Skip to main content
How long, 
O you sons of men, 
Will you turn my glory 
to shame? 
How long
will you love worthlessness 
And seek falsehood? Selah
Psalms 4:2 NKJV
David is hurting here. 
And it's like he is not being seen for who he really is. 
No one gets him.
No one is really listening.
Instead they're believing lies, "loving worthlessness", just doing nothing that's going to help.
It's like they don't really want to hear, don't really want to see. 
And David feels the shame, because he has to carry the shame. It feels like it's his, it feels like what is good in him has been turned into something ugly.
And the accusation burns because that's what I do.
I don't listen. 
I believe a lie becuase it's easier than facing the truth.
I don't make space for people to express how it is for them. 
I let them sit in that shame.
Yet the One who I follow does not do that. Jesus steps towards the hurt, the hurting, listens, questions, shares a meal, a drink.
He takes on himself the shame and restores honour. 
Jesus says "I see you as the wonderful good person you were always made to be" (Ephesians 1:4)
And he calls me to follow Him. 
To see people as He sees them, to listen, to make space, to bear with, to step towards, to remove shame, to bring healing and hope.
Selah
An interlude 
Time to take a breath
To sit with David's story and see it in our lives and the lives of those around us. 
David was not OK here.
Selah.
In our not OKness, take a breath.
Breathe in Jesus wide open grace and love for you.
And exhale.
Selah 
#psalms
#psalm4
#sundaypsalms
#selah

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,  for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can't see - such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. Colossians 1:15-16 NLT OK so this is an English translation of a letter Paul wrote to a church 2,000 years ago, but does it feel like Paul is wrestling with words and ideas to try and capture all of who Jesus is, of who God is, of how does it work that the walking around Jesus was also there before the beginning of the beginning of everything we can see and touch and know. Not only that but Jesus was somehow the agent of everything that has been made in the physical, social, and spiritual.  Jesus is at the centre of it all.  Walking around Jesus. Cooking fish for breakfast Jesus. Heart aching as he ...
As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside privately and told them what was going to happen to him.  "Listen," he said,  "we're going up to Jerusalem, where the Son of Man will be betrayed to the leading priests and the teachers of religious law.  They will sentence him to die. Then they will hand him over to the Romans to be mocked,  flogged with a whip,  and crucified.  But on the third day he will be raised from the dead." Matthew 20:17-20 NLT Jesus wanted his team, those closest to him, to know what was going to happen next.  It seems he wanted them to be prepared.  To be able to hold the hope of what's at the end as they go through the watching him be betrayed, sentenced, mocked, abused, and killed.  I wonder if Jesus needed to tell them, to let those he knew best what was ahead because he needed them with him. Jesus wanted community in the most difficult of times. It's no wonder that we do too.  We're in...
Now rescue your beloved people. Answer and save us by your power. ... Who will bring me into the fortified city?  Who will bring me victory over Edom? Have you rejected us, O God?  Will you no longer march with our armies?Oh, please help us against our enemies,  for all human help is useless. With God's help we will do mighty things, for he will trample down our foes. Psalm 108 6, 10-13 NLT After the most beautiful and uplifting worshipful first half to this song, David takes us somewhere completely different in the second half.  It's all about victory, power, winning, it's all about him. The "mighty things" he wants God to do are all on the outside, all about power, and David's writing sounds like he's a bit lost in his quest to win. And I do the same thing. Praise God and ask him to fix my problems. Fix the classroom/online/workplace bully, fix my finances, fix my relationships, fix my problems. So as I sit with this psalm of 2 halves, its a bit of a mir...