Aug
28
Review: A Long Obedience in the Same Direction
Filed Under Bible, Books, Christian History, Christian Living, Prayer, Psalms, Worship | Leave a Comment
Eugene Peterson’s books are either deeply loved or studiously avoided by Reformed folk. I’ve found him to be a thoughtful, literate writer who shares many of my concerns and passions about pastoral ministry. I read The Contemplative Pastor about three months after I finished seminary, and that book helped me avoid many snares and keep my wits about me. I don’t always agree with Peterson, but he is such a gracious and edifying author that I enjoy disagreeing with him more than I enjoy agreeing with many others. Someone once quipped, “I prefer Uriah drunk to David sober.”
I recently read one of Peterson’s first books, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society, first published in 1980 and the released in a revised and expanded version by IVP in 2000. The title is drawn from a surprising place: Friedrich Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil (’The essential thing “in heaven and earth” is…that there should be a long obedience in the same direction; there thereby results, and has always resulted in the long run, something which has made life worth living.’) Peterson takes us to the “Psalms of Ascent” (Psalms 120-134) as a guide and metaphor for following Christ over the long haul. He writes in the introduction:
I knew that following Jesus could never develop into a “long obedience” without a deepening life of prayer and that the Psalms had always been the primary means by which Christians learned to pray everything they lived, and live everything they prayed over the long haul…But the people I was around didn’t pray the Psalms. That puzzled me; Christians have always prayed the Psalms; why didn’t my friends and neighbors?
God has used Peterson’s teaching on Psalms 120-134 to knead them into my imagination again and into my vocabulary of prayer and conversation to speak in practical ways about joy, repentance, service, work, humility, obedience, community and blessing. Here are some samples of Peterson’s work that will give you a sense of the deep, biblical wisdom of A Long Obedience:
On worship: ‘We live in what one writer has called the “age of sensation.” We think that if we don’t feel something there can be no authenticity in doing it. But the wisdom of God says something different: that we can act ourselves into a new way of feeling much quicker than we can feel ourselves into a new way of acting. Worship is an act that develops feelings for God, not a feeling that is expressed in an act of worship. When we obey the command to praise God in worship, our deep, essential need to be in relationship with God is nurtured.’ [54]
On the past: ‘The psalmist is not an antiquarian reveling in the past for its own sake but a traveler using what he knows of the past to get to where he is going–to God. For all its interest in history the Bible never refers to the past as “the good old times.” The past is not, for the person of faith, a restored historical site that we tour when we are on vacation; it is a field that we plow and harrow and plant and fertilize and work for a harvest.’ [168]
On joy: ‘A common but futile strategy for achieving joy is trying to eliminate things that hurt: get rid of pain by numbing the nerve ends, get rid of insecurity by eliminating risks, get rid of disappointment by depersonalizing your relationships. And then try to to lighten the boredom of such a life by buying joy in the form of vacations and entertainment. There isn’t a hint of that in Psalm 126.’ [100]
On security: ‘Discipleship is not a contract in which if we break our part of the agreement he is free to break his; it is a covenant in which he establishes the conditions and guarantees the results.’ [90]
On hope: ‘Hoping does not mean doing nothing…It means going about our assigned tasks, confident that God will provide the meaning and the conclusions…It is imagination put in the harness of faith. it is a willingness to let God to it his way and in his time. It is the opposite of making plans that we demand that God put into effect, telling him both how and when to do it.’ [144]
On repentance: ‘Repentance is not an emotion. It is not feeling sorry for your sins. It is a decision. It is deciding that you have been wrong in supposing that you could manage your own life and be your own god; it is deciding that you were wrong in thinking that you had, or could get, the strength, education and training to make it on your own; it is deciding that you have been told a pack of lies about yourself and your neighbors and your world. And it is deciding that God in Jesus Christ is telling you the truth. Repentance is a realization that what God wants from you and what you want from God are not going to be achieved by doing the same old things, thinking the same old thoughts. Repentance is a decision to follow Jesus Christ and become his pilgrim in the path of peace.’ [29-30]
Peterson includes in the revised edition the Psalms of Ascent in his translation/paraphrase, The Message. This is a plus in the eyes of author and publisher and many readers, but not in mine.
