Keeping Your Wits When Others Are Insane- Psalm 134- Last One!

It has a blessing for me to go back through these wonderful Psalms. Today is our last one and each time I take the journey, I come out better and stronger. This section of the Psalms in a historic stream of grace and truth. We have walked with pilgrims from ages path.

The rest of the week I am going to write about Holy Week and then will take a break from blogging for a short time

This was made into a song- you can hear it here:

Bless the Lord (Psalm of Ascent 134)

Today's reading.......

Psalm 134
Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord,
who stand by night in the house of the Lord! 
Lift up your hands to the holy place
and bless the Lord! 
May the Lord bless you from Zion,
he who made heaven and earth!

It is hard to have good endings.

Some of my biggest letdowns in life have come at the anti-climatic blah at the end of a special moment. The sun finally sets and the golden hour of fishing is done. You have just hit the tee shot on the 18th hole on an amazing golf course. You wake up and it is the last day of vacation, time to pack.

There is a depression at the end that sours the whole experience if you let it.

Do all good things come to an end? On earth.....yes.

Author's have struggled with this for ages. Someone once said that Mark Twain was frustrated into depression over his inability to bring Huckleberry Finn to an adequate close.

It is also hard to finish well. Very few great men have been able to end at the right time and in the right way. Great athletes hang on too long or find their life tedious after retiring too soon.

Does Psalm 134 fit that mold? 

It is the culminating hymn at the end of the Psalms of Ascent.


I imagine it being sung with the glorious city and temple in full view. The peak has been reached. The journey is done.

Of course, in your Bible, Psalms keep on coming 135 through 150. But traditionally it is understood that 120-134 encompasses that special section of the Songs for the Climb.

Do you ever worry that heaven will be boring?

Years ago there was a survey in which it was revealed that a large number of evangelical youth were worried about that very thing. Who could blame them? I wouldn't care to be in clouds and plucking a harp for 2 minutes, let alone 10,000 years!

Hank Williams, Jr sang, "If heaven ain't a lot like dixie, I don't wanna go."
Billy Joel echoed that sentiment, "I'd rather laugh with the sinners, than cry with the saints."

But the biggest problem is not with heaven.... the biggest problem is a lack of understanding WHO God is, HOW magnificent and powerful He is, and how dark and dreary is our sin and world.

You should know the famous C.S. Lewis quip:

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, and Other Addresses

My experience with the Corona virus has driven home the realization all of the things in my life that cannot sustain satisfactory living.

When life is 'normal' ... our frantic pace hides a stark reality that we are indeed 'half hearted creatures' who live on the vapor fumes of idols that offer mere seconds of distraction, but not a shred of meaning.

It didn't take long for leisure activities to get old, when we were shut in for just a few days. Screens offer a lot of promise, but they deliver very little.

We mistake the THINGS and MOMENTS that God gives us and cling to them like they are the gods who can free us and love us..... shame on me. There are times that I grow weary of the things of God using boredom as an excuse.

But it is MY God who created the capacity for me to love the thrill of a roller coaster and it is HE who has way more in store. More than I have the capacity to dream about!

A memory I miss.....

I took my oldest daughter to the Birmingham Zoo when she was a toddler. It was a beautiful day and when we first walked in the park, the pink flamingos were majestic!

I smiled as she absorbed the visual! Her eyes widened and she pointed and she drank every second in..... it was an act of worship!

After a few minutes I said, "OK, Jules, let's go to see more stuff."
"No daddy, I want to stay."

As much as I tried to pry her away by argument and logic,  she would not move!

And so I did the daddy thing. I picked her up and carried her away from the flamingos. You would have though it was child abuse! She fought, she kicked, she cried, and screamed.

But I knew what I was doing. 23 seconds later, she saw zebras and giraffes and elephants and gorillas...... and the tears were no more!

Aren't we like that?  We fight God. We are mad that the sun sets on our golf course or rain interrupts our baseball or a deadly virus shuts down the whole world!  But this world is only a vapor taste to what is waiting on us.

And that is the hope of this glorious Psalm. It seems so small and benign, we miss the power of its message.

We bless God and He blesses us................ forever in glorious perfection!

WE BLESS GOD?

This is a strange concept. What do you mean that we bless God? Sounds absurd.

There are a couple of images in the Scripture where our prayers are depicted as a pleasing incense to the Lord. God proclaimed, "This is my Son, in whom I am well pleased!"  We can also grieve the Spirit! Does it not seem plausible that we can also please Him? Did you see how God bragged to Satan about his servant Job?

 "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil."

Let me walk on the edge of some heresy here...... pure speculation. I see a God in Scripture who smiles, frowns, cries, shows anger, says He is jealous and He has all of this in perfection because He is perfect. And He is in control, no doubt about that. But I imagine that he enjoys the moments, even though He plans it and orchestrates it. Is it possible that even we can surprise Him in joy and disappointment?

