Praying: Psalm 27, verse 1

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on June 1, 2020
Posted in: FEAR, Praying Through the Psalms, Psalm 27, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

 

Scared_Child_at_Nighttime

 

 

 

 Lord You are my light and my salvation—
    As long as I live I will fear nothing and no one apart from You,

the Lover of my soul, and Lover of my dear __________________.

 

Jesus said it … Don’t even fear those who can kill the body, but fear the One Who decides where bodies and souls will repose forever …

In You, O Lord!  In You, I rest now and to the eternity of eternities!

Give this hope to the one for whom I pray.

 

I take this opportunity, Father, to renounce for myself and to rebuke in Your Name for ____________  any unnatural, unholy fear, any God-denying fear,

any fear of failure

or fear of man

or fear of death.

 

How quick and subtle is our descent into fear!  I will not! – as You give me grace.

You are my life, and Your perfect love casts out all fear!  You will never leave me or forsake me; I am with You always.

 

Let us rise up against the fears that have entangled and destroyed the souls of those we love.  Let us have nothing to do with fear, and hate it when we see where it comes from and what it has done in our homes, hearts, and in our nation.

 

Scared Child at Nighttime

D. Sharon Pruitt, by permission, Wikipedia

 

 

 

Psalm 27 – Believe This!

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on May 25, 2020
Posted in: Praying Through the Psalms, Psalm 27. Leave a comment

 

Pietro_Longhi_027

 

I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Psalm 27:13

 

 

If we ought to save the best for last, I cannot do it with Psalm 27!  I am starting at the next to the last verse.

 

These words live for me, and I want them to live for and live in those I love.

 

This one is personal; I read this Psalm twice a day for over a year.  It was during a difficult time when, with help and encouragement, I preferred the Word of God to fear and despair. Good counselors helped me to do so, and I am grateful to this day.

 

We will make our way through Psalm 27 over the days few days, praying for someone for whom we care deeply, but I can attest to this today: it is all in here.  The goodness of God, the desperation of those under attack, the wickedness of the wicked, the sweetness of His Presence, our need to seek Him, His unfailing faithfulness toward us, along with the wisdom we need to see this life through to a happy end.

 

Pray with me . . .

 

“My Father, my God, it occurs to me that among those for whom I pray, those most deeply troubled, my desperate friends, my wounded, fearful, embittered friends, they are those who cannot say, who have not yet said, ‘I believe to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.’  I ask You to repair that place in their hearts, as You have done for me, and if there is a tiny cupboard in my heart without this truth, repair me!  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.”

 

 

Pietro Longhi, circa 1744

Wikipedia, by permission, public domain

 

 

 

Called by Another Name

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on May 21, 2020
Posted in: Bearing Burdens, personal devotion, the image of Christ, The Wise and Foolish Virgins, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

 

Schadow,FW-Die_klugen_und_törichten_Jungfrauen-1

 

 

When I cannot fully understand a parable or a concept in Scripture, I have learned to do a simple thing, and it makes all the difference to me as I read and try to walk out this life in Christ.

 

To this day, as I mentioned yesterday, I have not heard the parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins explained to my complete satisfaction.  It perplexes me, “These ten, are they believers, and is Jesus saying some will be left outside?”  That does not ride up front with “Once saved, always saved,” and to make matters worse, they did all have lamps and they all had oil in them.  If the oil represents the Holy Spirit, as is most often suggested, did they run out of the Spirit?  Did they burn up all they had of Him?

 

You see.  Something just does not seem quite right.

 

And in the next words, the next story Jesus told: all the servants were given talents to use, to invest.  Now, here we are given a bit more clarification.  This servant did not squander what he had been given, he just did not bring any increase to his Master.  He kept safe what he had been given, but no fruit was born, and fruit-bearing matters to God.  Worse yet, of course, the servant bore no fruit because he was afraid of his Master, afraid to take a risk, afraid to try.

 

The Virgins fell asleep, the good servants worked and invested what they had been given.  The Wise Virgins were not commended for their increase, but that they still had enough, and they did not dare to share what they had, lest they run out.

 

Thoroughly confused?  These parables are told as if they relate to one another.  In both, there is an awful shutting out of some, even into darkness.

