring to himself.

APPLY:  

At some point we all know how it feels to be defeated, demoralized, in despair — as a nation, a family, an individual.  The cry of the Psalmist isn’t far from the experience of any of us.

We have all tasted our own tears of grief or shame; and we probably know what it feels like to be despised by someone because of our mistakes.

What we cry out for, in our nation, our church, our family, our own lives, is revival and restoration.  If once we have experienced the presence of God in our lives — if we have known the  shine  of his face — and it has faded for us, we earnestly yearn for it again.

We will find our revival and restoration in the life and the light of Christ, who brings not only salvation from our sins  but healing to our hearts, and the power to live the holy lives to which he calls us.

RESPOND: 

I find myself from time to time dealing with my own drift away from God.  I have to cry out again for renewal and revival.  As with the Psalmist this happens when I begin to call out God’s name and seek to live according to the claims of his name.

Our Lord, our nation experiences victories, but also sees defeats — the disabled veteran who wonders ‘was it worth it?’ The ambiguity of race relations in a divided country.  And our own personal struggles with grief or depression.  We don’t have the wisdom to provide all the answers.  But you have provided a Person who is wisdom incarnate, and salvation, and new life!  May we find our source of healing and salvation in Christ! Amen.

PHOTOS:
“Psalm 80-7” by tea4judy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for December 22, 2019

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Isaiah 7:10-16
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This is one of those passages that clearly has a double meaning prophetically.  On the one hand, there is the meaning for the time of Isaiah, who is prophet in the time of King Ahaz of Judah (reigned 736-716 B.C.). On the other hand,  Matthew’s Gospel interprets this oracle as a prophecy concerning the birth of Jesus.

Ahaz  ruled Judah in turbulent times.  Early in his reign,  Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the king of Israel forged a military alliance in order to invade Judah and divide it between them under a puppet ruler (Isaiah 7:1-6).  The Northern Kingdom shared common heritage and religion with Judah as part of the original 12 tribes of Israel, until Israel rebelled against Rehoboam’s harsh rule in 931 B.C (1 Kings 12).  From that time on there was intermittent strife between Israel and Judah.  Israel is also known variously as the Northern Kingdom, Ephraim, and Samaria.

However, Ahaz is assured by Isaiah that Syria and Israel will not be a threat to Judah — he predicts that in 65 years Israel itself  would be broken up (Isaiah 7:8-9). This is what did happen when Assyria invaded and conquered the Northern Kingdom in 721 B.C., and deported its inhabitants, scattering them throughout the Assyrian empire.

So, Isaiah’s question on behalf of Yahweh is significant:

Yahweh spoke again to Ahaz, saying,  “Ask a sign of Yahweh your God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.”

This is an invitation to seek even more blessing and success.  What Isaiah says to Ahaz in the verse prior to this is very revealing:

If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established (Isaiah 7:9).

This seems to be the problem for Ahaz—- he lacks faith.  He is too timid to ask anything of Yahweh, even though the prophet himself has offered on behalf of Yahweh:

But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, neither will I tempt Yahweh.”

Yahweh has lost patience with Ahaz’s timid faith, and promises a sign:

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.   

The Hebrew word for virgin is almah, which many modern commentators point out means simply a young woman of childbearing age who has not yet had children.

As the oracle continues it does apply to the time of Ahaz:

For before the child knows to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land whose two kings you abhor shall be forsaken.

In other words, the child will eat of the abundance of the land, and before he is old enough to have moral accountability, the kings of Syria and Ephraim will face disaster.

Obviously, the New Testament interpretation of this text takes us in a very different direction.  Let’s take that up in the Apply section.

APPLY:  

Again, we return to one of the dilemmas of Biblical interpretation.  There is a definite historical context for Isaiah’s prophecy in chapter 7 — the threat of invasion that Ahaz’s kingdom of Judah faces from Syria and Israel.  The prophet is advising the king that his sign will be the birth of a male child who will be named Immanuel — and that before he is old enough to know right from wrong, the threat will be eliminated.

