A Meditation on 1 & 2 Samuel

Kevin J Youngblood
 

YHWH forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, YHWH’s anointed, to harm him with my own hands since he is YHWH’s anointed!

(1 Sam 24:6; cf. 26:9; 2 Sam 1:14, my translation)

David had a lot of political enemies and his career was riddled with lethal rivalries that pitted him against some of the most ruthless foes imaginable, some of them even from within his own household. A consistent motif, however, in the narrative of 1 & 2 Samuel is the respect, love, and concern David showed for even his most vicious opponents.


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An Advent Meditation on Luke 2: 1-7

Kevin J Youngblood
 

In those days a decree was published by Caesar Augustus to conduct a census of the entire inhabited world. This was the first census conducted since Quirinius became governor of Syria. So everyone journeyed to be registered, each to his own ancestral town. So Joseph made a pilgrimage from Galilee from the city of Nazareth to Judea to the city of David which is called Bethlehem (because he was of the royal lineage of David) to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who happened to be pregnant.

(Luke 2:1-5, My translation)

Only Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth includes the detail that Jesus was born during a Roman census but the detail seems to be particular important to Luke. He devotes more narrative space to it than he does the birth of Jesus itself (five verses to one by my count). As I reflected on this aspect of the story this morning, a new thought occurred to me. Could Luke be suggesting a parallel to the ill-fated census that David conducted in 2 Sam 24? One reason why this does not seem a remote possibility is that Luke has already shown considerable dependence on the structure and themes of 1 Samuel in his telling of the circumstances surrounding John the Baptizer’s conception and birth as well as the angel’s announcement to Mary and Mary’s response (the Magnificat, clearly modeled after Hannah’s song of praise in 1 Sam 2:1-11).


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A Meditation on Psalm 20: 8-13

Kevin J Youngblood
 
Your hand will find out all your enemies;
your right hand will find out those who hate you.
9 You will make them as a blazing oven
when you appear.
The Lord will swallow them up in his wrath,
and fire will consume them.
10 You will destroy their descendants from the earth,
and their offspring from among the children of man.
11 Though they plan evil against you,
though they devise mischief, they will not succeed.
12 For you will put them to flight;
you will aim at their faces with your bows.
13 Be exalted, O Lord, in your strength!
We will sing and praise your power.
(Psalm 20:8-13)
 

The above excerpt from Psalm 20 is either bracketed off or omitted altogether in most prayer books and liturgies, clearly suggesting that these portions of Scripture not be read in public worship, if at all. While such omissions are understandable and the intentions clearly good, it is still dishonest, and I would even go so far as to say that it is spiritually unhealthy. Could it be that our theology of prayer has become so anemic as to not see the proper place of such petitions in Christian prayer?


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A Meditation on Psalm 18: 31-35

Kevin J Youngblood
 
For who is God, but the YHWH?
And who is a rock, except our God?—
32 the God who girded me with strength
and made my way blameless.
33 He made my feet like the feet of a deer
and set me secure on the heights.
34 He trains my hands for war,
so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
35 You have given me the shield of your salvation,
and your right hand supported me,
and your humility made me great.
(Psalm 18:31-35)
 
The Bible is full of paradoxes. This is at once both a frustration and a fascination (itself a paradox). On the one hand, paradoxes interfere with my attempts to wrap my faith up in a nice little package and tie it up with a bow. It just doesn’t all fit my prefabricated packages and boxes. On the other hand, it stimulates constant thought and reformulation that makes Scripture and the Christian faith anything but boring. 
 

Psalm 18:35 hit me with a new adjective, and with it a new paradox for YHWH that I have seldom if ever used – humble. How can the perfect, glorious God who is worthy of all praise and adoration be humble? Now don’t get me wrong. It is not that it has never occurred to me that Jesus is humble. Yes, certainly I have often thought of God the Son as humble – the God who came to us incarnate in Jesus of Nazareth. The God who stooped to wash filthy human feet is certainly humble. I had not, however, transferred this adjective to God the Father. I had not really thought of God as humble UNTIL the incarnation. The God of the OT, however, never really struck me as humble.


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A Meditation on Matthew 9: 35-38

Kevin J Youngblood
 

35 And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”  (Matt 9:35-38)

I hate crowds. When I see crowds, I turn away and head in the other direction. When I see a crowd, I focus on the jostling and shoving, the noise and the obstruction that it creates. I try to avoid crowds. Jesus’ reaction to the crowd was quite different. When he saw the crowds he was moved with compassion and he commanded his disciples to pray that God would send more workers into the crowds.

As I read this text this morning, it occurred to me that Jesus is asking me directly to pray this prayer.


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A Meditation on Psalm 6: 6-10

Kevin J Youngblood
 
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.
(Psalm 6:6-10)
 

Grief is exhausting, relentless, and persistent. It feels like it will never end. The psalms’ honesty regarding the real nature of grief is perhaps the secret to their power and appeal. These poignant images of tear drenched beds from nights spent weeping alone resonate with us at a deep level. The psalms are also unafraid to question God’s apparent absence and inactivity when we need him most. Why does he leave us in this state for such prolonged periods of time? How long, O LORD?

On the other hand, the suddenness with which the psalmist shifts from lament to confidence in verse 8 is enough to give any reader literary whiplash. What happened between v. 7 and v. 8 to account for this immediate, drastic turn?


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