A Journey Through the Psalms

This summer, whether with us on retreats, or alone on your own we would encourage taking a long and meditative journey through the Psalms.  We will endeavor to write regularly here devotions from our contemplation on and prayer of the Psalms.  The Psalms are truly our permission to speak our hearts before God.  And this honesty in prayer is the first step into intimacy with God. 

As you prepare for this journey through the Psalms either in the quiet places in your world or perhaps if you find the time to join us on July 12th or August 9th, we would ask that you consider these suggestions for a prayer walk with God:

• Step outside for a walk with just God
• Quiet your heart and leave the daily strivings behind for the time of your walking and praying
• Soak in the beauty of creation along the way
• Somewhere along the walk, find a quiet place to sit
• Spend several minutes in silence, placing yourself in the presence of God
• Choose a Psalm to read and meditate on
• Enter into the Psalm by identifying yourself in the place of the author 
• Pray the Psalm, silently and out loud
• If you can, take along a journal and write the stirrings of your heart

• Thank God for the time and let Him know you will be meeting again like this more and more

More to come soon,

Blessing on your walk with God, Scott for Wellspring Copyright 2008

 

 

 

What is Worship

“God thirsts to be thirsted after.”

St. Augustine

 

“The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself” -

Richard Francis Burton

 

What is worship?  And based on Richard Francis Burton’s quote, we might ask, who is our worship of?

 

Is worship the practice of gathering with other believers to sing a few hymns (or contemporary worship songs), say a prayer or two, listen to a sermon, and take communion and the offering, all in the name of Jesus?  There are those that think this is the extent of worship, that it is solely the hour or two on Sunday morning.  While the Sunday morning gatherings can be considered worship to the Lord, is that it?  Must we go a week before we can worship again the following Sunday? 

 

Worship does not have to be tied to the structured weekly event of doing “church”.  It is a state of heart…morning, noon and night…each and every day.  As it says in John 4:23-24, “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”

 

Random House Dictionary offers these synonyms to help describe worship:  honor, homage, adoration, venerate, revere, adore, glorify, idolize, adulate. Worship perhaps in its simplest form is adoration. Richard Foster in his book, Prayer Finding the Heart’s True Home writes of the prayer of adoration being comprised of two distinct parts – Praise and Thanksgiving.   He notes, “in thanksgiving we give glory to God for what He has done for us.  In praise we give glory to God for who He is in Himself.”

 

Thanksgiving – “grateful acknowledgment of benefits or favors, esp. to God.” (Random House Unabridged Dictionary

 

The Bible is full of prayers of thanksgiving.  “O give thanks to the LORD; for He is good; for His

steadfast love endures forever.” Ps. 106:1. 

 

In Psalms 92 it says:  “It is good to give thanks to the Lord…”  Why?  Because of His steadfast love

in the morning, His faithfulness by night, His great works.

 

Praise – the act of expressing approval or admiration; commendation; laudation. the offering of grateful homage in words or song, as an act of worship: a hymn of praise to God.  Random House Unabridged Dictionary

 

The Bible is also full of praise.  “I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall continually be in my mouth. Ps. 34:1

 

In Psalms 100:4-5 it says to “Enter His gates with Thanksgiving, and His courts with praise.  Give

thanks to Him, bless His name, for the Lord is good…

 

We may desire that our worship of God flow as easily as these and other Psalms…that we could be free to worship each day without hindrance.  But there are hindrances.  C.S Lewis noted several that Richard Foster related to out inability to truly pray in adoration. First, Inattention – It is easy in our culture to be caught up in the whirl of life and miss the overtures of Divine Love. Second, The Wrong Kind of Attention – We see a sunset and are drawn into analysis rather than doxology.  Or, caught up in frustrations rather than what might be the message. Third, Greed – Instead of simply enjoying pleasures, we demand more pleasures.  We ask God for encores instead of reflect on and enjoy what He has given. And Fourth, Conceit – It can be easy for those who discover God in the ordinary to get very smug about it all. When conceit takes over, the focus is once again on how wonderful we are – this severs the cords of adoration.

 

Richard Foster continues to offer up some very practical steps to becoming true worshippers, who can pray

the prayer of adoration.  I summarize some of these below into hopefully an easy to follow pattern:

 

Stepping Stones (How we get there)

·    We must begin where we are:  We don’t learn the goodness of God by contemplating the goodness of God, but by noticing – Watch a butterfly, notice the little creatures that crawl on the ground, watch the birds, squirrels, ducks, etc. 

·   Don’t try to make yourself be thankful, or try to find God in it all, simply listen, smell, taste, see, feel.

·   Soon, if we do this often enough, we will begin to experience pleasures rather than scrutinize or analyze them.

·   Find a “grateful center”. Sue Monk Kid writes about finding a time and place where we were free, at peace,grateful…go to this place often in your thoughts and imagination.

·   From this grateful center allow whispered prayers of thanksgiving to flow forth and to grow into thanks for little things each day.

