I think King David gets a bad rap for Psalm 109. He does seem to wish evil on his enemies. Here’s a sample:

Let his children continually be vagabonds, and beg; Let them seek their bread also from their desolate places. Let the creditor seize all that he has, And let strangers plunder his labor. (Psalm 109.10, 11, NKJV)

Two observations to start: first, this command hadn’t been given yet:

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. (Jesus, recorded in Matthew 5.11 – 13, NIV)

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. (Paul in Romans 12.14, NIV)

Second, David is not our role model, Jesus is.

That said, I don’t think the curses of Psalm 109.6 – 19 say what they appear to say at first glance. Here’s how the psalm starts:

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. Do not keep silent, O God of my praise! For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful Have opened against me; They have spoken against me with a lying tongue. They have also surrounded me with words of hatred, And fought against me without a cause. (Psalm 109.Introduction, 1 – 3, NKJV)

David is being accused by enemies, always referred to in the plural. “They have spoken against me…” And…

In return for my love they are my accusers, But I give myself to prayer. Thus they have rewarded me evil for good, And hatred for my love. (Psalm 109.4, 5, NKJV)

I like the way NLT begins the cursing section of Psalm 109. And notice, that the object of the curses is always in the singular. These are not David’s curses on his enemies; these are the enemies’ curses on David.

They say, “Get an evil person to turn against him. Send an accuser to bring him to trial. When his case comes up for judgment, let him be pronounced guilty. Count his prayers as sins. (Psalm 109.6, 7, NLT)

“They say” is inserted, but it’s certainly implied since, again, David refers to his enemies in the plural while the curses of verses 6 – 19 are in the singular. I think David is praying his enemies’ curses back to God.

And to be sure, he does wish his enemies’ curses to fall on his enemies:

May those curses become the LORD’s punishment for my accusers who speak evil of me. But deal well with me, O Sovereign LORD, for the sake of your own reputation! Rescue me because you are so faithful and good. (Psalm 109.20, 21, NLT)

My takeaway from Psalm 109 is that if I’m not up for blessing my enemies or rejoicing in persecution, I can follow David’s example and bring my enemies’ actions to God’s attention and pray for God’s deliverance.

Help me, O LORD my God! Oh, save me according to Your mercy, That they may know that this is Your hand— That You, LORD, have done it! Let them curse, but You bless; When they arise, let them be ashamed, But let Your servant rejoice. Let my accusers be clothed with shame, And let them cover themselves with their own disgrace as with a mantle. I will greatly praise the LORD with my mouth; Yes, I will praise Him among the multitude. For He shall stand at the right hand of the poor, To save him from those who condemn him. (Psalm 109.26 – 31, NKJV)

I had lunch recently with a good friend, strong believer, all-around good guy, whose three adult children have abandoned their faith (I’d like to think, temporarily, but we don’t know that). Our society is definitely “post Christian,” and it’s easy to wonder why the Gospel doesn’t seem to work anymore.

But it does, and the God who delivered all those groups in Psalm 107 is still alive and well. Here’s a story for your encouragement. The Gospel does work. There is transformation. Around the world. This story from Christianity Today: From a Village of Bandits to a Village of the Gospel is too good not to share. It opens:

Over the past four decades, octogenarian Bollaku Issak has preached hundreds of sermons. The diminutive pastor with white hair and a knock-kneed gait ends each service with the same altar call.“If God can save a wretched sinner like me, he will definitely save you,” he says, his voice softening. “You are no different. You are loved. Just surrender. Repent and be saved.”

Often as he utters those words, tears well up in his eyes, transporting him to his life before Christ. He once lived as an armed robber, or dacoit, in Stuartpuram, an infamous village in Andhra Pradesh considered a “reformatory colony” by the British colonial government. Families lived off banditry for generations and passed it on to their children as an inheritance. In the aftermath of any major theft in the region, police invariably suspected Stuartpuram gangs.

Bollaku himself led a band of nine men, breaking into houses, trains, banks, and government offices, he recalled in a recorded testimony. He earned the moniker Bangaru Pichchuka(“Golden Sparrow”) for absconding with gold worth millions of rupees and for going on thrilling escapades.

