How Slides Begin.......

 

The beginning of the end: Sunday Aug 31^st

First, a small nb after getting to 75! The Christ connected person does not die in the sense of an end of all life. Only the physical body dies; the spirit returns to God, as he or she leaves for the fullness of the Kingdom, knowingly….that is one of the challenging aspects of  relational growth, and our preparation for this is needful as we age…

And to go on…..In 2^nd Samuel 12:16-23 David notices Bathsheba. He likes what he sees, finds out who she is, and sends for her. It is done knowingly. Bathsheba is wife to Uriah the Hittite, one of David’s best thirty warriors, currently away fighting Israel’s enemies. Being Hittite, Uriah was probably a permanent resident with Israel, a skilled foreigner with special privileges and the King’s protection. Bathsheba comes at the King’s command, and the result of the encounter surfaces when she informs the King that she is pregnant.

King David has wives and children. He has thus far used violence to resolve issues only when needed, and has done well. He has been guided and protected by the Lord. But now this incident demonstrates that the persona and character of a King like unto the nations has also become part of him. 

And so David commits an error that begins the derailment of God’s gift of Wisdom in his life. Thus far, he has been learning how to be the godly King - chosen, privileged, yet compassionate.  But this new challenge has a different requirement. It needs no military strategy.  It looks for a willingness to control desire. The call of God that is bringing David into the being of Psalm Eight seeks to move him away from such weaknesses in incremental steps, through decisions he only can make. Thus far he has done well: in choosing not to harm Saul, in reinterpreting tradition, and in placing the value of his men as equal to that of his own self. But now David places his will before God’s will and so disrupts his relationship with God. It is his decision not to listen to God’s leading. It is hugely oversimplified to say Satan tempted David. It merely passes the buck. He has been given freedom, as we all have. Here he wills as he intends, and proceeds to make it so.   

What could he have done differently? He could have truly walked with the Lord when he needed to, as he had done countless times before. He decided not to. We know that it is the will of the mind that drives the body. We use this will and make it work for us all of the time. What is not so well realized and practiced is that it is the will of the spirit that drives the will of the mind! This is a central Jacob’s Ladder aspect to me, because it is a key teaching from Jesus. It is why through the many years of my younger life as a part-time musician there were all of these very pretty ‘come on’ invitations that I smiled at and walked away from. I followed the Lord and the Lord led me thusly. And K and I will hit 50 years in 2 years’ time. Of our boys, the younger one is now Snr VP at Nexstar Media, possibly the youngest SVP around; the older one has left his VP position at New York’s Met Museum and has gone independent with his own Company, Jhaelen Capital Projects; in a matter of months he has become sought after, hired staff, moved forward on his own. Just a shared testimony is all this is. Praise be to the Lord Jesus.

But David now serves his own will. He has put God on hold. His movement from dependance through independence into interdependence has ground to a halt. He has not gotten past the temptations of independence. It is always a clear choice, and we choose out of intention and desire ( I want to) and nothing else. Time to stop blaming ‘sin’. It is you, and it is me. Then we ask for forgiveness. But do we also repeat this sequence ad infinitum ad nauseum? Once there is God given awareness in our consciousness, we deny it at harm to our own spiritual growth. No lightning shall strike us, no tragic consequence will happen. But we have changed an essential life-saving dynamic. That rollout now becomes different….

To restate this – the traditional understanding of sin and forgiveness easily amounts to nothing more than a dog chasing its own tail. Spiritual growth is not meant to be an up and down cycle. God intends it to be linear in our lives, so that we are always moving upward and onward. This could have been a moment of decisive clarity for David, leading to even more innovative growth. But he chose a different path by keeping to the same old way, and so it ends up becoming a spiritual distancing from God. When the body dominates, the soul is weakened. David lives with the consequences of his choices in the days to come. This is the result of deciding not to maintain the status of the relationship. He has become the cause that creates effect  - upon himself. Can this be reversed ie can we recover? Yes we can, hence the essential work of Christ on the cross. You fix it, you move on upwards. Weakness and error does not define us. We can, in Jesus, reinvent ourselves! And only because our heavenly Father is loving, gracious and encouraging, always! Reinvention, however, is not necessarily an easy thing, and when folk cannot be bothered, they will settle for the status quo, and define themselves accordingly.

