Wild Beasts: Lent Daybook 16
Look: A Friend in Need Is a Friend Indeed, Henry Church - Source | HT
Listen: Jesus Walks, Vitamin String Quartet- Lyrics to original song | Spotify | YouTube
Read: Psalm 70-71; Psalm 74; Jeremiah 4:9-10,19-28; Romans 2:12-24; John 5:19-29
Excerpts:
“May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you! May those who love your salvation say evermore, ‘God is great!’ But I am poor and needy; hasten to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O Lord, do not delay!
In you, O Lord, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame! In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me, and save me! Be to me a rock of refuge, to which I may continually come; you have given the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.”
*
“O God, why do you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture? Remember your congregation, which you have purchased of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage! Remember Mount Zion, where you have dwelt. Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins; the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary!
Your foes have roared in the midst of your meeting place; they set up their own signs for signs. They were like those who swing axes in a forest of trees. And all its carved wood they broke down with hatchets and hammers. They set your sanctuary on fire; they profaned the dwelling place of your name, bringing it down to the ground. They said to themselves, ‘We will utterly subdue them’; they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.
We do not see our signs; there is no longer any prophet, and there is none among us who knows how long.”
*
“My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh the walls of my heart! My heart is beating wildly; I cannot keep silent, for I hear the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Crash follows hard on crash; the whole land is laid waste. Suddenly my tents are laid waste, my curtains in a moment. How long must see the standard and hear the sound of the trumpet?
‘For my people are foolish; they know me not; they are stupid children; they have no understanding. They are ‘wise’—in doing evil! But how to do good they know not.’
For thus says the Lord, ‘The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end.’
‘For this the earth shall mourn, and the heavens above be dark; for I have spoken; I have purposed; I have not relented, nor will I turn back.’”
*
“For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.”
*
“Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.”
*
“Remember this, O Lord, how the enemy scoffs, and a foolish people reviles your name. Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild beasts; do not forget the life of your poor forever.
Have regard for the covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence. Let not the downtrodden turn back in shame; let the poor and needy praise your name.
Arise, O God, defend your cause; remember how the foolish scoff at you all the day! Do not forget the clamor of your foes, the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually!”
-Psalm 70:4-71:3 * Psalm 74:1-9 * Jeremiah 4:19-22, 27-28 * Romans 2:12-16 * John 5:25-29 * Psalm 74:18-23 (ESV)
Pray: Read out loud as a prayer Malcolm Guite’s sonnet in response to Psalm 70. (Or click the title link to hear the author read it himself.)
LXX Deus, in adjutorium
Pour out for me the life-blood of your heart
For my own life is ebbing to a close.
Make haste to help me, come and heal my hurt,
Come down O lord and rescue me from those
Who seek to sow confusion in my soul,
From those who patronise the faithful, those
Who humour our religion, but whose whole
Approach to life dismisses faith and prayer.
Yet you continue holy. You will heal
The deep wounds in our culture: its despair,
Its idols and addictions, its rejection
Of your gospel. In your mercy spare
This weary world, descending to dejection,
And come as our redeemer, quickly come
And raise us with you in your resurrection.
Do: Consider what your outrage might be telling you about God’s heart for justice. What people group or social concern most triggers anger for you? Ask the Spirit to help you discern here. Consider the role a psalmic outrage plays in speaking up for the oppressed.
Craft your own prayer on behalf of those who are oppressed based on one of the psalms of anger, like Psalm 109 or Psalm 12. Humbly request God’s attention as you read this prayer out loud to him.
As David Taylor encourages, “Trust that God is able to receive your anger, including your anger at him. Trust that God welcomes your sometimes incoherent prayer - your painful prayers; your helpless, doubt-filled, tearful prayers. Trust that Jesus welcomes it all and, by his Spirit, wishes to transform it into something redemptive and beautiful.”
