Sheep and Goats

Category: Psalms

  • Avoiding the Birdcatcher’s Trap

    The Sunday speaker focused on avoiding the “trap of the birdcatcher,” taking for granted that Satan is the birdcatcher (“fowler”), only not everyone thinks it is he. Jehovah’s Witnesses do, and also many other faith traditions. Really, more do than don’t. In medieval times, the linkage was well-nigh universal. Augustine, for example, explicitly said so the birdcatcher (fowler) was the devil.

    But, in modern times of “higher criticism,” where people assume each Bible book is a separate island, bearing little relationship to its fellow Book-mate, they are more inclined to say, ‘Nah, it’s just a guy trying to catch birds.’ It’s any human pitfall that might trip a guy up. 

    G. K. Chesterton’s words come into play. The Catholic writer from a century ago called those “wrong who maintain that the Old Testament [and by extension, the New] is a mere loose library; that it has no consistency or aim. Whether the result was achieved by some supernal spiritual truth, or by a steady national tradition, or merely by an ingenious selection in aftertimes, the books of the Old Testament have a quite perceptible unity. . .” 

    It’s like how Jehovah’s Witnesses point out that the Bible was written by some 40-odd writers of vastly different backgrounds, over a period of 1600 years. What are the chances that anything coherent will emerge from that? That it does is powerful evidence to them of the book’s inspiration. But modern people haven’t taken the time to familiarize themselves with the Bible, mostly, or they do so under the guidance of those determined to tear it apart. Its unified nature is lost on them. 

    At any rate, assuming unity of Scripture, you take into account that the New Testament often speaks of Satan laying traps and snares, just like the Psalm 91 birdcatcher. See Luke 13:16, for instance, also “the snare of the devil” of 2 timothy 2:26 and 1 Timothy 3:7. Ephesians 6:11 speaks of the “wiles” (cunning traps) of the devil.

    Anyhow, the speaker ran with Satan as the birdcatcher, then branched out to how hard it was to catch a bird. His brother had tried that, as a child, standing stock-still under the birdfeeder for an hour (it took that long for birds to let down their guard) then swooping up his hand fast to catch one, only to emerge with just a few feathers. “Birdcatcher” sounds a little wussy next to the “lion” description of 1 Peter 5:8, but if you take into account the craftiness required, then it evens out. Thing is, he said, a bird’s eyes are on both sides of its head, giving it a wide field of vision. He contrasted this with how he had noticed that those in the audience had eyes up front and spaced much like his. I had noticed this, too, though I admit, I wasn’t mulling it over the entire time.

    He used a lot of images from his childhood in that talk, alluding to traps he saw set on Saturday morning cartoons when he wasn’t taken out in field service, traps that would catch any creature “except the roadrunner”—including the simple upside down box propped up by a stick. “Those things work!” he related how he had once caught a skunk that way, luring it in with dogfood. Who would think a skunk is going to follow a trail of dogfood, “but it did!”

    Silly putty played into his talk, too. He told how the “iPad of his day” could bounce, be shattered, suck up ink from the Sunday comics, but eventually became such a disgusting blob, full of dirt, ink, and cat hair, that you tossed it out. He likened that to how Satan toys with his victims for a time, dirtying them up, before discarding them.

    close up of a road sign
    Photo by Waldemar Brandt on Pexels.com

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  • Psalm 139:1-2

    Some things in service that didn’t go the way I wanted, and I was short on that account with a totally uninvolved party. But later on, I felt bad about it and apologized. ‘Don’t worry about it,’ he says. ‘I know you.’ And, you know, that is sort of reassuring.

    Even more so when come across Psalm 139:1-2 in last week’s Watchtower study:

    “Jehovah, you have searched through me, and you know me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up. You discern my thoughts from afar.”

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  • The End of War—When?

    Through ingenuity, humans overcome their natural limitations against flight and deep-sea diving. They can fly and they can submerge. But no amount of ingenuity can equip them to overcome their inability to self-rule, “man dominating man to his injury.” All such efforts devolve into some permutation of “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.>” Such were the takeaways from Sunday’s talk on End of War. Many time’s I’ve compared inability to fly to inability to rule, but I’ve never extended it that the first can be overcome but not the second.

    “Come and witness the activities of Jehovah, How he has done astonishing things on the earth.  He is bringing an end to wars throughout the earth.” (Psalm 46:8-9) Pretty good trick if he can pull that one off.

