Friday, June 20<\/b><\/p>\n
\nPsalm 88: Psalm 88 (Greek and Latin 87) is possibly the most difficult of the psalms. In any case, it is arguably the darkest. It even stands among the most somber compositions in all of Holy Writ, comparable to the overcast pages of Job and Ecclesiastes. It is appropriately prayed on Fridays, the day of our Lord\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
\nIt not being readily apparent, perhaps, how to reconcile such tenebrous tones with evangelical hope, some may judge the sentiments of this psalm too dismal for it to serve as Christian prayer at all. Psalm 88 is not only darksome in its every line; almost alone among the psalms, it even ends on a dark note. Its final line says: \u201cMy friend and confrere have You kept afar from me; and my neighbors, because of my distress.\u201d Now, how can that sort of sentiment be the \u201clast word\u201d in a Christian prayer?<\/p>\n
\nBut then, on closer inspection, we may observe certain subtler features softening this impression of our psalm. For all its gloom and shadow, for example, is it without significance that Psalm 88 begins by thus addressing the Almighty: \u201cO Lord, the God of my salvation<\/i>\u201d? The intimacy and quiet hope of this address put one in mind of Psalm 22, in which the crucified Jesus, asking why God has forsaken Him, nonetheless continues to call Him \u201cmy<\/i> God, my<\/i> God.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThree further comments seem appropriate regarding this umbrageous aspect of Psalm 88. First, one must bear in mind that, like all the Bible, it comes to us from the Holy Spirit. If death is portrayed in this psalm as a very bad thing, then the Holy Spirit wants us to regard death as a very bad thing. One occasionally meets pagans and unbelievers who avow that they are not afraid to die. Well, this psalm suggests that maybe they should<\/i> be afraid. In line after line of Psalm 88, a writer under the guidance and impulse of the Holy Spirit says, in the sharpest terms, that death is a most terrifying prospect.<\/p>\n
\nSecond, bearing in mind that our fear of death is a reaction of the fleshly man, the \u201cold Adam,\u201d still active within us, we should be mightily consoled to think that the Holy Spirit, in this psalm, has made such generous provision for this fleshly side of ourselves. The Holy Spirit, that is to say, gives our fleshly fear its due. If we yet feel this fear of death, the Holy Spirit is careful for this fear to find expression in prayer. Here is the tender condescension of God, that He provides even that our fallen nature may voice itself to Him in supplication and the lowly fealty of our very fear.<\/p>\n
\nThird, Jesus took on Himself, not our pristine, unfallen nature, but our nature as weakened at the ancient tree and throughout the rest of our history. So the fear of death expressed in this psalm is certainly a fear that Jesus felt. If, in addition, as Holy Scripture indicates in so many places, death is but the outward expression of sin and our alienation from God, then a deeper understanding of sin must surely imply a more profound understanding of death. And who understood sin more than Jesus? Likewise was His perception of death vastly more ample and accurate than our own. And, as He knew more about the power of death than any of the rest of us, there is every reason to believe that He felt this fear of death more than the rest of us possibly could.<\/p>\n
\nFinally, it is an ironic feature of liturgical and homiletic history that one expression from this psalm has been consistently used by the Church to refer to the death of Jesus, not as a term of doom but as an emblem of the high triumph and validation inherent in His Cross. That expression is \u201cfree among the dead.\u201d In the mystic vision of Holy Church, Jesus was indeed \u201cfree among the dead\u201d in the sense that death had no dominion over Him. He was \u201cfree\u201d with respect to death, inasmuch as it could not hold Him fast. Reaching to seize Jesus in the moment of His final breath, death found itself, instead, cast down and trampled by the rush of His abundant life crashing into that realm where the grave, hitherto undisputed, had so long held sway. Every antagonist fell beneath His mighty, grinding tread.<\/p>\n
