(A psalm and a song for the music leader. Use with stringed instruments.)
Tell the Nations To Praise God
67 Our God, be kind and bless us! Be pleased and smile. 2 Then everyone on earth will learn to follow you, and all nations will see your power to save us.
3 Make everyone praise you and shout your praises. 4 Let the nations celebrate with joyful songs, because you judge fairly and guide all nations. 5 Make everyone praise you and shout your praises.
6 Our God has blessed the earth with a wonderful harvest! 7 Pray for his blessings to continue and for everyone on earth to worship our God.
There seem to be two ways of reading this Psalm :
a prayer that God will bless us
or a prayer that people will acknowledge God and praise him
It’s a pretty sorry state if we only worship God because he blesses us. We praise God, because he is; he blesses us because of who he is. We don’t want to get into the business of defining “blessing”. But the more we get caught up in praising God, the more of his blessings we will notice.
I’m sure at one time or another we’ve all been called on to help someone. A lift is needed, an errand, help with a task that needs more than one person… Or we’ve had to call on someone to help us. Usually if someone can help, they will. They respond to the call.
9 During the night, Paul had a vision of someone from Macedonia who was standing there and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!” 10 After Paul had seen the vision, we began looking for a way to go to Macedonia. We were sure that God had called us to preach the good news there.
Lydia Becomes a Follower of the Lord
11 We sailed straight from Troas to Samothrace, and the next day we arrived in Neapolis. 12 From there we went to Philippi, which is a Roman colony in the first district of Macedonia.
We spent several days in Philippi. 13 Then on the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to a place by the river, where we thought there would be a Jewish meeting place for prayer. We sat down and talked with the women who came. 14 One of them was Lydia, who was from the city of Thyatira and sold expensive purple cloth. She was a worshiper of the Lord God, and he made her willing to accept what Paul was saying. 15 Then after she and her family were baptized, she kept on begging us, “If you think I really do have faith in the Lord, come stay in my home.” Finally, we accepted her invitation.
Purple cloth was expensive.Lydia was a well to do business woman.
So here we see how Peters vision about not putting up barriers about God’s work begins to come into its own. Lydia is most probably a Greek, a sympathiser, but no Jew. Paul is “called over” to Macedonia. There is no indication that he had intended going there, but he responds to God’s call.
Paul, Silas and Timothy had been travelling round preaching. They had tried to go to Bithynia, but the Spirit had stopped them. Now they find out why. There is work to be done in Macedonia, which in turn becomes the launch pad for a whole new branch of God’s mission – from Asia to Europe. If Paul had not responded to this vision, Christianity may have remained where it was born. It may have fizzled out. But Paul heard the call and responded – and the rest is history.
Sometimes responding to one small call for help can lead to something so much bigger. A friendship can blossom and grow; a need can be acknowledged and responded to; a ministry can begin or take a different path.
What is God calling me to come and help with today?
What might be starting?
If I don’t respond, what will happen?
Lord,
may I listen,
that I may hear the call
to come and help.
My post for this month over on BigBible can be found here.
In a small departure from the norm, I wanted to unpack a bit more personally here.
My break from Twitter has made me reflect and ask myself several questions, some of which I mentioned on BigBible, some I didn’t:
Have I been expecting more than is possible?
Have I put more faith in Social Media than is sensible or right?
Is social media doing me more harm than good in the place where I am at the moment?
Have I actually even really missed it?
Have I even been missed?
Do I want to return?
I maintain wholeheartedly that the church should have a presence on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and anywhere and everywhere else it can – for wherever people are, is where God is – and where God is, is where we should be. My reflections here are more on a personal level.
I found myself with this pressing question, in the way only The Clash can express it
So I am grappling.
Have I been artificially trying to construct a community for myself, given the rootlessness that I feel, being in a place I have not chosen to be in a way I would prefer not to be? It has been a hard experience moving to new physical surroundings without being able to utilise any of the usual tools of ‘fitting in’ because I can’t get out much and put the energy into getting to know people in the way I would have in the past. There are activities, but I can’t join many of them. That doesn’t mean people don’t want me, or I them, just my limitations make it restrictive. And that in turn makes life very lonely.
So, what am I actually looking for social media to do? To give me comfort? Company? Somewhere to have a place to inhabit and be? Am I in it out of sheer nosiness? Or a true exploration of a ministry and calling – in which case I cannot step away…
But is social media the place to find any of that? Twitter is very transitory and relatively shallow. It moves on very quickly. Facebook has more of a community feel to it, as recent experience has shown, but it has its limitations. As I’ve dipped back in to Twitter, I have found it rather overwhelming, and very quickly come across some of the things that made me step away in the first place. I accept that some of this is where I find myself at the moment.
Yet for those who have no other source of community, do they offer a solution? There can be a tendency to ‘look at me’ on social media, whether we recognise it as that are not, and maybe that is what I don’t need right here, right now (and that’s about me not you!) – though I recognise that as also part of people seeking community and connections. But there is also a lot of great depth, much humour and some good people to know. I think the great lesson is to not put more faith in something than it can return to you – that way leads pain and disillusionment in all things. But if we (I), take social media for what it is, accept what it can offer and not be disappointed by what it can’t, then it has much to offer. Community – yes of a kind; lots of fun – yes; and the rest, well don’t take it or myself too seriously 🙂
I’m still thinking – what do you think? It’s a conversation I want to have, so please join in.
Pam's Perambulation 