    The solution advanced in that talk—all Bible promises—on how God would do that is:

    1: bringing an end to human governments, replacing them by the rule of his Son

    2: raising humankind to a state of perfection

    3: removing the influence of Satan, the one right now “misleading the entire inhabited earth.” (Revelation 12:9)

    So it was in the ministry that I answered the Muslim man who, in good faith, watered down the solution to war to that of all people sincerely living the tenets of their faith. Yes, it’s a good thing when they do that, I agreed, but make no mistake: that will not be sufficient to overcome man’s inability to rule and their resulting proclivity to war.

    This was the fellow from Bangladesh who had escaped war there as a child and still had nightmares about it. He’d been in America for decades and was “living the American dream,” he and all his siblings having attained PhD status. He, not me, was the one who brought up, all on his own, his prime concern that ending war was mankind’s greatest need, along with his fear that humans are regressing in that goal.

    But even after a return call, I couldn’t shake his equally prime concern that I had come to “change his religion.” “Look, if I come 200 times and we agree each time, on the 201st time I will say ‘Do you want to change your religion?’ but it’s not going to happen until that time. In the meantime, it’s just conversation. Nothing to worry about.” Nope. Didn’t fly with this fellow. 

    The trouble is, there’s really not too many faiths that point to the above solution of war. Most water it down to God somehow blessing human efforts to end it through political means. Or, to this man’s hoped-for outcome that each person will start sincerely living the tenets of their faith. “When the broken-hearted people living in the world agree,” is how McCartney put it. Good luck on that goal.

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    Q: If God really can bring an end to war that easily, then what is he waiting for? After all, the longer he delays, the more generations live and die in suffering.

    Yes, they do, but it is reversible through the provision of resurrection. In time, former distresses will be forgotten, as though a bad dream.

    One must not rush a trial. One must allow it to play out, distressing as it may be to those under the gun. For Witnesses, the question to be determined arose at the very beginning of human creation, with Adam rejecting God’s right to rule for his own. God could flatten them and start again, but who’s to say the next pair won’t raise the same point? Better to let it play out.

    The overall Bible tale is that, starting with this rebellion, God allows humans to make good on their claim of independence from him. He allows them to devise their own governments down through the ages, their own economies, justice, ethics, inventions—organize or disorganize any way they will. Only when the results become the absolute trainwreck that human rule is today does the question begin to be answered. Questions answered and precedent supplied, then God can forcibly bring about the rule by his Son.

    It’s the theme of a book I wrote not too long ago, entitled “A Workman’s Theodicy: Why Bad Things Happen.” Probably you know that theodicy is a theological term referring to the attempts to answer how a God of love would coexist with evil and suffering. It is among the oldest questions of time, and likely the most important:

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    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F2HDS4Z1

  • Psalm 132: You Can Almost Read it Like a Housewarming

    You can almost read Psalm 132 as a housewarming. First is how David went to tall that trouble to build one for God, even after God said he had never asked for one. (I like the passage about him at Psalm 50:12, ‘If I were hungry, you think I’d tell you?’)

    “O Jehovah, remember David And all his suffering; How he swore to Jehovah, How he vowed to the Powerful One of Jacob: “I will not go into my tent, my home. I will not lie upon my couch, my bed; I will not allow my eyes to sleep, Nor my eyelids to slumber Until I find a place for Jehovah, A fine residence for the Powerful One of Jacob.”  (1-5)

    Next is everyone trying to lure God into his house:

    “Rise up, O Jehovah, to come to your resting-place, You and the Ark of your strength.  May your priests be clothed with righteousness, And may your loyal ones shout joyfully,” (8-9) even reminding him of his own words, his own promise to David: “One of your offspring, I will place on your throne. If your sons keep my covenant And my reminders that I teach them, Their sons too Will sit on your throne forever.”  (11-12)

    Then, as though testing out the place, settling in an armchair or two, God decides he likes it. Narration: “For Jehovah has chosen Zion; He has desired it for his dwelling place.” Then,, God speaks himself:

    “This is my resting-place forever; Here I will dwell, for this is my desire. I will richly bless it with provisions; I will satisfy its poor with bread. Its priests I will clothe with salvation, And its loyal ones will shout joyfully. There I will make the strength of David grow. I have prepared a lamp for my anointed one. I will clothe his enemies with shame, But the crown on his head will flourish.” (14-18)

     

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  • Psalm 115: The Apple Clonking Newton in the Head

    Within Psalm 115:16 lies a common-sense innocuous verse that has all the impact of the apple landing on Newton’s head.

    “As for the heavens, they belong to Jehovah, But the earth he has given to the sons of men.”

