Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love,

for they have been from of old.

⁷ Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions;

according to your steadfast love remember me,

for the sake of your goodness, O Lord!

(Psalm 25:6-7)

I was struck this morning by the psalmist’s sheer audacity in telling God what to remember and what to forget. Is the psalmist here asking YHWH to “cook the books” to have a selective memory? It might seem so at first blush but when these words are read in the context of the rest of the psalm, one gets a very different impression. In the rest of Psalm 25 the psalmist presents as humble and very open to divine instruction. He also seems to be in distress. Read more…

¹³ O my God, make them like whirling dust,

like chaff before the wind.

¹⁴ As fire consumes the forest,

as the flame sets the mountains ablaze,

¹⁵ so may you pursue them with your tempest

and terrify them with your hurricane!

¹⁶ Fill their faces with shame,

that they may seek your name, O Lord.

¹⁷ Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever;

let them perish in disgrace,

¹⁸ that they may know that you alone,

whose name is the Lord,

are the Most High over all the earth.

(Psalm 83)

The rhetoric of Psalm 83 is precisely the kind of language and imagery that has given the Old Testament a bad reputation. This unrestrained venting of loathing and hatred dressed up as prayer follows on the heels of a long list of neighboring nations that Israel asks God to humiliate, terrify, and reduce nearly to nothing. I admit that I cringed a little as I read it and almost immediately went into apologetic mode, thinking of how I might explain this psalm away to Scripture’s many cultured despisers. Read more…

While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit grew agitated within him when he saw the city was full of idols.

(Acts 17:16)

The internal turmoil Paul experienced while waiting in Athens for his ministry partners, Silas and Timothy, has long impressed me. This was not a scheduled stop on their mission itinerary but rather a place to lay low and escape the uprising that his preaching had caused in Thessalonica and Berea. Nonetheless, Paul cannot help himself. He cannot lay low. He is too disturbed by the spiritual confusion that surrounds him to be silent, to let sleeping dogs lie. This disturbance within Paul’s soul catapults Paul into action, back into the fray, and the next thing you know he is once again arguing with Jews in the synagogue and even taking on the sophisticated Athenian philosophers in the marketplace. Paul is absolutely intrepid. He refuses to be intimidated by the intellectual elites. Read more…

On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ ²³ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

A question I have never considered before is how these “workers of lawlessness” whom Jesus expels from his presence were ever able to prophesy, cast out demons, and do many mighty works in Jesus’ name? Are they lying? That seems unlikely since they surely know that they cannot get away with that when it comes to Jesus. Were they previously faithful disciples who subsequently fell away? That too seems unlikely in light of Jesus’ absolute “I never knew you.”

Is it possible that they were mistaken? Is it that they in fact did prophesy and cast out demons and perform other miracles but not, as they mistakenly believed, in Jesus’ name? Then by what other power could they perform such feats? At least with regard to casting demons, Jesus argues elsewhere that Satan cannot cast out Satan. Read more…

Let me dwell in your tent forever!

Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings! Selah

           (Psalm 61:4)

⁸ 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 21:8-13)