Opossum Screed: September 2020

Early Fall Colors

I took a few photos yesterday on Stillwell Road just east of Kile Road in Claridon Township. Here are three of them (click on image to enlarge):

Present

For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past, or like a watch in the night.

✙ Ps 90:4 ✙

It is difficult for me to place God outside of time, but I must continually force myself to do so. Time is a creature of God, and God is no more bound by it than I am governed by the laws of Turkmenistan when I'm in Ohio. Words like election and predestination and perseverance are transformed when we remember that God neither remembers the past nor anticipates the future, but simply exists in an eternal present in which all is known. Here's how Calvin talked about God and time:

When we attribute prescience to God, we mean that all things always were, and ever continue, under his eye; that to his knowledge there is no past or future, but all things are present, and indeed so present, that it is not merely the idea of them that is before him (as those objects are which we retain in our memory), but that he truly sees and contemplates them as actually under his immediate inspection. This prescience extends to the whole circuit of the world, and to all creatures.

✙ Institutes of the Christian Religion 3.21.5

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Which leads me to think about that word present:

Present means now. For me it is the blink of an eye, for what was the present a millisecond ago suddenly becomes the past, and anything

The first hymn of any hymnal tells you something about the denomination that uses it. For example, Methodists always put O For a Thousand Tongues (by Charles Wesley) as the first hymn in their official hymnal. The Chalice Hymnal of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee as its first hymn.* The UCC's New Century Hymnal has Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise as № 1, probably chosen as a compromise between its two predecessor denominations: The opening hymn in the old E&R Hymnal was Holy, Holy, Holy, and № 1 in the Pilgrim Hymnal (of the Congregational Christians) was Isaac Watts' paraphrase of Psalm 90, Our God, Our Help in Ages Past. It's hard to overstate how well loved this last song was (and still is) in many churches that identify themselves as being from the Congregational tradition.

I remember being invited to preach at an evening chapel service in a retirement community in La Jolla, California. One of the hymns I'd chosen

Way back when, Carly Simon questioned her own perception of the present in the song Anticipation. Was she really living in the moment, or was she already looking forward to something better?

I think about this when I meditate on the state of the church. The religion that best represents my beliefs seems to have peaked in the days leading up to Ms. Simon's hit song. Mainline churches didn't know it in the 50's and 60's, but they'd soon begin a decline that still hasn't been reversed. Though certain other churches have grown during that same period, the population of the United States is far less Christian than it once was. Indeed, the number of people who claim to have no religion at all is roughly the same as the number of people who now belong to the once dominant mainline Protestant churches (Methodists, UCC, Disciples, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, etc.).

Thus, I've spent my entire adulthood living with this reality. But what were my forebears thinking back then? Were they anticipating a bright future,

My message today is a first-person biographical sketch of Ishmael. In two weeks, I'll share a similar message about Isaac. Here's the order of worship found in the video:

00:00 Chimes
00:23 Prélude: Simple Gifts
05:44 Welcome
07:02 Call to Worship: Psalm 116.1-2, 5
07:21 Opening Prayer

I will not violate my covenant, or alter the word that went forth from my lips.
Once and for all I have sworn by my holiness; I will not lie to David.
His line shall continue forever, and his throne endure before me like the sun.
It shall be established forever like the moon, an enduring witness in the skies.
But now you have spurned and rejected him; you are full of wrath against your anointed.
You have renounced the covenant with your servant; you have defiled his crown in the dust.

✙ Ps 89:34-39

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This section of the 89th Psalm I would list as one of the problems with reading the psalms in the first place. How can this be considered scripture when it so obviously contradicts itself. On the one hand, God promises never to break a promise, and this promise not to break a promise is followed immediately by—at least from the viewpoint of the psalmist—the breaking of the promise.

And yet this very perception of a promise broken is, in reality, all the more reason to pray the psalms. It is precisely this honest reaction that gives

Happy are the people who know the festal shout, who walk, O Lord, in the light of your countenance; they exult in your Name all day long, and extol your righteousness.

