David Bahn – Reflections

O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger,
    nor discipline me in your wrath.
² Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am languishing;
    heal me, O LORD, for my bones are troubled.
³ My soul also is greatly troubled.
    But you, O LORD—how long?

⁴ Turn, O LORD, deliver my life;
    save me for the sake of your steadfast love.
⁵ For in death there is no remembrance of you;
    in Sheol who will give you praise?

⁶ I am weary with my moaning;
    every night I flood my bed with tears;
    I drench my couch with my weeping.
⁷ My eye wastes away because of grief;
    it grows weak because of all my foes.

⁸ Depart from me, all you workers of evil,
    for the LORD has heard the sound of my weeping.
⁹ The LORD has heard my plea;
    the LORD accepts my prayer.
¹⁰ All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled;
    they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.

Yay God! I suppose that might be considered by some to be irreverent. I certainly don’t intend to be disrespectful when I use that phrase. My intent is to be genuine and make the idea accessible outside of the confines of formal worship. I use it when the choir has sung an excellent anthem, or when we’re recognizing a new group of members, or confirmands: “Let’s give a big ‘Yay God’ for these people.” The intent is to give honor where honor is due. Thanks be to God. Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! These all express that idea more formally.

Beyond formality, however, is the significance of offering praise to God. That is the supernatural response by God’s people when we see that he has done wonderful things. We can say our thank yous to those who deliver blessings to us: An act of kindness. A generous gift. A welcome embrace. A complement. It is good and right to thank people who have blessed us. Behind all those acts of kindness, grace, and love stands the God who inspires them.

“It is truly good, right, and salutary that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to You, O Lord, holy Father, almighty and everlasting God…” we say in the communion liturgy at the Proper Preface, before Holy Communion. At all times and in all places it is right to praise God. Yay God is appropriate at any time.

Why all times and all places? Because God is always good. His steadfast love endures forever. This is the refrain of many psalms: “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His steadfast love endures forever!” (Psalm 106:1, Psalm 107:1, Psalm 118:1, Psalm 136:1).

This is a fitting conclusion to our psalm of lament. It’s the metamessage of verse 9: “The LORD has heard my plea; the LORD accepts my prayer.” Or as Psalm 50:15 says, “Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you and you will glorify me.

Praise honors God – always appropriate. Praise puts our problems in perspective; they cannot separate us from God. Praise puts us in our proper place; we are not in charge. Praise sends the devil fleeing. Praise is always proper – especially at the end of our lamentations.

Yay God!

O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger,
    nor discipline me in your wrath.
² Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am languishing;
    heal me, O LORD, for my bones are troubled.
³ My soul also is greatly troubled.
    But you, O LORD—how long?

⁴ Turn, O LORD, deliver my life;
    save me for the sake of your steadfast love.
⁵ For in death there is no remembrance of you;
    in Sheol who will give you praise?

⁶ I am weary with my moaning;
    every night I flood my bed with tears;
    I drench my couch with my weeping.
⁷ My eye wastes away because of grief;
    it grows weak because of all my foes.

⁸ Depart from me, all you workers of evil,
    for the LORD has heard the sound of my weeping.
⁹ The LORD has heard my plea;
    the LORD accepts my prayer.
¹⁰ All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled;
    they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.

Pastor Wayne Grauman delivered a keynote speech at the Best Practices for Ministry Conference in Phoenix, Arizona. Diane and I had to leave early so we didn’t get to hear it. But he did give me an overview of what he was going to say. Wayne is a beloved veteran pastor, having served for decades at Salem Lutheran Church in Tomball, Texas. After retiring he and his wife Kathy traveled extensively in Europe, served at least two vacancies of which I am aware, and has had to battle against Multiple Myeloma. He seemed initially to have conquered the disease. But he has recently had to reengage in the battle.

All this has led him more fully to understand what it means to have hope. “Hope,” he says, “is related to trust.” He explained to me how he had always trusted God for his salvation. This is the justification part of trust. Trust is the sister of faith. There is, however, the sanctification side of trust. It’s when we put ourselves consciously into God’s hands and say, “Whatever comes my way, I will trust in you, O God.” It’s a matter of letting go and letting God take care of us here and now. Such trust, he says, is the foundation of hope.