    It is the perfect verse you weave into any reply to those who insist we all go to heaven when we die. Such as this person, who asks, “Why are most Jehovah’s Witnesses not born again? Doesn’t the reason stem from their reading of Revelation 7:9-10?”

    Does he think the destiny for all good persons is to go to heaven when they die? I asked him that. He does.

    Agreed that Christians who are destined to heaven need to be born again. But that not true for all Christians. A Christian whose hope is to live forever on a paradise earth made so by God’s kingdom rule, the vast majority of Jehovah’s Witnesses today, are not. They are people who “truly trust in, follow, and love Jesus Christ.” But their hope is to live on earth under his kingdom government.

    It is not so that this hope rests entirely on how JWs read Revelation 7:9-10, or even mostly. Until the 1930s, Witnesses also thought that those verses referred to a heavenly-destined group. But in time, they came to reconcile the passage with other portions of the Bible.

    As for myself, I can’t imagine living forever in heaven. Whatever would I do there? But I can easily imagine living forever on an earth restored. The earth is a beautiful place. 

    Witnesses believe God put humans on earth and gave them the commission to fill the earth and subdue it, because he wanted them there. If he had wanted them in heaven, he would have put them there directly. To Jehovah’s Witnesses, the earth is not a temporary place, a launching pad into heaven or a trap door into hell. It is given to humankind as a home. Death was not a part of God’s original purpose. Had Adam and Eve not rebelled, they would have continued living where God put them, they along with all their offspring, spreading out to fill the earth, living there forever. But, according to Romans 5:12, “through one man [Adam] sin entered into the world and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because they had all sinned.”

    Jesus makes this point about earth in the beatitudes. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5) The meek do not inherit the earth today. They get stomped all over. Per Jesus’ words in ‘the Lord’s Prayer,’ that will continue until the kingdom comes: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” he says. (Matthew 9:10)

    With the resurrection of Christ, a new hope opens up. It is called a “sacred secret.” It takes getting one’s head around because it is so contrary to the earthly hope described above. Fortunately, one does not have to “get one’s head around it.” God directly implants the heavenly hope in ones so called. For example, to the Ephesians, Paul writes of “making known to us the sacred secret of his will. It is according to his good pleasure that he himself purposed for an administration at the full limit of the appointed times, to gather all things together in the Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth.” (Eph 1:9-10) These ones are destined to rule with Christ in heaven. It is a brand-spanking-new calling. it is called being “born again.” Even John the Baptist, who prepared the crowds for Jesus but died prior to his resurrection, did not have that hope. “Among those born of women, there has not been raised up anyone greater than John the Baptist, but a lesser person in the Kingdom of the heavens is greater than he is,” Jesus says at Matthew 11:11

    Plainly, not everyone can be ruling. There has to be people to rule over. The latter can be expected to greatly outnumber the former. This is true of those later recognized as the “great crowd” of Revelation 7:9-10.

    “After this I saw, and look! a great crowd, which no man was able to number, out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes; and there were palm branches in their hands.  And they keep shouting with a loud voice, saying: “Salvation we owe to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb.” (Rev 7:9-10)

    Good things are in store for them: “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. That is why they are before the throne of God, and they are rendering him sacred service day and night in his temple; and the One seated on the throne will spread his tent over them. They will hunger no more nor thirst anymore, neither will the sun beat down on them nor any scorching heat, because the Lamb, who is in the midst of the throne, will shepherd them and will guide them to springs of waters of life. And God will wipe out every tear from their eyes.” (7: 14-17)

    No one can number them. What is the sense of a numberless amount in government? But as one’s ruled over on earth, numberless makes perfect sense.

     

    ***Someone else spelled it out this way, someone who thinks the earth will be destroyed:

    “JW Paradise Earth

    1. There is no more death, tears, sorrow, crying, or pain
    2. It would be like the Garden of Eden before the Fall
    3. God and the 144,000 anointed ones will rule over them in Heaven.
    4. The current earth remains but the current man governments are gone

    “Church New Earth

    1. There is no more death, tears, sorrow, crying, or pain
    2. It would be like the Garden of Eden before the Fall
    3. God and the 144,000 will be with them on the New Earth. You can touch them. Hug them.
    4. The first earth has passed away including it's seas, but this New Earth replaces it.

     

    If I understand this church view of the new earth (which most church members don’t know anything about; most think it’s just straight up heaven-bound for the faithful), am I to conclude that God takes the faithful to heaven, destroys the earth, recreates it, and then puts the faithful back on it again? This seems like an extraordinarily convoluted way to go about it.