✙ Ps 89:15-16

Consistency must be the key. Can I reasonably expect to run around shouting with my hands waving in the air all day every day? I think that the festal shout that God's people know must be more in my heart than on my lips, for it's not an occasional ejaculation, but an all-day song of praise, sung while walking in the light of God:

There’s a song in my heart that my lips cannot tell,

and my soul is with happiness filled,

since the Savior has come in my life to foretell

The P in Tulip

Some say the P in tulip stands for perseverance of the saints,
others the preservation of the saints.

I will sing of your steadfast love, O Lord, forever; with my mouth I will proclaim your faithfulness to all generations.
I declare that your steadfast love is established forever; your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens.
You said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to my servant David:
‘I will establish your descendants forever, and build your throne for all generations.’”

✙ Ps 89:1-4

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Sometimes I despair. I am a sinner. I cannot not commit wrongdoing. Even when I do the right thing, it is for selfish reasons. And so I come to be convinced that I am bound to fall away; God's grace isn't sufficient for someone like me.

But this falling away "cannot possibly happen. God’s plan cannot be changed; God’s promise cannot fail; the calling according to God’s purpose cannot be revoked; the merit of Christ as well as his interceding and preserving cannot be nullified; and the sealing of the Holy Spirit can neither be invalidated nor wiped out."

✙ Canons of Dort 5.8

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I thank you, my Creator, for the obedience of Christ and the intercession of your Spirit. Help me never to despair, but to believe your promises, sealed with the blood of your Son, in whose Name I pray as he taught me: Our Father...

At Night I Cry

O Lord, God of my salvation, when, at night, I cry out in your presence, let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry.

✙ Ps 88:1-2

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Psalm 88 is a prayer of complaint, and the complaint is so sustained that even Calvin states that there's a danger in this prayer of committing the sin of murmuring against God. But "by applying to God the appellation of the God of his salvation, casting, as it were, a bridle upon himself, he restrains the excess of his sorrow, shuts the door against despair, and strengthens and prepares himself for the endurance of the cross."

Psalm 88 teaches me that God can handle my problems better than I can,

On the holy mount stands the city he founded;
the Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.
Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God.

Among those who know me I mention Rahab and Babylon; Philistia too, and Tyre, with Ethiopia—“This one was born there,” they say.
And of Zion it shall be said, “This one and that one were born in it”; for the Most High himself will establish it.
The Lord records, as he registers the peoples, “This one was born there.”

Singers and dancers alike say, “All my springs are in you.”

✙ Ps 87 ✙

The 87th Psalm is among the most curious songs in the Bible. But when I think on its true meaning, I am deeply moved. It begins with God's choice of one place over all others—a reference to unconditional election: Why has God chosen Zion? Because God loves it. No other reason is given, but because of God's love, Zion is glorious.

But the real point here is citizenship. In the United States, we're big on citizenship. And all citizens are (or technically should be) granted equal rights. Except one: Only a natural born citizen may become President of the country. A naturalized citizen is ineligible for this honor. It's almost as though Psalm 87 anticipates this distinction by making clear something that might easily have been misunderstood: Though God chose Zion

Turn to me and be gracious to me; give your strength to your Servant; save the Son of your handmaid.

✙ Ps 86:16

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I'm a pretty committed Protestant, and so even a hint of the adoration of Mary is something I tend to avoid. But Christians have traditionally interpreted this section of Psalm 86 as a messianic prayer for deliverance from death, and that God's answer to the prayer was resurrection. I don't expect non-Christians to buy into this interpretation, but it is where I personally can enter into the psalm. If the Servant praying this prayer is the Anointed of God, then the handmaid spoken of as his mother must of necessity be Mary.

Mary, the handmaid of God, delivered the Christ to the world. And this handmaid was not the reticent individual we too often imagine her to be. She was a courageous prophet of God who, when she was recognized by

Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart to revere your Name.

✙ Ps 86:11 ✙

I have always loved this verse of Psalm 86. My heart is distracted by so many things, sort of like Martha in the kitchen. It is a prayer for a heart whose attention is no longer divided among answering the phone, writing a sermon, paying the light bill, paying the rent, keeping the car running, pleasing this or that person, and honoring God. "Give me an undivided heart to revere your Name," I pray.