All this comes to us by God’s grace as we hear of God’s great love. David, here, speaks of God’s steadfast love. It’s not just love. It’s not fleeting. It does not depend on us. The Hebrew word here is חֶסֶד (ḥesed). You have to say it with a guttural hch sound, like “Bach.” It is a rich concept relating to God’s covenantal faithfulness, unbreakable mercy, active, saving and enduring love.

We see this so clearly in Jesus’ life and ministry, his sacrificial death and resurrection. Jesus didn’t just love us for a moment. God loves us with an everlasting love. He is absolutely reliable.

“Turn, O LORD, deliver my life; save me for the sake of your steadfast love,” David prays. He trusts in God and therefore he has hope. There’s also a reasoning: “For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise?” (v. 5) – a plea based on the idea that David desires to praise God in the land of the living.

I like to think of hope as a three-way dance with trusting and waiting. Paul says, “If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:19). We do have hope in this life, but not only in this life. We have an eternal hope secured and founded upon the steadfast love of God in Jesus. We do not live without hope. It grows out of trust. It will never disappoint. In this psalm of lament we turn to God in trust, hope, and love.

O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger,
    nor discipline me in your wrath.
² Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am languishing;
    heal me, O LORD, for my bones are troubled.
³ My soul also is greatly troubled.
    But you, O LORD—how long?

⁴ Turn, O LORD, deliver my life;
    save me for the sake of your steadfast love.
⁵ For in death there is no remembrance of you;
    in Sheol who will give you praise?

⁶ I am weary with my moaning;
    every night I flood my bed with tears;
    I drench my couch with my weeping.
⁷ My eye wastes away because of grief;
    it grows weak because of all my foes.

⁸ Depart from me, all you workers of evil,
    for the LORD has heard the sound of my weeping.
⁹ The LORD has heard my plea;
    the LORD accepts my prayer.
¹⁰ All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled;
    they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.

I had visited a woman in a nursing home many years ago. She was near death. Her son was in the room, and while I was there, he provoked me to the point that I lost my temper and turned and walked out of the room. I was going down the very long hall, made a turn to the left to walk down another very long hallway, and realized that I needed to go back and apologize to him. In fact he had provoked me. His insinuations and cryptic criticisms and accusations were just enough below the surface of his comments that he could have claimed that he had not been unfair or unkind. But he had been both. His sting had hurt. And I had chosen to leave.

But I felt that I should be the more honorable person in that situation and decided to return and offer a palm branch. “John,” I said, “I’m sorry. I should not have left as I did just now. Please forgive me.”

I had anticipated that he might forgive me and offer me an apology as well. But he did not. He got up out of his chair, came around his mother’s bed, took my hand and led me out into the hall. Thinking this was a gesture of reconciliation, I went with him.

“Well,” he said, “some people are just not cut out to be pastors.” No I forgive you. No I’m sorry too. Just further accusation and insult. Criticism and disparagement. It really hurt.

That’s one of the reasons I so love James 1:5: If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. I love the verse not only because it promises that God will give us wisdom when we ask of him, he also will not criticize us when we ask him for it.

A psalm of lament includes a call for help. Thankfully when we call on God for help, he will not denigrate  us for needing his help. There are times when we really do need a rock higher than I (Psalm 61:2). We don’t have enough strength to sustain ourselves. When we call out to God he hears and answers.

The answer to our prayer for help may come by way of divine intervention. When it does, we rightly praise God. Sometimes it arrives as a helper, a fellow traveler along the pathway of life. And sometimes it takes the shape of strength of the Holy Spirit who helps us grow in our faith through the struggles we face. As James also says, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, ³ for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. ⁴ And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:2-4).

God hears us when we call. He will help us. We can pray confidently, “Help, O Lord! In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger,
    nor discipline me in your wrath.
² Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am languishing;
    heal me, O LORD, for my bones are troubled.
³ My soul also is greatly troubled.
    But you, O LORD—how long?

