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We are confronted with the issue of lying lips every day in a huge variety of
                                         ways. The psalm has advice not just about personal lies spoken in a small
                                         setting. Lies can take the form of theological heresy or cultural norms
                                         passed down from one generation to the next or new attractive trends.
                                         Sorting out lies can be difficult, time consuming, and frustrating. Lies are
                                         the opposite of God’s truth in all times and all settings. We will struggle
                   Figure 43: Lying Lips
                                         with lies throughout life.

                           Pastor Joseph Karisa came to me asking advice. He is a pastor in Durumaland in Kenya,
                       where they have some strange situations. In this one, a woman (we’ll call her Nnzingo)
                       had come to Christ and some complications had resulted. Nnzingo was “married” to
                       another woman, who had gone to her father and paid the bride price. This woman
                       became Nnizingo’s “husband,” for whom she would cook and keep house. (I don’t think
                       there was any sexual relationship.)
                           When the “husband” wanted children, she brought a man to father them with
                       Nnzingo. The “husband” then took those children as her own. After having a few kids in
                       this way, Nnzingo believed in Jesus and asked Pastor Joseph what was the right thing to
                       do: 1) stay in the situation she was saved in (1 Cor. 7:20), that is, “married” to this
                       woman; 2) divorce her “husband” and marry the father of her children (whom she
                       doesn’t love, and who may already be married): 3) divorce her “husband” and live alone
                       (in which case she could starve, without support for herself or her children).
                           Pastor Joseph’s church has no money to help Nnzino, and she cannot return to her
                       family without her father paying back the bride price, which he cannot do.
                           Wow! What should Joseph tell her to do?
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               This first Psalm of Ascent is an invitation to a pilgrim mentality. This world is not my home. The
               realization might come slowly or suddenly. The familiar becomes distasteful, unpleasant, and even
               painful. Whether we live in Zambia or the United States or India or China, our hearts are convinced that
               God has better for us. The apostle Peter wrote to the “exiles scattered through the provinces (1 Pet. 1:1)”
               and called them to live “as foreigners and exiles (2:11)” who “set their hope on the grace to be brought
               to [them] when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming (1:13).”

               While the Psalms encourage                                          us to view ourselves as exiles
               in this world, they also                                            encourage us to constantly
               praise God while on our       Hy Wllh - Hallelujah                  pilgrimage. The collection
               called the Hallel (“praise”)                                        psalms contain the same
               themes that were introduced in Psalm 1 and 2. God is creator of everything (146:6; 147:4; 148:5; 149:2).
               He is sovereign (147:8; 148:8). Humans are to put their trust in him (146:3; 147:11). “Blessed are those
               whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD their God (146:50),” echoes the blessing of
               2:12. “Vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples (149:7)” reminds us of the nations and
               kings who want to rebel against Yahweh and his Messiah king in Psalm 2:1-2. They will be found with





               140  Joel Asay, “What Should I Do?” Impact, May 1993, ?.
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