David Bahn – Reflections

Psalm 29:1-2

Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.

Psalm 59:16-17

But I will sing of your strength;
I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning.
For you have been to me a fortress
and a refuge in the day of my distress.
O my Strength, I will sing praises to you,
for you, O God, are my fortress,
the God who shows me steadfast love.

Psalm 89:1-2

I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever;
with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.
For I said, “Steadfast love will be built up forever;
in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness.”

Psalm 149:1

Praise the Lord!
Sing to the Lord a new song,
his praise in the assembly of the godly!

I’ll admit it: I’m a wimp! On the 29th of the month – when I am in my Psalm-reading discipline – Psalm 119 is one of the Psalms that would be appointed. But, as I said, I’m a wimp: I won’t tackle Psalm 119 – all 176 verses of it – along with the other 4 Psalms that would come up in this rotation. On the first day of the month, it’s 1; 31; 61; 91; 121 – easy enough. On the 15th it’s 15; 35; 65; 95; 125. On the 29th it would be 29; 59; 89; 119; 149. Psalm 119 is an acrostic psalm, with each of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet given its own eight verses, each of those verses beginning with a word beginning with that letter. I just don’t have the personal spiritual stamina to slog through all those verses for my personal devotional time. I’ll take on Psalm 119 on the 31st of the month. As I said, I”m a wimp.

On the other hand, isn’t that the very reason for going to God’s word? Don’t we go there for consolation, hope, comfort, guidance and direction? Don’t we go there because we don’t have the truth innately within us? Don’t we go there to be reminded of the glory of God, his power, faithfulness, truth, justice, righteousness, his steadfast love, and grace?

In fact we’re all wimps when it comes to standing before God. His voice melts mountains. His power is unequalled. He, alone, is greatly to be praised. He is our strength and fortress. We sing our praises to him. My hope is not in my strength and spiritual stamina. My hope is in him.

That, of course, is not an excuse or call to wimp out when embracing God’s word. We need all we can get! But our only calling before God is not simply to regard, read, and reflect on his word. He calls us also to love and serve our neighbor. That requires the strength that comes from his word. But it also requires that we move from our early morning altar to the day’s activities. Why stop at Psalm 119, why not the whole psalter? Why not the entire Bible?

Life calls us from the strength of God’s word into God’s world. That’s where I’m heading now. Psalm 119 will be there on the 31st!