Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Blessed are all who fear the Lord,
    who walk in obedience to him.
You will eat the fruit of your labor;
    blessings and prosperity will be yours.
Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
    within your house;
your children will be like olive shoots
    around your table.
Yes, this will be the blessing
    for the man who fears the Lord.
May the Lord bless you from Zion;
    may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
    all the days of your life.
May you live to see your children’s children—
    peace be on Israel.

• Psalm 128:1-6

No king is saved by the size of his army;
    no warrior escapes by his great strength.
A horse is a vain hope for deliverance;
    despite all its great strength it cannot save.
But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him,
    on those whose hope is in his unfailing love,
to deliver them from death
    and keep them alive in famine.
We wait in hope for the Lord;
    he is our help and our shield.
In him our hearts rejoice,
    for we trust in his holy name.
May your unfailing love be with us, Lord,
    even as we put our hope in you.

• Psalm 33:16-22

Taste and see that the Lord is good;
    blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.
Fear the Lord, you his holy people,
    for those who fear him lack nothing.
The lions may grow weak and hungry,
    but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.
Come, my children, listen to me;
    I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
Whoever of you loves life
    and desires to see many good days,
keep your tongue from evil
    and your lips from telling lies.
Turn from evil and do good;
    seek peace and pursue it.
The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
    and his ears are attentive to their cry;
but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil,
    to blot out their name from the earth.
The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them;
    he delivers them from all their troubles.
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted
    and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
The righteous person may have many troubles,
    but the Lord delivers him from them all;
he protects all his bones,
    not one of them will be broken.
Evil will slay the wicked;
    the foes of the righteous will be condemned.
The Lord will rescue his servants;
    no one who takes refuge in him will be condemned.

• Psalm 34:8-22

Surely the righteous will never be shaken;
    they will be remembered forever.
They will have no fear of bad news;
    their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord.
Their hearts are secure, they will have no fear;
    in the end they will look in triumph on their foes.
They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor,
    their righteousness endures forever;
    their horn will be lifted high in honor.
The wicked will see and be vexed,
    they will gnash their teeth and waste away;
    the longings of the wicked will come to nothing.

• Psalm 112:6-10

Boilerplate

I’m Harold Dykstra.  I’m retired, but I go to food bank distributions all over Tracy and talk to people that need someone who will listen to their story.  My time is well spent.  A police lieutenant suggested that I write down the conversations that I had with an angel.  I did not know she was an angel at the time.  The angel, for a little over a year, indwelled a life-sized posable action figure my children bought me, so that I would not be perceived as travelling alone.  And in a way, she was training me for what I do while talking to the needy.  She probed my heart to find out what I believed and how I express love for others.  She changed my life.

In her leaving, she said someone would come.  I had thought that was Jesus, in His second coming, but a new Babs, a little older, the model for the posable action figure arrived.  While I had no desire to start over with romance, Morrie helped her move in, thinking she was the other Babs who had returned.

This Week’s Question

Last week, Babs and I started dancing lessons.  It may be low on many people’s wedding planning priorities, but Babs thought I might need some help.  She was right.

But this week, she has been humming or softly singing every time she comes by the dining room that doubles as my advertisement ideas office.

I stopped her.  “Babs, what are you singing?”

Babs scrunched her nose.  “I am trying one wedding song after another.  This one is Jimmy Fortune’s My Only Love.  I will thank the Lord above for you each day.  I think that is so sweet.  But yesterday, it was John Legend’s All of Me.  But I hear that Emmett Dalton has a baritone friend who is a professor at the university.  I hope he can pull off an old Elvis hit, Can’t Help Falling in Love.  Maybe tomorrow will be Unchained Melody.  We are too old for Shut Up and Dance.  Besides, it does not seem appropriate although it is a love story.”

I asked, “And why are you doing this?”

Babs walked to my side of the dining room table.  She lightly slid a finger up and down my arm.  “We have started our dance lessons.  And that got me thinking about the music for the wedding.  I think in the prelude, we might get someone to sing the Jimmy Fortune song.  It brings God into the picture.  But then the Elvis song is great if this professor can sing it the way Elvis did.”

I shrugged, “We have nearly eight months, Sweetie.  Why sweat the details now?”

Babs huffed, “And I thought you were the engineer!  I thought you were the project manager!  Am I supposed to wait until the last minute and then hope a miracle happens?  This may be your second rodeo, but it is my first.  I want it to be right.”

