Threads from Henry's Web

Tag: lovingkindness

  • Psalm 23:6 – Pursued

    Psalm 23:6 – Pursued

    Surely goodness and lovingkindness will pursue me all the days of my life,
    and I will love in the LORD’s house forever.

    Well, this is the last verse of Psalm 23. It’s a bit shorter than Psalm 119!

    So which is better? A lot more people quote Psalm 23, and with good reason, but there is value both in something comprehensive and something compact and evocative. That’s why we have different kinds of literature in the Bible. It’s also why we all love different kinds of literature ourselves.

    So what is the impact of the ending of this Psalm? For me, it comes in the second half of the verse. I’ll live in God’s house forever. But I chose the first half to provide my title. I am pursued by God’s goodness and lovingkindness. It reminds me of Psalm 119:176. I may have gone astray like a lost sheep, but I cry out for God to seek me. When I do, I discover that God has been pursuing me all the time.

    Many times, the result of prayer is not a change in circumstances, but rather a change in perspective.

    After crying out to God in my trouble, I hear a voice that says, “Look the other way.” When I do, there God is. God has been there all the time. I can’t get away from God’s mercy and love.

    But the second half of the verse gives me another perspective. I’m going to live in God’s house forever. There are a number of view of this, each of which can help us understand God’s love for us.

    I’m going to look at three.

    First, we can think of this as the privilege of being in God’s presence in a place and time of worship. There is pleasure and comfort in being in God’s presence in such a place at such a time. Often this involves the enjoyment of our relationship to other people as well as our relationship to God. Conceive of a time of peace and joy and then think of that never ending.

    There’s a saying that we can’t live our lives in a spiritual retreat, and that we can’t stay forever on a spiritual high. Psalm 23:6 suggests that this is going to change down the road.

    Second, we can think of this eschatologically, meaning at the end. Yesterday, in writing about the heavenly banquet, I looked at some passages from Revelation. But if you look carefully you’ll see that Revelation is built with sanctuary imagery. In the Israelite temple you had a courtyard, then the holy place, and finally the most holy place, in which the ark of the covenant was kept. It represented God’s presence.

    That presence was separated from the people by that courtyard and earlier room, the holy place. Access was more limited the closer one got to the throne. But in Revelation, starting with chapter 4 and the command to John to “come up here,” we start to see sanctuary imagery all around, and the center of the action is around the throne of God, right in the Most Holy Place.

    Access was limited. Access will be unlimited. We will dwell in God’s house forever.

    But there is a third. If we jump just one verse to the next Psalm, we can learn what it is:

    To the LORD belongs the world and everything in it;
    The inhabited land and everyone living in it.
    For He established it upon the seas,
    Upon the streams he made it firm.

    Psalm 24:1-2, my translation

    You may think you have to wait, but God’s house is here now. You’re living in it. Your house is in God’s house. All your stuff? That’s God’s stuff. You? You’re God’s person.

    Now.

    What we all need is a change of perspective, a new understanding of what belongs to God. I frequently note what I believe is Jesus’ humor when he says, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” Just what is it that actually belongs to Caesar? There’s some practical advice for life in the saying, but there’s also a pointer to something greater.

    Just as you can turn, look, and find that God is already there seeking you, and was doing so before you called, so you can turn any direction, look, and see God’s house all around you. The change is in you. God was there all the time and will be there forever.

    You live in God’s house, because God owns all the houses and all the stuff.

    Live in God’s house today!

  • Psalm 119:159

    Psalm 119:159

    Look how I love your precepts!
    In your lovingkindness, LORD, give me life.

    Reading this Psalm drives me frequently to meditate on the nature of life, and particularly spiritual aspects of it. In this verse, for example, we have two lines that could be connected in at least two distinctive ways.

    First, we could see the first as a boast, as calling attention to one’s incredible goodness, which the Lord should reward by granting life. We are sometimes put off by this approach, because it sounds self-righteous. But I wonder how many of us can claim that we have never called on God to take note of various good things that we have done as we request something else. We believe that we don’t really have anything that gives us a claim on God except that lovingkindness of the second half of the verse, but at the same time, we just can’t help putting ourselves in a good light.

    Second, however, we can take this quite differently. “Look Lord, how I love your precepts, but I know that isn’t going to do the trick. In your lovingkindness, the one thing that gives me any hope, give me life.” This is also a very common prayer, I think. It’s the one that says, “I’ve really put everything into this, but it’s all in your hands, Lord.”

    I’m not sure what relationship the Psalmist proposed between the two lines, though from reading the Psalm I gather he is well aware that he needs God to get him through the trials of his life. He’s well aware of what he owes to God, and the things he can only expect to receive from God.