    Did the earth do something wrong for which it should be destroyed? Does anyone think God should take out his wrath upon the planet? Or do you think he should take out wrath upon the wicked people on it?

    The illustration that all Witnesses love (because it makes so much sense) is that if you rent your house out to tenants and they destroy it, you do not destroy the house. You evict the tenants. 

    The earth is far better than a house. All you have to do is stop abusing the earth and it heals up pretty quickly. We see that in the aftermath of every oil spill and forest fire. Just stop abusing the earth, stop the destruction of it, put a kingdom in place and citizens that will treasure it and take care of it, and the existing planet becomes a “new earth.” No need for this rigamorole of a wholesale move of all the righteous to heaven and back again.

    But, if we go the church view expressed, that the earth literally needs be destroyed, then what about the heavens? Cited was 2 Peter 3:6-7 KJV:

    Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: [7] But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

    So the literal heavens, too, are reserved for fire? What’s wrong with them that they also must be replaced?

    To my mind, this view takes a perfectly reasonable teaching of the righteous surviving upon an earth made new under God’s kingdom, something that is consistent with the entire Bible, from Adam to Armegeddon, and replaces it with something that makes no sense at all and enjoys little scriptural support.

    Heavens are often used in the Bible as a metaphor for rulerships. Both could scorch you one moment, freeze you the next, drench you the next minute, and there wasn’t a thing you could do about it. For the most part, that is still true of even modern governments. Their policies affect you greatly and there is very little you can do about it. A thousand pounds of pressure yields a once of result—and in many lands, the governed have no say whatsoever.

    Accordingly, Jehovah’s Witnesses view the “new heavens” to be a metaphor for God’s kingdom ruling over the “new earth” after the wicked are removed from it.

    I am all for literalism. But not to the point of converting obvious metaphor to it. When someone tells me to stop beating around the bush, I realize he is not speaking of a literal bush.

    ***

    There is another keeper from Psalm 115, verses 4-8. Note the zinger at verse 8. It is as though the punchline of a joke. Only, in this case, it is no joke.

    4 Their idols are silver and gold, The work of human hands.

    5 A mouth they have, but they cannot speak; Eyes, but they cannot see;

    6 Ears they have, but they cannot hear; A nose, but they cannot smell;

    7 Hands they have, but they cannot feel; Feet, but they cannot walk; They make no sound with their throat.

    8 The people who make them will become just like them, As will all those who trust in them.

    That last line is a beaut. Contrast it with the psalmist’s God, who “does whatever he pleases.” (3) Their god does nothing at all. Worse yet, by devoting your life to them, you find yourself in that same predicament.

    I am told that when our people speak with Muslims, they are quick to read this verse. It makes their eyes bug out. See, Muslims hate idols and they associate them with Christianity. To read how the God of the Bible also hates them makes a powerful impression.

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  • Psalm 107: God Saves Them from their Plight.

    The first thing you notice about Psalm 107 is the refrain:

    “They kept crying out to Jehovah in their distress; He rescued them from their plight.” It is at verses 6, 13, 19, and 28.

    The second thing one notices is yet another refrain, partly explained by the first:

    “Let people give thanks to Jehovah for his loyal love And for his wonderful works in behalf of the sons of men.” (vs 8, 15, 21, and 31)

    Two refrains! The psalm follows a pattern: They get into hot water. They call to Jehovah to help. He pulls them out from the fire. He dresses up their wounds. They thank him mightily. Then, they dive into hot water again!

    Each stanza adds another twist to what is essentially one event in multiple sequels. History rhymes, even if it doesn’t repeat itself. The pattern remains the same, though the details are different. Since the psalm begins with, “Let those reclaimed by Jehovah say this, Those whom he reclaimed from the hand of the adversary,” (vs 2) apparently it applies to anyone leaving God for any reason and later returning. Finding it barren out there, getting beat up in various ways. Sending out an SOS to Jehovah—who reclaims them.

    Sometimes they wandered. Sometimes they fell. Sometimes they rebelled. Sometimes they searched for a “city where they could live.” (4, 7, 36) God would bring them into one, but they would not remain. Why do I think of the lyric, “I’m getting bugged driving up and down the same ol’ strip; I got to find me a place where the kids are hip?”

    They keep calling out to God and he keeps taking them back. There is not even mentioned the time in Judges that he got fed up with them and said, “I’m done!”

