Threads from Henry's Web

Author: henry

  • Book Extract: The Heart Cries Out on Psalm 119

    Book Extract: The Heart Cries Out on Psalm 119

    Book Extract: The Heart Cries Out on Psalm 119

    Psalm 119 is easily the longest psalm in the Bible, at 176 verses. It is composed as an acrostic, with a stanza of eight verses for each of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. It is a meditation and a teaching on the Law of God as the way of life.

    We tend to think of laws as lists of “thou shalt nots,” defining and confining our liberties. Here are things we are not supposed to do, and if we do them, there will be consequences we don’t like. We get speeding tickets and arrest warrants. A list of 176 things we are not to do seems extreme!

    Augustine said “Love God and do as you will.” The oath of Hippocrates was “Do no harm.” Jesus summarized the law and the prophets with two rules: love God and love your neighbor. These seem simpler and more positive. But it is not the purpose of Psalm 119 to beat us up with rules and regulations. Instead, it is a devotional reflection praising God for the life-giving gift of the divine law. It is even affectionate in its approach. It extols God for the gift of the law and encourages us to live by this law. Several different words are used to describe the law, signifying the intimate and dynamic relationship the author has with it. The law of God is the yearning, longing, desiring of God for us; it is how God expresses God’s love and desire for us. This may be summarized by the words of verse 105, often set to music, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light upon my path.”

    David Moffett-Moore, The Heart Cries Out, 47

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:16 – Ways to Forget

    Psalm 119:16 – Ways to Forget

    In your statutes I delight.
    I will not forget your word.

    If this were not poetry, I might be tempted to talk about the rather optimistic promise of not forgetting God’s word. But then I remember how many times I have said, “I’m not going to forget that” in reference to some planned task or another. Most of the time I forget, but if I never make a conscious effort to remember, forgetting becomes 100%.

    So I got to thinking about different ways to forget God’s word.

    Having memorized large portions of it (not voluntarily) when I was younger, I could say that forgetting God’s word was like forgetting the words I had memorized. That would be literally forgetting, and I have certainly done plenty of that.

    But let’s consider some other ways of forgetting:

    • We can forget the creator when we look at creation.
    • We can forget to consult God’s word when it is applicable to our decision making
    • We can forget that God’s word comes in many ways, and that God’s truth is always applicable, however delivered!
    • We can forget God’s promises
    • We can forget what God has done in our lives in the past
    • We can forget the history of God’s actions in our families.

    How do you forget? Is it time to revive a memory?

  • Psalm 119:15: Looking at God’s Ways

    Psalm 119:15: Looking at God’s Ways

    On your precepts will I meditate;
    I will look at your ways.

    There’s a big difference between meditation and biblical exegesis. I tend to use exegesis to refer to extracting the meaning from a text in the narrow sense of what a particular author meant by a particular statement or passage. Hermeneutics generally refers to the broader process of interpreting and applying scripture. This usage is not universal; frequently you will hear hermeneutics and exegesis used interchangeably.

    But meditation lacks these narrow boundaries. As I read these verses, one per day, while I do some of the work of exegesis, such as looking at the words in a good lexicon and checking other uses and reading the context of that particular verse, I really am letting my mind roam through scripture and experience and also asking what the passage suggests to me. I think poetry is particularly well attuned to this kind of thinking, and Psalm 119 even more than most. The author draws in words for God’s instruction that direct us to think of the law/instruction in the broadest possible sense. It is the entire Word that God has for us that is brought into view through the vocabulary.

    The root word for “precepts” used here goes back to a root word that is often translated “visit.” A visit can be many things. It can be a time of inspection, a time of reward, a time of fellowship and relationship, or a time of judgment. Now it’s not a good idea to determine the meaning of a word by its etymology, i.e., the forms from which it is derived. I’ve already commented on how the use of the various “law” words in Psalm 119 tend to direct us away from being too specific on a single concept. (Bob MacDonald’s post on this Psalm features consistent translations of the terms so that you can see them scattered through the Psalm.)

    But in this case, whether it’s a good idea or not, the etymology of the word for “precepts” led me to think of visiting and relationship (good and bad!), and God in action, rather than as a static lawgiver. After all, the God who said, “I am YHWH your God who brought you up out of the land of Egypt …” (Exodus 20:2) is a God of relationships and actions, with creative and saving/restoring acts featured.

