This is a trouble and trust psalm. The Psalms often start by naming the trouble the psalmist and the people are in. They name enemies, disease, doubt, lies, fear, hunger, loneliness. These are all things we face. Then in the prayer there is a turn. The psalmists begins to trust. Yet much of what assaults us daily are simplistic feel good slogans few have tried much less really believe in. They leave us bereft. The truth is if we do not honestly bring our troubles to God there is no way we will find life. The trouble I name here is fake hope. And as we admit it, we will disarm it through trusting Jesus, the Way, Truth, Life.
Keeper of our lives:
Billions of bits and bytes flood our daily lives.
Our age is defined by mass, mis,
Information ad infinitum.
Grains of sand are easier to reconcile.
Innumerable sources inform us how to
Live and think and feel and even die.
God of truth:
Thought leaders from the ether
Advocate we live one slogan at a time.
Trust your gut.
Though it may be gas.
Live, laugh, love,
Grief is a pain in the ass.
Believe in yourself.
Just don’t look in the mirror
At the one who is hiding there in fear.
God of life:
These memes are not
Always completely untrue.
They simply don’t point to you.
Jesus:
We tire of these paid advertisements.
They leave us entertained but sill alone.
Turn our ears, eyes, hearts, and minds
To you, our true home.
You said, You are the way, the truth and the life.
Show us and our world the way to live in peace,
Reveal to us and our world the truth of your love and justice,
Birth in us, and our world, life that is generous and full of faith.
Bring the fatherless to the Father,
Motherless to your breast,
Homeless to your home,
Friendless to your heart,
Justice to the oppressed,
And to the hopeless heaven here and now.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer
More psalms and essays: Sunday Psalm: Answering the Voice of the Good Shepherd, One Way God Comforts Us When We Are OverPowered by Extreme Fear, Sunday Psalm: A Prayer to Be Transformed to Think and Act like Christ
yes, amen,… save us from ourselves,… from the endless self-righteous squabbling in the barnyard,… from delusions of grandeur,… from false pride and presuming “that we know”,… inner quiet and sincere humility might help us to “hear you better”,… and “to find you and follow you better”,… and to learn of your true will,… surrender, sincerity, security are possible under the guidance of the True Shepherd, the Good Shepherd,… “all we like sheep have gone astray”,… Dear Lord, help us to find your Truth, your Love and your Peace,… amen,…
Amen! Yes.
I think that we might have “entered a time” where people on all sides of the “attitude spectrum” have great fear of the dangers of the costs of “settling for peace at any price”,… this enhances the “crazy-making”, because no one wants their own voice and p.o.v. to be diminished or ignored,… humanly speaking, this “makes sense”, but will never bring peace,… we must remember that “God is not the author of confusion” ~
1 Corinthians 14:33 “For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.”
and not everything that humans, as a whole, think and say is actually true,… but no one wants to admit that,… and only God “knows” the whole truth (from the beginning of time until now, and into the future),… this is why humbling ourselves before the Lord is so essential to finding the “right path” to follow, both individually and collectively,…
learning to “know the Lord” and to actually “LISTEN to His Voice” (rather than our own endless collective babblings) is essential to finding Peace,…
I think you’re right. Great fear rules our culture (world?) and it twists almost everything we know. We even resist fearing God, though I believe that is the remedy for living afraid.
probably all of us, humans, have our own way of looking at things ~ which might even be “quite understandable”, considering the differences in our overall personal and cultural experiences,… but we are also prone to psychological “denial”, in which it is easy to more-or-less feel that we are basically “innocent” (in our own comfort zones), and often easily “turn the blame around” to others,…
since at this psychological level, everyone can fall into this (some more than others!), we need to be able to have acknowledged “higher standards”, to be able to refer to and help guide us in keeping order and safety and peace, etc, in general,…
one such level involves “law enforcement”, which is being strongly challenged in these times,…
and a higher level is “spiritual”, involving the “life standards and guidance” found in God’s Word, and which is joined with His “inspirational wisdom” that shows us the value of learning about and having higher goals, than each one simply living for “I, me, mine, myself, etc”,…
Psalm 34:8 “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!”
finding “the way of Peace” can involve search and sacrifice,…