JESUS IS KING

Psalms of Enthronement

Learning to Pray from the Psalms, Part 4

(Click here for part one, part two, and part three)

by Pastor Paul Dugan

The Psalms provide a “playlist” for all dimensions of the human experience, for all parts of the human soul. This playlist includes a wide variety of genres that help us gather the whole of our lives in honest and grateful prayer before God. 

The Psalms have changed my life. They have become medicine for my soul.

Today we practice praying the enthronement psalms. Psalm 95 is a classic example:

Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.

For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.

Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.  (Psalm 95:1-7)

For an example of Psalm 95 put to music, click here (Courtesy: Sons of Korah)

Enthronement psalms call believers to praise and worship God who is Lord and King of the universe. They celebrate his rule over the world, the nations, and over his people whom he has chosen. Examples of enthronement psalms: Psalm 2, 24, 29, 47, 93, 96, 97, 98, 99, and 110.

Like the great prophets of Israel, the poets who crafted the enthronement psalms pointed ahead to a time when God’s kingdom would come with justice, righteousness and peace. They celebrate God’s long-expected rule. 

By the first century A.D. kingdom expectations were white hot in the Jewish world.

And Jesus at first seemed to fan these coals. His opening words in the Gospel Mark put the kingdom of God front and center: 

“…Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!’” (Mark 1:14-15)

Jesus has brought the kingdom of God “near.”  The enthronement psalms are being fulfilled. This is amazing good news!

But… the kingdom Jesus brought was not what most people expected. He did not overthrow the Romans, expel foreigners from Jerusalem, or restore the long awaited Davidic rule of Israel. Instead, Jesus demonstrated God’s rule by healing the sick, confronting demonic powers, delivering the oppressed, and welcoming repentant sinners from the “wrong side of the tracks.” And this was his radical call: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”(Mark 8:34).  In this call to discipleship, Jesus was actively disrupted all rival kingdoms…particularly the rival kingdom of self. And so it is today. Our allegiance to Jesus brings a liberating revolution to every area of our lives.

But the most unexpected part of Jesus’ kingdom mission was the way it ended. Following his “triumphal entry” into Jerusalem, Jesus was rejected, tortured, and shamefully executed. No one expected a crucified messiah. Yet, the gospel writers imply that this death was actually a victory. Jesus was given a “crown” of thorns and a robe. He was lifted up- onto a cross rather than a throne. People witnessing his crucifixion mocked Jesus, saying, "behold, the king of the Jews!". Little did they know that the words they hurled at him as mockery were actually true. Jesus was a different kind of king, a king who was enthroned on a cross. And three days later he was vindicated in his resurrection.

In death, Jesus defeated sin and evil, and he established a way by which all of his followers can take part in the kingdom of God. His final call to his disciples was this, “All authority in heaven and earth have been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples…” (Mt 28:18-19)

And so the enthronement psalms become for us prayers of discipleship. Here are some ways to create your own enthronement psalms around King Jesus: 

“Lord Jesus Christ, continue to bring your kingdom in my world,

healing the sick…

delivering the oppressed…

welcoming repentant “outsiders”…

calling me to follow you into every area of life, including…

and by winning through losing, by ruling in self-giving love, in my…

“Lord Jesus, bring a liberating revolution over my life-  (over my body, time, money, possessions, politics, relationships, vocation…)

“Lord Jesus, overthrow all rival idols, lords, and powers,… until everything heaven and earth is united under your generous reign. (Ephesians 1:10).

This is part four in a ten-part series on how to pray the psalms. Part five is here.

For an index to digital prayer guides for more than one hundred individual psalms, click here.

The Lion of Judah

Last week we read how Joseph’s older brother, Judah, offered himself as a substitute to save his brothers from certain death.

Judah is an interesting guy. Judah is the brother whose idea it was to sell Joseph into slavery and then lie to their father, Jacob, about how a lion ate poor Joseph. Judah presented his dad, Jacob, with Josesph’s fabulous coat of many colors, ripped and torn and covered in blood, and offered this lie: “A lion devoured your son, Joseph.”

