Psalm 51

This past week I have been focusing on Psalm 51 and learning what it means to meditate on the word of God. I have been doing this for one of my classes at Biblical Seminary called “Formation and Mission”. The project at hand was to learn two new spiritual disciplines and put them into practice in our lives. Our group choose simplicity and meditation. Before you start getting all up tight thinking I’ve become too eastern or anything understand that meditation for a Christian is far different than any other form of meditation. Richard Foster in his book “Celebration of Discipline” explains it like this:

“Eastern meditation is an attempt to empty the mind; Christian meditation is an attempt to fill the mind. The two ideas are quite different. Meditation of Scripture centers on internalizing and personalizing the passage.”

After practicing this discipline for a few short days, I have really appreciated the discipline. Now, on to the good stuff.

As I mentioned our group chose meditation, and we chose the passage of Psalm 51 to meditate on. One of the coolest things that I came across after meditating on this psalm was verse 10. Listen to how the Message paraphrase puts it.

“God, make a fresh start in me,
shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.” Psalm 51: 10

Can you imagine what that would be like? We know that Psalm 51 is a psalm of David that was written after he had an affair with Bathsheba. His life is wildly out of control and he was chasing after the desires of his own heart at this time. Then brokenness hits him. The reality of what he had done has struck him in the face through the prophet Nathan. David begins to pour his heart out to God in repentance in this psalm.

Have you had seasons or decades in your life where you were like David? Okay, maybe not running around spying on naked women from your roof, but maybe you were living a life that was wildly out of control and seeking after the desires of your own heart. Can you resonate with the words of David? I can.

I love the beauty in the way the Message put it; “shape a genesis week from the chaos of my life.” That’s powerful! A genesis week, the week when all that we know to exist was created. Shape it from the chaos in my life! Wouldn’t you love to turn over your life’s chaos and have it shaped into something beautiful?

I know I would.

~Peter

Check out this video by Gungor called “Beautiful things”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqy1a_Gz0zQ]

It was really good to be with everyone last night at the Five. There is just something about getting together and praising God! It was a great night. I was really excited to see all you guys there. As you know one of the things we value at the Five is conversation, and relationships. The church does not exist to only meet together for one hour a week only to return again the next week for another hour. The church exists to be more than that! We should be encouraging each other, praying for one another and meeting the needs of those we find ourselves surrounded with…

So, one of the things we like to practice is an open line of communication during our teaching times at the Five. Each week I encourage you to text any questions or comments that you may have so that we can interact with them here on the blog.

Last night we continued in our series Raw Worship. We picked up in Psalm 51 and looked at what true repentance really means. If you weren’t able to be at the Five, head over here and listen, then join the conversation below…

Here was the question we received last night….

If everyone is born in sin what happens to the babies that die in birth? Are they going to hell? Or how does that work?

I need to start off by saying this is a very difficult question which the finest and brightest of theologians still do not agree on. So for me to think that I am going to solve this question, that is going to be a tough one… However, I can try to give you some insight into what I think is going on here.

Psalm 51 is written by David after he is confronted by the prophet Nathan for committing adultery with Bathsheba…(read about that here in 2 Samuel 11 & 12) One of the consequences for David’s sin is that the child was to die. “The Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had born to David, and he became ill.” -2 Samuel 12:15 While the child is sick and dying, David is beside himself and fasting and just a real mess, as you can imagine. Once he hears news of the child dying, David gets up washes up, cleans up and eats. His servants are a little perplexed by these actions and they ask him what’s up? He says, “Now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.” This seems to imply that David has an eternal perspective, or eternal hope that he will see his son in heaven one day even though he died.

Many people also believe that there is an age of accountability. Meaning that there is a point in time when children just do not know that they are sinning. This is a difficult thing to nail down, because then you have to ask yourself, well what is that age? Is it four or five? Could it be three? However, this makes a lot of sense to me.

Personally, I do believe that when babies die they go to heaven. Above all else I rest assured in the fact that God is a good God. He is not shy in lovingkindness. He has great concern for children (See Matthew 19:13). God cares more for our children than we could possibly ever! So, I know that this doesn’t answer/solve the problem, but I hope it helps…

~Peter

Chaotic Life!

Carry the Conversation