 

And then … and then … Jesus follows these two tales with the account of the sheep and the goats, and He gets specific: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne.  All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats …”

 

These are the things that I can see, when nothing else is fully understood:

 

  • Those who will be taken in with the Bridegroom when he comes are those whose lamps are burning.
  • To this end, Jesus said specifically, “Keep watch; you do not know the day or the hour.”
  • I know that He told us to take stock of our faith, to make sure we are “in the faith”… Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test! (1 Corinthians 13:5)
  • I know that I can keep watch over my own soul to see if in all things and at all times that I am living in and living out the faith I have been given; of that I do not wish to run dry!
  • Although I do not know if the “talents” are talents or something else, but I do know that with all I’ve been given, I am meant to live to the increase of God’s kingdom.  Talents and abilities, yes.  Spiritual gifts, yes.  Human strength, yes.  His strength, yes!  Hope, yes!  Faith, yes!
  • All of it, all that I have and all that I am, is the Master’s, and to live in fear of making a mistake, or refusing to live as a human because He is divine, because He harvests where he has not sown and gathers where he has not scattered seed, is to risk all I have been given.
  • I see that, if it is known of Him that He is so powerful that He harvests where He hasn’t sown and gathers where He hasn’t scattered seed, then I ought to trust that He has might and resource beyond my ability and that He expects to find a harvest, as indeed He actually did expect to find a fig on a fig tree when He wanted one!
  • He can do this!  I ought to be comforted!  He can expect to find figs out of season!  That means, I can bear fruit for Him at all times. I ought to be comforted!
  • Now He tells us, that those on His right, the sheep, will have not have run dry, will not have grown weary in well doing. They will be addressed as “The Blessed of My Father,” and that is the name by which they will be called.
  • What will they have been busy doing? Showing kindness.
  • What kindness?They will have given food to the hungry, bread and the bread of life in the Gospel of Christ; they will have given drink to the thirsty, waters of refreshing, even water from the Rock which is Christ; they will invite strangers in rather than judging them as outsiders and leaving them in the cold.
  • Those who enter in will have clothed the naked rather than exposing them, had compassion on the sick and the sick at heart, and those that were imprisoned in jails and dark, horrid chambers of doubt and fear and guilt, will be visited in their need and in our prayers.
  • To do all of this, will we not have to persists because of the love of God shed abroad in our hearts?  Honestly, will we not have to seek Him that we do all that we do effectually, whether with much or little?
  • When we have stayed awake to these needs of others, when we have given what we have and who we are to this increase, it will be said of us that we did all these things as unto our Master, and that is a great caravan of riches to return to Him for what we have been given to use, oil, lamps, talents, faith, hope, and love.

 

Can more be seen?  I think so.  Perhaps you will share some of what you know.

 

But if we see these things, have we not seen enough to put one foot in front of the other, and will we not be found lighted, glowing, and watchful?  Will we not have to keep our hearts encouraged and our hands clean and be ever mindful that we are in the faith?  When our faith and love would slip and decrease, so will our hope wither on the vine, and vice versa!

 

One more thing, and we must ask it.  What of those who do good, who do all those things, clothing the naked and feeding the hungry and visiting prisons, and love for God never motivates any of it?

 

First.  What difference does that make to me?  I will feed His sheep.

 

Second.  One cannot buy the oil that lights the lamps that burn with the knowledge of God in Christ at the grocers!  We will always wake from the stupor of all our human effort, burnt out.  Those who do what they do for the love of Jesus Christ will always have enough.  Just trim your wick, dear friend, checking to see if you are in the faith, and shine, for you are not under a bushel basket.  You are a lamp upon a stand.  That you cannot share with anyone, even if you would.

 

You will always awaken to more of the same, to life in Christ.   We are told, admonished, even commanded to be filled with the Spirit, so let us consider that if we have but one talent, that’s it!, and let us invest it with all our hearts, as long as we live, and singing in our hearts for the knowledge that what we do to do the least of those among us, we do to Jesus our Lord.

 

It is probably very, very important that we do not go off anywhere to try to buy what can only be had in Christ.  That’s a story for another day, isn’t it?

 

 

The Wise and Foolish Virgins

Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow, between 1838 and 1842, by permission, Wikipedia

Public domain, death of the artist

Name Calling

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on May 20, 2020
Posted in: personal devotion, the image of Christ, The Wise and Foolish Virgins, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

 

The_Parable_of_the_Ten_Virgins_(section)_by_Phoebe_Traquair,_Mansfield_Traquair_Church,_Edinburgh

 

 

Are there certain passages of Scripture that attract your attention and curiosity more than others?  As much as we esteem the whole Word of God, when Jesus starts talking about the Wise and the Foolish Virgins, we edge a little closer in our seats.