Nevertheless, if you are drawn toward instant, polished-smile, give-me-patience-now Christianity, be warned: there will be little in this book to soothe and cherish your desires. But Peterson’s aged wine is much better than the Zima of contemporary spirituality. Take, read, drink deeply.
Jun
9
Blogging with the big boys
Filed Under Around the Church, Blogging, Psalms, Worship | 1 Comment
Joe Holland, FPC’s uber-blogger, has, in the altered words of George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life, finally shaken the dust of this crummy little blog off his feet and has joined the line-up of big-league bloggers and writers such as Carl Trueman, Derek Thomas, Philip Ryken, Mark Johnston, et. al., on Reformation21. Ref21 is one of the best blgs out there, and you ought to read Joe’s article on psalm-singing. You can also read Joe’s musings almost daily on his personal blog Mining Grace. A rare medium well-done, Joe.
Jan
1
A prayer for year’s end and beginning
Filed Under Around the Church, Poetry, Prayer, Psalms, The Church, Worship | Leave a Comment
Psalm 107 says, ‘Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.’ This past Sunday evening a good number of the Lord’s redeemed testified as to how goodness and mercy followed them during 2007. Laughter was heard, tears were shed, and God was glorified and enjoyed.
Below is a prayer adapted from The Valley of Vision that we pray together at FPC Kosciusko as the calendar turns.
O God, your love is beyond compare. You are good when you give,
when you take away,
when the sun shines upon me,
when the night gathers over me.
You have loved me before the foundation of the world,
and in love you have redeemed my soul.
You love me still, in spite of my hard heart, ingratitude, distrust.
Your goodness has been with me during another year,
leading me through a twisting wilderness.
Your goodness will be with me in the year ahead;
I launch my boat on the unknown waters of this year,
with you, as the pilot of my future, as of my past.
If you appoint storms of tribulation, you will be with me in them.
If you ordain joy and success, you will receive thanks and honor.
If I die, I shall see your face the sooner;
If I live, I shall walk by faith and not by sight.
Only glorify yourself in me whether in comfort or in trial,
as a chosen vessel suitable always for your use.
Give me your grace to sanctify me,
your comforts to cheer,
your wisdom to teach,
your right hand to guide,
your joy to strengthen,
your law to convict,
your presence to stabilize.
May the fear of the Lord keep me in awe of you,
and may the triumphs of your kingdom be my joy. AMEN.
May 2008 find us all faithful in adversity and thankful in prosperity. Grace and peace to you in the new year.
Nov
7
May it not be charged
Filed Under Around the Church, Christian Living, Ethics, Family, Prayer, Psalms, The Church | Leave a Comment
I have been walking the familiar paths of Paul’s letters while keeping my eyes open for things along the path I have not noticed before. I had one of those moments the other day while reading the end of what we reckon is Paul’s final letter: 2 Timothy. He is writing some closing thoughts (and 4:6 suggests that Paul considers his execution a fait accompli) and warns Timothy about the treachery of Alexander the coppersmith. Paul takes comfort in his assurance that the Lord will certainly deal with Alexander according to his deeds (v.14-15). In the following verses, Paul recalls, At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them! But the Lord stood by and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. Those words deserve some further review.
You can read the commentators’ speculations on exactly what this first hearing incident was among his various encounters with the Roman legal system. Let’s be candid: it’s not that important. At a previous court appearance, Paul felt the disappointment of desertion by friends. He expected some support; instead, no one came. I think back over the last seventeen+ years I have been involved in the gospel ministry, and, while I’ve never faced arraignment before a court, I can identify with Paul to some degree. People let you down. They misunderstand you. They won’t stand with you in the face of opposition. They become hypercritical. They are fickle.
