ISSL Reflections October 6, 2024 Psalm 51:1–4, 10–12, 15–17 Post 1

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I.
For the next several weeks we will spend time with some of the Psalms, starting this week with Psalm 51.

While this Psalm for many is not one of the most well known Psalms (e.g. Psalm 23, Psalm 1, and Psalm 100) it certainly ranks close.

For some it may be associated with Ash Wednesday and Lent.

As you begin to spend time reading and hearing this Psalm, see if you can hear the depth from which the Psalmist gives voice to these words.

II.
Psalm 51:1–4, 10–12, 15–17 (NRSVue)

Have mercy on me, O God,
     according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy,
     blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
     and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my transgressions,
     and my sin is ever before me.
Against you, you alone, have I sinned
     and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are justified in your sentence
     and blameless when you pass judgment.

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
     and put a new and right spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from your presence,
     and do not take your holy spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
     and sustain in me a willing spirit.

O Lord, open my lips,
     and my mouth will declare your praise.
For you have no delight in sacrifice;
     if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.
The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit;
     a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

III.
Would you call Psalm 51 a Psalm of confession or a Psalm of petition?

If you consider it confessional, what is the Psalmist confessing?

If it is petitional, what is the Psalmist asking for?

What is your attention drawn to in the Psalm?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

ISSL Reflections Exodus 15:1–3, 11–13, 17–18, 20–21 Post 3

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VII.
In this song of Moses and Miriam we have only the lyrics. It would be interesting to know the melody that was partnered with it

As you spend time with this song once again, consider how you would sing it.

VIII.
Exodus 15:1–3, 11–13, 17–18, 20–21 (NRSVue)

Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord:

“I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;
horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.
The Lord is my strength and my might,
and he has become my salvation;
this is my God, and I will praise him;
my father’s God, and I will exalt him.The Lord is a warrior;
the Lord is his name.

Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?
Who is like you, majestic in holiness,
awesome in splendor, doing wonders?
You stretched out your right hand;
the earth swallowed them.

In your steadfast love you led the people whom you redeemed;
you guided them by your strength to your holy abode.

You brought them in and planted them on the mountain of your own possession,
the place, O Lord, that you made your abode,
the sanctuary, O Lord, that your hands have established.
The Lord will reign forever and ever.”

Then the prophet Miriam, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dancing. And Miriam sang to them:

“Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;
horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.”

IX.
What type or types of worship music do you prefer?

  • Traditional hymns
  • Contemporary Christian
  • Gospel
  • Spirituals
  • Taize
  • Gregorian Chants
  • Instrumental

Have I left out a type/form you like? Or, an instrument you prefer?

Take a few moments and allow yourself to hear some music that helps you come to a place of worship. Some may want to physically listen to music, others may find music rising in your mind and spirit without hearing any external sounds.

Take your time to rest in a spirit of worship.

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

ISSL Reflections Exodus 15:1–3, 11–13, 17–18, 20–21 Post 2

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IV.
We are thinking today about singing and worship.

Why do you think Moses and Miriam and the Israelites were moved to sing and not just “talk about” their experience of God’s deliverance?

V.
Exodus 15:1–3, 11–13, 17–18, 20–21 (NRSVue)

Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord:

“I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;
horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.
The Lord is my strength and my might,
and he has become my salvation;
this is my God, and I will praise him;
my father’s God, and I will exalt him.The Lord is a warrior;
the Lord is his name.

Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?
Who is like you, majestic in holiness,
awesome in splendor, doing wonders?
You stretched out your right hand;
the earth swallowed them.

In your steadfast love you led the people whom you redeemed;
you guided them by your strength to your holy abode.

You brought them in and planted them on the mountain of your own possession,
the place, O Lord, that you made your abode,
the sanctuary, O Lord, that your hands have established.
The Lord will reign forever and ever.”

Then the prophet Miriam, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dancing. And Miriam sang to them:

“Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;
horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.”

VI.
Take a moment to think of how music, songs, and singing are part of your worship experiences?

How do those elements impact worship for you?

Do they draw you away from worship or draw you into worship and praise?

Do they enhance your experience of worship and God’s presence?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

ISSL Reflections Exodus 15:1–3, 11–13, 17–18, 20–21 Post 1

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I.
Over the last several weeks we have been thinking about worship from one perspective or another and this week we pause to listen to Moses and Miriam sing.

As you spend time with this week’s Scripture don’t forget that it is a song and one that was voiced after the Israelites had escaped from Pharoah and crossed the Red Sea.

II.
Exodus 15:1–3, 11–13, 17–18, 20–21 (NRSVue)

Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord:

“I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;
horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.
The Lord is my strength and my might,
and he has become my salvation;
this is my God, and I will praise him;
my father’s God, and I will exalt him.The Lord is a warrior;
the Lord is his name.

Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?
Who is like you, majestic in holiness,
awesome in splendor, doing wonders?
You stretched out your right hand;
the earth swallowed them.

In your steadfast love you led the people whom you redeemed;
you guided them by your strength to your holy abode.

