Work
Psalm 127
Introduction: Today is Fathers Day and a day to honor people who have influenced us in countless ways. The psalm we are looking at today is one that speaks to fathers because it is about work. Work, in many ways, defines and shapes us.
I. God the Worker
The psalm states something we often forget, God is a worker. Genesis 1 tells us a lot about our world and ourselves but it also tells us something about God, he is creative and he is a worker. The establishment of the Sabbath rest after the six days of creation is for people a day to rest from physical work and to regain our strength. But God didn’t need to rest on the seventh day. Instead the idea is that God created the day to enjoy what he had made. You might think of it as a gardener who has labored to landscape a beautiful garden but then takes a day, not to work but instead to just enjoy the garden. God enjoyed the world he had made and especially the people he had created in his image.
It is before sinful disobedience that God gave people their work, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." Genesis 1:28. God created people so that we could work with him. Everything God wanted to do was not complete but now he had partners to work with him.
Jesus makes a similar point in his ministry when he said, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working." (John 5:17) A bit later he said, "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” (John 5:19) Jesus knew something that we either don’t know or forget; work without God is futile. Jesus is what Adam was supposed to be, a coworker with God.
II. Working With God, or Not
The psalmist knew this secret to work; unless the Lord is involved then work will never accomplish what we desire. One example is a story we don’t often look at is found in Genesis 11, the story of Babel. The language used by the writer of Genesis is revealing, “They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." (Genesis 11:3-4) The language reflects Genesis 1 where God ‘makes’. There is an arrogance that is part of work without God.
The word the psalmist uses for ‘vain’ is used also of the vanity of idolatry. Work without God becomes an idol that somehow by our effort, our sweat, we can create something that will last, that by our effort we can make our name ‘great’.
This stands in contrast to what happens next in Genesis 12 when God calls Abram and promises, “I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.” (Genesis 12:2) There are many things about these promises of God but how well was Abram known during his lifetime? He was a wealthy nomad but not that significant a figure. Yet today billions of people know his name. Christians, Jews, and Muslims all acknowledge him as a great friend of God. What made the difference is that Abram worked with God.
How many people today want to be ‘great’, to have a name that is known and recognized? Maybe our desire is just to be known in our field of work. We want to be recognized by our coworkers. Preachers are hardly immune from such thoughts and desires.
Security is the second aspect of this psalm, “the watchman stands guard in vain.” This is another great idol of our day. We work hard at being secure. Security was a big thing in Kenya. We had metal grates over the outside doors and windows. We had watchdogs and a night watchman. Yet we had things stolen by people in our own home that we trusted. Our nation spends incredible amounts on national security and before 9/11 an American carried out the worst terrorist attack in American history. Idols cannot make us great. Idols cannot make us secure. They won’t give us a good night sleep. Idols cannot love and give us sleep. God does love those who trust him and grants sleep, rest to his people.
As pilgrims sang this psalm on the journey to Jerusalem they were reminded of where greatness and security come from, God. A journey requires that we travel light. We cannot travel with the same security we have when we stay in one place. The journey takes us to places where we are unknown, where we are strangers traveling through and thus seen as insignificant and possibly as people to be taken advantage of.
III. Labor of Love
The second half of the psalm seems to jump in a totally different direction. Some scholars think that these were once two different psalms. But I don’t think so. We need to go back to Abram and ask, “How did Abram become ‘great’?” He was a wealthy and prosperous man of his day but we don’t remember that. The things he did were not that outstanding or memorable. What we remember about Abram is that he had a son and from that son God worked to cause Abram’s name to be remembered and honored for all eternity.
There is a difference between productivity and fruitfulness. Productivity is about what we do, how efficient we are in the tasks given. I believe God wants us to be productive and useful to our world no matter what role we have whether engineer or short order cook. When we work with God even the most mundane of jobs are used by him to bless others and accomplish his will in the world. But that is not fruitfulness.
Fruitfulness grows out of who we are not just what we do. It is seen in what Paul describes as the fruit of the spirit, Galatians 5:22-24. But the psalmist is talking about the fruit of our bodies and spirits, bringing children into the world, becoming parents. This is a gift of God to us. It is one of those blessings God gives to the just and unjust, to the person of God and to the atheist. As God’s people we see this as a gift but not just a gift to us but also a gift to the world.
More than any other role we have, work we do, being a father, being a parent, is a partnership between men and women and the God who works, the God who gives life. The more we join God in our work and in the lives of our children the more God blesses us, the more fruitful lives we will live.
Livonia Church of Christ: June 19, 2006
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Sixty Amazing Years!
On May 27th my wife Diane's parents, Dean and Ruth Clutter, celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. They married just after WWII and then moved to Abilene TX where Dean trained to be a preacher. They have been in ministry nearly their entire married life. It has had its ups and downs for them but they continue to serve the Coldwater, MI Church of Christ. We are so thankful for their example and the encouragement they have been to us as we entered ministry and went to Kenya. God has blessed many people through them over the years and I am sure will continue to bless in the future.
Psalm 126: Reaping Joy
The Journey
Reaping Joy
Psalm 126
Introduction: Christianity has often been depicted as grim and joyless much like this famous painting “American Gothic”. While me might think that is unfair it is often how Christians are perceived.
I. Looking for Joy
People look for joy in many different places. We like to have fun so we go to Cedar Point and enjoy the thrill of the rides there. There are lots of places we find enjoyment that are good and wholesome. As we move into the summer season many of us will travel, camp, fish, swim, ride our bikes, the list goes on and on. One thing we sometimes forget is that God created this world for us to enjoy and so we should do that, enjoy good food, beautiful scenery, and all that God has made. The Preacher in Ecclesiastes put it this way; “I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil — this is the gift of God,” Ecclesiastes 3:12-13.
Of course there are many ways people seek joy that are not good. Often it is in the over indulgence in food and drink. Looking for thrills in drugs and alcohol is another way people seek joy. There are many who are experience addicts, adrenaline addicts who look for ways to get that rush. We have an entertainment industry that tries to give people joy and laughter, often at the expense of others.
Some Christians think that instead of a frown we should have a smile, no matter what. For some sadness becomes a sin. It is as if we must live life denying that there are times when joy is sucked from our lives by illness, accident and death. That kind of denial of life (because these experiences are part of life) is not found in scripture. We see people weeping and sad at personal loss. Even our lord wept over many things to the point that he was compared with Jeremiah the weeping prophet (Matthew 16:14). Denial of life’s bitter experiences is not joy but deception. Joy is not a requirement of discipleship, of following Jesus, but a result. Even though the psalmist wrote from his perspective he knew that joy was the journey that took people to God.
II. Joy: Past and Present
The hinge of the psalm is found in the second half of verse three, “We are filled with joy.” Before those words the psalmist is looking back and shouts, “The Lord has done great things for us.” The psalm appears to be written after the return from exile. Israel had been destroyed and Judah carried into exile in Babylon. Jerusalem and the temple had been destroyed. Those who survived lived as slaves and servants to the empire. Their nation was only a memory and their faith, well how could their faith in God survive? They remembered the God who had rescued them from slavery in Egypt. Was that God real? Could he rescue them again? Yet after seventy years thousands of them returned to the land of their fathers to rebuild a city and a nation. The Lord had fulfilled his promise and they were filled with joy.
For most of us the past is filled with triumph and defeat. Life can crush us at times and yet we are here this morning. You may not be filled with joy this morning but one answer to that is to look back. What has God done for you? How has he rescued you? If you cannot answer then look further back. What has our God done in the past for his people? Think about Israel rescued twice from slavery. Think about Peter rescued from a death sentence in Herod’s prison. Think about Jesus who died but did not stay in the tomb but defeated death.
“The Lord has done great things for us!”
“And we are filled with joy!”
III. Joy: Future
But joy is not just about the past or even the present, it’s about the future. “Restore our fortunes, O Lord.” The image is of a desert, the Negev. Most people don’t like deserts. I prefer the forest or the ocean. Deserts are dry and hot. The desert impacts people who live there. I remember meeting some Turkana people in northern Kenya. We had to carry logs about half a mile to a shaded area for our church meeting. The people were dark skinned not just because of pigment but also because of the sun. Their skin was like leather. Water was scarce. Deserts are not pleasant places.
