Psalms
Please open your Bibles to Psalm 151. Can someone please stand and read that psalm for us this morning?
You canât find it in your Bible? What translation are you reading from?
Well then, letâs turn to Revelation 22
I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. 19 And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
The last words of the Bible have been understood by some to say that we must never add to any of the Bible but this is true and not true. This is not true because these words refer only to the book of Revelation, but there is a truth here that we are to treat the Bible with respect and be careful how we use what it has to say. We do not consider adding new books to the revelation of Scripture. I did not read for our Scripture lesson this morning something I wrote.
I believe God gave wisdom to those who decided what books would be included in the Bible and when you read some of the books that were rejected, Godâs wisdom is plain to see.
But if you were to add to Scripture, the two easiest places to do so would be Acts and the Psalms.
The acts of the apostles did not end with chapter 26. In the centuries since then, stories of how Godâs apostles went out to start new churches have continued to be written and if they are not recorded in our Bibles, perhaps they are being recorded in heaven and we will have the treat of reading the continuation of Acts when we arrive on the shores of heaven. As we live out our Christian lives, we are writing new church history that will one day be recounted and celebrated.
The Psalms are an outpouring of the heart and men, women and children have poured out their heart to God over and over again. The psalms that are recorded in our Bible were the outpouring of the heart of men and perhaps women in Israel. Some were personal, some were ceremonial, some were ritual. Perhaps again, from a heavenly perspective, the most beautiful psalms written are not in the Bible and we will be treated to them in heaven.
Because the Psalms are an outpouring of the heart, Christians have used them as an aid to praying. There are many spiritual disciplines that pray through the psalms, allowing them to speak into the heart of the worshiper.
What I would like to do this morning is encourage and help you to write your own psalm. I wrote a psalm this week and titled it Psalm 151. I want you this week to write your own Psalm 151.
Why should you write your own psalm this week?
Becoming open to the presence of God in our lives is not easy. There are times when we are very aware of the presence of God and like Peter on the Mount of Transfiguration, we want to hold on to that experience. The difficulty is that an experience of God slips through our fingers and we are not able to hold on to it.
When Peter saw Jesus in his heavenly glory, along with Moses and Elijah, he said:
âMaster, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three sheltersâone for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.â
Peter tried to hold on to that experience, putting it into a building to contain it so anytime he wanted, he could come back and experience it once again.
But Peter was corrected when God spoke:
34 While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. 35 A voice came from the cloud, saying, âThis is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.â
Essentially, God told Peter to be quiet and if he wanted any time in the future to have such a rich spiritual experience, he should follow Jesus and listen to him. It is in following Jesus and drawing closer to Jesus that we have rich spiritual experiences.
We get caught up in patterns of relating to God. We have a set way of reading the Bible and praying. We may even have a schedule we follow. We get caught in a rut and find ourselves spinning the wheels but going nowhere.
We need an introduction of creativity into our pursuit of God from time to time and if you have never written a psalm or if it has been a long time since you wrote a psalm, you might find this a helpful exercise. Writing your own psalm can help you get out of the routine of your seeking God and take you to a new path to God.
Writing your own psalm can help you break through a barrier that has closed off your spirit to the presence of God. Particularly if you have a strong emotional feeling such as anger, or depression, writing a psalm is a wonderful way to break free from the hold that emotion has on you.
How do you begin to write a psalm? I made a copy of something I found on the internet that may be of help to you. This has been passed out with the bulletin this morning and you can read through that this week. You may find some of what is written helpful.
The first place to start is to sit down where you will not be disturbed and think. Get quiet and ask yourself, âWhat am I feeling?â
Angry, frustrated, happy, grateful, worried, apathetic, depressed, hopeful, loved, bitter; all these are good places to start with your psalm. In fact, whatever you are feeling is the best place to start when you write your psalm.
Make a series of notes about what you are feeling. Describe the feeling you have. Use a picture to describe your feeling. âI am happy like a kite soaring in the wind,â or âI am angry like a tornado about to rip apart a house in its path.â Psalm 42 begins with this:
As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O God.
What are some other ways you can describe how you are feeling? Explore the depths of your feeling. Find a number of ways to describe your feeling. You may not use them all, but they will help you to articulate your feeling.
Then try to explain why it is you are feeling this way. If you are happy, what has happened that made you happy? If you are worried, what is it you are worried about? If you are bitter, what happened that made you bitter?
If your psalm is a happy or joyful one, let it erupt into a wonderful praise of God who has blessed you.