And that's an excellent prayer to pray all day any day. But apparently it's not quite the prayer I think it is—at least not the prayer prayed in Psalm 86:11. The Geneva Bible comes closer to the true translation (but still not

Today's video does double duty as both the final installment of my Romans series and my least popular sermon ever. Here's the order of worship:

00:00 Chimes
00:30 Prélude: Terpujilah Allah
02:47 Welcome
04:27 Call to Worship: Romans 11.33-36
05:14 Opening Prayer
05:33 Lord's Prayer
06:01 Bible Study: Introduction

On this date in 1973, Jim Croce and his band were killed in a plane crash in Louisiana. He was only 30 years old. Soon after his death, the song Time in a Bottle was released and quickly rose to #1 on the charts. Normally it would have been heard as a romantic ballad. But as a posthumous release, it was heartbreaking. I still remember it, and I was only 13 at the time.

God Is Good

Much of Psalm 86 is a prayer prayed in extremis (at the point of death)—the sort of biblical prayer that is prayed so often as to be a bit discouraging, a reminder of all the pain in the world, all the things to be afraid of. But in the middle of it is an affirmation that can be prayed not only in the context of the psalm, but can also be lifted out of it and remembered in good times and bad,

For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call on you.

✙ Ps 86:5 ✙

I see four points in this affirmation:

God is good all the time. Even the best human being mixes some evil or selfishness with their good intentions. But God's goodness is unalloyed with any evil. God does not limit divine blessing only to those who already love God, which is why Jesus tells us we are free to be good to those who aren't themselves good: But I say to you, 'Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun

Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.

✙ Ps 86:1 ✙

Psalm 86 is one of many psalms which tell me of God's love for the downcast. Calvin reminds me that I should be encouraged by this particular psalm when I find myself oppressed or destitute. He said that, in order to keep our minds from being overwhelmed under the greatest of afflictions, we should find encouragement in this prayer, composed by the Holy Spirit for the poor and afflicted.

This is fine and well. And certainly Calvin is correct. But more than needing assurance that this prayer for the poor and the afflicted is for me, I need to remember that I am not the only person on earth—that there are billions who are poorer and more afflicted than I, and that most of them can more

Bread Winners by Thomas Blinks (1905) ✙

Likewise, the Lord will grant prosperity: and our land shall yield her increase. Righteousness shall go before him; and set her steps in the way.

✙ Ps 85:12-13 ✙

A literal interpretation of Psalm 85:12 seems a bit shallow—a precursor to today's name-it-claim-it theology which states that if we're good enough or have enough faith, we'll be blessed materially. Wouldn't a strictly spiritual interpretation be better (and more realistic)? Calvin takes both into consideration, and comes down on the side of the former. But he does so (whether intentionally or unintentionally, I don't know) in such a way as to make me think harder about both sides of the issue.

"Some take this verse allegorically, and interpret it as the increase of spiritual blessings; but this does not agree with the particle גַּם, rendered likewise, by which the prophet, in my opinion, intends to express the completeness of

Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss each other.
Faithfulness will spring up from the ground, and righteousness will look down from the sky.

✙ Ps 85:10-11

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Theologians sometimes very dryly refer not to Jesus, but to the Christ Event. I suppose this is supposed to refer to the historical Jesus, considered apart from faith. But if you were to ask me, "What is the Christ Event?" I would answer: It's what happens when steadfast love and faithfulness meet, when righteousness and peace kiss one another, when faithfulness springs up from the earth and righteousness looks down from the sky. The point at which all these gifts of God intersect is the Christ Event. Calvin agreed, saying of this verse, "I cordially embrace the opinion which is held by many, that we have here a prophecy concerning the kingdom of Christ." And what is that kingdom, except the time and place where all these wonderful things

Yesterday's prayer was one for revival, since that's what the sixth verse of this psalm called for. And the eighth verse puts that into context. I picture revivals to be rather raucous occasions of manipulative preaching and spirited singing, the point being to whip people into an emotional frenzy. But if Psalm 85 (the one that in v. 6 said, "Revive us again") is any indication, biblical revival seems almost the opposite of that—

Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts.

✙ Ps 85:8-9

This context of attentiveness and peace is actually the story behind a John Greenleaf Whittier poem that we sing as a hymn. Dear Lord and Father of

Will you not revive us again, so that your people may rejoice in you?