One of the great lies that often comes through in religious talk is that there is no desert for the Christian. The psalmist knew the desert and we will also. If you are not in a desert now you will be. You may feel like you are in a desert now struggling to survive. Tears may be the only seed you are sowing but God’s promise is that you will reap something different.
Imagine what it was like for the psalmist to be one of those who left their homes in captivity to make the long journey back to Israel. They must have been filled with excitement and hope, straining to get the first glimpse of Mt. Zion where the temple had sat. But when they arrived all they found was a ruin covered in fifty years worth of over growth. The land had become a wilderness and all that excitement and enthusiasm was quenched. Tears must have been shed. Some probably complained, “We left our comfortable homes for this?”
There is something in us that knows there should be something more. God did not create people for suffering but for eternity, for a life filled with joy in His presence. This is why the early Christians could rejoice in the face of tears and suffering, why Paul could write, “Rejoice in the Lord always!” (Philippians 4:4)
As Christians we live in a strange in between time that began when Jesus began his ministry. At times it is like we experience a taste of heaven, a time of worship that makes us feel close to God and each other, a time of fellowship with other Christians that is easily described as sweet fellowship, a time when a friend or loved one comes to the Lord and joins us in the journey. When I experience times like that I don’t want them to end. I cherish the memory of those times and want more of them. Those are times when heaven breaks into our world just a little bit, just for brief period. The prayer, “Restore our fortunes Lord,” is a prayer for heaven when the tears are dried and the joy will last forever. The psalmist longed for that and so do we. So what do we do? We remember. We pray. We wait on God because the harvest of joy is coming if we are faithful.
Livonia Church of Christ: May 11, 2006
Reaping Joy
Psalm 126
Introduction: Christianity has often been depicted as grim and joyless much like this famous painting “American Gothic”. While me might think that is unfair it is often how Christians are perceived.
I. Looking for Joy
People look for joy in many different places. We like to have fun so we go to Cedar Point and enjoy the thrill of the rides there. There are lots of places we find enjoyment that are good and wholesome. As we move into the summer season many of us will travel, camp, fish, swim, ride our bikes, the list goes on and on. One thing we sometimes forget is that God created this world for us to enjoy and so we should do that, enjoy good food, beautiful scenery, and all that God has made. The Preacher in Ecclesiastes put it this way; “I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil — this is the gift of God,” Ecclesiastes 3:12-13.
Of course there are many ways people seek joy that are not good. Often it is in the over indulgence in food and drink. Looking for thrills in drugs and alcohol is another way people seek joy. There are many who are experience addicts, adrenaline addicts who look for ways to get that rush. We have an entertainment industry that tries to give people joy and laughter, often at the expense of others.
Some Christians think that instead of a frown we should have a smile, no matter what. For some sadness becomes a sin. It is as if we must live life denying that there are times when joy is sucked from our lives by illness, accident and death. That kind of denial of life (because these experiences are part of life) is not found in scripture. We see people weeping and sad at personal loss. Even our lord wept over many things to the point that he was compared with Jeremiah the weeping prophet (Matthew 16:14). Denial of life’s bitter experiences is not joy but deception. Joy is not a requirement of discipleship, of following Jesus, but a result. Even though the psalmist wrote from his perspective he knew that joy was the journey that took people to God.
II. Joy: Past and Present
The hinge of the psalm is found in the second half of verse three, “We are filled with joy.” Before those words the psalmist is looking back and shouts, “The Lord has done great things for us.” The psalm appears to be written after the return from exile. Israel had been destroyed and Judah carried into exile in Babylon. Jerusalem and the temple had been destroyed. Those who survived lived as slaves and servants to the empire. Their nation was only a memory and their faith, well how could their faith in God survive? They remembered the God who had rescued them from slavery in Egypt. Was that God real? Could he rescue them again? Yet after seventy years thousands of them returned to the land of their fathers to rebuild a city and a nation. The Lord had fulfilled his promise and they were filled with joy.
For most of us the past is filled with triumph and defeat. Life can crush us at times and yet we are here this morning. You may not be filled with joy this morning but one answer to that is to look back. What has God done for you? How has he rescued you? If you cannot answer then look further back. What has our God done in the past for his people? Think about Israel rescued twice from slavery. Think about Peter rescued from a death sentence in Herod’s prison. Think about Jesus who died but did not stay in the tomb but defeated death.
“The Lord has done great things for us!”
“And we are filled with joy!”
III. Joy: Future
But joy is not just about the past or even the present, it’s about the future. “Restore our fortunes, O Lord.” The image is of a desert, the Negev. Most people don’t like deserts. I prefer the forest or the ocean. Deserts are dry and hot. The desert impacts people who live there. I remember meeting some Turkana people in northern Kenya. We had to carry logs about half a mile to a shaded area for our church meeting. The people were dark skinned not just because of pigment but also because of the sun. Their skin was like leather. Water was scarce. Deserts are not pleasant places.
One of the great lies that often comes through in religious talk is that there is no desert for the Christian. The psalmist knew the desert and we will also. If you are not in a desert now you will be. You may feel like you are in a desert now struggling to survive. Tears may be the only seed you are sowing but God’s promise is that you will reap something different.
Imagine what it was like for the psalmist to be one of those who left their homes in captivity to make the long journey back to Israel. They must have been filled with excitement and hope, straining to get the first glimpse of Mt. Zion where the temple had sat. But when they arrived all they found was a ruin covered in fifty years worth of over growth. The land had become a wilderness and all that excitement and enthusiasm was quenched. Tears must have been shed. Some probably complained, “We left our comfortable homes for this?”
There is something in us that knows there should be something more. God did not create people for suffering but for eternity, for a life filled with joy in His presence. This is why the early Christians could rejoice in the face of tears and suffering, why Paul could write, “Rejoice in the Lord always!” (Philippians 4:4)
As Christians we live in a strange in between time that began when Jesus began his ministry. At times it is like we experience a taste of heaven, a time of worship that makes us feel close to God and each other, a time of fellowship with other Christians that is easily described as sweet fellowship, a time when a friend or loved one comes to the Lord and joins us in the journey. When I experience times like that I don’t want them to end. I cherish the memory of those times and want more of them. Those are times when heaven breaks into our world just a little bit, just for brief period. The prayer, “Restore our fortunes Lord,” is a prayer for heaven when the tears are dried and the joy will last forever. The psalmist longed for that and so do we. So what do we do? We remember. We pray. We wait on God because the harvest of joy is coming if we are faithful.
Livonia Church of Christ: May 11, 2006
Monday, June 19, 2006
Psalm 131: Quieting the Soul
The Journey
Quieting the Soul
Psalm 131
Introduction: The image of mother and child in this psalm is a powerful one and especially appropriate on Mother’s day. It is a picture of a relationship where contentment, peace and rest are primary. While most of the time we think about God as Father scripture does not shy from using pictures of women to express something about God’s nature and God’s desire. On our journey to God we need to realize what God ultimately desires for us; that is to be with Him. Along with that we need to realize what can frustrate God’s purposes for us.
Spring is such a wonderful time of year. People get out in their yards and the gardens begin to bloom. We have two rose bushes on the south side of our house and every spring Diane cuts them way back from all the growth the previous year. You don’t have to cut them back if you prefer thorny branches rather than beautiful flowers. But pruning is essential if you want healthy blooms through the summer. If a rose bush gets too large the quality of the blooms decreases. This psalm is about the same type of thing in our lives. The journey we are on is about growth but sometimes grow is in the wrong direction, sometimes we need to decrease in one area in order to bloom in another.
I. Living Large
We travel with a purpose and yet there are things on the path that hinder and can even stop us in our tracks. The imagery of this psalm suggests two opposite problems. One source is the infantile dependence that we see in a child before it is weaned. The child is interested in the mother as a source of food.