No one knows what went on in the mind of David, or whether he considered his options. But we do get some indicators.

1. He brings Uriah home for a break. That might work out. But Uriah is faithful and loyal  and will not go home to spend time with his wife, despite the King telling him to go home and wash his ‘feet!’³⁶ Understand the metaphor in the Hebrew, it does not refer to feet! Uriah spends the night sleeping outside the palace – a warrior on leave but not truly on leave, brought home at the explicit order of the Commander in Chief.

2. The next day David gets Uriah drunk and tries once again to send him home. That should fix things. But Uriah still refuses the suggestion of home time! Faithfulness beyond whatever contractual obligations existed. Out of options, and faced with a difficult situation, the King makes a quick and cold decision. But as negative independence and its power strengthens, accord with the Almighty lies dying.

3. Uriah is sent to the front of the battle lines, and his Commander is told to withdraw support when the fighting gets fierce, leaving Uriah on his own. This order is given via a written private message that Uriah carries to his Commander. And so Uriah becomes a casualty of war. And after the required time of mourning, David sends for Bathsheba.  It all seems proper and above board as traditional requirements are met, and Bathsheba becomes the King’s new favorite wife. Their son is born in due course. Everything seems to settle down. But has this been a demonstration of godly behavior? Nope. And there is no blessing in it.

Then the prophet Nathan comes to David and shares the story of a poor man who owns nothing except a single ewe. And then along comes a rich and powerful man, who seizes the poor man’s only lambling and makes off with it. What a travesty! The King is incensed and proclaims that such a man deserves to die! Nathan turns around and tells the King ‘Thou art the man!’ The King is the guilty one. He reminds the King of all that God has done for him. But in return, David has now taken Uriah’s wife and has had Uriah killed. Nathan brings a message from God, that evil will rise against David out of his own house as a result of his actions, and it will not be hidden. This is important. The King may be forgiven, but the matter does not end there. He has weakened his own spiritual ability to influence all that goes on around him. David has rendered judgement on Nathan’s story, and that sentence now passes to his household.  Wrong actions have consequences that forgiveness cannot erase.  To assume that forgiveness disrupts cause and effect is foolish. Forgiveness does not render wrongdoing as inconsequential.

Is there any doubt at all that the King could have had any maiden of his choosing? Why Bathsheba? David has crossed many bridges on his way to God but now stalls at this bridge of detachment. He desires possession. Mine to take as wished. If he had asked would Uriah have said no? If he had demanded could Uriah have said no? If he had negotiated, might there not have been a price acceptable to Uriah? We do not know. If Bathsheba had not gotten pregnant would it have been just a ‘night with the King?’ David cannot find a ‘right way’ to make this new reality acceptable. Even so, his final decision makes it seem acceptable to all, Uriah’s Commander notwithstanding.  But God sees the relationship slide.

The follow-up to the statement of ‘I take responsibility’ must always be the answer to what ‘responsibility’ might mean in that specific context. And David’s life unravels from this point because he has been unwilling, not unable, to prosper his relationship with God and to exonerate himself by making the godly choice. God does not do this to him. The little independence he has chosen to wield seems to vanish in the haze in the events that follow.³⁷ The judgement that happens here is the final stage of the test itself. It is David who now becomes his own worst enemy.

While what we have seen thus far is so impressive for the first half, it becomes so disappointing in the second. It is too easy to say, well, that’s just human nature, we are all sinful.  But that’s not it. It’s what we have allowed ourselves to become. Jesus says otherwise. His ‘go and sin no more’ is always a call to exercise one’s own God-given will, because all things are doable to human will and God has made it so. Have a good week, walk wisely, and exercise godly will in all things. And every blessing upon you in Jesus! G.

