Psalm 23 - From a Sheep's Point of View

The Lord is my Shepherd.  There is nothing I lack.  He lets me lie down in green pastures.  He leads me beside quiet waters.  He renews my life.  He leads me along the right paths for His name's sake.  (vs. 1-3)

Do I need a shepherd?  Do you?

Let us look at sheep.  They are very food oriented, so they follow a leader to what they think is better pasture.  As they tend to flock together for support, they have a herd mentality.  Sheep are gregarious in nature, so they tend to wander off in curiosity to ponder something new.  It only takes one sheep to make the others follow.  They stay in herds unless one of them gets the itch to move.  Leadership is based on the sheep with the biggest horns or the guy who decides he wants to "see what's over there."  The sheep will follow either one of these guys anywhere.  But if they get into trouble, sheep flee in panic.  That is their only real defense against natural enemies.

Now let us look at me.  And you.  We are fattened America people looking for the next fast-food burger to stuff into our portly selves so we don't have to go home and cook.  I sell real estate, and most people don't really care about a big kitchen anymore because they don't use it.  Just need the microwave.  We are hefty American people who want to let the government pay our way.  Increasingly we are giving over our lives to Big Daddy so that our needs will be met while we eat our burger and watch HD-TV.  And on that TV we see commercial after commercial telling us sheep what to buy, where to live, how to act, how to look.  Because we have forgotten how to think for ourselves, we have been fattened for the kill, I fear. Sheared by anyone who can fool us into giving up our woolen coats for free.  Following the guy with the biggest "horns" over the proverbial cliff has become a way of life.  Let him think for us.  Until we discover the imminence of our fall and panic when it is too late.

And my heart?  I will give it away to whatever makes me feel significant.  And so will you.  That is the way we sheep are made.  Loyal to whatever makes us feel better.  Better known as addiction.  I am as capable of going down that road as anybody if nobody leads my heart to quieter pastures.  If there is nothing that can "renew my life."  Gregarious in nature, looking for a thrill, curious about what is around the next corner, devoid of the wisdom of checking out the consequences first, this sheep has wandered into enemy territory unaware and been sheared by a dangerous shepherd.

So, my answer?   YES.  I need a shepherd.  Even if I am the horned sheep that people follow, I need a leader so I won't take an entire flock out with the hubris of leadership without guidance.  Baaing in the meadow, caught in the brambles, prey for every wolf in the wilderness, who will come and set me free?  For that is the end for the sheep who strikes out on her own, defying the parameters of her pasture and the prescience of her shepherd. 

But I do not have just any shepherd.  My shepherd calls me by name.  It takes a while for a sheep to respond to a name the shepherd gives it.  But they can eventually understand it when he calls.  So it is with me.  That my shepherd finds me significant enough to brand with a name amazes me.  Listen to what else He does:
He protects His flock like a shepherd.  He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them in the fold of His garment.  He gently leads those who are nursing.  Isaiah 40.

He picks me up and cuddles me.  Gives me significance and warmth, protection and attention.  He sees me.  He sees ME! 

The Lord says, "See, I Myself, will search for my flock and look for them.  As a shepherd looks for his sheep on the day he is among his scattered flock, so I will look for My flock.  I will rescue them from all the places they have been scattered on a cloudy and dark day.  ...I will shepherd them on the mountains and in the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the land.  I will tend them with good pasture, and their grazing place will be on Israel's lofty mountains.  They will lie down in a good grazing place.  They will feed in rich pasture...I will tend My flock and let them lie down...I will seek the lost, bring back the strays, bandage the injured, strengthen the weak....I will shepherd them with justice."

Isn't this what we really want?  To be taken care of?  To lie down with no worries?  To eat and be satisfied?  To be so loved that we are pursued?  To be rescued when we are dumb and have wandered off?  To be shepherded by One who understands that our day was dark and cloudy and we panicked and ran?  And now we are trapped, alone and vulnerable, in need of rescue but incapable of escape?   To be up against the very drumming of His heartbeat, protected by our ascent into the folds of His garments?  Don't we really want to follow Someone Who knows the way?   Who is acquainted with life beyond our little pasture?

"I assure you:  Anyone who doesn't enter the sheep pen by the door but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber.  The one who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.  The doorkeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice.  He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.  When he has brought all of his own outside, he goes ahead of them.  The sheep follow him because they recognize his voice.  They will never follow a stranger.  Instead they will run away from him (flee in panic) because they don't recognize the voice of strangers.  I am the door.  If anyone enters by Me, they will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture....I am the good Shepherd.  The good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep....I know My own sheep, and they know Me....I lay down my life for the sheep...they will be one flock with one Shepherd."  Jesus.   (John 10)

I  need this Shepherd.

