UNBLOCKING THE WELL OF THE LIVING WORD

SUGGESTED PATTERN Read Psalm 6-10 with spouse or household  re-read Psalm 9 with spouse or household, then spend 2 mins in silence focussing on  Psalm 9: 7-10, then 2 mins in silence asking the Lord what He is saying to you personally through Psalm 9:7-10 and then share together with spouse or household. One person read out loud devotional below and then pray for one another.  

Psalm 9: 7-10

7 The Lord reigns forever; he has established his throne for judgment ⁸ He rules the world in righteousness  and judges the peoples with equity. ⁹ The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. ¹⁰ Those who know your name trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.

Psalm 9  is a beautiful symmetrical psalm, with a structure that biblical scholars call chiastic, with verses 9-12 in the middle, and the beginning of the psalm is  mirrored by the end of the psalm. See Derek Tidball’s devotional map of the Psalms, “Signposts” (1)

Verse 1-2  Prayer of gratitude

   Verse 3-4  Present justice leads to enemy defeat

     Verse 5-6  The nations: the principle of justice stated

       Verse 7-8  God is sovereign

          Verse 9-10  Expression of trust

           Verse 11-12 Expression of praise

      Verse 13-14 God is saviour

    Verse 15-16 The nations: the practice of justice stated

   Verse 17-18 Future justice ensures complete enemy defeat

Verse 19-20 Prayer of petition  

As I read this symmetrical psalm, I am reminded of being given a kaleidoscope as a child, putting it to my eyes  like a telescope, and seeing a wonderful symmetrical colourful picture and turning it and seeing a very different stunning symmetrical picture, and the turning it again. One second I am confronted with the truth that the Lord Jesus Christ is judge, (verse 7-8) and the next second that he has a heart for the poor and the oppressed (verse 9,10), then immediately afterwards, that he avenges those that shed blood.

I am reminded of what Jesus says addressing the proud and then suddenly addressing the poor, in Matthew 11:20-30 ( Message version) (2) ^“Next Jesus unleashed on the cities where he had worked the hardest but whose people had responded the least, shrugging their shoulders and going their own way.Doom to you, Chorazin! Doom, Bethsaida! If Tyre and Sidon had seen half of the powerful miracles you have seen, they would have been on their knees in a minute. At Judgment Day they’ll get off easy compared to you. And Capernaum! With all your peacock strutting, you are going to end up in the abyss. If the people of Sodom had had your chances, the city would still be around. At Judgment Day they’ll get off easy compared to you.’ Abruptly Jesus broke into prayer: ‘Thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. You’ve concealed your ways from sophisticates and know-it-alls, but spelled them out clearly to ordinary people. Yes, Father, that’s the way you like to work. The Father has given me all these things to do and say. This is a unique Father-Son operation, coming out of Father and Son intimacies and knowledge. No one knows the Son the way the Father does, nor the Father the way the Son does. But I’m not keeping it to myself; I’m ready to go over it line by line with anyone willing to listen.’ ‘Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” So, It is only after this condemnation of the proud that Jesus suddenly switches and starts talking tenderly to the poor.

In the introduction to this devotional, I began by relating how Tom Wright (3)  says that “The Psalms transform our worldview.” He suggests that they are songs and poems that help us not just to understand the ancient worldview but actually to inhabit and celebrate it – this worldview  in which, contrary to modern assumptions, God’s time, space and matter intersect with ours. He goes on to say that Paul in the New Testament says we are God’s workmanship (Ephesians 2:10), which is ‘poemia’ in the Greek. Just as “we are called to be living breathing singing poems,” and we come in all shapes and sizes, so do the poems in the bible. They are God’s gift to us, so that we can be shaped as his gift to the world. These poems help transform our imagination. As we pray or sing the psalms we can imagine what it might be like to live in God’s time, his space his matter. Tom Wright says that the whole worldview of the Psalms inculcates God’s worldview into ours, transforms our imagination and our worldview into a worldview which Christians believe happened uniquely in Jesus.

Prayer

Lord give me your eyes to see .. I put my eyes to the kaleidoscope to see what you are doing.. choosing not to line up with the strutting peacocks,  but to take your yoke upon me …the yoke of the meek and the lowly and the  humble in   heart .. help me learn your unforced rhythms of grace. Help me to inhabit this psalm with your perspective Lord Jesus. You are a refuge for the oppressed a stronghold in times of trouble. As you write a poem in my life, help me to live my life in the light of the judgement seat of Christ. Show me how to live a life that will count for eternity, that demonstrates your heart for the poor and humble.

References    

(1) Tidball, D. Signposts, 9.

(2) The Message, Matthew 11:20-30.

(3) Wright, Tom, Finding God in the psalms, 31, 35-36.