Sing a New Song: Participating in the Psalms

July 26, 2023July 22, 2023Todd R 1 Comment

Reading the Psalms is a great devotional habit. Most years, I read one a day starting January 1 until they’re done and then start again the next year. However, too often I read through one without it having any effect on me. Too often I miss that the writers aren’t just trying to teach about God, but they are trying to share their experience of Him with me. They don’t just want me to know what they know about Him – They want me to feel what they felt about Him, and act as they acted toward Him. For example, Psalm 96:1-5 reads like instructions:

“Oh sing to the LORD a new song;
            sing to the LORD, all the earth!
Sing to the LORD, bless his name;
            tell of his salvation from day to day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
            his marvelous works among all the peoples!
For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised;
            he is to be feared above all gods.
For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols,
            but the LORD made the heavens.”

Verse 1 isn’t “listen to me sing a new song” but instead it asks everyone (and everything) to sing a new song to God. The Psalmist wants us to participate with them in their joy, and even spells out how and why to do this:

“from day to day” – make it a daily habit
“among the nations” – don’t pick and choose your audience. Share publicly and indiscriminately
“For great is the LORD” – because He deserves it
“For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols” – because no other is worthy

Not only the Psalms, but all worship, requires participation.

“A new song” suggests something that’s creative, offered in praise…Perhaps you are not a ‘creative’ person. You might be a tax collector or a soldier[1]. You might be a clerk, accountant, lawyer, politician, engineer, housewife or anything else. It doesn’t matter. It’s about knowing who you are and dedicating that to the Lord and to others.”

Your situation is not mine. Few people have blogs, and God doesn’t always deliver answers to prayer in the same way, but in whatever way we can, He wants us to participate in the praise of the Psalms, sharing Him every day, to all people, because He deserves it.

This day and every day, what can you do to “Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name”? Take a moment and ask Him how you might participate in the Psalms.

[1] See Luke 3:12-14

The God of Intended Consequences

July 24, 2023July 22, 2023Todd R 1 Comment

Case studies, detailed write ups of real-life business situations, are a common teaching tool for business students. From these examples, students are supposed to draw lessons for their own job and for management. One case study I read covered Nordstrom; a large retailer famous for their strong customer service[1]. Nordstrom had recently hired an up-and-coming manager with a strong track record and trusted him with a lot of power to run the business. Since the purpose of a retailer is to sell things, mangement decided to pay every employee in every store more if they sell things. Seemed to make sense.

However, there’s a thing called the “Law of Unintended Consequences,” or more simply, a lack of foresight. In the Nordstrom case study, this Law led to disaster. Employees stopped cleaning the store. They stopped stocking shelves and organizing displays. Customers couldn’t find what they wanted, but they were hounded by enthusiastic employees who were eager to sell them something (and get credit for it). Instead of each employee doing what they specifically needed to do, they all swarmed around annoyed customers.

Not only did sales go down as a result, but Nordstrom damaged what had been its key strength of customer service. This happened decades ago, and Nordstrom has recovered, but what an interesting story. More recently, JC Penney had a similar disaster when they decided to back off their aggressive discounting strategy – the entire reason many people shopped there. A lack of foresight can lead to disastrous unintended consequences.

Nordstrom’s problem was what economists call a “coordination problem,” where a group of people aren’t properly organized to achieve a goal. Even if you have a theory that sales are the sole objective, making everyone focus on sales might not be the right way to coordinate. As Yogi Berra apparently said: “In theory there’s no difference between theory and practice. But in practice, there is.” Humans don’t usually behave the way theory says they will.

Ecclesiastes 3:9-11, titled “The God-Given Task” in my study Bible, says this:

“What gain has the worker from his toil? I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”

The point is the scope of man’s awareness, in his business, or economically. Man works, and sometimes it looks like pointless toil, and sometimes it is beautiful. But, as an image-bearer of God, man knows there is more to it – eternity in his heart. Therefore, we have some sense of a bigger picture, but the picture can’t be seen, only bits of it.