⁴ Turn, O LORD, deliver my life;
    save me for the sake of your steadfast love.
⁵ For in death there is no remembrance of you;
    in Sheol who will give you praise?

⁶ I am weary with my moaning;
    every night I flood my bed with tears;
    I drench my couch with my weeping.
⁷ My eye wastes away because of grief;
    it grows weak because of all my foes.

⁸ Depart from me, all you workers of evil,
    for the LORD has heard the sound of my weeping.
⁹ The LORD has heard my plea;
    the LORD accepts my prayer.
¹⁰ All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled;
    they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.

The second part of a psalm of lament is the complaint, or lament. It’s an expression of sorrow, frustration, distress, or pain. And while it is true, “Complaining is not a strategy,” God is willing to hear our complaints. But let’s be clear about two things.

1. Complaining is not a strategy. And,
2. Complaining alone is not a lament in the biblical sense of the word.

A lament in the biblical sense includes not only the complaints, but the address to God, the request for help, an expression of trust, and a vow or anticipation of praise. It’s the full story of a life of faith in a fallen world.

I love teaching the Stockdale Paradox, a concept from Jim Collins’ book Good to Great, based on the experiences of Admiral James Stockdale, a U.S. Navy officer and former prisoner of war in Vietnam. Stockdale observed that prisoners who were overly optimistic—expecting to be freed by a certain date—often lost hope when those expectations weren’t met. The paradox is summarized this way, “Face the brutal facts while holding on to hope.”

Some people falsely believe that if you’re a true Christian you’ll never have any troubles. Jesus said the exact opposite: “In the world you will have troubles” (John 16:33). But we don’t have to stop there for God invites us to express our deepest needs to him. We don’t have to pretend all is well and that we’re shiny happy people holding hands. 

There is, however, a danger to avoid as we share our complaints before God. Lament isn’t just complaint. It’s far different from grumbling. Lament is a faithful cry to God. But grumbling is a faithless complaint against God. Or put it this way:

• Lament says, “Lord, I don’t understand, but I turn to You.”
• Grumbling says, “God, You’re not doing enough. I deserve better.”

You may be struggling desperately with troubles, distress, fear, and pain. Bring those to God. He will hear you. God says, “Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you and you will glorify me” (Psalm 50:15).

From the St. John Psalm Conversation Starters with God

We can pray… Oh my Savior and Lord, how long? These troubles ________________ have been going on and on and we need You to act. We call on the name of our God – the Lord of Heaven and Earth – to ease our pain. Ease this pain we feel in our hearts for the world. Our bodies ache and we literally feel the effect of sin upon the world. May we wait on You with hope. May our hope grow our character and trust in You. In Jesus’ name, amen.

O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger,
    nor discipline me in your wrath.
² Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am languishing;
    heal me, O LORD, for my bones are troubled.
³ My soul also is greatly troubled.
    But you, O LORD—how long?

⁴ Turn, O LORD, deliver my life;
    save me for the sake of your steadfast love.
⁵ For in death there is no remembrance of you;
    in Sheol who will give you praise?

⁶ I am weary with my moaning;
    every night I flood my bed with tears;
    I drench my couch with my weeping.
⁷ My eye wastes away because of grief;
    it grows weak because of all my foes.

⁸ Depart from me, all you workers of evil,
    for the LORD has heard the sound of my weeping.
⁹ The LORD has heard my plea;
    the LORD accepts my prayer.
¹⁰ All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled;
    they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.

Seth, Lead Minister at St. John preached on Psalm 6 this morning, explaining that it is a psalm of lament. He explained that such psalms typically follow a recognizable structure. The key parts are:

1. Address to GoD
2. Complaint
3. Petition (Request for Help)
4. Expression of Trust
5. Praise

Some laments also include imprecations (calls for God’s judgment on enemies) and confessions of sin if personal wrongdoing is involved in the suffering. 

Seth urged us to use the psalm for our devotions, and provided a resource for us to use to that end. I thought I’d use this idea to shape my own reflections for this week and the weeks to come.

