Author: Bryan Richardson

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 72:1-14 (day three)

For he will deliver the needy when he cries for help,
The afflicted also, and him who has no helper.
He will have compassion on the poor and needy,
And the lives of the needy he will save.

The prophetic word of the Bible always envisions a day in which attentiveness, empathy, and liberality will abound. We don’t live in that day yet. It’s hard even to imagine such a day. But you long for it, even when you act in ways contrary to it, as everyone does. In that day, neediness will give way to assured resourcefulness. Affliction will surrender to tender comfort. Poverty will fall to generosity. That is the world God is bringing into existence – a world in which God will act in these ways, and so will you. It’s yours for the believing and becoming.

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 96 (day three)

“Proclaim good tidings of his salvation from day to day.”

The word salvation often gets associated with escape from damnation. But its meaning is, of course, wider than that. The God who is able to save you from hell is also able to keep you from being swallowed up by the demands of the day. That is surely one kind of salvation. It is in the mundane (in the sense of the daily, necessary, stuff of life) that you live most of your life. And Jesus stood right in the middle of that reality when he taught about worry concerning food, clothing, safety. When Jesus was a helpless baby, he did not die, though shelter was meager, Herod was cruel, and paternity was questioned. Jesus knew God’s salvation on the daily. And he will not keep it from you when weekdays are hard.

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 89 (day three)

”I will not lie to David.”

The Lord has intimately involved himself in the affairs of men. As St. Paul himself said, God is not far from any one of us. Although human beings are mortal and are limited in understanding, God does not exploit that state of being. He doesn’t mislead or obfuscate. He doesn’t insult the intelligence he gave to humans. Rather, he relates to human beings with –  as this Psalmist and other biblical writers attest from their own experience – lovingkindness. The mad, painful, confusing existence each person knows will stabilize and settle and cease to threaten when one calls on God as the only hope for rescue. People who have testified to God’s response of calm and strength didn’t read it in a theology book. They lived it. They lived to tell you about it. God will not lie to you. He will save you.

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 98 (day three)

Let the sea roar and all it contains,
The world and those who dwell in it.

Let the rivers clap their hands,
Let the mountains sing together for joy

Before the Lord, for he is coming to judge the earth;
He will judge the world with righteousness
And the peoples with equity.

The earth, the sky, the wind, the water cycle, the upthrust of granite strata as mountains form, the tides, the seasons – all the clamor and movement and rhythm – what is it for? Empirical research, as useful as it is, does not answer that question. The questions of purpose and direction – why there’s something rather than nothing, and where it’s headed – lie in the mystery of God’s revelation to humanity. A good God has created a good universe, and you can trust his goodness towards you.

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 85:1-3, 8-13 (day three)

“You turned away from your burning anger.”

As one reads this Psalm, it becomes apparent from verses 4 and following that the first three verses have not yet occurred. Rather, these verses are forward-looking, ordered to a future of restoration that the psalmist sees coming to pass. They are in that sense prophetic. These words amount to something other than “It’ll all work out somehow.” They arise from an experience of God rooted in God’s very being – beauty, creativity, goodness, purpose. Nothing – neither hardship nor disaster nor failure nor foolishness, and most assuredly not evil – will prevail against God. There will be people who turn away from sin. There will be grace and faith and salvation – more even than you expect. Since when did the current state of things stop God’s prophetic word that all things will be made new?

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19 (day three)

“How long will you be angry with the prayer of your people?”

The Psalms brim with praise, joy, gratitude, exhilaration – and sorrow, lament, suffering, anger. The former would ring inattentive at best and smug at worst if not for the latter. (Of course, the latter would ring pessimistic at best and nihilistic at worst if not for the former.) Here, the psalmist utters one of those audacious questions that smolders with discontent. It’s as if the subtitle of the book of Psalms is Putting It All On the Table When There’s Nothing Left to Lose. Questions such as “how long” arise from lives that have no time for niceties or etiquette in prayer. There’s just too much at stake. The audience with God is now, and if God won’t rescue, rescue won’t happen. The Psalms teach tough prayer.