From LA to NY to MV, it has been an excellent week!

The Missing Aspect of Leadership Is...

 

 Sun Aug 17th 2025  

 What is the context of 2 Sam 23:8-17? This is the last major positive in David’s life that teaches us something new and different. But first, a quick recap of the amazing ability David has shown to be uniquely different in the incidents we have covered.

1.      The ability to reinterpret how we should behave in the face of dominant traditions, religious and otherwise, as with eating the sacred bread, referred to by Jesus in the incident of the disciples picking grain to eat on a Sabbath!

2.      The ability to be detached from one’s feelings – be it of revenge or otherwise, in several incidents where David is able to kill Saul easily but does not do so, despite the fact that Saul is trying hard to kill him! See the almost humorous story where Saul, in search of David, goes into a cave to relieve himself, and David and his men happen to be hiding at the back of the cave; David gets up close to Saul but does not kill him, except to cut off just a piece of his cloak!

2a. a parallel story occurs when Absalom first rebels and David ends up fleeing Jerusalem; as he passes Bahurim, Shimei, relative of Saul, comes out on the other side of the hill as David and his men pass, and curses David, and throws stones and dirt at him; Abishai, one of the King’s warriors, wishes to go cut off Shimei’s head, but David says no. Leave him be. What if God told him to curse me? I wouldn’t know, would I? So, let it go.

3.      The story today, in which David displays the ability to bring out unlimited commitment to him, from his men.

David had a lot of wives and concubines and children, as worldly Kings were wont to do, and this was not right road to follow.  And as is usual, greed and ambition soon surfaced amongst the ‘royalty’.  His son Absalom, rightful heir, began an uprising to claim the throne. (why wait?) But in the ensuing battle and fracas between son’s supporters verses the Kings men, Absalom is killed in a freak accident, caught betwixt and hung by the neck  - of a tree branch.

There has also been a three year famine in the land, and now, there is battle once again with Philistine forces, who have taken Bethlehem and have garrisoned their soldiers there.

 One day, as the story is told, David remembers and desires the taste of water from the home well, at the gate of Bethlehem. The King shares this desire with his men.  He says ‘O, that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate.’  A rhetorical statement of longing for home. Those of us who have ever enjoyed fresh spring water will probably understand this, because it is different from the bottled norm, and has a different taste and feel to it. We lived in Lamberts Cove on the Vineyard for a little while, and our water came from a well on the property. It was the best we’d ever tasted! Depends on the aquifer, I guess.  Here, three of David’s ‘mighty warriors’-  an elite force, each one a true hero in his own right, each with a history of awesome victories -  Josheb, Eleazar, and Shammah (see 2 Sam 23:8-13 for a description of them) volunteer to go get the water, despite it being guarded by the Philistine garrison stationed at Bethlehem.

Remember the critical value of water in those days in such areas; it was never left unguarded. But David does not dissuade the mission and his great warriors go forth. They may not return. And there is no indication of what went through David’s mind, other than his expressed longing for water from the well at home. Despite the odds, the three pull it off, getting through the Philistine lines to get in, get the water, and then incredibly getting out, safely! Upon their return, they bring the water to David. Mission accomplished. It is quite the story of a valiant, selfless deed.

And does the King drink this greatly desired water, with joy and thankfulness and relish and satisfaction? No, he doesn’t. He denies himself. How? He pours it out instead as a drink offering before the Lord God. This is a strange action to take, since his desire for this water drove him to allow his men to risk their lives to get it.

David is an intensely charismatic leader, and he engenders great loyalty. He does not ask, request, or command. He has merely expressed a wish, and the best amongst his men have come forward with a ‘your wish is our command’ response! Amazing loyalty and devotion. This is a leader they look up to and love, more than their own lives even! And his response, in a marvelous way, validates their convictions.