But Matthew’s Gospel makes it clear that there is a dual nature to this prophecy.  When Mary conceives prior to her marriage to Joseph, Joseph is alarmed.  But an angel appears to Joseph in a dream to reassure  him that he is to marry her, because the child has been conceived by the Holy Spirit of God (Matthew 1:18-21).  Matthew then quotes Isaiah’s prophecy as evidence of this miraculous conception:

Now all this has happened, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying,
 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child,
and shall give birth to a son.
They shall call his name Immanuel”;
which is, being interpreted, “God with us” (Matthew 1:22-23).

If there is any doubt that Mary is truly a virgin, Luke’s Gospel corroborates Matthew’s claim.  The Angel Gabriel appears to Mary and tells her that she will conceive and give birth to a son whom she will name Jesus.  But Mary is deeply troubled:

Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, seeing I am a virgin?” (Luke 1:34).

In other words, Mary knows that this is an impossibility based on normal human biology.  She’s not naive.  But the angel assures her:

The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore also the holy one who is born from you will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35).

There will be more to say about this in the Gospel reading for this week, from Matthew 1:18-25.  But for now, suffice it to say that at least two Gospel writers were convinced that Jesus was virgin-born, and this was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy.

This has also been the belief of the church for nearly 2000 years, and this faith is reflected in the Nicene and Apostles’ Creeds.  The reason for this is very simple — Jesus fulfills this prophecy more completely than a child born in the 8th century B.C.  Only Jesus can truly be described as Immanuel — God with us. 

RESPOND: 

I recently had a conversation with a close friend who speculated about the Virgin Birth, and wondered how important it really is.  After all, he suggested, wouldn’t it be just as meaningful if Mary had conceived Jesus by the normal human process, and God lifted him up from his humble origins?  Isn’t that something that God often does in Scripture, he said — lift up the humble and the lowly?

I was pretty emphatic in my response.  The Virgin Birth points to a truth about the nature of Jesus.  That truth is not that Jesus was lifted up to God; instead, Jesus is God in the flesh who has humbled himself and come down to us from heaven!  My friend’s view, I said, is Arian — that God looked with favor on Jesus and adopted  him as his son.  But the view that Jesus is God who has become human is consistent with the Scriptures:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…. The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:1, 14)

Christ Jesus,  who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped,  but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men (Philippians 2:5-7).

This is why the Virgin Birth matters — other than the obvious fact that it is a doctrine of the church.  It reveals something about the nature of Jesus. Jesus isn’t a human being aspiring to be close to God.  Jesus is God who becomes a human being in order to lift us up to God.  He alone is Immanuel. 

Our Lord, we find it hard to wrap our minds around what you have done because it seldom matches our expectations and boundaries. You reveal yourself through a Virgin Birth, and you become like we are so that we can become like you because it is unique.  Thank you for humbling yourself so that we might be exalted with you by faith.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
“Immanuel: God with Us” by David Woo is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for August 4, 2019

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Hosea 11:1-11
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This prophetic oracle from Hosea captures God’s deep sense of ambivalence about Israel.  The Lord loves Israel as a father loves a child; and yet, Israel has estranged itself from the Lord by worshiping other gods.

The Lord begins by focusing on the salvation history of Israel, with the bondage of Israel in Egypt.  In one brief sentence, he sums up his fatherly relationship with Israel:

When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.

This deep parental love increases the sense of grief that God expresses at the puzzling behavior of Israel:

The more I  called them,
the more they went from me;
they kept sacrificing to the Baals,
and offering incense to idols.

In vivid imagery, God describes his relationship with Israel in terms that a grieving parent might use when remembering the childhood of his rebellious offspring.  His language is tender and caring:

Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
I took them up in my  arms;
but they did not know that I healed them.
I led them with cords of human kindness,
with bands of love.
I was to them like those
who lift infants to their cheeks.
I bent down to them and fed them.