The psalmist is not interested in mothers and infants but about our relationship to God. Everyone starts out as an infant; we know that even if we don’t remember that time of our lives. Infants are the most selfish creatures on earth, they are helpless and everything revolves around them. Fortunately we don’t stay at that point. We grow, develop, learn, and move from infantile dependence to a measure of independence and self-sufficiency. Children who at one time depended on parents for everything begin to relate to those parents not as dependents but as equals. I think most parents look forward to the day when they can relate to their children as adults.
Our spiritual lives move in a similar trajectory. We are born as spiritual infants into God’s family. In the beginning people serve and minister to us but we learn and grow and begin to serve and minister to others. But sometimes our relationship to God remains stuck. Many people see God as the one provides, the one they turn to in trouble. Their relationship with God is about what they get from the relationship. When things are good then God doesn’t receive much attention but when something is needed then God comes back into the picture.
Somehow, I think God wants more from his relationship with us. The spiritual journey we are on is about growth and change. God wants to become more than just a source of blessing, help in times of trouble. The picture of a weaned child sitting contentedly with her mother, not demanding anything but simply happy to be with the mother is a picture of what God desires in our relationship with Him.
But it is the other side of this picture that is the real focus for the psalmist. This is the picture of the haughty and proud person who refuses to come to God. This is the more serious affliction and one that is epidemic in our society. Unbridled ambition is the way many people live their lives. The heroes, the people held up as successful, are praised for their ambition and unwillingness to take a back seat to anyone or anything.
In sports the use of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs is seen as a way to greatness. Athletes will give years off their lives to achieve momentary sports greatness, to be an Olympic champion or to win a championship. Even when people are caught cheating for many there is still admiration because they were willing to take a chance for greatness.
The phrase, “living large” has come to characterize what many people desire, to live like royalty, or like a movie star, or like the super wealthy. It drives everything from “American Idol” to the lottery. I mean, “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” What a no brainer, everyone is that answer. To live large is to be large, or so we think. It is easy to point a finger at the sports and entertainment industries but we are all susceptible. We have goals in our careers. Preachers gravitate to bigger churches; business people strive to make more money, be more profitable. Parents want their children to be successful and liked by their peers. Of course not all ambition is deadly to our spiritual journey but how do we know when we have gone too far down that road?
This is, of course, the original problem according to Genesis. The hook that gets both Adam and Eve is, “you will be like God,” Genesis 3:5. The key in this passage is knowledge and we know how important that is in the Information Age. Later in Genesis at Babel people unite so that as a group they can become like God. “Living large” characterizes both stories.
II. The Quieted Soul
“My heart is not proud,” the psalmist writes. How troublesome pride is to the spiritual journey. There are plenty of warnings about pride and arrogance in scripture. James quotes Proverbs when he writes,
"God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble." James 4:6
Why does God oppose the proud? It is not that God is somehow threatened by our success, beauty or excellence. It is that the proud person fails to give God what he desires, a relationship with us. Pride in some ways is an insurmountable barrier because it keeps us from the quiet soul that finds contentment in God.
I love reading and learning. I see myself as an intelligent person but I know there are a lot of things I don’t get and will never get. But God doesn’t love me because I am intelligent or because I understand the Bible or theology. He doesn’t love me because I am good enough. He loves me because I am his child. The thing that allows me to get close to God is a humble heart, a quiet soul that has ceased to strive but finds contentment in God. In a sense this psalm is like pruning shears. Gardeners trim back bushes like roses because what they desire is not a big bush but beautiful flowers. If you soul is not quiet then ask your self, “Why?”
Luke provides us a commentary on this psalm in one story. Jesus is at the home of Mary and Martha. Listen to the story in Luke 10:38-42. Jesus said it to Martha but he also says it to us, “Only one thing is needed.” A quiet soul that is content to be with God.
Livonia Church of Christ: May 14, 2006
Quieting the Soul
Psalm 131
Introduction: The image of mother and child in this psalm is a powerful one and especially appropriate on Mother’s day. It is a picture of a relationship where contentment, peace and rest are primary. While most of the time we think about God as Father scripture does not shy from using pictures of women to express something about God’s nature and God’s desire. On our journey to God we need to realize what God ultimately desires for us; that is to be with Him. Along with that we need to realize what can frustrate God’s purposes for us.
Spring is such a wonderful time of year. People get out in their yards and the gardens begin to bloom. We have two rose bushes on the south side of our house and every spring Diane cuts them way back from all the growth the previous year. You don’t have to cut them back if you prefer thorny branches rather than beautiful flowers. But pruning is essential if you want healthy blooms through the summer. If a rose bush gets too large the quality of the blooms decreases. This psalm is about the same type of thing in our lives. The journey we are on is about growth but sometimes grow is in the wrong direction, sometimes we need to decrease in one area in order to bloom in another.
I. Living Large
We travel with a purpose and yet there are things on the path that hinder and can even stop us in our tracks. The imagery of this psalm suggests two opposite problems. One source is the infantile dependence that we see in a child before it is weaned. The child is interested in the mother as a source of food.
The psalmist is not interested in mothers and infants but about our relationship to God. Everyone starts out as an infant; we know that even if we don’t remember that time of our lives. Infants are the most selfish creatures on earth, they are helpless and everything revolves around them. Fortunately we don’t stay at that point. We grow, develop, learn, and move from infantile dependence to a measure of independence and self-sufficiency. Children who at one time depended on parents for everything begin to relate to those parents not as dependents but as equals. I think most parents look forward to the day when they can relate to their children as adults.
Our spiritual lives move in a similar trajectory. We are born as spiritual infants into God’s family. In the beginning people serve and minister to us but we learn and grow and begin to serve and minister to others. But sometimes our relationship to God remains stuck. Many people see God as the one provides, the one they turn to in trouble. Their relationship with God is about what they get from the relationship. When things are good then God doesn’t receive much attention but when something is needed then God comes back into the picture.
Somehow, I think God wants more from his relationship with us. The spiritual journey we are on is about growth and change. God wants to become more than just a source of blessing, help in times of trouble. The picture of a weaned child sitting contentedly with her mother, not demanding anything but simply happy to be with the mother is a picture of what God desires in our relationship with Him.
But it is the other side of this picture that is the real focus for the psalmist. This is the picture of the haughty and proud person who refuses to come to God. This is the more serious affliction and one that is epidemic in our society. Unbridled ambition is the way many people live their lives. The heroes, the people held up as successful, are praised for their ambition and unwillingness to take a back seat to anyone or anything.
In sports the use of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs is seen as a way to greatness. Athletes will give years off their lives to achieve momentary sports greatness, to be an Olympic champion or to win a championship. Even when people are caught cheating for many there is still admiration because they were willing to take a chance for greatness.
The phrase, “living large” has come to characterize what many people desire, to live like royalty, or like a movie star, or like the super wealthy. It drives everything from “American Idol” to the lottery. I mean, “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” What a no brainer, everyone is that answer. To live large is to be large, or so we think. It is easy to point a finger at the sports and entertainment industries but we are all susceptible. We have goals in our careers. Preachers gravitate to bigger churches; business people strive to make more money, be more profitable. Parents want their children to be successful and liked by their peers. Of course not all ambition is deadly to our spiritual journey but how do we know when we have gone too far down that road?
This is, of course, the original problem according to Genesis. The hook that gets both Adam and Eve is, “you will be like God,” Genesis 3:5. The key in this passage is knowledge and we know how important that is in the Information Age. Later in Genesis at Babel people unite so that as a group they can become like God. “Living large” characterizes both stories.
II. The Quieted Soul
“My heart is not proud,” the psalmist writes. How troublesome pride is to the spiritual journey. There are plenty of warnings about pride and arrogance in scripture. James quotes Proverbs when he writes,
"God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble." James 4:6
Why does God oppose the proud? It is not that God is somehow threatened by our success, beauty or excellence. It is that the proud person fails to give God what he desires, a relationship with us. Pride in some ways is an insurmountable barrier because it keeps us from the quiet soul that finds contentment in God.