You brought them in and planted them on the mountain of your own possession,
the place, O Lord, that you made your abode,
the sanctuary, O Lord, that your hands have established.
The Lord will reign forever and ever.”

Then the prophet Miriam, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dancing. And Miriam sang to them:

“Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;
horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.”

III.
In the verses we have before us, what emotions do you hear?

What overarching themes do you hear?

When have you ever been moved to sing about some experience you had?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

ISSL Reflections September 22, 2024 2 Chronicles 35:1–6, 16–19 Post 3

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VII.
What do you think it means that in the details Josiah gives to the Priests, the Levites and the people for keeping the Passover he includes the phrase “… sanctify yourselves…”?

As you spend time with this passage once again, hold in mind the call to “sanctify yourselves.”

VIII.
2 Chronicles 35:1-6, 16-19 (NRSVue)

Josiah kept a Passover to the Lord in Jerusalem; they slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the first month. He appointed the priests to their offices and encouraged them in the service of the house of the Lord. He said to the Levites who taught all Israel and who were holy to the Lord, “Put the holy ark in the house that Solomon son of David, king of Israel, built; you need no longer carry it on your shoulders. Now serve the Lord your God and his people Israel. Make preparations by your ancestral houses by your divisions, following the written directions of King David of Israel and the written directions of his son Solomon. Take position in the holy place according to the groupings of the ancestral houses of your kindred the people, and let there be Levites for each division of an ancestral house. Slaughter the Passover lamb, sanctify yourselves, and on behalf of your kindred make preparations, acting according to the word of the Lord by Moses.”

So all the service of the Lord was prepared that day, to keep the Passover and to offer burnt offerings on the altar of the Lord, according to the command of King Josiah. The people of Israel who were present kept the Passover at that time and the Festival of Unleavened Bread seven days. No Passover like it had been kept in Israel since the days of the prophet Samuel; none of the kings of Israel had kept such a Passover as was kept by Josiah, by the priests and the Levites, by all Judah and Israel who were present, and by the inhabitants of Jerusalem. In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah, this Passover was kept.

IX.
There are a lot of details included in this short passage that to me stresses Josiah’s desire that the Passover be not only “kept” but be done correctly.

But, we don’t get details on what they are to do to “sanctify yourselves.”

In our day and age what do you think we might do to sanctify ourselves?

Is it a matter of getting all the details done right and in the right order? Or is there more to it?

What might be involved in the interior work of sanctifying ourselves as we approach and enter into worship?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

ISSL Reflections September 22, 2024 2 Chronicles 35:1–6, 16–19 Post 2

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IV.
Our focus passage recalls the Passover celebration being reestablished in the community of Israel.

As you read this passage, notice the preparations taken for the Passover.

V.
2 Chronicles 35:1-6, 16-19 (NRSVue)

Josiah kept a Passover to the Lord in Jerusalem; they slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the first month. He appointed the priests to their offices and encouraged them in the service of the house of the Lord. He said to the Levites who taught all Israel and who were holy to the Lord, “Put the holy ark in the house that Solomon son of David, king of Israel, built; you need no longer carry it on your shoulders. Now serve the Lord your God and his people Israel. Make preparations by your ancestral houses by your divisions, following the written directions of King David of Israel and the written directions of his son Solomon. Take position in the holy place according to the groupings of the ancestral houses of your kindred the people, and let there be Levites for each division of an ancestral house. Slaughter the Passover lamb, sanctify yourselves, and on behalf of your kindred make preparations, acting according to the word of the Lord by Moses.”

So all the service of the Lord was prepared that day, to keep the Passover and to offer burnt offerings on the altar of the Lord, according to the command of King Josiah. The people of Israel who were present kept the Passover at that time and the Festival of Unleavened Bread seven days. No Passover like it had been kept in Israel since the days of the prophet Samuel; none of the kings of Israel had kept such a Passover as was kept by Josiah, by the priests and the Levites, by all Judah and Israel who were present, and by the inhabitants of Jerusalem. In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah, this Passover was kept.

VI.
Consider what act or acts of worship are the most meaningful for you.

How do you prepare to enter into that act(s) of worship? Do you prepare?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

ISSL Reflections September 22, 2024 2 Chronicles 35:1–6, 16–19 Post 1

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I.
We read that King Josiah “kept a Passover to the Lord in Jerusalem.”

We might wonder, wasn’t the Passover always kept?

Well, no, it wasn’t.

This represents a continuation of the religious reforms of Josiah we begin to read about in 2 Chronicles 34. The Temple is restored and a scroll is discovered which is probably part or all of the Pentateuch, the “Books of Moses.” Josiah is convinced the nation must return to living a life as the Covenant people of God. The King “read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in the house of the Lord. The king stood in his place and made a covenant before the Lord, to follow the Lord, keeping his commandments, his decrees, and his statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book.” (2 Chronicles 34:30-31)

The next step is to return to the keeping of Passover.