But this isn’t mere nostalgia, or a parent reminiscing over a family photo album.  This is a warning to the child that he loves.  He warns Israel that their behavior will return them to bondage in Egypt, and to the new imperial power of Hosea’s time — Assyria.

He warns that the sword will consume cities and also the oracle-priests who are devouring the people by their plots.  The oracle-priests were the false priests who used magic incantations and consulted idols to offer guidance to King Jeroboam II and his people.

Curiously, Israel pursues a kind of  “both/and” policy in their religious practices.  They consult these oracle-priests and worship their Baals, but they also call upon the Most High, who is the Lord.  But the Lord doesn’t heed their call.

Still, the Lord’s attitude toward his Israel is like that of a father who grieves over a wayward child. In a passage filled with pathos, he cries out:

How can I give you up, Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, O Israel?
How can I make you like Admah?
How can I treat you like Zeboiim?
My heart recoils within me;
my compassion grows warm and tender.

Admah and Zeboiim were cities that were destroyed as part of the collateral destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.  Part of the warning to the people of Israel in the days of Moses 500 years earlier included stern admonitions against idolatry, and used these cities as an example of divine judgment (Deuteronomy 29:21-29).

And yet, God’s love for Israel still burns so warmly that he is reluctant to enact this warning against them:

I will not execute my fierce anger;
I will not again destroy Ephraim;
for I am God and no mortal,
the Holy One in your midst,
and I will not come in wrath.

Ephraim, of course, was one of the two sons of Joseph;  and Ephraim became one of the tribes of Israel. In this context, Ephraim is a synonym for Israel, the Northern Kingdom.

God expresses his patient mercy by declaring that he is God and no mortal and won’t come in wrath.  But if there is any doubt of his power, he describes himself with a mighty metaphor:

They shall go after the Lord,
who roars like a lion;
when he roars,
his children shall come trembling from the west.

 They shall come trembling like birds from Egypt,
and like doves from the land of Assyria;
and I will return them to their homes, says the Lord.

The fact is that Israel will be exiled.  But the roar of the Lord will summon them back home from their places of exile.  The father will welcome the prodigal child home again.

APPLY:  

While there are many metaphors and images that are used in Scripture to describe the relationship between God and his people, none is more powerful and more intimate than Hosea’s description that God is a loving father who cherishes his children.  The people of God are God’s family.

However, this image also brings with it deep feelings of regret and even grief.  Just as Israel was loved, taught to walk with God, and cherished as a father cherishes a young child, so have we all been loved by God.

And just as Israel rebelled against their Father, and worshiped their own pleasure and sought alternate sources of power, so have almost all of us who are honest with ourselves.

The parable Jesus tells of the two sons and their father in Luke 15 seems almost a commentary on Hosea 11.  Except it is not only the  “prodigal” son who leaves his father’s house — the “dutiful” older son refuses to enter the house because of his jealousy and pride.  I say that whatever separates a person from God is sin — whether it is carnal sin and profligacy, or self-righteous pride.

The bad news in this passage from Hosea is that there are consequences for our departure from God.

The good news is God, like the father in Jesus’ parable, is always ready and eager to welcome us back.

RESPOND: 

This passage has a two-edged blade.  On the one hand, I’ve been the parent who loved and grieved a child who was going through a rebellious phase.  I can identify with God’s self-description of tenderness and affection — and with God’s deep grief at feelings of rejection.  I do rejoice that for me those relationships are healed and hopeful.

But on the other hand, I’ve also been the rebellious, self-willed, self-seeking child who sought happiness and fulfillment outside of God.  And it grieves me to have caused my heavenly Father such sorrow.  I am so grateful that he has given me ample opportunity to repent and return to him.