I love reading and learning. I see myself as an intelligent person but I know there are a lot of things I don’t get and will never get. But God doesn’t love me because I am intelligent or because I understand the Bible or theology. He doesn’t love me because I am good enough. He loves me because I am his child. The thing that allows me to get close to God is a humble heart, a quiet soul that has ceased to strive but finds contentment in God. In a sense this psalm is like pruning shears. Gardeners trim back bushes like roses because what they desire is not a big bush but beautiful flowers. If you soul is not quiet then ask your self, “Why?”
Luke provides us a commentary on this psalm in one story. Jesus is at the home of Mary and Martha. Listen to the story in Luke 10:38-42. Jesus said it to Martha but he also says it to us, “Only one thing is needed.” A quiet soul that is content to be with God.
Livonia Church of Christ: May 14, 2006
Psalm 124: We Have Escaped
The Journey
“We Have Escaped”
Psalm 124
Introduction: Last weeks psalm ended with, “We have endured much ridicule from the proud, much contempt from the arrogant.” (Psalms 123:4) Some think that this psalm was put in this place as a response to Psalm 123. It does make sense. This is a psalm celebrating God’s deliverance.
Enemies. Who are your enemies? Most of us don’t think in those terms do we? We might talk about have a conflict with someone, not liking this person or that, but we usually don’t refer them as enemies.
I. Enemies on the Journey
Journeys are inherently dangerous. It doesn’t seem that way these days but in the days of the psalmist it was especially true. There were plenty of natural dangers and in a dry arid country flashfloods could change a pleasant day into a struggle for survival. In a sense these were worse than the tornados that we experience because if the rainfall occurred far enough away there would be little or no warning before a wall of water was rushing toward you.
While danger from natural disaster is always troubling, that is not what is in view for the psalmist. The problem is people just as it was in Psalm 123. Nature may hurt us but it doesn’t show us contempt and ridicule. We may talk about nature being angry but it is nothing in comparison to the rage of a human being. And human rage almost always catches us by surprise.
As a nation we were surprised by the rage that perpetrated the events of 9/11. We still struggle to understand it. I remember the feelings of that day and Psalm 124 expresses it very well, it felt like a flashflood that threatened to sweep us away.
I am sure the psalmist felt that for his people. This psalm is communal in nature rather than individual. There were plenty of times in Israel’s history where they felt they were being swept away. Israel was a buffer country between the two great superpowers of the day and thus a battleground. One of the great battlefields in history is still remembered in our language today, Armageddon. Those superpowers no longer exist but the people of Israel do, and I am not talking about the nation state we know as Israel.
When we think of this in our own context we can see this psalm in both communal and individual terms. Communities go through crisis at various points of existence. Sometimes it is something like a natural disaster. It can be tough to lose a building through fire, flood, or tornado. But the most difficult crises are human. A preacher’s wife murders her husband. A trusted person embezzles church funds. A church leader is caught in sexual infidelity. Church conflict destroys church unity. All of these seem like a flood, unexpected and threatening to the point of destruction.
It can happen in our individual walk also. It can be a crisis of health or accident. No one expects to get cancer or to be in an accident that leaves you paralyzed. The death of someone we love and depend on comes out of the blue. Those are terrible times. But worse than these are the human crises that devastate our lives. The betrayal of a spouse destroys our future. A beloved child commits a crime. Gossip and slander at work or at church or in the neighborhood destroys our name. Like a flood these things cut the ground out from under our feet and threaten to swallow us up.
II. Where is God?
Of course the question in all of this is, “Where is God?” “Why is this happening to me?” Preachers tend to get both questions thrown at them as if we are God’s defenders or explainers of God’s actions. God, of course, is where God has always been, on the throne and as close as our own skin. People who are hurting want answers and unfortunately the answer is, “I don’t know.” I do wonder at people who want to blame God for everything bad in the world. People often forget that their own sin or the sins of others is responsible for much of the suffering we see and we suffer. If someone is betrayed by a spouse then is that God’s will? If a child becomes involved with drugs then is that God’s will? I think we realize the answer is “No.” God is not the only one involved in our world. We are free moral agents and there are spiritual beings that have an impact that we are often completely unaware of.
The psalm points out something we don’t like to consider, God does not protect us from all the problems, all the crises that life throws at us. The psalmist writes this psalm as a survivor. The crisis came and threatened to overwhelm God’s people. Hope was gone. There was no way out. Yet they survived. They escaped.
III. The Maker of Heaven and Earth
A cynic might say, “Only a survivor could write a psalm. What about those who don’t survive?” Godly people die in tornados and floods. Evil people kill good people all the time. I believe it is the last verse of the psalm where we need to look for an answer, “Our help is in the name of the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.” (Psalms 124:8) Considering the questions of pain and suffering are always difficult especially in view of the God we worship, “the maker of heaven and earth.” We can never completely understand the purposes of God in the world. We will never make sense of God with our human sense. It does begin to make some sense if we view life on this earth as a beginning rather than an end. Sometimes God delivers through death and not from it.
There are two stories in the Old Testament that may give us some insight. The first is in 1 Kings 14. The prophet is pronouncing judgment on the house of King Jeroboam who has been unfaithful to God. Jeroboam’s child becomes ill and his wife goes to God’s prophet to ask for help. Instead the prophet says this, “As for you, go back home. When you set foot in your city, the boy will die. All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He is the only one belonging to Jeroboam who will be buried, because he is the only one in the house of Jeroboam in whom the LORD, the God of Israel, has found anything good,” 1 Kings 14:12-13. Death in this case was not a punishment. Only the maker of heaven and earth has power beyond death.
The second story comes from Daniel. Three Hebrew officials in the Babylonian government have defied the king by refusing to worship his idol. The king threatened death by fire and they refused with this answer, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up,” (Daniel 3:16-18). The ‘maker of heaven and earth” has the last word whether in life or death. No matter what happens, “We have escaped” because “Our help is in the name of the Lord,” (Psalm 124:7,8).
Livonia Church of Christ: April 30, 2006
“We Have Escaped”
Psalm 124
Introduction: Last weeks psalm ended with, “We have endured much ridicule from the proud, much contempt from the arrogant.” (Psalms 123:4) Some think that this psalm was put in this place as a response to Psalm 123. It does make sense. This is a psalm celebrating God’s deliverance.
Enemies. Who are your enemies? Most of us don’t think in those terms do we? We might talk about have a conflict with someone, not liking this person or that, but we usually don’t refer them as enemies.
I. Enemies on the Journey
Journeys are inherently dangerous. It doesn’t seem that way these days but in the days of the psalmist it was especially true. There were plenty of natural dangers and in a dry arid country flashfloods could change a pleasant day into a struggle for survival. In a sense these were worse than the tornados that we experience because if the rainfall occurred far enough away there would be little or no warning before a wall of water was rushing toward you.
While danger from natural disaster is always troubling, that is not what is in view for the psalmist. The problem is people just as it was in Psalm 123. Nature may hurt us but it doesn’t show us contempt and ridicule. We may talk about nature being angry but it is nothing in comparison to the rage of a human being. And human rage almost always catches us by surprise.
As a nation we were surprised by the rage that perpetrated the events of 9/11. We still struggle to understand it. I remember the feelings of that day and Psalm 124 expresses it very well, it felt like a flashflood that threatened to sweep us away.
I am sure the psalmist felt that for his people. This psalm is communal in nature rather than individual. There were plenty of times in Israel’s history where they felt they were being swept away. Israel was a buffer country between the two great superpowers of the day and thus a battleground. One of the great battlefields in history is still remembered in our language today, Armageddon. Those superpowers no longer exist but the people of Israel do, and I am not talking about the nation state we know as Israel.
When we think of this in our own context we can see this psalm in both communal and individual terms. Communities go through crisis at various points of existence. Sometimes it is something like a natural disaster. It can be tough to lose a building through fire, flood, or tornado. But the most difficult crises are human. A preacher’s wife murders her husband. A trusted person embezzles church funds. A church leader is caught in sexual infidelity. Church conflict destroys church unity. All of these seem like a flood, unexpected and threatening to the point of destruction.
