When folks are asked, "What's your favorite psalm?" Psalm 138 comes in third place after Psalms 23 and 121. It's a prayer of mindfulness and gratitude for God's goodness. We might even learn it by heart. Click on the woodland path above to hear it read.
Verse 1: Notice the psalm says, I will give thanks..." Should we make anything of the world will? Maybe the psalmist is making a committment: "O God, all the way into the future, as long as I will live, you will have my heart."
"Before the gods, I will sing your praises." The psalmist is thinking of little temple gods of carved stone and metal. But Americans have their own other gods: a political party, some politician's base, the military industrial complex, my to-die-for amendment, my "rights," the contents of the thingdom come stores...
Verse 2: "I will bow down at your temple." Bow down. This isn't a little nod of the head but a deep bow from the waist - what monks call a profound bow. A look-at-your-shoes bow. A get-down-on the-ground-head-to-the-floor bow. Why bow like this? Because God is faithful in love for us, who can be such spoilers. That's a very big love!
Verse 3: "Your word is above all things." God is always speaking God's Word. I should be listening with the ears of my heart. You can't talk when you're bent over. You don't have the air for it. My father taught me to love words: God's Word is above all our yammering - our noisy, boisterous complaining.
Verse 4: We may not always like what we hear - but God answers, and God gives strength. Many believing people can attest to that. The strength to hang in there while raising a family. The strength required to take care of the sick, the damaged, the elderly, the failing or dying. The strength not to quit on beating back an addiction. You name it.
Verses 5-6: All the earthly kings will praise God because they will learn the ways of God and see God's greatness. Instead of kings, we might substitute: presidents, senators, congressmen, governors, corporate heads, managers, supervisors...
Verse 7: A lovely contrast here - while God is high, God cares for the lowly. We can imagine God bent over the world's thrown away people, those hidden away in filth, despair and sadness. There are millions and millions of them. God sees the haughty from a distance - the ones who make policies, plans, deals and budgets that ignore the littlest and the voiceless.The haughty create the distance, not God.
Verse 8: The verse refers to God's right hand twice. It is a poetic image of God's omnipotence. So why doesn't God use his omni-power as I think he should? I'll have to ask God about that if heaven's beautiful gate is opened to me. Meanwhile, I let God be God. But for me, God's right hand means, God has me pulled in real close, the way parents do with their children when there's sadness, worry or danger. And the greatest danger for us? Anything that would cause us to become indifferent or hateful.
Verse 9: God doesn't abandon. Humans are fickle, bellicose, resentful, fearful, destructive, greedy consumers. But the psalmist testifies that God doesn't give up on us - again - like those parents who don't give up on their children who can make some very wrong, even perilous choices.
God created each of us as an original idea. Each person is created with a God-inspired purpose. A radio preacher-man said this week, "The two most important moments in our lives are: the moment when I was born and then, the moment when I discover why I was born."
Verse 1: Notice the psalm says, I will give thanks..." Should we make anything of the world will? Maybe the psalmist is making a committment: "O God, all the way into the future, as long as I will live, you will have my heart."
"Before the gods, I will sing your praises." The psalmist is thinking of little temple gods of carved stone and metal. But Americans have their own other gods: a political party, some politician's base, the military industrial complex, my to-die-for amendment, my "rights," the contents of the thingdom come stores...
Verse 2: "I will bow down at your temple." Bow down. This isn't a little nod of the head but a deep bow from the waist - what monks call a profound bow. A look-at-your-shoes bow. A get-down-on the-ground-head-to-the-floor bow. Why bow like this? Because God is faithful in love for us, who can be such spoilers. That's a very big love!
Verse 3: "Your word is above all things." God is always speaking God's Word. I should be listening with the ears of my heart. You can't talk when you're bent over. You don't have the air for it. My father taught me to love words: God's Word is above all our yammering - our noisy, boisterous complaining.
Verse 4: We may not always like what we hear - but God answers, and God gives strength. Many believing people can attest to that. The strength to hang in there while raising a family. The strength required to take care of the sick, the damaged, the elderly, the failing or dying. The strength not to quit on beating back an addiction. You name it.
Verses 5-6: All the earthly kings will praise God because they will learn the ways of God and see God's greatness. Instead of kings, we might substitute: presidents, senators, congressmen, governors, corporate heads, managers, supervisors...
Verse 7: A lovely contrast here - while God is high, God cares for the lowly. We can imagine God bent over the world's thrown away people, those hidden away in filth, despair and sadness. There are millions and millions of them. God sees the haughty from a distance - the ones who make policies, plans, deals and budgets that ignore the littlest and the voiceless.The haughty create the distance, not God.
Verse 8: The verse refers to God's right hand twice. It is a poetic image of God's omnipotence. So why doesn't God use his omni-power as I think he should? I'll have to ask God about that if heaven's beautiful gate is opened to me. Meanwhile, I let God be God. But for me, God's right hand means, God has me pulled in real close, the way parents do with their children when there's sadness, worry or danger. And the greatest danger for us? Anything that would cause us to become indifferent or hateful.
Verse 9: God doesn't abandon. Humans are fickle, bellicose, resentful, fearful, destructive, greedy consumers. But the psalmist testifies that God doesn't give up on us - again - like those parents who don't give up on their children who can make some very wrong, even perilous choices.
God created each of us as an original idea. Each person is created with a God-inspired purpose. A radio preacher-man said this week, "The two most important moments in our lives are: the moment when I was born and then, the moment when I discover why I was born."