This is the very same Judah who has now been changed by God…the moment he tells Joseph that he will lay his life down as a substitute for Benjamin…that’s when Joseph’s heart breaks because now he has found evidence that he can trust his brothers. 

My friend Brad said to me last week, “Oh, now I get why Jesus is called the Lion of Judah.”  Can you see why? 

First, Jesus is from the Tribe of Judah…Judah’s great great great…and some more greats…grandson. But why is Jesus’ called the lion of Judah?

First,  Jesus is the Lion of Judah, the Victorious Warrior who rescued us from our death by dying in our place, who destroyed the power of death by rising from the grave.  This is the image of strength and power.

Second, Judah’s connection to a lion isn’t all the positive; in fact, it’s a moment of weakness for Judah. It’s the same with Jesus. Jesus is the Lion of Judah, not in strength, but in great weakness. Instead of selling us ungrateful and spoiled younger siblings into slavery and pretending we were eaten by a lion….Jesus volunteered to endure our slavery; to trade places with us so that he might rescue us from the captivity of the sin we signed up for. And when sin and death threatened to rip us to shreds and kill us, like a lion would destroy its prey, Jesus became our substitute. Jesus was ripped and torn so we didn’t have to be.

And when the royal robe of our Jesus was presented to the Heavenly Father, the blood on the robe wasn’t a lie. It’s the most sorrowful and glorious truth there is: Jesus died in our place. We are forgive and free. For the Lion of Judah offered his own blood, to become our substitute just like Judah offered, so that all of us younger brothers and sisters might be rescued from our banishment and brought back into the family of God.

Jesus is our Lion of Judah, the King of Kings who substitutes himself for us sinners so that by His blood we are forgiven and washed clean.  

JESUS CHANGES EVERYTHING Luke 19:1-10

LEARNING TO SING THE BLUES: Praying the Psalms of Lament

by Pastor Paul Dugan

The Psalms provide a “playlist” for all dimensions of the human experience, for all parts of the human soul. This playlist includes a wide variety of genres that help us gather the whole of our lives in honest and grateful prayer before God.

The Psalms have changed my life. They have become medicine for my soul... especially the laments.

The Oxford Dictionary defines lament as “a passionate expression of grief or sorrow.” Synonyms include: wail, moan, cry, sob, weep, complain, groan, howl.

Psalm 42 is a classic example of a biblical lament:

As the deer pants for streams of water,
    so my soul pants for you, my God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
    When can I go and meet with God?
3 My tears have been my food
    day and night,
while people say to me all day long,
    “Where is your God?”
4 These things I remember
    as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go to the house of God
    under the protection of the Mighty One with shouts of joy and praise
    among the festive throng.

5 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
    Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
    for I will yet praise him,
    my Savior and my God.

6 My soul is downcast within me;
    therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
    the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
    in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
    have swept over me.  (Psalm 42:1-7)

Click here for a musical version of Psalm 42 by The Corner Room.

Lament is by far the most common genre of the Psalter. More psalms fall under the lament category than any other, about 40% of the total.

I find this fascinating- that the largest genre in the “playlist” for the people of God is “The Blues”!  What does this say about the life of faith?  …about the relationship between the people of God and suffering?  …about what it means to be human?   How does this re-define prayer for the contemporary believer?  …for the contemporary church?

In his excellent introduction to the Psalms in The Message, Eugene Peterson helps acclimate us to the raw honesty of the psalms:

“Faced with the prospect of conversation with a holy God who speaks worlds into being, it is not surprising that we have trouble (with prayer). We feel awkward and out of place: “I’m not good enough for this. I’ll wait until I clean up my act and prove that I am a decent person.” Or we excuse ourselves on the grounds that our vocabulary is inadequate: “Give me a few months—or years!—to practice prayers that are polished enough for such a sacred meeting. Then I won’t feel so stuttery and ill at ease.”