    As we go through the time of advent, symbolizing in our worship the wait for God to be with us as Immanuel, we can certainly relate to this thought. The God who becomes incarnate in a manger is a God of action, of relationship.

    I tend to fellow loosely joined trails in my thinking, and I followed this by focusing on the second half of the verse, looking at God’s ways/actions/behavior. There are many ways to do this. We often approach scripture to discover correct doctrine. There’s nothing wrong with that, but that’s not the whole story. I like to look at scripture for the stories of God’s interaction with people into which we fit these various theological propositions.

    For example, another part of my reading today was from 1 Corinthians, in which we have Paul making a huge number of statements that are turned into theological propositions, sometimes in contradiction to the story that surrounds them. Speaking of the stories of scripture after evoking incidents from the Exodus, Paul says, “These things were written to admonish us” (1 Corinthians 10:11). He has just referenced a number of stories.

    Thus, I’d add to trying to understand to propositions of scripture a need to understand the stories. I think as we understand those stories, we will often find that we’ve been looking at propositions from entirely the wrong perspective. (A favorite example of this comes from 1 Corinthians 14, and worship that is “decent and in order.” I’ve heard this quoted to criticize a pastor for deviating from the bulletin!)

    But there’s another layer or more to go. How about the way in which scripture was composed. There are hints all through scripture of various sources that have been brought together, including the frequently referenced “chronicles of the kings of Israel and Judah” cited as sources in 1 & 2 Kings. Interesting that God provides inspired scripture through someone compiling material from official court chronicles and providing commentary.

    Then there’s the natural world. Some make great efforts to assure us that special revelation, written scripture, is the more reliable source. Nature, they say, is too easily misinterpreted. Sometimes they even attempt to force the natural world to match their interpretation of scripture.

    But the natural world is a direct product of God’s word just as is the written word. I don’t want to detract from the written word, but I think we need to elevate what can be learned from God’s creative activity. The physicist studies some of the most direct products of the mind of God. Or so I suspect!

    I’ve wandered far away from what is explicitly stated in the text of the verse. But in the spirit of this Psalm, I think the author might have understood my thinking, should he have had an opportunity, or at least the spirit behind it.

    Where does thinking about God’s ways lead you?

  • Psalm 119:14 – I Have to Be Joyful Too?

    Psalm 119:14 – I Have to Be Joyful Too?

    In the way of your testimonies I rejoice
    As over great wealth.

    Teachers and preachers often say that Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, was moving the law inside and making it of the heart. And that is certainly a theme of that sermon.

    But the fact is that the heart was always the object of the law. We are the ones who tend to look at the statutes, the regulations in modern terms, as the point of the law. It’s a simple path. We look at the law, and we do what we can to do what it says to do. So the point becomes the list of regulations for our lives. Aren’t these regulations wonderful? Shouldn’t we be happy about them?

    Isn’t that what this Psalm is about?

    Let me quote my friend and Energion author Bob MacDonald in the series he has just started on Psalm 119:

    Overall, Psalm 119 is a restful adoration of God and God’s promises.

    Have you thought of it like that?

    I commend his series to you, especially if you are musical. He does studies of the music of the Bible. There is great value in looking at these passages from different perspectives. I try to read a number of these as I meditate on the passage.

    “Restful” and “joy” both represent something internal, a response to the law (remember Torah/instruction), and not an external assent.

    And the Psalmist rejoices.

    I want to quote another one of my Energion authors, Deborah Roeger, author of The Power of Obedience:

    Before we conclude this lesson, we have some personal work to do. We have established that as God’s covenant people we are tailor-made by Him to live by His wisdom not our own! If we would lay down our right to live life on our terms – if we would turn to Him in submission, letting Him rule and reign as the perfect Creator and Lord of life in every aspect of our life – we would then joyfully know by experience what it means to know Him. If there is any area of your life that you have been holding back from Him, would you be willing right now to drop to your knees, bow your heart and your head before Him in complete surrender? Life will never be the same! And praise God for that!

    Deborah L. Roeger, The Power of Obedience, 43.

