You have to work hard for good news, but it's worth the effort.

 I'm sure you can't imagine why today's news reminded me of an old Anne Murray song.

On top of the epi/pan/en-demic, inflation, ugly politics, the war in Ukraine I woke up this morning to embarrassing revelations in the world of religion that are way too close to home. You're right, Anne, "we sure could use a little good news today."

I've been following a DIY devotional plan this year. Part of it is reading through Psalms each month. From month to month I use a different translation. May is King James month. I know that the ancient Israelites didn't speak with a British accent but to an old guy who grew up on the KJV, it just sounds a little more Psalmish than the ESV, NASB, NIV, etc.

After my dose of bad news, I landed at Psalm 120 this morning. It is the first of fifteen "Psalms of Ascent," or as the KJV labels them, "Psalms of Degrees." As the Jewish pilgrims made their way to Jerusalem for the important feast days their journey was mostly uphill--they ascended by degrees. I quickly read through these traveling songs, this morning. As I walked and sang along with these Old Testament worshippers of God, I was carried along by the mental/spiritual journey they took as they slowly made the sandals-on-the-ground trip to Zion. 

Making a journey like this took a lot of commitment for a group of people who spent their days laboring hard in the field, shop, or home.  Why would they take time away from their occupation--one that required hard and constant work just to get by--and bear the expense, trouble, and risk of a trip to the Holy City? Psalm 120 gives the answer. The opening chorus of the travel songs begins in a minor key, "In my distress I cried unto the LORD." Like Isaiah at his moment of clarity (Isaiah 6:5) the Psalm writer/singer saw the evil that spewed from people's mouths. He was tired of the lies, and worse, I get the idea that the Psalm writer knew that he was not free of the falsehood epidemic. "Deliver my soul, oh Lord, from lying lips." Is he pleading to be delivered from the harm that the liars that surround him inflict? Certainly. Is he concerned that, like Isaiah realized, he too was a "man of unclean lips"? I think so. In the New Testament, we read, "Bad company corrupts good morals."

Toward the end of the Psalm, you can hear the weariness of the God-worshipper with being surrounded day after day by the lie-tellers and peace-opposers. Meshech and Kedar are addresses of places in the world--the place that the Apostle John says, "lies in the power of the evil one." They are representative of everywhere in the world. They are places not unlike where you and I live. The ancient Israelite heard it in the marketplace or the gate of the city, Anne Murray took the rubber band off of the paper, and you and I click on a website. It's the same--there is a serious lack of good news.

The discontent motivated the faithful of  Israel to make the dusty journey, as you travel with them, you can hear their songs change. Hope enters; there is joy. Where does one find help? "My help comes from the Lord." The distress is transformed into gladness as the pilgrims contemplate the stability that comes to those who worship the LORD. As the contemplation of communion with the God of truth and peace built toward a crescendo, someone broke out in song, singing the words the warrior king, David, had written,

I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. 

O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. (Psalm 131:2–3, ESV)

I may pick up these wonderful songs again, soon, but for now, I leave you with David's words. "Hope in the Lord." That's good news we can all use.

Who gets to say what is beautiful?

Let me totally up front with my limitations, prejudices, and conclusions:

• I consider myself aesthetically challenged.  I just don't get why this color doesn't go with that one.  
• I enjoy music, of various genres, but my analysis of it pretty much begins and ends with, "I like (or don't like) it."
• I have great appreciation for a nice piece of wood well crafted.  I have made enough feeble attempts at doing that crafting, to have great respect and appreciation for those who do it with excellence.  I work hard at saying things well, and, to a lesser degree, expressing myself well in written form.  I seldom succeed in doing either in a way that could be described as "beautiful."  I think I'm able to translate that appreciation and respect for the crafts I am familiar with to those who labor in disciplines where I have no experience.  I think good art takes hard work, and practice, and that it involves that difficult to define quality, talent.
• I realize that art communicates.  I know that what I say is said not only by the dictionary meanings of the words, and the grammatical parsing of the sentences, but by the emotions my words call on, and the cultural memories they stir.  As any good comedian--not to mention Simon and Garfunkel-- I know even the absence of words--when the silence is well crafted--communicates with eloquence.  The problem is different cultures have different cultural buttons, and the 21st Century culture in which I live is made up of a polyglot of cultural languages.  I really hate to insert a high-end, technical term here, but it seems to be that "different strokes for different folks" is a concept that definitely must be considered in this discussion.  Having said that, though I stood in awe of  Michelangelo's David, I think using a picture of a naked guy is in appropriate in worship.  In my culture it just pushes too many wrong buttons.
  
