Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
Psalm 16
The Psalms: I recently began a series on the Psalms. The Hebrew title of the book is Tehillim, which means praises. It is often that. In fact, many of the 150 poems focus on God’s amazing character. And many others – like Psalm 16 listed above – are calls to thank God for what He has done. But there is a lot more there, and some of what is there is surprising. As one author noted, if we were to give the Psalms a modern title, it would not be, Your Best Life Now. It would be something closer to, Real Life with God.
Failure: In his new book, The Second Mountain, David Brooks writes, “There are (at least) two kinds of failure. In the first you are good, but other people can’t grasp how good you are. Melville’s Moby Dick sold only 2,300 copies in its first eighteen months and only 5,500 in is first fifty years. It was savaged by reviewers. Some artists have to create the taste by which they will be judged. In the second kind, you fail because you’re not as good as you thought you were, and other people see it.” He goes on to say – we all want to imagine we are the first kind of failure. But by his estimate, 95% of failures are the second kind.
Singing the Psalms: To compliment the Psalm series – Honest Reflections – the musicians at Christ Church have composed original songs for each of the Psalms preached. When finished, they will make a CD available. Here are three short videos. The first explains what they are doing, and the second and third are clips from the songs. BTW, here is last week’s sermon on Psalm 103, in which I focused on the Gospel.
The Frog in Boiling Water: Because I keep hearing the claim about the frog – i.e., a frog dropped into boiling water will hop out, but one placed in water that slowly rises in temperature will grow complacent, relax and end up cooked – let me note two things:
- The sociological principle is true. Though we can raise (or lower) things, such as speed limits, without the slippery slope kicking in, moral standards – once relaxed – tend to relax more over time. In other words, some slippery slope arguments are true.
- The story about the frog is not true. If you drop a frog in boiling water, it dies. If you place one in cold water and then slowly raise the temperature, it will hop out.
Les Mis – PBS: Amidst the Game of Thrones histrionics (I can be dismissive because I’ve never seen the show), a smaller group of us has been dialed into PBS’s serial release of Les Mis. If you’ve read previous Updates, you know that I’ve pushed the book – and that I’ve seen every movie version I can (and also attended the musical). So, Sheri and I have been watching the PBS roll out week by week. My reaction? Disappointment. It’s still a great story and perhaps this version will redeem itself in future episodes. But for now I’d say, read the book.
Gratitude: I have included Matthew Henry’s journal entry before, but like Martin Luther King’s Letter’s from a Birmingham Jail, I think it’s worth reading once a year. As you may remember, Henry’s journal entry comes shortly after he was mugged. He writes, “Let me be thankful, first, because he never robbed me before; second, because although he took my purse, he did not take my life; third, because although he took all I possessed, it was not much; and fourth, because it was I who was robbed, not I who robbed.”
Quotes Worth Requoting:
- A word of encouragement from a teacher to a child can change a life. A word of encouragement from a spouse can save a marriage. A word of encouragement from a leader can inspire a person to reach her potential. John C. Maxwell
- It is not in the nature of politics that the best men should be elected. The best men do not want to govern their fellowmen. George MacDonald
Closing Prayer: Grant us, even us, O Lord, to know you, and love you and rejoice in you. And if we cannot do these perfectly in this life, let us, at least, advance to higher degrees every day, till we can come to do them in perfection. Let the knowledge of you increase in us here, that it may be full hereafter. Let the love of you grow every day more and more here, that it may be perfect hereafter; that our joy may be great in itself and full in you. We know, O God, that you are a God of truth. O make good your gracious promises to us, that our joy may be full. To your honor and glory, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns one God, world without end. Amen. –Augustine