 

The Whom?  Why?  What?

 

This is not great bedtime reading, either, not if we are at all unsure under which heading we would fall, Wise or Foolish.

 

While we are still gasping for breath (the Bridegroom said what???), Jesus tells us the story of the Master who went away and left his servants with five, two, and one talents and expected them to give good return for his trust in them.

 

The Master said what???

 

            Every time I read this chapter (Matthew 25,) I say the same thing to the Lord: I do not think I fully understand this!

 

Who are the Virgins?  I have heard the sermons, but who are they, really?

 

What does the oil represent?  I think I know, but do I have it right?

 

Why couldn’t the Wise share at least a little with the Foolish?

 

Why did they all fall asleep in the first place? Shouldn’t the parable be about staying awake?

 

And relative to the talents the servants received, why did some get more than others?

 

What were they supposed to do with their talents, that the one servant feared to do?

 

Why was no grace extended to the one poor fellow who didn’t invest well?

 

Over the years, when I read passages like this one that make a very strong point, having to do with life or death, and in these cases with eternal life or death, I have had to become simple enough to pull from Scripture what I am able to see, the things that can be known without deep theological referendum, and I have come to believe that it is probably what I should have been doing all along.

Someone counted sixty-six occurrences in Scripture that tell us in one way or another, to watch and pray, and I would not be surprised if we could find many more.  I have never counted, but I have read through the Gospels marking them all, and they are everywhere.

 

Not only that, but there are the “see to it” verses, which Mr. Sixty-Six did not count!  We surely do not want to overlook those!  Taken together, here is one of those rare places where the Lord repeats Himself, and continually.

 

Here is one sample from the Old Testament, one you may know, a beautiful reminder:

 

 

But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the Lord;
I will wait for the God of my salvation.
My God will hear me.

Micah 7:7, NASB

 

 

Oh, my dear friends, all of this stirs up something in my heart, something that sounds like this, I believe . . .

 

We don’t want to be Foolish, and we are already Wise, wise enough to have called upon the Lord Jesus Christ for His saving grace, for the covering of His blood, for the redemption of our souls and our lives.  We aren’t foolish, then, are we, and yet are not the “Virgins,” believers?  These have gone out, with lamps and oil, to meet the Bridegroom!  Whom else could they be, and what have they to do with us? Why did Jesus tell this story?

 

We don’t want to be afraid, either!  Look!   The servant in the next parable, the one who was given only one talent to invest, was fearful, seemingly terrified of his Master, and where did that get him?  We do not want to be afraid because we never want to see the Father like that.  We are numbered among those who believe that Jesus lived and died that we might not fear, that we might know the love of God.

 

We do fear God, but not like that, not cringing and withholding.

 

Uh-oh.

 

Tune in tomorrow, and let’s look together at these two splendid archways into the lives we have been given to live in Christ Jesus.

 

 

 

The Parable of the Ten Virgins

Phoebe Anna Traquair, by permission, Wikipedia

 

 

Vindicate Us, O Lord! – Psalm 26

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on April 20, 2020
Posted in: Uncategorized. Leave a comment

 

Pituophis_catenifer_catenifer_(Carrizo_Plain)

 

Plenty of time to make healthy observations during the COVID19 “timeout,” and here’s one, if you haven’t mulled it over in recent days.

 

How much, if any, is there perhaps even a SHRED of vindication for us, as God’s people?

 

When we are right with Him, we aren’t looking for excuses, looking to hide our sin under every rock and around every corner.  We scarcely think of being vindicated.  We confess our sin; we acknowledge both our wrongdoing AND our iniquity.  Oh yes, we might blame-cast from time to time, but show us that we’re doing it, and we will stop.  The problem is, of course, that we’re still stumbling, still sinning, still falling short, and far too often, with no vindication in sight!

 

And yet … there is this place, and Paul speaks of it at the end of Romans, chapter 7, where our love for God, for His will, His Word, and His way, not to mention His Son, Who encapsulates all of that, matters.  In our minds, with all our consideration, we love Him now, and we love His way and His purpose, and in that location – what?  We are vindicated there?  Not so much that, as it is that that locale IS our vindication.  Sort of like the cross-stitch samples on the wall, come to life:

“When you’re here, you’re home.”

