Psalms in Lent: Psalm 30 Joe Biden's verse?

 It was a great day for our annual Church Motto Text when, in its first month, it was the (lone) Scripture quoted in the new American President's inaugural address.

He chose it for much the same reason, I imagine, as we chose it: looking ahead from within the reality of weeping to a future joy.

As we continue reflecting on the Psalms in Lent it is worth noticing a correction I made when (on my sole preaching Sunday of 2021 so far) in the opening service in January I indicated that this is part of a two part verse.

What (for brevity) we chose not to put on our card - and which for secular purposes Joe Biden probably never considered quoting - is the other, qualifying part of the poetic stanza:

For his anger lasts only a moment,

    but his favour lasts a lifetime;

weeping may stay for the night,

    but joy comes in the morning.

Ah, there is God after all.

It is not some anti-gravitational life force that pulls human hope up out of weeping.  It is the grace, the favour of God.  

Nor, it should be added, is weeping an unforeseen problem foisted on a victim God and his human creation.  It is a consequence perhaps of judgment, perhaps of withdrawn favour (which is similar but not quite the same).

Put another way, our Motto Text is not a lot of use unless we also see God there.  And so we pray . . .

Psalms in Lent: Psalm 3 Asleep?

For our Lenten readings as a church we are reflecting on one of the Psalms each day.  

The reflective question from Psalm 3 is, 'What is happening spiritually when I am asleep?'

Psalm 3 is a battle-type Psalm but in the midst of enemies, David anticipates a good sleep 'because the Lord sustains me'. (He wasn't always enjoying good sleep in the psalms, but that's for another day (night?)).

A person's waking faith (say, two thirds of their life) sustains them in their sleep (one third).  After all, a sleeping atheist is actively believing as much as a sleeping Christian; a sleeping Hindu has the same non-theological thoughts as a sleeping Christian - and so on.  For anyone who thinks that our relationship with God depends on what we do - or on what we are actively believing - there is a third of our life that testifies it is down to Him, not us.

Fallow

I was looking back a year and noticed that last January I highlighted this beautiful song with Sandra McCracken.  And on reflection it is hard to imagine a song that was more appropriate, a few weeks before we were plunged into the fallow life of Covid.

I love the simple truth of this song.  Not every Sunday is a high experience.  Not every Church is in revival.  There is more to the Kingdom than days of feasting . . .

Trump Street

The end of the Trump presidency is at hand.  As typically happens in the current age there is Trump flight going on, building's names being questioned, big tech suddenly finding censorship tools that had magically not existed when it was financially inconvenient to use them, golf tournaments suddenly moving contra-Trumpwards and politicians and pastor-politicians who lauded him, leaving him.

But in one little corner of London . . .

Disappointingly for Donald J. this street was not named for him but for those who made the likes of trumpets and horns, a naming that predates the United States.

For those who remember Donald Trump's election in 2016 and its aftermath of allegations of Russian interference it is worth noting that Trump Street is now only half a street - the other half of it is called Russian Row . . .