What has happened here? While they were gone, perhaps David considered what could happen. The men could get killed. He would have sent them to their deaths because of a wish for water. What if they succeeded? Would he drink the water then? He has decided that if this were to happen, he would not drink the water. It would be too precious to drink, obtained at the risk of their lives! How to respond?

And he hits upon the drink offering response – offer the water to God in thankfulness.³⁵ Is there a better response? No, there isn’t. Is there a truer demonstration of devotion to God? Nope. The 3 return victorious, the mission a great success. They have tales to tell of a great adventure! A great feat of courage and unselfishness on their part! And they are rewarded in unique fashion when their King will not drink the water gained at such a price! Instead, he offers it humbly and thankfully to God, in recognition of this great risk taken out of love for him.

He has succeeded in elevating the mission, which now becomes a binding event of mutuality. To demonstrate the value he places on his men, David denies himself the water, which then becomes priceless. Is this not an emotional and affirmative high point? It is indeed. They have been selfless for his sake. He is equally selfless for theirs. This is impressive. It points to high standards for all leadership to aspire to! Perhaps it is what we should expect of our leadership today!  

The way ahead for this world is not an easy one. Find comforting peace and enabling strength in Jesus, it will suffice. But go carefully. Always, G.

Please note there will be no JL post next Sunday, as I turn 75 and will have family and children and grandchildren on my hands and am already in a different time zone, hence the odd timing of this one! We will continue on Aug 31^st!

As noted before, Jacob’s Ladder is neither church nor mission nor fund raiser; Just the shared reflections of a single one on a journey into the kingdom.  The Blog history is at dreliatjacobsladder.blogspot.com.

 

David: Order in disorder

 

Sun Aug 10^th 2025

First, a bit of an overview……David’s context is one of disorder. In the time of Judges 21:25 there was no King in Israel, and the people did what was right in their own eyes.  But they also wanted an earthly King! God started out with Saul, who had difficulty with it, and did not do well. Then Samuel is sent to Jesse of Bethlehem, and Jesse’s youngest son David, is chosen.

King Saul is prone to fell moods and is told that soothing music will help. David is skilled at playing the lyre and is sent for. He is retained in Saul’s service. Then the Philistines challenge Israel, and Goliath appears. David volunteers to fight this Goliath. To Saul, David is just a shepherd boy. But David says that as a shepherd, he has rescued lambs from bears and lions. Saul lets him take on Goliath. David faces Goliath with confidence in God. There are more than enough Psalms that describe this type of adversarial challenge in the life of a believer.

The David and Goliath story is popular, but also predictable. Israel enjoys protective covenant status, having been chosen to do God’s will. As Israel moves forward in God’s will, victory is guaranteed. David defeats Goliath. The entire incident demonstrates this reality. Everything else is applied psychology or bad theology, whichever way you call it. Notions of the underdog, of surprise elements, of courage in the face of sure defeat – these are all constructs that suit our purposes, our intentions, our arguments. What is at work here is Covenant protection.

But as Israel becomes like the nations, it changes and begins to mirror the nations. As God said to Samuel, the people have not rejected you, they have rejected me. No one understood clearly what that would come down to in the end. But the side with better weaponry and better training would end up winning, once Covenant protection was no longer there. As earthly Kings replaced the Kingship of God, Covenant loyalty was replaced by earthly ambition, and protective status began to fade from Israel. There is no clear cut-off point at which this happens.  But the Israel of today has nothing in common with the biblical early Israel of the Old Testament. That was a different entity. The mighty works of God have been rejected for weaponry and armament.

After the Goliath episode, David moves through a 360 degree turn, from total dependance on God to determining the direction of the way ahead himself. This is part of a new relationship with a different feel.  The same thing as before? No.  It is still a Covenant, but the form has changed and no longer takes its definition and function from early Middle Eastern history. David no longer waits for God to tell him what to do. There is freedom. Now, He decides. He knows God has trust in him. Where does he get this from?