    This is one of the more interesting elements of the Bible story. Most countries or cultures record the best possible things about their ancestors and founders. They present stories of heroes who accomplished great things. These are to be a source of pride for the nation, and also an example of what the true citizen should really be.

    The Bible does not take this approach. We get the good, the bad, and the ugly, and little enough of the first sometimes. The characters are all seriously flawed. God isn’t working with championship material, at least as presented in the text. We get full descriptions of the failings of prophets, priests, kings, and people in general.

    Take, for example, the lawgiver and hero of the exodus, Moses. I referenced Deanna Thompson’s excellent commentary on Deuteronomy yesterday. Here’s a quote:

    Theological reflection on Moses as paradigmatic of the spiritual life, a life devoted to God, and at the same time a flawed, limited life with tragic dimensions to it, offers profound insight into the human condition. In the pages of Deuteronomy we find the dramatic conclusion to one of the most powerful stories of the Bible, one that speaks to the deeply human issues of limits, brokenness, and incompleteness along with evidence of faithful obedience to “choose life,” as Moses implores the people to do in his final speech to them. Moses is not an ideal character; indeed, that his human failings mix with his successes is what draws us to his story and to the wider story that is Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 30:14 implores us to keep the story in our mouth and in our heart as we strive to live in faithful obedience to God’s living Word. May our reading and reflecting on Deuteronomy help us choose life in the midst of the constant threat of death.

    Deanna Thompson, Deuteronomy, BELIEF Commentary Series, p. 35

    As Christians, we maintain that Jesus was perfect. He was and is God, after all! But if we look at the stories of the apostles, we find the same pattern. They are portrayed in the gospels with all their faults and failings.

    It’s good to do right as much as we can. But it’s also good to remember that we have a heavenly parent who is ready to work with us as we are and take as far, or not-so-far, as we can go. We’d love to be that great person. Look, Lord, how much we want the life you have for us.

    In your lovingkindness, carry us!

  • Psalm 119:88 – Grant Me Life

    In your lovingkindness grant me life
    that I may keep your testimony.

    This verse opens windows onto many other concepts. And, for what it’s worth, this verse is halfway through the Psalm’s 176 verses.

    First, it again sets the order of events. God is the initiator. God is the creator. Whatever you do with your life, that life is a gift of God. You could not create yourself. Often we get tense about the idea of salvation by grace through faith, because we think that somewhere, somehow there must be some works we can contribute. But how do you contribute to the one who gives you the ability to contribute?

    “In your lovingkindness” means that God loved us before we had the capability of loving God. God doesn’t need our contribution to God, but God asks our contribution. In the end, that contribution turns out to be truly to ourselves and to one another in the community. Blessing is poured out so that it can pour out again, just as God gives us life so that we can bring forth new life.

    In Genesis 12:2 God says to Abram: “I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.” Our blessing of anyone else is the result of God blessing us. Blessing overflows and builds up others.

    When we talk about church, what are we there for? Paul, in 1 Corinthians 14, repeatedly uses the word “edify” (archaic) or “build up.” We are meeting together to be a blessing to one another. We can be a blessing, because God has blessed each one of us. Worship, acknowledging this, is not some kind of ego stroking that God requires. Rather, it is the simple and grateful acknowledgment of how things work.

    God has a purpose for you. What blessing is God pouring out on you that God wants you to let flow on to those you meet?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:76 – Comfort

    Psalm 119:76 – Comfort

    Let your lovingkindness comfort me
    as you have promised your servant.

    Lovingkindness is the Hebrew word hesed, which can also refer to faithfulness, favor, goodness, or grace. It also refers to the loyalty involved in a covenant relationship.

    I think one of the most commonly forgotten aspects of Christian faith (also true in Judaism) is living in the knowledge of being in a relationship with God. A covenant is a relationship. We often talk about our relationship with God as a sort of romantic adventure based solely on emotion.

    I don’t want to deny emotion. Emotion is important. Experience and the emotion that grows out of it is as critical as the facts on which it is based. One can get lost either way. The idea of meeting a God who demands that we keep his commands outside of such a relationship is quite daunting.

    You know that YHWH your God, he is God. He is a faithful God who keeps covenant and lovingkindness – to those who love him and to those who keep his commands – for a thousand generations.

