The pillars of creation. Credit is due to whoever picked that evocative name for these columns of dust and gas in the Eagle Nebula where stars are being formed. I saw this image as I wandered through the incredible SPACE: A Visual Journey exhibition at Fotografiska and you can’t help but wonder.
Psalm 19 famously opens with the declaration that
The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
Despite this famous opening the Psalm really isn’t about stars, galaxies, or the sun and moon. Instead the focus moves from the works of God to the words of God. Not so much His self-revelation in the stars but in Scripture.
In a few months time I’ll turn 50 and if I haven’t already passed my mid-point then I very quickly will. Increasingly I find that what I want most is to deepen my character, to ripen and to mature. In more practical terms I want to respond to the big moments and even more precisely the little moments of life (these are the moments that are most likely to trip me up) in a godly manner.
This probably explains why I was drawn not so much to the opening verses but to the middle section (7-9) where the Psalmist writes:
The law of the Lord is perfect,
refreshing the soul.
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
The fear of the Lord is pure,
enduring forever.
The decrees of the Lord are firm,
and all of them are righteous.
And there was my prayer: refresh my soul, make me wise, give me joy.
Several of my friends in ministry are currently on sabbatical, several others are planning one for 2025 and I had one last year. There was a common theme amongst us as we talked about what we hoped for during some time away from the day to day labour. We all hoped for our souls to be refreshed. There seems to be something in the way ministry works at the moment in the West that provides a constant drain on the soul. One acquaintance runs a ministry that holds pastoral refreshment gatherings precisely for this reason.
The fight for time, the fight for attention, for focus and for the discipline to come before the Lord and be refreshed is a constant. In the end many find they need to step away from the work of leading a church in order for their souls to be refreshed. I get it, I did it myself, but the fact that it happens at all for leaders of churches is an indication that something, somewhere is out of whack.
I’ve never tried organizing my house based on Marie Kondo’s system but she asks a really good question: what sparks joy? Churches could do worse than to review their activities based on that question. Are we doing the things that spark joy? And are we doing those in a way that sparks joy?
Is the work, and we must surely work at it, resulting in refreshed souls, wiser minds, more joyful hearts?
Of course the what is rarely as tricky as the how. We often know what to do but not always how to do it. I think of all the spiritual disciplines that I have heard about it one of the ones I have heard least on is the one the Psalmist finishes with: meditation.
This whole Psalm was a meditation that took place in his heart. I’ve never written a Psalm, perhaps I should. I have heard and read lots of books or sermons about prayer that don’t teach me how to pray. Lots of books about the Bible that don’t help me read it and far less on the how of meditating on Scripture in such a way that it leads to refreshed souls, joyful hearts and wiser minds.
Andrew Wilson noted that he reads primarily for four main reasons,
Personally, I reflected, I read books for four main reasons: to learn and be stimulated to think (mainly history and philosophy), to be absorbed or entertained (just before going to sleep, or perhaps on holiday), to live well (usually books of Christian wisdom and cultural engagement), and to fuel joy (primarily in my devotional times).
I resonated with that and noted that more and more I’m looking for Christian books that fuel joy. The question it raised for me though is whether I preach in a way akin to those four reasons: for education, to entertain, to live well and to fuel joy.
I assume most preachers would reject entertainment as a goal but perhaps not necessarily as a method but I also suspect that much of our preaching and application is focused on the first and third categories. We want people to understand Scripture and to live well in the world. I wonder whether the fourth category is sorely neglected. Do I preach with the goal of fuelling joy?
So my prayer found a second level. I began simply asking God to refresh my soul, make me wise and give me joy. I am also praying that through His word (preached, sung, conversed, testified) He would do the same in our church.
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