In 2 Sam 7: 15 the prophet Nathan brings a significant word. It is about that final section of the 23^rd Psalm – the promise of the continuing presence of God in this life. This is a new adventure in spiritual growth. And it is made to David. There will always be khesedh – lovingkindness – grace from God…..in David’s life. Always. This is the new promise of relationship. It is experimental. It transcends the Commandments. It is a call to move through independence into inter-dependence. And it requires dealing effectively with the transition.

David must accept the responsibility given and live accordingly. And he does. Sometimes he fails. When that happens, he takes the consequences and moves on. He begins to learn from failure. He begins to understand cause and effect. This man's life is becoming very different from that of the ruddy, handsome, lyre plucking shepherd boy who entered Saul’s service, and with far greater significance than the popular interpretations of how the good guy beat the bad guy or the little guy beat the big guy.

Throughout most of his life, David goes on to fight the real Goliath – in the forces and circumstances that life will throw at us - discovering weaknesses, learning strengths.  Struggling to overcome the notion of being weak, inept and totally dependent on God. David works his way from an initial dependence into independence and almost makes it into inter-dependence, but not quite. We can all look back at past events and say “I should have known better”, but once the opportunity is gone, what use is hindsight if we do not use it to map out a better strategy and so run a better race? In the end, David’s spiritual growth stagnates as he becomes more of a King of the nations than the godly King of Israel.

But in the beginning, David is successful in whatever is set before him, and Saul sets him over the army. David is celebrated, and a popular song that “Saul has slain his thousands, but David his ten thousands” unfortunately irks Saul, who begins to see a threat in David. Saul has not exactly figured out what it means to be a King for God. He makes several attempts on David’s life, and both Jonathan and Michal save David on different occasions.

The Challenge of Reinterpretation

Now comes the first David lesson to us, In 1 Sam 21:1-6. Despite being the King’s son-in-law and the anointed future King, David flees from Saul. He has no choice. But he is determined to go forward in God’s will. He heads for the hills with a few friends, supporters and stray folk, to begin a strategy that involves an early form of guerilla warfare. Hit & run?

As David and his men go on, they need sustenance, but they have no food. Then they encounter the little shrine at Nob and meet Ahimelech, the priest in charge. Does he have anything to eat? Yes, there is bread. But it’s holy. Can’t eat it unless you’ve been holy i.e. had no sex for the last three days (see Exodus 19:10-16 for the customs of ritual and tradition). David answers in the affirmative. He may be exactly right in that his flight from Saul may have been in its third day! For David, this is now the mission of the God who granted him victory over Goliath. The God who has always protected him and who now, through the prophet Samuel, has anointed him to take up the leadership of Israel. This is a great and holy mission, and he and his men are in need. Their need is therefore greater than the weight of the established traditional practice, and this is the position David takes. He has weighed the notion of that which is holy and untouchable against the practical needs of him and his men. They need food, their cause is good, and here’s food. That is justification enough. No need for doctrine about who can eat and who cannot. That doctrine has been rendered irrelevant by human need. Interesting, no? Doctrine emerges out of our attempts to understand what God requires, except that it too often reflects the requirements of men, not of God. God does not indoctrinate. 

There’s a powerful principle here about how tradition, ritual, and social law should respond to human need. In years to come, Shakespeare would allude to this when he wrote the Merchant of Venice, through the scene where Shylock demands his pound of flesh from the hapless Antonio. Disguised as a Judge, Portia speaks eloquently about the quality of mercy and suggests that it is not always in our best interests to follow the letter of the law, but rather to place human need first.³² The Law exists to serve the people, and not the other way around. Laws, traditions, rituals, customs, should all work to serve human need, and not as a means of control. And this is where David is at, amazingly, in 10,000 B.C., give or take. Hence Brueggemann takes note of this incident as demonstrating the new change in David.³³

This incident shows how God wants us to work with such aspects of culture in the face of human need. Law and tradition should never be factors that impinge on the current human condition. We should always seek to serve the well-being of people. And if this is not happening, what must we do to make it happen? It is significant that in the NT in Mark 2:23-28 Jesus refers to this incident. Why? Because Jesus constantly reinterprets existing norms all the time! So he refers to David’s behavior as a precedent! The continuity between what David starts and what Jesus finishes is significant. Keep this in mind as we go along. David is growing into a radical, and his behavior demonstrates the confidence of being chosen. He makes his choices and stands by them. He is sure that God is on his side. And he is right about this. But God may not always agree with him.

