Chad Bird

07/30/2025

If someone is innovative or imaginative, we label them “creative.” On some social media channels, video producers are called “creators.” Artists create paintings, musicians create songs.

But in Hebrew, it does not matter what you make or how original it might be, you are neither creative nor a creator. Only God is. Every time the Hebrew verb bara (“create” [ברא]) is used in the Old Testament, the Lord alone is the subject.

In the beginning, God bara the heavens and the earth, and he is not sharing that ability with anyone else.

That makes David’s prayer all the more meaningful: “Create [ברא] in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Ps. 51:10). There was one way, and one way only, for David to get a clean heart.

He could have exchanged his royal robe for sackcloth, beat his breast, wept and fasted, confessed and lamented, all day, every day, for the remainder of his life. Yet none of this would have gotten him any closer to creating within himself, by himself, a clean heart and a right spirit.

Human activities associated with repentance have their place, but they are powerless to enact inward change. Christ alone, by the power of his Spirit, sent from the Father, can do that.

And he does! As by his word of power, he spoke all things into being, so by his word of grace, he speaks cleansing words that create within us clean hearts, right spirits, joy in salvation.

Every “I forgive you” from God’s lips to our ears is like the “Let there be light” in Genesis 1. It makes things happen. As there was light, so there is forgiveness.

He speaks it into us, creating hope, making joy, and opening our mouths to teach other transgressors his ways, that sinners might return to him (51:13). Full of his Holy Spirit, therefore, with hearts washed pure by the liquid of his mercy, our tongues sing aloud of the righteousness of him who did for us what we could never accomplish ourselves (51:14).

____
This is a sample devotion from my next book, Untamed Prayers: 365 Daily Devotions on Christ in the Book of Psalms. Preorder your copy at https://a.co/d/dohEnsk

07/29/2025

In this piece I wrote for Mockingbird magazine, I explain how reading the Bible entails doing "People Exegesis," interpreting biblical characters as we "interpret" people in daily life. Using Joseph's life in Genesis, we see how he exemplifies the inner civil war that rages inside every Christian.

Joseph exemplifies the inner civil war that rages inside every Christian.

07/29/2025

Not all prayers sound like prayers. Take the very first psalm, which speaks *of* God but not *to* God. But certainly, being a song or psalm or hymn, we would also say that Psalm 1 is a type of prayer.

Psalms 49 is another example. In this wisdom psalm, which we covered today in Bible in One Year, the poet's basic message is that everyone will die and enter the grave.

What ultimately matters, therefore, is whether we believe in the God who ransoms us from the grave. But here also, not once is the Lord invoked as we do in ordinary prayer.

Such psalms are a reminder to us that to speak of God, to write of God, to ponder God, to confess creeds about God, and to read his Word, is all a form of prayer to our Father.

We are turning toward our Lord, opening our hearts and minds to him. We take in his words, taste them, speak them, and mull over them. We are praying.

Indeed, even the composition of this short FB reflection is my prayer. It is my labor of words as I rest in Christ, am filled with his Spirit, and bask in the love of the Father.

We pray more than we realize.

__
Want to learn how to pray the Psalms? Check out my forthcoming book, Untamed Prayers: 365 Daily Devotions on Christ in the Book of Psalms. Preorder your copy at https://a.co/d/dohEnsk

07/28/2025

Things are falling apart in Psalm 46. Nations are raging. Kingdoms tottering. The earth gives way. The mountains fall into the heart of the sea.

If there were ever a time to explode with action and tackle this spinning world, it would be now. Hurry up and do something!

God, however, has other plans. He says, “Rapha, and know that I am God.”

The verb, rapha [רָפָה], means to let something grow slack or hang down (like your hands). Thus, in this verse, it’s translated “Be still” (ESV), “cease striving” (NASB), or “desist” (JPS).

Colloquially, we might say, “Relax.”

“Yes,” God is saying, “I know that your lives are in a tailspin. All around you, turmoil threatens. But I am your refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. I am with you. I am your fortress. This current crisis is not my first rodeo. I’ve been handling these for my people from the beginning of time. So, relax. Rapha.