We have passed from death to life, by that very change of mind, change of heart, surrender of our old lives and of the old man and of the body of death we have been dragging around.

 

We are new.  We appreciate having our hearts examined, even when it is very, very painful to see what has lodged there. The surgeon cannot remove the bullet or the shrapnel he cannot see, and we do want deadly sin and hypocrisy, OUT!

 

For another, we do hate evildoers, the spiritual ones, the enemies in exalted places that exalt themselves above the Word of God.  Ha!  As if they could!  But they do try, and we abhor them.  More than that, we hate when we give them the time of day.

 

You know, in some ways, I think we are more blameless before God than we know, just as we are more sinful than we ever wanted to realize.  In this life, we have to embrace all the superlatives, including the good ones!

 

How does that work?

 

            “There is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”  (Romans 8:1)

 

            There is a new “natural” law at work; it is natural in this new Body and in this new Kingdom.  The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has MADE US FREE from the law of sin and death.  (Romans 8:2). The letter of the law couldn’t make us obey the law, but the Son, the firstborn among us all, He both obeyed and brought us into His own heart … gave us a new heart, and wrote His law upon it.  All this without repenting of having extended such generosity to such a frail people!  That is so “the point”.  He knew what He was getting, how frail indeed are we, His own, and so He gives His strength.

 

We stumble, we get tripped up … hopefully, we see what happened, usually where we failed to believe:

  • How new we are
  • How loved we are
  • How right we are with God
  • How great His power toward those who believe

 

Read Psalm 26 today, and try praying it with those things in mind, for yourself and for someone struggling, perhaps a young person, perhaps someone fainting along the way.  Let’s remember that it is the Enemy who is meant to eat the dust of our lives … that is, we want to give him nothing to feed upon.   No self pity, no bitterness, no lusting of any kind.  Just dust, dust, dust!

 

Let’s see if our observations may not take a turn for the better.  For all our shortcomings, if our reliance upon Jesus Christ as the True and Forgiving, Healing and Shepherding, Redeeming and Liberating Son of God is our righteousness, we may be doing better than we think.

 

 

Vindicate me, Lord,
    for I have led a blameless life;
I have trusted in the Lord
    and have not faltered.
2 Test me, Lord, and try me,
    examine my heart and my mind;
3 for I have always been mindful of your unfailing love
    and have lived in reliance on your faithfulness.

4 I do not sit with the deceitful,
    nor do I associate with hypocrites.
5 I abhor the assembly of evildoers
    and refuse to sit with the wicked.
6 I wash my hands in innocence,
    and go about your altar, Lord,
7 proclaiming aloud your praise
    and telling of all your wonderful deeds.

8 Lord, I love the house where you live,
    the place where your glory dwells.
9 Do not take away my soul along with sinners,
    my life with those who are bloodthirsty,
10 in whose hands are wicked schemes,
    whose right hands are full of bribes.
11 I lead a blameless life;
    deliver me and be merciful to me.

12 My feet stand on level ground;
    in the great congregation I will praise the Lord.

 

 

Pacific Gopher Snake … dust eater!

Wikipedia,  Bill Bouton, by permission

 

 

The Heart of God … Psalm25:1-7

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on April 7, 2020
Posted in: Praying Through the Psalms, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

walking-path-1572972910KFX

 

Oh, what a heart is here revealed!

 

Oh, what assurances are here concealed, in these words, within the expectations that this heart, David’s heart, harbored for the Lord his God!

 

  • I can trust the Lord.
  • He won’t let me be put to shame.
  • My enemies will not triumph over me.

. . . are you thinking of the dear little friend for whom you are praying?

  • My hope is security against shame … but there is shame coming upon the treacherous.
  • He will show me His ways, what He is like, how He “operates,” and teach me His paths.
  • He will guide me in TRUTH (and if I’m not there, He will teach me and truth will be mine!)
  • He is my Savior, and there is not a minute of the day that I have to go on without hope.
  • His mercy and His love toward me are great … not meager, but GREAT! Older than my sins, it would seem!
  • He is willing to forget the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways, and
  • To remember me according to His love …
  • There is a fixed reason for this: He is GOOD!

 

Those are just the first seven verses!

 

Remember yesterday we spoke of John the Baptist, that great at he was, the simplest believer in Christ Jesus is greater?  We saw that John needed just a little confirmation, and we trust he received it.

