“but my people would not listen to me; Israel would not submit to me.”
– Psalm 81:11
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you ever feel conflicted? Your grandpaa is feeling conflicted right now. Sometimes when your grandpaa begins to think about God’s nonstop unfolding, custom designed life blueprint that He – before He positioned an egg-shaped orb into an orbit around a sun, embedded in your grandmaa and grandpaa to live out on planet Earth and to assimilate immediately for all eternity upon their arrival in heaven’s glorious kingdom, your grandpaa starts to feel conflicted. Your grandmaa and grandpaa know that their catching up with old age means that the temporary stop or layover that God preprogramed your grandmaa and grandpaa to make on planet Earth is coming to an end. Your grandmaa and grandpaa want to finish strong their plant Earth life races/lives. Your grandmaa and grandpaa want to finish their planet Earth life races/lives having run/lived their life’s races/lives the way that God told/expects His specially elected guys, gals and kids to run/live their planet Earth life races/lives. Even though your grandpaa knows that God imprisons, enslaves, bounds every guy, gal and kid who ever lives on planet Earth to disobedience – to his or her embedded sin nature which he or she inherited from Adam’s disobedience, your grandpaa right now would like to have a clearer understanding or better comprehension of the why of what is now taking place on planet Earth as . . . a boiling cauldron of suddenly suppressed global greed, a growing list of self-serving irrational despots and an engrained maniacal hatred that Muslim people group guys and gals have through the teachings in their Islamic belief paradigm towards God’s specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite – or Jew, people group guys and gals, to your grandpaa should result in a Christ-follower guy, gal or kid to really want to proactively pursue a transformed life that no longer invites in the ‘world’s’ wiles but . . .
Your grandmaa and grandpaa last week – at this time, were in Guatemala. Your grandmaa and grandpaa were leading a ten-member short term ministry/medical/dental team that included your Uncle Chris and Aunt Lynn and your dad’s Uncle Larry and Aunt Meg. Even though your grandpaa looked forward to being back in Guatemala and even though your grandpaa always enjoys doing whatever in different communities – especially in observing the reactions of the guys and gals who he takes to different sites in Guatemala, your grandpaa was feeling before he left for Guatemala that he was just ‘spinning his wheels’. Your grandpaa was feeling that the stressors that were in play in pulling off this short-term ministry/medical/dental team trip were outweighing the blessings that your grandpaa normally experiences while he is on and/or leading a short-term ministry team trip. Your grandpaa knew that all the energy and effort that he had put into setting up this short-term ministry/medical/dental team trip was a good thing but . . . over the past several months, your grandpaa had a number of times interacted with other guys and gals about the life mandate that your grandpaa believes that He and that all Christ-follower guys, gals and kids have – which is to do being before God by always constantly adoring, adulating and worshipping Him versus to do doing before God by always believing that it is actions, activities and good works that God really desires from His specially elected guys, gals and kids which . . . your grandpaa – when he tells a guy or gal that he is a missionary, is invariably asked what he has done – such as did he plant a church, versus being asked how it was living in another culture in another country. Guys and gals who live in Latin American countries – such as Bolivia and Guatemala, value relationships over accomplishments while guys and gals who live in the United States value accomplishments over relationships.
Psalm 81 has not helped your grandpaa get his arms around his conflicted feelings. The author of this festive, celebratory psalm song probably scribed his psalm song to be a remembrance of and a recommitment to God for everything that He had done for the Israelite people guys and gals – who were His specially chosen guys and gals. This psalm song was apparently scribed to be sung on special occasions – such as at the beginning of the seven-day autumn festival or the Feast of the Tabernacles. This psalm song was to be sung loudly and with great joy. Harps, lyres, tambourines and a ram’s horn were to accompany this psalm song when it was sung. This psalm song was to be sung on the day and at the time that God – as God the Father – the God of Jacob, decreed that it be sung as a decree for His specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group guys and gals, to obey. God – through this psalm song’s author, told His specially chosen guys and gals what He expected them to always remember – such as when He helped them leave Egypt to get out from under the oppression that they were experiencing there, when He tested them at the waters of Meribah and when He told them not to worship any foreign or alien gods. What your grandpaa finds conflicting in this psalm song is what God had this psalm song writer write what is now verse 11, “‘but my people would not listen to me; Israel would not submit to me.” Even though God says in this psalm song what life would be like for His specially chosen guys and gals if they would just listen to Him, God did nothing even though He absolutely could have done something to ensure that they would only worshipped Him. Because your grandpaa knows that God expects him to always do the right thing, why do you think that God does not stop him from messing up or sets him up to mess up or fail? Your grandpaa knows that he really needs God to rescue him from his conflicted feelings that he has of what it is that your grandpaa should be being at this time on planet Earth.
Psalm 81 (975)