Revenge, detached

And the 2^nd David lesson…..Our cultural traditions often serve as comfort zones for us. Nothing wrong with that. But we must be careful not to let them limit us. Our human potential far exceeds our cultural limits. But we nevertheless struggle to rise above seemingly inherent issues that are really culturally inbred fixations. Is it so hard to get beyond this to the point of Shakespeare once again? That we all bleed, and that all blood is red? And that was said a long time ago! I guess we haven’t changed much, mostly because we don’t want to. But that is the challenge of this incident. David places human need above all. And then Jesus raises the stakes.

On more than one occasion, David has opportunity to get rid of Saul. He would be justified in doing so because of Saul’s attempts to kill him. But he does not do so.

1 Sam 24:8, 11. The cloak endpiece. Saul is spending the night in a cave. David’s spies identify the location. In stealth mode, David gets within arm’s length of Saul. He has the option to end this situation and go on into the Kingship. But he will not do it. Seeking to encourage reform, he cuts off the end piece of Saul’s cloak. Then when Saul gets up to leave, David calls out to him. Saul recognizes his voice, and David says that he could have done thus and such but has not done so. Saul is grateful, but both depart separately. There is no reconciliation. Saul continues to pursue David. When asked why he had not seized the opportunity, David’s answer is that he will not raise his hand against the Lord’s anointed.

2^nd incident: 1 Sam 26. the spear and the water jug. Unlike the 1^st situation where there is cover of darkness, this is an open space and Saul is smack in the middle of his camp, surrounded by his troops. Nevertheless, David is able to get right up to Saul, well within striking distance. He refuses to harm the King, the Lord’s anointed. Instead, he tries to make the same point again, hoping for a change in perspective on Saul’s part.  He refuses to follow a lex talionis approach, where it would just make sense to kill he who would kill you. Striking a safe distance, he calls out to Saul’s guard that they have let the King down and have not protected him. When David is challenged, he asks them for the King’s spear and his water jug. And these are not found, for David has taken them! The scene is played out to the same ending once again, and both go separate ways, with no reconciliation.

While David is involved in fighting to stay alive, he is not on the offensive when it comes to the Lord’s anointed. Why? It is because of the relationship God confers upon the appointee, in being anointed. David understands this because it has happened to him. You might think of it as a baptism that brings relationship with it. David experiences it as such. Therefore, to attack Saul would be tantamount to attacking the relationship between Saul and God. Whatever God decides as fitting for Saul, David does not want to get in the way. In this sense, he has successfully managed to detach himself from feelings of resentment, anger, and retribution. Not talking forgiveness here. 

This is another new aspect of David’s ongoing change. We often look for God’s revenge upon those who do harm to us, but we can do better. We can resolve the issue on our side of it and leave the other to grow through their end if they can. And if they will not grow, they are better moved away from. We can move away from such negativity and so keep our focus on maintaining our relationship with God. More on David next week. Have a good peaceful week and walk with the Lord Jesus! G.

Interdependance, continued...

 

Sun Aug 3rd 2025

Morning, folks! May you have a blessed week!

Keeping the focus on this business of moving from dependance through independence into interdependence, we continue with an example of life-ownership denied, in an almost humorous incident from the life of John Wesley, founder of Methodism.

