Psalm 132:7- 143: When Faith Gets Honest

When Faith Gets Honest: Psalm 132:7–143

The more pages I read from this old Bible, the more I realize something, the Bible is a lot less polished than people sometimes make it sound.

Don’t get me wrong, there is praise in here, absolutely. There is faith, worship, gratitude, and talk about God's goodness.

But there's also anger, grief, fear, frustration, loneliness.

People asking God for protection from other people. People admitting they feel abandoned. People remembering everything God has done while simultaneously wondering what He's doing right now.

And somewhere between Psalm 132 and Psalm 143, that really stood out to me.

Because maybe faith isn't about pretending everything is wonderful because you believe in God.

Maybe sometimes faith is simply continuing the conversation with Him when everything isn't.

Psalm 132 — Remember What God Said

Beginning with Psalm 132:7, we're brought into worship and reminded of God's agreement with David.

God had made David a promise concerning his descendants and his kingdom. But there was responsibility attached to that promise too. His descendants were expected to remain faithful to God and His teachings.

That caught my attention because sometimes we talk about God's promises while conveniently leaving out our participation in them.

We want the blessing, the protection, the provision, the favor.

But obedience? Accountability? Changing something about ourselves?

Suddenly we get selective.

Psalm 132 reminded me that faith isn't simply believing God will do what They said.

It's also asking whether I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing.

Psalm 133 — Peace Doesn't Require Sameness

Psalm 133 is tiny, only three verses, but its message is huge.

David talks about how beautiful it is when people live together in unity, and I think sometimes we misunderstand unity. Unity doesn't mean everyone agrees, nor does It mean nobody gets irritated.

It doesn't mean families, friendships, marriages, churches, communities- or any group of human beings- suddenly stop having different personalities and opinions.

It means disagreement doesn't automatically have to become destruction.

There is a difference between:

"We don't see this the same way."

and

"Because you don't see this my way, now we're enemies."

Those are two very different things.

Maybe peace isn't everybody thinking alike.

Maybe it's learning how to love people when they don't.

Psalm 134 — Faith After Everybody Goes Home

Psalm 134 speaks to those serving in the temple at night.

It's essentially an encouragement to keep praising God.

That made me think about how easy faith can look when everyone is watching.

Church.

Celebrations.

Public prayers.

Inspirational posts.

But what does faith look like when nobody is watching?

When it's late.

When you're tired.

When nothing particularly miraculous is happening.

When you're just trying to make it through an ordinary Tuesday.

Psalm 134 reminded me that worship isn't supposed to be a performance.

Some of the most genuine moments with God probably happen when there isn't an audience at all.

Psalm 135 — Modern Idols Don't Look Like Statues

Psalm 135 celebrates everything God has done while contrasting Them with idols made by human hands.

The idols described have mouths but cannot speak.

Eyes but cannot see.

Ears but cannot hear.

Reading that today, it's easy to think:

Well, I don't worship a statue, so we're good.

Except...

Our idols changed.

Money can become one.

Success can become one.

Relationships can become one.

Attention.

Social media.

Status.

Business.

Appearance.

Even our own opinions can become idols when being right becomes more important than learning anything.

None of those things are automatically bad.

The question is what happens when we start expecting something human or temporary to give us our identity, security, worth, or purpose.

Maybe the modern question isn't:

"Do you worship idols?"

Maybe it's:

"What are you terrified of losing because you've accidentally built your identity around it?"

That answer might tell you a lot.

Psalm 136 — And Still, His Love Endures

Psalm 136 repeats essentially the same response after every statement:

His faithful love endures forever.

Again.

And again.

And again.

At first glance, it almost feels excessive, I certainly thought so.

Until you understand what they're doing.

They're remembering.

God created the world.

His love endures.

God rescued them.

His love endures.

God guided them.

His love endures.

God provided for them.

His love endures.

They're going through their history and attaching God's faithfulness to every chapter.

And I couldn't help thinking about what would happen if we did the same thing with our own lives.

This happened.

And I'm still here.

That happened.

And somehow I made it through.

I didn't understand that season.

But eventually something came from it.

There are things we survive and quickly move past because we're already worried about the next problem.

Psalm 136 says:

Remember.

Not because everything that happened was good.

But because remembering where you've already been can change how you look at where you're going.

Psalm 137 — The Bible Doesn't Hide Ugly Emotions

And then we get to Psalm 137.

This chapter isn't pretty.

The Israelites are captives in Babylon, grieving Jerusalem and everything they've lost.

Their captors essentially mock them by asking them to sing songs from home.

Imagine somebody destroying your world and then asking you to entertain them with memories of it.

By the end of the chapter, naturally the writer's grief has turned into rage, and the final verse is disturbing.

There's no cute way to package it, but understanding what we're reading matters.

This isn't God commanding Their people to commit that violence.

We're reading the words of a traumatized, grieving person expressing an absolutely brutal desire for Babylon to experience the suffering Babylon inflicted upon others.

And oddly enough, I understand and I think its presence in the Bible matters.

Because apparently God isn't afraid of ugly emotions.

Human beings get angry.

We think terrible things when we're hurt.

We want people who hurt us to understand exactly what they did.

The Bible doesn't pretend otherwise.

The important part is where that anger is being taken.

The writer brings it to God.

That doesn't automatically make every thought righteous, believe me. The universe (God) and I have had some pretty heated discussions. I’ve “Bruh come on,”  the creator of heaven and earth so many times I’m sure he sighs when he see me calling.

From my understanding God is apparently big enough for us to tell Them the truth.

Especially when the truth isn't pretty.

Psalm 138 — Trouble and Faith Can Exist Together

Psalm 138 brings us back toward gratitude.

David thanks God for hearing him and talks about God's faithfulness.

But he also says something important.

