The Psalms & Seasons of Orientation
Dr. James Smith
Psalms 1, 8 & 19
12 September 2004
When I was about 10 years old, my parents made a decision to move from the city to the country. They probably had grown tired of living in close quarters to neighbors as well all tired of all the noise.
They also wanted an environment that would be safer and more nurturing for my brother and I. They also wanted schools that did not have some of the problems associated with city schools.
I remember visiting a number of different old farms and always wondered which one would end up becoming our new home. I loved all the old barns to explore, as well as all the fields to roam.
At last my parents settled on an old centennial farm with a number of barns and buildings, all situated on 23 acres.
My brother and I couldn’t believe how much space we now had and we spent many of our free moments exploring the property as well as the hundreds of acres just past its borders.
And I’ll always remember the hundreds and hundreds of trees that we planted. In fact, one of the first things that we did was to plant pine trees all along the fences and borders of the property as a windbreak.
I, who had known nothing about trees before, soon became knowledgeable about Austrian pines as well as blue and white spruce.
We also began our own fruit orchard. We planted Red Delicious, McIntosh as well as Golden apples. We planted Bartlett and Anjou pears and even had plum trees to boot.
In addition to the trees, we had a quarter acre of vegetables too; tomatoes, peppers, onions, peas, beans, corn, squash and pumpkins.
We had acres of field corn and alfalfa hay so that by the time that I had become a Christian in high school, this city kid had a firm knowledge and experience of the agricultural seasons that farmers know instinctively.
Practically, this meant that when I began to read the Bible, I had no problem understanding all the agricultural imagery in the Scriptures as well as Jesus’ parables, which so often talk about seeds and growing seasons.
And while it was a lot of hard work, I grew to love the satisfaction of being able to watch the plants and trees grow as well as being able to harvest all of this food.
In the evenings, I would often sit outside quietly and watch the sunset, knowing that everything was safely under God’s loving care.
But I knew that God was calling me into the ministry and that I would need to study for many years in places far away in preparation. And in all of the difficult transitions and relocations that followed, I always remembered the farm and this helped to anchor me.
I’m sure that you too have stories from your own life like this. You also can recall these kinds of seasons of orientation when your life was happily settled and you knew that God was reliable and trustworthy.
And you probably can identify with many of the Psalms that describe these seasons of orientation; times when you enjoyed living in a well ordered, “no surprise” kind of world and had nothing to fear.
In fact some of these Psalms of orientation are actually songs of creation such as Psalm 8, which reminds us that our God is a God of order and that He gives order and shape to both the seasons of life as well as the seasons of the year.
Consider how Psalm 8 describes God’s creation as “reliable, equitable and generous.”
Here the Psalmist looks upon everything that is under God’s “sacred canopy” with awe and reverence. And this awe and reverence, naturally leads the Psalmist to worship.
“Lord, when I consider the work of your fingers, the moon and stars that you have set in place, how is it that you care for us?” “How is it Lord that you, in all your grace and generosity have given us dominion over all your creation?
“O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”
Here the Psalmist is deeply grateful for all of the blessings of God and he knows what it means to be safe and free.
Another kind of Psalm of orientation is the famous Psalm 1. This orienting Psalm is a song of Torah.
Here Torah is not only understood as the Law or laws of God, but rather it also has to do with “God’s will and purpose, which is ordained in the very structure of life itself.”
Here in Psalm 1, the Psalmist understands that God’s will and order for a person will not be found in leading an evil life, but rather in a life that is in submission to His good and life giving laws and commands.
In fact, we are given the beautiful image of a tree to meditate upon. This tree has been very carefully planted by streams of water, so that it can grow healthy and strong.
And over time, healthy trees will produce good fruit as is the will and purpose of God for them. This fruit will naturally nourish others because the wise gardener carefully planted it when it was young in a place where it would thrive.
And its leaves remain vigorous throughout the growing season and they in turn are the source of its very own food and life.
We are reminded, however, that the wicked will not grow and thrive, why?; because they have not submitted to God’s good order and plan for their lives.
Finally, Psalm 19 is another good example of the psalms of orientation and it is unique because it is a combination of a song of creation as well as a song of Torah.
Psalm 19 begins as an oriented song of creation where we are told that created order actually gives testimony of the glory of God.
It affirms the important idea that God has not only spoken through His special revelation; that is, the Bible, but also through His general revelation . . . the creation.
“The heavens tell of God’s glory and the firmament proclaims His handiwork” “Day pours forth speech and night pours forth the knowledge of God.”
And such a general knowledge of God has no need for an interpreter because this “art of the Master” has the power to move the human heart.
In fact, in witnessing to other people, there is nothing like pointing to a beautiful sunset and saying to an unbeliever . . . “are you going to tell me that you honestly believe that this is just some sort of coincidence?”
The second half of Psalm 19 ends as a song of Torah and proclaims that “God’s law is perfect and is perfectly capable of reviving the any human soul.”
“God’s decrees, commands, precepts and ordinances are all together good; they are sweeter than honey and of greater value then gold.”
And in fact, they are an aid for living out a truly oriented life of faith.
But we all know that such stable times of orientation can come and go in the Christian life. This could be due to sin or simply because things enter into our lives that are beyond our control, such as the death of loved ones.
Time of orientation, however, are a blessing to us from our orderly and gracious God. In fact, survivors of those awful Jewish concentration camps have often testified that it was the memory of beautiful times and things that kept them alive.
And in the challenges and difficulties in life that I have experienced since moving away from my parent’s farm, I have often been encouraged by the memories of those oriented seasons of life, which have been such important anchors for me.
My parents still live on the farm and I have had the privilege of sharing it with my sons. The pine seedlings that I planted over 25 years ago are now over 25 feet tall.
The fruit trees that I carefully planted, now bear bumper crops of fruit that my sons are nourished with.
And my experience, as well as these Psalms of orientation, remind me that God is reliable and trustworthy, and if we are faithful to Him and His word, we will experience His blessing.
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