    “Jehovah said to the Israelites: ‘Did I not save you from Egypt and from the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, the Sidonians, Amalek, and Midian when they oppressed you? When you cried out to me, I saved you out of their hand. But you abandoned me and served other gods. That is why I will not save you again. Go to the gods whom you have chosen and call for help. Let them save you in your time of distress.”  (Judges 10:11-14)

    But, they doubled-down on how sorry they were and how they would change their ways, and he took them back. He’s sort of a soft touch that way.

    Though, he isn’t really. It’s not as though he doesn’t let them suffer the consequences. Back to Psalm 107:

    “For they had rebelled against the word of God; They disrespected the counsel of the Most High. So he humbled their hearts through hardship; They stumbled, and there was no one to help them.” (vs 11-12)

    Of course, the friends fall all over themselves to point out that God does not bring hardship; he just allows it to happen. There is apparently something in the Hebrew grammar that allows one to view it that way, so I always do. The other way does one no good. Why see the glass as half empty when you can see it as half full?

    The fourth stanza of this pattern takes a new twist:

    “Those who travel on the sea in ships, Who ply their trade over the vast waters, They have seen the works of Jehovah And his wonderful works in the deep;” (vs 23-24)

    For some, you have to get around to see it. Stick too close with the home base and you can miss the forest for the trees. Go out to sea a bit; those guys all know it. Though, to be sure, they learn the hard way:

    “By his word a windstorm arises, Lifting up the waves of the sea. They rise up to the sky; They plunge down to the depths. Their courage melts away because of the impending calamity. They reel and stagger like a drunken man, And all their skill proves useless.”  (vs 25-27)

    What do they do in that event? “Then they cry out to Jehovah in their distress, And he rescues them from their plight.” (vs 28)

    ***

    After the meeting, the brothers fell to chatting. One of them commented on some verse in the 30s. “Who cares about that?” I quipped back. “That wasn’t in the assigned reading (which I had done).” Whereupon, he jibed back at me, “Yes—can’t we get back to talking about me?” What a low blow! Completely unfair! Worse than even my brother who cheats at Scrabble! All I do is think about God! Never anything else!

    But, he said later that he said it to me only because someone had said it to him. Let’s face it: The reason it is recommended to notice and comment on the householder’s garden, bumper stickers, pets, etc, is because that gives him an opportunity to speak on his favorite subject—himself! and his interests. It is just the way people are. Dale Carnegie’s career went into the stratosphere upon recognizing that. As long as you apply appropriate checks and balances, you’re okay.

     

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  • Psalm 93: Symbolic Rivers

    Rivers in the Bible are sometimes symbolic. Maybe, also the ones of Psalm 93.

    The rivers have surged, O Jehovah, The rivers have surged and roared; The rivers keep surging and pounding. (93:3)

    They have surged. Repeat and add: they have surged and roared. Repeat as continuious action, and escalate to pounding: The rivers keep surging and pounding. 

    Jehovah is above them all, triumphant, as though the rivers here are a disruptive thing:

    Above the sound of many waters, Mightier than the breaking waves of the sea, Jehovah is majestic in the heights. (93:4) The opening two verses set up that scenario, too. 

    The Research Guide doesn’t touch it. The Insight Book does. Sometimes invading armies are “rivers.” Makes sense.

    “Therefore look! Jehovah will bring against them The mighty and vast waters of the River, The king of As·syrʹi·a and all his glory. He will come up over all his streambeds And overflow all his banks.”  Isa 8:7

    Isn’t that how Babylon fell, when the river literally concealed invading armies?

    The comparison I like best is the Devil disgorging rivers of water and the earth swallows it up to save the woman:

    “And the serpent spewed out water like a river from its mouth after the woman, to cause her to be drowned by the river. 16 But the earth came to the woman’s help, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the river that the dragon spewed out from its mouth.”

    So I told Duncan about it, but he didn’t call on me during the gems review. He knew I would just be blowing smoke. Besides, he thought of the river, clear as crystal, that flows from the throne 

    Turn the page and rivers are clapping their hands. I’m not sure how rivers can do that:

    Let the rivers clap their hands; Let the mountains shout joyfully together. (98:8)

    At Isaiah 42:10, the rivers are like unmentionables:

    ”Sing to Jehovah a new song, His praise from the ends of the earth, You who go down to the sea and all that fills it, You islands and their inhabitants.” We all know what it is that fills the sea.
    Much talk about a “new song” about this point in the Psalms, as though a new twist in God’s purpose unfolding. From 91 on, and especially 95, the people trusting in God emerge victorious, an outcome many earlier psalms appear in doubt over.
    Meanwhile, and having nothing to do with anything except that the congregation is now in the book commenting on Acts:

    It can’t have been easy for Paul, to be followed around for days by a crazy person hollering: “‘These men are slaves of the Most High God and are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.’” To illustrate that it would not be, I told a certain someone at the Hall that I would heretofore do it to him.