II.
2 Chronicles 35:1-6, 16-19 (NRSVue)

Josiah kept a Passover to the Lord in Jerusalem; they slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the first month. He appointed the priests to their offices and encouraged them in the service of the house of the Lord. He said to the Levites who taught all Israel and who were holy to the Lord, “Put the holy ark in the house that Solomon son of David, king of Israel, built; you need no longer carry it on your shoulders. Now serve the Lord your God and his people Israel. Make preparations by your ancestral houses by your divisions, following the written directions of King David of Israel and the written directions of his son Solomon. Take position in the holy place according to the groupings of the ancestral houses of your kindred the people, and let there be Levites for each division of an ancestral house. Slaughter the Passover lamb, sanctify yourselves, and on behalf of your kindred make preparations, acting according to the word of the Lord by Moses.”

So all the service of the Lord was prepared that day, to keep the Passover and to offer burnt offerings on the altar of the Lord, according to the command of King Josiah. The people of Israel who were present kept the Passover at that time and the Festival of Unleavened Bread seven days. No Passover like it had been kept in Israel since the days of the prophet Samuel; none of the kings of Israel had kept such a Passover as was kept by Josiah, by the priests and the Levites, by all Judah and Israel who were present, and by the inhabitants of Jerusalem. In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah, this Passover was kept.

III.
The Passover is not just a ritual to be repeated yearly. It is a time to recall God’s freeing the nation from slavery and calling them to be people of the Covenant.

What would the people think and feel now that once again the Passover was part of their lives?

What helps you keep in mind (and spirit) that you are one of God’s beloved? How do you celebrate your life as a child of God?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

ISSL Reflection September 15, 2024 2 Kings 19:14–20, 29–31 Post 3

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VII.
Today look again at the form of Hezekiah’s prayer. Pay attention to the order of the different elements in his prayer.

VIII.
2 Kings 19:14–20, 29–31 (NRSVue)

Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; then Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said, “O Lord the God of Israel, who are enthroned above the cherubim, you are God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands and have hurled their gods into the fire, though they were no gods but the work of human hands—wood and stone—and so they were destroyed. So now, O Lord our God, save us, I pray you, from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Lord, are God alone.”

Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I have heard your prayer to me about King Sennacherib of Assyria.

“And this shall be the sign for you: This year you shall eat what grows of itself and in the second year what springs from that; then in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. The surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward, for from Jerusalem a remnant shall go out and from Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

IX.
Did you notice that first he puts himself physically in a place of prayer?

Then he acknowledges he is addressing himself to the “Lord the God of Israel

He asks for God’s attention, then he comes to the specific thing that has brought him to prayer and asks, “O Lord our God, save us….”

Can you think of times you have come to prayer and if not following Hezekiah’s sequence, have included in one way or another some (or all) of what he has addressed?

What answer to his prayer does he receive? Why do you think almost all of the “sign” deals with the future and not his present circumstances?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

ISSL Reflection September 15, 2024 2 Kings 19:14–20, 29–31 Post 2

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IV.
When you get, what is almost certainly bad news, what do you do?

V.
2 Kings 19:14–20, 29–31 (NRSVue)

Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; then Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said, “O Lord the God of Israel, who are enthroned above the cherubim, you are God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands and have hurled their gods into the fire, though they were no gods but the work of human hands—wood and stone—and so they were destroyed. So now, O Lord our God, save us, I pray you, from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Lord, are God alone.”

Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I have heard your prayer to me about King Sennacherib of Assyria.

“And this shall be the sign for you: This year you shall eat what grows of itself and in the second year what springs from that; then in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. The surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward, for from Jerusalem a remnant shall go out and from Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

VI.
How much bad news do you see in the letter Hezekiah received?

What responses were open to him?

We see he prayed. What else could he have done? Maybe brought in his military commanders and made plans for war? Maybe sent word to the King of Assyria seeking terms for a peaceful surrender? Maybe go straight into battle and try for a surprise attack on the Assyrian army?

What future awaited King Hezekiah?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

ISSL Reflection September 15, 2024 2 Kings 19:14–20, 29–31 Post 1

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I.
The word that King Hezekiah receives is from the King of Assyria who in no uncertain terms tells King Hezekiah of the kingdoms he has already destroyed and he is on his way to destroy Jerusalem.

As we begin our reflections on this passage, pay attention to Hezekiah’s prayer. Notice the form it takes and the various items he addresses.

II.
2 Kings 19:14–20, 29–31 (NRSVue)

Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; then Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said, “O Lord the God of Israel, who are enthroned above the cherubim, you are God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands and have hurled their gods into the fire, though they were no gods but the work of human hands—wood and stone—and so they were destroyed. So now, O Lord our God, save us, I pray you, from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Lord, are God alone.”

Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I have heard your prayer to me about King Sennacherib of Assyria.

“And this shall be the sign for you: This year you shall eat what grows of itself and in the second year what springs from that; then in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. The surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward, for from Jerusalem a remnant shall go out and from Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

III.
First, please notice the King did simply pray, “Save this kingdom.”

How does he begin and what does he acknowledge about the one to whom he addresses his prayer?

Of course he does ask God to pay attention – “Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; hear…”

He acknowledges the power of Assyria.

Can you see a sense in which Hezekiah’s prayer can offer us a model for your prayers? Perhaps, most especially, when we are in distress?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}