Psalm 22 - All Hail!!!

All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord.  All the families of the nations will  bow down before You.  For kingship belongs to the Lord.  He rules over all the nations.  All who prosper on earth will eat and bow down.  All those who go down to the dust will kneel before Him - even the one who cannot preserve his life.  Their descendants will serve Him.  The next generation will be told about the Lord.  They will come and tell a people yet to be born about His righteousness - what He has done.  (vs. 27-31)

Psalm 22 promises a Messiah who suffers.  Surrounded my men like mauling lions; poured out like water; bones out of joint; heart like wax, melting within Him.  Strength dried up like baked clay, His tongue sticks to the roof of His mouth.  His hands and feet are pierced and while hanging naked on the cross,  His ribcage is prominent and His bones can be counted.  People stare and jeer as the clothing of the bleeding Messiah is divided among the crowd.  And, most utterly devastating, His God has forsaken Him.

Why would He have to go through this?  Why did God, the Father, plan this from before the before?  I do not know the answers to these whys, but it is clear from the beginning that this was Yahweh's plan of salvation.  Sin is so heinous to the holy sensibilities and nature of the Godhead that it must be atoned for with blood.  The crimson history of slaughtered animals sacrificed for the atonement of the sins of Israel is well chronicled in history and the scriptures.  Something must be our scapegoat if we are allowed to enter into the presence of God.  So, a better question might be, "Why did God Himself decide to come to be our sacrificial Lamb?"

This I can answer.  The blood of God is holy.  The sacrifice, the ultimate payment that reconciles man to Yahweh.  There is nothing higher.  No Lamb so perfect.  No death so shamefully executed, for He was sinless.  Naked, bleeding and deserted, our Lamb was taken outside of the city and hung, for all to see, upon a cross made of the wood He had created by people He had known since before they were conceived.  Ironic.  It is the story of the entire Bible.  For, enter the Lamb in the last book of Scripture, Revelation.

Then I saw in the right hand of the One seated upon the throne a scroll with writing on the inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals.  I also saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, "Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?"

But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or even look at it.  And I cried and cried because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or even look at it. 

Then one of the elders said to me,  "Stop crying!  Look!  The Lion of Judah, the Root of David, has been victorious so that He may open the scroll and its seven seals.

Then I saw One like a slaughtered Lamb standing between the throne and the four living beings and among the elders.....He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of the One seated on the throne.  When He took the scroll, the four living beings and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb.  Each one had a harp and gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the saints.  And they sang a new song:
"You are worthy to take the scroll and open its seals, because You were slaughtered and You redeemed Your people for God by Your blood from every tribe and language and people and nation.  You made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign on the earth."

Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels around the throne and also the living creatures and the elders.  Their number was countless thousands, plus thousands of thousands.  They said with a loud voice: 
"The Lamb Who was slaughtered is worthy to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing!"

Then I heard every creature in heaven, in earth, under the earth and in the sea, and everything in them say:
"Blessing and honor and glory and dominion to the One seated on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever!"  Revelation 5

For the joy set before my Christ, He endured the shame of the cross.  He knew on the other side of His bloody slaughter was the scroll.  The power to see this earth through to an end in which everyone and every thing everywhere will see Him in a different light.  Clothed in majesty, directing all the events of earth until its demise, our Lamb was worthy.   How He must thrill for the moment when all is made right.  When ALL people everywhere will know Who He is and bow down.  Not to a Lamb languishing in the blood of its execution, but as the only worthy sacrifice in heaven or on earth.  As the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  That day will come when atheists, agnostics, tyrants and monarchs, women, men, children and animals, stars, planets, whales and starfish will acknowledge, prostrate before Him, that the shame of the cross bought all of creation redemption and restoration.  Cheering Him on will be the kingdom of priests we have become because we have adored Him even now.  No longer pinned to a cross crying out for His Father, this Lamb wields a scepter in His name and judges the whole earth and those who have slept in the dust.

At that time Michael, the great prince who stands watch over your people, will rise up.   There will be a time of great distress such as has never occurred since nations came into being until that time.  But at that time all your people who are found written in the book will escape.  Many of those who sleep in dust of the earth will awake, some to eternal life and some to shame and eternal contempt.   Those who are wise will shine like the bright expanse of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and forever.  Daniel 12

All Hail King Jesus!!!  All Hail Lamb that was slain!!  Your ignominy forgotten save for the scars in Your hands and feet that bought forever my salvation!  All Hail!

