Psalm 54

SCRIPTURE:

"Save me, O God, by your name; vindicate me by your might. Hear my prayer, O God; listen to the words of my mouth.  Arrogant foes are attacking me; ruthless people are trying to kill me--people without regard for God. Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me. Let evil recoil on those who slander me; in your faithfulness destroy them. I will sacrifice a freewill offering to you; I will praise your name, Lord, for it is good. You have delivered me from all my troubles, and my eyes have looked in triumph on my foes."  

Psalm 54 

THOUGHTS: 

I struggle with passages like this because they speak curses over people and in our crazy world we justify them as righteous. Yet, they stand in stark contridiction to Jesus' "love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you." It wasn't until I began to admit that David (the author of this Psalm) was human just like me that I realized that David was simply writing from his heart, his experience, his story...from his brokenness, his imperfections. 

How many times have I cried out to God to save me? How many times have a questioned if He really hears my prayers? How many times have I felt as if the entire world is against me? How many times have I been slandered? How many times have I thrown people under the bus before God? They are so vast. I cannot count them.

David's words are human. They are sadly normal to the human condition.  They are the words that each and every one of us mumble when we are in pain or when being attacked. We all utter curses when we are uncomfortable, when we are being maligned, or when things aren't going our way.  I can identify with that and I can intellectually admit that David was lamenting and even word-vomiting to God, an ancient form of journaling to express his inward emotions - a coping mechanism for the drama of his life.  

What is true is that God does rescue from trouble. God is our help, but His help almost never comes in the way we expect or anticipate. He is faithful; even in our unfaithfulness. Jesus calls us to love our enemies. It's a high calling, but our enemies are also made in the very image of God. As we lament our enemies, it's completely possible that they lament their enemies (us) to the very same God and Creator. He is faithful to those who call upon His name.

ACTION:

Perhaps we should love and pray for our enemies, not to change, but to draw close to their Creator? Perhaps we should speak blessings and not curses? Perhaps becoming more like Jesus means we make space for our enemies at His table?  I fail at this often. I must try better. 

Making Excuses

"Produce fruit in keeping with REPENTANCE. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham."

 Luke 3:8

 

How often do we make excuses? How often do you tell ourselves or others that although we know something to be right, we don't have to do it? Or that it's not for us? 

Nearly every day I seem to have this conversation with my children.  I'll tell one of them to complete their chore and they will come up with every excuse as to why they cannot. It's time for soccer. It's time to do homework.  It's bedtime. It's always something they perceive to be better than chores, although they'll eventually complain about those very things too. This doesn't just happen at home. As pastor's kids, they seem to adjust very well to using the excuse, "I'm the child of Pastor Sharon," when they are told to not be in a specific area or when they are asked to help with something.  Don't get me wrong. My kids are fantastic. We all get comfortable and want to avoid anything that incites change, that isn't what we want or that is just plain work.  We ALL make excuses.  It's nothing new, in fact, John the Baptist spends sometime addressing this very issue. 

This morning the text above came to my mind. Here's a fuller picture:  

"The word of God came to John in the desert. He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  As is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: A voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. And all mankind will see God's salvation.' John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, 'You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire."  (Luke 3:2-9) 

The Israelites were coming to John out of a sense of obligation. They were good at being religious and they were good at being children of Abraham; to the point that they used that reality as an excuse to keep from doing the things they were called to do.  They had a superiority complex. They were better than everyone else. They had what they believed was the right way.  They had acquired a power that was not theirs to have and their actions were not God honoring.  They were comfortable with saying "We are children of Abraham, we shouldn't have to. Repentance isn't for us. We haven't done anything wrong." 

The Israelites were coming for this baptism for all the wrong reasons.  John, in essence, tells them "No. Coming to this baptism is about the Kingdom. It's about repentance and fixing things. It's about reconciling - making straight paths and smoothing out what is rough. And you can no longer sit back on your rear-end and say 'I'm a child of Abraham. The promise is mine. I don't need repentance.' Jesus is bringing about a Kingdom and He will raise up repentant hearts that know the true heart of Abraham.  Not because of blood lines, but because they seek first the Kingdom and His righteousness, producing fruit in keeping with repentance.  The rocks on the ground are more obedient than you." 

Ouch! John was bold, but he was bold because he knew something to be true.  We find the Kingdom of God through repentance and reconciliation. It is there in that work that God invites us to join Him.  Second Corinthians 5 says, "all this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of RECONCILIATION." We are to repent, be reconciled to God, so that we can repent and be reconciled to one another. His Kingdom come, His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 

A Hardened Heart

Yesterday, I had the privilege of allowing an up-and-coming leader to teach from my pulpit. Raising up leaders, equipping them, and giving them space to explore their gifts and talents is one of my favorite parts of being a Lead Pastor.  This gentlemen shared at length the things that G-d had laid on his heart. One thing in particular has sat with me through the night and into this morning causing my heart to stir and words to come forth.  He spoke of the hardening of our hearts.  "Our hardened heart is our responsibility. No one else can fix it, in fact we can't fix it. Only Jesus can."  He proposed that seeking the Kingdom of God and Jesus is the only thing that will fix a hardened heart.  He's right. Embracing repentance and seeking reconciliation are Kingdom requirements. Jesus brings his Kingdom and it is revealed in those very things. Joining Jesus in that work is the only thing that will breathe life back into a dead, hardened heart because these things are the very essence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

So how do you know if you have a hardened heart? 

It's in the clinching of your fists, 

the scowling of your face, 

the whispers of death in your breath. 

It's in the words that you speak 

and the words that you can't 

because deep down 

you know

they are wrong. 

A hardened heart closes your mind 

and shrinks your world

building walls of division.

It suffocates the Spirit's work in your life 

and feels like a ton of bricks 

sitting in your chest. 

It shows itself in the piercing glances 

producing a fear-driven reality. 

A hardened heart speaks lies to you 

when you look in the mirror 

or even just when you slow down to think. 

A hardened heart refuses to be wrong

refuses to forgive

refuses to let go.

A hardened heart cannot see truth.  

So what do you do if you're brave enough to see your hardened heart? 

If your heart is hardened, you have only two options: 

1) Jesus' way which is found all over the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) - to humble yourself, die to the hardened heart's desire for death, repent and reconcile. 

...or...

2) continue to live in the bondage of that hardened heart until it squeezes all semblance of life from your bones and you're left bitter, frozen, cold with no vision and with no hope. Pharoah's hardened heart led him straight to his death. 

But it's your responsibility to make that choice. You can't blame someone else for your hardened heart and the consequences of it. 

While your hardened heart will keep you from perceiving spiritual truth, you must allow yourself to see physical truth of your reality and you have speak it.  Is the hardness towards a person? towards a place? towards an event? towards something else? How deep does this run? How thick have the hard walls of your heart been bullt? Are they continuing to thicken? 

Be attentive to any cracks, any places that light has burst through the stone because those places are the Kingdom calling out to your heart. This is hope! Run towards those places and seek repentance and reconciliation trusting the promise of Jesus.  

But perhaps you can't see any light? Perhaps you feel mostly dead and frozen on the inside? Perhaps being near that person, or place or thing, only serves to harden your heart more. If that's the case, then removing yourself from the situation is the most loving thing you can do for others, but I do not think it's the most loving thing you can do for yourself. Choosing the Kingdom and death to that hardened heart is the most loving thing for yourself. Jesus warns against a hardened heart and calls us to repentance. He calls us to be a reconciled people. Jesus promises new life, a new heart, a new breath, but we have to be willing participants!