He still be getting into trouble… So wait… Run that back for a second or two:

Believing in God didn't magically eliminate problems?

Apparently not.

That's one of those ideas that desperately gets twisted more often than not.

Faith isn't necessarily:

"Nothing bad will happen to me."

Sometimes it's:

"Something bad is happening, and I still believe God is here."

Those aren't the same kind of faith.

In my opinion, the second one costs more.

Psalm 139 — Before You Examine Everybody Else...

Psalm 139 may be one of the most personal chapters in Psalms and I think everybody and their grandmas need to read it then reread it again.

David talks about how completely God knows him.

God knows where he goes, what he does, what he's thinking, what he's going to say.

There isn't anywhere he can go where God isn't present. So how we think we got the upper hand is beyond me but I digress.

David reflects on being formed before birth and how intentionally God knows Their creation.

It's beautiful.

But what really grabbed me comes near the end.

After talking about wickedness and people doing evil, David turns the attention back toward himself.

Essentially:

Okay God... now search me.

Look at my heart.

Look at my thoughts.

Show me if there's something wrong in me.

Take a second and think, if you asked of God what David did after every “discretion” instead of why would they… life would probably look a little different.

It's incredibly easy to identify everybody else's problems.

We can diagnose somebody else's attitude in thirty seconds.

Point out their hypocrisy.

Their bad decisions.

Their character flaws.

Their mistakes.

But Psalm 139 flips the mirror around.

Before asking God to deal with everybody else...

What might He need to deal with in me?

That question is considerably less fun.

Probably considerably more useful too.

Psalm 140 — Every Battle Doesn't Need Your Participation

Psalm 140 is David asking God for protection from violent, dishonest, destructive people.

Something stood out to me here.

David doesn't spend the whole prayer asking God to make him powerful enough to destroy everyone.

He's asking for protection.

Sometimes victory isn't winning the fight.

Sometimes victory is not getting dragged into one in the first place.

Understand, there are people who live comfortably in chaos.

They will invite you into arguments, drama, gossip, retaliation, and nonsense,  if you accept every invitation, you'll spend your entire life fighting.

Psalm 140 made me think:

Maybe protection sometimes looks like distance.

Not every battle deserves access to you.

Psalm 141 — God, Please Put a Security Guard on My Mouth

Then Psalm 141 gives us possibly one of the most practical prayers ever written:

Essentially...

God, watch my mouth.

Apparently people have been saying things they shouldn't since thousands of years before Facebook.

David asks God to guard what comes out of his mouth.

He also says he'd rather receive correction from a righteous person than accept the approval of people doing wrong.

That's another uncomfortable one.

Because we love encouragement.

Correction?

No thank you.

Remember, somebody agreeing with you doesn't automatically mean they're good for you.

And somebody correcting you doesn't automatically mean they're against you.

Sometimes the person willing to tell you:

"No babes, you were wrong."

is showing you more love than the person cheering while you make a mess.

Psalm 142 — Feeling Alone Isn't the Same as Being Alone

Psalm 142 comes from a completely different emotional place.

David is hiding in a cave.

He's overwhelmed, he’s afraid, he feels abandoned and at one point, he says nobody cares what happens to him.

That's a very human sentence.

And once again, David doesn't clean up his feelings before talking to God.

He doesn't say:

"I'm blessed and highly favored and everything is fantastic."

He says:

I'm overwhelmed!

That’s it, that's his prayer.

There's something incredibly freeing about that.

Faith doesn't require lying about how you feel.

But feelings aren't always the complete truth either.

David felt alone, yet he's talking to God in the middle of his loneliness.

The feeling was real, it just wasn't the whole story.

Psalm 143 — Don't Just Get Me Out. Show Me Where to Go.

By Psalm 143, David is again asking God for mercy, protection, and guidance.

But there's a prayer here I really love:

Teach me to do Your will. Lead me on level ground.

Not simply:

Get me out of this.

But:

Teach me how to move through it.

That's different,  sometimes we're so focused on asking God to change the situation that we never consider asking what the situation might need to change in us.

Give me wisdom, give me direction, show me what I'm missing, teach me what I need to learn.

Show me where to step next.

Maybe the answer isn't always an escape route, sometimes it's direction.

What These Pages Taught Me

Reading Psalm 132 through Psalm 143 together felt more human than biblical when you take away that inane language.

These chapters aren't one long inspirational speech, they're messy.

One minute we're praising God.

The next we're grieving.

Then we're angry.

Then grateful.

Then afraid.

Then examining ourselves.

From asking God to protect us from somebody else, to asking for protection from our own mouths.

Honestly?

Sounds about right.

And maybe that's what I'm starting to appreciate about reading these pages before turning them into something else.

When you stop pulling one verse out because it sounds good and actually read what surrounds it, you discover something much more complicated.

And much more useful.

The Bible isn't filled with perfect people experiencing perfect faith.

It's filled with human beings trying to understand God while experiencing very human lives.

They questioned, they struggled.

They got angry, they messed up, they praised.

They remembered, and they asked for help.

Sometimes they had to look at themselves before pointing another finger.

Yet through all of those emotional shifts, one thread continues:

They kept coming back to God. They didn’t turn to earthly substances to quote unquote “numb the pain.”

Maybe that's faith.

Not having every answer, or being happy every single day. It’s not pretending everything makes sense it’s continuing to come back.

Continuing to ask, continuing to learn, continuing to remember.

And when I look at Psalm 136 sitting right in the middle of all these complicated human emotions, that repeated sentence suddenly feels a little different:

Gods faithful love endures forever.

Through the praise.

Through the anger.

Through the questions.

Through the mistakes.

Through the loneliness.

Through the lessons.

Through all of it.

And maybe that's why they needed to say it twenty-six times.

Sometimes we need the reminder more than once.