✙ Ps 85:6

Eugene Peterson said that "nothing suffers from time quite so much as religion. The skeletal structure of obedience becomes arthritic, and the circulatory system of praise becomes sluggish."*

Such was the case in ancient Israel, and such is the case in the church and the people who comprise it. When I realize my own forgetfulness or when I fall into sin, I as an individual need to pray for my own quickening. The community as well needs to pray for revival, so that we as a people will not lack responsiveness to God's goodness, but may instead be dead

O Lord of hosts, happy is everyone who trusts in you.

✙ Ps 84:12 ✙

Calvin's interpretation of this final verse of one of the most beautiful of the psalms is quite elegant. Referring to the psalmist, he states that it...

seems to refer to the season of his banishment. He had previously described the blessedness of those who dwell in the courts of the Lord, and now he avows, that although he was for a time deprived of that privilege, he was far from being altogether miserable, because he was supported by the best of all consolations, that which arose from beholding from a

In the twelfth installment of my Bible Study on Romans, I talk about the faith of Abraham, as Paul discusses it in chapters 4, 9 & 10. Here's the video's order of worship:

00:00 Chimes
00:27 Prélude: The God of Abraham Praise
03:04 Welcome
03:59 Call to Worship
04:20 Opening Prayer
04:42 Lord's Prayer
05:16 First Scripture Reading: Genesis 11.27 - 12.7

For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than live in the tents of wickedness.

✙ Ps 84:10 ✙

We live in a world in which there are "successful" people who look to how they can best utilize others in order to gain power or happiness or wealth or fame for themselves. I, however, am called to follow One who came not to be served but to serve [Matt. 20:28]. The psalmist, no less a part of the church than I am, understood better than I what Christ meant. For they desired not length of life, but even the briefest time near to the heart of God. And they desired not ease and pleasure, but service to God and to God's people.

My prayer for today is this 1681 hymn* by Richard Baxter:

Happy are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.

✙ Ps 84:5 ✙

We usually think of the pilgrimage written and sung about in Psalm 84 as physical. But in the fifth verse I see that it is no less spiritual, for the roads I travel lie within me. I assume that only certain highways within my heart are highways to Zion, the others leading eventually to dead ends. But meditating on Romans 8:28,* I must remember that God's will for me—whatever that is—cannot be thwarted by my choices, good or bad.

The highways in my heart also remind me of a song that I've known (and have always related to) since I was a kid. It's from the first album I ever owned, American Pie:

You know I've heard about people like me,

but I never made the connection.

They walk one road to set them free

As is my custom, I dedicate a 9/11 post to those who kept me safe on this day in 2001. This post is only slightly altered from a piece I wrote last year for our local newspaper:

Autumn begins in September, and so this is a month of nostalgia for many. That notion of remembering is especially strong around September 11, as we remember the terrorist attacks on our country on that day in 2001.

All of us who were alive then experienced that Tuesday as a day of shock, but each of us remembers it in a different way. Some were personally visited by horrible tragedy. Some performed heroic deeds. Most remember feelings of incredulity and helplessness as they watched events unfold. But others of us remember something very different.

I was in the air that morning. And since my plane was just about to enter U.S. air space when the first of the Twin Towers was struck, my flight was

Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.
Happy are those who live in your house, ever singing your praise.

✙ Ps 84:3-4 ✙

Raised as I was on the RSV and loyal as I am to the NRSV which replaced it, I have always counted on the above translation to be correct. But it might not be. Calvin interprets it differently, and he gives good reason. I need to hear him out:

The psalmist (probably David, he says, but he'll allow that he might be wrong) has no access to the tabernacle, the dwelling place of God. Even birds have nests, the psalmist says. Full stop. Then is added the exclamation, O your altars, O Lord of hosts! My King and my God! Happy are the people who can live in God's house and sing God's praise.

I'll never forget the summer of 2016 when I was visiting the Ville. I had stopped at an East End Starbucks wearing my Louisville ballcap, and as I was leaving, an older guy (yes, older than me) stopped me and told me he liked my hat. This was odd, because lots of people in Louisville wear Cards gear—indeed the gentleman who was talking to me had a Louisville shirt on himself. So I told him I liked his shirt.