While in Georgia on a missionary trip, Wesley’s heart was strangely warmed by a young lady.²⁶ He ended up doing Bible Study with her and stealing a kiss on the side, even! Okay. But in the end, he felt that he had to choose between serving God and loving her. He somehow could not see both happening. He struggled over proposing to her.  Then he had an idea. Why not ask God to decide? After all, in the Old Testament, the Israelites had this Urim and Thummim method of rolling the dice to determine God’s will.²⁷ It wasn’t really what we call passing the buck, was it? Or was it? Anyhow, JW did so. Like playing she loves me, she loves me not. But the roll of the dice did not end in the young lady’s favor. So, Wesley ended the relationship, such as it was, and the young lady ended up marrying some other suitor soon after. Then she came to Communion when it was next served, and Wesley refused her the Sacrament.  Her dad, a local Town Chieftain of sorts, came after Wesley, and John W. left town late one night for his own safety’s sake, headed for England. Back home and on safe ground, Wesley’s heart was strangely warmed again, this time by God’s presence in his life, he was sure. And the Aldersgate experience was born.²⁸ So much for trying to get God to decide stuff for you. We cannot take verses out of the Bible and use them arbitrarily. Contextual leaps from history into the present require spiritual acuity if they are to work at all, but of course strong emotions and psychological suggestion are often substituted and continue to be popular.

Wisdom in the Psalms

Our venture into the other side of biblical faith brings up obvious challenges. Before we move into key incidents in the David story next week, a quick comparison first between two definitive Psalms traditionally attributed to David. The history of interpretation of the Psalms and the scholarly work therein is substantial and requires rigorous linguistic expertise. Enough to know that this body of information exists and contributes to a specialized library on authorship and what a meaning might be.²⁹ But if we put aside interpretive method and go beyond intellectual and academic disciplines, seeking the spiritual truth from the Holy Spirit, what will we find?

 

Let’s start with the 23^rd Psalm, probably the most beloved and popular. How so? Well, look at its message. It touches on several themes – provision, protection, presence. Words of deep comfort and assurance. It begins with provision and the image of the good shepherd providing for the sheep. Entirely personal.  The shepherd is caregiver. Image of Jesus the Christ carrying a lamb in his arms, staff in hand. Jesus identified himself as the good shepherd. Hence the ‘I shall not want’ - my needs are fulfilled. There are green pastures and streams of refreshing (living?) water! These immediately bring us to Jesus’s words on living water, spoken to the woman at the well! Then follows a declaration - that soul is restored. This is powerful respite. It continues with protection, and the shepherd’s image grows stronger. The valley of deep darkness must be walked through, but we are never alone. The shepherd extends rod and staff, providing guidance and protection. Encompassing and supportive comfort. And the Psalm ends with joy in the continuing presence of the Lord. There is goodness and mercy for companionship, always. So much is said in so little. Not surprising that it provides comfort and assurance in time of need. Hence its popular use as a Word of Assurance in worship liturgy.

Yet, pause for a moment and consider. On the one hand, its main use has been that of a refuge, a rock of stability, in a hard place and/or a painful time. It may facilitate a transfer of spiritual energy even, perhaps. But is there no other? Is it only a matter of dependency? A notion of protective Covenant? Is it not possible that total dependency might limit spiritual growth? God is always there, and God is taking care of business for me. I do not need to do much, just let go and let God, not necessarily growing beyond the mindset of a sheep? Somehow and in some way, God will act. And if God does not, then it is not God’s will. Right, back to Wesley and the Urim and Thummim once again. Karma will render justice upon mine enemies. Well, there is something about judgement in the Bible for sure, if you look at God’s self-description to Moses. But does it come down to I need only be accepting of all there is and soldier on in acceptance of realty. Really? Where do we draw the line?

Responsibility and accountability is where the line is drawn. God has given us freedom.  If we abuse that freedom, or allow it to be abused, we must accept the consequences. God is not manipulated. And we cannot impose our will on God by calling it prayer! We can try, but no outcome will ensue. Of course, there is the enticing rationale that God answers every prayer and the answers come in a different form and are never according to our expectations. Something not quite right about that because you don’t how the thing comes to pass and God is out of the picture it would seem? There is some truth in such a notion,  but not always.   

