PSinging and Pdancing

Psalms

This week's assigment is a little different... I was asked to write my own Psalm, I need to use it to describe where I am at right now. I should use figures of speech and parallelisms (things studied in class). I also need to REwrite a Psalm and answer the questions for the Personal application section of the standard homework... here we go!

Psalm 151

A Psalm of Eze. Of the times when he needed direction from God

O Lord Almighty

To your presence I come

For I need your guidance

Your thoughts are a lamp

To my trembling feet

And your words are the light

That illuminates my road

Keep me on the right path

So I don’t stumble out of your will

Your kindness is the help I need

For my sinking feet

Don’t let me doubt You

Oh everlasting savior

For your knowledge is deeper than the sea

And your love sweeter than honey

Let me follow you closely

All the days of my life

Praise the Lord all people of the nations

Praise the Lord all nations of the earth

Praise the Lord all beings of the universe

Forever and ever

Amen

Rewrite a Psalm - I will attempt to translate it to modern speech…

Psalm 141                                                               Psalm 141 (reloaded)

1 O Lord, I am calling to you. Please hurry!     Listen when I cry to you for help! 2 Accept my prayer as incense offered to you,     and my upraised hands as an evening offering. 3 Take control of what I say, O Lord,     and guard my lips. 4 Don’t let me drift toward evil     or take part in acts of wickedness. Don’t let me share in the delicacies     of those who do wrong. 5 Let the godly strike me!     It will be a kindness! If they correct me, it is soothing medicine.     Don’t let me refuse it. But I pray constantly     against the wicked and their deeds. 6 When their leaders are thrown down from a cliff, the wicked will listen to my words and find them true. 7 Like rocks brought up by a plow,     the bones of the wicked will lie scattered without burial. 8 I look to you for help, O Sovereign Lord.     You are my refuge; don’t let them kill me. 9 Keep me from the traps they have set for me,     from the snares of those who do wrong. 10 Let the wicked fall into their own nets,     but let me escape.

1 O Lord, I am calling you! I’m so inpatient!  Listen to me when I cry for help! 2 Accept my prayer as a good aroma offered to you, and when I put my hands up take that as a good thing. 3 Guide my words, O Lord, and shut my mouth before I say something stupid! 4 Don’t let me wander to the dark side or do evil things. Don’t let me like the bad things. 5 Let the righteous people hit me!  That would be a nice thing!  If they correct me, it is a great remedy.  Don’t let me say no to them.  But I pray all the time against the bad people and their dark acts. 6 When their bosses are thrown down from the Empire States rooftop, the evil ones will listen to my words and find them true. 7 Like rocks dug out of the earth by an old farmer’s tool, the bones of the bad people will be thrown everywhere with no funeral. 8 I need your help, O Absolute Lord. You are my place of safety; don’t let them kill me. 9 Save me from the traps they have set for me,  from the traps of those evil people.  10 Permit the bad people to fall into their own traps,  but let me escape.

Personal application

Is there a timeless truth, or maybe a specific verse, or perhaps the main idea of the book you are studying that is challenging you in your life?

What area of your life is God encouraging you, convincing you or empowering you in through this book?

Main idea in the Psalms for me is that no matter what, God is there, next to us. His goodness is stronger that all the bad things in our lives. From the lecture I could see that our teacher was totally on board with this idea when she said that God’s there with us, even in our bad times. She also pointed that God is not far away in heaven when we suffer, He is near and ready to help us.

Another good nugget of knowledge is the idea of praising God in my sadness and in my joyful seasons as well! Just like King David did after he learned that his son had died, he worshiped the Lord (2^nd Samuel 12:20). That sounds crazy to me… but when I think about it makes sense… to some extent. In the case of David, I imagine that David was praising God not for the fact that his son had died, but for the fact that his kid had lived! Because David had the chance to have a son for some time, he praised! And I don’t really understand the loss of a loved one, because it has not happened to me yet… but I’m sure one day I’ll go through it and in that day, I hope I can praise the Lord for the life and moments of that loved one. And yes, I will cry and grieve the loss, but I will also be happy that I had the chance to meet such wonderful person/people.

Point of passion

Whether it is a people group or a sphere of society, God’s word can speak into all areas of life. Share in a paragraph or two how the message of this book, or a truth from this book relates to your  point of passion, and how your ministry to this area can use the message from this book to share Christ in your passion.

The Psalms are very personal and real. I had never ever read the whole book of Psalms, and it seems like, back in the day when I was a kid at church, they only had me read happy ones. I found this time around that there's a lot of despair and lamentation! And even then, we need to stop for God says: “Be still and know that I am God!” (Psalms 46:10) 

And the Lord is also referred a lot of times to as a place of refuge. I just met a guy yesterday, at a homeless feeding, and I really did not think much about his house... well, here's a clue, he is home-less, so he has no home. So I got this insight from my wife, most of them have cuts and burns in their legs because they sleep on the lava rocks. Well, this guy said something about the lava rock, and then it finally hit me, he actually sleeps near the beach, probably near (or on) the lava rock, because they keep the heat of the day for a long time... but these rocks are sharp and when you are asleep you turn and twist (at least I do). And that challenged me to think about how God is a place of refuge for him? Can I come to him and tell him that God is his refuge? What would his response be?

BIG PARENTHESIS

Now, please, please, please, remember that these homework assignments are a way for me to process what I read each week, and some of my answers are just my imaginations, ideas and personal answers to the matters created and/or presented to my little brain during class and reading times. Please don't take it as a full description of my understanding of life or the universe but as a series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular end, the end of trying to understand better the way I see the Bible itself and all the stuff that is in it.

END OF PARENTHESIS

I don't know the answers to such questions, but what I do know is that when you read the whole Psalm 91, you see that it is a little conditional. It has fine print, if you will. Verse 14 says "The Lord says, 'I will rescue those who love me. I will protect those who trust in in my name'" And it continues in 15 by stating "When they call on me, I will answer; I will be with them in trouble. I will rescue and honor them." And ends the progression, in verse 16, by saying "I will reward them with a long life and give them salvation." And I don't want to make this a matter of my statement being the absolute truth, but my guess is that we do better when we do right, and when we obey the laws of the Lord. Now, some people may disagree and I'm completely fine with that too, because I don't have the truth about the matter of why there's homeless people, or sickness or death in the world, other than "it is all product of the sin entering our world." So, the way I have been able to reconcile the questions of unfairness in this world with the fairness of God is to compare this issue to a board game, or a game in general. So, when you know the rules of the game, and you do not play by them, you get punished. So, I hope that next time I talk to the guy, I'll be able to ask him if he knows "the rules of the game" and maybe if he knows what went wrong... I really want to understand poorness and homelessness better because I hope to work to eliminate them some day... so, if you have answers for me, please send them my way. 

Thank you kind reader!