Psalm 40: Part 1

I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry.

I’m sure that you’ve heard and know quite well that we’re living in a culture of instant gratification. Want a burger? Go to Wendy’s (shameless product placement), order one, and in less than a minute, you have one. Want to hear the new song by Seventh Day Slumber? Go to Rhapsody, look it up and you’re listening. Remember back in the day when if you wanted to watch a TV show, you had to actually sit down at that time and watch it, commercials and all? That, or a tech savvy person could program his/her VCR to record the program on tape, so he/she could watch a scratchy, fuzzy recording later with the ability to fast forward through commercials. Now you can TiVo it, or go only the next day and watch your favorite show with minimal commercials in high quality video.

This instant gratification culture carries into every aspect of our lives. I can’t tell you how many sixth graders were shocked to discover playing an instrument was hard and required work. Our attention spans have become increasingly shorter and shorter. Today, the music is 3-5 minutes long per song. Certainly no time for theme development! The idea of listening though something like Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony for 74 minutes is totally foreign. Matter of fact, when we would listen to the fourth movement in it’s entirety, I could guarantee one or more students walking out of my class in protest. That was always a fun conversation with the principal. He would ask, “You mean they’d rather have a detention than listen to 30 minutes of music?” I’d reply, “Yep!”

So let’s put this in a spiritual context. Re read things like John 16:23-24 that say, “in that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, He will give it to you…. Ask and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” Sweet, the ask and ye shall receive verse! We know that one pretty well. Bring on the instant gratification. Does God work like that. Not to say that sometimes He doesn’t answer prayers immediately, but that’s His prerogative, not ours.

Are you frustrated by asking things of the Lord and not immediately seeing answers? We need to hear Psalm 40, “I waited patiently for the Lord; He inclined to me, and heard my cry.” Patiently. Let me say it again, Patiently. You know when Spurgeon wrote on Psalm 40 in The Treasury of David, he barely spends any time at all on that word. Maybe it’s because that word didn’t stand in stark contrast to society then.

This is something my heart needs to hear. I need to be asking the Lord for patience. And I need to patiently ask the Lord for patience! I need to cry out to Him constantly. I need to cry out to Him desperately. When I ask Him to move in the hearts of people, is it a flippant, on the side comment, or is it like the parable of the Persistent Widow. Jesus says in Luke 18,

“And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

We read this, and yet, I don’t know about you, but I catch the part about, “He will give justice to them speedily.” I miss the part about, “who cry to him day and night.” Are we persistent and patient? Shouldn’t we be? What does this look like in your life? Have you been crying out for the lost day and night? Do you pray earnestly for our missionaries abroad in the world? I don’t, but just how dissatisfied am I with my prayer life am I? Not enough.

Psalm 46

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts. The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah Come, behold the works of the LORD, how he has brought desolations on the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the chariots with fire. “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

Guarantees are funny things. Try to do a Google search on guarantee sometime. It’s fun to read the wild claims companies make to try to give you a feeling of security. Here are some examples. “Our products are guaranteed to give 100% satisfaction in every way. Return anything purchased from us at any time if it proves otherwise. We do not want you to have anything from [our company] that is not completely satisfactory.” How about this news story from late October? “Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz) said Sunday on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ that he can ‘guarantee’ a win on Nov.4 in a squeaker victory that won’t be clear until late that night.”

How about Biblical guarantees? If you believe some of the television preachers these days, the Bible guarantees that followers of Christ will live healthy, financially secure lives. Really? When I read the Bible, I see a guarantee that we will have storms in this life. I see that followers of Christ will be persecuted. A quick look at the lives of the apostles doesn’t show a life of ease and comfort. How many times was Paul beaten within an inch of his life? Paul was shipwrecked, imprisoned and eventually martyred for his faith. A third of the Psalms are laments. It looks like the one true guarantee we have in this life is trouble.

Our lives are and will be full of trials. God gets this. Matter of fact, we have a loving Father willing to send His Son to endure more pain and agony that we can imagine, so that we might be His children. We have a loving Savior with the power to conquer sin and death, who sits at the right hand of the Father. The Psalmist says, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Our refuge, our fortress, our unassailable bunker. He is present through those trials that will besiege us. He stands strong for us in our weakness. The earth can shake, the mountains crash into the sea, and the seas can rise (perhaps the Psalmist heard of global warming), but we can hold fast in the knowledge that our Lord God is with us. What a magnificent promise! Martin Luther often would say to the people around him during times of duress, “Come, let us sing the 46th Psalm.” Then they would sing, “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, Ein gute Wehr un Waffen,” “A firm fortress is our God, a good bulwark and weapon.”

Not only does the Father stand with us in the storms of life, He supplies us with peace and joy. “There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God.” Are you tapping into that river? When troubles beset you, to which bunker do you head? Do you head for the fear bunker? How about the worry bunker? Personally, I head for the isolation bunker. When the storms hit, I slam the doors and cut the hard lines. There’s no source of joy in any of these bunkers. I tell you what bunker I need. I need to head for the God bunker. In it are things like prayer, the Word, the Body of Christ and the paraclete, the Holy Spirit. In it, there is a river to feed my soul and give me strength. His Kingdom will not be moved though the nations may rage, and the earth may melt. “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”

I want to camp on one more point from the Psalm here. Verse ten says, “Be still, and know that I am God.” The context here is talking about the nations being still, but I think there is application in our lives. I’m a kind of guy who likes to be busy. Jodie will tell you that when we first got married, carving out time for her was a serious issue. I remember my first year teaching when during part of the year, I was teaching Jazz band before school, marching band on the weekends, stage construction and design right after school for the musical I was directing on three nights of the week. On the other nights I either had worship team practice, or I had Attaboy Dave (our college ministry praise band) practice. Sundays were full with church, choir and evening church. My life was crazy, and the weird thing is that I kind of crave that kind of busyness. Jodie has to remind me frequently that I’m on the verge of filling up every night with something. When do I take time to be still? When do I stop, put down the stress and spend time with God? This is an area in which I’ve grown over the last year, but I have a long way to go. When are you being still? Are you taking time to know your God?