Psalm 22- Troubles

You had my mother give birth to me. You made me trust you while I was just a baby. I have leaned on you since the day I was born. You have been my God since my mother gave me birth. So don't be far away from. Now trouble is near, and there is no one to help. (vs. 9-11)

Life can just be so tiring sometimes. Struggling with daily trials or deep hurts, our lives are not usually carefree and easy. Money, success or a big 401K are not the answers to all that ails us. Relationships falter, children stumble, health fails or we just don't seem to be able to call forth the energy to cope with all the minutiae of life that once was a piece of cake. In it all, perhaps we need to remember what David recalls here: We have always belonged to the Lord. My life is not my own.

Many years ago, when I was twenty-one, I began my teaching career in a small Texas town outside of Dallas. On the first day of school, I spied another young teacher across the room at the faculty meeting. She was beautiful. Long, thick dark hair, huge green eyes, ridiculously darling dimples and she was as tall as I am! We became fast friends. I was privileged to walk with her into a deeper commitment to the God she had loved since she could remember. A Catholic, she had even considered becoming a nun at one point. She did not know her God as deeply as she wanted, so our friendship was an encouragement to both of us to love Him more.

My friend married later in life. On her honeymoon, she fell ill with mumps. A few months later, she found a lump in her breast. She was scheduled for surgery. I found out I was pregnant for the third time on the same morning that she was told she had cancer and they had removed her breast. I did not know her diagnosis when I walked into her room post-op. Her new husband was standing beside her at the head of her hospital bed, teary-eyed and anxious. No one had to say a word. I knew.

"Oh, friend!" was all I could muster.

I took her hand. "I am the Lord's.". Her reply.

Never have I forgotten the serenity in her face nor the fervor with which she averred the wonder of grace that brought her to that pronouncement. She had always been His and no less then when trouble overwhelmed her, changing the landscape of her life forever.

"I am the Lord's."

No matter what. No matter where. In the best of times and the worst of them, I have learned to lean on Him. Like my friend, who is looking at the face of Jesus now, I know trouble is a part of life. When there is no one else who can help us, it is He who knows our way. And though we don't always understand what He allows, we know that He is good. Troubles come to everyone....Christian or not. We are not exempt, but we are certain of what those without our God cannot avow - we are His. He has written our names on the palm of His hand. Troubles are not without purpose and we are not without recourse because we love the One Who first loved us.

Psalm 22 - Bullying

But I am like a worm instead of a man.  People make fun of me and hate me.  Those who look at me laugh.  They stick out their tongues and shake their heads.  They say, "Turn to the Lord for help.  Maybe he will save you.  If he likes you, maybe he will rescue you."  ....People have surrounded me like angry bulls.  Like the strong bulls of Bashan, they are on every side.  Like hungry, roaring lions they open their mouths at me....Evil people have surrounded me;  like dogs they have trapped me.  They have bitten my arms and legs.  (vs. 6-8;12-13;16)

This is a Messianic psalm.  Meaning, of course, that it heralds the coming Messiah.  I find that intensely interesting considering He was to come as the savior of not only the Jews, but all mankind.  How then could this psalm be prophetic?  Or, better yet, how could the Jewish people to whom Jesus finally did show Himself in power have missed these verses if they knew they were Messianic?  Wouldn't that have changed their expectations?  To know He would fulfill all of this psalm?

Jesus seemed born to quote verse one from the cross:  "My God!  My God!  Why have You forsaken Me?"  Even then, those mocking Jesus at the foot of the cross thought He was calling on Elijah to save Him.  Clueless.

 Bleeding from the shredded skin hanging from His freshly beaten body and jeered at as He wore a crown of thorns upon His bruised and sweating face, the crowd spat on Him, ridiculing His claim to be the Messiah, the King of Kings.  "He saved others, but he cannot save himself!  He says He is the king of Israel!  If he is the king, let him come down from the cross now.  Then we will believe him!  He trusts in God so let God save him now, if God really wants him.  He himself said, 'I am the Son of God.' "

He did come down from the cross.  Taken by Joseph of Arimathea and buried in a fresh tomb while the sun has gone running in shame in the middle of the day and the earth is rattling God's fury, the Son is locked hermetically tight in a tomb with a giant stone.  Soldiers stand guard outside because on some level they know this is not just another man.  Turns out He wasn't.  Jesus blew out of the cave-tomb three days later while angels put the soldiers into a coma they could not explain to their officials later that day.  Our sins buried with Him and our lives new with His, He became our King.

