Psalms 136 -140
FIVE SIMPLE PLEASURES:
Easter resurrection hope- Looking at all the great photos from the night before
- Successfully serving up roast dinner for ten
- Jigsaw time
- Late night chit chat with the family
PSALM 136: HIS LOVE ENDURES FOREVER
Give thanks to the God of heaven.
His love endures for ever. v26
His love endures forever. This bears repeating. It’s repeated 26 times in this psalm. Because this is what our faith is based on. This is what our lives are based on.
PSALM 137: BY THE RIVERS OF BABYLON
How can we sing the songs of the Lord
while in a foreign land? v4
Yup. Think Bony M. Although it’s always puzzled me how upbeat that tune is, given that the lyrics are so heartbreaking. The people of God are in exile. Jerusalem is in ruins. God’s people are being taunted to sing their songs of praise and victory to their God who has so clearly abandoned them. We have those times. Those times of exile. Those times we feel God has abandoned us. Those times we feel unable to sing. Those times we have to cling with both hands to our hope and faith and the truth that ‘His love endures forever’.
PSALM 138: OUR HOPE AND FAITH AND TRUTH
The Lord will vindicate me;
your love, Lord, endures for ever –
do not abandon the works of your hands. v8
This is our hope. This is our faith. This is the truth. And so I WILL praise Him. I WILL bow down.
PSALM 139: KNOWN
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well. v14
A wonderful, wonderful psalm of intimacy. I often feel unknown and misunderstood. That I am isolated and alone. Trapped inside me. No one will ever understand me or know me. Except the one who made me does. The one who knit me together in my mother’s womb. He knows me. He understands me. And He loves me. It’s mind-blowing!
PSALM 140: JUSTICE FOR THE POOR
I know that the Lord secures justice for the poor
and upholds the cause of the needy. v12
I know that too. I know justice for the poor is a priority for God. I know that God has a passion for the needy. But that’s hard to see in what goes on in the world, isn’t it? Most of us don’t. Not really. We may think we do our bit, but we do so little. We scratch the surface. This is a real challenge. This matters.