Bollaku was finally caught and sent to prison, sentenced to seven years. The story continues:

In prison, a fellow convict who had recently became a Christian explained the gospel to Bollaku. Hearing about the love of Christ and the promise of salvation reinvigorated his spirit. Over the next two months, he prayed, sobbed, repented of his sins, and learned about the Bible. He prayed persistently that somehow his prison term would be shortened to a year.

“It was a miracle!” he said in the testimony about the trial. “The prosecution could not gather evidence. The court struck down the charges against me. I was completely set free.”

Wait! There’s more!!

After walking out of prison, he spent the next 14 years serving as a volunteer at a local church—sweeping floors, cooking, and cleaning dishes. As a spiritual life of prayer and service took root, he never returned to his old ways. One morning as he prayed, Bollaku had a vision: Jesus laid hands on him, instructing him to testify about the Good News that had turned his life around. Since then, Bollaku has sought to follow this calling. (Note: compare Mark 5.1 – 20.)

Bollaku’s testimony is not uncommon in Stuartpuram, which in the past four decades has seen a revival as nearly all its 5,000 residents have become Christians. The “Village of Dacoits” has become Suvarthapuram, Telugu for “Gospel Village.”

“People here live out Christianity, be it in personal or professional lives,” Bollaku told CT. “God has become the center of our pursuits today. This was unheard of a generation back.”

I encourage you to read the article in its entirety.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. (Romans 1.16, NKJV)

I’ve had a good time going through the Wisdom books at most one chapter per day. I hope you have too. We’re now entering the last phase. We interspersed the five books of the Psalms with Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon, and now we’re on the last lap: Psalms, Book Five. (Or Book V, depending on your version!)

Book 5 opens with a bang: Psalm 107, the psalm of deliverance:

Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy, And gathered out of the lands, From the east and from the west, From the north and from the south. (Psalm 107.1 – 3, NKJV)

And the text follows with a variety of things to be delivered from:

They wandered in the wilderness in a desolate way; They found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, Their soul fainted in them. (Psalm 107.4, 5, NKJV)

…

Those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, Bound in affliction and irons— Because they rebelled against the words of God, And despised the counsel of the Most High, Therefore He brought down their heart with labor; They fell down, and there was none to help. (Psalm 107.10 – 12, NKJV)

…

Fools, because of their transgression, And because of their iniquities, were afflicted. Their soul abhorred all manner of food, And they drew near to the gates of death. (Psalm 107.17, 18, NKJV)

…

Those who go down to the sea in ships, Who do business on great waters, They see the works of the LORD, And His wonders in the deep. For He commands and raises the stormy wind, Which lifts up the waves of the sea. They mount up to the heavens, They go down again to the depths; Their soul melts because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, And are at their wits’ end. (Psalm 107.23 – 27, NKJV)

Four situations all ending in despair and all followed by the same response:

Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, And He delivered them out of their distresses. (Psalm 107.6, 13, 19, 28, NKJV)

They prayed! And God delivered. Each vignette is followed by the specifics of their deliverance and ends with this challenge:

Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness, And for His wonderful works to the children of men! (Psalm 107.8, 15, 21, 31, NKJV)

Take a few minutes and read the whole psalm, which ends with:

Whoever is wise will observe these things, And they will understand the lovingkindness of the LORD. (Psalm 107.43, NKJV)

Here’s a simple lesson after a familiar story. Jesus returns to Nazareth.

He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. (Mark 6.1, ESV)

But his hometown friends rejected him…

And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief. (Mark 6.5, 6a, ESV)

In a discipleship class a while back someone observed, “Maybe he healed only a few because only a few asked.” Unbelief among everyone else.

BUT, he kept going. It’s easy to skip over the last sentence in the story:

And he went about among the villages teaching. (Mark 6.6b, ESV)

That last sentence may be among the most important. What do you do after rejection? Jesus kept doing what he was doing.

He gave essentially the same counsel to the 12 when he sent them out a few verses later:

And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” (Mark 6.10, 11, ESV)

Shake the dust off and keep going. Not a bad word.

There’s a lesson early in Mark’s gospel that reinforces the same message embedded in two disparate articles. First, from Mark, what’s one of the first things Jesus does?

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him.