And know this: I am God—and not just God, but your God. The God who, now and always, is for you in Jesus Christ."
_____
Want to discover more Hebrew gems like this in the Psalms? Check out my forthcoming book, Untamed Prayers: 365 Daily Devotions on Christ in the Book of Psalms. Preorder your copy at https://a.co/d/dohEnsk

07/27/2025

07/26/2025

Have you heard the parable of the stork?

Abraham Heschel tells us that Rabbi Nahman of Kossov used this parable.

"A stork fell into the mud and was unable to pull out his legs until an idea occurred to him: Does he not have a long beak? So he stuck his beak into the mud, leaned upon it, and pulled out his legs. But what was the use? His legs were out, but his beak was stuck. So another idea occurred to him. He stuck his legs into the mud and pulled out his beak. But what was the use? The legs were stuck in the mud."

The conclusion? "Such is the condition of man."

We know this parable because we all embody it. We can kid ourselves all we want about our self-sufficiency, how we’ve got our act together, how we can manage any situation, but all of us are engaging in self-delusion.

We all have either our legs, beak, or both stuck in the mud.

We teeter on the brink of a demolished life every day. We’re all just one illness, one accident, one betrayal away from realizing the profundity of our mortal weakness. Notice that I did not say "becoming mortally weak," but *realizing* that this is always the case with us.

So, what do we do? Give up? Try harder?

No, rather, we confess that our lives, our children’s lives, our spouse’s life are upheld by the God who is unencumbered by weakness, by Jesus the Messiah. We are in his hands.

Jesus is strong, yes. He is wise, yes. But above all, he is merciful, gracious, and fully invested in us. He’s not stuck in the mud. He reigns from on high. And he is our sufficiency. Indeed, he is our life itself.

07/25/2025

Most translations will render Psalm 37:23 like this: “The steps of a man are established by the LORD.” That is a correct translation, but in the Hebrew [מֵ֭יְהוָה], the order of the line is reversed, “By [or ‘from’] the LORD the steps of a man are established.”

The change is slight, but it emphasizes those opening words, “By the LORD ….”

By the LORD, we take our first steps of the day, rolling out of bed, pouring a cup of coffee, and taking stock of what God has called us to do. Caring for our children. Checking up on friends. Serving others in our respective jobs. Interceding for those in need.

By the LORD, we walk into this day “that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Ps. 118:24).

By the LORD, we also take our steps into places where none of us want to be. The hospital where our mom or dad is undergoing chemo. The courtroom where marriages end. The cemetery where we stand before headstones upon which are engraved a month, day, and year when our lives were radically altered.

By the LORD, we walk—or limp, or crawl—into that day, too, knowing that Jesus is no fair-weather friend, but one who sticks by us in good times as well as the very worst of times.

By the LORD, we take steps onto the jagged ground of this world, riddled with potholes of temptation, knowing his promise that even though we may fall, we shall not be cast headlong, for the LORD upholds our hands (37:24).

Holding on to our hands is the one whose wrists were held fast to the cross. Hand-in-hand with our crucified Lord, we journey up both mountains of delight and down into chasms of grief, borne along by his strength, his love, his ironclad will to see us through this life, no matter what.

“By the LORD the steps of a man are established.” And by that Lord, Jesus the Messiah, we will one day step from earthly life into this glorious presence.
__
This is a sample devotion from my next book, Untamed Prayers: 365 Daily Devotions on Christ in the Book of Psalms. Preorder your copy at https://a.co/d/dohEnsk

07/24/2025

When my son and daughter were young, they would snuggle beside me on the couch, one on my left, one on my right, and I would read them book after book. One thing they learned early on was to figure out who, in the story, was the “bad guy” and who was the “good guy.”

Usually, it wasn’t too hard to distinguish the two. The “bad guy” was mean, lied, stole, and hurt people. The “good guy” was kind, truthful, strong, and out to save the day.

It was a child’s world. It was easy. Clear boundaries. Clear distinctions.

When I meditate upon Psalm 36, I must admit: I become a child again—and not in a good way.