    Deuteronomy 7:9 (author’s translation)

    Now keeping all those commands is a lot of work! Works will not save you. Works will not make you a child of God. But the book of Deuteronomy doesn’t teach that the works are somehow earning the favor. Rather,

    Not because you were more numerous than all the peoples did YHWH passionately desire you and choose you, for you were the smallest of all the peoples. Rather, because YHWH loved you and because he kept the oath which he swore to Abraham, YHWH brought you out with a powerful hand and ransomed you from the house of servitude, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

    Deutereonmy 7:7-8 (author’s translation)

    Now there’s something interesting about the word used to describe God’s passionate desire. It’s the same word used by Hamor of his son Shechem and his desire for Dinah, daughter of Jacob. I don’t bring this up to somehow ransom the sordid story of Shechem and Dinah. But this illustrates the strength of the emotional bond. Hamor, in using this word of his son, is telling the people of the town that the prince has to have the girl he desires. He can’t do without her.

    God’s love for God’s people is powerful, demanding, and must be satisfied. When God gives a covenant to Abraham, and repeatedly renews and restates it, God is saying that his love is overwhelming.

    In ancient times, the breaking of a covenant was regarded as a very bad thing, often resulting in a penalty of death. In Ezekiel 17:11-21 God’s message is that the people made a covenant with the king of Babylon and then violated it. God asks regarding the king who did this, “Will such a man be successful? Will he escape destruction if he acts in this way? Can he violate a treaty and escape unpunished?” (Ezekiel 17:15b). This is a condemnation of violating a human treaty.

    In Jeremiah 31:31, God says he will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah, and in verse 32 he says the old one was “one they broke.” Do you hear what’s going on here? Violation of a human covenant is condemned. And yes, violation of God’s covenant is condemned. But what does God do?

    God makes a new one. Why? Because he loves his people so much. He has to have that relationship. Notice that the new covenant is in what we Christians call the “Old Testament.” The same love expressed in Deuteronomy 7 as Israel prepares to enter the land, is again expressed by creating a new covenant to replace the broken one.

    So does this only apply to Israel? We have only to pay attention to the covenant from the start to realize that God invites Israel to be his to be a blessing to all. God claims sovereignty over all the nations and moves the save them.

    It is in this overwhelmingly faithful, overpoweringly loving relationship that we can find that comfort. That kind of love is the best atmosphere in which to grow. Holiness only occurs immersed in God’s all-encompassing grace.

    Can you feel that grace today in every moment?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:64

    Psalm 119:64

    LORD, Your lovingkindness fills the earth.
    Teach me your statutes.

    “Lovingkindness” could also be translated “grace” or “favor.” It covers a lot of ground. It also refers to obligations fulfilled under a covenant. When we think of it that way, we should remember that God has voluntarily created a covenant with us. Any obligations God takes on are a gift!

    It’s easy to miss the power of a verse like this. In very simple form it expresses an important theme of scripture. I’ve referred to it earlier in this series. Grace comes before law.

    We frequently preach and teach this in the opposite order. We preach about getting cleaned up so that we can be acceptable to God. We have to be good enough. Then we can come to God and find favor.

    Or we may preach salvation, becoming a child of God as something that is by grace, and then follow it with a rat race to be good enough. This isn’t an exclusively New Testament theme as some Christians think. We often don’t have the patience to read and understand the Bible Jesus knew, so we miss what’s going on.

    7 “It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 It was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath that he swore to your ancestors that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

    Deuteronomy 7:7-8 (NRSVue)

    It is clear that God’s choice comes first, but especially if you read further in the context, it is God’s purpose to make the chosen people a holy people. But again, this comes through God’s action.

    If we are preachers, teachers, or leaders in the church we need to make sure to keep this order in mind. If we look at the biblical standards, making ourselves meet those standards is a daunting task. Impossible, in fact. If we push those standards as a matter of making ourselves acceptable to God we’re going to create a raft of problems. What we won’t make is holy people.

    Self-sanctification is a common belief, and it is the root of all kinds of evil. On the one hand, those who can’t imagine their actual problems decide that they are, in fact, holy. We use the term self-righteousness, and that’s precisely what it is. It’s a meeting of self-made standards. Ungratefulness, judgment, relentless criticism, discouragement, and even despair follow all this.

    But God’s grace fills the earth, even the universe. Teaching us how to live is a blessing that comes because God loves us not so that God can love us. In that context, the laws, which are the very order of our universe, are a gift of God. Those laws make it possible for us to exist. They hold off total chaos. In fact, we can come to see those laws as a reflection of the character of the God we serve and a joy.

    We should also note that a God who provides us with such grace is unlikely to mandate or to bless ungracious behavior. A God who is love is asking us to love one another.

    “Teach us your statutes” becomes the story of a life of faith, blessed by God, with glory to come.

    As you live your blessed life today, consider the statutes of God that define it and make it possible.

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)