Psalm 37, Values, and G. I. Joes

In Psalm 37, David gives the reader five imperatives in order to endure the schemes, attacks, and triumphs of the wicked.

One, trust in Him, because He will not forsake His saints (37.28), because He is a stronghold of salvation to the righteous (37.5), and because He will act (37.5).

Two, delight in Him, for it is from Him that all worthy desires are fully realized (37.4). He is a generous giver (37.25-26), and His salvation is more precious than any earthly thing (37.18).

Three, commit your way to Him, because the Lord establishes the righteous doings of His saints in dazzling display (37.6), and secures their footholds even in treacherous places (37.23-24, 31).  Note that security in the way is found by keping the law of God in the heart (37.31).

Four, be still before Him, because the self-serving malice of evildoers is not worth anxiety or fear (37.8), and it will be by GOD's actiions (not ours) that divine justice will be realized (37.34).

Five, refrain from anger/forsake wrath, because His prescription of justice is far superior to ours (37.13, 28), and because the Lord will provide a peaceful future for a man who practices peace (37.11, 37).

Similarly, the psalm uses five descriptors to characterize the people committed to living according to these standards: meek (37.11), blessed (37.22), righteous (37.26), patient (37.9, 34), and blameless (37.37).  These are qualities of men and women who place their absolute trust and confidence in the Lord.  In contrast to the arrogance of the wicked, who will be humiliated (37.17, 35-36), the humility of the righteous will be exalted, upheld, and lifted up forever (37.17, 19, 24, 29, 34).

What is the ultimate reward for living in this manner?  Written to the Israelite nation, Psalm 37 proclaims "the land" -- the promised inheritance for the descendants of Abraham -- as the prize for faithfulness.  In Matthew 5, Jesus expands this very same promise, citing and modulating David's own words, stating that the meek and blessed shall inherit not "the land," but "the earth" (Matt 5.5).  Different scholars come away with various conclusions as to the purpose of this transition, but either outcome results in the dominion of God's people.  Whether that is over a specific geographical location or over all the Kingdom when He ushers in a new heavens and a new earth, God will establish His faithful ones to co-reign with Jesus in glory (2 Tim 2.12), as heirs adoped into God's family (Gal 4.7).

As I meditate on these things, I can't help but think that the challenge to embracing a Psalm 37 lifestyle is a question of our values.  We must be convinced that what we are committing to is worth it, and then be wholeheartedly devoted to pursuing it.

I can remember a few times as a kid that I really fixated on something.  One time in particular was when my brother and I decided we would save up quarters to buy GI Joe action figures.  These, in particular, were special edition Civil War Joes, and we'd been immersed in Civil War history by our father, who was something of a scholar in that era of American history.  Each Joe was $100, but we wanted them.  So, for something like 12 months, we both saved up change in our sock drawers -- aided significantly by our grandmother, who lived upstairs and would find change when she'd walk her dog.  Back then, she had eyes like a hawk and would frequently bring down the old coffee can full of spare change, enough each time for all three of us grandkids to net something like $25-30 apiece.  When we finally had the money saved up, we had to submit the order form and do some more waiting, because 2-day shipping wasn't a thing back in 1997.  But when those Joes arrived, it was like Christmas Day -- all the waiting and the saving completely paid off.  And because we'd invested so heavily into those toys, we played with them regularly, for years.  But we also took meticulous care of them, so that all the little accessories and pieces are still intact and saved to this day.

In good condition, these babies are going for $160 apiece on e-bay!

I find it so helpful to look back on childhood examples, because everything is so simple for a kid.  As adults, our priorities become so skewed and divided.  My brother and I saw these toys in a magazine, determined to ourselves that they were worth the singular pursuit, and we sacrificed time and energy to obtain them.  We couldn't have afforded those toys AND anything else at the same time, although we were always into Legos and video games too, so these special toys came at the expense of other things we might have wanted.

Why can't I have that kind of unwavering focus for spiritual things?

It's a matter of values, of payoff.  The immediacy of material things makes them attractive.  But its the permanency of the rewards God offers that makes them truly valuable.

In order for us to take the imperatives in Psalm 37 to heart, we each must first determine that placing our trust, commitment, and security in God is worth it.  And then we must remember, as we are committing our way to Him and seeking to be still before Him, that He is still worth it even when our circumstances are screaming the opposite to be true.  And when our anger surges because the wicked prosper and prey upon us, we must seek to see people the way God sees them, and entrust justice to Him, because He is worth it.

God is our just, compassionate, promise-keeping Father.  Those who find their singular treasure in Him will adopt the imperatives David leaves us in Psalm 37, and will ultimately know true, lasting reward.

The insight of skinned knees

At the time I started writing this post, my seven-month-old son was crying on the floor.  He is so very, very close to being able to roll over by himself.  If he's on his back, he can -- with some coaxing -- successfully get to his belly.  Going the other way is another matter.  He just can't yet manage that final push.  To be fair, we live in an old house with lots of uneven flooring, so some of his attempts at rolling over are literally uphill.  Which is completely unfair.  As is, I suppose, using your son's disadvantages as the impetus for a blog post.  But he's the son of a pastor/writer, so that's just part of the contract.