Let’s start with the address to God.

Have you ever gotten caught in phone tree purgatory? “We’re glad you called, and your call is important to us. Press 1 for English, 2 for Spanish, 3 for German, 4 for French, 5 for Italian, 6 for Portuguese, 7 for Swahili, 9 for Chinese…” Then comes, “If you are calling as a customer press 1. If you want to speak to a billing agent, press 2….” Then, “Please enter the last five digits of your customer number. If you don’t know your customer number, press star to go back to the main menu.” Arrrgh!!!

God offers us a much better calling option. More important, the True God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the great Three-in-One, the Alpha and Omega. David starts this psalm speaking to the LORD, Yahweh.

This is an appeal to the personal identifiable God. He is known by his name. He is not merely a spiritual force. He is the God of the covenant with his people. When Moses was sent to Pharoah to release God’s people from slavery, he told Moses that his name was “I AM WHO I AM. Tell them I AM sent you to them.” The divine name YHWH (often pronounced as Yahweh) comes from the same Hebrew root H-Y-H (“to be”), reinforcing the idea that God is the ever-present, self-sufficient One.

We know, now, that God has revealed himself in Jesus Christ, who commanded us to baptize all nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. We know God by name, not just as a spiritual force. When we appeal to God in Jesus’ name we’re not sent to a purgatory of phone trees. We have access to the throne of God’s grace. Jesus himself promised, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, He will give it to you.” (John 16:23).

Pour out your heart to God. Don’t just shout to the heavens. Don’t merely complain. Call on the LORD in Jesus’ name. He has promised to hear you.

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. ¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. ¹⁹ Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, ²¹ envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. ²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. ²⁴ And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

²⁵ If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. ²⁶ Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Diane and I had a very pleasant surprise this morning. We’re in Phoenix for the Best Practices in Ministry conference. This free conference is sponsored by Christ Church Lutheran here. Pastor Jeff Shrank is a fireball of energy and creativity. I’m wondering just now what costume he’ll show up in today. A clown? A bear? A blow-up dinosaur? Who knows? But he’ll show up to engage, encourage, and inspire people to do whatever it takes to bring the gospel message to people. He wants us all to know that we’re not alone. And with nearly 3000 people in attendance, consuming pounds of fruit, gallons of sodas, water, tea, and sports drinks, we’ll be blessed in the generosity of his church. Behind, under, above, beside, and in front of us all will be the gospel message of Jesus’ love for people, and the Holy Spirit’s power for mission and ministry. What a gift! What a blessing! What a joy!

Back to our very pleasant surprise. I was sitting in the hotel restaurant, having eaten breakfast, and read most of my daily emails. In walks Diane, and I gave her a big smile. We had talked the night before about being more intentional about serving out of our marriage. We agreed to be more intentional about being spiritually and emotionally present and connected for each other. When she walked into the restaurant, she and I must have remembered that and smiled at each other.

A few moments later a woman came to our table. “This is your wife, isn’t she?” she asked. “Yes.” “When she walked in you lit up and smiled at her. She walked over and you both engaged with each other. It was so sweet to see.”

Wow, we thought. We actually did it. Our intentional connecting and serving from our marriage, became evident. The young woman was impressed and encouraged. Diane told her about the book, The Emotionally Healthy Leader by Peter Scazzero. The woman asked several times for the name of the book. It had been the basis for our intentional effort at engaging with each other.

This is pertinent to this passage from Galatians because of the last verse in this section: Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. Today we heard, “Theology without community is lifeless and pointless.” Paul is making that very point in the middle of talking about circumcision! It’s not just about true theology, it’s about how that true theology is to be expressed and lived out: in gracious and authentic community. 

This has been a very encouraging experience – even though I’m no longer in the throes of full time ministry. I hope to write a blogpost special edition tomorrow summarizing at least some of our experiences here. I am thankful that the fruit of the Spirit is so evident at this conference, and I pray that we can sow seeds of love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness…and the like in our neighborhoods and churches.