In one case, Paul speaks of enemies in the spirit of the imprecatory psalms–you know, Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime, like the stillborn child who never sees the sun [Psalm 58:8]. In the other, he speaks of friends–people who ought to know and do better–who to a man deserted him at an hour of crisis. But he doesn’t lower the boom on them. Of them he says emphatically, May it not be charged against them! For one party he asks the Lord to repay with vengeance; for the other he seeks their pardon. May it not be charged against them! Paul asks the Lord to repay one to the last penny; to the other he asks the Lord to write the whole thing off.
Calvin comments on this difference:
He desires God to forgive the others, because they had fallen through fear and weakness, for we ought to have compassion on our brethren’s weakness. But Alexander had risen up against God with malice and sacrilegious audacity and was openly attacking the truth he had once confessed, and such wickedness deserves no mercy.
In times past I have been deserted and disappointed by church folk. Maybe there’s been an Alex Coppersmith in my life, but right now I can’t recall. But I can think of many deserters. No unbeliever has ever done me so much harm as fellow believers have. I don’t expect unbelievers to ‘get it.’ When they oppose, that’s par for the course in my book. But when insults, misrepresentations, slander, backbiting, and plain-old meanness and spinlessness come from within the family, that hurts!
Just when I am ready to start singing and praying the imprecatory psalms, I hear the words of Jesus: whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses [Mark 11:25]. Isn’t all of life worship? No, Jesus says. There are times when you stop whatever you’ve been doing to the glory of God and you stand still, and you enter (as it were) the temple of God, and you address God. Then forgiveness becomes a big issue. How often does Jesus speak of the need of his people to forgive those who have sinned against them? Very often. Always he mentions it in the context of our assurance that God has forgiven us. The forgiving heart is a forgiven heart. If we’re not forgiving people then we’ve no reason to believe that God has forgiven us. Jesus teaches this in the Lord’s Prayer in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6, pray saying, “forgive us as we forgive those who sin against us”. The Lord makes the peril spectacularly clear, that if you forgive men when they sin against you your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you don’t forgive men their sins your Father won’t forgive you your sins. A man in Georgia said to John Wesley, “I never forgive.” Wesley said to him, “I hope you never sin.”
Was it a sin for certain individuals to hang back in the shadows while Paul stood alone defending himself? Absolutely. They prized convenience and safety more than standing with a brother in the midst of hardship. Did Paul ever confront all of these folk about it? Maybe. We don’t know. The loving rebuke of sin is a good thing. Regardless, Paul didn’t write them off. He didn’t savor the offense. He apparently didn’t refuse fellowship with them. On the contrary, he wants the Lord to deal with them as if it had never happened.
I once heard Geoffrey Thomas ask a group of ministers in a sermon, ‘Why do we feel the need to be vindicated all the time? Why the need to be so quick to defend ourselves? What of the glory and honor of Christ suffers when we are misunderstood or criticized?’ I’ll admit, I don’t necessarily like the right answers to those questions. As much as I want to claim to defend truth and righteousness, I am so much more eager to pursue them when my own skin is involved. I am often much more interested in advancing my reputation than that of Christ and his kingdom.
Praise be to God, for he will bring justice to the wicked and avenge the blood of his saints. He alone knows who the subjects of Satan are and when and how he will judge them. We can pray with Bonhoeffer, ‘God, now step in and destroy your enemy. Use your power, let your righteous wrath blaze forth.’ And we must also pray for others, saying, ‘May it not be charged to them. Forgive them for their weaknesses and ignorance and feebleness.’
For me, there can be no grudges. I thank God that he is still at work in me to will and to do of his good pleasure-so much so that I can say more and more, when I remember brothers and sisters who have let me down, May it not be charged to them!
Jun
26
Red Mountain Music
Filed Under Music, Poetry, Psalms, Worship | 2 Comments
Let me encourage you to sample and purchase CDs from the website of Red Mountain Music, a ministry of Red Mountain Church (PCA) in Birmingham, Alabama. Red Mountain has made a number of worthy contributions to the ‘hymn-rewrite’ movement, in which many great hymns forgotten over time or locked away in unsingable or obsolete tunes have been set to newer, simpler music. They call it ‘traditional text with truly contemporary music.’ Groups such as Red Mountain and Indelible Grace, along with individuals such as Chris Miner, are like restorers of antique furniture, who can bring out the true loveliness in an old piece and restore its usefulness.