If we consider that God is not bound by time, living outside the linear system of Alpha to Omega, then He can come in and out of time as He desires. Is it possible that he can pause, replay, relive, fast forward in details and ways that is beyond our imagination like a Cosmic DVR. Not with imaginary characters but real life souls which he adores and died for? I know this is a pathetic attempt to understand the invasion of the infinite into the temporal, but I am living transparently in His full view. Can I choose to bless Him? I know I have MANY times cursed Him in word, attitude, passive and active deeds of selfish rebellion, weak flesh, and foolish fear.

an interesting note:

 This Psalm says, Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who stand by night in the house of the Lord.

Who are these servants who stand by night? A possible reference to chamber singers- but I see it analogous to a true servant, a true worshipper. A person's true nature is shown in how he conducts himself when no one is looking. What does he do in secret? This is when we can truly bless God. Praise Him when we receive no benefit from doing so.

Let us find inspiration to bless Him, even if our attempts seem feeble and preposterous. We are the toddler and He loves us as the Father and He can be pleased!


GOD BLESSES US

Consider that last verse again, it is an EXCELLENT benediction:  

May the Lord bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth! 

What if you received a certified letter today from Tim Cook, Apple CEO. 

"I have been watching you and have decided to bequeath 25 million dollars and as many of my personal resources as I have to bless you and your work." 

Would you not freak out?

But here is a verse: May the maker of heaven and earth bless you!

So which one do we choose? Sadly, we would choose Tim Cook's blessing over God's. But primarily because we have no concept to what God's blessing has been, is now, or even what it WILL BE!

The Biblical word for 'blessed' in the New Testament is μακάριος and the Greek equivalent here in Psalm 134 is 'happy, blessed and even carries a hint of 'Congratulations! Way to go!'

Think of it this way. 

You are on a perilous journey, many have fallen by the wayside. But by God's grace, you never quit. Yes, you got knocked down and pushed around, yes you fell along the way .... but you got back up and took another step. 

You were laughed at, mistreated, ignored, misunderstood, betrayed. Even your body failed you, your supporters left, your loved ones tried but were unable to care enough to succeed- you doubted...... and then- wow- breakthrough victory!   Now see if you can really take in all the blessing! 
Who is worthy of that? 
Am I a beneficiary of even 1 drop of the blood of perfect pardon?

We have finished the race!

Sorry, Hank, Heaven is better than dixie. Poor choice, Billy, the sinners are not laughing.

We will sing at that time like the Apostle Paul:

2 Timothy 4:6–8

[6] For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. [7] I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. [8] Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. (ESV)

The final song at the end of the climb is not anti-climatic at all! it is the song of ultimate victory!

And we will find that it was totally worth it! 

Keep climbing, battle weary warrior!


If this series has been a blessing, I would love to hear from you. Please send me an email: jayopsis@gmail.com

History is "His Story"- Problems, Pressures and Presuppositions in the Dead Sea Scrolls

1947- the arid and lifeless cliffs of the Dead Sea region lead to an incredible discovery that has culminated in a story that reads like "Indiana Jones meets Dan Brown- works through the US Congress and has information covered by the New York Times"- what you get is a mess.

The story of the Dead Sea Scrolls can be seen as a test case of one of the problems with history- it is so intertwined with human presuppositions and sneaky human hearts, that it can be more 'Pravda' than promise, more fanciful than fact.

Now to be honest, we all do this. I have found Christian reporting on the Dead Sea Scrolls to have just as much dis-information as the skeptics that we cast aspersions to.

I am up front right away- I am not a historian, I have never been to the middle east- I cannot read ancient Hebrew manuscripts, etc. I am a Christian, I do accept the Bible as a God protected and God provided revelation. I do think that this foundational presupposition actually gives me a rule of faith and practice.

Now, the Bible says that all men are image bearers of God and in one of two camps: We are either regenerated and 're-born' to the truth of Jesus Christ and adopted as his son's and daughters by turning from our sin and rebellion and trusting in the life,death, burial and resurrection of Christ as our only hope of salvation or we are spiritually blind/dead image bearers in rebellion- trusting in ourselves and either denying God's existence or believing that we are 'not that bad' or just blindly hoping we are ok to stand under the Creator's scrutiny. There is no middle ground- we are either in the Kingdom of God or 'Earth-dwellers'.

This causes conflict... a battle of information and ideas. History is influenced by this conflict in various ways, sometimes subtle- sometimes deceptive- and we do have to grow in our ability to honestly discern and evaluate.

Let me illustrate this in the Dead Seas Scroll story.