    This is a conclusion to an extensive lesson, but just on that one paragraph, do you think the Psalmist might well agree?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • The Importance and Durability of Words

    The Importance and Durability of Words

    Through a Facebook comment on my post yesterday, The Importance of Things Left Out, another thought came to me connected to my other post yesterday, Psalm 119:13 – Speaking It.

    The comment made my push my memory for when it was that my mother made the comment on Hannah and Elkanah in 1 Samuel 1, and I recall that it was in a Hebrew class at Walla Walla University that my mother and I attended together. The class was Hebrew Readings, and I was taking it as my third year of Hebrew, while she was taking it as her second.

    That class was about 45 years ago. I remembered her comment yesterday. That comment has, in turn, encouraged someone else. She would never have imagined this chain of events.

    It reminds me of coming in contact with a pastor with whom I had had no contact for a similar length of time. He was pastor of the church I attended my first year in college, 1974, and I encountered him again online around 2019 or so.

    In conversation, I mentioned to him that I remembered a sermon he had preached in 1974. It was quite memorable, as it was in a very large, well-off church filled with pillars of the community. It was also his first sermon as a new pastor. He preached on the church of Laodicea and how that church needed to take the lesson to heart, not be lukewarm, and reclaim their first love.

    He was surprised that I had remembered his words. I don’t remember many sermons over a long period of time, but I remembered that one as I wondered how long he would remain as pastor of the church he had just begun to serve.

    What words that you have said will be remembered? Do you want them remembered?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:13 – Speaking It

    Psalm 119:13 – Speaking It

    With my lips I have recounted
    All the judgments from your mouth.

    We tend to talk, and also write a great deal about speaking. On social media, people take note of the things you don’t speak out about, and consider you apathetic for your apparent silence. On the other hand, there are those who are just waiting for one wrong word so that they can condemn you.

    I has been said that when all is said and done, a great deal more is said than done. This often comes from the one sanctimoniously declaring superiority and completely ignoring the fact that he (or she) is speaking and not doing.

    My first thought about this passage was to emphasize the importance of saying well-selected things, of being willing to be known for what you believe. That would have turned into a tangled post as I would also want to discuss all the good reasons for choosing what you would spend time talking about.

    But for me the more important lesson of this passage was simply how do I source the things I say. Where do these come from? How careful am I in hearing, studying, and applying the things I believe God said?

    This could come down to deciding when to speak and when not to, considering “a time for silence and a time for speech” (Ecclesiastes 3:7). The psalmist intends to declare the judgments that God has spoken. God’s judgments are spoken not only with accuracy but with perfect timing.

    When do you and I speak? Do we consider the “truth” of the time, the timeliness, as well as the factual truth of what we say?

    Let’s conclude with the words of another writer of Hebrew scripture:

    The Lord YHWH has given me the tongue of the learned,
    To speak timely encouragement to one who is weary.

    Isaiah 50:4 (REB)

    Are our words both timely and truthful?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • The Importance of Things Left Out

    The Importance of Things Left Out

    As I was listening to 1 Samuel today while walking on my treadmill I was reminded of a comment my mother once made on the story.

    We learn about Hannah and her desire for a son, and her sadness that she was barren. Her husband, Elkanah, somewhat full of himself, wonders why she’s crying and miserable. “Am I not more to you than ten sons?” he asks (1 Samuel 1:8).

    I remember my mother commenting that this missed the point, in fact, it missed all the points. It didn’t deal with a woman’s desire for a child, or the prestige of having sons in that time, or the shame of barrenness, which many would see as a curse of God.

    The writer emphasizes this in a way we are not always aware of in English storytelling: “After they had finished eating …” continues verse 9.

    Hannah’s opinion is expressed in a very meaningful silence.

    Be aware of the silences of scripture!

  • A Video for My Book Identifying Your Gifts and Service

    A Video for My Book Identifying Your Gifts and Service

    A Video for My Book Identifying Your Gifts and Service

    Front cover of the book Identifying Your Gifts and Service
  • Psalm 119:12 – Teach Me

    Psalm 119:12 – Teach Me

    Blessed are you LORD.
    Teach me your statutes.