Lord, your love for your children is infinite.  Thank you that you never give up on us, though we may turn away from you.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
“Hosea 11:8-9” by Sapphire Dream Photography is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Psalm Reading for December 23, 2018

Author’s Note:  I encourage all of my readers to prepare for the Christmas season with the Choose This Day Family Bible Study for the Advent season.  It’s a fun, short (10-15 minutes) Bible study that the whole family can enjoy daily from December 1 to 25.  You can visit that website  by clicking this link.

And now, back to today’s lectionary reading:

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

NOTE FROM CELESTE LETCHWORTH:
As most of you know, Tom went to be with the Lord 6 months ago.
Since the lectionary cycles every 3 years, I am able to copy Tom’s SOAR studies from the archives and post them each week with our current year’s dates.

However — the United Methodist lectionary Psalm reading for December 23, 2018 does not include verses 17-19.

Tom wrote the following SOAR study based on the Advent season Psalm reading for December 3, 2017, which included verses 17-19.

OBSERVE:

This Psalm appeals to the Lord for intervention in a time of adversity.  It is described as a Psalm of Lament.  It is difficult to tell from the context alone if the Psalm was written before or after the exile of Israel.  It doesn’t really matter to the reader, because it is clearly a cry for help in any event. One clue, though, might be the mention of the tribes of Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh, which would suggest that the Psalm was written before the Northern Kingdom of Israel was destroyed and scattered by the Assyrians in 722 B.C.

The imagery of the Lord as Shepherd is familiar to us, and comforting — but then there is the imagery of the Lord sitting enthroned between the cherubim. The cherubim are those terrifying angelic figures who are depicted as the guardians of Eden with a sword of flame, and the close companions of the Lord who bear him up with wings of the wind.  This description of Yahweh is much more intimidating.  There may also be a reference to the winged cherubim made of gold who flank the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies within the temple.

But what does the Psalmist seek? Restoration, revival, salvation.  He cries out for the Lord to awaken, and to make his face shine on them again.  This hearkens back to the Deuteronomic blessing that Aaron was instructed to give as High Priest:

Yahweh bless you, and keep you.
Yahweh make his face to shine on you,
and be gracious to you.
Yahweh lift up his face toward you,
and give you peace (Numbers 6:24-26).

There may also be a reference to the glory of God that accompanies his presence — the same glory that made the face of Moses shine after he’d been in the presence of the Lord.

But there’s a catch — God is now angry with Israel.  The result of his anger is the deep grief of Israel and the derision and mockery by their enemies.  Their grief is expressed in a very concrete image — their very food is drenched by tears, and their drinking bowls are full of tears!

We don’t really know the specific cause of this disruption in their relationship with their God, but it could be any one of many of Israel’s historic setbacks.

The refrain recurs as a kind of litany three times:

Revive us, and we will call on your name.
Turn us again, Yahweh God of Armies.
Cause your face to shine, and we will be saved.

And what is the source of that salvation?  The Christian reader can’t help but read into the Psalm a messianic prophecy:

Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand, the son of man you have raised up for yourself.

The phrase  son of man  may have many meanings, but one that is inescapable for the Christian is Messianic.  Jesus uses this phrase repeatedly in the Gospels when referring to himself.

APPLY:  

At some point we all know how it feels to be defeated, demoralized, in despair — as a nation, a family, an individual.  The cry of the Psalmist isn’t far from the experience of any of us.

We have all tasted our own tears of grief or shame; and we probably know what it feels like to be despised by someone because of our mistakes.

What we cry out for, in our nation, our church, our family, our own lives, is revival and restoration.  If once we have experienced the presence of God in our lives — if we have known the  shine  of his face — and it has faded for us, we earnestly yearn for it again.

We will find our revival and restoration in the life and the light of Christ, who brings not only salvation from our sins  but healing to our hearts, and the power to live the holy lives to which he calls us.

RESPOND: 

I find myself from time to time dealing with my own drift away from God.  I have to cry out again for renewal and revival.  As with the Psalmist this happens when I begin to call out God’s name and seek to live according to the claims of his name.

