Ever Green

The righteous flourish like the palm tree

and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

They are planted in the house of the Lord;

they flourish in the courts of our God.

They still bear fruit in old age;

they are ever green and full of sap.

Psalm 92:12-14

"Tell me this," said Peter: "why do people talk about going down hill when they begin to get old? It seems to me that first they begin to go up hill." —Curdle and the Princess, George Macdonald

Exactly. The last mile is straight up. 

Yet, aging can be perfectly fine, despite arthritis, tendinitis, presbyopia, neuropathy and the other concomitants of old age—if we’re "planted in the house of the Lord."

The "house of the Lord" is not the churchyard; some Sundays our bodies just can't answer the call. No, the house of the Lord is that secret place in our heart of hearts where we meet with God in quiet worship, where we listen to Him speak to us through His Word and talk things over with Him. That's where we come to know Him and call Him "Old Friend."

I love the picture the poet draws of those that are growing old with God. Imagine the towering majesty and beauty of a palm tree, the massive strength of a giant sequoia. 

Beauty and strength—the attributes of those that are planted in the house of the Lord, rooted in God and His love, bearing the fruit of His Spirit—love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, et. al.

Other trees, when they get old, stop bearing, but not God’s trees. They "flourish." They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever green and full of sap!

David Roper

10.10.17

Indirection

“Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one” (Colossians 4:6).

"Seasoned with salt" meant “witty” in Classical Greek usage and suggests language that is pithy, interesting and well chosen. British theologian, G. B. Caird, commenting on this verse, suggests that every person we address should be "treated as an end in himself and not subjected to a stock harangue."

Case in point: I have a friend—his name was Matt—who was invited to a dinner party in which he discovered that he had been set up, brought in to witness to a man who loved to bait Christians. 

Throughout the evening the man harangued Matt mercilessly about the evils of Christendom, citing the Crusades, pogroms against the Jews, Apartheid, colonialism, the Ku Klux Klan, the Inquisition, the Aryan Nation and churchmen throughout history burning one another at the stake to the glory of God.

In each case Matt rolled with the punch and calmly replied, ”That’s an interesting point of view. Tell me what do you do in your spare time?“ Or he interjected some other query, showing genuine interest in the man and deflecting the discussion away from the dividing issue. (Sadly, under attack, like Peter defending his Lord, we sometimes go straight for the jugular.)

As the two men were walking out the door at the end of the evening the man fired one last salvo, at which point Matt put his arm around the other man’s shoulders, chuckled and said, ”My friend, all night long, you’ve been trying to talk to me about God. Are you some kind of religious nut?“ The man’s animosity dissolved into laughter.

Jesus was remarkably oblique in his witness, using indirection, plying his listeners with metaphors, analogies and whimsical comments that surprised them, subverted their minds and went straight to their hearts. His practice bears imitation. 

David Roper

10.7.17

Straight to the Father's Knee

"Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for 

his steadfast love endures forever!" (Psalm 107:1) 

This poem revolves around four human predicaments: "Some wandered in desert wastes" (4). "Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death" (13). "Some were fools through their sinful ways " (17). ”Some went down to the sea in ships" and encountered gut-wrenching storms (23).  

                   

Loneliness, depression, guilt, anxiety. In each situation, the answer is the same: “They cried out to the LORD and he delivered them from their distress" (6,13,19,28). 

Prayer is the spontaneous, irrepressible, and sometimes inarticulate, cry of a heart under duress. "God, help me!" is our primal prayer. When our troubles overwhelm us, when our resources fail us, when our hearts are broken, "the natural thing is straight to the Father's knee" (George MacDonald). 

There we are given what no other person, place or thing can deliver: God’s relentless love (107:1,8,15,21,31,43). 

David Roper 

10.6.17

Open Wide!

I am the LORD your God,

who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. —Psalm 81:10

I read this verse today and thought of mornings long ago when our boys were very small and we spoon fed them. (Failing that, though each child tried very hard to get the meal into his mouth, most of it wound up smeared all over his face, in his hair, in his ears, on his tray, on the floor or all over us.) Here, I picture God picking up a spoon and saying, "Here comes the little train down the little track; Choo. Choo. Choo. Open wide."

If first two lines of the verse sound familiar it's because they're a direct quote from the preamble to the Ten Commandments: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt..." The commandments follow: "Thou shalt not; thou shalt not; thou not..." (Exodus 20:2). 

Here in this psalm, however, where we expect to find another set of rules, God makes this offer: “Open your mouth wide and I will fill it."

Israel's history, like mine, is a tale of underachievement, yet God does not call for greater effort. He rather asks us to lay our "doing" down, open our hearts wide and receive what He longs to give us.

Trying to keep a bunch of rules and make ourselves better is a losing cause. I know because I tried it for years. God alone is the source of goodness for God alone is good. We must ask for his righteousness and keep on asking. "Ask and it will be given to you" Jesus said (Matthew 7:7). It's a promise. 