Before the discovery of the Scrolls, skeptics who attacked the Bible pointed to the limited number of Old Testament manuscripts and questioned the accuracy of the testimony therein. Those who understood the reverence for the Scriptures that the Jews had were not bothered by this at all. The believers held firm knowing that Jewish scribes protected every jot and tittle in a worshipful dedication to the Law.

Leave it to God to allow the unique discovery at just the right time to defend the authority of His Word.

The entire story of the discovery by two Bedouin teenage boys in the region is very intriguing. The political intrigue in selling, hiding, and suppressing all the artifacts is sad but predictable. The mis-information that surrounds the Scrolls even today is frustrating.

For example, it is amazing how pervasive the myth of the Essenes and their 'gnostic' life is propagated as historical fact. Survey any popular bookstore and you will see numerous books to that story.

I want to point to Stanford University's, Patrick Hunt as one who has the most recent and most supported view of how the Scrolls got to the caves in the Judean desert. He is one of many archaeologists who see the Scrolls as hidden by Jews just before the inevitable destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem in AD 70. It makes a lot of sense.

Hunt also outlines all of the political decisions and back room pressures that come into play around such a controversial find. I highly recommend his chapter on the Dead Sea scrolls in his book, Ten Discoveries that Rewrote History (He is an excellent writer and fun to read).

Hunt shows no Christian connection to the Dead Sea scrolls, which is no problem to me. He dismisses almost all of the Essene myth- especially since findings around 1996. And he does an excellent job showing how materialism and presuppositional prejudices creates an atmosphere of intrigue and even conspiracy.

However, the bottom line of common accepted evidence is quite compelling for the Biblical world-view. The Jews did value the Word even over the Temple. The texts of Isaiah and other Old Testament Books were accurate in transliteration and supportive of a Jewish Cannon of God's revelation. Liberal criticism and skepticism was once again shattered by cold, hard evidence.

I am begging the reader- please consider God's honest, supernatural, and revealed will to show all of history as his story of covenant-keeping promises. The past is pointing to a future. God says 'I will be Your God and You will be My people'- cry out to Him today.

Which of the two camps are you in?

History is "His Story"

I will be using the month of April to write about how events of history were guided by God's providence to produce the real life events that set the stage for gospel proclamation. This is a view of history that is quickly being lost in our society today.

A problem with history is our desire to 'find the next new thing' in the annals of the past. I am reading a biography of Napolean right now and I am struck by how many times the writer says, "We used to believe this... but now we feel this way." Now that statement would be good if there was solid evidence to support that change and indeed we should always let the facts shape our perception.

But my experience has been- "Well this just couldn't have happened because of...."  and what they present is highly subjective and based on presuppositional opinion. Over time, these opinions - undergirded by impressive degrees- cause the conventional wisdom to be altered more under consensus than cogent truths.

 "Jayopsis" means Jay's view...and I will be honest, my pre-supposition is based in the existence of a living Creator Who has clearly shown Himself in space, time, and history. I fully accept the Bible as His revelation to man... and today I begin with History as His story:

I start my historical view based on the middle east- particularly the peculiar story of the Jewish people and all the tribes and nations around them. I take the 5 Books of Moses (1 author, not many) to be excellent history of the creation and fall of man. All human beings are decendants of the original parents- Adam and Eve and offspring of the flood survivors- Noah and his family.

The more a person begins to see the Nation of Israel as a people that God chose to reveal Himself to- call unto Himself,- and prepare the world for His message of salvation in the person and work of Jesus Christ- the clearer the current condition of the world becomes. The Bible is the foundational history book:

It tells us Who God is

It tells us about the nature of man- how did things get so messed up?

It tells us about God's provision and His plan

It tells us what is our duty now

It tells us what is coming next

One exciting thing about  reading old literature (like Shakespeare for example) is that human nature is still the same. Yes, technology has changed (Amen to that!) but the basic heart desires and cycle of life- conditions of existence- are so consistent that we recognize pride, jealousy, immorality, charity, frustration, fatigue, hunger, anxiousness in all of our tales of old.

One final factor in C.S. Lewis' conversion was how enthralled he was with redemption stories. And one day, Tolkien asked him, "Jack, why do you love the stories of myth but won't give yourself to the real story of redemption that all of these others allude to?" (my paraphrase)

I say the same to you..... as you read my blog over the next few weeks- ask yourself a question. Would I be at least willing to consider the Biblical world view and the life and message of Jesus?

Again to paraphrase Lewis, we believe in Christianity like we believe in the sun. Not so much that we see IT, but the fact that by it we see everything else. God's story makes the most sense of where we are and who we are. And, if God allows, one day you will be able to exit your own miserable story and walk in His. And trust me, it is one glorious walk!