It is said that Kind David had an open “sky light” above his bed. That in the early hours of the morning a wind would awaken him. And he would pray: 1My heart is steadfast, O G-D! I will sing and make melody with all my being!a 2Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn! 3I will give thanks to you, O L-RD, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations. 4For your steadfast love is great above the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
5Be exalted, O G-D, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth! 6That your beloved ones may be delivered, give salvation by your right hand and answer me!
A Psalm of Asaph.
1 Truly God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
my steps had nearly slipped.
3 For I was envious of the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4 For they have no pangs until death;
their bodies are fat and sleek.
5 They are not in trouble as others are;
they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
6 Therefore pride is their necklace;
violence covers them as a garment.
7 Their eyes swell out through fatness;
their hearts overflow with follies.
8 They scoff and speak with malice;
loftily they threaten oppression.
9 They set their mouths against the heavens,
and their tongue struts through the earth.
10 Therefore his people turn back to them,
and find no fault in them.a
11 And they say, “How can God know?
Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
12 Behold, these are the wicked;
always at ease, they increase in riches.
13 All in vain have I kept my heart clean
and washed my hands in innocence.
14 For all the day long I have been stricken
and rebuked every morning.
15 If I had said, “I will speak thus,”
I would have betrayed the generation of your children.
16 But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
17 until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their end.
18 Truly you set them in slippery places;
you make them fall to ruin.
19 How they are destroyed in a moment,
swept away utterly by terrors!
20 Like a dream when one awakes,
O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
21 When my soul was embittered,
when I was pricked in heart,
22 I was brutish and ignorant;
I was like a beast toward you.
23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand.
24 You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me to glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strengthb of my heart and my portion forever.
27 For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
28 But for me it is good to be near God;
I have made the Lord GOD my refuge,
that I may tell of all your works.
Commentary from iTorah.com
Psalm 73, which was composed by the Levite poet Asaf, addresses the age-old question of theodicy – the success of the wicked and the suffering of the righteous. Asaf confesses to having almost been misled by the power and prosperity enjoyed by the wicked, and that he even envied their lives of ill-begotten wealth, peace and serenity (verses 2-3). He observes that the wicked and corrupt men always seem to escape the hardships and trials endured by others, and enjoy the means and peace of mind to indulge to their hearts’ content (verses 4-7). Their success has led many among the masses to follow their example of crime and treachery, as people naturally began to wonder whether or not God in fact takes note of wrongdoing and punishes the wicked (10-14). Asaf goes so far as to say that were he to give a comprehensive account of the success and prosperity of the wicked, he would likely drive his entire generation of otherwise believing Jews to heresy (verse 15).
Asaf’s outlook thankfully changed when he “entered the Temples of God” (verse 17). Rashi explains that Asaf prophetically beheld the miraculous demise of the Assyrian army when it besieged Jerusalem (see introduction to chapter 68). That event serves as a dramatic example of a successful reign of tyranny and cruelty that meets a sudden, catastrophic end, and it thus clarified for Asaf why God allows the wicked to prosper: He allows evildoers to follow their chosen path which leads them further and further away from any possibility of repentance, thus guaranteeing their ultimate demise.
The Radak explains differently, claiming that “Temples of God” refers to the afterlife. Asaf reveals that he erred in focusing his attention exclusively upon this world; indeed, our experiences in this world demonstrate that corruption often brings success while piety can bring poverty and hardship. But once Asaf broadened his perspective and began to take into account the eternal life of the soul, he immediately resolved the dilemma of theodicy: God grants the wicked in this world whatever reward they deserve, so that they receive their punishment in full after death, in the afterlife.
Asaf thus concludes in this chapter’s final verse, “Va’ani Kirvat Elokim Li Tov” – closeness to God is what is good and beneficial for a person. Though we often see wicked and depraved men succeed and prosper at the expense of the righteous and upright, we must nevertheless retain our belief in the inestimable value of observing God’s laws, and that the reward that awaits those who devote themselves to God far exceeds the success enjoyed by the wicked in this world.
1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. 2 He is saying of L-RD, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
3 For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. 4 He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. 5 You will not fear the terror of the night, the arrow that flies by day, 6 The pestilence that stalks in darkness, the destruction that wastes at noonday.
7 A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. 8 You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.
9 Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place— the Most High, who is my refugeb— 10 no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent.
11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. 12 On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. 13 You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.
