Psalm 37:5-6 Commit your Way to the Lord

I worked 41 years in the healthcare supply chain field, working my way through various job titles and responsibilities, only changing employers when our hospital was bought out by the local university. In April of 1979 I applied for a job in a hospital storeroom, unloading trucks, stocking the shelves, managing the inventory, and pulling orders for hospital departments. I gained a broad and comprehensive knowledge of healthcare supply chain by shifting through job responsibilities and titles over the course of four decades plus a year.

That sort of career is rare in an age where most people switch companies every few years. To my mind, committing my way to the success of my employers was the road to job security. Continually proving my value to the company and to my bosses, and I would ride that loyalty all the way to retirement.

That's how it's supposed to work, isn't it? I can trust them to be as loyal to me as I've been to them, can't I?

Then came 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic hit the university hard, like it did nearly every company in America. Thousands were furloughed and hundreds were laid off, and I was one of the second hundred who lost our jobs, three years short of the best time for me to finish with full retirement rewards.

That's not how it's supposed to work.

Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: 

He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, 

your vindication like the noonday sun. 

Psalm 37:5-6

During the two-weeks notice they allowed, I was asked to work with my co-workers and bosses to let them know how to do everything I do in my job. They also needed me to bequeath to them my 41 years of institutional knowledge and experience.

As the scope of my tasks and experience began to dawn on them, I felt a certain amount of vindication. It was becoming clear there would be no way everything was going to get done by the people left behind. The people left to fill in the gaps weren't at fault, they just didn't have enough hours in each day or week to do it all. Nor did they have enough years on the job to have learned everything they might need to know.

There was some selfish pride in that vindication, but it was less like the noonday sun and more like the setting sun, as I stared ahead into an uncertain future.

I could lash out at the people who made the choices that have left me in this tough situation. I could fret about the injustice, I could envy those who somehow were spared. I could take the advice of Job's wife and rail at God.

Indeed, the weight of this unexpected betrayal threatened to take my wife and I under, bringing many tears and plenty of stress. But it hasn't crushed us, because my career has never been the primary commitment in my life. I've always been the type who works in order to be able to do the other things that are important to me, rather than being motivated by the job itself.

Our commitment has always been to the path the Lord lays out before us. I've survived multiple rounds of layoffs over these past 41 years. Each time, I said that if God has a new plan for me, some new thing he needs us to commit ourselves to, the best way for him to make that clear would be to pull my current career out from under me.

This is not the first time we've learned it's possible to be thoroughly crushed and mightily depressed about our circumstances, while at the same time feeling joyful to know the Lord is unmistakably at work in our lives. 

We don't know what the Lord has planned, but we are absolutely certain He will make our righteous reward shine like the dawn, our vindication like the noonday sun. 

Psalm 37:4 Delight in the Lord

July 24th , 2020, was a delightful day. After the long pandemic-driven delay, baseball was back! How wonderful!

I spent the weekend watching whatever games were being broadcast on the channels I have. That meant no Cardinals or Royals, the two Missouri teams I like to root for. But I did get to watch a Washington Nationals game with Max Scherzer pitching. And that was a delight, since I frequently watched him pitch years ago when he was with the Missouri Tigers ballclub.

Max and his team didn't win this weekend, which was less delightful. But all in all, I was still delighted that I got my heart's desire, which is to watch some baseball. I'm the kind of oddball fan who takes pure joy in the game itself, no matter who wins. Sure, it takes a bit of my joy away if my team loses, but the greatest thief of my baseball joy is when the season is over - or it's suspended by a virus - and there's no baseball at all!

Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Psalm 37:4

Hang around with 21st century American Evangelical Christians much, and you'll begin to wonder what it is that brings them delight? What is their greatest desire?

One would think the Lord would be the object of their delight. The Bible certainly points in that direction over and over.

What, though, steals their joy away from them most often? It would seem they take the most delight  in being right, whether's it about their theology or their politics. They delight in getting the last word in when there's an argument about cultural or lifestyle differences of opinion. Their greatest desire would appear to be convincing people to change their political opinions.

Do they not delight in the Lord? Oh, I think they do, some more than others. It's just that they haven't necessarily made the solid connection between their delight and their desires.

David says the two go hand in hand. If you take delight in the Lord, he will give the desires of your heart. If this, then that.

Like the Bible's frequent "put off/put on" statements I've been pointing to, the conditional "if/then" statement is another favorite of the biblical writers. Frequently they're misunderstood by readers, though. We tend to read sentences like "If you love me, keep my commandments" (John 14:15) as though they were commands. The same way children learn to interpret, "If you clean your room, I'll take you to the mall."