It can happen in our individual walk also. It can be a crisis of health or accident. No one expects to get cancer or to be in an accident that leaves you paralyzed. The death of someone we love and depend on comes out of the blue. Those are terrible times. But worse than these are the human crises that devastate our lives. The betrayal of a spouse destroys our future. A beloved child commits a crime. Gossip and slander at work or at church or in the neighborhood destroys our name. Like a flood these things cut the ground out from under our feet and threaten to swallow us up.
II. Where is God?
Of course the question in all of this is, “Where is God?” “Why is this happening to me?” Preachers tend to get both questions thrown at them as if we are God’s defenders or explainers of God’s actions. God, of course, is where God has always been, on the throne and as close as our own skin. People who are hurting want answers and unfortunately the answer is, “I don’t know.” I do wonder at people who want to blame God for everything bad in the world. People often forget that their own sin or the sins of others is responsible for much of the suffering we see and we suffer. If someone is betrayed by a spouse then is that God’s will? If a child becomes involved with drugs then is that God’s will? I think we realize the answer is “No.” God is not the only one involved in our world. We are free moral agents and there are spiritual beings that have an impact that we are often completely unaware of.
The psalm points out something we don’t like to consider, God does not protect us from all the problems, all the crises that life throws at us. The psalmist writes this psalm as a survivor. The crisis came and threatened to overwhelm God’s people. Hope was gone. There was no way out. Yet they survived. They escaped.
III. The Maker of Heaven and Earth
A cynic might say, “Only a survivor could write a psalm. What about those who don’t survive?” Godly people die in tornados and floods. Evil people kill good people all the time. I believe it is the last verse of the psalm where we need to look for an answer, “Our help is in the name of the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.” (Psalms 124:8) Considering the questions of pain and suffering are always difficult especially in view of the God we worship, “the maker of heaven and earth.” We can never completely understand the purposes of God in the world. We will never make sense of God with our human sense. It does begin to make some sense if we view life on this earth as a beginning rather than an end. Sometimes God delivers through death and not from it.
There are two stories in the Old Testament that may give us some insight. The first is in 1 Kings 14. The prophet is pronouncing judgment on the house of King Jeroboam who has been unfaithful to God. Jeroboam’s child becomes ill and his wife goes to God’s prophet to ask for help. Instead the prophet says this, “As for you, go back home. When you set foot in your city, the boy will die. All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He is the only one belonging to Jeroboam who will be buried, because he is the only one in the house of Jeroboam in whom the LORD, the God of Israel, has found anything good,” 1 Kings 14:12-13. Death in this case was not a punishment. Only the maker of heaven and earth has power beyond death.
The second story comes from Daniel. Three Hebrew officials in the Babylonian government have defied the king by refusing to worship his idol. The king threatened death by fire and they refused with this answer, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up,” (Daniel 3:16-18). The ‘maker of heaven and earth” has the last word whether in life or death. No matter what happens, “We have escaped” because “Our help is in the name of the Lord,” (Psalm 124:7,8).
Livonia Church of Christ: April 30, 2006
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Psalm 123: The Eyes of a Servant
The Journey
The Eyes of a Servant
Psalm 123
Introduction: Most of us know what it means to be employed by a person or a company. There is the interview, negotiation, and then finally a contract is signed. We usually discover that there is some kind of pecking order and where we fit in that order. We usually feel a measure of loyalty to our employer but we realize we can quit if we so desire and the company can terminate our employment if they choose. This is how things are done. But that makes our psalm difficult for us to understand.
I. Servants on a Journey
What did it mean to be a servant? The words used in the psalm can refer to people who were slaves as the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. This type of chattel slavery was a dehumanizing state where a person had no rights. But there was another type of servitude where one Israelite became the servant of another. This was a free choice though often the alternative was starvation and destitution. But the person who became a servant could choose whom he or she would serve. Once that service was accepted the servant was submissive to the will of his or her master.
As Americans we don’t like this picture and don’t understand it. “All men (what about women?) are created equal.” No person is better than anyone else. Of course we know this isn’t true. People with money, position, education, or even certain skin color often have an edge. But even so the picture in this psalm is foreign to us.
The journey toward God is a journey that brings us into a particular relationship to God. When we begin the journey as if we are distant from some great mountain. The closer we get the more we must elevate our eyes until we come so close it dominates our vision. We lift up our eyes to the one who sits on the throne. If we are to be successful in our journey we must not lose focus on the destination, the throne of God.
So much of the language of the psalms is found in Revelation. “Throne” is one of the powerful images in that book, Revelation 4:2-11. One reason the psalmist has no trouble in humbly serving is that he recognizes greatness. The difficulty many people have is they know of nothing greater than themselves.
The image of servant and service is something we talk about in our congregation. Serving is something we honor, or try to honor and recognize and encourage. Of course, serving God is one thing, serving the people around us is something else. But Jesus made a point to his disciples that he came to serve, Matthew 20:28. How did Jesus do that with men so weak and sinful as the Twelve? Jesus had the ability to see greatness in every human being because each one was made in the image of God. Our service to each other, our service to the weak and sinful of our world is ultimately serving God.
II. Waiting on God
If the concept of service is difficult for us then the next part is worse, waiting. Americans hate to wait. Yet the language of the psalm, “look to the hand” of the master or mistress carries with it the idea of waiting and being ready when the master indicates a need. One of the cable stations I get shows Japanese samurai movies every week. One I was watching this week showed servants who knelt quietly to the side but sprang into action at the smallest hint from the master. They could stay there a long time waiting for that signal. Maybe the closest modern equivalent are the boys and girls who collect the tennis balls during a tennis match where they must stay perfectly still until a ball comes their way.
Waiting on God is difficult and yet almost every servant of God has had long periods of waiting and trial before given a way to serve. Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, even Jesus had long periods of waiting and preparing for a coming ministry. If you mark the place where Jesus first understood God’s calling in his life at age 12, Luke 2:49, until he began his ministry at age 30 Jesus had a period of 18 years waiting. Moses had a 40-year wait, Abraham 25 years, David at least ten years waiting on God.
God undoubtedly has many lessons he is teaching us in the waiting periods of our lives but I think learning to focus on him, on his hand, so that we know when to act is the most critical. How do we know when God wants us to act? The only way is to learn the master and focus on him.
III. Ridicule
The last part of the psalm brings us to even a more difficult aspect of serving God, contempt and ridicule. The cry for mercy is understandable for no one wants that kind of treatment. Our feeling is, “I’m a Christian, one of the good guys.” And yet others don’t see us that way. The increasing contempt some people show toward Christians shouldn’t surprise us because it is not us they oppose but God. Jesus warned his disciples, "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. . . If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. . . They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me.” John 15:18, 20, 21.
The response God wants his servant to have is surprising. God does not call on us to defend Him or His name but instead He wants us to call on him to defend us. God doesn’t want defenders but obedient servants. Part of that obedience is crying out to God and waiting (again) on his mercy. Defensiveness is a response that often grows out of pride, a desire to defend my rights. Yet defensiveness is not seen in Jesus. Instead “he entrusted himself to him who judges justly,” 1 Peter 2:23.
The journey we are on is one that Jesus also traveled. His eyes were on the Father. He waited patiently for God and acted when God commanded. He accepted what the world dished out and looked to God for mercy and justice.
The journey we are on shapes us in unusual ways. If we continue and don’t turn back it will purge us of self-sufficiency and pride. We will be wounded and hurt but if we don’t stop, if we keep our eyes fixed on the throne and the one who sits there then we will come to a place where all that we have suffered matters not at all. “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:17-18
If you want to start the journey toward God, toward what will last forever then we invite you to join us, to confess Jesus as Lord and Savior and put him on in baptism.
Livonia Church of Christ: April 23, 2006
The Eyes of a Servant
Psalm 123
Introduction: Most of us know what it means to be employed by a person or a company. There is the interview, negotiation, and then finally a contract is signed. We usually discover that there is some kind of pecking order and where we fit in that order. We usually feel a measure of loyalty to our employer but we realize we can quit if we so desire and the company can terminate our employment if they choose. This is how things are done. But that makes our psalm difficult for us to understand.