PS: Happy Valentine’s Day, Diane! I love you!

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. ¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. ¹⁹ Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, ²¹ envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. ²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. ²⁴ And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

²⁵ If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. ²⁶ Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

We were at a learning community gathering with the St. John staff. The conference was all about discipleship, specifically, building a discipling culture. We all agreed that focusing our efforts on building a unified, aligned, and concerted discipleship effort for our church was a great idea.

Then Jon spoke up. “We need to be intentional,” he said. That really got my attention. He was right. In other words, it’s not enough to do business as usual with little thought or effort at intentionally pursuing the Great Commission. We need to be intentional.

For the seven months after graduating from university, I worked in a brick factory. All I did all day long was handle bricks. Four at a time, for the most part. Two in each hand. Moving them from the conveyer belt to a jig. Banding the stacked columns of bricks with a metal band and watching as the fork lift came and took the bale to another part of the factory. I mostly did this mindlessly. All I thought about was getting through my 8 hour shift and going home to soak my hands in hot water (to relieve the pain), eat dinner and go to bed so I could get up the next morning and do it all over again. It wasn’t quite Groundhog Day, but it was close.

Diane had a sign on her wall when she served as music director at our previous church. “You must not saunter nonchalantly into the presence of God,” it read. A good reminder for us when it comes to worship. Going to church should be more than a thing we do. We must remember that we are entering into the presence of God. We need to do that intentionally.    

If God is only a slice of our life’s pie, then we can relegate being intentional about our faith to one day a week, or even one or two hours of one day a week. But God is with us 24/7. His goodness, mercy, faithfulness, and grace is with us at all times. We don’t rightly live as Jesus’ followers part time.

That’s where that “I” word comes in. If we are full time followers of Jesus then let’s live intentionally as such. That’s what Paul is saying here, when he says, “Walk by the Spirit.” Intentionally forgive. Intentionally offer grace and truth to those in your life. Intentionally resist temptation. Intentionally turn back to Jesus when we stumble and sin.

The Holy Spirit is intentionally leading us to Jesus. His fruit is beautiful and enriching for the one bearing it and the one receiving it. Sometimes it just happens. More often we need to be intentional about walking with the Spirit. Whenever it does happen we are blessed and there will be opportunities to bless others…if we are intentional about it.

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. ¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. ¹⁹ Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, ²¹ envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. ²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. ²⁴ And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

²⁵ If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. ²⁶ Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

I have a friend who has and shares strong political opinions. Some of them dig deeply. Some of them are disrespectful. Some of them embarrass me. I have another friend who has strong political feelings on the other end of the spectrum. Maybe not as far leaning, but still strong. And public. I wish they would both keep quiet about their political views. I find common ground with both of them in certain aspects of their expressions. But I’m not convinced that the level of concerns rises to the threshold of needing to be so strident.

Both of these friends are Christians. They profess faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior. They might even claim that their views are profoundly Christian and need to be aired. Maybe so. But it’s difficult to see how rancorous expressions of supposed (or real) Christian values actually adorn the Gospel with appropriate grace and truth.

Paul speaks of the works of the flesh. He lays out some pretty ugly expressions of sinful nature: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I notice strife, dissensions, divisions, and fits of anger. These are unbecoming of a follower of Jesus.

Then come the expressions of the Holy Spirit’s work in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. How beautifully these attitudes and attributes adorn the gospel message of Jesus!

These fruit of the Spirit are so appropriate for Jesus’ followers because they reflect his character and nature. Jesus was a man full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Think of how he withstood the insults and torment of Pilate, the soldiers, and the Jewish leaders at the time of his arrest. Consider how he treated the lame, blind, ill, and broken people he encountered. Reflect on his faithfulness to his Father in heaven in all things. 

It may not be fair that the church today is known for being judgmental and arrogant. But we can do our part to reflect these characteristics of our God – even in a skeptical and hostile world. What better way can we echo Jesus’ perfect love than to endure insults if we have to and yet hold to a spirit of love, joy, and peace?

What shall we be known for? More important, how can we better let God be known as the God of perfect grace and life-giving truth?