Image from ingram.org
God, it seems you've been our home forever; long before the mountains were born, Long before you brought earth itself to birth, from "once upon a time" to "kingdom come" - you are God. So don't return us to mud, saying, "Back to where you came from!" Patience! You've got all the time in the world - whether a thousand years or a day, it's all the same to you. Are we no more to you than a wispy dream, no more than a blade of grass That springs up gloriously with the rising sun and is cut down without a second thought? Your anger is far and away too much for us; we're at the end of our rope. You keep track of all our sins; every misdeed since we were children is entered in your books. All we can remember is that frown on your face. Is that all we're ever going to get? We live for seventy years or so (with luck we might make it to eighty), And what do we have to show for it? Trouble. Toil and trouble and a marker in the graveyard. Who can make sense of such rage, such anger against the very ones who fear you? Oh! Teach us to live well! Teach us to live wisely and well! Come back, God - how long do we have to wait? - and treat your servants with kindness for a change. Surprise us with love at daybreak; then we'll skip and dance all the day long. Make up for the bad times with some good times; we've seen enough evil to last a lifetime. Let your servants see what you're best at - the ways you rule and bless your children. And let the loveliness of our Lord, our God, rest on us, confirming the work that we do. Oh, yes. Affirm the work that we do! (Psalm 90:1-17)
Every week when it comes to the psalm for the week as recommended by the Lectionary, I like to read it in New Revised Standard Version as well as in The Message Version. One is more true to the original text in a modern form of English, while The Message is an easier to understand paraphrase of the text. Today I am using The Message, but I recommend when you have time to pull out your favorite version and read the first 17 verses of Psalm 90. The Message flows and uses phrases and images that bring the text to life. Of course, there are some passages that, in my opinion, miss the mark of the original, and so I stay away from them. This psalm compliments the text from yesterday, where at age 120, Moses sees the Promised Land and then dies. Some wonder about God's anger at that decision, and this psalm does the same thing, and calls out to God, beginning with a praise of thankfulness for all God is and provides, as well as the question about God's anger. And some scholars believe that Moses wrote the psalm himself. That would explain the questions and the viewpoint.
What it also says is that we won't always understand what God is up to in our lives. For the ancient human, it was believed that every action here brought a response from God, and while committing all kinds of sins that would anger God, they might not understand why God was so angry. It's like the small child. One of our granddaughters can sense when Grandma is either sad or angry. She will come up to her and ask, "Grandma, are you sad or mad?" That breaks any anger that Grandma might have and she'll smile and say, "I'm not mad or sad." Usually, our baby girl will say, "Okay." Or, she might say, not believing the response, "Why are you mad?"
The psalmist has the better approach, "Lord, Teach us to live well!" If we set our very being in focus with God through prayer, worship, reading, studying, and listening to God, we learn the ways of God, and we can move forward without fear about the wrath of God. It was John Wesley's standard entrance question to membership in the small groups that met around in England that ultimately became the United Methodist Church: Are you willing to flee the coming wrath of God? And another related question would be: How is it with your soul? One asks, "Do you think God's angry with you?" and "What have you done to cause such anger?" If we are in tune with God, we can as the writer says, "We'll skip and dance all the day long."
Take a moment of reflection in your life right now. Are we where we know God would have us be? Or, do we have some confessing and repenting to do?
PRAYER: Awesome God. our prayer is that You would teach us how to live. Let this prayer, today's scripture, my personal reflection and daily tasks work together to teach me how to better please You. Our goal is faithfulness and fruitfulness; and that will be our cause to skip and dance all day! In Christ Jesus I pray, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! Skip and dance a bit today because God loves you! Or, if you're like a long-time friend, the Rev. Bill Henderson, you can prance away the day! (Inside joke to one who has traveled many a mile with me in ministry and has blessed me much!)
Eradio Valverde
Prayer Updates: Our sister Ann Keck was released from the hospital in Gonzales and went to The Heights facility where she will recover for a few days. Our sister Charlotte Wilson is again in Nix Hospital in San Antonio. She suffered a fall and was taken back for recovery. Brother John Lucas underwent hip surgery in Gonzales and is recovering there. And our brother Larry Ehrig underwent surgery in San Antonio for his broken femur and is at Central Baptist Hospital. Pray for these our loved ones that God restore them to healing and health. And thank you for taking time to pray for them and for each other.
