What Matters

Psalm 2

'Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain.'  (Psalm 2:1)

This morning The Australian featured a satellite image of Iran's nuclear facility.  For some years now the world has watched anxiously as Iran has expanded its enrichment capability, at the same time as its President ramps up his anti-Israeli rhetoric. 

The Middle East drowns in conspiracies.  Conspiracies about land, power....oil.

Nations rise and fall.  Nations have corporate personalities.  Latent in the psychology of most nations is imperial ambition - the desire to conquer others - economically, militarily or ideologically.  The so-called neo-conservatives of the United States seek to export liberal, democratic capitalism abroad.  Isalmists seek to export their particular version of shariah law.  Nations conspire and people plot.

Ancient Israel was both the subject of and propagators of conspiracies.  The Psalmist reminded them and reminds us that all our careful and intricate plans amount to nothing in God's grand scheme.  'The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.' (v. 4)  God is god; we're not.  The nations, like the earth, is God's footstool.  All the might of Empire - Rome, China, Britain, America - cannot compare to the wonder and majesty of God's kingdom with no end.

Psalm 1

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.  But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he mediates days and night.  He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yield its fruit in season and whose leave does not wither. (Psalm 1:1-3)

When I think on the word 'meditate' I conjure images of candles, monks and cloistered quietness.  But the Hebrew word translated here is 'ragah'.  It is used by the prophet Isaiah to speak of a lion growling over its prey (Isaiah 31:4).  This is no passive, quiet pondering.  This is active, salivating absorption.  Like a dog chews on a bone we are to savor, enjoy, linger over God's Word.

Too easily I skip over the pages of the Bible like a stone skimming the surface of a lake.  I touch the water but I never plunge the depths.  But God calls me away from the spiritual shallows into the deep end with Him.  Lingering over and actively engaging in scripture is where I am called to put down my roots. 

On the front page of The Australian this morning was a picture of the inexorable advance of floodwaters towards the barren moonscape of Lake Eyre.  Where the water flows, life will magically appear.  Roots nourished by the water of God's Word will produce a tree with s strong trunk, sturdy branches and fruit in season, even in dry places.  This is who God is calling me to be.

Introduction

The Psalms are an extended refutation that prayer is "being nice" before God.  (Eugene Peterson).

Written millenia ago and our of cultures as far removed from ours as it is possible to be, the Psalms are and earthy, messy reminder that God enters into conversation with us.  Not just any conversation, but one that acknowledges our humanity with all its hurt and pain, joys and sorrows.  The authors were people like us.  People who struggled to make sense of suffering.  People who were awe-struck at the majesty of creation and who felt insignificant in its shadow.  People who loved, and at times loathed God.

As I have read Eugene Peterson's Eat This Book I have been both challenged and encouraged to dive back into the psalms.  So over the next four months ro so I am going to read and reflect on a psalm each day.  I am going back to school.  My teachers are those schooled in the ways of intimate prayer.

Jesus Studied (Two)

Jesus immersed himself in the scriptures of his day.  As we follow him, we should do the same.  In this message we explore how it is we should read the bible.  The central premise of the message is that we should read the bible as a dog chews a bone.  Listen in...Download Jesus Studied Two

Vision Sunday

God is calling our church to deepen our relationship with him and extend our reach for him.  God is doing great things in our midst.  But God promises us the best is still to come as we follow his Way.  Listen in to find out more...Download Vision Sunday

Jesus Studied (Part One)

Jesus was immersed in the scriptures by the time he found himself in the temple debating the teachers of the law at age 12.  Like all good Jewish kids he would have memorized most of the Torah (the first five books of the bible).  He grew up in a culture saturated in the scripture.  It was part of the language of everyday life.  Jesus studied the scripture.  Listen in to find out how we can do the same...Download What Did Jesus Do - Studied 1

Facing Financial Storms: Audio

Storms can threaten to overwhelm us.  The lack of control we have in the midst of any storm of life can immobilise us.  But in the midst of the storm God is present, if only we have eyes to see.  Listen in...Download Facing Financial Storms