The Joy of Glory

Psalm 41 (click here)
Blessed is the one who considers the poor!
In the day of trouble the LORD delivers him…

All who hate me whisper together about me;
they imagine the worst for me.

Even my close friend in whom I trusted,
who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.

By this I know that you delight in me:
my enemy will not shout in triumph over me.
But you have upheld me because of my integrity,
and set me in your presence forever. (Psalm 41:1, 7, 9, and 11-12)

Reflection
Everyone I know has had a bad experience with community… even (or maybe even “especially) Christian community.

You have poured out your heart and soul into a particular people. You’ve loved, not perfectly, but truly with the love of Christ.

Then… it happens.

Hurt. Insult. Slander. Betrayal.

Put whatever label on it you want, at the end of the day the would is deep, difficult to heal, and even potentially deadly to your trust in community at all.

In Psalm 41, this is the situation of the Psalmist as he cries out in lament. He has loved a community… poured himself out, especially for the poor and marginalized. He’s cared for them, most likely financially and physically. He has done everything right… so surely the community will do right by him.

But then the slander begins… this whispers and ill wishes.

Then the unthinkable happens. The wounds begin to come from friends… and not the faithful kind (Proverbs 27:6). No. This is friendly fire from the one you used to break bread with… now they are breaking you. You’ve been kicked to the ground by the community and now even your friend raises his heel to step on you like everyone else.

What are we to do when we find ourselves betrayed and beaten? Do we forsake the community of God as we feel it has forsaken us? Do we give up being faithful to God because we feel like his faithfulness has failed?

That is not the solution of the Psalmist!

It’s true that perhaps he needed to be removed from that specific expression of community, and there are times and situations when we will have to remove ourselves from specific churches… but the Psalmist doesn’t just forsake the people of God as a whole and neither should we.

How does he do this?

He holds on to God’s faithfulness believing that his enemies (even those he once counted as friends) will not ultimately triumph! He looks forward in faith to the day when all wrongs will be righted and he will be set in the presence of God forever among a faithful people, a perfected community!

This is the vision we need in order to keep on pressing into community even when we get hurt or we are the ones who do the hurting. We need a vision of the love God has shown to us through the cross of Christ!

Jesus loved us, even as we raised our heels against him. In John 13:18, Christ actually quoted this Psalm in reference to Judas. Yet, he still washed Judas feet and went to the cross out of love for the one who betrayed him.

Broken Christian community is the only kind there is… and we each contribute to it’s brokenness. When we are loved by this community, and we love the community back… we put on display the love of Christ… we love like a cruciform community.
 

*All previous devotionals may be found at www.thejoyofglory.com
*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.

Psalm 37:5-9 
Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him, and he will act.
He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
and your justice as the noonday.
Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;
fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,
over the man who carries out evil devices!
Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!
Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.
For the evildoers shall be cut off,
but those who wait for the LORD shall inherit the land.

Reflection
We live in a world full of injustice.

A world in which it seems like evil not only goes unpunished, but is seemingly rewarded. Those who cheat, lie, and oppress often seem to be the most successful at climbing the corporate ladder, while honest workers are demoted and laid off. Amazing couples are unable to conceive, while people who don’t make good parents and never wanted children seem to keep having them. The abusers and users of the world seem to get away with everything while victims are just left in their wake and forgotten.

We live in a world full of injustice.

This stirs up righteous anger in us. It kindles wrath. When we are wronged, we want to seek vengeance… we want to set things right and even the score… or at least we want to hold onto our anger in a never-ending grudge.

Yet… as the people of God we are called to forgive as we have been forgiven. Psalm 37 calls us to refrain from anger and forsake wrath! We are to be a cruciform community that reflects the very words of Jesus extended from the cross to his enemies, “Father forgive them!”

How? How is any of that possible?

The Psalmist sings the forth the answer… “Commit your way to the LORD;
TRUST in him, and HE WILL ACT.”

I don’t have to balance the scales, for God himself has promised to do so. I don’t have to take vengeance because vengeance is his! I don’t have to hold a grudge, but can forgive because I know that he will set all wrongs to right in the end!

I have the eternal perspective and promise that though it may look like evil is currently winning… in the end, “…the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the LORD shall inherit the land.”

The day will come when evil will be done. The day will come when God vindicates his people and his righteousness reigns.

Do we believe that promise as the people of promise? Through faith, trust in the promises of God, we are empowered to be the cruciform community he has called us to be. We can lay down our own “rights” because we know that, through Christ, God will make all things right.

*All previous devotionals may be found at www.thejoyofglory.com
*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.

Psalm 15 (click here)
O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent?
Who shall dwell on your holy hill?
He who walks blamelessly and does what is right
and speaks truth in his heart;
who does not slander with his tongue
and does no evil to his neighbor,
nor takes up a reproach against his friend;
in whose eyes a vile person is despised,
but who honors those who fear the LORD…
(Psalm 15:1-4a)

Reflection
How would you define what it means to be blameless before the Lord?

Does such a question immediately cause you to think about the way you love and care for other people… especially other believers? I think for many, myself included, we often think of our relationship to the Lord detached from our relationship to people… but, Scripture is constantly connecting the two.

In Psalm 15, we are basically given a list of evidences that show up in the life of one who is in a proper relationship with the Lord. They don’t slander others out loud or in their heart. They do no evil to their neighbor, nor become the accuser of friends. This doesn’t mean that they do not have a proper sense of justice, for the vile-evil person they want to see caught and corrected. And concerning those who fear the Lord… they especially show them honor. In other words, their attitude towards people matches the attitude of God himself…

…there is love and care for all, justice towards evil, and a special covenantal relationship with his own people.

Does this describe the way you relate to people in your own life? If you have been filled with the very love of God, then it makes sense that love would flow out of you in the same way it flows out of God himself.

Romans 5:5b, “… God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit…” so we are to love one another as he loved us (John 15:17).

This is the evidence by which people will know that we belong to Jesus… by our sacrificial love for each other that mirrors his sacrificial love in the cross (John 13:35, 1 John 4:11 and 20-21). The world  will know that we are truly the people of God when we are a cruciform community.

*All previous devotionals may be found at www.thejoyofglory.com
*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.