14 “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name. 15 When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. 16 With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.” (Says our Father, our King)
The L-RD bless you and protect you! The L-RD deal kindly and graciously with you! The L-RD bestow His favor upon you and grant you peace! (Numbers 6:24-26)
Once and a while I check Fox. Mostly it’s about the coup-by-impeachment attempt in Washington. Yesterday an easy-to-miss article with comments by a Fox medical consultant talked about San Francisco’s crisis of Homelessness. “Isn’t it ironic that a city of germaphobes, of exercise-conscious, environmentally conscious [people] … are now in a city that’s awash in human waste, which is spreading hepatitis A outbreaks every year,” Siegel said on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Tuesday. “Big outbreaks of hepatitis A, rats in the streets feeding off of the garbage in sewage, typhus, typhoid fever, rotten bacterial infections and even the plague may be coming,” the consultant said.
In Medford, OR, there are more and more homeless. My daughter, who lives there, said that many are arriving by bus from Portland, OR. The remedy for homelessness in Portland is for the city to buy a bus ticket for homeless people who are picked up by police. Apparently it all started with Seattle, according to my daughter, where the homeless were sent from Washington State across the state line into Portland, OR. The situation, it seems to me, is without a viable solution, but shipping folks out isn’t even a good attempt at one. Another approach had been practiced in Austin, TX. It became such a haven that homeless flocked there for the food, which as plentiful. The cardboard shelters became such a menace, and the mayor did nothing but offer more food, that the governor of Texas sent in road crews to remove the squalid mess. Still not a good solution–IMHO. One city is now spending something like $20,000 on each shelter that will allow four homeless to sleep out of the cold. The shelters line the public streets. Another not-so-good solution, not to mention ridiculously expensive. $20,000 for a tent? Only a politician would think that a good solution. And then I read somewhere that there’s the town forcing residents to allow homeless to sleep in their yards. Really? Is that a viable solution.
A few year ago, over in Athens, GA, there was a small community of homeless people. Mostly living in cardboard shacks, they self-policed themselves. They somehow managed to have outdoor latrines, the kind used at constructions sites that must be emptied. And somehow they were emptied, too. They were not a problem until sub-developments encroached upon land on which they were squatting. Like how we expand and expand the urban sprawl and drive out the wildlife, they ended up having to drive out the homeless community.
There are many homeless that live in cars, trucks, or RVs. They park often in public parking spaces, or in office parking, and move regularly. There is an “organization” devoted to informing these types of homeless people on the best places to crash (as in sleep) and other advice. Out in the desert, near the Salten Sea in California, an abandon Air Force base has large cement slabs still remaining near the old run way. RVs set up a fairly large self-policing community. This community, like the one in Athens was, isn’t a threat to anyone. The people don’t hang around looking for handouts on city streets, don’t cause business men and women to cringe in fear as they try to get to their offices.
San Luis Obispo, CA, (fondly referred to as San Luis or just SLO)had been a model for how to respond to situations that came up. When a shopping plaza was allowed to go in outside of town–various companies needed big box buildings, more space, and downtown didn’t offer that at all–the city stepped up to prevent the demise of the downtown, like had happened in so many other towns. San Luis started a Farmer’s Market night, closed the streets, and had a huge party. Businesses didn’t die. SLO eventually grew to have an even nicer downtown and still have that plaza outside of town, and even a few more small ones.
SLO also had a novel approach to homeless people. There was a small Christian commune outside of town. It was built with old military barracks that were disassembled and reassembled on acreage. When sheriff deputies and city police came across mentally disturbed people that didn’t qualify for lock up, or committing, they dropped them off at the Commune. Same with homeless. When the commune dissolved, the city closed a rural campground and bussed the homeless out of town each night, bringing them back during the day.
Some towns do better at finding reasonable solutions, not perfect, but reasonable, accommodating not only the “offender” but those who are tax-paying residents.
I’ve been praying about homelessness for awhile now. It began in praying for homeless veterans, and veterans with PTSD, the wounded, and those having a hard time reentering America’s face-paced culture. Eventually my prayer expanded to homelessness in general.
How might a Believer view homeless people and the entire crisis of homelessness? Perhaps a bit of Bible perspective is one place to begin.
And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” (Matthew 8:19,20)
Yeshua said that He had “nowhere to lay his head.” Sounds homeless, doesn’t it?
