GRACIOUS

 One of my writer-friends chooses a “word of the year” as a spiritual focus. I decided to do the same and last year chose “grace.” I signed much of my correspondence “in grace,” as a token of needing God's grace to get through challenging situations (the pandemic being just one of them!). As 2021 ended, a companion word kept coming to mind as my focus for 2022. It's gracious. This adjective is defined as “courteous, kind, and pleasant.” An internet definition site adds this Christian perspective: “showing divine grace.”

I regularly read through Proverbs (its 31 chapters provide a good daily “dose”) and find myself pausing at verses about graciousness. Proverbs 11:16 in the New King James Version says: “A gracious woman retains honor.” In the NIV, my usual devotional Bible, it's “A kindhearted woman gains respect.” Beside that verse I had written “Ruth B.,” an older neighbor who was supremely gracious and helpful to me in the year after my parents died and I was tasked with probate and emptying out the family home. She helped, she listened, she loved on me.

Because translators work so hard to find just the right equivalent word, I went to my Bible reference books to learn more. The highlight word (“gracious” in KJV and NASB, and “kindhearted” in NIV) is from the Hebrew chen or hen, whose root means “favor” or “grace.” A similar word is used in Exodus 34:6 of God when His “presence” in some blinding, supernatural way passed by curious Moses, hidden in the cleft of a rock.

Two Old Testament women especially personified this trait. One was Ruth, the Moabite widow who left her pagan homeland to follow and care for her widowed, embittered mother-in-law, returning to Naomi's hometown of Bethlehem. There, Ruth met Boaz, a good man who took her as a wife. From that union, generations later, came King David. But in their “love story,” Ruth's gracious choice found favor with people of her new land and—more important—with God. A big lesson there is that we need to bless God despite our circumstances, trusting Him to bring good of them.

Another example (1 Samuel 25) is Abigail, married to a surly land baron named Nabal. Before becoming king, David and his ragtag followers were a type of volunteer militia, helping local ranchers with a freelance police force. Their pay was whatever food the “protected” could provide. Selfish Nabal refused and David (to his discredit) decided to attack. Enter Nabal's gracious wife, who turned back the impending attack with food supplies and an apology for her husband's brutishness, plus a reminder of the bad consequences that could come of David's brashness. Her gracious actions defused a tense situation. And, in a story that seemed scripted for Hollywood, Nabal had an apparent heart attack or stroke when he learned what had happened. Ten days later he was dead. Abigail's graciousness gave her a second chance at a happier life. That story holds lessons for my own encounters with difficult people.

Our words really do reflect our hearts. Ecclesiastes 10:12 (NKJV) says, “The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious.” The apostle Paul admonished Christians to live out graciousness through words of kindness and truth (Colossians 3:12, 13).

And so...gracious. I have posted that word on my computer's screen as a daily reminder of one more way that God can work in and through me.

Making 'Psense' of Psalms--Psalm 145: Awe

This site awed me--a church that survived the devastating
2014 fires of North Central Washington. Trees around it were
singed, homes in four city blocks to the left destroyed,
but the church was spared. More than 320 homes burned.

Part of a continuing series on selected psalms.

One of the worship choruses sung in my church is about standing in awe of God. In its ancient format—an acrostic built off the Hebrew alphabet—this is the message of Psalm 145.  The last psalm attributed to David (who wrote approximately half the psalms), it is almost breathtaking in its breadth of praising God’s many attributes. Verse 5 puts the message in a capsule: “Great is the LORD, and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom.”

 For our times, when many have become careless and even flippant about God’s name, this psalm rightly reminds us that His person and His name are intertwined. “I will exalt you, my God, the king,” David begins. “I will praise your name for ever and ever.” This also went beyond “worship day.” David said, “Every day I will praise you and extol your name for ever and ever” (v. 2).  Then, starting with the Hebrew “aleph” and on to “taw,” he offers a teaching psalm about exalting God for His greatness, graciousness,  faithfulness, and righteousness. The word “all” is prominent throughout the psalm, a reminder that worship is not the domain of a select few, but all.
 