    Did the demon driving her think he had Paul over a barrel? What’s he going to do—cast it out, upon which the servant would be valueless to her masters and the cops would beat Paul up? But Paul cast it out, the servant became valueless to her masters, and the cops beat him up:

    “Now it happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a servant girl with a spirit, a demon of divination,l met us. She supplied her masters with much profit by fortune-telling. This girl kept following Paul and us and crying out with the words: “These men are slaves of the Most High God and are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.” She kept doing this for many days. Finally Paul got tired of it and turned and said to the spirit: “I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.

    “Well, when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the rulers. Leading them up to the civil magistrates, they said: “These men are disturbing our city very much. They are Jews, and they are proclaiming customs that it is not lawful for us to adopt or practice, seeing that we are Romans.” And the crowd rose up together against them, and the civil magistrates, after tearing the garments off them, gave the command to beat them with rods. After they had inflicted many blows on them, they threw them into prisonu and ordered the jailer to guard them securely.” (Acts 16:16-24)

     

     

     

     

     

  • Psalm 90: How Long Will [What] Last?

    The reason I believe better sanitation and not vaccines (as has been claimed) resulted in the greater expanded life expectancy during the 20th century is found at Psalm 90:10:

    “The span of our life is 70 years, Or 80 if one is especially strong.”

    So there it is, written maybe four thousand years ago. Yet, in the year 1900, the average life expectancy in the United States was 47 years. Had humans not deviated from the sanitation principles found in the Old Testament, would it not have been the 70 or 80 from the Bible? Unsafe working conditions also played a part, no doubt, but the role of sanitation is still a huge factor.

    Today, that 70-to-80 has improved to 80-to-90, and that probably is the role of modern medicine, which may include some vaccines. But the science zealot who tried to tell me how far we have come, since in the Middle Ages, people “crapped in a bucket and threw it out on the street,” consequently dying at thirty—well, that has nothing to do with science. It has to do with correcting (even if unknowingly) a prior neglect of the Old Testament which held that you’re supposed to bury your poop.

    We pull a lot of useful verses out of the 90th psalm, verse 10 among them. However, this time around in the congregation Bible reading, verse 13 caught my attention.

    “Return, O Jehovah! How long will this last? Have pity on your servants.”

    How long will what last? Is it a special period of anger on God’s part? One might easily think it upon reading 7, 8, 9, and 11:

    “For we are consumed by your anger And terrified by your rage.  (7) You place our errors in front of you; Our secrets are exposed by the light of your face. (8) Our days ebb away because of your fury; And our years come to an end like a whisper. (9) . . . Who can fathom the power of your anger? Your fury is as great as the fear you deserve. (11)

    And yet, the specific affliction appears to be no more than what verse 10 speaks of, that we get 70 years, 80 at best. See how many verses chronicle the fleetingness of life today.

    “You make mortal man return to dust; You say: ‘Return, you sons of men.’” (3) For a thousand years are in your eyes just as yesterday when it is past, Just as a watch during the night. (4) You sweep them away; they become like mere sleep; In the morning they are like grass that sprouts. (5) In the morning it blossoms and is renewed, But by evening it withers and dries up. (6)

    That’s just ordinary life he is talking about. No special punishment there. What’s with this psalm?

    Unless . . . unless . . could this be one of those passages in which the author reveals truths he is unaware of himself, the Bible being the product of “men [who] spoke from God as they were moved by holy spirit?” (2 Peter 1:21)

    People settle for so little today. Totally obsessed with what years are left of their present life, most totally ignore the far longer period after their present life runs its course. Is the psalmist lamenting how that circumstance came about? After all, why does God “make mortal man return to dust [and] say: “Return, you sons of men?” Man was intended to live forever. But rebelling against him, in the oldest transgression of history, in the easy-to-understand act of eating an off-limits fruit—the only thing that was off-limits—had the effect of pulling their own plug from the power source. Thereafter, the blades spinning ever slower, till their offspring many generations downstream, are stuck with a life expectancy of 70 or 80 years that quickly pass by and are filled with trouble.

    How long will that “punishment” last, you might picture the psalmist saying, having no knowledge then of the means God would employ to reverse it.