Our Lord, our nation experiences victories, but also sees defeats — the disabled veteran who wonders ‘was it worth it?’ The ambiguity of race relations in a divided country.  And our own personal struggles with grief or depression.  We don’t have the wisdom to provide all the answers.  But you have provided a Person who is wisdom incarnate, and salvation, and new life!  May we find our source of healing and salvation in Christ! Amen.

PHOTOS:
“Psalm 80-7” by tea4judy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Psalm Reading for December 3, 2017

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This Psalm appeals to the Lord for intervention in a time of adversity.  It is described as a Psalm of Lament.  It is difficult to tell from the context alone if the Psalm was written before or after the exile of Israel.  It doesn’t really matter to the reader, because it is clearly a cry for help in any event. One clue, though, might be the mention of the tribes of Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh, which would suggest that the Psalm was written before the Northern Kingdom of Israel was destroyed and scattered by the Assyrians in 722 B.C.

The imagery of the Lord as Shepherd is familiar to us, and comforting — but then there is the imagery of the Lord sitting enthroned between the cherubim. The cherubim are those terrifying angelic figures who are depicted as the guardians of Eden with a sword of flame, and the close companions of the Lord who bear him up with wings of the wind.  This description of Yahweh is much more intimidating.  There may also be a reference to the winged cherubim made of gold who flank the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies within the temple.

But what does the Psalmist seek? Restoration, revival, salvation.  He cries out for the Lord to awaken, and to make his face shine on them again.  This hearkens back to the Deuteronomic blessing that Aaron was instructed to give as High Priest:

Yahweh bless you, and keep you.
Yahweh make his face to shine on you,
and be gracious to you.
Yahweh lift up his face toward you,
and give you peace (Numbers 6:24-26).

There may also be a reference to the glory of God that accompanies his presence — the same glory that made the face of Moses shine after he’d been in the presence of the Lord.

But there’s a catch — God is now angry with Israel.  The result of his anger is the deep grief of Israel and the derision and mockery by their enemies.  Their grief is expressed in a very concrete image — their very food is drenched by tears, and their drinking bowls are full of tears!

We don’t really know the specific cause of this disruption in their relationship with their God, but it could be any one of many of Israel’s historic setbacks.

The refrain recurs as a kind of litany three times:

Revive us, and we will call on your name.
Turn us again, Yahweh God of Armies.
Cause your face to shine, and we will be saved.

And what is the source of that salvation?  The Christian reader can’t help but read into the Psalm a messianic prophecy:

Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand, the son of man you have raised up for yourself.

The phrase  son of man  may have many meanings, but one that is inescapable for the Christian is Messianic.  Jesus uses this phrase repeatedly in the Gospels when referring to himself.

APPLY:  

At some point we all know how it feels to be defeated, demoralized, in despair — as a nation, a family, an individual.  The cry of the Psalmist isn’t far from the experience of any of us.

We have all tasted our own tears of grief or shame; and we probably know what it feels like to be despised by someone because of our mistakes.

What we cry out for, in our nation, our church, our family, our own lives, is revival and restoration.  If once we have experienced the presence of God in our lives, if we have known the  shine  of his face, and it has faded for us, we earnestly yearn for it again.

We will find our revival and restoration in the life and the light of Christ, who brings not only salvation from our sins  but healing to our hearts, and the power to live the holy lives to which he calls us.

RESPOND: 

I find myself from time to time dealing with my own drift away from God.  I have to cry out again for renewal and revival.  As with the Psalmist this happens when I begin to call out God’s name and seek to live according to the claims of his name.

Our Lord, our nation experiences victories, but also sees defeats — the disabled veteran who wonders ‘was it worth it?’ The ambiguity of race relations in a divided country.  And our own personal struggles with grief or depression.  We don’t have the wisdom to provide all the answers.  But you have provided a Person who is wisdom incarnate, and salvation, and new life!  May we find our source of healing and salvation in Christ! Amen.

PHOTOS:
“Psalm 80-7” by tea4judy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.