Difference between revisions of "Sermon for July 18th, 2021"

Revision as of 14:49, 16 July 2021

25 With the loyal you show yourself loyal;
    with the blameless you show yourself blameless;
26 with the pure you show yourself pure;
    and with the crooked you show yourself perverse.
27 For you deliver a humble people,
    but the haughty eyes you bring down.
28 It is you who light my lamp;
    the Lord, my God, lights up my darkness.
29 By you I can crush a troop,
    and by my God I can leap over a wall.
30 This God—his way is perfect;
    the promise of the Lord proves true;
    he is a shield for all who take refuge in him.

31 For who is God except the Lord?
    And who is a rock besides our God?—
32 the God who girded me with strength,
    and made my way safe.
33 He made my feet like the feet of a deer,
    and set me secure on the heights.
34 He trains my hands for war,
    so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
35 You have given me the shield of your salvation,
    and your right hand has supported me;
    your help has made me great.
36 You gave me a wide place for my steps under me,
    and my feet did not slip.
37 I pursued my enemies and overtook them;
    and did not turn back until they were consumed.
38 I struck them down, so that they were not able to rise;
    they fell under my feet.
39 For you girded me with strength for the battle;
    you made my assailants sink under me.
40 You made my enemies turn their backs to me,
    and those who hated me I destroyed.
41 They cried for help, but there was no one to save them;
    they cried to the Lord, but he did not answer them.
42 I beat them fine, like dust before the wind;
    I cast them out like the mire of the streets.

43 You delivered me from strife with the peoples;
    you made me head of the nations;
    people whom I had not known served me.
44 As soon as they heard of me they obeyed me;
    foreigners came cringing to me.
45 Foreigners lost heart,
    and came trembling out of their strongholds.

46 The Lord lives! Blessed be my rock,
    and exalted be the God of my salvation,
47 the God who gave me vengeance
    and subdued peoples under me;
48 who delivered me from my enemies;
    indeed, you exalted me above my adversaries;
    you delivered me from the violent.

49 For this I will extol you, O Lord, among the nations,
    and sing praises to your name.
50 Great triumphs he gives to his king,
    and shows steadfast love to his anointed,
    to David and his descendants forever.

Psummer of Psalms IV - Psalm 18, Part II

Three drunk men were standing on the top of a tall building one windy evening. One of the men said to the other two, "You know, this wind is so strong, I bet I could jump off and the wind would blow me right back up here. The second drunk man said, "that's crazy--I bet you another drink you're wrong!" So the first drunk man took a running leap off the building, dropped down, and sure enough after a few seconds came right back up, landing on the top of the building again. The second drunk man, said, "Wow, I've got to try that!" He leaped over the edge and went crashing down to the ground, fortunately landing in a garbage dumpster, which saved his life. The third man looked at the first man, shook his head, and said, "You know, Superman, you really can be a jerk when you drink too much."

Sorry, that's really the only good Superman joke I know. But I also know that the comic book superhero known as Superman was invented by two Jewish kids, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, when they were still in high school. Any good Jewish boy growing up attending synagogue would have been familiar with stories of heroes in the Old Testament, like Samson with his super strength, Elijah who could outrun the wind, and flying angels with names ending in "El" (Gabriel, Raphael, Michael). Remember that Superman's birth name on the planet Krypton was "Kal-el" which in Hebrew means "Voice of God." And of course, there is Moses, who (like Superman) was put in a basket by his birth parents, floated down a river (or a galaxy) and discovered by adoptive parents who raised him among foreigners. Moses too, was given superpowers by God, and instructed to use them for the benefit of humanity.

Why all this talk about Superman? Well, when I read the second half of Psalm 18, I wonder if Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster read it too, in their synagogue days, and if perhaps it inspired them when they created the character of Superman?

In Psalm 18, King David recalls all of his God-given "super powers."

Verse 29: "By you I can crush a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall."

Verse 33 & 34: "He made my feet like the feet of a deer, and set me secure on the heights. He trains my hands for war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze."

Verse 37-39: "I pursued my enemies and overtook them; and did not turn back until they were consumed. I struck them down, so that they were not able to rise; they fell under my feet. For you girded me with strength for the battle; you made my assailants sink under me."