If your psalm started out with worry or anger or depression or apathy, work your way to the point that you have expressed the feeling as completely as you can and then sit. Put the pen down and think.
Where has the expression of your feeling taken you? Think through other times in your life when you have felt this way? What happened in those times?
Can you think of how God was faithful to you in the past when you felt this way? Remember those experiences. Describe them.
If you have expressed fully the way you are feeling, you will get to the point where you will be able to surrender to God and submit to his will. This will take you from anger or bitterness to recognition of Godâs goodness to you and you will be able to end in praise.
Some Psalms do not end that way. So if you write a psalm and get to the end and you are still feeling angry or depressed, then write another and try to more completely express what it is you are feeling.
Let me present some cautions for you as you write.
1. Be honest about how you feel. The less honest you are, the less helpful this exercise will be to you. Donât hold back. Donât be afraid that someone else might see what you wrote. After you write the psalm you can always destroy it. No one needs to see or hear what you have written. This is an exercise for you and not necessarily for the rest of the world.
Sometimes it is difficult to be honest with yourself, so start with what you are feeling and make sure you get to the bottom of that feeling.
2. Let what you write be a prayer to God that allows you to feel heard. The benefit of such an exercise is that you clarify to God what it is you are experiencing and that helps you to know you have been heard.
3. Donât be afraid of hurting Godâs feelings. God has big shoulders. When the Sons of Korah wrote Psalm 44 and said this,
Awake, O Lord! Why do you sleep?
Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever.
24 Why do you hide your face
and forget our misery and oppression?
do you think God was hurt by their accusation that he was sleeping on the job and had forgotten about their suffering?
God can handle whatever it is you are feeling so get it out and put it down so you can begin to deal with it. I am saying this over and over again, but it is critical. Until you fully express what you are feeling, in all honesty, you cannot move to an authentic relationship with God. God is not unaware of the intensity of your feeling. Writing down what you feel is not telling God something he does not already know. Writing down what you feel is helping you to be honest and more open to God.
4. You donât have to share with others what you write, but when you write your psalm and you have been true to your feelings, chances are your psalm will speak to others in a similar situation. So donât be afraid to share what you wrote with some friends.
Next Sunday, I am hoping some of you will share your psalm with the congregation. I believe this will be a way in which God can minister to us as some take the lead to share how they are feeling at the moment and then we can pray for people who identify with the psalm that is shared.
I sat down Monday morning this week and wrote my Psalm 151. I have edited it a bit during the week, but it is largely what I first wrote.
Psalm 151
I am so tired Lord. Like a lazy lion, I stretch and yawn in the heat of the day, hot and tired. The legs of my youth now barely get me around the track. My energy has left me and I push just to make it through the day.
My body is tired but so is my mind. My responsibilities hang over my head night and day. I am sinking under the weight of what you have given me to do and I wonder how much more I can take.
I want rest but what I get is turmoil on all sides. Every time I turn around there is another relational conflict, another schism, another misunderstanding, another defection.
I want to leave all this. I want to leave this dry land and head back to the lakes and green forests I left.
I want to rest by a quiet lake, hearing the rustling of the wind in the trees and the lake waters lapping along the shore. I want my biggest decision of the day to be whether to eat at home or go out to a restaurant.
I am tired Lord. Where is the green pasture David said you lead us to? Where are the quiet waters?
And yet. And yet.
Here I am Lord. Iâm knocking at your place of business.
I know I ainât got no business here.
But you said if I ever got so low I was busted,
you could be trusted.
And so I remember.
I remember the many times you have picked me up in the past. Time and time again you have given me hope when I had none. You have blessed me beyond what I deserve.
I remember when you called me to follow you. I remember the excitement that came when I first understood with my spirit the words of the Bible. I remember the thrill of discovering new truth.
I remember the many times I was in need and you provided for me abundantly.
I remember other times when I was tired and you renewed my strength.
And I remember all you have done over the past five and a half years in Morocco.
You can be trusted.
Lord youâve been good to me
All my life, all my life
Your loving kindness never fails
I will remember
All you have done
Bring from my heart
Thanksgiving songs
New every morning is your love
Filled with compassion from above
Grace and forgiveness full and free
Lord youâve been good to me
When I sat down Monday morning and thought about what I was feeling, it wasnât hard to figure out. I was tired. I think it might be because it is August and I donât like this heat. It is also because there have been a number of stressful situations this year. But for whatever reason, tired was the feeling I needed to address.