It seems to me homelessness isn’t one specific “thing” that can be “solved” with one approach. The person with diminished mental capacity or mental disorder is very different than a person who is laid off, or works for minimum wages, and simply can’t pay the high rent for even an apartment. There are people with a vehicle or boat that they can sleep in, and others who have nothing more than a few blankets or a sleeping bag. I’ve met people who are willing to work if work is available, and I’ve met people who refuse to work even if it is offered. I imagine that there are folks out there that might work but no longer believe anyone wants them, would take them.
Looking at homelessness from it’s individual trigger might help. What triggered a person to end up on the streets? Loss of a job is an easy one understand. Some might find it difficult to understand how a person could intentionally walk away from home and family and live on the streets. Some people simple no longer can cope with their lives. They are like the haunted. They run. PTSD, with or without a recognizable cause.
Once on the road it becomes difficult to maintain the ties to society that we, I think, take for granted. For instance, when it is time to renew a driver license, what address is used? It seems to me that it doesn’t take long before a person becomes disenfranchised. Once out, how does a person get back in?
Several months ago my daughter that lives with us, and is already twenty-two, looked for an apartment. She found several she could afford on her salary, but not one would even accept an application. All required a salary of three to four times the rent. Not to mention that she at least has a current address. On the streets, no current driver license, no address, a person is really out.
“Hey, get a job!” It’s an easy thing to yell at someone standing on the corner with a cardboard sign saying, “Hungry. Need a dollar.” Or something like that. The disenfranchised aren’t going to wake up one morning, walk into the bathroom, shower, dress in clean clothing, and head out the door to find a job.
If you know more about homelessness, please share it.
Having lived in a 14 foot travel trailer for two years, while working, I do have some, albeit limited, experience with one form of homelessness.
Pastor Shane, Shiloh Community Church, has four sermons on dealing with difficult people. He covers Critical People; Needy People; Manipulative People; Hypocritical People.
Today is Simchat Torah ( שמחת†תורה†), Joy of the Torah, of which John Parson, writes,
“This holiday marks the completion of the Torah reading cycle for the year. Simchat Torah is based on the “hakhel gathering” ( הַקְהֵל†) commanded by God in the Torah: “At the end of every seven yearsat the set time in the year of release, at the Feast of Sukkot ( בְּחַג†הַסֻּכּוֹת†), when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God … you shall read this Torah before all Israel in their hearing. Assemble ( הַקְהֵל†) the people, men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, and be careful to do all the words of this Torah” (Deut. 31:10-12).”
Sitting on the deck yesterday as I began writing this post, looking out into the wooded area where the pines are beginning to shed their inner needles, preparing for winter, I thought over this entire season. It begins with a shofar blast on New Year, which is a call to us all. The shofar is a rams horn, that reminds us of the ram that took the place of Issac. (Click link for reference.)
This season calls to us to pray, to look within ourselves, to be prepared for the Day of Atonement. Are we to be found among the goats or the sheep? Are we in a right relationship with G-D? Are we in a right relationship with our other people? It is a season of repentance and rejuvenation. It is a season that concludes with the Feast of Succoth, in which we are called to remember that we, during our lives on Earth, live but a temporal life. It reminds us of the time Israel spent in the desert after its exodus from Egypt.
The last day of Sukkoth is Simchat Torah. YeshuaJesus celebrated this Feast, as described by Apostle John in chapter seven.
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, asf the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” (John 7:37,38)
The first section of the reading is Moses’s final blessing upon the children of Israel. Deuteronomy concludes with Moses going to “Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho.” There G-D shows him the land Israel is being given, the land that Joshua will lead Israel into as its possession. Moses is only allowed to see the land, but not cross the Jordan, not enter the land of Israel. Moses sinned against the Lord. He “broke faith with me in the midst of the people of Israel at the waters of Meribah-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, and because you did not treat me as holy in the midst of the people of Israel.For you shall see the land before you, but you shall not go there, into the land that I am giving to the people of Israel.” (Deuteronomy 32:51,51)
As John Parson puts it, the scroll is rewound and we begin reading from Genesis, the story of G-D creating the world, and all that is in it.
Early this morning two cats were creating havoc, making noise in the living room. I got up to see what the commotion was about, only to find them chasing a mouse. I sat for a while drinking a cup of tea and thinking about Creation. After a creative event, the passages state that “G-D saw that it was good.” Once G-D created the first humans, He “saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good.”
