Alone: Lent Daybook 27

Look: The Island of the Dead, Arnold Böcklin - Source

Listen: Abide With Me, WIlliam Henry Monk, Moses Hogan, Messiah College Concert Choir - Lyrics | Spotify | YouTube

Read: Psalm 89:1-18; Psalm 89:19-52; Jeremiah 14:1-9, 14-22, 16:10-21; Romans 7:1-12; John 6:1-15

Excerpts:

“Your love, God, is my song, and I’ll sing it! I’m forever telling everyone how faithful you are. I’ll never quit telling the story of your love— how you built the cosmos and guaranteed everything in it. Your love has always been our lives’ foundation, your fidelity has been the roof over our world. You once said, ‘I joined forces with my chosen leader, I pledged my word to my servant, David, saying, ‘Everyone descending from you is guaranteed life; I’ll make your rule as solid and lasting as rock.’

… But God, you did walk off and leave us, you lost your temper with the one you anointed. You tore up the promise you made to your servant, you stomped his crown in the mud. You blasted his home to kingdom come, reduced his city to a pile of rubble Picked clean by wayfaring strangers, a joke to all the neighbors. You declared a holiday for all his enemies, and they’re celebrating for all they’re worth. Angry, you opposed him in battle, refused to fight on his side; You robbed him of his splendor, humiliated this warrior, ground his kingly honor in the dirt. You took the best years of his life and left him an impotent, ruined husk. How long do we put up with this, God? Are you gone for good? Will you hold this grudge forever? Remember my sorrow and how short life is. Did you create men and women for nothing but this? We’ll see death soon enough. Everyone does. And there’s no back door out of hell. So where is the love you’re so famous for, Lord? What happened to your promise to David? Take a good look at your servant, dear Lord; I’m the butt of the jokes of all nations, The taunting jokes of your enemies, God, as they dog the steps of your dear anointed.

Blessed be God forever and always! Yes. Oh, yes.

*

“God’s Message that came to Jeremiah regarding the drought: ‘Judah weeps, her cities mourn. The people fall to the ground, moaning, while sounds of Jerusalem’s sobs rise up, up.

… We know we’re guilty. We’ve lived bad lives— but do something, God. Do it for your sake! Time and time again we’ve betrayed you. No doubt about it—we’ve sinned against you. Hope of Israel! Our only hope! Israel’s last chance in this trouble!

… But God, you are, in fact, here, here with us! You know who we are—you named us! Don’t leave us without a leg to stand on.

Then God said, ‘These preachers are liars, and they use my name to cover their lies. I never sent them, I never commanded them, and I don’t talk with them. The sermons they’ve been handing out are sheer illusion, tissues of lies, whistlings in the dark.

So this is my verdict on them: All the preachers who preach using my name as their text, preachers I never sent in the first place, preachers who say, ‘War and famine will never come here’—these preachers will die in war and by starvation. And the people to whom they’ve been preaching will end up as corpses, victims of war and starvation, thrown out in the streets of Jerusalem unburied—no funerals for them or their wives or their children! I’ll make sure they get the full brunt of all their evil.

And you, Jeremiah, will say this to them: ‘My eyes pour out tears. Day and night, the tears never quit. My dear, dear people are battered and bruised, hopelessly and cruelly wounded. I walk out into the fields, shocked by the killing fields strewn with corpses. I walk into the city, shocked by the sight of starving bodies. And I watch the preachers and priests going about their business as if nothing’s happened!’

God, have you said your final No to Judah? Can you simply not stand Zion any longer? If not, why have you treated us like this, beaten us nearly to death?

… We admit, O God, how badly we’ve lived, and our ancestors, how bad they were. We’ve sinned, they’ve sinned, we’ve all sinned against you! Your reputation is at stake! Don’t quit on us! Don’t walk out and abandon your glorious Temple! Remember your covenant. Don’t break faith with us! Can the no-gods of the godless nations cause rain? Can the sky water the earth by itself? You’re the one, O God, who does this. So you’re the one for whom we wait. You made it all, you do it all.

… don’t miss this: The time is coming when no one will say any longer, ‘As sure as God lives, the God who delivered Israel from Egypt.’ What they’ll say is, ‘As sure as God lives, the God who brought Israel back from the land of the north, brought them back from all the places where he’d scattered them.’ That’s right, I’m going to bring them back to the land I first gave to their ancestors.

Now, watch for what comes next: I’m going to assemble a bunch of fishermen.’ God’s Decree! ‘They’ll go fishing for my people and pull them in for judgment. Then I’ll send out a party of hunters, and they’ll hunt them out in all the mountains, hills, and caves. I’m watching their every move. I haven’t lost track of a single one of them, neither them nor their sins.

… Watch closely now. I’m going to teach these wrongheaded people. Starting right now, I’m going to teach them Who I am and what I do, teach them the meaning of my name, God—‘I Am.’”

*

“Don’t you remember how it was? I do, perfectly well. The law code started out as an excellent piece of work. What happened, though, was that sin found a way to pervert the command into a temptation, making a piece of “forbidden fruit” out of it. The law code, instead of being used to guide me, was used to seduce me. Without all the paraphernalia of the law code, sin looked pretty dull and lifeless, and I went along without paying much attention to it. But once sin got its hands on the law code and decked itself out in all that finery, I was fooled, and fell for it. The very command that was supposed to guide me into life was cleverly used to trip me up, throwing me headlong. So sin was plenty alive, and I was stone dead. But the law code itself is God’s good and common sense, each command sane and holy counsel.”

*

“The people realized that God was at work among them in what Jesus had just done [feeding the multitude from five loaves and two fish]. They said, ‘This is the Prophet for sure, God’s Prophet right here in Galilee!’ Jesus saw that in their enthusiasm, they were about to grab him and make him king, so he slipped off and went back up the mountain to be by himself.”

-Psalm 89:1-4, 38-52; Jeremiah 14:1-2, 7, 9, 14-19, 21-22, 16:14-17, 21 * Romans 7:8-12 * John 6:14-15 (MSG)

Pray & Do: The Lord's Prayer - Adapted from this source.

On Mondays during Lent, we'll use the Lord's Prayer as our guide for praying for ourselves and the world. One of the ways to pray the Lord's prayer is by dividing it into six sections and pausing between each section to offer prayer on that theme. This week, as we consider how asking questions helps us express lament to God, notice areas of depression, grief, or overwhelming sadness that stir in your heart and mind as you pray the Lord’s Prayer. Journal those responses.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name

Thank God for who God is and for God's abundant faithfulness. Contemplate
God's many attributes and offer praise for the blessings in your life, community, and the world: ____________________.

Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven

Pray for God's rule and reign to become a reality in your life, city, nation, and
world. Ask for God to bring miracles and salvation: ____________________.

Give us this day our daily bread

Pray for God's daily provision in your life and for those around the world who the Holy Spirit brings to your heart and mind: ____________________.

Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us

Engage in a few moments of silence to allow space for the Holy Spirit to bring specific acts of sin to your attention. Confess those sins to the Lord. Also, be still and allow the Holy Spirit to bring to mind those that have sinned against you so that you can name them to God, ask for healing and strength to forgive. Forgive those who have wronged you: ____________________.

Lead us not into temptation

Ask for God to guide you in 'paths of righteousness for God's name sake'. Pray that God will give you the discernment and knowledge of God's will in the specific decisions, known and unknown, ahead of you today: ____________________.

Deliver us from evil

Pray for God's protection against any of the strategies of Satan. The Devil wants to kill, steal, and destroy. Ask God to mightily deliver you and others the Holy Spirit brings to your heart and mind: ____________________.

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.