Provoked: Lent Daybook 7

Look: Expulsion des vendeurs du temple (Expulsion of vendors from the temple), Arcabas - Source

Listen*: The Feeling Begins, Peter Gabriel - Spotify | YouTube

Read**: Psalm 45; Psalm 47-48; Deuteronomy 9:4-12; Hebrews 3:1-11; John 2:13-22

Excerpts:

“My heart overflows with a pleasing theme; I address my verses to the king; my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe.

You are the most handsome of the sons of men; grace is poured upon your lips; therefore God has blessed you forever. Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, in your splendor and majesty!

In your majesty ride out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness; let your right hand teach you awesome deeds! Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies; the peoples fall under you.

Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness; you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions; your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia.”

*

“Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy! For the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth. He subdued peoples under us, and nations under our feet. He chose our heritage for us, the pride of Jacob whom he loves. Selah”

*

“Know, therefore, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people. Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. Even at Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, and the Lord was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you. When I went up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you, I remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. And the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words that the Lord had spoken with you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. And at the end of forty days and forty nights the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them; they have made themselves a metal image.’”

*

“Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’

As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’”

*

“Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God! His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion, in the far north, the city of the great King. Within her citadels God has made himself known as a fortress.”

*

“The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, ‘Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a house of trade.; His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’

So the Jews said to him, ‘What sign do you show us for doing these things?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews then said, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?’ But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.”

*

“We have thought on your steadfast love, O God, in the midst of your temple. As your name, O God, so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is filled with righteousness. Let Mount Zion be glad! Let the daughters of Judah rejoice because of your judgments!

Walk about Zion, go around her, number her towers, consider well her ramparts, go through her citadels, that you may tell the next generation that this is God, our God forever and ever. He will guide us forever.”

-Psalm 45:1-8 * Psalm 47:1-4 * Deuteronomy 9:6-12 * Hebrews 3:5-11 * Psalm 48:1-3 * John 2:13-22 * Psalm 48:9-14 (ESV)

Pray: Prayer for honesty

Knowing that God loves me unconditionally, I can afford to be honest about how I am. How has the last day been, and how do I feel now? I share my feelings openly with the Lord. (Sacred Space for Lent)

Do: Spend some time journaling in response to today’s meditation. 

Let this be a place you share your honest thoughts and feelings with God. Speak plainly and without qualification. 

Allow yourself room to be curious about what you write. Nothing has taught me better an appropriate sense of curiosity than the practice of noticing without judgment. You can listen to some of my experiences with this practice here.

Lament in Week 1: Honesty to unlock denial

Denial as a stage of grief: “Pretending the loss or change isn’t happening. Denying it gives you time to more gradually absorb the news and begin to process it. This is a common defense mechanism and helps numb you to the intensity of the situation.”

What are some ways you pretend that loss or suffering isn’t real?

What were you taught about expressing sadness, anger, or fear? Were you told to keep a stiff upper lip? To not let your emotions get ahead of you?

Do you use comparison to avoid making honest assessments about loss (e.g., “compared to most people, this isn’t so bad”, “what are you complaining about?”)

Honesty as a language of lament:

Make a simple bullet list of circumstances in your own life or the world around you from this past year or any period of time you feel most aware of right now. Don’t analyze or draw any conclusions. If it helps, you can put things in categories like family, friends, church, job, and world. Just list the scenarios that reflect loss or change.

Read the list out loud.

Ask God, honestly, how Jesus feels about this list. Tell God how you feel.

If journalling feels hard don’t do it. You might want to talk to God out loud as you walk or knit or do the dishes. Some of you might even form your thoughts best by crafting a playlist or painting a picture. 

Trust Jesus to be with you as you retrieve the language of lament.