We chatted a bit about the upcoming season, and he said he was really excited about our quarterback. I said, "Yeah, he's even getting some Heisman buzz." He looked at me kinda sorrowfully, as though I had just

Psalm 84 is a pilgrim's psalm. I've divided the psalm up so that the verses most applicable to a pilgrimage will come later. But today there's a different kind of pilgrimage to look at, and I don't see it very clearly in the NRSV. So I'm posting it here as the Geneva Bible translated it, which is closer to the Hebrew:
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O Lord of hosts, how amiable are thy tabernacles? My soul longeth, yea, and fainted for the courts of the Lord: for my heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God.

✙ Ps 84:1-2 (Geneva Bible)

The NRSV uses "dwelling place" (singular) for מִשְׁכְּנוֹתֶ, which is the plural form of a word used elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible to refer to the tabernacle, or tent of meeting—the sanctuary used by Israel up until after the death of King David. (It was his son, Solomon, who built the temple.) And so here at the beginning of this pilgrim's psalm, we are reminded that God, the Almighty Creator, was perceived by our ancestors-in-the-faith as a tent-

O God, do not keep silence; do not hold your peace or be still, O God!
Even now your enemies are in tumult; those who hate you have raised their heads.
They lay crafty plans against your people; they consult together against those you protect.
They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more.”

Fill their faces with shame, so that they may seek your Name, O Lord.

—Psalm 83:1-4, 16

Today, I'll metaphorically hand the keyboard over to Hebrew poetry scholar C. Hassell Bullock*:

The story is told of a plane full of passengers, years ago, that was just taking off when the copilot noticed a rattle in the rear door of the plane. He went back to check it out, and as he did, the door started to swing open, and the copilot clung to the

The Roman pantheon was a temple dedicated to the worship of all gods ❦

God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:
“How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked?

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Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute.
Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk around in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
I say, “You are gods, children of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, you shall die like mortals, and fall like any prince.”
Rise up, O God, judge the earth; for all the nations belong to you!

❦ Ps 82

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Israel's religion didn't just suddenly appear out of nowhere. It evolved. And here in Psalm 82 I see signs of that evolution. In ancient polytheistic cultures, different peoples were aware of the fact that their gods and their

I'd never noticed before that the iPhone weather app has a great animation for thunderstorms. Since Chardon is (obviously) beset by bad weather today, I made a .gif of it. I decided a video of On Jordan's Stormy Banks I Stand would partner with it nicely, but there wasn't a good vocal one. Apparently there's some insidious new tune that everybody's using but which just doesn't do it for me. Or else they sing a verse of Stormy Banks, then move on to some other song in an ill-begotten medley. But I did find this wonderful piano solo version by Jeremy Yowell, and I'm glad I did. I'll put the hymn text below. (It doesn't correspond to the video.) The words were written by

And God would have fed them with the fat of wheat, and with honey out of the rock would I have sufficed thee.

✙ Ps 81:16 (Geneva Bible)

At the end of Psalm 81, the psalmist talks about a people who have closed their ears and hearts to God. But it need not be this way. The grace of God is still grace. Our rejection of it is no more possible than preventing the sun from rising. The final verse is a demonstration of this:

Fat does not drip from wheat stalks (after all, מֵחֵלֶב חִטָּה doesn't mean finest wheat, but wheat-fat), and rocks to not ooze honey. Yet this is what is on offer to the people of God. We can talk all we want about what's really meant by these strangely beautiful images, but I would maintain that they are but metaphors for grace—something impossible on their own, and inexplicable in human terms, and yet something unbidden and unearned that drips and

This is the eleventh installment in my Bible Study on Romans. I cover 13:8 through 15:13, and use Victor Hugo and Jorge Villamizar as illustrations. Included in this service are the Pilgrim Church Choir singing their favorite anthem, and our church musician accompanying the hymn When We Are Living. Here's the order of worship:

00:00 Chimes
00:24 Vocal Prélude: We Are Not Alone
03:44 Welcome
04:30 Call to Worship: Psalm 105.1-3
04:56 Opening Prayer

I hear a voice I had not known: “I relieved your shoulder of the burden; your hands were freed from the basket."

✙ Ps 81:5b-6

The UCC's principle prayer of confession, found The New Century Hymnal contains the line, We are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves. And it's this line that helps me relate to this brief passage from Psalm 81.

I think the NRSV probably gets v. 5 wrong. It translates שְׂפַת—which literally means lip (of)—as voice. But the 16th century Geneva Bible does a better job:

I heard a language, that I understood not.

