Page 85 - The Poetic Books - Student Text

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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