Identifying with the psalms

Sometimes when I read a psalm, I struggle with being able to claim or pray it as my own, because it’ll say something like, “because I am righteous, LORD, do this,” and I feel that I’m not righteous or obedient or whatever.

Take Psalm 18:20-24 for example:

The Lord has dealt with me according to my righteousness;
according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me.
For I have kept the ways of the Lord;
I am not guilty of turning from my God.
All his laws are before me;
I have not turned away from his decrees.
I have been blameless before him
and have kept myself from sin.
The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.

Sometimes when I read something like that, I think, Well, bully for you, David [the author of this particular psalm]. Can you honestly say that? This must’ve been pre-Bathsheba.

I mean, seriously, I wish I could say that I have kept God’s ways, not turned from his decrees, and been blameless before him…but I can’t. Far from it. I always wonder how the psalmists can be so confident. [As a side note, I'm not saying that my way of thinking is theologically correct, but it is something I feel when I'm reading the Bible, particularly the psalms.]

But the other day, I was reading Psalm 91, and when I hit verse 14, I felt as if God was speaking to me, saying, “My promises are for you, Katie.”

“Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him;

I will protect him, because he knows my name.”

Really, God? Is that it? You’ll protect and deliver me simply because I know your Name and love you? Now that sounds like something I can do. Reading that verse put my heart at rest, not only because of the truth it contains, but because I felt God directed me to that verse and used it to speak directly to my heart (and my heart issues).

The ministry of reconciliation

Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).

At our wedding, our pastor spoke about the ministry of reconciliation that Paul wrote about in his second letter to the church at Corinth. I don’t remember what he said, but I know why Joe and I chose that passage.

The ministry of reconciliation is what I want to build my life around: the fact that God loved his creation (loved me!) so much that he took the most drastic measures to make sure we could live in peaceful, whole relationship with him.

Part of the beauty of what God has done for us is that we now have the same opportunity to bring reconciliation – between God and man and in our relationships with others. With this opportunity comes responsibility.

Joe and I are committed to the ministry of reconciliation among those who are both far and near to the kingdom of God. We want to be a part of seeing our family, neighbors, friends and community transformed by the radical love of Jesus.

2 Corinthians 5:14-21

Who’s yo’ mama?

I was reading the genealogy of Jesus in the beginning of the book of Matthew the other day. Genealogy is not the most engrossing part of the Bible to me, so I was reading very deliberately in order to soak up as much as I could. Here’s what caught my eye:

…and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse… (Matthew 1:5).

Hang on a minute. “Salmon, the father of Boaz by Rahab….” Rahab, the prostitute? One and the same. Boaz, I know that guy. He married Ruth, that Moabite.

For the first time, I realized that Boaz was both the son and the husband of a foreigner. Maybe he was willing to marry a foreign woman because he’d been raised by a foreign woman – although Rahab, after saving the Israelite spies and being rescued herself, married an Israelite and adopted that heritage as her  own.

Rahab and Ruth. Two foreign women who were faithful to the Israelite people and to their God. Both became a part of the most important lineage in the history of the world. They are the many-times-great-grandmothers of Jesus, the Messiah – Savior of the world.

Hope for those in recovery

More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Romans 5:3-5

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Philippians 1:6

Are you good enough for this?

When you talk about scholarships for college, there’s a category called merit-based awards. Basically, what that means is that if your high school grades and standardized test scores are high enough, you’re going to get some money to go to school. If they’re not…well, sorry ’bout your luck.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately. Life with God is different. The ultimate reward in life, salvation, is given to us by no merit of our own whatsoever. Basically, you can’t be good enough to deserve this. You can’t earn it. But you can have it. For free.

It’s like a free ride to college for the kid that flunked out of every high school class. It doesn’t make sense. It’s not fair. But that’s the backwards wisdom of God.

By grace, through faith

…by works of the law no one will be justified.

I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were throughthe law, then Christ died for no purpose.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us – for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” – so that in Christ Jesus the blessings of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

Galatians 2:16b, 21;  3:13-14

As I read this the other morning, I thought: In what ways am I trying to live by law instead of by grace? If I’m really honest with myself, I often try to earn (or keep) God’s favor by performing a certain way. Ouch.

My prayer is that God would free me to walk by his Spirit and not by the law.

God says,

I am able.

It is worth it.

I will supply all your needs.

Those who trust in the LORD…

…are like Mount Zion,
which cannot be moved, but abides forever.

Psalm 125:1

One of the paradoxes of the Christian life

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made prfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

“The Revelation Song”

I was thinking about this song last week and then we sang it in church this week, so I thought I’d include the song here with lyrics. I love this!

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!

See Revelation 5:7-12.