We were blessed with the opportunity to go to a Greek Wedding on the weekend. Well, that’s probably not entirely accurate. He was Greek, she was Italian. Yes, there were a lot of people. Yes, Table 7 looked like it was straight out of The Sopranos.
After a 1:00pm Greek Orthadox service, a 3:00pm Catholic Service, cup drinking, table walking, and crown exchanging, I got the feeling that the “church thing” was a mechanical, ritualistic, obligatory process. A feeling of, we love the bride and groom. We absolutely are going to sit there and support them and immerse ourselves in their culture, but obviously, clearly, the highlight of the day is Zorba dancing tonight.
The grind of religion has and will continue to turn people away. What I love about Psalm 39 is that it reminded me that a glimpse of Jesus, and what he is willing to do for us, turns and will continue to turn people back.
Commentary suggests that Psalm 39 is written when David is extremely sick, arguably to the point of death, which is a potential explanation of the references to death in verses 4 and 11. With this intense challenge inevitably comes doubt, fear and cynicism. He has a choice. He can be stoic, strong, and silent, or he can unload his emotions, frustrations, and in some verses, his sarcasm to God. I’m so glad after trying the first option, he settled on the second one.
It reminded me of a song that mum used to sing during our “family prayer times”. These prayer times would normally involve Dad going first, me going second, Emily successfully claiming she was too young to pray and then the three of us closing our eyes waiting for mum to finish.
Mum would always, always want to sing;
“What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear,
what a privilege to carry, everything to God in prayer.
O, what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
all because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer.”
That hit me this week, drilling past everything, let’s start/continue/consider taking everything to God in prayer. It is a privilege for us to do this. I love that David knew this, and I love that he didn’t censor his words, he didn’t worry about what people thought of him, he just brought it.
I need to learn that.
Anyone else feel the same?
– Vinny Tan