GOD’S GREATNESS (vv. 3-7)

As I began underlining and circling words in this section, I realized the statements had a similar grammar form: action verb/direct object. Like a hammer pounding a nail into wood, it gives many ways to exalt God’s greatness:
*Commend/His works to another. This verse specifies: “One generation will command your works to another” (v. 4a)—a reminder that unless we pass on our faith, it’s one generation from extinction.  The Enemy is hard at work! Thus we need to:
*Tell/His mighty acts.
*Speak of/the glorious splendor of His majesty.
*Meditate on /God’s wonderful works.
*Proclaim/God’s great deeds.
*Celebrate/God’s abundant goodness.
*Joyfully sing/of God’s righteousness.

GOD’S GRACIOUSNESS (vv. 8-13a)

This section begins with an ancient jewel:
The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. (v. 8)
This verse is drawn from God’s revelation of Himself to Moses, told in Exodus 34:6. After getting two tablets with God’s “Ten Commandments” for living, Moses came down to find the Israelites foolishly worshipping a golden calf. In anger, he smashed the two tablets. Before long, Moses went up the mountain again to receive replacement tablets, and this time God described Himself with the words partly quoted in Psalm 145:8. God also described Himself as “forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin,” but not letting the guilty go unpunished (Exodus 34:6). Instead of wiping out the fickle nation, God gave them a second chance—just as He does for us. Like the first section, this one also has action verbs for praising and extolling God. We’re to:
*Tell/the glory of God’s kingdom
*Speak of /His might “so that men may know of your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom” (v. 12). In other words, we’re to be about soul business!



Eastern Washington grain elevators--symbols of God's supply.

GOD’S FAITHFULNESS (vv. 13b-16)

Psalm 145 wouldn’t be a true “alphabetical” or acrostic psalm without a second part to verse 13, which starts with “nun,” the Hebrew letter between mem and samekh:
The Lord is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made.
That verse isn’t in the 1611 King James version, but subsequent discoveries of more ancient manuscripts with that verse resulted in it being put in newer versions, at least in footnotes. The verse, like the previous section, paraphrases part of God’s revelation about His nature in Exodus 34:6. More important, it fits the theme of this section, which portrays God as taking care of our daily needs.  He upholds us or lifts us up when negatives strike us. We can trust Him for our daily needs:
The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time.  You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. (vv. 15-16)
This verse became meaningful to me during lean financial times as a graduate student, when unexpected jobs helped me buy my food. It’s encouragement for those who run “soup kitchens” of food banks for the needy. It’s also about those who have enough to eat and to share. It should prompt us to thank God for those in the food chain, all the way to farmers and ranchers, who depend on God’s gifts of good weather, seed, and soil. They all are part of the hands of God in providing “food at the proper time.” No matter how He orchestrates taking care of our needs, He is faithful. As David prayed while offerings came in to build the temple: “Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand” (1 Chronicles 29:14b).

GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS (vv. 17-20)

In another allusion to Exodus 34, Psalm 145 affirms that God’s righteousness means He abhors evil but loves the sinner who comes to Him in repentance. Exodus 34:7 speaks of Him:
Maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.  Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished.
Then in Psalm 145:20:
The LORD watches over all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.
Oh, the benefits for those who call on Him “in truth” (in faith):
*He will come near to them (v. 18).
*He will fulfill their desires (v. 19, an echo of Psalm 37:4).
*He will hear their cries and save them (v. 19).
*He will watch over them (v. 20, a frequent benefit named by David, who needed much “watching over”!).
*He will destroy the wicked (v. 20).
The fate of the wicked shadows this psalm about God’s blessing. If God tolerated evil forever, then He wouldn’t be a holy God.  He’d be a compromising deity—and what would be the use of that?

CONCLUSION (v. 21)

Often at a holiday family dinner we will all sing the “Doxology,” the ancient hymn that begins, “Praise God from whom all blessings come.” Psalm 145 also ends with a doxology as David essentially says, “I’ll praise God, but really all of us, even all creatures, should praise His holy name forever.” And so Psalm 145, which began with praising God’s name, ends with that same theme. This is right, for in praising God’s Name, we praise all that He is—His greatness, graciousness, faithfulness, righteousness, and so much more!

Next: Psalm 150.