My usual response when presented with these difficulties is to put the Psalms in a person’s hand and say, “Go home and pray these… A common response of those who do what I ask is surprise—they don’t expect this kind of thing in the Bible. And then I express surprise at their surprise: “Did you think these would be the prayers of nice people? Did you think the psalmists’ language would be polished and polite?”

Untutored, we tend to think that prayer is what good people do when they are doing their best. It is not. Inexperienced, we suppose that there must be an “insider” language that must be acquired before God takes us seriously in our prayer. There is not. Prayer is elemental, not advanced, language. It is the means by which our language becomes honest, true, and personal in response to God. It is the means by which we get everything in our lives out in the open before God.”

Laments are complaints. These are raw prayers of grievance with God, protesting the experience of suffering, injustice, persecution, and often protesting the hostility of an enemy.

Common aspects of lament psalms include the following:

·      cries for help

·      questions for God,

·      descriptions of trouble (in the present tense), 

·      rememberings of God’s past actions, and

·      vows of praise. 

Key words: “Why…?;  “When…?;  “How long…?; “Where are you…?;  “My enemies…

There are two sub-types of lament in the Psalms: Individual laments focus on my trouble. Communal laments focus on our shared trouble.

Examples of lament psalms (click on each link for a guide and music to accompany each psalm): Psalm 6; Psalm 10; Psalm 12; Psalm 13; Psalm 17; Psalm 22; Psalm 26; Psalm 29; Psalm 31; Psalm 42; Psalm 43; Psalm 51; Psalm 53; Psalm 60; Psalm 69; Psalm 77; Psalm 79; Psalm 80; Psalm 82; Psalm 88:1-8; Psalm 94; Psalm 117; Psalm 130; Psalm 137; Psalm 141

How to craft your own psalm of lament:

1. Describe your trouble (or your community’s trouble) in detail to God

2. Bring your honest questions to God: "Lord, why….?;  "How long, Lord, before you…?; "Where are you in…?

3. Express your honest emotions to God: "Lord, I am feeling sad about…; "I am feeling angry…; “…afraid…

4. Make your plea to God:   "Please, Lord…; "Remember back when you…

Praying the laments is medicine for the soul. One of the church fathers called it “psalmotherapy.” As I pray these raw, ancient, “unspiritual” prayers, I am praying with a great cloud of witnesses who have prayed them before me over the past 3,000 years. That means I am not alone. And, get this… when I pray the laments I am praying with my Savior. As he embraced the full reality of the human condition, the Lord Jesus Christ took up these grievances before the Father (ex. Psalm 22: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” ). The Son of God prays the laments with you! You are not alone in your suffering. Take heart.

This is part three in a ten-part series on praying the psalms. Part four is here.

For more on The Psalms: Here is an introduction to the Book of Psalms. Here is a detailed list of psalms by genre (literary style).

For an index to digital prayer guides for more than one hundred individual psalms, click here.

THE GREAT REVERSAL

Luke 16:19-31

You are invited to an online study of The Gospel according to Luke, with Pastor Paul & friends on Thursdays @ 4PM here

Encouragement Video

Cure for Cabin Fever: Episode 4, with Paul & Kathy Dugan

Learn the Genre of Praise

Learning to Pray from the Psalms

by Pastor Paul Dugan

The Psalms provide a “playlist” for all dimensions of the human experience, for all parts of the human soul. This playlist includes a wide diversity of genres that help us gather the whole of our lives in honest and grateful prayer before God. See this post for an introduction.

The Psalms have changed my life. They have become medicine for my soul.

Today we explore the genre of praise in the psalms. Psalm 100 is a classic example of a praise psalm:

Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.

Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.

Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.

For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Psalms of praise are always directed toward God, in honor of who God is and what God has done. Many of these psalms feature praises to God as Creator. Look for key words such as sing, rejoice, praise, glory, joyful; …for...

Examples of other psalms of praise: Psalm 8, 33, 65, 66, 68, 95, 104, 111, 113, 117, 134, 139, 145 - 150.