I moaned, “Have I created another bridezilla?”

“Harold!” she chided, “Wash your mouth out with soap.  Do not suggest such a thing, or you will pay the consequences.”

I shrugged, “Yep.  That sounds very bridezilla to me.”

Babs giggled, “No, Harold.  I think we can create a structure.  We can make most of it flexible in case we think of something later.  But reserving the band for the reception might be hard.”

I said, “From what I have heard, weddings at Lily the Pink have either Emmett Dalton in charge of music, wedding and reception, or Angus MacDougall.  He is part of the music department at T.R.U.S.T.  He has gotten professors together with selected students to have a nice band and if you want pipes, he is the pipe major.  So, there you have a main source and a backup.  You might get the two of them to combine their efforts.  Brodie was going to get Emmett to write an arrangement for our dance last week.  Please, Sweetie, remain your sweet self.  No bridezilla, please.  You can calmly plan everything.  We can discuss the details, but I am surprised you have not been thinking of the Psalms.  Some denominations sing the Psalms.  Psalm 128 is often read at weddings.  Some people call it the ‘wedding psalm.’”

Babs giggled, “I like the way you did those air quotes.  What the Brits call inverted commas.  What does Psalm 128 have to say about brides and grooms?”

It was my turn to laugh, “A lot, and nothing.  It is a blessing to those who fear the Lord, but then it gives a blessing to the wife and the children.  So, in singing it at a wedding, you are praying for everyone in a household who loves the Lord to be blessed.  If you fear the Lord and obey, your wife will become a fruitful vine.  Your children will become olive shoots.  And you will eat of the fruits of your labor.  You will be blessed from generation to generation.  Not those words, and not in that order, but it is a short psalm, six verses.  We do not anticipate new children, but we have Morrie and Willie, and they each have children.  It may not be long before Morrie’s children have children of their own, but I have not heard if either of them are dating yet.  I have an idea.  That psalm has a couple of arrangements to it.  You might have the music while people are waiting for the event to happen, but for a congregational hymn, let’s choose one of the tunes and sing Psalm 128.  Then, we can memorize that psalm and recite it from now until the wedding day.”

Babs started bouncing with excitement.  “Yes!  This is more than I ever imagined.  We are going to really get this done right.  When we bring God in at the beginning, it always works out better.  Are there other psalms that are read or sung at weddings?”

I shrugged, “Psalm 33 is used, but selected verses.  It talks about unfailing love from time to time.  I have heard those selected verses read as a responsive reading.  The next psalm, Psalm 34, is often used.  At least the first 10 verses, but the rest of the psalm is practical charges for anyone, especially couples.”

Babs scrunched her nose, “Charges?  Like charging a battery?  Or Charges, like being arrested?”

I shook my head.  I started thinking she was playing with me. “No, dear, if you want to see many good days together, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from telling lies.  Then the responses for the rest of the psalm are about how the righteous may have trouble, but God delivers him from it.  That kind of thing.”

Babs nodded, “Okay, I know what you mean.  We need some of that in the service, but doesn’t the pastor decide those things?”

I nodded, “But since we have decided on my son-in-law, soon to be our son-in-law, we can influence those decisions.  Besides, the pastor rarely decides everything in a vacuum anyway.  We don’t want to belabor the service with a lot of extras anyway.  People come to see the wedding dress, the beautiful bride, a clumsy groom, a flower girl or ring bearer that steals the show, and a piece of wedding cake after a big meal.  It’s like a car race, a lot of them come to see the wreck, not the race.  Something at the wedding will not go as planned.  Bridezilla melts down in a rage or mental collapse.  But I know you, Babs.  You will laugh, and we will laugh every time we remember what happened.”

Babs moaned, “How can you be so sure?”

I shrugged, “Another of those psalms that are read at weddings…  Psalm 112 says that our hearts are secure.  We will endure, but the wicked will be vexed.  They will waste away.”

Babs nodded, “I will read over those psalms and see what Gil thinks.  The service is kind of his thing anyway.”

I suggested, “And you can use the Jimmy Fortune song in the prelude.  I have heard that one.  It is really good.”

Babs smiled, “Thank you, Harold.”  She leaned over and gave me a kiss.

Credits

All these conversations remind me of my conversations with my wife.  We would talk about anything and everything.  And most of the time, it sounded like a discussion in a Sunday school class.

Here is a video of Jimmy Fortune singing My Only Love.

Here is a video of Elvis: Can’t Help Falling in Love.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.