Desiring the Missional Cold Turkey

Tomorrow I’m registering for what is probably my last year, for a long time, of formal studies. Its one more year of work stuck in the books before entering the world of full-time pastoring. Its a bit scary actually. I’ve become used to my books, I’ve become used to choosing when and where to preach and I’ve become used to hiding behind the fact that I’m currently in transit as an excuse for not being missional enough. All that ends at the end of this year – and all I’ll be left with is the missional cold turkey. The place where the rubber hits the road. Its the place where you have to learn things never taught at seminaries or bible colleges – things that really can’t be taught in those institutions, even the finest ones. Its the place where you can’t see what’s coming around the next corner.  Its the place where anxiety reaches heights you didn’t think possible.

But I wouldn’t give it up for the world. Being given the chance to live missionally and lead others in living missionally in such a way that God is glorified and Christ is exalted is just about as flippin’ exciting as it gets.

As the psalmist says, ‘Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart‘ (Ps. 37:4) – he really will.

Psalm 51 Confession Debate

One of the things I enjoy about liturgical church services is the high place that most of them give to public, corporate confession of sin. There was almost no public confession of sin at the Baptist church I grew up in however now, in my current church, we do confession every service.

In some churches I’ve noticed the practice of using Psalm 51 as a corporate confession prayer. Now the usage of this Psalm as a personalized confession prayer has come under debate: I’ve heard prominent pastors suggest that its wrong for us to pray Psalm 51 corporately and I’ve also heard some argue the opposite. I have some of my 0wn thoughts on the subject but I want to know what others think. So here’s your options:

1) We can pray Psalm 51 without qualification as a corporate confession prayer.

2) We can pray Psalm 51 as a corporate confession prayer, but only with qualification (presumably made by the service leader).

3) We cannot pray Psalm 51 as a corporate confession prayer.

4) Something else (and you better explain…)

Psalm 82 – Some Enigmatic Reflections

Psalm 82 is an intriguing short psalm of just 8 verses. It is penned by Asaph and is located in book III of the Psalms. The Psalm has something of enigma and mystery to it as one begins to read. The reason for this is that it’s very unclear and murky as to who exactly the Psalm is addressed. Only once the addressees are identified will the Psalm make sense and have true applicational value.

Verse one paints a metaphoric picture of God, that is Yahweh the covenant God, standing and giving judgment in a great assembly made up of ‘gods’. These ‘gods’ are confronted with an accusation in verse 2 as to how long they will keep throwing their lot in with the wicked without passing judgment perhaps by their disassociation. Verses 3 and 4 add the corrective instruction of God to these ‘gods’ who are under judgment – they are to stand firmly for the cause of the marginalized and care for them – which by implication they have clearly failed to do. Verse 5 can be taken as either referring to the ‘weak and needy’ (v.4) or a continuation of the description of the ‘gods’. The latter is perhaps a more favorable interpretation and in keeping with the context of the psalm as a whole. And so it is the ‘gods’ who understand nothing and walk in darkness – further confirmation of their judgment. Verse 6 then enters as a stunning rebuke – God who had once declared these ‘gods’ as ‘gods’ and as ‘sons of the Most High’ will judge them and they will die like ordinary men as is the way of all men. The psalmist then affirms this in the final verse with a call for God to judge the earth and claim his inheritance.

The enigma lies in the identity of the ‘gods’ – who are they? Are they metaphoric gods, symbols of the powers and ideologies that take man’s worship away from Yahweh? Are they, as one writer has suggested, the Jewish rulers who are in view here standing under God’s judgment? Are they angels and the heavenly host (cf. Job 1:6), deviant angels who have rejected God? Or does the clue to their identity lie elsewhere?

One big clue comes in John 10:34 where Jesus makes use of this very verse and sheds some interesting light on who the recipients might be. In John 10 Jesus addresses the Pharisees who are accusing him of calling himself ‘God’s Son’. In verse 34 he draws on Psalm 82:6 to highlight that in the ‘law’ people were referred to as ‘gods’. So at least we must agree with Jesus that the ‘gods’ in the psalm are not angels or gods which are metaphoric representations of world religions and ideologies but rather they metaphorically represent real people.

Who are those real people is the question? John gives another clue, Christ calls them those ‘to whom the word of God came’ (v.35). Most likely we would see that as a reference to the Jewish people, and it is not abnormal for the Jews to be referred to as sons of God or sons of the most high (cf. Hosea 11:1). Added to this is further evidence that in Rabbinic tradition that they thought of this psalm as referring to apostate Israel after the golden calf episode in Exodus 32. The Psalm then is a judgment Psalm warning the reader of the apostasy of Israel. It is not dissimilar to the overall thrust of the letter to the Hebrews in this regard. Israel we’re called to care for the oppressed, the poor and the weak amongst them (cf. Lev. 25), this was a visible sign of the covenant love of God reflected in the community. In this task they failed because ultimately they rejected that covenant love and so its outward manifestation was not evident.

This call of an outward demonstration of God’s covenant love is still impacting upon the believer today. Christians are still called to demonstrate their faith through caring for the weak, poor and oppressed (cf. James 1:27 and 2:14-26). When we, the believing community cease to have that love evident we show ourselves up as did Israel and so a stern warning stands for us – we will die like mere men, not like the redeemed who will be sons and daughters of the living God.