Brian T. Murphy (who was a student at Auburn University while I was assistant pastor at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Auburn–and he also helped us tremendously by playing piano for our worship services back then) writes on their web site:
…hymns ring true in a way that many modern songs simply do not. At times, it seems our ancestors had a stronger command of the language than we do. Their words drip with truth and paint pictures of the kingdom that make believers long for heaven. I cannot begin to describe what reading through these old hymnals has done to encourage the spirits of the musicians that play here. We find ourselves continually able to rest in the truth of these great lyrics, always with a sense that we are part of something much bigger than us or our little church. We are excited about this time in the church, and we are thrilled about this music.
The peculiar contribution of Red Mountain Music has been the The Gadsby Project, a reworking of 14 hymns from Gadsby’s Hymns, published in several stages during the 19th century. The Gadsby hymnal contains the text of 1,156 settings of psalms and hymns, most of which were penned during the 17th and 18th centuries. A goodly number of lesser-known hymns by masters such as Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, Joseph Hart and John Newton have been mined from this hymnal, and Red Mountain Music has done the Church a great service by reacquainting us with these songs of Zion.
I would also recommend their 2006 release Help My Unbelief, which continues in the spirit of The Gadsby Project by drawing from that vast resource. What is remarkable about Help My Unbelief is that it is a collection of hymns on the theme of doubt, struggle, longing, and crying out to God for help. These songs give expression to Christian struggles and laments in a brutally honest way in the biblical expectation that Christ meets us in the midst of the mess of our lives, and he does so as one who ‘will not break the bruised reed or quench the smoking flax.’ Help My Unbelief is a collection ‘for God’s prodigals and sojourners as they wait patiently for the Kingdom to come.’
May
18
Hymn Helps
Filed Under Music, Psalms, Resources, Worship | Leave a Comment
It’s been a while since I focused a post in on a great online resource. Today I wanted to briefly highlight The Cyber Hymnal. It is a website that specializes in all things concerning hymnody. Here are just a few things you can do there:
- Find the lyrics to your favorite hymns
- Find an audio file of your favorite hymn tune
- Find historical information on hymns, tunes, hymn writers, and tune writers
- In addition to this there are pictures, trivia, Scripture cross references, bibliographies, etc
You may be wondering who runs this site. The site owner(s) have chosen to keep that information private, saying,
This is a private Web site, doing our best to advance God’s kingdom, using the tools He gives us. We belong to the same denomination as Jesus: “Christian.”
In general, I consider intentional internet anonymity a red flag. However, I’ve used The Cyber Hymnal for years and have not found any objectionable material or ulterior motives.
How do I use The Cyber Hymnal? Let me give you two anecdotes.
Since today is Friday, I’m in the process of concluding my sermon preparation for Sunday. The end of that process usually includes me picking a suitable hymn with which to conclude the service. If at all possible I want that hymn to be a fitting response to what I preach. Often I will find a great hymn but am unsure whether the tune is one with which we as a congregation are familiar. Enter The Cyber Hymnal. I simply go over to cyberhymnal.org and listen to the tune. If the tune is easily sing-able I include it. If it isn’t, I pass on it for another hymn. This morning I passed.
I’ve also gotten into the habit of singing the psalms. I ordered a copy of the old Scottish Psalter. I went with that version because I’m not musically gifted in any way. Some of the tunes in the Trinity Psalter are intimidating to me. The Scottish Psalter puts almost all of the psalms to common meter. Put simply, I could sing every psalm to the tune of Amazing Grace if I had to. But I’d rather not do that. Enter The Cyber Hymnal. I simply searched for all of the tunes that are in common meter. I picked the ones I liked and continue to use them for my private devotional singing.
The Cyber Hymnal is the most useful online resource for those interested in the traditional hymns. It is certainly worth a glance. You won’t regret it.