And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him. (Mark 1.14 – 20, ESV)

Jesus calls men to follow him, and we would do well to remember that in most events following, Jesus is accompanied by his men.

Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen…And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching. (Mark 1.16…21, ESV)

“He saw Simon…” “They went into Capernaum…” Jesus ministers with his guys alongside.

Now the articles. The first is a news item that the Roman Catholic Church is experiencing a shortage of priests. There are several contributing factors, which you can read for yourself. I want to highlight a simple story from deep into the article. If there’s a shortage of professional manpower, what do you do? Engage the amateurs!

At St. Patrick’s church in Belfast, Northern Ireland, the Rev. Eugene O’Neill is now the lone priest—the first time the parish has had just one priest in the past two centuries. The diocese is also dwindling. When O’Neill became a priest in the early 1990s, there were more than 200 priests in the Down and Connor diocese. Now, there are 97, a figure expected to decline to 27 in two decades’ time, O’Neill said.

The lack of manpower means less time for pastoral care. When he first arrived nine years ago, O’Neill and three other priests continued a tradition of visiting housebound parishioners—usually 80 or so people—at least once a month. That soon changed to once every two months, then just once a quarter. 

“Now, even that’s not possible for me anymore,” said O’Neill, a talkative 57-year-old with an athletic build and trim beard. 

He’s increasingly focused on training lay ministers to take communion to the sick, visit grieving families and participate in the school boards of parochial schools—all duties O’Neill no longer has time for. 

“I’ve moved from seeing myself as the doer of everything to more as a convener or enabler of the priestly ministry of all baptized,” he said. – Wall Street Journal, September 22, 2025

Duh! Look to your founder. “Training lay ministers” is the first thing Jesus did! “Enabling the priestly ministry of all baptized” was the strategy that the Apostle Paul passed on to Timothy:

And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. (2 Timothy 2.2, NIV)

The second article makes the same point from the perspective of counseling: Bearing One Another’s Burdens Means More Than Therapy Referrals, Christianity Today, June 1, 2025. The article’s authors have written a book, When Hurting People Come to Church, that makes this point:

The key is that laypeople within the church can be trained to listen and walk alongside those with basic needs.  – emphasis theirs

Again, we need to be following Jesus’ example of training laypeople. It’s encouraging that people are discovering the basic truth that ministry doesn’t have to be done by paid professionals. Indeed, relying on paid professionals has slowed down ministry and the spread of the gospel.

It’s discouraging that Jesus spoke to this a long time ago, and some are just now discovering this principle:

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Matthew 9.36 – 38, NIV)

Pressing on in Mark’s gospel we have some practical lessons on faith. What is faith?

Faith is Persistence

And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” (Mark 2.3 – 5, ESV)

I love this story, and because the text is so crisp, I think we miss the persistence of these four guys. Nothing stopped them. They’re carrying their friend, and they “can’t get near Jesus because of the crowd.”

“What will we do?” The decision to tear up somebody’s house couldn’t have been instant. They would have had to brainstorm a bit and come up with the idea. “Do you really think we should?” “How hard will it be?” There are a hundred reasons not to tear up the roof. But they do it anyway. “And when they had made an opening they let down the bed…”

“When Jesus saw their faith.” How do you see faith? By action. In this case raw determination and follow through. That’s faith. Then, maybe, as a friend of mine suggested, they dropped the ropes!

So faith is persistence.

Faith is also trust without fear. We’ve seen this before.

Mark 4 ends with the story that starts:

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side… (Mark 4.35, ESV)

A clear statement: we’re going to the other side. However…

And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” (Mark 4.37 – 40, ESV)

The last time I wrote on this, July 10, we were drowning in a sea of moving boxes. I reminded myself that God didn’t tell us to move into this house so we would be stuck in moving mode.

Now, we’re in the house, and it looks and feels great…but we’re still carrying a loan collateralized by our former house. But it’s the same. Jesus will not leave us in the middle of the sea to drown. We’re in the pit with a live lion, to change the metaphor, but victory will come. In fact, as of last Sunday, our old house is under contract!

In our first story, “When Jesus saw their faith…,” he acted.