 

John was a Forerunner, and my dear friends, what are we? The same, in our time.  We certainly “come before” the glorious Second Coming of Jesus Christ; we are on the earth giving witness to all those things that speak of the Son of God, contained in just seven verses in one Psalm, with more to come, even in just this one Psalm!

 

At least in prayer – and in this season we are limited to how far we may go beyond our own doors – at least in prayer, remember someone who does not know even those things about Jesus Christ, and go before them in prayer.  This enforced seclusion does not have to thwart us, and it will not thwart the hand of God.  (Isaiah 14:27)

 

In you, Lord my God,
    I put my trust.

2 I trust in you;
    do not let me be put to shame,
    nor let my enemies triumph over me.
3 No one who hopes in you
    will ever be put to shame,
but shame will come on those
    who are treacherous without cause.

4 Show me your ways, Lord,
    teach me your paths.
5 Guide me in your truth and teach me,
    for you are God my Savior,
    and my hope is in you all day long.
6 Remember, Lord, your great mercy and love,
    for they are from of old.
7 Do not remember the sins of my youth
    and my rebellious ways;
according to your love remember me,
    for you, Lord, are good.

(Psalm 25:1-7)

 

Lighted Walking Path

released by Linnaea Mallette, thank you

Who Is This King of Glory?

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on April 6, 2020
Posted in: Praying Through the Psalms, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

787px-Mattia_Preti_-_San_Giovanni_Battista_Predicazione

 

The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,  the world, and all who live in it;
2 for he founded it on the seas  and established it on the waters.

3 Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord?
    Who may stand in his holy place?
4 The one who has clean hands and a pure heart,
    who does not trust in an idol  or swear by a false god.

5 They will receive blessing from the Lord   and vindication from God their Savior.
6 Such is the generation of those who seek him,  who seek your face, God of Jacob.

7 Lift up your heads, you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors,
    that the King of glory may come in.
8 Who is this King of glory?
    The Lord strong and mighty,  the Lord mighty in battle.
9 Lift up your heads, you gates;  lift them up, you ancient doors,
    that the King of glory may come in.
10 Who is he, this King of glory?
    The Lord Almighty—  he is the King of glory.

(Psalm 24, NIV)

  

            Good Monday morning, dear ones.  Monday of Holy Week, and by some timelines, it was on this day that Jesus cleansed the temple, driving out the money-changers, and by others He cursed the barren fig tree on this day.  Perhaps both.

 

Perhaps in the commotion at the temple, the blind and lame came with their needs, and the children came, too, praising Him anew.

 

Did any of them really, really, really know Who stood in their midst, Who did these things, deeds compassionate, righteous, and instructive? Not one of them knew that before the week was out, He would take their place on the cross of their shame.

 

I had a thought this morning about John the Baptist.  I hope he will forgive me this (I’ll bet he will!), but one of the things I love most about him is the way Jesus used him as a lodestar.  He was, Jesus said, the greatest man who had ever lived, who had ever been born of a woman up to that time.  Greater than Moses, greater than David or his son Solomon, greater than Abraham – wow!, greater than Daniel – wow, again!

 

            But, said Jesus, he who is LEAST in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than John!

  

            And here is the thing … one of the last things John did before he gave his life was to send and ask the question of Jesus, “are You the promised one, or are we still waiting?”

 

What?  How can that be?  John saw Jesus as “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,” and still he wasn’t sure this was it!  He had heard of all the miracles, but he was trying to make certain, this was it!

 

            After all, John’s miracle never took place.  He died in prison, at the request of a sultry dancing wench (imagine what that dance might have looked like – no, don’t!) and on account of a powerful man and his powerfully lascivious wife, actually, sister-in-law.

 

“. . . and blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of Me,” was Jesus’ message to John.

 

This King of Glory, sending His last words to this man, so great in time and history, and

 

Here we are. 

Great in our faith and the knowledge of the Holy One.

 

I think of it as a crowning irony that, almost certainly, John himself became one of the least in the Kingdom of Heaven that day, and then he was greater than ever he had been and would have told us so!

 

Faithful to the end, dying in faith, greater than he could have known, martyred for righteousness’ sake, and

 

Here we are.  Believing.  Knowing. Never having seen, we believe. Greater than John the Baptist, anticipating the Memorial and the Celebration of the Resurrection of Christ!

 

“Lift up your heads, o you gates; be lifted up, you ancient and everlasting doors,  that the King of glory may come in!”