Worship is about me?

Here’s a great blog post you should read.

http://www.boundlessline.org/2009/01/modern-worship-all-about-me.html

Thanks to Stephanie for the tip!

Cool Website

If you get some time, you should check out this website:

http://www.iamsecond.com

Worship Philosophy Message

Okay, if you’re interested, here is the intended text of my message from Sunday evening.  I left a couple of things out, and more often than not took tangents to illustrate my points.

Grace Worship Philosophy

Okay, so for a while now, I’ve been writing and refining a worship philosophy for GBC.  This Sunday night, I’ll be presenting the philosophy and explaining the various points.  So, for your perusal and as a bait for you to come Sunday night to hear me speak, here are the points:

• Our worship is Spirit powered and Christ centered.


• Our worship must issue forth from sound theology.


• Our worship is not music alone, but our music is worship.


• Our worship is not seeker driven, but a seeker should see Christ in our worship.


• Our worship should be both individual and communal.


• Our worship is flawed and will always be such on this side of heaven.


• We must be diligent in our worship to not allow idols to enter in.

New Year's Resolutions

I don’t do new years resolutions.  Jodie and I were talking today, and I don’t really get all that excited about the new year.  I think it’s because, up until this year, I’ve always been in school.  That means, for me, the year ends around memorial day, and starts in August.  Well, anyway, I’ve made some resolutions this year that happen to fall on new years.  Yes, that’s right, I have been resolutely deciding I need to do some things, and what better time to start than with the new year.  So here goes.

I hereby resolve to:

1. 
   
   1. 
      
      Begin a scheduled daily devotional.
      
      
      
      
      • When I was a band director, I lived on a schedule.  I got up at the same time every day.  I took my shower at the same time.  I drove the same distance to school.  I had the same daily schedule.  And so on, and so on.  Now, I don’t have a schedule.  I get up when I get up.  I go to sleep when I go to sleep.  I work at least a certain number of hours each week, but those hours are somewhat loose between different rehearsals and meetings and stuff.  The result?  My devotional life is haphazard.  Sometimes I do it in the morning, sometimes the afternoon, sometimes the evening.  Sometimes I read through a book of the Bible, sometimes a random chapter.
      
      
      • 
        
        So, at 6:00, every morning, I’m going to be working though the Bible on the schedule included in D.A. Carson’s, For the Love of God.  I’m going to journal as I go, and spend time in prayer.  Two times in my life, I had a schedule like this.  First, when I was a camp counselor at East Iowa Bible Camp after my sophomore year.  This was actually the first time that I read and prayed through the Bible, and my walk was so matured that summer.  The second time was one of my bachelor years.  I got into the habit of journalling through, and again, my walk was greatly deepened.  So, since Jodie works at 6 on Mondays and Wednesdays, that’s going to be my regular time.
        
        
        
        
        • 
          
          Schedule of Seasons (I have to watch DVD seasons to distract myself from the fact that I despise working out):
          
          
          
          
          1. Stargate Atlantis
          
          
          2. Star Trek
          
          
          3. Star Trek: The Next Generation
          
          
          4. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
          
          
          5. Star Trek: Voyager
          
          
          6. Stargate SG1
          
          
          7. Babylon 5
          
          
        
        
        
        
      
      
      
      
   
   
   2. 
      
      Walk daily and eat healthy.
      
      
      
      
      • 35 pounds.  That’s what I’ve put on since moving to Manhattan.  Apparently, not marching or being on my feet every day eight or more hours a day has made a HUGE difference in my weight control.  Pitiful, huh?
      
      
      • So, at 7:00 every morning, I will be on the treadmill walking.  Two years ago, I walked daily and lost 30 pounds.  If I wouldn’t have fallen down the stairs and hurt my foot (and gotten out of the habit), I think I might have possibly made it much lower.  In conjunction with this, I’m going to cut pop, and start eating healthy.  I hate salad, but for lunch, Jodie and I are going to start eating salads, because they’re good for us.  No more eating of the whole pizza with loads of cheese and hamburger.  No more munching on chips.
      
      
      
      
   
   
   3. 
      
      Call Mom once a week.
      
      
      
      
      • Obvious
      
      
      
      
   
   
   4. 
      
      Meet people outside of the church.
      
      
      
      
      • I used to teach in a public school, where I wasn’t allowed to share my faith openly with the students.  I knew a lot of people not in the Body of Christ though.  Then I moved to Manhattan to work at Grace.  Moving to Grace has been such a blessing.  The thing is though, the people I interact with are members of the Body of Christ.  Jesus commands us to share our Faith.  With who?
      
      
      • This is a hard one.  I am not by nature a social person.  Jodie and I have talked about it, and I think I’m going to join community chorale.  This will be a start, but I need to continue to think about how I can get out and meet people.
      
      
      
      
   
   

There you go, my "new years resolutions."  What about you guys?

(editorial note, see this post about the miserable results)