\nAnd forthwith striding to the nether world, Jesus \u201cwent and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient\u201d (1 Pet. 3:19, 20). To demonstrate, moreover, that our Lord was truly free among the dead, \u201cthe earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many\u201d (Matt. 27:51\u201353).<\/p>\n
\nSaturday, June 21<\/b><\/p>\n
\n2 Samuel 5: This is a very important chapter of political transition. Abner\u2019s adherence to David, followed quickly by the death of Ishbosheth, prepared the way for David\u2019s assumption of authority over all of Israel. His capital still at Hebron, David had reigned over Judah since the Battle of Gilboah in 1000 B.C. The present scene brings us to about 992, some seven and a half years later, when David assumed complete power over Israel and moved his capital to Jerusalem. This recently captured city, because it belonged to no particular tribe of Israelites, would less likely be subject to tribal rule and tribal rivalries. David\u2019s reign at Jerusalem was to last until 961 (verse 5).<\/p>\n
\nA chief reason prompting the northern tribes to place themselves under David\u2019s rule, surely, was the need for a common defense against the Philistines, who had so soundly defeated Saul\u2019s army at Mount Gilboah. Consequently, dealing with those Philistines, now that he has a larger army, becomes David\u2019s first order of business (verses 17-25).<\/p>\n
\nDavid, having great plans for Jerusalem, established diplomatic and commercial relations with the Phoenicians to Israel\u2019s immediate north (verses 11-12). It was the Phoenicians that would provide the sundry materials for the construction of a new city on that site, including the Temple that David\u2019s son would eventually construct.<\/p>\n
\nThere was a special reason that the Phoenicians respected David: His recent defeat of the Philistines had removed them as a naval threat.<\/p>\n
\nSunday, June 22<\/b><\/p>\n
\nMark 3:7-12: Jesus now makes His third trip to the sea (verse 7). On each such occasion so far, He has called disciples, and this time a great number from a very wide area, from as far south as Idumea (in the Negev Desert) to as far north as Tyre and Sidon (in contemporary Lebanon), and even from east of the Jordan River. Meeting Jesus at seaside should put the reader in mind of Baptism, of course<\/p>\n
\nTo this image of the sea, however, Mark now adds that of the boat (mentioned in passing in 1:20), which Jesus uses to escape the press of the crowd (3:9). In the next chapter the boat itself will become the place of catechesis (4:1).<\/p>\n
\nAlthough Jesus\u2019 human enemies are absent from the present scene, His demonic enemies are once again very much in evidence, and their perception of Jesus has become more defined. Whereas they had earlier called Him \u201cthe Holy One of God\u201d (1:24), they now address Him very specifically as \u201cthe Son of God\u201d (3:11 and again in 5:7). What the Pharisees cannot bring themselves to see is now becoming unmistakable to the demons. This is the fifth instance in which Mark has spoken of them so far. Their presence will become ever more obvious in the story, until they finally bring about the death of Jesus through the treachery of Judas and the hatred of the Jewish leaders.<\/p>\n
\nMonday, June 23<\/b><\/p>\n
\nActs 12:5-19: From the perspective of chronology, Acts 12 is something of a “flashback.” Luke\u2019s narrative so far has taken us up to the year 46. Now, however, he looks back to the reign of Herod Agrippa I (A.D. 37-44), and more specifically to the end of that reign. He will bring us back to A.D. 46 at the end of this chapter.<\/p>\n
\nFor a proper understanding of this story of Peter\u2019s imprisonment, it is important to make note of the time the event happens. Peter is delivered from prison at the Passover, the very night commemorating Israel\u2019s deliverance from bondage in Egypt. As the angel of the Lord came through the land that night to remove Israel\u2019s chains by slaying the first-born of Israel\u2019s oppressors, so the delivering angel returns to strike the fetters from Peter\u2019s hands and lead him forth from the dungeon.<\/p>\n
\nAnd as Israel\u2019s earlier liberation foreshadowed that Paschal Mystery whereby Jesus our Lord led all of us from our servitude to the satanic Pharaoh by rising from the dead, so we observe aspects of the Resurrection in Peter\u2019s deliverance from prison: Like the tomb of Jesus, Peter\u2019s cell is guarded by soldiers (verses 4,6). That cell, again like the tomb of Jesus, is invaded by a radiant angelic presence, and the very command to Peter is to “arise” (anasta<\/i> \u2014verse 7).<\/p>\n