To craft your own psalm of praise, try completing these sentences:

• “Lord, I bless and worship you, for you are… (God’s character, ways)

• “I praise you for… (God’s works, gifts)

• "Hallowed be your name. Elevate your reputation today in my… (ex. family, church, neighborhood, city, culture, etc.)

• “May my… bring you glory and praise today.

I encourage you to start your day with praise. What is typically your first thought or habit when you wake up in the morning? Try replacing this with three minutes of praise, blessing God for who he is and what he has done. Read one of the psalms of praise, or design your own, completing one of the sentences above.

As you harness your first thoughts of the day around God, you recalibrate your soul. You reaffirm this glorious confession,“The Lord is God… and I am not.”

This is part two of a ten-part series on how to pray the psalms. Part three is here.

For an index to digital prayer guides for more than one hundred individual psalms, click here.

DINING WITH JESUS Luke 14:12-24

An Introduction to Praying the Psalms

Learning to Pray from the Psalms

by Pastor Paul Dugan

Tucked away in the center of your Bible is a goldmine…the Hebrew Psalms. The Psalms are a “playlist” for all dimensions of the human experience, for all parts of the human soul. This playlist includes a wide diversity of genres that help us gather the whole of our lives (including the messy parts) in raw, honest prayer before God. The Psalms help us become more real in God’s presence and in the presence of God’s people.

The Psalms have changed my life. They have become medicine for my soul.

Before we dive into the diverse genres of the psalms and how to take them up as our own, let’s zoom out:

The Hebrew Psalms, from their ancient beginnings, have been used in a musical context. The Hebrew title for the Psalter (transliterated) is cepher tehillim which means “book of praises.” The Greek title is psalmos, which refers to a poem sung to the accompaniment of stringed instruments. The Psalter has served as a prayerbook and a hymnal for Israel and for the Christian Church for thousands of years.

Listen to how the psalms are described by some of my favorite “fathers” of the faith:

Athanasius (d. 373 AD): “…for those who do sing (the Psalms)…. the melody of the words springs naturally from the rhythm of the soul and her own union with the Spirit.”

Basil the Great (d. 379): “Every Psalm brings peace, soothes the internal conflicts, calms the rough waves of evil thoughts, dissolves anger, corrects and moderates profligacy. Every Psalm preserves friendship and reconciles those who are separated. Who could actually regard as an enemy the person beside whom they have raised a song to the one God? Every Psalm anticipates the anguish of the night and gives rest after the efforts of the day.”

Calvin (d. 1564): “(the Psalms are) 'An Anatomy of all the Parts of the Soul;' for there is not an emotion of which any one can be conscious that is not here represented in a mirror. Or rather, the Holy Spirit has here drawn to life all the griefs, sorrows, fears, doubts, hopes, cares, perplexities, in short, all the distracting emotions with which [our] minds are wont to be agitated.”

Bonhoeffer (d. 1945): “The Psalter is the prayer book of Jesus Christ … He prayed the Psalter and now it has become his prayer for all time… Those who pray the psalms are joining in with the prayer of Jesus Christ; their prayer reaches the ears of God. Christ (in his full humanity) has become their intercessor.”

Eugene Peterson (d. 2018): “In contrast to most English translations, the Psalms in Hebrew are earthy and rough. They are not genteel. They are not the prayers of nice people, couched in cultured language. And so in my pastoral work of teaching people to pray, I started paraphrasing the Psalms into the rhythms and idiom of contemporary English (The Message). I wanted to provide men and women access to the immense range and the terrific energies of prayer in the kind of language that is most immediate to them,…(I am) convinced that only as we develop raw honesty and detailed thoroughness in our praying do we become whole, truly human in Jesus Christ, who also prayed the Psalms.”

The psalms provide us with new (ancient) ways to being in authentic conversation with God. Over the coming days and weeks, we will use this blog to introduce and “try out” nine different genres of prayer in God’s psalm playlist. Stay tuned.

This is the first in a ten-part series on how to pray the psalms. Part two is here.

For an index to digital prayer guides for more than one hundred individual psalms, click here.

BIGGER BARNS, EMPTY SOULS Luke 12:13-21