• Finally, let me show my scars from the worship wars.  (For those who don't understand what I mean by "worship wars," first stop and thank the Lord, then if you are still curious, google it.  In those battles, I have leaned toward the amoral nature of music--music itself, apart from the words.  

A couple of recent articles have again raised this discussion in my thinking:

I saw a picture a while back that said something like, "Click if you think this world needs more beauty."  I very much wanted to click.  Yes, I do think this world needs more beauty.  I toured a local neighborhood recently, and I was bothered with how ugly it is--overgrown yards, falling-down porches, junk strewn about, and peeling paint flapping in the breeze.  I just spent a week+ redecorating a room in my house, and, while it doesn't show nearly as much as I wish it would, I work every week to say something with a measure of beauty.  Yes!  I think this world needs more beauty--desperately so.  I didn't click, though, because of one big question.  

Who gets to say what is beautiful?  

The world is filled with people who come at you with "too"s.  It's "too middle-class,"  "too baby-boomer-ish," "too Black," "too White," "too common," "too snooty," etc. etc. etc. too much.  Yes, the world very much needs more beauty, but I have to admit--and so do you--that we don't all agree on what is beautiful, and at least some of that difference of opinion is not based on the fact that I'm under, or over educated, or sold out to, or not in tune with, my culture, or common, or high-falutin', or etc. etc.  Some of it--I think more of it than I care to admit is because we are different.

Al Mohler, with his usual perception, commented on this broader issue by way of responding to a panel discussion on Christian rap music.  This excerpt from his blog-post, has the nuance that I am struggling to communicate.

Rap music is not my music. I do not come from a culture in which rap music is the medium of communication and I do not have the ear for it that I have for other forms of music. But I do admire its virtuosity and the hold that is has on so many, for whom it is a first and dominant musical language. I want that language taken for the cause of the Gospel and I pray to see a generation of young Gospel-driven rappers take dominion of that music for the glory of God. I see that happening now, and I rejoice in it. I want to see them grow even more in influence, reaching people I cannot reach with music that will reach millions who desperately need the Gospel. The same way that folks who first heard Bach desperately needed to hear the Gospel.
The good, the beautiful, and the true are to be combined to the greatest extent possible in every Christian endeavor, rap included. I have no idea how to evaluate any given rap musical expression, but rappers know. I do know how to evaluate the words, and when the words are saturated with the Gospel and biblical truth that is a wonderful thing. Our rapping Gospel friends will encourage one another to the greatest artistic expression. I want to encourage them in the Gospel. Let Bach’s maxim drive them all — to make (their) music the “handmaid of theology.”

In particular I appreciate Mohler's admission, "I have no idea how to evaluate . . . rap."

I am aware of my limitations, which I am sure exceed, Dr. Mohler's.  Lord, help me to keep those limitations in mind.

I found this post, which, I think, contains the discussion, a video, that prompted Mohler's commentary.  I don't know any of the men on this panel, but I have met, heard, and argued with them all.  Owen Strachan's thoughts are worth considering.

Here is one more post I found that critiques--don't read this if you agree with these guys--the arguments made by the panelists, Brent Hobbs

OK, I'm a preacher, thus I feel a compulsion to at least suggest some things that we ought to do with this.

1. Just be quiet (I wanted to say "shut up,". but my wife would fuss at me.) about only being able to worship God, if--you know, "I can only worship God with organs, or guitars, or with people in suits, and dresses, or folk in blue jeans." or  "I need the place where I worship to be 'real'" as in, looks like a shopping mall, or "Worship can only take place in a sacred setting."  meaning pipe organ and stained glass.
   The fact is all of us have preferences, but that is all they are.  Three element are necessary for true worship, and none of them are listed above--you, God, and the absolute, Isaiah 6 conviction of the vast difference between the other two.
   
   
   "I saw the Lord high and lifted up."
   

   
   Certain things will help me in that regard, but in my fifty-one years of walking with the Lord, and my forty years of trying to help others worship Him, I have found that a change of heart-attitude is far more important than a change of venue.
2. I ought to be able to say, "I really don't like your music."  or, "I think you dress really tacky."  or "This building, practice, way of doing things is too . . ." without starting a fight.  
3. I should be able to hear what is said above without getting my easily culturally offended nose out of joint.
4. I should be open to hearing arguments about what is the best way to do God's work.  I need to realize that my way does not necessarily equal the best way, nor is my way necessarily wrong.
5. It's not about me.  I worship God.  He is supreme.  He has given me a mandate to enlist others in worshiping Him.  I must be willing to step outside of my comfort-zone to do that.

As always, I welcome your comments.