Today's Psalm - 99 Wineskins on the Wall

Okay, I haven't even made it past the prescript of the psalm and run across something interesting that sent me surfing the Web.

Psalm 7 indicates it is a "Shiggaion" of David. What the ???? So I pop the dictionary up on Bibleworks and find that it is from the verb "to wander" and that it's like a Greek dithyramb. Been too long since I studied Greek culture so I head for the Web and find reference to dithyrambs being associated with Dionysus. Without even starting to read the page my brain can recall enough about Greek mythology to remember that Dionysus was the Greek God of wine -- real party animal.

(The image is from a company called Impression Games from a presskit of theirs.)

So back to some more search on the web on "shiggaion" and I find a little more honest Bible dictionary. The word is actually from a verb that means to wander around under the influence of drink.

Now the "official" explanation given is that it can refer to a song/poem that is influenced by strong emotion. So to the text to see what it says.

David is feeling persecuted by enemies. (Certainly could have caused him to drink.) He says early on, if I have done anything wrong, God, then you judge me! (Daring God to find wrong with you is not the action of a sober or sane person!) The psalm continues in calling for God to establish the righteous and seek revenge on those who are evil.

Now I will grant you strong emotion (fear, anger, etc) could have been the cause, but is it possible that David also composed this psalm (as well as a few others) with some fruit of the vine in his veins? I think so. No matter what my Baptist friends told me when I was growing up I know Jesus drank and so did almost all his fellow Jews save for a few like John the Baptist who opted to teetotal.

There is one other "shiggiaon" in the Bible. Habakkuk 3. Seems a little less extreme in emotion but you can read at home and make your own judgment.

Caveat: It's been a while since Hebrew so I don't claim scholarship on this post. I do recall when taking Hebrew that there were often disagreements about the roots of words. So I might really be barking up the wrong tree. Pass the wineskin!

Additonal Caveat: Don't show up Sunday with your flask in your pocket and tell folks I inspired you! I will confiscate all such items and empty them before returning them. Don't worry, I will find a good home for what you bring. And no, I don't drink when I write the sermons, although some will no doubt suggest it may improve them.

YOB - The Light's in My Eyes

October 7, 2009
John 12:44-50

Jesus came to shine as a light in the darkness. Light to see in the dark is good. Light to keep from smacking our shines or tumbling into a hole in the ground is good. The ancient world was not bathed in ever present light like we are.

At left is a satellite image of a blackout in 2003 (courtesy of the Earth Institute at Columbia). Note how dark Long Island is. Must have been pretty spooky in the big city that night.

Sudden bright light in a dark room can also be very irritating. Jesus must have seemed at times like an overly bright light shining in the eyes of people. Even his popularity among the common folks was brittle. They didn't care for his talk about sacrifice and crosses.

Some days I feel like the light's in my eyes and some days it's on the path ahead of me. Probably depends on what I am most in need of that day.

YOB - The Inner Struggle

October 6, 2009
Romans 7:9-21

Paul opens up and in so doing reminds us all of the inner battle. We know what's right. But we do what's wrong. Sometimes we even like doing what's wrong. Sometimes we see wrong coming from a mile and way and instead of heading in the other direction, we run headlong for it.

It isn't the law that's the problem. There is a standard of behavior that we know we ought to follow. But doing what benefits us in the short term is so much more enticing and even at times fun!

And with perspective we can often see the choices were not only wrong but self destructive. Most sin has some pretty bad consequences down the road waiting for us somewhere.

Verse 25 reminds us that Christ is the only hope for us sinners. Grace saves and continues to transfer us who would be hopeless otherwise. God is always ready to forgive and heal and help us put our lives back together. Thanks be to God!

Psalm of the Day - Tough Guy Flute Section

Today's psalm is Psalm 5. The prescript says it is a psalm of David written for the flutes. We think flutes and by and large we think light and airy and fun. Sunshine dancing across the hills and Disney animated satyrs.

I suspect ancient flute sections were a tougher breed. This psalm is a cry for help from enemies and a call for God to destroy liars and evildoers. God will bless the righteous but God is going to destroy the liars.

