Threads from Henry's Web

Tag: rest

  • No Resting Place – Lamentations 1:3

    No Resting Place – Lamentations 1:3

    3 Judah has wasted away through affliction
    and endless servitude.
    Living among the nations,
    she has found no resting-place;
    her persecutors all fell on her
    in her sore distress.

    Lamentations 1:3 (REB)

    Actual events can be both real and metaphorical. Behind this verse, we can hear the history of Judah, taken into exile by the Babylonians, and then finally returned to their homeland under the Persians. At least, that is to say, a portion returned.

    I’m looking at this history and the lament it produced in this Bible book for ideas as to how each of us can deal with life today. But we shouldn’t forget the horror of the history involved. The Bible records that sorrow in the form of a lament–five chapters’ worth. And we’re on the third verse.

    Many of the nations which were exiled by the Assyrians and the Babylonians lost their identity entirely. The fourth line of the verse tells this story of exile, of removal from your home, family, and everything familiar. It’s easy to lose identity in such a situation. Forgotten, it is easy to forget, to go along with the crowd. One way to get away from persecutors (5th line) is to lose that identity, to become indistinguishable from surrounding society.

    I’ve heard many discussions of why Jews have been persecuted through the centuries, and continue to face antisemitism. One reason is simply that they have maintained their identity. They haven’t faded into the background and become indistinguishable from the rest of society.

    In the New Testament, God’s people are referred to as strangers and exiles (Hebrews 11:13). This is a part of our identity, of who we are. If we want to find a resting place, we’re going to have to do so knowing who we are and whose we are. There’s a put-down in telling someone to know their place. This is used on someone the speaker presumes is getting above themselves, out of their lane, anywhere they don’t belong.

    But we, as Christians have an identity as those who belong to God. Wherever we are we are strangers, but we are also at home with God who has chose us. We are those God has chosen, and we are those who choose to find our identity in God.

    God is, in fact, our resting place.

    What we must fear, therefore, is that, while the promise of entering his rest remains open, any one of you should be found to have missed his opportunity.

    The Revised English Bible (Cambridge; New York; Melbourne; Madrid; Cape Town; Singapore; São Paulo; Delhi; Dubai; Tokyo: Cambridge University Press, 1996), Heb 4:1 (Emphasis mine)

    Even as exiles, we too can have that resting place. Can you feel that rest?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI)

  • Psalm 23:2 – Green Grass and Quiet Water

    Psalm 23:2 – Green Grass and Quiet Water

    He makes me lie down in grassy pasture.
    He leads me by quiet water.

    It’s interesting as I translate this for myself to realize that not only will everyone else continue to hear and remember it as it is in the King James Version. I’ll do the same thing. I was repeatedly reminded of that simple fact as I thought about this verse today. No matter what I might be thinking regarding the particular words, those are the words I come back to.

    There is great value in a well-known, traditional passage. We can easily remember it in difficult times. It can come to us when we are distracted. It’s part of our lives and of our being.

    In Deuteronomy 32:2, poetry attributed to Moses, we have a related metaphor:

    2 May my teaching drop like the rain,
    my speech condense like the dew;
    like gentle rain on grass,
    like showers on new growth.
    3 For I will proclaim the name of the LORD;
    ascribe greatness to our God!

    The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), Dt 32:2–3.

    The “gentle rain on grass” echoes the same word as in this Psalm. Now don’t get the idea that I consider this Psalm primary a metaphor for spiritual things. It is, indeed, a metaphor, portraying God’s care for us as the care of a shepherd who finds good pasture for his flock. But it represents something concrete: God’s general care for our needs.

    How can these words fall on us like light rain on grass?

    Only if we let them, and many others become familiar, just like the words of this Psalm. God’s word, in many forms, requires more than a few moments of our time, yet is also something that can be with us at any time in a gentle, natural way.

    If you haven’t memorized any verses of scripture, this Psalm is a good place to start. With the word embedded in your mind, it can fall like that gentle rain. “Green pastures” can mean so many things, starting with a time to just sit down on some actual grass and actually rest.

    Where will you find a moment in green pasture, by quiet waters today?

  • Psalm 119:62

    Psalm 119:62

    In the middle of the night I rise to praise you
    for your righteous judgments.

    I rarely think of being awake in the middle of the night as a good thing. Sleep is a good thing. I like to get a good sleep. A couple of years ago when various potential medical issues made me decide to start a regular exercise program, I was needing to get around 9 hours. Two years later, I’m fine with seven. I thank the Lord for the better sleep, but I do it in the morning, not the middle of the night.

    I suspect there isn’t a greater level of righteousness involved in waking up and praising God in the middle of the night. While the psalmist says he does this, I don’t see midnight praise, at least on a regular basis, commanded in scripture.

    Thinking about this led me to a different question, however, which is just what you do if you wake up in the middle of the night. One of the things that wakes me up is worry. It can be the sort of thing that requires that I check on something. This can be prudence or useless worry. When Jody was having certain medical problems, I would set an alarm and intentionally wake up to check on her. I think she would have preferred that I didn’t. She valued my sleep more highly than I did.

    On the other hand I can end up awake in the middle of the night worrying about things that I really cannot fix, especially not at that time. This ends up being useless. I have to distract myself from whatever is worrying me. I can read, play a mentally stimulating game, or, shocking as it seems, I could pray and praise God.

    What good does that do? I don’t think God is more likely to help me with things if I wake up at 3 am in order to pray about it. God hasn’t forgotten what’s going on. The purpose of any activity here is to quit making myself sick worrying about things I can’t change. There are relatively few things I can change at 3 am.

    The value in the time of prayer is in settling my mind and spirit and bringing my focus back to what is important. That’s the one thing I can do, which is get some sleep so that I can be more effective at various things the next day.

    If I recite this verse, it is not a boast. It’s not a claim to greater spiritual accomplishments. It’s an admission that I was so busy worrying, I couldn’t do the most useful thing, which was to get the appropriate amount of rest.

    Which leads me full circle back to exercise. One of the advantages for me of deciding that exercise was a duty to restore my health (which, by the way, it has done), is that I don’t feel like I’m lazy or dodging work. I can feel righteous as I walk. I’m improving my health so I can work more effectively. Which tells me something else. I’m too much driven by that work.

    So perhaps I need to spend some time doing something I can’t claim is a “good work.” Perhaps I need some time that is actual rest, and do so without tricking my brain into believing I’m still doing important stuff.

    What stuff might you need to get out of the way?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)