This summer, a group of women at my church are meeting to study the Psalms of Ascent.
We are using Beth Moore’s study “Stepping Up†as our guide.
As we consider each psalm, she asks us to write our own version.
Today’s pilgrim psalm was Psalm 129.
These are the words that tumbled as out as a prayer from this wonderful psalm:
I thought I knew the answer to this question when it caught my attention today.
Could it be pews?
Or hymnals?
Or grand pipe organs?
What about marble floors and pillars?
Or stained glass windows?
Could it be narthex entrances rather than commons areas?
Could it be the cross displayed prominently?
“A fool finds no pleasure in understanding, but delights in airing his own opinions.” Proverbs 18:2
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Ouch!
When I picked up David Powlison’s book Speaking Truth in Love I of course imagined myself speaking truth with love to people I love! This Proverb is probably closer to what the book’s theme is intended to communicate concerning truth speaking.
It is loving to bring truth to people’s hearts. Not as the world does with callous belligerence and a Simon Cowell attitude that is unwilling to weigh the impact of harshly spoken words. That habitual “truth hurts” speaking style is evidence that love is not his motivator.
God’s ways make me smile!
During American Idol audition weeks, Simon predicted that if fresh faced, 24 year old Brooke White made it to Hollywood, she would be drawn to the "dark side."
With that memory in mind it was stunning when American Idol opened the "Idol Gives Back Show." The stage was gorgeous and all 8 contestants were dressed in solid white and backed 
by a gospel choir. Suddenly the familiar chords of a popular praise song began filling the auditorium and the air waves.
Could they really be singing "Shout to the Lord?"
For the last 5 years, my family has lived in homes owned by someone else.
Since living in rental property, my heart has longed for what I do not have–a home. I have woven such a fantasy centered around having a Norman Rockwell type dwelling that it astounds me.
This morning as I read Psalm 84 God met me with the sweetest enticement to think new thoughts about this circumstance. He met me with the dearest compulsion to rethink the truth about “home.”
First, He questioned me about where I really thought I would feel most at home. Then He pressed me to examine why I want a place of “my own.” With the motives of my heart dredged up and the most demanding functional god identified, my eyes began to savor the words of psalmist.
New thoughts flooded my mind when He had me consider the perspective of the writer of psalm.
How lovely is your dwelling place,
O LORD Almighty.
I long, yes, I faint with longing
to enter the courts of the LORD.
With my whole being, body and soul,
I will shout joyfully to the living God.
This was one who wanted to be at home in God. This was one whose thirst was not for an abode that would be a show place of what he could acquire on his own. This was not a person who thought security, satisfaction and comfort was found in an independent dwelling. He desperately wanted to be where God’s glory was on display! This writer felt deprived–exiled from the best home ever–the Presence of God.
A single day in your courts
is better than a thousand anywhere else!
I would rather be a gatekeeper in the house of my God
than live the good life in the homes of the wicked.Augustine said, “If you have a house of your own, you are poor; if you have the house of God you are rich. In your own house you will fear thieves; in God’s house God himself is the wall. Blessed, then, are those who dwell in your house. They possess the heavenly Jerusalem, without distress, without pressure, without diverse and divided boundaries. All possess it; and each singly possesses the whole.”
Praise God–today I can say and believe, I am not homeless, I have a true home and it is my God!
Jack Miller wrote, “If you have made your home this world and whatever you can possess in it you are always in danger of being plunged into insecurities, fears, and losses.
But make God your dwelling place and you have unlosable treasure.”
During the Christmas season, our congregation was blessed with many gifts of music. 
One week stood out above all the others. A young college student returned for vacation and offered to play his marimba while his friend joined him on flute.Â
Since it was the Christmas season, these two extraordinary musicians did a medley of Christmas carols. They were original compositions–arrangements that kept the basic melody but with embellishments and lilting lines that made you know you were in the presence of incredible musical gifting.Â
I can remember listening and my heart wanted to jump out of my chest while my mind excitedly thought, “I may never again be allowed to hear anything this gloriously beautiful!”
Interestingly, my reaction was not shared by all who were listening. 