Quite often, it's more accurate to understand such If/Then statements in the bible the same way we'd understand, "If you want to avoid catching the coronavirus, wash your hands." The "then" is the natural outcome of the "if".

David's statement in Psalm 37:4 is not a matter of getting a reward.  It's not, "If you delight in the Lord, you'll earn the desires of your heart", as though the only connection between the delight and the desire is transactional.

Instead, David appears to be saying that when you've grown so close to God that He is actually your greatest delight, then the desires of your heart will naturally be the same as the Lord's desires.

Within the context of Psalm 37, if my greatest delight comes from seeing the evildoers and wrong doers get what's coming to them, then my greatest desire will be to watch them stumble and fall on their faces.

It's much more joyful, though, to practice delighting in the Lord, in who He is, the things He does, and the things in which He delights. Then when the negativity and bad behavior of the world threatens to steal my joy, then the joy of the Lord will be my strength (Nehemiah 8:10).

Psalm 37: 3 Dwell in the Land

A common catch phrase among Christians is that we are to be "in the world but not of the world." This isn't an erroneous concept, but it oversimplifies what the scriptures describe as a more complex approach to the world in which we live.

On the one hand, I John 2:15-17 tells us clearly, "Do not love the world or anything in the world." That' what we're supposed to put off. Actively, intentionally reduce the ways in which you are in love with the world and it's ways.

That same apostle, John, gives us the corresponding opposite intentional action, the things we're supposed to put on. "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)

That's a lot of love. Given that our mission in this world is to share the gospel and shepherd the people of the world to be reconciled with God, does it make sense for us to do anything less than to love the world the way God does?

He certainly doesn't love the evil done by the people of the world. He doesn't love their hard heartedness, but He does love their hearts and wants to touch their hearts with his love.

We are not of the world, but God has placed us in this world in order to be His ambassadors of light in the dark corners of the world. We're charged with refreshing the world by being His salt

John 17:14-15 records Jesus' prayer to His Father regarding His disciples.

I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.

The day will come when Jesus takes all His followers out of the world, to join Him in our eternal home before the throne of God. But until that time, our purpose is to make our homes in the place where He has put us, among the people who don't know there is a better home.

If we throw our lives into living out that mission, rather than constantly fighting against the evildoers and the imperfections of this world, the Lord will protect us and bless us while we're here.

Trust in the Lord and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture

Psalm 37:3

Dwelling in the land implies much more than just squatting on the land or taking up a temporary, detached residence in a place.

The Good Shepherd of Psalm 23 adn Ezekiel 34 has brought us into a land that may be filled with dangers, but He will always provided green pastures in which we can rely on His protection and guarantee of eternal safety.

As long as He is with us, we can live joyfully in this world, even among the evildoers, as living examples of His goodness and grace.

A Pandemic of Loneliness

I am lonely.

As I write this, it's Sunday morning, the 15th of November, in the year 2020, the loneliest of years. 

As of today it's been 36 Sundays since my wife and I went TO church. It's kind of lonely sitting in my basement, watching on my computer screen as the "assembly of the saints" assembles on the other side of town.

We've been able to continue meeting with our small group, or Life Group, on Monday nights, via Zoom. In fact, we've had significantly fewer cancellations since we began meeting online than we did when we were gathering at our house. Our group has actually thrived during this time, like never before. I think it's because we're all a bit lonely, and we crave the virtual togetherness. We've opened our hearts and souls to one another on Monday nights, sharing our trials and frustrations, our emotional swings, our loneliness.

And I have been lonely. In March I left my office at the university for the last time, moving my laptop, it's dock, three screens, keyboard, mouse, speakers -- the whole setup - to my basement. What I didn't move to my home were my office mate and all the other people I used to see every day at work. There have been some lonely and difficult days, working at home.

And then, in August, my job left me. I was one of many who have been laid off. After 41 straight years of working full time, settled into the routine of going TO work every day, I no longer even had that. It's a whole new level of isolation. And loneliness.

There's a particular depth of loneliness that comes when you begin to suspect you've been caught out, finally exposed as a fraud. 

The thing is, there has been an incredible upside to being at home these past eight months. For the first time in 42 years of marriage, my wife and I have been together at home nearly all day every day. 

It's good. We talk more often. We talk longer. Our individual lives have adjusted to one another's schedule and rhythm. It's very good.