It makes more sense that lip be used as we would use tongue, not to mean voice, but rather language. The point here, to me at least, is that the language of freedom is often a novelty. It comes when we least expect it, and it comes in an incomprehensible way.

If I am in complete bondage, even the language of deliverance is foreign to me, for I do not know what freedom is. Israel's deliverance from Egyptian

But let your hand be upon the one at your right hand, the one whom you made strong for yourself. Then we will never turn back from you; give us life, and we will call on your Name.

❧ Ps 80:17-18

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The bar for answered prayer here seems a bit too low. Give us life, and we'll call on God's Name. The promise couldn't have been made by one who was dead, so...

But, anyway, what I think my response to this prayer should be is to think about the nature of life itself. There is biological life, and then there is a life which is appreciated as a gift from God, a life lived for God. Such a life necessarily calls on the Name of God even as it is shaped by the hand of God. For Jesus' said,

You did not make yourself,
Yet you must keep yourself
By use of other lives.
No gratitude atones
For bad use or too much.

❦ Wendell Berry

The Prayer for Wholeness

Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock! You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh. Stir up your might, and come to save us!

Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved.

❧ Ps 80:1-3

After the death of King Solomon, the Kingdom of Israel was divided in two: the southern one was called Judah (roughly the area called Judea in the New Testament), and consisted of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin; while the northern one retained the name Israel, and was made up of the other 9.5 tribes (Levi was the landless priestly tribe and divided between the two). The capital and Solomon's temple were located in the southern kingdom, and after the split, Judah was thought of as more faithful than Israel.

Israel's downfall to the Assyrians occurred over 120 years before Judah fell to Babylon, and many of its people were carted off into exile. Though we call them the ten lost tribes, many Israelites remained in the land; but just as their compatriots had been exiled, so Assyria forced foreigners to replace

How long, O Lord? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealous wrath burn like fire?

❧ Ps 79:5

People often think of complaining as being somewhat hostile. When I think of the word complaint, I often picture something I probably saw on an old black-and-white sitcom: A complaint department in in a department store, with a bunch of angry (or at least disgruntled) customers lined up demanding satisfaction.

In the Bible, however, complaints are not so much angry as tragic. In the 79th Psalm, Israel has been invaded and its temple desecrated and destroyed. We can (and no doubt will) debate God's precise rôle in such events, but one thing is not up for debate, and that is God's reaction to the complaining. Whether people are incensed or devastated, God receives complaints with love. God doesn't respond by changing their situation with

He chose his servant David, and took him from the sheepfolds; from tending the nursing ewes he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel, his inheritance.

With upright heart he tended them, and guided them with skillful hand.

❧ Ps 78:70-72

God once again speaks to us about leadership. David, an humble shepherd who cares tenderly for his sheep, is brought in from the fields to tend the flock of Israel. It is not pointless that we see the movement here that we do—from the fields to the halls of power, the same man who tended nursing ewes now skillfully guides his people. Nor is it by accident that we are told of David's upright heart, for this is God's ideal for ethical and strong leadership. What is noteworthy elsewhere in the scriptures is that David's actions did not always reflect God's will for him. But when he fell short, his admission of guilt was both profound and life-changing. This, too, I suppose, is part of the biblical definition of upright: not that

We are not alone,
we live in God’s world.

We believe in God:
who has created and is creating,
who has come in Jesus,
the Word made flesh,
to reconcile and make new,
who works in us and others
by the Spirit.

We trust in God.

We are called to be the Church:
to celebrate God’s presence,

You never know as you're reading the Bible, what is going to catch your fancy should you take a notion to look at a verse in the original language. And, as it turns out, Psalm 78:25 is really interesting when you look at the Hebrew.

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When celebrate the Lord's Supper in church, I often think about the manna in the wilderness in terms of Holy Communion. And so I often meditate on these words from today's psalter portion:

Mortals ate of the bread of angels; he sent them food in abundance.

❧ Ps 78:25

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Just as God fed Israel the bread of heaven, so God feeds the church.

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But the word for angels used in this verse is אַבִּירִים, which literally means strong ones. And when that word is used in its singular form (אַבִּיר), it refers to God. So angels is probably the best translation, because it might also