Psalm 136 | Psalms for Shepherds

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Psalm 136 | Psalms for Shepherds

An audible devotional on Psalm 136

November 23, 2024 • Holly Culhane, Psalms for Shepherds, P4S • Psalm 136

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This is Holly Culhane with Presence Point and welcome to our Psalms for Shepherds podcast.

This week we find ourselves in Psalm 136, a psalm that calls worshippers to a posture of gratitude.

Psalm 136 is 26 verses in length, and in every verse the same refrain is repeated – His faithful love endures forever.

The refrain is meant to stir remembrance in us of God’s merciful, gracious intervention in our own lives. It is also meant to settle in us the deep truth that God’s love for you… and for me… … will never end.

As the psalm develops, it becomes clear the LORD’s supremacy never makes Him remote. Instead, it demonstrates that His steadfast love is active and effective for His people.

We know this God – Yahweh, the God above all gods and Lord above all lords – is also our Shepherd and our example of how to lead and influence others. He is, of course, our perfect example of how to love.

Psalm 136 paints a picture of God’s magnanimous works of creation and acts of providence. It tells of our Shepherd’s deliverance and care for His people, His judgment on their enemies, and His goodness to all.

It also reminds us without question that our Good Shepherd’s love… a GOOD shepherd’s love… endures. In the words of Peter Santucci, author of Everyday Psalms, “His. Relentless. Love. Never. Stops.”

Dear under-shepherd, take a moment before the loving gaze of your Shepherd and check your heart toward the sheep entrusted to your care. Is your love for them relentless? Is it faithful? Is it enduring?

Sometimes, sheep are hard to love. Sometimes, we find ourselves lacking the capacity to love as we would like to. If this is the case for you today, I encourage you to pause and go to the Father. Talk to Him about it. You will find Him faithfully present and faithfully loving you – no matter what.

I leave you with that thought today. Remember that shepherding others well will always first require sitting at the feet of the Good Shepherd, allowing His love to wash over and into and through us, so that we may then offer that same love to others.

Psalm 137 | Psalms for Shepherds

November 30, 2024 • Holly Culhane, Psalms for Shepherds, P4S • Psalm 137

This week we are in Psalm 137, a psalm that some say is “no doubt one of the most troubling and difficult psalms in the Psalter”! This song is nine verses of “remember” and “forget”. The psalmist, most likely a Levite, is asking God in this prayer to help the Jewish people remember Jerusalem, the precious city they inhabited before Babylon invaded, ravaged, and destroyed, taking many of the people captive. He also prays for consequences should his people forget their city, and to remember that what Jerusalem represents in indeed their greatest joy. You will hear the psalmist say, “they sat down and wept”, something many of us have done in the most tragic, frustrating, or severely disappointing moments in our lives. This psalm is also a song of prayer for severe retribution on the Babylonians. It is believed a Levite wrote this psalm after he had returned home from captivity in Babylon with the remnant of God’s people who could return to this great city. It is interesting that 20 years after that return, Babylon was destroyed. Timothy and Julie Tennent, in A Meditative Journey in the Psalms, wrote this: “The psalmist had experienced extraordinary pain, ridicule, mocking, violence, and scorn…He [then] remembered that somewhere in the writings of his own people, God had promised that he would not let such violence go unpunished, and that he would pay back to them as they had done. Thus, he does exactly what he has been taught to do in the face of such evil and wickedness and injustice. He prays! He does not take vengeance into his own hands or strike back with comparable violence for violence. No, he laments, and he prays. He prays for God to take that action, and he trusts that God indeed will do just that. This is his only hope for not going mad in all that he has to endure.” The dear psalmist does exactly what we must do: lament our past sufferings, and celebrate that our God is loyal, worthy of worship, praise, and our complete trust. So, dear fellow under-shepherd, what past sufferings have you endured as a shepherd leader, as an influencer in your home, your church, your business, or your community? Have the sheep of your pasture harmed you, have they betrayed you, have they hurt you more deeply than you thought possible? Don’t hesitate to lament, to sit down and weep at the pain you’ve felt, the sense of loss you didn’t think possible, or the betrayal you experienced. Then seek to the follow the Father’s leading from there. Let him keep score. Let him seek justice. Believe me, He will do it far better than you or I ever could. Thank you for joining me, and thank you for loving, multiplying, and championing the shepherding message. May you live deeply into your calling this week.

Psalm 135 | Psalms for Shepherds

November 16, 2024 • Holly Culhane, Psalms for Shepherds, P4S • Psalm 135

This is Holly Culhane with Presence Point and welcome to our Psalms for Shepherds podcast. This week our focus is on Psalm 135, which begins a series of psalms that emphasize praising our God. This particular psalm’s emphasis is on praising our God for who He is and what He has done. The psalmist begins this psalm with praise to our Lord and ends with praise to our Lord. In between those moments of praise and worship, we are reminded that our Lord: is good that we should celebrate His name with music that He chose Israel as His own special possession that He is greater than any other god and that He is in complete control of the heavens and the earth, even the seas and their depths, the clouds, the lighting, and the wind. This psalm clearly reminds us of five important facts. Our Lord is God. He chose us. Our Lord is sovereign and does what He pleases. Our Lord is compassionate and vindicates His people. Our Lord is the true and living God and He cares for us, and Our Lord should be praised because He is present with us! Dear fellow under-shepherd, no matter the circumstances you face, no matter how difficult the sheep in your life seem right now, no matter your health, your wealth, or the decisions that stand before you, you can praise the Lord right now! And know that He hears you and that His provision, His protection, and His presence are with you, enveloping you with every step you take. May you live deeply into your calling this week to be an under-shepherd who praises our God, and may you communicate that attitude of praise to those you shepherd in every area of your life.

Psalm 134 | Psalms for Shepherds

November 9, 2024 • Holly Culhane, Psalms for Shepherds, P4S • Psalm 134

This week we close our time in the Psalms of Ascent with Psalm 134, the last of the 15 psalms intended for the ascension of the pilgrims to the temple in Jerusalem. This last Psalm of Ascent, it seems, is specifically celebrating the pilgrims’ safe arrival in the Holy City and that they had fulfilled their duties and were now preparing to return to the cities in which they lived. Psalm 134 Oh, praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, you who serve at night in the house of the Lord. Lift your hands toward the sanctuary, and praise the Lord. May the Lord, who made heaven and earth, bless you from Jerusalem. This benediction of the pilgrims’ time at the Temple, reminds us that we worship and serve a God that never sleeps. No matter whether night or day, we can praise Him. And He knows that we’re praising Him because He’s fully awake, alert, and on watch, shepherding us through every moment of our lives – if we let Him. In addition, this short psalm reminds us that our worship of our Almighty God should never end and that His blessings never stop. The psalm ends with a blessing from our Creator, which so perfectly reflects what the priest would do when the pilgrims left the temple. As each worshipper would leave, he would say, “May the Lord bless you from Zion”, with the pronoun, “you” in Hebrew, being singular because the blessing of God is for each of us, personally. Thank you for joining me. May you live deeply into your calling this week and shepherd well.