Long, long ago, on the cross, Jesus did away with our wrong-doing. Now He lives to make us good children. If we "open our mouths wide" He will, in His time, fill us with love, joy, peace, patience, and all the virtues we admire in Jesus and seek for ourselves. He will feed us with the "finest of wheat," and satisfy us with "honey from the rock" (Psalm 81:16). 

Cream of wheat and honey. YUM. Open wide!

Weary, working, burdened one,

Wherefore toil you so?

Cease your doing; all was done

Long, long ago.

—James Proctor

David Roper

10.3.17

The Weak and the Fatherless

God has taken his place in the divine council;

in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:

“How long will you judge unjustly

and show partiality to the wicked?" Selah (Psalm 82:1).

Nothing stings so sharply as injustice and nothing should. How can I "rescue the weak and the needy (and) deliver them from the hand of the wicked?" (82:4). Shall I stand in solidarity with those that are oppressed? Shall I take a knee? 

Asaph's insight is huge. Earthly oppression is just the tip of the iceberg! There's a great mass of darkness lying underneath the power structures of this world. The real powers—“gods" Asaph calls them—Satan and his minions—are the efficient cause of racial and social injustice and inequality in our society.

So… the task of bringing justice to the world is much bigger than I. Old Satan is too powerful for old David. How can I, a very small person in a very small place, be an agent of justice in the world? 

Certainly, there are lawful and appropriate ways to protest injustice and I as an American citizen and as a Christian can take advantage of these counter measures, but before I take to the streets, there are ever-important “first things” to do.

For starters, I must myself "give justice to the weak and the fatherless; and maintain the rights of the afflicted and the destitute" (82:3). I must sit in judgment on the racial and social injustice I find in me. I have no right to judge an oppressor until I have challenged every vestige of tyranny and abuse in me!

Second, I can share the good news of God's love with those that are downtrodden, for their oppression is more profound than they know. They are groping for light and moral certainty: "They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk about in darkness" (82:5). I can show them the One who has freed us from spiritual darkness, the most egregious oppression of all. 

Finally, I can be part of God's plan to bring righteousness to the earth by "taking a knee"—by praying for justice every day. Asaph ends his poem with a short, incisive prayer: ”Arise, O God, judge the earth; for you shall inherit all the nations" (82:8). [So much for the devil’s claim: “I give it (the world) to whom I will” (Luke 4:6).] 

Injustice cries out for an hour of reckoning and it will come. God is the  loftiest of the powers that be! He has "taken a stand in the divine council." He is even now "judging the gods” (82:1). He is taking notes and collecting evidence. The sentence has been handed down. The gods and those they influence will “perish like ordinary men” (82:7). It’s just a matter of time.

David Roper

10.2.17

Walking into the Darkness

Let him who walks in darkness

and has no light

trust in the name of the Lord

and rely on his God. 

Behold, all you who kindle a fire,

who equip yourselves with burning torches!

Who walk by the light of your fire,

and by the torches that you have kindled!

This you have from my hand:

you shall lie down in anguish. —Isaiah 50:10, 11

It’s very difficult to prophesy, especially with regard to the future. Indeed, the more I try to delve into things to come the more mysterious they become and the more anxious I become. That’s why I must trust the Lord and rely solely on Him.

The word translated “rely” means “to lean on," and is the same verb used in Proverbs 3:5,6: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding."

I ask myself: "How will I house, clothe, feed and otherwise provide for myself and my family going forward?” I have no light on the future and so I must lean on one who does. The alternative is to rely on my own understanding—“walk by the light of my own fire, and by the torches that I have kindled”—an expedient that leads to greater and greater uncertainty and “anguish” (Isaiah 50:11).

There is a better way: To “trust in the name of the Lord” and lean solely on Him. I am known and loved by One who knows what the future holds and who will be with me as it unfolds. The darkness is not dark to Him; "The night is as bright as the day" (Psalm 139:12). 

David Roper
8.5.17

'Till We Have Faces

Help me, O God...

I am weary with my crying out;

my throat is parched.

My eyes grow dim

with waiting for my God.

More in number than the hairs of my head

are those who hate me without cause;

mighty are those who would destroy me,

those who attack me with lies... 

O God, you know my folly; the wrongs I have done." —Psalm 69:1-5

The psalmist sets out to pray, lamenting the wrong that others have done to him. But, as the complaints tumble out of his mouth, he begins to see his own "folly," the wrong he has done to others. 

Prayer works like that: It changes us, a largely unremarked premise C.S. Lewis' develops in his fantasy, 'Till We Have Faces.

The main character, Orual, has been taking angry mental notes throughout her life, bitter at others and the way they have treated her. Finally, deciding to put her complaints in writing, she describes each instance in which she believes she has been wronged. But as she does so she sees her own "face" (her "self"). In a flash of insight, Orual asks, "How can the gods meet us face to face, 'til we have faces?"[1]

So, God helping me, I hope someday to see my "face" as it is. Then, perhaps, I will begin to respond to those that have wronged me with greater insight, humility, mercy and grace (cf, Matthew 7:1-5).

David Roper

9.23.17

[1] Till We Have Faces is set in a pagan culture