 

Do you know someone today, someone for whom the gates of faith have not opened?  Someone whose head is bowed down in shame or unbelief, someone whose hands are not clean, neither their hearts pure, whose life is made up of scores of little idolatries and the pain of them all?  Pray for that one today, and we will pray for one another, that knowing, we may live in the knowledge of the Risen Christ.

 

The Almighty Goodness of God – Psalm 23

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on March 26, 2020
Posted in: Praying Through the Psalms, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

 

StJohnsAshfield_StainedGlass_GoodShepherd_Portrait

From the Psalm of the Cross, to the Psalm of the Shepherd.  These two seem almost out of place together, as though written years apart, but the effect of the finished work of Jesus is just this, that we are now led up, out of the fear of evil, in paths of righteousness, with our souls restored and now, O thanks be to God! – a banquet set before us in the presence of our enemies!

 

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,

  he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
    for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk  through the darkest valley
I will fear no evil,  for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,  they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me  in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
    my cup overflows.
Surely your goodness and love will follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
    forever.

 

 

            Is there someone in your life for whom you could pray this fulness, this newness, this divine watch-care?  Is there someone you love whose life would change if they could say these words: “my cup overflows!”?

 

Pray for them today; pray through these words, known around the world.  Pray that the goodness of the Lord would lead them to repentance, as assuredly His goodness does and ever will.  (Romans 2:4)

 

There is such strength, such warfare, such victory chronicled in these 150 Psalms, but it must be said that the goodness of God is as mighty as any other weapon in His arsenal, and with me today, rejoice to know it and share it in prayer.

 

 

“I Am the Good Shepherd,”  stained glass, St. John the Baptist Anglican Church

Ashville, New South Wales, photo by Toby Hudson, Wikipedia

He Has Done It! – Psalm 22:22-31

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

 

Pilon-risenchrist2

 

All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations will bow down before him,
for dominion belongs to the Lord
    and he rules over the nations.

 

We left this very Psalm at the apex of history, our Lord Jesus Christ dying upon the cross of our shame.

We return to find a glorious hymn of praise, of recognition, seeing into hearts and seeing into the future, even to the ends of the earth, families of nations bowing before Him.

Proclaiming His righteousness to a people yet unborn.

Many are those praying in this very hour, grief-stricken for those who are suffering from a deadly virus and the fear of its contagion.

Others are simultaneously lamenting that over the face of the earth mankind should fear death and be filled with anxiety lest illness and ruin strike, but remaining untouched by the ravages of abortion and decimations of wickedness that sent the Son of God to death.

There are those who are sorrowing on account of the little shards of coldness in their own hearts, where lawlessness has frozen the wellspring of compassion that is Christ in us.

It will not be like this forever.  The day will come when,

 

Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord.
They will proclaim his righteousness,
    declaring to a people yet unborn:
    He has done it!

 

That day will dawn when we will say to the unborn, no one licenses your death, that you should never see the light of day.  He has done it!  That day has come for millions and will come for millions more, when children will be conceived in hope and in the promise of the goodness of the Lord, and when the promise that “no plague shall come near your tent” (Psalm 91:10) will comfort and revive us again.

 

You who fear the Lord, praise Him!

Honor and revere Him!

He has not despised or scorned your suffering and affliction!

 

            We who fear Him may praise Him now, and we do.  We who honor and revere Him may lift to His throne and to His heart those in whose souls are the ravages of the pride of life, those whose hearts condemn them.  A greater than our hearts is with us, mighty to save (1 John 3:20,) and that means He is mighty to turn hearts to righteousness, to impart to us and to those we love that which He Himself desires for us, “truth in the inmost parts” … in this hour, Lord, “make us to know wisdom!”  (Psalm 51:6)

 

I will declare your name to my people;
    in the assembly I will praise you.
You who fear the Lord, praise him!
    All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
    Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!
For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.

From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;
    before those who fear youI will fulfill my vows.
The poor will eat and be satisfied;
    those who seek the Lordwill praise him—
    may your hearts live forever!

All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations will bow down before him,
for dominion belongs to the Lord
    and he rules over the nations.

All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
    all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—
    those who cannot keep themselves alive.
Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord.
They will proclaim his righteousness,
    declaring to a people yet unborn:
    He has done it!

 

Germain Pilon, 1572, part of the Resurrection Group, marble

by permission, Wikipedia, public domain

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