What does God have to say about it? We’d like to know. We consult gurus and mediums, gaze into crystal balls and study the movement of the stars, the alignment of the planets. God or gods, we’d like to hear from whoever or whatever it is that’s bigger than we are.
Orthodoxy, that wonderful consensus of what most faithful Christians have thought about the really important things, insists that gurus and mediums are useless, that it is foolishness to think we might find wisdom in the stars or reliable guidance from a glass ball. We’ve been suspicious of some of our own who claim to have heard a word from a Holy Spirit disconnected from the love of the Father or the witness of the Son.
We Christians know that if we want to hear a word from God, we must prayerfully go to his Word, to the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. The way those of us in the Reformed Tradition put it is that the whole counsel of God, concerning all things necessary for God’s own glory, our salvation, faith, and life is to be found nowhere but the Bible.
Each morning, I use the Scripture readings from the Daily Office to listen for what God may be saying about the day ahead. The Daily Office comes from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. It has other prayers and liturgies, but I use only the Scripture passages. Every day the Daily Office offers a couple of readings from the Psalms, a passage from elsewhere in the Old Testament, and a Gospel and an Epistle reading. Over the course of two years, those who use the Daily Office every day will have read the entire New Testament, much of the Old Testament (we’re spared some of the genealogies), and every Psalm at least 15 times.
For many years I have been working on the discipline of “praying the psalms.” That is, as I come to the reading from the Psalms, I listen for how God is using them to direct my prayers for particular situations or people. I’ve shared some of those Psalm-led prayers with some of you.
Some days when the first Psalm pops onto my screen, it is as if God has already heard the questions, joys, or complaints that greeted me when I awoke (he has). Other mornings, I must ask him to speak more clearly, because I haven’t heard a word he said. Ask me why Psalm 45 is my least favorite of all 150.
This morning was one of those mornings when I heard God speak without asking him to repeat himself. (Sometimes I read the daily Psalms a dozen times before my ears unclog and I hear what was there all along.)
Yes, this morning there were people for whom I had promised to pray and situations calling for God’s wisdom. In quick order God spoke through Psalms 102 and 107.
But then there was my week. Some weeks are better than others, and this past week did not make the better list. It doesn’t matter why.
Psalm 102 flashed on the screen when I clicked on the Daily Office link at ESV.org. (Biblegateway.com also offers a readings-only version from the Book of Common Prayer, and if you wish, it can be emailed to you each day.)
Hear my prayer, O LORD;
let my cry come to you!
Do not hide your face from me
in the day of my distress!
Incline your ear to me;
answer me speedily in the day when I call! (ESV)
I’ve been feeling a little down, but don’t want to be a complainer; I hate self-pity. But God can take it. He wants to take it. He inclines his ear and answers speedily when we call. I told God how I have been feeling.
As he prays, the psalmist recalls God’s goodness. I have a long list of specifics to add to the psalmist’s; the long list slips from my memory in days of distress.
His list completed, the psalmist vows,
Let this be recorded for a generation to come,
so that a people yet to be created may praise the LORD: (ESV)
I’m still feeling my distress, but the psalmist just reminded me of my grandkids. For their sake I must replace my irritation with thanksgiving to God. That those precious little ones might in their time praise the Lord, I must give witness not to the power of distress, but to the God who answers speedily when I call.
Once more the psalmist laments, “he has broken my strength midcourse.” And one final time he turns to God who is bigger and better than whatever has happened to him.
This morning God told me not to focus on my broken strength, but on his promises.
Then Psalm 107:
Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever! (ESV)
After the Psalm I went to the reading from Isaiah 65:
I create Jerusalem to be a joy,
and her people to be a gladness. (ESV)
In the Gospel reading from Mark 12, Jesus reminds us that the greatest commandments are to love God and to love our neighbors, even those who cause distress.
The Epistle reading for today is from 1 Timothy 5. It begins, “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.” Yes, self-serving, but, Lord, help me do well.
God has a lot to say about it.