Personal Psalm Compositions

In a course on ‘Old Testament Wisdom Literature and Poetry’, we were asked to compose our own psalms and submit them. Today we read them all out (anonymously) in class. I was absolutely amazed and encouraged by the quality of the psalms that some of the guys and gals in my class produced – it highlighted that that a deep, experiential understanding of the gospel was alive and well amongst many in my class. Well, for what it’s worth, here’s my composition – a wisdom psalm, summing up the way I often feel myself behaving. I’ve tried to keep an OT biblical theological, post-exilic framework to the psalm and the imagery within it:

A  Wisdom Psalm

The carnal man parades like a wild beast,

He acts upon his impulse,

And there is no restraint which masters him.

 

In his heart he delights in his freedom,

He boasts of his power.

But the righteous pity him as a caged animal.

 

The animal prances and roars,

But the righteous see but an insect confined in a prison.

 

The shackles of the righteous have been removed,

They dwell in freedom, they exercise self-control.

They have escaped from Egypt,

And the LORD is in their midst.

 

The foolish man lives in Babylon

He delights in its mysteries,

But the LORD is far off.

 

The righteous have crossed the sea,

Their feet are firmly placed on dry ground.

They sing a victorious song.

 

The foolish man resides by the River,

It stretches out before him.

His ears hear a foreign tongue.

 

The righteous are those whose freedom is in the LORD.

Q & A on Psalm 15

I’ve recently heard Psalm 15 preached, written a Bible study on it, and am contemplating writing a sermon on it. Below are some questions that I think are fundamental to correct interpretation of the Psalm within redemptive history. I’ve also included my initial answers to these questions. Please feel free to comment or add questions that you think are fundamental to understanding the Psalm.

Question: So what is this ‘sanctuary’ and ‘holy hill’ that David is talking about? Look up a number of cross-references: Exodus15:17; Exodus 25:8-9; 2 Samuel 7:1-17.

Answer: I think there’s more than one answer to this question depending upon which group of readers we’re considering. At the time of the writing of the Psalm, the sanctuary was the tabernacle (cf. Ex. 25:8-9) – this is especially in line with the original Hebrew which renders the word as ‘tent’. The ‘holy hill’ was most likely initially a reference to Sinai, but perhaps with expectation of a future ‘holy hill’ (cf. Ex. 15:17). The post-exilic community would have read it slightly differently, perhaps combining the two places into the temple on Mount Zion which was set up after David’s reign (cf. 2Sam. 7:1-17). The common denominator however, is that this sanctuary and ‘holy hill’ were synonymous with the presence of God. It was here, in its different expressions, that God’s deepest presence on earth was manifest.

Question: So what is David really asking then?

Answer: Who can live with God? Who can dwell, in some earthly sense, in the presence of God?

Question: Is that the same as asking who can go to heaven? Why or why not?

Answer: This is possibly the crux question for understanding how to interpret and apply this passage to the New Testament believer today, as well as the original readers. Common teaching on this passage is that ultimately it is asking the question, ‘who can go to heaven’, since God’s presence is ultimately in heaven. One presumes that this line of teaching is adopted in order to iron out any hint of works based entrance into God’s presence. The problem with this view is that it fails to take into account the psalm’s position in a redemptive historical context.

David, as the anointed king, of the redeemed covenant community is able to, along with the rest of the covenant community, offer sacrifices at the tabernacle. Similarly the post-exilic community can offer sacrifices in the temple. Their complete access is still limited and mediated through priests, but limited access has been apportioned the community. This limited access exists because the community has already been redeemed and so Wilcock, ‘the tent is also the Tent-as-Home, into which God invites those he has already made friends.’ (Italics mine). This paints the Psalm in a slightly different light, no longer is Romans 3, and man’s inability to be righteous, this psalm’s New Testament counterpart, but rather something more along the lines of the Sermon on the Mount – what life in the kingdom looks like.

Love and Life

As I continued reading through the Psalms this morning I came across what for me is one of the most profound verses in Scripture. If I remember correctly I first really reflected on this verse when I read a sermon of John Piper’s dealing with it. The verse is Psalm 63:3

“Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.”

What strikes me is the frame of mind David has to be in to write such words. To reckon that God’s love is greater than one’s very own life – and not just intellectually, but to the point of action – is completely mind boggling for me. Everyday I love this life, and my life, more than God’s love – it is a constant challenge for me to reckon that God’s love is greater than life. Intellectually I’m there completely but in practice I’m miles away.

I pray for God’s Spirit to transform my heart and my actions so that I can sing this Psalm with David with great conviction.

Doing a ‘Doeg’ and the Missional Community

In Psalm 52 David pens a psalm rebuking Doeg the Edomite and calling for him to be brought to justice. In verse 6 and 7 ‘the righteous’ look on and scoff saying, ‘Here now is the man who did not make God his stronghold but trusted in his great wealth and grew strong by destroying others.’

There’s a massive temptation for us each day to be like Doeg – to do a Doeg. There are countless other objects that we attempt to make our strongholds rather than the creator God of the universe. We’ll trust in anything tangible that looks slightly desirable to us, and in the process we’ll destroy others.

As I read this Psalm this morning I was extremely conscious of how I so naturally become guilty here. It’s really difficult to wake up every morning and resolve to make God your stronghold and not the things of this world. Now I like to write, talk and think about missional communities – but at the end of the day I don’t want to be involved in a community that isn’t going to help me and others to persevere, day in and day out, in making God our stronghold. That has to be the heart of a missional community – without it mission will not flow.