God on the other hand sees all, and nothing appears as unpredictable chaos to Him. His foresight includes all future circumstances, and everything is predictable. In the movie Jurassic Park, Jeff Goldblum’s character explains chaos by putting drops of water on the back of someone’s hand and saying there’s no way of knowing which direction the water will flow. But, when God watches Jurassic Park, he knows exactly which way the water would go. Every. Single. Time. And not because He’s seen the movie before. We look at water and see chaos, but God looks at it and says “Peace! Be still!”

Proverbs 3:19 tells us:

“The LORD by wisdom founded the earth;
by understanding He established the heavens;
by His knowledge the deeps broke open,
and the clouds drop down the dew.”

Because the world was created with wisdom (and not by accident), gravity does what it’s supposed to do, photosynthesis does what it’s supposed to do, and likewise with many “laws” of science. God as omnipotent creator orchestrates all those laws of science how He wants, but in terms of people He has the same raw material as the managers of Nordstrom.

However, God doesn’t get blindsided by anything, including but not limited to:
People not doing what they’re told – He can, and does, include this in His plan.
Second- and third-order effects of rules, such as employees not stocking shelves.
Theory that might not apply in practice.

Managers of your company or organization don’t have perfect foresight. They can’t be certain that their strategy is correct, and they probably don’t know what every employee does on a daily basis, but God is CEO of the entire universe knows all and has a personal relationship with every member of the “company” – and all its competitors.

He has a plan, and while He doesn’t tell us the entire plan, He “has put eternity into man’s heart” that we may learn to trust Him and know that everything will be fixed in the end. Therefore, dedicate more of your time, treasure, and talent to God and see what happens. He intends that there will eternally be good consequences, and when He intends something, it happens. Guaranteed.

Our God is the God of Intended Consequences.

[1] I can’t find the case online or in my files so I’m going from memory here. Forgive me if I go astray, or if you work at Nordstrom.

Faith Takes More Than Proof

July 22, 2023July 21, 2023Todd R 2 Comments

When writing his gospel, John had an objective in mind. As he wrote in John 20:31, he was recording Jesus’ miracles and signs “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.”

What was John’s objective? To persuade anyone reading “that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.”

In the same book, John says that many were not convinced by miracles:
“But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him, that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke: “Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” – John 12:37

John says this failure to convince was intentional on God’s part and a fulfillment of prophecy. John claims to be a first-hand witness of many miracles performed by Jesus, climaxing in the resurrection of one Lazarus, who was apparently dead for so long that “there is a stench” (John 11:39). John spends a lot of time setting the scene — many people had gathered to comfort Martha and Mary, the sisters of the deceased — pointing out that Lazarus had his own tomb, which indicates he was probably affluent and well-known – and so on. This miracle was to be very public. The result when Lazarus came out? John says many believed in Jesus, but many others did not believe, and some even saw Him as a threat – resulting in His crucifixion.

So John, writing for the specific purpose of creating belief, tells us the ultimate miracles are not enough to generate belief in everyone. “Proof” does not always convince, and those who disagree hold their beliefs as strongly as those who agree. Whatever your beliefs, have you ever been frustrated when someone just won’t come around to your view, no matter what you said? Would you be more frustrated if you were told that any argument you could make wouldn’t be good enough?

Some deny miracles because of a purely naturalistic worldview where the supernatural is not allowed in. Miracles do not exist, and never did. In this view, mankind was created through an unknowing process of natural selection and is a type of animal, although perhaps a special animal. These people have just as much conviction as I do. I could argue against those views, which really are what G.K. Chesterton called a “dogma of materialism” because proving it would require disproving every claim about a supernatural occurrence that any human has ever claimed. This is, of course, impossible. The dogma of materialism is a matter of faith, however much proponents of evolution and other “scientific” ideas claim overwhelming evidence and vast consensus. It takes faith to fill in the gaps in the evidence. Those who disagree with me are obviously willing to accept these gaps.