The psalm begins by describing a “bad man”: sins mutter deep in his heart; there’s no fear of God before his eyes; he thinks his wickedness will remain hidden; he lies; he plots evil while in bed (vv. 1-4).

As I pray these words, I think I am looking out the window at some bad man, an evil sinner, only to discover, as the psalm continues, that I am not looking out the window but staring into a mirror.

Paul quotes this psalm, specifically “there is no fear of God before his eyes,” in Romans 3 to show that “both Jews and Greeks, are under sin” and “that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:9, 19-20).

In other words, Paul shows that the “bad man” is us.

Psalm 36 does not contrast “good people” and “bad people” but the trashy, evil, pitifully tiny worlds of sinful humanity and the sweeping expanse of the mountainous mercy of God. “Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; your judgments are like the great deep; man and beast you save, O Lord” (vv. 5-6). We cannot comprehend “what is the breadth and length and height and depth” of the love of Christ “that surpasses knowledge” (Eph. 3:18-19).

As it turns out, there is only one who is good—Jesus Christ. But the good news, the best news imaginable, is that we find refuge in the shadow of his wings, as Psalm 36:7 says. We drink from his fountain of life; in his light we see light (v. 9).

Jesus takes all our bad into himself on the cross that he might fill us with all the good that he is. In this blessed and happy exchange, our Father makes us his children, his heirs, his own beloved family.
__
Want to learn how to pray the Psalms? Check out my forthcoming book, Untamed Prayers: 365 Daily Devotions on Christ in the Book of Psalms. Preorder your copy at https://a.co/d/dohEnsk

07/23/2025

What gets me through some of the hardest weeks and darkest days? What gives me joy in some of the best weeks and brightest days?

It's this:

Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

From "St. Patrick's Breastplate," one of my favorite prayers.

07/23/2025

Every time a car ride lasts more than ten minutes, one of our grandchildren will ask, “Are we there yet?” The question makes me smile, for their young impatience is like my much older impatience.

When our Father takes me on a “road trip,” I am relentlessly asking from the back seat, “Are we there yet, God?”

“My soul waits for the LORD,” the Psalmist says (33:20). And, like it or lump it, our souls are going to wait on the Lord. We can be patient or petulant, but either way, we are riding shotgun or stuck in the back seat.

The only one behind the wheel is our Abba.

I will say this: the losses, bruises, and overall brokenness of my life have made me painfully aware that our Father, when he is driving us toward healing and wholeness, never gets out of grandma gear. He pokes along. He’s always pointing out the scenery. But he’s never speeding. He is teaching our souls to wait, to know that “he is our help and our shield” (33:20).

He is showing us that we can “trust in his holy name” and that we need his “steadfast love…upon us, even as we hope in” him (33:21-22). When we feel lost, trust in him. When we feel confused by the chaos of life, hope in him. Even when we feel the tonnage of loss and grief upon us, know that his steadfast love is upon us. More than that, know that he who said, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light,” will lighten our burdens by bearing us in his arms (Matt. 11:30).

Long may be the journey, but loving is our Driver. “Are we there yet, God?” In Christ, we are, for he is both our journey and our destination.
_______
Want to learn more about the Psalms? Check out my forthcoming book, Untamed Prayers: 365 Daily Devotions on Christ in the Book of Psalms. Preorder your copy at https://a.co/d/dohEnsk

07/22/2025

Paul tells us that "we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words" (Rom. 8:26). The Greek word for "groanings" is stenagmois (στεναγμοῖς).

What does this mean that the Spirit groans for us and within us?

In the Greek translation of the OT, known as the Septuagint, this word is used several times in the Psalms to describe the sighing or groaning of the person who is suffering from sin or persecution. In Psalm 6:7, for instance, David says, "I am weary with my sighing (stenagmo)." And in Psalm 31:10, "For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with groanings (stenagmois)."

In other words, even as we sigh and groan and lament, searching for words, unable to pray as we should, the Spirit does the same within us. God's Spirit groans, sighs, and laments. God prays to God within us. The Spirit through the Son to the Father. And we are heard.

So, as you pray, know that God prays within you. And the ear of the Father is always near to the mouth of the Spirit. And the bond between them is the heart of the Son.