When we were in Tanzania in the Serengeti, we saw a pride of lions in the mid of day. We were in a minivan just 10 meters away from them. They are used to vehicles and so basically ignored us. They lay there, stretching and yawning. I imagine that if I had stepped out of the minivan they might have become more energized, but it is that picture that came to my mind when I thought about being tired.
I am so tired Lord. Like a lazy lion, I stretch and yawn in the heat of the day, hot and tired.
I go running in the Hilton foret three mornings a week. Just nine years ago I ran a marathon, 42 kilometers, but now making two laps around the track, just 5.6 kilometers, takes everything out of me. And then I spend the rest of the day feeling tired and yawning.
The legs of my youth now barely get me around the track. My energy has left me and I push just to make it through the day.
What I do is not overly physical. It is not that I dig ditches or do a lot of manual work. I sit in front of my computer and type. I sit in a café and talk with someone. I am not physically overworked. My tiredness comes not so much from the physical as the mental side. There is almost never a time when I am not thinking of something and trying to figure out a strategy. I carry on conversations and project scenarios all day long. When I drive to the gym in Sale three mornings a week, I get lost in thought about how to work out a problem or I replay a conversation to see what could have been different. I often wake up in the morning thinking about one situation or another.
This is where I am tired. When I sit down to work at a sermon I am sometimes unable to do anything because I lack the mental and creative energy required. So I went on to describe my tiredness.
My body is tired but so is my mind. My responsibilities hang over my head night and day. I am sinking under the weight of what you have given me to do and I wonder how much more I can take.
There are times when it seems that I am treading water and doing OK but then more and more weight is added to the belt around my waist and I ask myself how long I will be able to continue.
I believe God has been revealing to me a picture of how to love people in this country in his name. The picture has been becoming more and more clear, but at the same time the parts of it that are already in existence sometimes struggle and I wonder if the whole thing will fall apart and nothing will be accomplished.
Last week I talked about needing to carry a candle safely through a storm. It seems that the wind comes from every direction trying to blow out the flame I carry.
I want rest but what I get is turmoil on all sides. Every time I turn around there is another relational conflict, another schism, another misunderstanding, another defection.
After describing all the ways I felt tired and examining some of the reasons I felt that way I then thought of what it is I wanted.
I want to leave all this. I want to leave this dry land and head back to the lakes and green forests I left.
I want to rest by a quiet lake, hearing the rustling of the wind in the trees and the lake waters lapping along the shore. I want my biggest decision of the day to be whether to eat at home or go out to a restaurant.
I felt tired and what I wanted was rest. This made me think of Psalm 23.
I am tired Lord. Where is the green pasture David said you lead us to? Where are the quiet waters?
Now was time for me to begin to think back to the past and my experience with God over the 34 years I have been following him.
And yet. And yet.
Here I am Lord. Iâm knocking at your place of business.
I know I ainât got no business here.
But you said if I ever got so low I was busted,
you could be trusted.
This verse from a Paul Simon song kept ringing in my mind, so I put it down. Since Psalm 151 is not in the Bible, I felt I could justify quoting a verse that is also not in the Bible. And because it kept coming to my mind, I felt it important to include it. God has been trustworthy in my years with him.
In my remembering, I went back to experiences where God proved to be trustworthy.
And so I remember.
I remember the many times you have picked me up in the past. Time and time again you have given me hope when I had none. You have blessed me beyond what I deserve.
I remember when you called me to follow you. I remember the excitement that came when I first understood with my spirit the words of the Bible. I remember the thrill of discovering new truth.
I remember the many times I was in need and you provided for me abundantly.
I remember other times when I was tired and you renewed my strength.
And I remember all you have done over the past five and a half years in Morocco.
You can be trusted.
These last five and a half years have been especially good to me. God has blessed me in so many ways. And I need to remember that and take strength from my remembering.
And finally I concluded with part of a Graham Kendrick song that has stayed with me and spoken to my mind and heart for the past couple years. I donât get tired of listening to it.
Lord youâve been good to me
All my life, all my life
Your loving kindness never fails
I will remember
All you have done
Bring from my heart
Thanksgiving songs
New every morning is your love
Filled with compassion from above
Grace and forgiveness full and free
Lord youâve been good to me
God has been good to me. God has been good to you. It is OK not to feel or think that right now. It is a mistake to bypass your feelings and move to a conclusion that is not authentic. The goal of writing this psalm is to get to the truth, that God does love you, cares for you, will never leave you or forsake you.
Take the time this week to sit down, be quiet and write your psalm. Start with where you are at the moment and then let the process lead you to a place of healing and encouragement.
God is good. God can be trusted. Let that be the authentic conclusion of your mind and heart.