On the other hand, we have the oral and written testimony of many people reporting many supernatural things over the centuries. This includes John’s records of many first century miracles. However, John also testifies that a man raised from the dead was not enough to convince the skeptics on the scene. This man, Lazarus, even became the target of death threats, because he was evidence that threatened the well-being of those who made their living off the established religion.

There is more to proof than meets the eye. There is more to life than cold reason. People have reasons for believing what they do and acting how they act, and the Apostle Paul says “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood…” (Ephesians 6:12). Therefore, nothing I can write, do, or say is guaranteed to convince anyone, but I take heart that Chesterton also wrote: “When I fancied that I stood alone I was really in the ridiculous position of being backed up by all of Christendom.”

If you are a Christian – what argument can you make that is better than raising a man from the dead, then following that up by raising yourself from the dead? If Jesus couldn’t convince everyone, the best anyone can do is follow Peter’s advice to “in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.” – 1 Peter 3:15-16

What are the reasons for the hope that is in you?

Faith: A Practical, Living Teacher

July 19, 2023July 18, 2023Todd R 1 Comment

Years ago, I saw a drawing of a child suspended in the air, clutching the string of a single balloon, with the caption: “Faith isn’t faith until it’s all you’re holding on to.” It was a very simple picture, but it made me think: Where does this kind of faith come from? A faith that turns intellectual trust into action, especially potentially dangerous action?

One way is that we can learn it from others. I’ve read a lot of Christian apologetics – or writings in defense of Christian faith. Writers such as Josh McDowell and Ravi Zacharias were held in reverent awe by many in my college years, the logic being that “if someone that smart can be a Christian, it must be reasonable to believe!” While there is definitely value in learning from others, there is also the hazard of learning to trust our teachers (instead of our Teacher). Then when they fall, it hurts us personally and can damage our witness. We know what ended up happening to Ravi Zacharias[1].

There is also the testimony of the Bible. In the book of Hebrews, chapter 11 chronicles the faith of many in the Bible, and Hebrews 12:1 calls these our “cloud of witnesses.” We can learn a lot from these people, but they don’t just teach us facts about God. The writer of Hebrews adds that because of these witnesses, we should “lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”[2] He is our Lord, and these witnesses tell us to follow Him, not just be able to describe Him.

One of the best lessons on this comes from G.K. Chesterton, who is well-known for his arguments in defense of the reasonableness of Christianity. However, near the end of his book Orthodoxy, he says that he has a better idea: “And that is this: ‘that the Christian Church in its practical relation to my soul is a living teacher, not a dead one. It not only certainly taught me yesterday, but will almost certainly teach me tomorrow.’” Apologetics is not about winning arguments, but about growing our ability to trust Him and learning to explain that to others.

While we can learn from others and from the Bible to build up our faith, what God has done for us personally is the best testimony because it is the most real to us. Everything else is hearsay, as they say in court. We are all learning to let Him tell us where to go and what to do. To discern not only His truth, but His will, in the testimony of modern apologists and in the Bible. To make our own Ebenezers, or memorials to His faithfulness to us when we’ve acted in faith in Him, even if it meant holding on to nothing else. Therefore:

“Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!” – Psalm 34:8

The best way to know that He is good is to try for ourselves, even when it’s hard or doesn’t make sense.

[1] If you don’t know, after Ravi died it was revealed that he had inappropriate relationships with massage therapists and others. A once-influential ministry ended up in tatters, and some of Ravi’s followers ended up embarrassed and wondering what to believe.
[2] Hebrews 12:1b-2

Driving Toward the Morning Sun

What "Not Yet" Means for "Now"

Tag Christian

Sing a New Song: Participating in the Psalms

The God of Intended Consequences

Faith Takes More Than Proof

Faith: A Practical, Living Teacher