Download This Book!

Christian Audio is offering a GREAT free download this month: Eugene Peterson's Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places.

I have another audiobook from his spiritual theology series, Eat This Book, and it was profound. Listening to it was like taking a seminary course. I have wanted to read the whole series, and here it is!

Until the end of June, the other books in Peterson's spiritual theology series--The Jesus Way, Eat This Book, and Tell It Slant--are on sale for $5 each until the end of the month. That's a heck of a lot of deep teaching for only $15!!

It's not an easy read (or listen), but it's worth the investment. If you're willing to put in the time to listen in your car on on your MP3 player, I guarantee you'll be blessed. Personally, I can't wait to listen!

Psalm 121

Translating this psalm helped me understand and appreciate it more. So did Eugene Peterson's insights. So, here are a few observations on this Song of Ascents (#2 of 15).

First, here's a translation--

Song of Ascents. I raise my eyes to the mountains. From where will my help come? My help is from YHWH, Maker of heavens and earth. May He not give your feet to a shaking, not fall asleep watching over you.
Now please understand. He will not doze off and will not sleep! He is the Guardian of Israel!
YHWH is protecting you. YHWH is your shade at your right hand. By day the sun will not beat on me, nor the moon by night.
YHWH will protect you from all evil. He will guard your life. YHWH will watch over your going forth and your coming, from now until eternity.

The italicized words are all from a single Hebrew root--shamar. The fact that it is used six times in eight verses seems to make it the key word in this Psalm.

I had never understood the image of the Lord being a "shade" at my right hand. The dictionary I used (Holladay) describes this shade as that of a tree, a roof, or a cloud. It is an image of shelter or protection. For someone like me with very fair skin, such shelter (especially pre-sunscreen) can hardly be overvalued. The psalmist then connects this image with an interesting location..."at my right hand." This is the place that an honored person would take. God, the Almighty, the Honored One, is my shade. He not only protects me from trials. He also provides comfort. He "shamar"s me. He watches over me.

Peterson sees three dangers in this psalm: twisting one's ankle, sunstroke, and moonstroke (lunacy). Do Christians not suffer such trials? Sure they do. But we know where to look for help--to the Lord who accompanies us every step of the way. We need not look to the hills (where the pagan shrines were set up). No, this world's remedies are vacuous. God is with us. His love is constant. He will watch over our going and coming, from now until eternity.
May our trust not be in the remedies of pop culture magazines, nor in the numbing escape of prime-time TV. May we rely on Him who guards our soul, both night and day.

I end by quoting Eugene Peterson:
"All the water in the oceans cannot sink a ship unless it gets inside. Nor can all the trouble in the world harm us unless it gets within us. That is the promise of the psalm: 'The LORD will keep you from all evil.'...None of the things that happen to you, none of the troubles you encounter, have any power to get between you and God, dilute his grace in you, divert his will from you."
(A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, pp. 38-39)
"Faith is not a precarious affair of chance escape from satanic assaults. It is the solid, massive, secure experience of God who keeps all evil from getting inside us, who keeps our life, who keeps our going out and our coming in from this time forth and forevermore." (p. 41)

Pilgrimage Quote

July's focus in my devotional readings was "pilgrimage." Tuesday night I picked up a book I had begun to read earlier this year, and I realized it was devoted to this theme, too. So, I don't think I'm through with this yet. There's more to come!



For starters, here's a quote from the book I'm reading:

Pilgrim (parepidemos) tells us we are people who spend our lives going someplace, going to God, and whose path for getting there is the way, Jesus Christ. We realize that "this world is not my home" and set out for the "Father's house." Abraham, who "went out," is our archetype. Jesus, answering Thomas' question, "Lord, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?" gives us directions: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me" (Jn. 14:5-6). The letter to the Hebrews defines our program: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith" (Heb. 12:1-2).

The book is A Long Obedience in the Same Direction by Eugene Peterson. (Don't you just love that title? Can you believe it is taken from a Friedrich Nietzsche quote?). I heard great things about this book and found it on Amazon.com for about a quarter. I'm sure I'll be referring to it more if I write more on pilgrimage (as I intend).