Some were disturbed that anyone would “mess” with the traditional melody of “Away in the Manger” or “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.”Â
Rather than being awed and grateful to be in the presence of such rare and precious gifts, some were angered and felt this “new” music was robbing God of the honor due His name. It sounded too “jazzy” and certainly not traditional.
Since that day I have been grieving over how we as the church have allowed ourselves to crawl into the deep trenches of “Worship Wars.” We are deciding what we think God would like to hear and then climbing into camps lobbing verbal grenades at those who do not agree with us. We are willing to fight to the last breath with brothers and sisters with heels dug in–convinced that God only likes to hear what we like to hear.
Scripture seemed to speak to the war zone atmosphere as I began the day reading Psalm 33. One verse jumped out as though it had been bold printed. The simplicity of the words seemed to clear the smoke of confusion and brought clarity.
“Sing to Him a new song;”
Is it possible that the Psalmist knows our inclination to fall in love with the sound of the “old” songs and to forget who we are singing to?
If I repeated the exact same words with the exact same tones to my husband day after day and year after year would he begin to doubt my sincere affection?
Could it be that the psalmist is encouraging the incorporation of the “new” as a protection for our hearts becoming cold and disengaged?Â
Does he want our affection for God not to grow stale and mundane in expression?
“Good people, cheer GOD!
Right-living people sound best when praising.
Use guitars to reinforce your Hallelujahs!
Play His praise on a grand piano!
Invent your own new song to Him;
give Him a trumpet fanfare.” Â
Psalm 33:1-3, The Message
Wonder what the psalmist thinks about clapping in worship?
 
 The 7th season of American Idol has begun! Once again we get to listen to the good, the bad and the ugly as they audition before Simon, Paula and Randy.
This year the judges are trying to relax the contestants before they sing by asking them, “What do we need to know about you? What about you would we find interesting?”Â
On the first night of auditions, a young woman with no guile simply said, “I have never seen an “R” rated movie.” Shocked, Simon asked, “Why not?”
The young woman with gentleness said that this was just something she had grown up observing and that she simply continued it in adulthood because it suited her.Â
When asked if she was married, she responded, “Yes, I have been married for three years.” The judges asked if her husband had ever seen an “R” movie and she again with winsome simplicity responded
. “No.”
At that, Randy and Simon cut eyes at each other and with disbelieving sneers suggested that this woman did not know her husband and that he surely was lying to her and probably enjoyed Internet porn.Â
After her audition she was invited to go to Hollywood and Simon suggested that given a week he could bring her over to the “dark side.”
The next night a boyishly good looking young man answered the question, “What do we need to know about you?’ by saying, “I’ve never kissed a girl.”
Again, the male judges pounced with condescending sneers. The young man explained that his desire was to save expressions of physical intimacy for the woman he would marry. His audition was not that strong and he was not invited to Hollywood. When he asked what he could do to improve, Randy snidely replied, “Kiss some girls!’
It makes me sad that values that seem ennobling of human nature are the source of such settled and unchallenged derision. It makes me sad that being drawn from purity and chastity to the “dark side” of sensual indulgence is presented as something to be valued.
It occurs to me that the show is very aptly named–it is all abut the idolatry of America!Â
We lust after fame, after what is material, after what is pleasing to the senses, what is erotic and self indulgent.Â
The warning of Psalm 115 resonates in my heart–we become like what we worship! Simon by his own admission says it is dark where he lives—I want to live in the light of His Presence!
For our God is in the heavens,
   and he does as he wishes.
4Â Â Â Their idols are merely things of silver and gold,
   shaped by human hands.
5Â Â Â They cannot talk, though they have mouths,
   or see, though they have eyes!
6Â Â Â They cannot hear with their ears,
   or smell with their noses,
7Â Â Â or feel with their hands,
   or walk with their feet,
   or utter sounds with their throats!
8Â Â Â And those who make them are just like them,
   as are all who trust in them. (Psalm 115)
15Â Â Â Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you,
   who walk in the light of your presence, O LORD.
16Â Â Â They rejoice in your name all day long;
   they exult in your righteousness. (Psalm 89)