·   Try to move into living one entire day in thanksgiving (or an afternoon, or an hour…).

·   From here our hearts can readily move towards magnifying and worshipping God

·   Use the psalms to praise God…”O Magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt His name together.”  Let these Psalms become your own. Then let these begin to flow into your own words.

·   Use music, play an instrument or sing in worship and adoration, even make up your own simple God songs.

·   Finally we begin to find ourselves in joyous celebration, laughing, shouting, singing, dancing along with the host of heaven…and even holy silence.

 

What can be added to this other than just start the journey? Don’t wait for Sunday morning to become a worshipper of God.  Start small and take it one step at a time.  Many blessings as you begin.

 

Scott for Wellspring © Copyright 2008 all rights reserved. 

 

 

 

Solitude – Just to get away or is there more?

 

Solitude is defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as, “The state or quality of being alone or remote from others… remoteness from habitations, as of a place; absence of human activity: the solitude of the mountain…a lonely, unfrequented place: a solitude in the mountains.” 

 

One can picture the hermit who lives life totally away from all civilization, someone who has lost all ability to interact in a healthy way with others.  It may also apply to the solitary figures we know of who always seem lonely and would as often as not stay away from social interaction.  On the other hand solitude can be thought of in a very positive and refreshing way, a walk on a beach, a hike through a quiet forest, a mountain hideaway and the like.  It can be seen as a way to renew and refresh.   It is easy to picture both of these examples and to think of people who gravitate to one or the other version of solitude.

 

Psychologists and psychiatrists point out the importance of solitude.  Hara Estroff Marano in an article for Psychology Today Magazine, stated the importance of finding solitude to dealing with the busyness of life…“Otherwise we feel overloaded, overreact to minor annoyances and feel like we can never catch up. As far as I’m concerned, one of the best ways [to avoid this overwhelmed feeling] is by seeking, and enjoying, solitude….Solitude is the state of being alone without being lonely. It is a positive and constructive state of engagement with oneself. Solitude is desirable, a state of being alone where you provide yourself wonderful and sufficient company.  Solitude is a time that can be used for reflection, inner searching or growth or enjoyment of some kind. Deep reading requires solitude, so does experiencing the beauty of nature. Thinking and creativity usually do too.”

 

This all sounds good to me.  I like the quiet of the forest, the serenity of gazing at the ocean and the peace on a mountain trail, but that is not all there is to solitude.  Solitude in a Biblical sense as practiced by Jesus, David and many others is similar to that described by the psychologists, but with one significant addition.  This kind of biblical solitude is in the company of God.  Jesus often went away to the hills…to be with the Father.  This is where He found His source of strength and joy to carry on the ministry of redemption He was called too. He wasn’t getting away because people were driving Him crazy…He was getting away to pray (even for those most of us would have been running from).

 

Thomas Merton wrote in his book, New Seeds of Contemplation that “Some men have perhaps become hermits with the thought that sanctity could only be attained by escape from other men.  But the only justification for a life of deliberate solitude is the conviction that it will help you to love not only God but also other men.  If you go into the desert merely to get away from people you dislike, you will find neither peace nor solitude; you will only isolate yourself with a tribe of devils.”   No, solitude is not for running away from our troubles, it is running to God to help us in our troubles.

 

Our wilderness times are to quiet our own inner striving, to invite God in and wait upon Him with a listening heart.  It is helpful to get away from our routine to do this but solitude doesn’t always need to be in the desert or mountains.  It can be on a stroll near our home, it can be in a public place or even a quiet spot in our home.  Richard Foster points out that “solitude is more a state of mind and heart than it is a place”.  But solitude is not always easy for us in this culture.  Henri Nouwen probably said it best when he stated that “Our inner life often looks like a banana tree full of jumping monkeys”.  This is a long way from a quiet heart and being able to listen to the voice of God.   But Nouwen urges us on …”But when we decide not to run away [from solitude] and stay focused, these monkeys may gradually go away because of lack of attention, and the soft gentle voice calling us the beloved may gradually make itself heard.”

 

Henri Nouwen asked the question, “Why is it so important that you are with God and God alone on the mountain top? It’s important because it’s the place in which you can listen to the voice of the One who calls you the beloved. To pray is to listen to the One who calls you “my beloved daughter,” “my beloved son,” “my beloved child.” To pray is to let that voice speak to the center of your being, to your guts, and let that voice resound in your whole being.”   

 

I believe strongly in this viewpoint stated by Nouwen.  This is why we are to practice solitude, because we need to hear from God.  We need to know we are the beloved.   We need to have something to give back to the body of believers.   Without meeting with God what do we really have to give that imparts life?  This is why I make space for solitude.  If Jesus found this necessary why would we not also?

It’s time to quiet the monkeys and let God’s gentle voice speak into your heart.

Make some time and space for solitude…and God.

Blessings, Scott for Wellspring Copyright 2008