While I’m pretty into myself, it’s nice to know I’m not the ultimate.

David wrote: Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer. From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

Good news—a rock stands higher than I.

I’m not number one; it’s not all about me; I’m not the pinnacle of evolutionary progress; I ain’t all that and a bag of chips; I cannot be anything I want to be; I cannot do anything I set my mind to; I don’t have to figure it all out; I don’t need to live large; I don’t have to rely totally on myself; I’m not a rock nor an island; I don’t have to hide; I don’t have to influence; I can let the Joneses move ahead; I don’t have to fade into despair.

Because the rock that is higher than I holds room for me, and the Lord waits to lead me there.

Psalm 61 in reading the Bible cover to cover.

Photo by Simon Berger

We get in trouble when we make gods of our desires.

After years of straying, Hosea encouraged Israel to return to the Lord, take his words seriously, seek forgiveness and confess, We will never again say “Our gods” to what our own hands have made, for in you the fatherless find compassion.

Hundreds of years later two blind men accosted Jesus outside Jericho, shouting for mercy. Jesus stopped and asked, What do you want me to do for you? Of course, they wanted to see, so Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed him.

What to think of layering these two stories? Hosea warned people to stop making gods of their desires, which we’re all prone to do. Whether is be health, career, money, family or TikTok fame, we elevate yearnings to divine status. Hosea reminds us of the futility found in placing the good things of this world before God.

The blind men serve as better guides. Unseeing, sitting in the dirt, ears cocked, they assailed Jesus as he approached. Any hope of success or fame left them years before. They needed the compassion of Jesus and they made sure Jesus knew they knew. In response Jesus turned their way.

That’s the better order—the Lord first. I tend to make gods of my desires, then add a dusting of spirituality to pretty them up. Surely God wants me to be happy. But God may not want me to be happy. He may want me to sit blindly in the dirt until I realize my need for the Savior, shouting and screaming and flailing in my desperation.

Both these stories begin in anguish and end with compassion. Let’s drop the little gods you and I hold in our hands, and give serious thought to blindness and our need for the touch of the Lord.

Because empty and needful precedes compassion.

Hosea 14 & Matthew 20 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Scott Van Hoy

Carnac the Magnificent spouted out curses. A character played by Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show, Carnac revealed answers to unknown questions handed to him in hermitcally sealed envelopes. As part of the comedy, Carnac regularly cursed the audience when they booed, with lines like may the bird of paradise fly up your nose.

Although you may not expect it, the Bible is filled with curses, with no comedy attached. David cursed the wicked afflicting him with these desires; break the teeth in their mouths, O God…when they draw the bow, let their arrows fall short…may they be like a slug that melts away as it moves along.

Give credit to David—his line about a slug melting away is one good curse on your enemies.

Along with cursing, forgiveness emerges as a major theme of the Bible. How do we reconcile the two? Apparently there’s room for both as we follow the Lord. After the cursing David turned his focus back to God:

Then people will say, “Surely the righteous still are rewarded; surely there is a God who judges the earth.”

Curse away. Be as creative as you want. Spew it all out. David did so, and we can follow his example. But also follow David back to the Lord, away from lingering bitterness, trusting God to work things out, to judge both the righteous and wicked.

Whether our curses come to fruition or not, the Lord knows our future, way better than you or me or even Carnac the Magnificent.

Psalm 58 in reading the Bible in 2023

It’s a short slide from warm faith to cold religiosity. The Old Testaments prophets spoke to this tendency again and again. Hosea announced, Though Ephraim built many alters for sin offerings, these have become alters for sinning.

How do we see this play out?

One example involves sexual scandals roiling our churches, where clergy or others in power prey on the young and vulnerable. Financial malfeasance also flips an alter, church leaders enriching themselves to the detriment of their congregation.

Closer to home, pride douses the fires of faith. Pride over how I get my religion right and others don’t. God surely favors my viewpoint, even if I tend to overlook a few of the finer points of the law. Hosea spoke for the Lord, I wrote for them the many things of my law, but they regarded them as something foreign.

Do we forgive? Do we show mercy? Do we castigate and malign rather than seek compassion? I know I do, and thus my alters for sin offerings devolve into alters for sinning.

May the words of Hosea and the prophets continually remind you and me of this fondness in our nature, the door behind which sin patiently waits. Don’t regard the words of God’s law as foreign, but ask the Holy Spirit to reveal their truth to you.

Lord, help me avoid the slide from a warm faith focused on You, to a cold religiosity tuned only to myself.

Hosea 8 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Zoltan Tasi