\nIt is no wonder that in regarding Rafael\u2019s famous chiaroscuro depiction of this scene in the apartments in the Vatican (over the window in the room called \u201cthe Stanza of Heliodorus\u201d), the viewer must look very closely, for his first impression is that he is looking at a traditional portrayal of the Lord\u2019s Resurrection. And what is the Church doing during all that night of the Passover? Praying (verses 5,12); indeed, it is our first record of a Paschal Vigil Service. Peter\u2019s guards, alas, must share the fate of Egypt\u2019s first-born sons (verse 19).<\/p>\n
\nTuesday, June 24<\/b><\/p>\n
\nThe Birth of John the Baptist: Although our Lord said that \u201camong those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist\u201d (Matthew 11:11), only Luke thought to provide us with the name of the woman who gave John birth.<\/p>\n
\nIn fact, Luke went into some detail to tell of that lady named Elizabeth and the circumstances surrounding her unexpected conception of a son in her advanced years. The Angel Gabriel, who had been somewhat quiet in Israel after the days of Daniel, appeared to Elizabeth\u2019s husband and predicted the pregnancy (Luke 1:13).<\/p>\n
\nMoreover, God clearly intended to leave a special mark on John even before his birth. Six months into the gestation, Elizabeth received another visitor, this one a human visitor: her young kinswoman from Galilee named Mary. At Mary\u2019s greeting, John\u2019s mother sensed another Presence, as \u201cthe babe leaped in her womb\u201d (1:41). Mary, in fact, like a new Ark of the Covenant, bore within her body God\u2019s newly incarnate Son, whose Father chose her greeting at that moment as the occasion to sanctify the unborn John the Baptist. This event fulfilled an earlier prediction of Gabriel with respect to John: \u201cHe will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother\u2019s womb\u201d (1:15). In drawing our attention to John\u2019s prophetic consecration before his birth, Luke portrays him in the likeness of the Prophet Jeremiah, to whom God said, \u201cBefore I formed you in the womb I knew you; \/ Before you were born I sanctified you; \/ I ordained you a prophet to the nations\u201d (Jeremiah 1:5).<\/p>\n
\nIf John resembled Jeremiah, however, his resemblance to the Prophet
\nElijah was even more pronounced. Once again, it was the Angel Gabriel, who used of John the very words with which the Prophet Malachi foretold the return of Elijah: \u201cAnd he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, \u2018to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,\u2019 and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord\u201d (Luke 1:16\u201317; Malachi 4:5\u20136).<\/p>\n
\nSince Elijah\u2019s return had been predicted in the last of the Old
\nTestament\u2019s prophetic books, there was considerable expectation on the
\nmatter, even among the Lord\u2019s Apostles (Matthew 17:10). Although John himself denied that he really was Elijah in a literal sense (John 1:21), he surely felt some affinity to that earlier prophet; he even dressed like him (Matthew 3:4 [and 11:8]; 2 Kings 1:8).<\/p>\n
\nWhatever John felt about the matter, nonetheless, Jesus Himself asserted that \u201cElijah has come already,\u201d and, when He asserted this, \u201cthe disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist\u201d (Matthew 17:12\u201313). John\u2019s affinity to Elijah was more than haberdashery, however, for his appearance in this world introduced the days in which \u201cthe kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come\u201d (11:12\u201314).<\/p>\n
\nWednesday, June 25<\/b><\/p>\n
\nActs 12:20\u201413:3: This scene of Herod meeting with the Phoenician delegation is also described by another writer contemporary to the event, Flavius Josephus, who includes a gripping depiction of Herod\u2019s silver robe glistening in the sunlight. Like Luke, Josephus mentions their addressing him as a “god.” The action of the angel who kills Herod Agrippa I in verse 23 stands in contrast to the angelic liberation of Peter, narrated earlier in this chapter. The description of Herod\u2019s death is usefully compared to the death of the blaspheming Antiochus Epiphanes IV in 2 Maccabees 9:5-28.<\/p>\n
