Reaction to Eugene Peterson's A Long Obedience in the Same Direction:
Discipleship in an Instant Society, 2000 (216
pages).
I have heard of the Song of Ascents
and I have read these Psalms prior but never with the insights Peterson had
given. Peterson painted such a great picture of how these Psalms were used I
wondered how I could have missed this before! As Hebrew
pilgrims traveled to Jerusalem three times a year they would sing these fifteen
psalms on their journey—a daily devotional in preparation for worship. With
this in mind, Peterson gives poignant insights that make God’s Word in these
songs stick to your conscience. The Psalms are convicting yet healing, rousing
yet focusing, and giving depth yet breadth.
One insight I gained was more of a
confirmation and encouragement. I was challenged to read the Bible through in a
year and that was two years ago. I had wondered why I couldn’t keep up with it
and Peterson gave me an insight into this. When I read God’s Word it is more
than just reading a book, or going over a page and then another. When I read, I
am taken somewhere—I am caught up into the story and my imagination, seized by
the Holy Spirit, sees the stories of God played out. Some call this meditating.
Others call it using our sanctified imaginations. But this sort of engagement
with the word takes time and pauses –a break in the reading to allow God to
move and engage the reader as an active participant rather than a passive
overseer. Peterson’s word helped me to see that I didn’t have to feel bad for
not completing the challenge—it is simply a wrong way for me to read the Word
of God.
The well-rounded topics given in
the Psalms were a great selection to meditate on during a journey. I also
wondered since Jesus new of these 15 songs if he incorporated and teachings alongside
their framework? Peterson references Jesus’ teachings with his sermons on the
mount in Matthew 5-7. It is also fitting to begin the journey in repentance and
mystery and finish with community and blessing. Peterson also weaves into his
devotional thoughts the topic of culture. Our culture can deplete so much of
our Christian allegiance because it is itself depleted in many ways. “Work is a
major component in most lives” but cultivating the goodness of God innate in
culture should be a major focus. A retirement mentality has swooned this
culture into a ‘gone fishing’ posture for temporary things—creating an absence
of work in the name of Jesus Christ. “It is difficult to find anyone in our
culture who will respect us when we suffer…we are persuaded that God’s way with
us is redemption and that the redemption, not the suffering, is ultimate".
I would like to weave the topic of the judgments of God into a sermon
series for “every time we worship our minds are informed, our memories
refreshed with the judgments of God, we are familiarized with what God says,
what he has decided, the ways he is working out our salvation." This
reminded me that the Hebrews would take their stance on two mountains to read the
blessings and the curses, paradigmatic to our walking life in the valley below
between the two with choices to be made towards one of these two mountains—that
big of a decision!