I. Servants on a Journey
What did it mean to be a servant? The words used in the psalm can refer to people who were slaves as the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. This type of chattel slavery was a dehumanizing state where a person had no rights. But there was another type of servitude where one Israelite became the servant of another. This was a free choice though often the alternative was starvation and destitution. But the person who became a servant could choose whom he or she would serve. Once that service was accepted the servant was submissive to the will of his or her master.
As Americans we don’t like this picture and don’t understand it. “All men (what about women?) are created equal.” No person is better than anyone else. Of course we know this isn’t true. People with money, position, education, or even certain skin color often have an edge. But even so the picture in this psalm is foreign to us.
The journey toward God is a journey that brings us into a particular relationship to God. When we begin the journey as if we are distant from some great mountain. The closer we get the more we must elevate our eyes until we come so close it dominates our vision. We lift up our eyes to the one who sits on the throne. If we are to be successful in our journey we must not lose focus on the destination, the throne of God.
So much of the language of the psalms is found in Revelation. “Throne” is one of the powerful images in that book, Revelation 4:2-11. One reason the psalmist has no trouble in humbly serving is that he recognizes greatness. The difficulty many people have is they know of nothing greater than themselves.
The image of servant and service is something we talk about in our congregation. Serving is something we honor, or try to honor and recognize and encourage. Of course, serving God is one thing, serving the people around us is something else. But Jesus made a point to his disciples that he came to serve, Matthew 20:28. How did Jesus do that with men so weak and sinful as the Twelve? Jesus had the ability to see greatness in every human being because each one was made in the image of God. Our service to each other, our service to the weak and sinful of our world is ultimately serving God.
II. Waiting on God
If the concept of service is difficult for us then the next part is worse, waiting. Americans hate to wait. Yet the language of the psalm, “look to the hand” of the master or mistress carries with it the idea of waiting and being ready when the master indicates a need. One of the cable stations I get shows Japanese samurai movies every week. One I was watching this week showed servants who knelt quietly to the side but sprang into action at the smallest hint from the master. They could stay there a long time waiting for that signal. Maybe the closest modern equivalent are the boys and girls who collect the tennis balls during a tennis match where they must stay perfectly still until a ball comes their way.
Waiting on God is difficult and yet almost every servant of God has had long periods of waiting and trial before given a way to serve. Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, even Jesus had long periods of waiting and preparing for a coming ministry. If you mark the place where Jesus first understood God’s calling in his life at age 12, Luke 2:49, until he began his ministry at age 30 Jesus had a period of 18 years waiting. Moses had a 40-year wait, Abraham 25 years, David at least ten years waiting on God.
God undoubtedly has many lessons he is teaching us in the waiting periods of our lives but I think learning to focus on him, on his hand, so that we know when to act is the most critical. How do we know when God wants us to act? The only way is to learn the master and focus on him.
III. Ridicule
The last part of the psalm brings us to even a more difficult aspect of serving God, contempt and ridicule. The cry for mercy is understandable for no one wants that kind of treatment. Our feeling is, “I’m a Christian, one of the good guys.” And yet others don’t see us that way. The increasing contempt some people show toward Christians shouldn’t surprise us because it is not us they oppose but God. Jesus warned his disciples, "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. . . If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. . . They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me.” John 15:18, 20, 21.
The response God wants his servant to have is surprising. God does not call on us to defend Him or His name but instead He wants us to call on him to defend us. God doesn’t want defenders but obedient servants. Part of that obedience is crying out to God and waiting (again) on his mercy. Defensiveness is a response that often grows out of pride, a desire to defend my rights. Yet defensiveness is not seen in Jesus. Instead “he entrusted himself to him who judges justly,” 1 Peter 2:23.
The journey we are on is one that Jesus also traveled. His eyes were on the Father. He waited patiently for God and acted when God commanded. He accepted what the world dished out and looked to God for mercy and justice.
The journey we are on shapes us in unusual ways. If we continue and don’t turn back it will purge us of self-sufficiency and pride. We will be wounded and hurt but if we don’t stop, if we keep our eyes fixed on the throne and the one who sits there then we will come to a place where all that we have suffered matters not at all. “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:17-18
If you want to start the journey toward God, toward what will last forever then we invite you to join us, to confess Jesus as Lord and Savior and put him on in baptism.
Livonia Church of Christ: April 23, 2006
Psalm 122: Going Up to Worship
The Journey:
Going Up to Worship
Psalm 122
Introduction: Pilgrims probably sang this group of Psalm, as they traveled to Jerusalem. We can picture Jesus singing this psalm as they prepared to go up to the temple to worship.
Excuses for not worshipping are funny things. We have all made them at one time or another and we have all accepted excuses even knowing what we know about them. “My parents forced me to go as a child.” “The church is full of hypocrites.” “Sunday is my only day to sleep in.” Even if you answer one excuse it is not difficult to find another.
On the other side it is interesting the justifications people have created for worship or church. One study found that people live longer if they are regular worshipers. This week in the Free Press was a section about the health benefits of spirituality. From these points of view I guess worship is like taking your vitamins, you do it because it is good for you.
People can come to worship because their friends are there. They can refuse to come because of some excuse. But in reality the only reason to worship is to meet God. It isn’t that God is not present with us every place and time, it is that worship whets our appetite for God.
I. Enthusiasm
The enthusiasm of the psalmist sounds strange to our ears. I mean who gets excited about going to church? And yet worship is one of the most popular voluntary activities in our nation. More people are in worship services than attend professional sports events. While there are some who come to worship because they “have to” such as children, the majority of us are here because we chose to do so. No one forced you to come today.
Worship in many ways is the foundational event of Christian community. If people are a church, they gather for worship. We might even say it is a foundational event for the individual Christian life. Those who say, “I can worship God on the golf course or on my fishing boat” have caused me to wonder whom they encourage other than the golf ball or the fish. Do they pray much or sing? The concept of solitary Christianity is not one found in scripture, Christianity is lived in community or it is not lived.
Part of the sense of this psalm may also be the excitement of starting a journey with friends to a special place, Jerusalem. But there is also the aspect of worshipping with those with whom we share the journey. The path is one that is taken with others.
II. The City
The language used here is again unusual to our ears. We are used to spread out cities; urban sprawl is a very modern problem. But the ancient city of Jerusalem, like other cities of that day, was tightly packed together. Everything was interlocked with everything else. Houses and business often formed parts of the protective wall that surrounded the city and gave safety to residents and visitors. Cities like Jerusalem were places of all kinds of people, people who dressed differently or spoke in strange languages or in odd sounding accents. Jerusalem was where the 12 tribes gathered together to honor the covenant God had made with them.
What does worship do for us? In a very real sense it brings us together. One of the great images from Revelation is found in Rev. 7:9. It is easy for us to get a wrong impression that everyone worships like we do. I’ve known some people who get upset when even the slightest change happens in worship. But God has created us with great diversity and that diversity is reflected in our worship. The unity is found in the cleansing of the Lamb of God, Jesus.
But the image of the compact, interconnected city also shows us something else; worship provides a frame, a boundary for our lives. Our world is constantly tells us we can live without rules, without boundaries, “No rules, just right” is one advertising slogan. For those who do needle work there is an important piece of equipment that makes it so much easier, the frame. To work without it is much more difficult but to work with it means the end product is going to look better. Our lives need a frame and worship, the community of faith, gives frame in which to build life. In a similar way any game people play has rules and boundaries. Without them the game could not exist. If we don’t have such a frame our lives begin to unravel and we fail to become what we desire and what God desires.
III. The Word of the Lord
We worship also because of God’s command, “to praise the name of the LORD according to the statute given to Israel.” For Israel the command to worship at the temple was a privilege and an obligation as part of the covenant between God and Israel.
Worship is something we chose to do. I want to worship but I may not necessarily feel like worshipping. Feelings are fickle things and if we only follow our feelings we will miss many good things. Last Sunday was our last Bible bowl competition of the season. I am the question reader so after preaching here we go and I read questions for an hour and a half. It makes for a long day. We got home and I had about 30 minutes to rest before we got back in the car for home group. I didn’t feel like going. I was tired. But after home group was over I realized I felt better. I had been blessed because I went.