Through this new lens of fatherhood, I am gaining unique insights into God's love for me that I naively thought I understood all along.  For instance, in the midst of my undergrad, I wrote the following lyric for one of my band's songs:

Failures are the lasting lessons
I’ve got so much left to learn
I’ll crawl so I can walk, skin my knees and my pride
But never forget to smile
Chewing on the trials

The imagery I was after (nearly 10 years ago now) was exactly the phase of life my son is currently entering: the emerging independence of a human personality that is at once so confident and so determined, and yet so very incapable.  Zeke, like all human beings, must learn by bumping his head, by taking those intrepid first steps and falling down.  We learn by struggling.  The progression from a diet of milk to one of solid food is necessarily gradual.

Watching it literally happen in front of me, I now have a much better context for understanding the care and perseverance of our Heavenly Father.  God labors to teach us the way I labor to teach my son: He could very well step in and fix everything for us, yet He lovingly allows us the opportunity to struggle, to learn, and to worship Him all the more for it.  Sometimes, Zeke needs me to step in and give him a push.  Other times, it's better for me to wait, so he can push himself just a little harder.  He doesn't always appreciate it when I opt for the latter.

But then again, neither do I when God does the same thing to me.

In the midst of each spiritual battle and God-ordained challenge, Christians face a choice: either embrace the opportunity the adversity represents in order to trust God more and grow in our faith, or instead adopt a shortsighted, embittered preoccupation with trying to eliminate as much difficulty in our lives as possible, complaining all the while.  The sad thing is that, when we take the latter course of action, we miss the opportunity for true joy.

In our Wikipedia/YouTube culture -- where answers and solutions should never be more than one click away -- endurance is a concept that needs revisiting.  Even for Christians, it's easy to become discouraged when facing the same sin struggle day after day, or having to forgive someone for the 489th time.  We might be tempted to want the same type of immediate gratification our world craves.  It is an immaturity -- not unlike my son whining with one arm tucked helplessly under his side -- that demands immediate solutions.  On the other hand, it is absolutely NOT immaturity for us to cry out to the Father for help, provided we begin learning to ask the right things from the right heart attitude.

The Apostle Paul penned some pretty famous words in his epistle to the Philippians, words that are often stripped of their rich meaning.  Speaking of his own challenges with regard to sharing the gospel, he wrote, "I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound.  In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.  I can do all things through him who strengthens me." (Phil 4.12-13)  And that, Paul says, is connected to the ability to know true joy -- to endure hardship and be closer to God for the struggle.  The ability to "do all things" is not some promise of superpowers.  The power that Paul speaks of is the power that God abundantly supplies in the gospel of Jesus Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit.  It is a power that, ironically, requires us to be dependent upon God.  It is a power that is only accessible via weakness.

The "secret" of facing plenty, hunger, abundance, and need is through HIM.

That's why our skinned knees are so valuable.  They shouldn't just teach us practical lessons about how to do it better next time.  They should teach us to lean into a source of power that is beyond our limited abilities -- one that is best expressed in our weakness.  If we are willing to focus on the One who never fails, who never changes, and who never requires us to do anything He won't lead us through, suddenly our spiritual growth is not an insurmountable mountain or a life of isolation and drudgery.  It is a walk with God.

I love to walk with Zeke -- for the time being, with him in my arms, or in the stroller, or strapped to my chest.  Sometimes with him upside-down over my shoulder.  The type of delight I feel when he smiles or learns something new is a taste of the type of delight our Heavenly Father takes in my daily dependence on Him.  And the reality is that, once Zeke masters this whole rolling over thing, there will be another challenge for him to face.  And another one.  Likewise, our spiritual growth isn't about one day or even one year.  It is a lifelong process.  My hope for Zeke is that, as he matures, he learns not to whine or complain, but to ask for help, and to trust in the wisdom and care his Mama and I can provide.  An even greater thing is true of each Christian's walk with God, because God is not only worthy of our trust, He is worthy of our worship.  The adoration we must give Him is not because He craves it or is incomplete without us: we give it because no other is worthy of receiving it.

We would therefore do well to stop relying on ourselves, cease our complaining spirits, and instead cry out to God daily for help with every challenge we face.   Spiritual maturity is not (contrary to popular opinion) independence and theological intellect, but rather learning to more fully depend on the transforming grace that God abundantly supplies.

The Ministry of Parenthood

Ever since Tara and I started down the journey of parenthood, I've been especially moved by passages such as Psalm 78 that emphasize externalizing our faith by passing it on to the next generation.  As I study the Scriptures, I am convinced that a faith that is real is a self-replicating faith.  As a youth pastor, seeking to instill faith in others is something I've been seeking to do for a number of years with teenage students who aren't really my children.  However, with the advent of parenthood and the arrival of my son, Zeke, this purpose has gained an entirely new dimension.