But that cost Him.  Even now there are the scars in His hands.  He entered heaven as a slain Lamb, not a regal monarch.  He is forever our redemption.  Why?  Because he became like us.  He understands what flesh feels like - how it struggles.  His ears have burned and his heart quaked at the jeers and mockings of those who should have known His worth.  The heart of Jesus has been broken by the words and actions of bullies who pinned Him to a tree and left Him there to rot.  The deepest kind of betrayal done with the most profound display of hubris.  How could He then not understand my pain?

Since we have a great high priest, Jesus the Son of God, who has gone into heaven, let us hold fast the faith we have.  For our high priest is able to understand our weaknesses.  When he lived on earth, He was tempted in every way that we are, but He did not sin.  Let us, then, feel very sure that we can come before God's throne where there is grace.  There we can receive mercy and grace to help us when we need it.  Hebrews 4:14-16

While Jesus lived on the earth, he prayed to God and asked God for help.  He prayed with loud cries and tears to the One Who could save Him from death, and His prayer was heard because He trusted in God.  Even though Jesus was the Son of God,  He learned obedience by the things that He suffered.   Hebrews 5: 7-6

Even in the process of securing our salvation,  the heart of God was to fully experience the plight of man so that man could fully experience the power of God.  Jesus knows my heart.  He knows my struggles to please other people  - to be really understood by those who do not get me.  The heart of Jesus has plumbed the depths of misery that is created by those who hate Him for no reason.  My Jesus is safe.  I can run to Him and He will not turn me away, but hold me in His arms and say:  "I know, child.  I know."

Psalm 22 - Hands Up, Feet Dancing!

Thou art holy, O Thou Who art enthroned upon the praises of Your people. (vs.3)

I have been thinking about this all night, waking up with praise on my mind. What does it look like for our God to inhabit, live in, dwell among our praise? The resounding noise in heaven is a constant acknowledgement of the God Who is, Who was, and Who is to come! The God of all, Who sits enthroned with the Lamb by His side and His Spirit permeating everything! I think heaven is loud with the symphony of praise! When God speaks, it is thunderous! When he is praised, it must be electrifying! So when I praise Him, I want to be heard above the din! I want my whole being involved so He can dwell comfortably in my worship! Hands up, feet dancing, heart engaged and voice lifted to the God I adore! I want Him to fall into my praise and live there with me! To dance and sing with me, me in Him and Him in me, inhabiting the throne I create with my song.

My mighty King, Who rules my life with purpose and power! Savior, Who gave Your life willingly so that I might never die! Ruler of the universe and all that exists everywhere, rule me! Powerful God Who makes something out of nothing, I am amazed by You! Giver of life and breath, joy and peace, I thank you! Designer, Creator and Architect, Your mind is beyond comprehending, for You alone are original, and we but copiers of your images. With a heart so large that it includes Your watch-care over everything You have made, I wonder that it also includes me. Beyond all that we can see with our technology lies a vastness yet to be defined and explored, yet it is known to You.  You have allowed us to understand a bit of Your greatness so we can be in awe of all we do not know. Pervading Spirit Who knows my thoughts and understands my way, I am brought facedown by the wonder of your grace. Oh, holy Father, my praises will never end that You would choose to love this child of Yours! That You would cover my sinful heart in streams of cleansing grace and mercy sets my heart pounding and my feet to dancing! You are incomparably beautiful. Though I have never seen Your face, I have experienced Your heart and known its fervor. My praises are inadequate, for words are not enough to offer the full expression of my soul to You! I must also speak with my spirit as it is warmed and energized in Your Presence, melted by the searing holiness of Your purity. I am unworthy in this place where You dwell! I cannot enter in except for the blood in which I am covered! Thank You, Lamb Who died. Beautiful Savior! Oh, may the whole earth sing over the redemption bought by Your holy blood! May we dance forever over the victory and sonship You purchased for us!! Holy God become defiled so we could come before our Father and Yours as beloved children instead of the wretches we once were! With never-ending kindness You lead our paths because You alone know the way. Before You stretches the beginning and the end, for You are above time and space, mighty in Your plans to take us to the new Jerusalem where we will revel in the Eden You desired from the beginning of our time! Light too bright to look on and live! Thundering power that flashes in Your Presence! Enthrone Yourself today in my praise of You, inadequate but wholehearted! My strength, my song, my deliverer, my provider, my shepherd, my savior, my banner, my beloved, my very breath, I praise You forever. Amen.

Psalm 22 - 2012

"My God, my God! Why have You forsaken me?" Psalm 22:1 and Matthew 27:46

Felt forsaken?   Ever felt like God actually rejected you?   Turned His back?

Honestly, I have never felt that.  I have turned my back and done my own thing before, but even in that I felt His presence.  How dark would it be if He really forsook me?   I cannot imagine being left in this world without Him.