So think more Jethro Tull than the lighter parts of Fantasia. David Carradine always seems to show up with a bamboo flute in his portrayals of Kung Fu masters. He would calmly play it and then peacefully bludgeon someone to death. (I can just see the wheels turn in Ed's mind right now reaching for some rather obvious comments on Carradine.)

I suspect most of the music in biblical times (and we really have little idea what it sounded like) was strong and earthy and passionate. It would have matched the faith of the people.

Psalm of the Day - God is laughing and angry!

I had a Facebook chat recently with a friend about humor and laughter. I cited Psalm 2 when the issue of God arose. In Psalm 2 God is laughing and angry at the same time. It says God laughs in derision or scoffs at the rulers of the world who think they are in charge. The psalmist goes onto to say that the rulers had better kiss God's feet or else!

Now I am sure some commentators would like to see this as a psalm where the writer paints God in altogether too human a form. Surely, God must not scoff at us humans! But why not? We do some pretty stupid stuff. Why wouldn't God scoff at our efforts to control our lives when we do so pridefully and without a hint of humility and acknowledgment that just maybe we might need some help from outside ourselves?

My congregation completed a congregational life survey this spring. One of the questions was about emotions experienced in worship. Do you feel joy, boredom, inspiration, etc? Presbyterians (and our congregation) were fairly low on the awe scale. That's wrapped up with the fear of the Lord cited so often in the Old Testament. Part of the burden for that has to fall to us worship leaders. Maybe we don't do enough to remind people God is in charge and we really, really, really need to kiss his feet in a completely respectful, we love you with all we have sort of way.

Today's YOB - Big Claims!

Our congregation gave our members and friends a booklet at the beginning of the year with passages for every day of the year -- "Year with the Bible." That got renamed in my mind to Year of the Bible because we used something by that name a couple of years ago and I am getting old and confusing things. Just to add laziness to the picture I sometimes refer to it as YOB.

Our church has a Facebook group where I post comments 3 or so times a week about a reading. So why not get double duty

Today's YOB - Psalm 26

October 2, 2009
Psalm 26

This is another psalm of David. He claims he walked with integrity and has always trusted God. He has been faithful. Hmm, David couldn't have always said this. He didn't always walk with integrity and faithfulness. There is the whole Bathsheba cycle and some serious mistakes as a father. Perhaps he wrote this psalm before those incidents. Or perhaps he wrote them afterward and really understands how God forgiveness works. Once you have confessed and received God's grace and practiced true repentance -- asked God for helping in fixing the mess and following God's guidance, then you really truly are forgiven. No need to beat yourself up again. Now you can stand before God and I say, "I am faithful."

Whose Sneeking Up Behind Me?

The psalmists understood paranoid thinking. One might say they even wrote the book on it. (Yes, bad joke.) Take Psalm 31. It is credited to David. David spent several years on the run from various powerful people. His father-in-law Saul wanted to kill him. So he bolted to an enemy country to try to live there. Claimed he had gone over to the other side. Made a habit of raiding villages of that very country and being sure to not leave any witnesses. (Yes, it's bloody and horrible but that was the world David lived in.) Course those kinds of secrets don't stay secret for ever so he had to take his men and run again. In one king's court he feigned madness to give everyone a laugh and to avoid being thrust through by a sword or spear.

So when David writes a song and says, "For I hear the whispering of many -- terror all around! -- as they scheme together against me, as they plot to take my life," it's for good reason. Paranoid thinking became a survival instinct.

Some still live in that kind of fear -- victims of domestic violence, those in warn torn areas. And sometimes that kind of fear speaks to a fear of the demons that lurk on the inside. For some they are overwhelming strong and they need plenty of outside help.

The good news in the psalms is that deliverance in one form or another always comes. So take heart when it seems the enemies surround. Get help if you need it. Get out of your current circumstance if need be. And be sure you will find a lament in the psalms that matches your mood. God doesn't mind the prays of fearful and even paranoid.