And yet, still, even as we are together more than ever, it's still true that we are lonely.

But we know we're no different than nearly everyone else, especially during this year, during this Covditide.

We're all experiencing a  Pandemic of Loneliness.

I know there are others, including friends in my own home church, who have also been sent home from their workplace, either to remote in from home or to not work at all (except for the never ending task of competing with all the other lonely people who are trying to find a job).

There are other people, moms and dads, who have had to quit working or remote from home or make drastic adjustments to their work schedule so they can be at home with their children who can no longer go TO school. All these parents sincerely want to be there for their children, but there is still a guilty loneliness that comes with such a drastic change.

And let's not forget the kids themselves. They're still able to DO school, with the help of a computer or tablet. But they're not IN school, not physically WITH their classmates and teachers. Karen is teaching piano lessons by way of Zoom, and she hears the loneliness in their voices when she asks them how school is going.

On the other end of the age spectrum are the senior citizens. The grandmas and grandpas and others who are at highest risk from this virus, but are physically isolated from the very people who could be their emotional support - their families and friends. I've only been in the physical presence of my son. Cody, twice in these 8 months. It's lonely.

People will say, At least you know that God is always with you. And this is true. But just knowing that doesn't really make me feel any less lonely.

This may sound like a strange thing to suggest, but I think Jesus was sometimes lonely. If he went through everything we go through, he surely must have had his lonely times.

Throughout this time I've been drawn again and again to the biblical record of Jesus going to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray.

There in the Garden, on that last night, Jesus went with his disciples to the Mount of Olives. He left most of the followers behind and took just his closest friends farther in with him. And then, it says in Luke 22:41, he went even farther, about a stone's throw beyond them, and knelt down and prayed.

It's so often true that, even in our loneliness, we just need to withdraw from people. Even Jesus, on the loneliest night of his life, felt the need to talk and pray with his closest friends, but then felt the urge to take those extra steps to be even more alone with his loneliness.

Why did he do this? Because it was his habit. 

In Luke 5:16 we're told that when the crowds were pressing in on him, Jesus would escape not only the crowds but also his friends. It says he "often withdrew to lonely places and prayed."

Jesus knew the truth that just assuming God's presence isn't the same as intentionally dwelling in his presence. He knew that the best answer to loneliness is to embrace that aloneness by finding a lonely place, and to intentionally spend a significant amount of time dwelling in the presence of the Father.

And that's what he chose to do on the night when he was about to be betrayed. 

What could be more lonely than to be betrayed? 

To be honest, I feel betrayed by the people who laid me off. The very people who so often told me how important I was to the work we were doing, they kicked me to the curb and I haven't heard from them since. 

Betrayal and loneliness go hand in hand.

Jesus was so lonely, he begged the Father to find another way. "If possible, let this cup pass from me!"

Later, on the cross, he would cry out to the Father again in agonizing loneliness: "My God, my God, Why have YOU forsaken me?"

I know very well that some of the anger, the sense of betrayal that I have struggled with during this time is, deep down, my anger at God. Sometimes it feels like He is the one who has betrayed me.

When Jesus went back to his disciples, his closest friends, they were asleep. He asks them, "Couldn't you men keep watch with me for one hour?" That's the agony of loneliness in his voice. 

Loneliness craves people who care. Anyone who cares. 

The next time you share in the communion cup and bread, meditate on Jesus' loneliness on that last night. And then think about the people you know who are probably lonely and plan how you can intentionally encourage them. Also, make a plan for how you can intentionally seek out a lonely place in the midst of your own loneliness, and go deeper than you ever have in your study and prayer to become closer to God.

My Father,

If it is possible, may this cup of loneliness be taken from me. And may it also be taken from my friends here at Blue Ridge, and from the many millions who are in agony during this Pandemic of Loneliness.

Thank you, Jesus, for walking the lonely path to the cross. Thank you for your lonely sacrifice.

Psalm 37:3 Do Good for the Lord

As a kid, the only good thing about a trip to the doctor or dentist was the Highlights magazines that were in every waiting room. The full-page Hidden Images puzzle could keep me busy for quite a while. And the jokes and stories were fun.

But my favorite part of each Highlights was the Goofus and Gallant cartoon. For a kid raised in a church culture of right vs. wrong, good vs. evil, the simple morality of Goofus and Gallant was appealing.

Goofus: "Gimme a pencil!"
Gallant: "Please give me a piece of paper."

Goofus: "How much will you pay me to shovel your walk, Aunt Sue?"
Gallant: "I'll shovel the walk, Dad!"