    It’s an application I like. Even the aforementioned verses (7-9, 11) of God’s anger could be looked at as that original rebellion being what he is angry about. It is maybe one of those passages that has more than one application. Even if it isn’t, we can assign it one, since the assignment would be in keeping with “the pattern of healthful words.” We used to call such passages antitypes. But now, we drop down to a safer level and say, ‘This reminds me of that.”

    ***

    It’s rare to see life as God sees it. But now that we’ve all learned to do photo montages at memorial talks, it begins to happen. A person’s entire life scrolls by in just a few minutes.  Not too different from the psalm:

     

    “For a thousand years are in your eyes just as yesterday when it is past, Just as a watch during the night. You sweep them away; they become like mere sleep; In the morning they are like grass that sprouts. In the morning it blossoms and is renewed, But by evening it withers and dries up. . . . The span of our life is 70 years, Or 80 if one is especially strong. . . . They quickly pass by, and away we fly.” (Psalm 90: 4-10)

     

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  • Sometimes Life Sucks: Psalm 88

    There are 18 verses in Psalm 88. Save for verse 13, not a single positive thought is expressed. Everything is disastrous. Nothing good anywhere. Plus, the psalmist all but blames God: ‘When are you going to pour out your loving-kindness—when I’m dead?’ He makes the point repeatedly.

    Look those verses over. You can’t find a positive thought. Except for 13: “But I still cry to you for help, O Jehovah, Each morning my prayer comes before you.” Though, he immediately follows up (verse 14) that it does him no good: “Why, O Jehovah, do you reject me? Why do you hide your face from me?” The question is nowhere answered.  He has tried the “peace of God will safeguard your heart” thing. It hasn’t worked, and so he tells God about it!

    Psalm 88 is just like the Book of Job, but without the preface pulling back the heavenly curtain to explain what it’s all about. What is this psalm even doing in the Bible, which is overall a book of faith? You could easily get all cynical over it, were that your inclination. Nowhere is the psalmist’s faith rewarded. But it is steadfast, if only by force of habit, per verse 13. Is it the more powerful on that account? Life is not consistently rosy. It can be horrendous for the long periods of time.

    There is precious little commentary on this psalm from the JW Library app, which likes to focus on the positive. No wonder. There’s nothing positive here, save for the verse about hanging in there with prayer. ‘Sometimes we have to wait awhile’ is the gist of the Library’s sole remark (on 13). There’s one other remark, too, but it is simply the definition of a term.

    The fellow is going through a trough. Sometimes we are in troughs. Don’t feel unique if it has ever happened to you. The ground has been plowed before. If you have ever felt as the psalmist, don’t feel bad. Or, at least, don’t feel guilty about feeling bad. Part of the roller coaster of life, someone said during field service, which delivers both good times and bad.

    It reminded me of how the circuit overseer said he would get carsick as a boy. The solution? Fix your gaze far off into the horizon, the one thing that does not change. So it is that the psalmist fixes his gaze upon God to carry him through a rough period of life.

     

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  • Psalm 73: Nothing so Corrosive as Envy: Asaph Escapes

    Here is someone who gets right to the point. After a quick little genuflect to show he  still had the overall picture—“God is truly good to Israel, to those pure in heart,”  (Psalm 73:1) he relates how he almost lost it.

    As for me, my feet had almost strayed; My steps had nearly slipped.” (vs 2)

    The problem? He became envious! Few things are as corrosive as envy.

     “For I became envious of the arrogant When I would see the peace of the wicked.  For they have no pain in their death; Their bodies are healthy. They are not troubled like other humans, Nor do they suffer like other men. Therefore, haughtiness is their necklace; Violence clothes them as a garment. Their prosperity makes their eyes bulge; They have exceeded the imaginations of the heart. They scoff and say evil things. They arrogantly threaten oppression. They speak as if they were as high as heaven, And their tongues swagger about in the earth. . . Yes, these are the wicked, who always have it easy. They just keep increasing their wealth.” (3-12)

    And just how do these ones feel about God? They tell him to take a hike!

    “They say: “How does God know? Does the Most High really have knowledge?” (vs 11) And it goes well for them! The game never gets old. The deck never gets cold.

    They don’t all hit the party scene upon forgetting God! They don’t all turn to drugs and sex and the bottle! Someone at the meeting cited 2 Timothy 3:2-5, with its laundry list of bad traits typifying the last days:

    “For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, haughty, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, disloyal, having no natural affection, not open to any agreement, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, without love of goodness, betrayers, headstrong, puffed up with pride, lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God, having an appearance of godliness but proving false to its power; and from these turn away.” 

