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All posts for the month February, 2020

Hanging Between Heaven and Earth – Psalm 22:12-21

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on February 25, 2020
Posted in: Praying Through the Psalms, Spiritual Warfare 101, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

 

Bronzino-Christ-Nice-1

 

 

 

Many bulls surround me;
    strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
Roaring lions that tear their prey
    open their mouths wide against me.
I am poured out like water,
    and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax;
    it has melted within me.

 My mouth is dried up like a potsherd,
    and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
    you lay me in the dust of death.

 Dogs surround me,
    a pack of villains encircles me;
    they pierce my hands and my feet.

 All my bones are on display;
    people stare and gloat over me.
They divide my clothes among them
    and cast lots for my garment.

 But you, Lord, do not be far from me.
    You are my strength; come quickly to help me.
 Deliver me from the sword,
    my precious life from the power of the dogs.
Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;
    save me from the horns of the wild oxen.

 

             I have posted some heart-rending artist’s depictions of Christ on the Cross … but these words are more horrifying, by far, this narrative picture of His suffering.

 

I will say only this today.  Think of someone pierced in soul, someone hanging between heaven and earth emotionally or spiritually, someone standing in a place of sacrifice or one who is tormented by evil thoughts and insinuations, and pray these words for them.

 

I just did so, for someone I care about.  I’ve never prayed this Psalm for another before, but I will in future.  So much of it expresses the despair of those oppressed and overwhelmed.

 

Agnolo Bronzino, circa 1545, by permission, Wikipedia

When There is No One – Else – to Help, Psalm 22:6-11

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on February 24, 2020
Posted in: Praying Through the Psalms, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

Cristo_crucificado.jpg

But I am a worm and not a man,
    scorned by everyone, despised by the people.
All who see me mock me;
    they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
“He trusts in the Lord,” they say,
    “let the Lord rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
    since he delights in him.”

Yet you brought me out of the womb;
    you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.

 From birth I was cast on you;
    from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

Do not be far from me,
    for trouble is near
    and there is no one to help. 

 

            We continue today, praying the Psalm from which Jesus Christ prayed on the cross.

 

            Whatever we may be facing, it isn’t this, and because He did endure the cross, our cross, despising its shame, we are here to know Him and to live in His life.

 

            A personal note today, because I think it may ring true with many:

 

            I believe I could say, “From birth I was cast on you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God,” and yet, I did not give my life or receive His, Jesus’, until my mid-twenties.

 

            How then can I make such a claim?  Like many of you, when I came to know Him, I knew that I had believed in Him, in His Father, without knowledge, and with some false ideas of Him thrown in!  Yet, like many, I “believed in God.” 

 

            That, if I may say it, is not nothing. 

 

            Still, I knew not His Name, not with certainty, I knew not the length and breadth of His compassions, although I hoped for them. My trust in the Lord might not have delivered me, but His faithfulness did.

            He has never been far, and even now, whenever or wherever trouble is near, it is wonderfully comforting to know that, indeed, there is no one to help, only Him, and Him alone.

 

            That has become my trust, and I rest assured.

 

            Are there those for whom you pray who seem cut off, forsaken, hopeless? 

 

            Don’t believe it!  Turn the taunting words of the captors upon them:

 

            “The Lord will deliver my friend … my spouse … my child … He will rescue them and deliver them, because He delights in them, I know, because I love them so.”

 

            From where else could such a love have arisen, if not in the heart of God?

 

           Diego Velasquez, by permission, Wikipedia “Christ Crucified”

Look! See the Heart of Sacrifice! – Psalm 22:1-5

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on February 4, 2020
Posted in: Praying Through the Psalms, spiritual warfare, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

Christ_at_the_Cross_-_Cristo_en_la_Cruz

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
    Why are you so far from saving me,
    so far from my cries of anguish?
My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
    by night, but I find no rest.

Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
    you are the one Israel praises.
In you our ancestors put their trust;
    they trusted and you delivered them.
To you they cried out and were saved;
    in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

 

Oh, my dear friends!

 

We have come to the Words that speak as directly as any in Scripture of the impending sacrifice of the Son of God upon the cross of our shame.

 

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might! Heaven and earth are filled with Your glory!

 

As we go through this Psalm, watch how desperation continues to give way to praise, how the reality of intense pain and abandonment are swallowed up in worship and even gratitude!

 

I’ll say no more for this morning.

 

I’m going right now to find a quiet place and to pray for those who need to know this glorious salvation, this deliverance from doubt and grief.  Join me there, dear ones, and we will pray together that revival will come to our families, and so will our nation be revived!

 

 

Carl Bloch, Cristos en la Cruz, 1870, death of the artist, public domain

Wikipedia, by permission