Our worship is a blessing where we come together with other believers. Our assembly is also a place where we hear God’s word, where, “the thrones of judgment stand.” We often see judgment as a negative thing, something we want to avoid. When I hear the words, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself,” and realize that I have failed again to love my neighbor in this way I am judged. Yet as terrible as judgment is, there could be no grace, no mercy without it. Worship is a place where we are challenged to grow and change, to become more like God in our hearts, attitudes and values. Without the word of God we will never grow in the directions that God wants us to grow.
The last part of the psalm is a prayer, a prayer for the peace of Jerusalem. The concept of peace, or ‘shalom’, in the Old Testament is broad and complex. It not simply the absence of conflict but it contains the concepts of wholeness, health, prosperity and contentment.
We live in a world where peace is allusive at best and often seems nonexistent. But worship as God intends is a taste of something better, something that whets our appetite for that which cannot be found anywhere outside of God himself. It is no wonder that the psalmist says, “I rejoiced with those who said to me, "Let us go to the house of the LORD," Psalms 122:1. I confess I am not always rejoicing when I come to worship but often I am as I leave.
Life’s journey is always better when we can walk it with others rather than by ourselves. We invite you to join us in our journey to God.
Livonia Church of Christ: April 2, 2006
Going Up to Worship
Psalm 122
Introduction: Pilgrims probably sang this group of Psalm, as they traveled to Jerusalem. We can picture Jesus singing this psalm as they prepared to go up to the temple to worship.
Excuses for not worshipping are funny things. We have all made them at one time or another and we have all accepted excuses even knowing what we know about them. “My parents forced me to go as a child.” “The church is full of hypocrites.” “Sunday is my only day to sleep in.” Even if you answer one excuse it is not difficult to find another.
On the other side it is interesting the justifications people have created for worship or church. One study found that people live longer if they are regular worshipers. This week in the Free Press was a section about the health benefits of spirituality. From these points of view I guess worship is like taking your vitamins, you do it because it is good for you.
People can come to worship because their friends are there. They can refuse to come because of some excuse. But in reality the only reason to worship is to meet God. It isn’t that God is not present with us every place and time, it is that worship whets our appetite for God.
I. Enthusiasm
The enthusiasm of the psalmist sounds strange to our ears. I mean who gets excited about going to church? And yet worship is one of the most popular voluntary activities in our nation. More people are in worship services than attend professional sports events. While there are some who come to worship because they “have to” such as children, the majority of us are here because we chose to do so. No one forced you to come today.
Worship in many ways is the foundational event of Christian community. If people are a church, they gather for worship. We might even say it is a foundational event for the individual Christian life. Those who say, “I can worship God on the golf course or on my fishing boat” have caused me to wonder whom they encourage other than the golf ball or the fish. Do they pray much or sing? The concept of solitary Christianity is not one found in scripture, Christianity is lived in community or it is not lived.
Part of the sense of this psalm may also be the excitement of starting a journey with friends to a special place, Jerusalem. But there is also the aspect of worshipping with those with whom we share the journey. The path is one that is taken with others.
II. The City
The language used here is again unusual to our ears. We are used to spread out cities; urban sprawl is a very modern problem. But the ancient city of Jerusalem, like other cities of that day, was tightly packed together. Everything was interlocked with everything else. Houses and business often formed parts of the protective wall that surrounded the city and gave safety to residents and visitors. Cities like Jerusalem were places of all kinds of people, people who dressed differently or spoke in strange languages or in odd sounding accents. Jerusalem was where the 12 tribes gathered together to honor the covenant God had made with them.
What does worship do for us? In a very real sense it brings us together. One of the great images from Revelation is found in Rev. 7:9. It is easy for us to get a wrong impression that everyone worships like we do. I’ve known some people who get upset when even the slightest change happens in worship. But God has created us with great diversity and that diversity is reflected in our worship. The unity is found in the cleansing of the Lamb of God, Jesus.
But the image of the compact, interconnected city also shows us something else; worship provides a frame, a boundary for our lives. Our world is constantly tells us we can live without rules, without boundaries, “No rules, just right” is one advertising slogan. For those who do needle work there is an important piece of equipment that makes it so much easier, the frame. To work without it is much more difficult but to work with it means the end product is going to look better. Our lives need a frame and worship, the community of faith, gives frame in which to build life. In a similar way any game people play has rules and boundaries. Without them the game could not exist. If we don’t have such a frame our lives begin to unravel and we fail to become what we desire and what God desires.
III. The Word of the Lord
We worship also because of God’s command, “to praise the name of the LORD according to the statute given to Israel.” For Israel the command to worship at the temple was a privilege and an obligation as part of the covenant between God and Israel.
Worship is something we chose to do. I want to worship but I may not necessarily feel like worshipping. Feelings are fickle things and if we only follow our feelings we will miss many good things. Last Sunday was our last Bible bowl competition of the season. I am the question reader so after preaching here we go and I read questions for an hour and a half. It makes for a long day. We got home and I had about 30 minutes to rest before we got back in the car for home group. I didn’t feel like going. I was tired. But after home group was over I realized I felt better. I had been blessed because I went.
Our worship is a blessing where we come together with other believers. Our assembly is also a place where we hear God’s word, where, “the thrones of judgment stand.” We often see judgment as a negative thing, something we want to avoid. When I hear the words, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself,” and realize that I have failed again to love my neighbor in this way I am judged. Yet as terrible as judgment is, there could be no grace, no mercy without it. Worship is a place where we are challenged to grow and change, to become more like God in our hearts, attitudes and values. Without the word of God we will never grow in the directions that God wants us to grow.
The last part of the psalm is a prayer, a prayer for the peace of Jerusalem. The concept of peace, or ‘shalom’, in the Old Testament is broad and complex. It not simply the absence of conflict but it contains the concepts of wholeness, health, prosperity and contentment.
We live in a world where peace is allusive at best and often seems nonexistent. But worship as God intends is a taste of something better, something that whets our appetite for that which cannot be found anywhere outside of God himself. It is no wonder that the psalmist says, “I rejoiced with those who said to me, "Let us go to the house of the LORD," Psalms 122:1. I confess I am not always rejoicing when I come to worship but often I am as I leave.
Life’s journey is always better when we can walk it with others rather than by ourselves. We invite you to join us in our journey to God.
Livonia Church of Christ: April 2, 2006
Psalm 121: Help for the Journey
The Journey
Help for the Journey
Psalm 121
Introduction: I remember the first LOTR movie where Frodo and Sam are leaving the Shire. Sam stops and remarks that if he takes one more step he will have traveled farther from home than he ever had. Their journey began easily but they quickly discovered hazards on the journey.
One thing we know about traveling, it has a number of hazards no matter what means of travel you use. As a result we take precautions. Over the past several years cell phones have changed the way we look at hazards. One study has shown it gives people a false sense of confidence and they take chances they wouldn’t otherwise take. They think help is only a phone call away.
The psalmist did not have a cell phone, AAA, or any of the things that protect and aid us when we travel. I suppose this is part of the reason so few people traveled very far from home.
I. Hazards on the Journey
The journey to Jerusalem was not easy and the psalmist mentions three different hazards in the psalm. The first is having the foot to slip. In flat Michigan having your foot slip is not too dangerous, you might turn an ankle or break something but it is not likely to kill you. Not so on a trip to Jerusalem. A trip to Jerusalem was steep and could be treacherous. A slip of the foot could lead to serious injury or death.
The sun and the moon were seen as hazards. The sun is an obvious danger in a hot climate like Palestine. We learned very quickly in Kenya to be cautious of the sun and its intense rays. Heat stroke and sunstroke were always a danger. The moonlight would not seem to be such a danger but in ancient times it was felt that moonlight could induce mental illness. Nighttime had its own hazards with attack from human and animals.
The problem with hazards such as these is that they were very discouraging and could cause a person to turn back. Fear of the dangers or even the potential dangers could paralyze a person. It takes real persistence to push on in the face of such obstacles.