I chanced upon an interesting comparison some years back when I moved into part time pastoral ministry on the weekend on the Vineyard and full time Elder Care, through the Administrative Management of Mass State’s geriatric home care and protective services/elder abuse programs. It had begun to be taxing and risky to cover both these vocations in winter, as I had to drive from Boston to the Vineyard every weekend.³⁰ But I was helping a lot more people, not just those who came to church.  And the form that it took was entirely different. It was not emotional, although sometimes it could be. But it was not about faith and hope and much as it was about the reality of getting help in the here and now to folk who needed it, either for home care or elder abuse. I ran both programs for some time on the Vineyard and then accepted a promotion that took me off island for some years.

Therein is the rub. Emotional need never quite goes away, and some folk end up being described as ‘needy.’ You’ve heard that one. And folk who try to minister to emotional needs end up being emotionally exhausted themselves. This is why psychology and psychiatry charge by the hour. For many, it becomes convenient to end up playing empath games - to become good at seeming to empathize, but with your mind somewhere else. There is no real concrete help. Just a lot of affirmation. And a lot of ‘counselling’ games are played. How clinical, for example, is clinical pastoral counseling? And how so? Because it was taught in a clinical setting? And has adopted and adapted psychology 101 and a little of DSM VI? Look at most churches. Few pastors visit from house to house if at all, for they have neither the time nor the emotional and spiritual energy. They assign this task to others. Their example might be that of Moses serving as Judge of Israel. But no one asked them to play Judge. They often end up running church as a business. And their cell group leaders are far removed from being able to lead folk through the challenges of spiritual wisdom and spiritual energy.

This is where Psalm Eight comes in. It is a lovely Psalm that marvels at the Almighty by looking at all of God’s creation, and in doing so makes a startling revelation – that humans are created to be just a little lower than the angels. This is a totally different notion from that which we are used to. No mention of sin or of amazing grace. Or of our needing God in desperation. Just a stand-alone statement that offers no explanation other than a ‘this is what it is’. But what it is, is mostly ignored most of the time. If you tell people that they are all capable of doing fine by themselves, would anyone still go to church? Yes, they would, and it would be quite a different fellowship! As it is, enough have already stopped going! Once again, a Dostoyevsky moment with a strong picture that makes a sharp point.³¹

The Gospel is not about dependency. It is about moving from dependency through independence and into a gradual inter-dependence that sees us becoming co-workers with God.  And it is not easy to get there because we are bound to earthly body survival issues most of the time. It’s the political economy we have allowed, fostered, accepted and in the end have become subject to. It allows no time for spiritual growth. We have to create our own formatting. Theology has taught dependency and so ensured the continuity of the church and more. But in such form, the church cannot grow beyond its structural limits, and its members stagnate, playing musical chairs and emotional support games most of the time. Result? Antiquated notions about religion and archaic practices that do nothing for the real spiritual growth of the human spirit. We just believe they do, having confused spiritual growth with emotional affirmation. Then we agonize when things don’t seem to go our way. We need reality. It’s like a friend’s method of teaching his son to swim. Threw him in the lower end of the pool. Every time he struggled, picked him up and threw him in again. After a bit he was fine. Real results in real time. My younger one wasn’t waiting. Back in Duke days, lifeguarding in the summer, I blow the whistle when break time is over and the kids all rush back into the pool. One of them tells me your son just jumped in. I haven’t taught him yet! Aaargh! He’s in the shallow end, more than enough for him, going for all he’s worth. I panic and get him out. He’s fine. But God enables us to swim through life. We just need to have the courage and the confidence to use the enabling! This is where faith and belief become decision and action.  The waters will not overcome us. We are all David. And we must choose wisely when we need to. God offers resources, both ways. As the writer of Ecclesiastes once said, to everything there is a season, and a time. The quirks of human nature and the instability of human politics. We must respond accordingly. Every blessing in Jesus, G.