    Mark Twain said, “Good decisions come from experience. Experience comes from making bad decisions.” Or something like that. I’ve found a number of variations, all attributed to Twain.

    The prayer, “Teach me!” is one that is pretty much guaranteed an answer, positive at least in the sense that learning will take place. The psalmist asks the Lord to teach him.

    It’s a bit of a dangerous request, looked at from one direction, but then from another, you might as well pray this pray, because God’s gonna get you in any case! The universe can be an unforgiving place, and most of us have some pretty clear places where experience came from bad decisions.

    This is where I like to note that the entire created world informs us of its creator. The person who studies quantum physics studies God no less than the person who meditates on theology. Perhaps even more.

    One big reason to be thankful for Torah in the broad sense–God’s instruction–is that it is evidence of God’s care, a gift that teaches.

    And boy do we ever need that!

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Ask Them to Implement Their Own Suggestion

    Ask Them to Implement Their Own Suggestion

    Bad Ideas I Learned from Good Leaders #1

    I’m never going to identify which leader I learned these things from, because I have deep respect for all of them. Many of them helped me ditch bad ideas of my own, though doubtless I still have a bunch!

    The bad thing I learned is this: When someone makes a suggestion for some project in the church, you immediately ask them to lead out in executing that idea.

    There is a very good point involved here. Actually two very good points. First, a person who goes to the trouble of suggesting someone is likely fairly passionate about it, and are likely to be diligent in getting it into action. Second, there are numerous people who will tell pastors and other church leaders all the various things they think “the church” should be doing. They have no intention of serving. They just want to complain. “Why don’t you take the lead on that?” will often either slow down the complaints, or in some cases even get someone moving.

    That’s the good side.

    The bad side is this. Your church is probably already an example of the 80/20 principle: 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people. (Well, you might be more like 90/10, but why be negative?) Most of the good ideas, the ones you should want implemented, are coming from that busy 20%. After all, the 80% don’t really want to go to the trouble of meeting with the pastor to present an idea.

    The 80/20 principle is self-sustaining. The 20% are the workers in the church because they’re the ones with initiative and creativity. Some people aren’t like that. Some people are willing to serve, but they don’t have the imagination, the initiative, or perhaps the knowledge of the church to locate a task and involve themselves with it.

    Since the 20% generally have those characteristics in various (but substantial) measure, they tend to imagine that the 80% aren’t serving because they’re lazy, apathetic, or don’t really care about their church. Some of them may have these problems. But more of them likely are waiting to be identified.

    In my book Identifying Your Gifts and Service (Small Group Edition), I suggest that church members and leaders need to observe one another to learn about gifts and help others find a place to serve that utilizes their individual gifts and also fulfills their needs. Yes, they are serving others, but that service is also of benefit to them, provided they are allowed to use their gifts in positive ways, rather than just being put to work.

    Here’s a summary of the points I make about this in that book:

    1. Listening: Group members identify each person’s gifts based on observations and what they believe the Holy Spirit has revealed. ​ This involves a group discussion where each person shares what they see as the gifts of others. ​
    2. Expressing: Each individual expresses their understanding of their own gifts. ​ This step involves self-reflection and sharing with the group. ​
    3. Examining: A survey is provided to help individuals think about their gifts and areas of service. ​ The survey is designed to stimulate thinking and challenge assumptions about one’s gifts. ​
    4. Fitting: Group members discuss and clarify God’s call on their lives and how their gifts fit into the church’s needs. ​ This step involves prayerful discussion and focus on how to use identified gifts effectively. ​
    5. Unifying: The group examines how individual gifts align with the church’s mission. ​ This step involves the participation of church leadership to help integrate members into appropriate areas of service. ​

    The book emphasizes the importance of listening to the Holy Spirit and to one another, and it provides practical exercises and discussions to help identify and utilize spiritual gifts within the church community.

    A Look Ahead

    One of the key elements in this process is recognizing church members as diverse individuals. They don’t all have the same gifts, goals, personalities, education, or general approaches to life. Learning to recognize these is important. Next week I plan to write about this as a bad idea I learned from otherwise good leaders: Don’t get stuck on expecting one personality type in members of a congregation.

    I will reference there the book PERFECTLY SQUARE. You can get a head start with this lovely little book that’s a quick read.