Of course we are not talking about an actual physical journey as we consider these psalms. Instead we are looking at a spiritual journey, possibly even an inward journey as we open our hearts up to God. Stumbling on our spiritual journey is a real danger. There are many things that can cause us to stumble and it can be different for each person. Events that come into our lives can cause us to stumble. The loss of a parent, a child, or a job is traumatic and often so unexpected. We are walking along and suddenly we are tumbling in free fall and the ground comes up fast and hard. Sometimes the biggest stumbling blocks are people we love and depend on. Suddenly they let us down or even betray us in some fashion and we find ourselves lying in the dirt wondering if we can get up or if we even want to get up and try again.
It is not just the sudden and unexpected that makes the journey hard. The constant pressure of life, the day after day grind can be like the fierce sun that bakes us, dries us out, and saps us of the will to go on.
We might think the night would be better. We are so use to electricity and public lighting that often in our society we forget there is a ‘night’. But take those things away and even with a bright moon the dark presses in, the slightest sound paralyzes us with fear. The night can be dark and lonely. The journey is hard; the hazards are great; maybe we should just stay home.
II. Where Does Our Help Come From?
The psalmist looked up at the hills. Now, to us hills are hills but that was not so during much of the Old Testament. The hills were places of idols and places pagan ceremonies took place. Hills were places where the sun and moon were worshipped. The pagan god Baal was worshipped on the hills. Lots of people looked to the hills for their help. Of course to get the help in the hills you had to leave the path and go up to the worship place. In other words it distracted the traveler from the destination. It confused them and made it difficult to find the way again.
Of course we don’t look to the hills for help but that doesn’t mean we don’t look for help in places where such help is faulty at best. Our hills are named Oprah or Dr. Phil. People may look to the latest real estate infomercial and the promised financial security. Israel was a land of many hills but only one Mt. Zion. “I lift up my eyes to the hills-where does my help come from?”
Our help is not in the creation but “the Maker of heaven and earth,” our help is from the Lord. There is a Hebrew word used six times in this short psalm that is translated ‘watch’ or one time ‘keep’. All of these refer to the Lord who watches over us and will keep us from harm. The Lord doesn’t sleep in drunken slumber like the pagan gods.
It might be easy to read this psalm and think, “If I’m really in the way I won’t stumble, suffer from the sun, or be afraid in the dark.” Sometimes when people become Christians, when they start the journey, they believe they will never have doubts or problems. Anyone who has traveled the road more than a few days realizes this is not the case.
The promise of God is not a life free from pain and suffering on the journey but that he will always be with us, that nothing can separate us from his love and providence. So often our reaction to the problems we face is, “God has abandoned me.” It is easy to conclude that God has given up on us when we consider how badly we have stumbled on the road. Instead the psalmist pictures God as one who is with us in the way. When we sleep, he doesn’t. When we stumble, he enables us to stand and continue. When the sun becomes too much for us, his presence gives us shade and refreshment. God is not just the God of Mt. Zion, a god who stays in his temple. He is the God who “will watch over your life,” night and day and provide what we need to complete the journey. Paul put it plainly in Romans 8:35-39, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
‘For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Livonia Church of Christ: April 2, 2006
Help for the Journey
Psalm 121
Introduction: I remember the first LOTR movie where Frodo and Sam are leaving the Shire. Sam stops and remarks that if he takes one more step he will have traveled farther from home than he ever had. Their journey began easily but they quickly discovered hazards on the journey.
One thing we know about traveling, it has a number of hazards no matter what means of travel you use. As a result we take precautions. Over the past several years cell phones have changed the way we look at hazards. One study has shown it gives people a false sense of confidence and they take chances they wouldn’t otherwise take. They think help is only a phone call away.
The psalmist did not have a cell phone, AAA, or any of the things that protect and aid us when we travel. I suppose this is part of the reason so few people traveled very far from home.
I. Hazards on the Journey
The journey to Jerusalem was not easy and the psalmist mentions three different hazards in the psalm. The first is having the foot to slip. In flat Michigan having your foot slip is not too dangerous, you might turn an ankle or break something but it is not likely to kill you. Not so on a trip to Jerusalem. A trip to Jerusalem was steep and could be treacherous. A slip of the foot could lead to serious injury or death.
The sun and the moon were seen as hazards. The sun is an obvious danger in a hot climate like Palestine. We learned very quickly in Kenya to be cautious of the sun and its intense rays. Heat stroke and sunstroke were always a danger. The moonlight would not seem to be such a danger but in ancient times it was felt that moonlight could induce mental illness. Nighttime had its own hazards with attack from human and animals.
The problem with hazards such as these is that they were very discouraging and could cause a person to turn back. Fear of the dangers or even the potential dangers could paralyze a person. It takes real persistence to push on in the face of such obstacles.
Of course we are not talking about an actual physical journey as we consider these psalms. Instead we are looking at a spiritual journey, possibly even an inward journey as we open our hearts up to God. Stumbling on our spiritual journey is a real danger. There are many things that can cause us to stumble and it can be different for each person. Events that come into our lives can cause us to stumble. The loss of a parent, a child, or a job is traumatic and often so unexpected. We are walking along and suddenly we are tumbling in free fall and the ground comes up fast and hard. Sometimes the biggest stumbling blocks are people we love and depend on. Suddenly they let us down or even betray us in some fashion and we find ourselves lying in the dirt wondering if we can get up or if we even want to get up and try again.
It is not just the sudden and unexpected that makes the journey hard. The constant pressure of life, the day after day grind can be like the fierce sun that bakes us, dries us out, and saps us of the will to go on.
We might think the night would be better. We are so use to electricity and public lighting that often in our society we forget there is a ‘night’. But take those things away and even with a bright moon the dark presses in, the slightest sound paralyzes us with fear. The night can be dark and lonely. The journey is hard; the hazards are great; maybe we should just stay home.
II. Where Does Our Help Come From?
The psalmist looked up at the hills. Now, to us hills are hills but that was not so during much of the Old Testament. The hills were places of idols and places pagan ceremonies took place. Hills were places where the sun and moon were worshipped. The pagan god Baal was worshipped on the hills. Lots of people looked to the hills for their help. Of course to get the help in the hills you had to leave the path and go up to the worship place. In other words it distracted the traveler from the destination. It confused them and made it difficult to find the way again.
Of course we don’t look to the hills for help but that doesn’t mean we don’t look for help in places where such help is faulty at best. Our hills are named Oprah or Dr. Phil. People may look to the latest real estate infomercial and the promised financial security. Israel was a land of many hills but only one Mt. Zion. “I lift up my eyes to the hills-where does my help come from?”
Our help is not in the creation but “the Maker of heaven and earth,” our help is from the Lord. There is a Hebrew word used six times in this short psalm that is translated ‘watch’ or one time ‘keep’. All of these refer to the Lord who watches over us and will keep us from harm. The Lord doesn’t sleep in drunken slumber like the pagan gods.
It might be easy to read this psalm and think, “If I’m really in the way I won’t stumble, suffer from the sun, or be afraid in the dark.” Sometimes when people become Christians, when they start the journey, they believe they will never have doubts or problems. Anyone who has traveled the road more than a few days realizes this is not the case.
The promise of God is not a life free from pain and suffering on the journey but that he will always be with us, that nothing can separate us from his love and providence. So often our reaction to the problems we face is, “God has abandoned me.” It is easy to conclude that God has given up on us when we consider how badly we have stumbled on the road. Instead the psalmist pictures God as one who is with us in the way. When we sleep, he doesn’t. When we stumble, he enables us to stand and continue. When the sun becomes too much for us, his presence gives us shade and refreshment. God is not just the God of Mt. Zion, a god who stays in his temple. He is the God who “will watch over your life,” night and day and provide what we need to complete the journey. Paul put it plainly in Romans 8:35-39, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
‘For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Livonia Church of Christ: April 2, 2006
A Gentle Rebuke
I apologize to those of you who read this blog because I have not been adding my sermons. I received two gentle rebukes from different people in the last day and I repent. No reason other than laziness on my part. Thanks to Kari and Mary to getting me going again. God's blessings to you all.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