The key verse in the second story:

He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” (Mark 4.40, ESV)

The “have no fear” message is reinforced in the following chapter in the story of the raising of Jairus’ daughter:

But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” (Mark 5.36, ESV)

“His heart is secure, he will have no fear…” (Psalm 112)

I publish a blog every day. I don’t write a blog every day. Sometimes, I have to write ahead such as when last Monday’s shoulder surgery was looming. In the process, I got ahead in our readings as well, so I decided to read the Gospel of Mark for a while. Always encouraging.

And I saw something obvious in chapter 1 that I’ve never focused on before:

John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. (Mark 1.4, 5, ESV)

It’s an obviosity, as I said, but I’ve never paid attention before: “all…were going out to him…confessing their sins.”

We could use some of that in the US right now. Confessing sins is not what we do. We like to recite the perceived sins of others, but few of us are rushing to confess our own sin. Gambling, Alcohol abuse, illicit Sex are still the big three, I think, and we’re encouraged to do more, not confess. But there I go, reciting the sins of others. What about me? Lack of persistent prayer and use of time come to mind.

But just as I was thinking about these things, Peggy Noonan was watching the memorial service for Charlie Kirk. She wrote about the experience, opening with:

Halfway through it struck me the memorial might have been the biggest Christian evangelical event since the first visit to America of Pope John Paul II, in October 1979. He was a year into his papacy. “Be not afraid!” he said, and took America by storm.

At the memorial there was an altar call—at a public memorial for a political figure. It was singular, and moving. So was the dignity and peacefulness of the crowd. They didn’t indulge their anger or cry out against the foe. It was as if they understood that would be bad for the country. I couldn’t remember a time a big Trump-aligned group did that, as a corporate act, in the past 10 years. It struck me as a coming of age. They were taking responsibility. – Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal September 25, 2025

So maybe there is some confession going on, and if it starts with Christians, that’s a good thing:

For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? (1 Peter 4.17, ESV)

I heard a pastor/author when I was in college, J. Allen Blair, who quoted this verse and observed that “if judgment begins with believers, the outcome for unbelievers is that they will believe!”

Amen. Let the confession begin.

I won’t write much from Song of Solomon – after all, this is supposed to be a G-rated blog! I recommend you read it for yourself and continue to give thanks that married sex is God’s idea.

My yard work has been completely limited to cutting grass and running the weed eater. (And not even that any more since the move where the grass and landscaping are taken care of.) I have never been into gardening, and I admire those folks with the patience and discipline for it.

That said, there is one kind of gardening I can get into. I offer the text without further comment.

Wake up, North Wind, get moving, South Wind! Breathe on my garden, fill the air with spice fragrance. Oh, let my lover enter his garden! Yes, let him eat the fine, ripe fruits…I went to my garden, dear friend, best lover! breathed the sweet fragrance. I ate the fruit and honey, I drank the nectar and wine. Celebrate with me, friends! Raise your glasses—“To life! To love!” (SOS 4.16, 5.1, MSG)

Honor marriage, and guard the sacredness of sexual intimacy between wife and husband. (Hebrews 13.4, MSG)

My brother-in-law, Paul, posted something from fall in South Carolina yesterday. Here’s what fall looks like here:

The upper left picture was taken in our new neighborhood, just in front of our house. The two right-hand pictures are at a retreat center in Sedalia, Colorado, and the last we shot in Woodland Park on our way home from a fall colors drive.

We didn’t do the drive that Gazette editor Vince Bzdek writes about in The Greatest Aspen Drive of All Time, published on October 5. Here’s a sample. The article has more. Strongly recommend.

For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. (Isaiah 55.12, ESV)

My brother-in-law Paul Porter, who lives in Piedmont, SC (population 5,786), continues to amaze me. He takes an early morning walk with his German Shepherd, Catfish, and frequently posts pictures and life insights on Facebook after.

Here’s the word from September 28, 2025:

The Serenity of the Millpond

The noisy geese flew off in v’s, headed south, as Catfish and I approached early this morning.  It suited the great blue heron just fine. At last he could fish in peace without a bunch of obnoxious honking and yapping.

Among the comments were these:

I agree with the great blue heron. We could all do with a little less obnoxious honking and yapping.

Thank you for another beautiful moment of serenity. They don’t seem to come around often anymore.

Amen.

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander (honking and yapping?) be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (Ephesians 4.31, 32, ESV)