Today I look into a new year - 2012.  What will it hold?  Next January first, what will I have experienced?  If what I believe is correct, my Father has already walked the path before me and laid out my way.  I am to find it, holding His hand in the day-to-day journey that is my life.  My Creator has promised that He will never leave me or forsake me.  When Joshua took over for Moses in the wilderness, Moses spoke to all the Israelites to prepare them for the new season without his guidance:

"Today I offer you life and success or death and destruction.  I command you today to love the Lord your God, to do what He wants you to do, and to keep His commands, His rules, His laws....Today I ask heaven and earth to be witnesses.  I am offering you life or death, blessings or cursings.  Now! Choose life!  To choose life is to love the Lord your God, obey Him and stay close to Him.  He is your life....Be strong and brave.  Don't be afraid because the Lord, your God, is with you.  He will not leave you or forget you.
(Deuteronomy 30-31)

In this new year, I want to choose life.  I want to love God with my whole being.  I have many scattered allegiances that are not necessarily bad, but they keep my heart divided to a certain degree.  They cut into my time with the God in Whose bosom I want to rest. I want to honor the Savior who actually experienced the rejection of God for my sake.  I will never know the darkness of a world without my God.  The blackness of a moment that sent the Creator into such heartbreak that He shook the earth and blinded the sun, plunging the sphere into ebony confusion.  For when the Son ordered life back into His body, blew the rock out of the entrance to His tomb and walked into a new season, He took me with Him. Bought my freedom.  Paid my price.  Secured my future.

So, today. I choose life.  Again.  Anew.  Teach me, Christ, how to love You with my whole being. That nothing else really matters but knowing You.  Help me clean out the trash from my heart to make room for You in a new dwelling place, sparkling clean and bright for You to rejoice in inhabiting.  Because You have chosen to never leave me....never fail me....I choose to open up myself to Your perfect will on this first day of a new year.  I was born to be your dwelling place.  Make Yourself comfortable in me.

Psalm 21 - Why the Right Hand is Better

Your hand will capture all Your enemies.  Your right hand will seize those who hate You. (vs8)

The Hebrew word for hand in this psalm is "yad."  It can mean power and strength, but often, when used of God, it means judgment.  I like the picture here of our enemies - especially those in the spiritual realm that fight against our victory in Christ - running around with their fiery darts chasing us when a big hand comes out of nowhere.  These haters of our lives whose purpose is to destroy us are jabbing at our hearts and wreaking havoc on the events of our day thinking they are all that.  We cry out.  We need help because the enemy has become too strong for us.  Then God stands up.  Has had enough.  Reaches down with His enormous hand and scoops them all up like so many grains of sand.  All done.  What's next?

There is much said of God's strong right hand in the Bible.  Your right hand, O Lord, glorious in power.  Your right hand, O Lord, shatters the enemy.  (Exodus 15 from the song of Moses.)  God Almighty holds the book with the seven seals of the end times in His right hand.  His right hand saves us in battle and judges between right and wrong.  It is full of righteousness and with it He holds our own feeble hands.  It was the right hand of the Lord that spread out the heavens and by it He swears an oath to bring retribution with His mighty arm.  The cup of the final destruction of the earth is held in God's right hand.  Our names are written on it and the scars for the penalty of our sins recorded on each of His hands for all eternity.  It is at the right hand of God that Jesus sits even now as He pleads for us as our great High Priest. 

The joke at Christ's crucifixion was to put a reed in His right hand to mock Him for proclaiming to be the King of the Jews.  Born in a manger, placed in a feeding trough...this sacrificial perfect lamb was already a king.  In the first two years of His life He was honored as such with the gifts from foreign diplomats who understood the import of the star heralding His birth.  But He was despised, rejected of men and executed by the very people He came to save.  The One Whose right hand had flung the stars bled and died with criminals.  That was Friday.  Demons dancing.  Satan spewing.  All hell breaking loose.  Short-sighted and sadistic, the enemy dancing with glee that the strong right hand of God had been destroyed.

But Sunday...the empty tomb.  The right hand of God took the hand of His Son and raised Him from the dead!  A new body.  A new day.  For that hand secured forever our place in eternity.  With one fell swoop it caught up the dancing demons and flung them far and wide.  His heal had crushed the head of the foul serpent who had deceived us from the beginning.  The "yad" of God has judged us righteous who love His Son. 

The Lord is my strength and my song.  He has become my salvation.  Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous, singing:  "The right hand of the Lord does valiantly!  The right hand of the Lord exalts!  The right hand of the Lord does valiantly!"

I shall not die, but live, and recount the deeds of the Lord!!!