    It works for some. Some dance with the tune and they make out just fine! It was enough to make Asaph pull his hair out! If he were living in modern times, he’d be whining about being misled, about being brainwashed, about the Levites lying to him! In fact, when a recent Watchtower study incorporated Psalm 73 for the benefit of any feeling what Asaph did, virulent ex-Witnesses were all over it, but spinning it without reference to Asaph or the psalm. Instead, they spun it in terms of politics and cult manipulation; you know, further manipulation to keep the deluded in line. I mean, sheesh—if you’re going to carry on about Jehovah’s Witnesses, you must also carry on about what motivates them, not change that motivation to something else. It’s as though the grousers have forgotten that there are such things as scriptures.

    The ones who forsake God (from vs 11) don’t actually say they no longer believe in him. They just act as though they don’t. They have their religion but they have learned to keep it in its place—last place. Here Asaph is exerting himself every day, keeping God in first place, crossing Ts and dotting Is, while “the arrogant,” and “the wicked” are “not troubled” over anything!  Their “bodies are healthy.” When they die—at least they have not escaped that bit of unpleasantness—there is “no pain in their death.” It’s as though they say, “Well, it’s been a fine run. Remind me to do it again sometime,” as they reach to switch off the light.

    It’s driving Asaph mad! “Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure And washed my hands in innocence. And I was troubled all day long; Every morning I was chastised.” (13-14) Every morning he asked himself! “Why am I still doing this, striving so hard to measure up for God? Where is it getting me?” It’s a little like when we left our snowy clime to visit friends down south and they said, “Yeah, why are you still up there?” (And, in fact, why are we? Probably because it’s not so bad a test as Asaph’s.)

    “But if I had said these things, I would have betrayed your people.” (15)

    Great! So, he can’t even complain about it! It wouldn’t be “upbuilding.” You don’t want to rain on everyone else’s parade at the Kingdom Hall. You want to say, “Attaboy! Keep it up!” But it’s getting harder for him to do. “When I tried to understand it, It was troubling to me.” (16)

    Sorry to those who hoped for something a little more dramatic, but the solution appears to have been to “hit the books.”

    “Until I entered the grand sanctuary of God, And I discerned their future. Surely you place them on slippery ground. You make them fall to their ruin. How suddenly they are devastated! How sudden is their finish as they come to a terrible end!”

    A terrible end? Like in the Braveheart movie, where William Wallace’s chum confides, as both are under heavy arrow bombardment, that he had prayed to the good Lord, and the good Lord was pretty sure he could get him out of this spot. “But you’re finished!”      (*He used a cruder synonym, not ‘finished.’)

    There is an Act II! How could Asaph have forgotten that? The opening act is not also the closing act! If it was, the naysayers would be right. He is knocking himself out for nothing. But it’s not! It’s as though Asaph awakens from a bad dream: “Like a dream when one wakes up, O Jehovah, When you rouse yourself, you will dismiss their image.” (Vs 20)

     “I was unreasoning and lacked understanding” he says, once he has corrected himself. “I was like a senseless beast before you.” (vs 22)

    Whoa! There it is! A reference to those who quickly settle that this life is all there is, to those who imagine nothing beyond the present 70-90 years.  They are like ‘senseless beasts!’ And Asaph had almost become one of them! No more!

    “But now I am continually with you; You have taken hold of my right hand. You guide me with your advice, And afterward you will lead me to glory.

    Whom do I have in the heavens? And besides you I desire nothing on earth. My body and my heart may fail, But God is the rock of my heart and my portion forever.

    Truly, those keeping far from you will perish. You will put an end to everyone who immorally leaves you. But as for me, drawing near to God is good for me. I have made the Sovereign Lord Jehovah my refuge, To declare all your works.” (vs 23-28)

    Back on track, he is. The opening act is not also the closing act. He’s setting himself out to weather the entire play, not just the first act.

    ***Sorry, that Psalm 73 reference to the people who have it made recalled for me when my new bride and I went to a gala hi-brow affair where everyone was dressed to the nines. Tuxes and gowns! When intermission came and all were out in the foyer sipping drinks, each one of which cost more than the antifreeze in my car, I whispered to my wife, “Here are people we don’t usually hang out with—the wicked!”

    Yes, I know, I know. Completely unfair. No doubt, most were nice. My new wife looked at me oddly—but I couldn’t resist.

    ******  The bookstore