Imago Scriptura 81 - Psalms 51-53 & Romans 2 - Upside Down
So, I took this picture laying on a rock on the boulder field below Devil's Tower while leaning my head backwards. Why? Because I thought it would be good to do - the kids thought I was crazy. But it captures something for me about these passages from a few days ago in the daily readings. The passages in the reading plan do not always line up as these ones do, but the passages from Psalms and from Romans really both seem to speak about similar ideas - about how the world sometimes seems like its been turned upside down - and often as a result of what we do. The Romans passage speaks of the consequences of sin and how sin is usually a downward spiral - one thing leads to another leads to another and so forth. The Psalms passages, especially 51 speak from the perspective of one whose world has been turned upside down by sin (in this case, King David) and hoping to find ways of making it right once again.
It would be very easy to make this picture right in Photoshop - just a simple "Flip Vertical" and it quickly looks like it should. However, in life, untangling from sin is far from that simple unfortunately. But it does start with what David does in Psalm 51 - an acknowledgment of brokenness and a desire to start a new path. When we do that, the picture begins to right itself.
This morning in worship, I preached on Hosea 11:1-11 and the core of the message was on the hope that we have in Christ whose love breaks every mold that we want to set up, a forgiveness that goes beyond anything we can imagine, and a grace that is truly amazing beyond compare.