\nImmediately after telling the story, Luke takes us forward again to A.D. 46. Barnabas and Saul, having delivered the collection for the famine to the church at Jerusalem (11:30), leave to return to Antioch, taking with them John Mark, a younger kinsman of Barnabas (12:25; cf. Colossians 4:10).<\/p>\n
\nThen begins the story of Paul\u2019s three missionary journeys, which will occupy the next several chapters. We observe that Antioch has now risen to the status of a missionary center (which it has remained unto this day). Indeed, the very severe political climate at Jerusalem in the late 60s, culminating in the destruction of the city by the Romans in the year 70, caused Antioch to surpass Jerusalem as a missionary center in the East, rather much as Rome became in the West, and, somewhat later, Alexandria in Egypt.<\/p>\n
\nIn the year 325, these three churches (Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch) were made the patriarchal churches, each having oversight of the other churches in those three continents that shape the Mediterranean Sea.<\/p>\n
\nThursday, June 26<\/b><\/p>\n
\nMark 3:20-30: In response to His exorcisms in Chapters 1 and 3, Jesus\u2019 critics advance the accusation that He is using demonic force to expel demons.<\/p>\n
\nThe Lord\u2019s answer breaks into three parts: First, their accusation violates logic, implying that the demonic world had radically turned on itself (verses 23-26). Second, the expulsion of the demons is much more plausibly explained by their having met a superior force (verse 27). Third, the accusation itself is an act of blasphemy, because it ascribes to the demons what is in truth accomplished by the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n
\nSuch a confusion of light and darkness indicates total intellectual and moral depravity, so radical a commitment to evil as to preclude repentance. The scribes\u2019 accusation of blasphemy (2:7) is thus turned back on them (3:29).<\/p>\n
\nIn the course of His argument, Jesus uses certain plays on Aramaic words that are rather lost in translation (whether English or the inspired Greek!). For example, the \u201chouse\u201d in verse 25 is zebul<\/i> in Aramaic, which is part of the name \u201cBeelzebul\u201d (\u201clord of the house\u201d). Similarly, the verb \u201cdivide\u201d (verses 24-26) is pharas<\/i>, which is the root of the word \u201cPharisee.\u201d Jesus\u2019 response thus hints at the ironic question, \u201cHas Satan gone Pharisee?\u201d<\/p>\n
\nFriday, June 27<\/b><\/p>\n
\nMark 3:31-35: The Lord\u2019s own blood relatives have already been introduced in a negative way in 3:21, where they were said to think Jesus \u201cout of His mind\u201d (exseste<\/i>; cf. the identical assessment of the Apostle Paul in Acts 26:24 and 2 Corinthians 5:13).<\/p>\n
\nIn the present scene these relatives are endeavoring to reach Jesus, but the press of the crowd, as seems often to have been the case (cf. 2:2; 5:31), prevents their entrance into the house where He is teaching. They remain \u201coutside\u201d (3:32). Mark thus introduces the distinction between \u201coutsiders\u201d (hoi exso<\/i>) and \u201cinsiders\u201d (hoi esso<\/i>), which will function in Jesus\u2019 teaching in parables. The \u201coutsiders\u201d are those to whom it has not \u201cbeen given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God\u201d (4:11). In the present scene the Lord\u2019s own relatives, because they have not yet understood Him, fall into that category.<\/p>\n
\nJesus\u2019 real<\/i> family, He says, is made up of those who do the will of God (3:35). Fortunately, as we know, even the Lord\u2019s relatives will become \u201cinsiders\u201d to the kingdom in due course (cf. Acts 1:14), but the principle remains that true kinship in Jesus is a matter of the Spirit and not of the flesh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Friday, June 20 Psalm 88: Psalm 88 (Greek and Latin 87) is possibly the most difficult of the psalms. In any case, it is arguably the darkest. It even stands among the most somber compositions in all of Holy Writ, comparable to the overcast pages of Job and Ecclesiastes. It is appropriately prayed on Fridays, … Continue reading June 20 – June 27<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2422,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195\/revisions\/2422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}