Goofus: "I wish I had no little brother."
Gallant: "I'm glad I have a little brother."

Squirrels are scared of Goofus.
Squirrels eat from Gallant's hand.

I question the wisdom of the lesson that last one was teaching to young readers, but you get the idea. Most of them were simple little two-panel morality plays. Others were disturbing in their depiction of a juvenile sociopath contrasted with an overly perfect child.

In Psalm 37, David offers up his own contrast, this time between the evildoers of verse 1 and the "good doer" of verse 3.

Trust in the Lord and do good,,,

Psalm 37:3

It might appear that David is presenting an overly simplified contrast in the same tone as Goofus and Gallant. But in the context, David is laying out three possible ways a follower of God might respond when he or she feels like fretting or envying in reaction to evildoers.

One option is to give into your worst inclinations and react with your own bad actions. Allow your anxious fretting to fester and turn into resentment. Let your envious heart take action against the object of your negative thoughts.

This is the route that leads to Christians filling social media with "Christianized" versions of the mean memes, half truths, and politicized spin used by the evildoers of the world.

Another option would be to make a show of doing good. This sort of behavior is the kind that earns the dismissive label of "do-gooder".

The do-gooder constantly reminds people he's the type of person who "doesn't smoke, doesn't drink, and doesn't go with girls who do", as though such elemental morality best represents the heart of God. Evil doers generally react negatively toward such people because they come across as fake and condescending toward people who live differently.

If the only things you can offer to unbelievers is a list of things you don't do, if the primary good thing you lay claim to is going to church, they're probably going to dismiss you as nothing more than a hollow do-gooder.

The third option is to seek constructive and productive ways of doing good. I'm talking about the kind of good things that are out of the ordinary, the sort of lifestyle that strikes people as genuinely sacrificial and loving.

When the evil deeds of the world frustrate you, find a way to help make the world better. Get messily involved in the messy lives of messy people. Help the poor and the homeless, feed the hungry, mentor people who have hit rock bottom, go out of your way to care for the sick and elderly.

Give it a try. You'll be amazed at the difference it makes for you and for others.

Doing practical good can redirect the urge to respond to ungodly people with your own evil actions or self righteous behavior.  It engages the biblical principle of putting off your bad habits and putting on good habits (Ephesians 4:17-32).

Doing good is also the best way to draw people toward the Lord - even the very evildoers who frustrate you. If you can learn to see them not only as people who are doing evil, but also as people whose only hope is to know Jesus, it becomes easier to re-train your "knee jerk" reactions toward productive goodness.

Train your heart away from Goofus, beyond Gallant, and toward Godly.

Psalm 37:3 Trusting in the Lord

Do not fret because of those who are evil
   or be envious of those who do wrong;
for like the grass they will soon wither,
   like green plants they will soon die away.

Trust in the Lord . . . .

Psalm 37:1-3a

Put off this. Put on that instead. 

The principle of Put off/Put on is found throughout the scriptures. Paul and Peter and Jesus and David and Solomon and others repeatedly come back to the concept. In Ephesians 4:17-32, Paul hammers home the idea, with numerous specific examples. 

Real change, lasting transformation, comes through this process, energized by the Holy Spirit.  Put off the ungodly and self-indulgent habits. Replace them with godly and righteous habits. 

That's what David is saying here. Your feelings say to dwell on your anger and frustration. But don't go with your feelings.

Go a different way. Go with trusting in the Lord.

Don't trust in the chemical reactions generated in your body by your feelings. Instead, trust the Lord who created you and your body chemistry. Spiritual disciplines can prepare you to make constructive use of the anger-produced chemicals like adrenaline, rather than allowing yourself to be driven toward destructive reactions. "In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold." (Ephesians 4:26-27)

Don't trust in your power to combat evil, as though you were a spiritual superhero. Trust instead in God's overall plan for righteousness. "No one who hopes in you will ever be put to shame, but shame will come on those who are treacherous without cause." (Psalm 25:3)

Don't trust in the self-promoting emotions of envy. Instead, trust the plans the Lord has for you, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" (Jeremiah 29:11). The more you train yourself to trust that God has a specific plan for you, the less you'll be apt to give in to thoughts of envy about the success and welfare of others people.

Don't trust in the same earthbound strategies and plans and purposes as the people who you see doing wrong. Trust in the ways of the Lord. Achieving what you see as a righteous purpose by unrighteous means will never achieve the righteous purposes of the Lord. "Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness." (Romans 6:13)

Trust in the Lord.