Asaph writes the following purpose statement into his epic history of the Israelite nation in the wilderness in Psalm 78.5-8:

[Yawhweh] established a testimony in Jacob
    and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers
    to teach to their children,
that the next generation might know them,
    the children yet unborn,
and arise and tell them to their children,
    so that they should set their hope in God
and not forget the works of God,
    but keep his commandments;
and that they should not be like their fathers,
    a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart was not steadfast,
    whose spirit was not faithful to God.

There are three goals here for the next generation -- that they should "set their hope in God," that they would "keep his commandments," and, by contrast to their forefathers, that they would have a "steadfast heart" with spirits "faithful to God."

It's not exactly formulaic to teach someone to "set their hope in God."  No simple three-step solution.  Each of us can probably think of individuals for whom we've been praying for years to receive the gospel, but no matter how often or how patiently we labor to make Jesus' love known to them, the adage about leading horses to water remains true.  The best way to inspire hope, therefore, is to be hopeful yourself.  Ultimately, change of heart is the work of the Holy Spirit, and so my goal as a parent can't be to change my children, but to lead my children by setting the example of clinging to Jesus with all my might.  Paul repeatedly said to the Corinthians, "Be imitators of me, as I imitate Christ" (1 Cor 4.16; 11.1).  That's how we inspire our children to "set their hope in God."

While parenting is so much more than just teaching your kids to keep rules, it certainly is not less than that.  Asaph's second purpose in Psalm 78 is that the upcoming generation might "not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments."  Even if we fancy ourselves progressive parents who lead more by positive than negative reinforcement, at some point we need to emphasize and enforce the importance of obeying God's Word.  I'd argue that requires a strongly corrective element, because the Bible repeatedly states that the use of physical discipline in a young man's life brings correction and life, and is intrinsically connected to spiritual upbringing (Prov 13.24; 19.18; 22.15; 23.13-14; 29.15; Eph 6.4).  I notice also that the "rod and staff" of the Lord -- the painful instruments of shepherd's instruments of herding, correcting, and steering away from death -- should be regarded as a comfort to the Christian's soul (Psa 23.4).  While it is certainly the prerogative of parents to make their own rules, the rules we primarily seek to enforce should be biblically based -- God's rules, not just ours.  I always tell my teens that the arbitrary rules parents set may often seem unfair, but are not always unreasonable, and must still be honored.  More important, however, are the truly biblical rules that Scripture commands, such as loving one another well, speaking kindly, practicing forgiveness, and being obedient from the heart to parents and authorities.  Those are biblical "rules," and parents do well to enforce those kinds of standards in their children's lives.  We are after training our kids to learn to "keep his commandments" from the heart, not just because we say so.

Lastly, there is a great call for parents to raise children who possess steadfast and faithful hearts.  The contrast for Asaph in Psalm 78 is the first generation of Israelites coming out of Egypt, who moaned and complained in the desert, despite God's incredible faithfulness and generous provision.  Kids are expert complainers, but they often learn from the best: mom and dad, who have expectations of one another, of the neighbors, of the government, of the township, etc that are not always met.  Our goal as parents must be to inspire in our children gratitude and reliance upon God, the type of dependant faithfulness that always regards God as our gracious provider, despite what we might see in our present circumstances.

If you like me are still keeping track of your child's age in months rather than years, you know that you aren't really at the point yet that you can begin to have these types of conversations with your child.  It's such a beautiful time for parents to simply show unconditional love to a young life, where the only thing he or she can express is dependence.  But just because we're not necessarily able to teach verbally, we do have the ability to begin creating an atmosphere in our home that will facilitate later on the things that we intend to teach our children.  Often, parents struggle to instill biblical values in their children because those kids grew up in an environment where the message didn't match the atmosphere.  Even infants can sense tone, emotion, safety, and discomfort.

Imagine you have the good goal of teaching your kid these three purposes from Psalm 78, but he or she grows up in a house where the most common sounds are the TV and the nitpicking, the sometimes harsh tones of parents directed at one another (or at the dog).  The atmosphere the child begins to grow up in is one of disconnectedness, frustration, and obligatory caregiving.  What kinds of examples are being laid?  Mom and Dad communicate by trying to one-up the other in how difficult their day was?  Mom is the anxious type who worries about everything and irritates Dad, who is far too laid-back to be concerned about anything?  

Maybe I didn't cover your area of weakness in those hypotheticals, but the point is this: in order for us to be good parents and achieve the objectives of Psalm 78, then we must be disciples of Jesus ourselves.  Each of us must love, serve, and respect his or her spouse, be stewards of what God has given, demonstrate grace and compassion in the way we speak to and of others inside our home, and be personally disciplined in the ways we pray, study the Word, and put Scripture into practice in our everyday lives.

It's a tall order.  But it's what is implied in Psalm 78 and Moses' plea in Deuteronomy to the new generation of Israelites on the plains of Moab.  Instructing the next generation in the ways of the Lord cannot be done without firsthand belief and experience.  We must be willing to do the hard work ourselves if we have any realistic expectations of our children doing the same.