Blessed Are the Outcasts

 My resolution for this calendar year is to read a psalm a day.  Yesterday I completed my first run through of the 150 psalms.  As I reflected on the many themes, one came to the front of my mind.  This theme is certainly not the foremost theme of all the themes in the entire book, but it is the one that my mind landed on as a theme as I talked with my wife about my finishing my first run through the book.  This theme, though not the main theme of the five books that make up the one book we call Psalms, is a theme that runs throughout the entire Bible.

God is for the down and out and humble and against the oppressor and and proud.

To take a single example, let's look at Psalm 146 and how it talks about God:

"... who executes justice for the oppressed,
who gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets the prisoner free;
the LORD opens the eyes of the blind.
The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down;
the LORD loves the righteous.
The LORD watches over the sojourners;
He upholds the widow and the fatherless,
but the way of the wicked He brings to ruin." Psalm 146:7-9

Or look at Psalm 101 as King David writes about those he will avoid:

"A perverse heart shall be far from me;
I will know nothing of evil.
Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly
I will destroy.
Whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart
I will not endure." Psalm 101:4-5

And there are plenty more passages like that in the Book of Psalms and the Old Testament and the New Testament.  The Bible is flooded with it from Moses to Jesus to James.

Jesus said in the sermon on the mount in Luke 6:20-26 that the poor, hungry, sad, and persecuted are blessed and then offered woes to the rich, the full, the happy and those thought of well by others.  Jesus said in Matthew 5:3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit..."

So, given this is a theme in the Bible (my brief overview about is grossly inadequate.  Please explore the texts yourself more fully). And given that Psalm 146 in particular talked about the theme, I asked myself a couple of questions in my journal.

1) Do I love and serve like my Father does?

Psalm 146 says that God loves and serves: The oppressed, the hungry, the prisoners, the blind, the bowed down, the righteous, the traveling foreigner, the widow and the fatherless.  Do I?

Do I overlook these people and even exploit them or do I love and serve them?  Is my heart soft for these people?  Do I hear and see the news about these people and feel moved to compassion?  Do I do anything to help them? 

Many of us jump straight into the question of what the government can and should do for these people.  That's not a wrong thing to think about.  In fact, since government in a free society is our collective will, we should think well about this.  But do we, ourselves, do anything to positively affect any one of this list of kinds of people our Father expresses a particular, caring love for? 

A Christian can be measured in maturity by how he or she loves and serve these people.

2) Do I count myself among these?

Jesus in Matthew's account of the Beatitudes says "Blessed are the poor in spirit."  Do I know my own depravity?  Do I know that I am a prisoner and a slave to sin without Jesus redeeming me?  Do I know I am blinded by Satan until God removes my blinders?  Do I know I am a little one in need of heavenly adoption?  Do I ever hunger and thirst for things to be right?  Do I know that every crumb of food comes from God to me?

"Only with difficulty will a rich person enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven." Matthew 19:23-4

None of us are actually rich. We are all beggars in the cosmic scope.  But many of us trust in our riches and perceive ourselves to have all we need.  This can't be true for a Christ follower.

No haughty and prideful person will be in the Kingdom of Heaven.  Only those who humbly understand their need and cry out for help will be in the Kingdom of Heaven.  This is a theme of the Bible: The proud and wicked are attacked by God.

Ask yourself today these questions.  Do you love and serve the outcasts? Do you count yourself among those who desperately need God's salvation?  Think about those questions today.

The Gospel According to a Mother's Lap

 When I was a young boy laying my head on my mom's lap was comforting.  There was many a Sunday when I was little that I laid down in the pew during service while my mother softly scratched my back.

Now I have kids and when they are needing comfort they run to their own mother to sit on her lap or be held as she stands.  Our fairly recently weaned toddler loves to play in the same room as her mom.  She is especially content when Mom is on the floor near her as she plays.

God is not our mother, but rather He is our Heavenly Father.  Yet, the best of motherhood displays and reflects His goodness.  We are made, male and female, in God's image (Genesis 1:28) and it is in the best of motherhood and fatherhood, the best of masculinity and femininity, that God is most clearly displayed.  

"O LORD, my heart is not lifted up;
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child is my soul within me.

O Israel, hope in the LORD
from this time forth and forevermore." Psalm 131

How many of us get worked up thinking about things that are far beyond our control! 

For example: I am, and we are, in the last many years especially, overly concerned with politics.  I fully believe that being an informed and engaged citizen is imperative for a functioning democratic republic.  I cherish and will help defend the right to speak out and protest and/or vocally support a cause.  That said, too many of us give our peace away when we have very little control over something.  The number of us that lose patience and sleep and nerves sweating every detail in our overly political culture is extremely high.

It's not just politics either.  It's a host of things like health, our kid's athletic performance, the forecast for the upcoming picnic... the list goes on and on.  We occupy ourselves with things that are simply out of our control.

King David said that he won't play that game and he wrote a song to help others avoid it, too.

Instead of arrogantly looking constantly at the big, bad issues all around us we are to calm and quiet our souls.  We are to be like a toddler who is just so calm and content because of the presence of her loving mother.  We are to be like I was with my head on my mom's lap while her fingers gently scratched my back until I fell into a peaceful semi-consciousness.

Your soul isn't made to constantly rue over the affairs of the world.  It isn't able to fixate on all the things out of your control.  Your mental health can't take it.  Our minds and souls are breaking in this day and age of constant alarm bells because we just can't take it.  So, don't.  Rather, hope in the LORD.  Hope in God.

Hope looks like calm.  One who hopes can rest his soul.  In fact, Jesus commands us to trust in the goodness of our Heavenly Father instead of dwelling in nervous anxiety (Matthew 5:25-34).

Our God is good.  Do you believe that?  

He is our good, good Father and He has all the best qualities of our wonderful mothers perfectly.  Therefore we trust Him.  We go on with our business and our playing without fear and anxiety because we know God is in this place and our minds and souls are quieted and calmed.  

Trust in God like a good father or mother today.