I began to think how many times I’d sit in the garden and look out over the ponds, to the yard and into the woods and think of all the things that still need to be done. Trimming, tending, fertilizing. And there’s the pile of tree limbs I trimmed late last Spring that I still need to burn. . . If I don’t ignore it, it consumes by prayer time, my Garden Time. Contrast that attitude with G-D’s who surveyed all He’d done and saw that “It Was Very Good.” Didn’t G-D know there’d be more that needed doing? Didn’t G-D know the fragility of that pair of humans He’d created? They’d need a lot of care to be able to survive in the world outside of the Garden. G-D knew He kick them out for their rebellion against Him. He had a plan. Yet He looked out over the expanse of the world and saw its goodness, its rightness.
When I came back to bed, walking through the living room, I looked with a different set of eyes at some photographs on the wall. I’d walked by them thousands of time, but ignored them. They are of houses with blue shutters, taken on a trip to Siberia twenty years ago. They are beautiful. I looked around the dimly lite room, and though how lovely the room is. I didn’t see the dust on the furniture, the pillows pushed of the sofa–our ill mannered dog thinks she needs to stretch out the whole length of the couch.
It seems I can get so caught up in all that “needs” to be done, and simply not be grateful for the blessings that are around me.
Not long ago I read an article about Texas’s efforts to eradicate, or at least reduce, the wild boar population. It’d gotten way out of hand, and regular hunter-led efforts had not worked. Primarily, hogs root and destroy the landscape. Their rooting also creates hazards to people and other animals. Hogs are also not native to Texas.
Here in Georgia, I’m told many of the wild hogs were at one time domesticated pigs that got loose. Once a pig gets back into its nature environment, it grows its tusk back, and returns to its viral, wild nature.
“We have found tht hog rings are usually the only thing that will stop a hog from rooting,” wrote Linn in a post on the Homesteading Today forum.
A ring in the snout prevents rooting. It restrains the natural inclinations of a pig. Remove the ring. . . Yup! It roots. A pig is just a better-behaved wild thing.
“And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. (Apostle Paul wrote to the Roman, 1:24-32)
There are a type of worm that grows on a leaf, surrounded by a crusty shell. Eventually, it hatches and begins to eat the leaf to which it was attached. It eats. It eats. It eats. Once the leaf is nearly destroyed, it gets sleepy, gathers about it a slimy covering, and rests for a while. The worm changes. It breaks through its cocoon, eats it, and spreads its gorgeous wings, pumps them up, and flies away. It is now a beautiful butterfly.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born againbhe cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Gospel of John 3:3-8)
The word for which I’m looking is Contemplation. Yesterday evening, on the way to Cutter’s, a local lounge, to listen to a jazz ensemble, I struggled with a word that is more acceptable than meditate and yet more adequately describes what I’ve come to refer to as my Garden Times. Earlier in the day I’d sat on the deck staring at the trees in the woods. I thought that if I were to awaken with no knowledge of G-D, I’d look at the trees and they would point to Him. Apostle Paul said as much.
This “thinking” on the deck is more than mere thought, however. But meditating is a word with connotations of emptying oneself and opening oneself up to some Universe Power. Meditating is occasionally referred to as letting go of one’s “monkey mind” and of “becoming one with the Universe.” Neither is my intent, nor is simply thinking.
Perhaps this deep thought might be called prayer in a Christian Church. Yet prayer is so ambiguous. It can mean so many different things. Reading a Psalm is considered prayer to a Jewish man praying Psalm 145 in the morning. Then there are the “Prayers of the People” in an Episcopal and a Roman Catholic Church service in which the priest reads a list of items and the congregation speaks a liturgical response after each item on the list. Prayer is often just humans speaking to G-D as children recite the Pledge of Allegiance at school.
Neither meditation nor prayer do justice to experiencing G-D’s presence in contemplation. That’s the best word for my Garden Times. “On the glorious splendor of your majesty and on your wondrous works, I will contemplate.” I will contemplate the glorious splendor of G-D’s majesty. I will contemplate G-D’s wondrous works. I will hear G-D’s response and prompting and perhaps catch a glimpse of Him. I shall be as the women who sought to but touch the hem of Yeshua’s garment. I will, like Job, hear G-d say He will ask a question and require my response. I might hear G-D say something to which I might, like Abraham, respond boldly with “don’t be angry, but might Your servant ask just one thing more?” I want to cry aloud, as King David:
Jonah’s Song 