Difference between revisions of "Sermon for June 23rd, 2024"

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Psalm 144:1-15 (OT p.580)

Of David. 1 Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle; 2 my rock and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues the peoples under me.

3 O Lord, what are human beings that you regard them, or mortals that you think of them? 4 They are like a breath; their days are like a passing shadow.

5 Bow your heavens, O Lord, and come down; touch the mountains so that they smoke. 6 Make the lightning flash and scatter them; send out your arrows and rout them. 7 Stretch out your hand from on high; set me free and rescue me from the mighty waters, from the hand of aliens, 8 whose mouths speak lies, and whose right hands are false.

9 I will sing a new song to you, O God; upon a ten-stringed harp I will play to you, 10 the one who gives victory to kings, who rescues his servant David. 11 Rescue me from the cruel sword, and deliver me from the hand of aliens, whose mouths speak lies, and whose right hands are false.

12 May our sons in their youth be like plants full grown, our daughters like corner pillars, cut for the building of a palace. 13 May our barns be filled with produce of every kind; may our sheep increase by thousands, by tens of thousands in our fields, 14 and may our cattle be heavy with young. May there be no breach in the walls, no exile, and no cry of distress in our streets.

15 Happy are the people to whom such blessings fall; happy are the people whose God is the Lord.

Psummer of Psalms VII - Psalm 144

Psalm 144, in the NRSV translation, mentions aliens in verse 7 and verse 11. So I’m reminded of the story about the time when aliens decided to finally visit planet Earth…They came in peace and surprisingly, they speak English. So, all of world’s leaders set up a meeting with our new visitors. The Pope is at the meeting, representing the world’s Christian religions. When it's the Pope's turn, he asks "Do you know about our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ?" “Oh, you mean good old JC? Yeah, we know him! He's the best, isn't he? He swings by our planet every year to make sure that we are doing okay. He brings us all sorts of good things, and he always makes sure that we never have any earthquakes, diseases or natural disasters.” Surprised, the pope says, "He visits you every year? It's been over 2,000 years and we're still waiting for his SECOND coming!" The alien gets quiet and says, “Well, maybe he just likes our chocolate better than yours?" The pope retorts "Chocolates? What does that have to do with anything?" The alien says "Well, when he first visited our planet we welcomed him, had a great time, and when it was time for him to go, we gave him a huge box of chocolates! Why? What did you guys do?"

So that joke doesn’t *really* have too much to do with today’s scripture passage…the aliens in verses 7 and 11 are not that kind. The two Hebrew words translated by the NRSV as “aliens” נֵכָֽר בְּנֵ֣י (bene nekar) literally mean “strange children” (which is funny enough on its own) or more likely the “sons of foreigners.” But today’s Psalm does touch on some pretty difficult and sensitive issues, so I wanted to at least start off on a lighter note before we jump into the heavy stuff.

I also need to give some historical context to the Psalm, and so this is a good time to remind us that most psalms are prayers. I’m sure that all the prayers we pray to God are pure, holy, and completely in tune with God’s will and God’s plan, right? I mean, you’ve probably never prayed that God would make something horrible happen to the person who cut you off in traffic. I’m sure you’ve never prayed that God would show favor to *your* child’s baseball or soccer team, allowing them to utterly crush the kids on that other team. I’m sure you’ve never prayed that God would help you pass the test that you didn’t study for, or get you out of the trouble that you clearly got yourself into. We would never pray those kinds of prayers, right?

The people who wrote the Psalms were no different, no “holier” or less human than we are today. They prayed heartfelt prayers that God would do all the things that they really wanted God to do, that God would love who they loved and hate who they hated. They prayed that God would bless their nation—only their nation—and wipe all their enemies off the face of the earth.

The fact that several of these prayers are preserved in the Bible (and Psalm 144 is one of them), is more of a testament to the fact that God always listens to us—in our fear, in our anger, in our anxiety—and not that he always responds exactly the way we might want him to in the moment.

For historical context, it is helpful to remember that during the span of time in which the Psalms were written (a period of about 400 years between the 9th and 5th centuries BC) the nation of Israel was almost constantly being invaded by larger and more powerful neighbors to the North, South, East, and West. On at least two separate occasions, they were utterly defeated, and large portions of their population were carted away into slavery—first by the Assyrian Empire, and then the Babylonian Empire. The Egyptians, the Philistines, the Amalekites and the Hittites also wreaked plenty of havoc in Israel as well.

I imagine all those collective experiences would heavily shape and influence the language and the imagery they used in their heartfelt prayers to God.

Psalm 144 is a Psalm "of David"—that’s the only inscription on this one, and as I’ve said before, this means it could have been written by David himself, or written by someone else about David, or simply written in the style of David.

The first two verses contain some familiar language--praise for God, my rock, my refuge, my fortress, stronghold, deliverer, my shield. But there's also some other language here too: God who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle; God who subdues the peoples under me.

Again, context is important--this may not be your typical Sunday morning prayer (at least, I hope not) but these words have provided hope and comfort in foxholes, front lines, and on battlefields for hundreds of years. In Steven Spielberg's film "Saving Private Ryan" they are the words on the lips of Private Daniel Jackson (the religious sniper). During the middle ages, these verses were known as the "knight's prayer," and in the 12th century, Emperor Otto IV had them inscribed on his coronation sword.

Verses 3 and 4 are familiar, too--we saw similar language a few weeks ago when we looked at Psalm 8: O Lord, what are human beings that you regard them, or mortals that you think of them? They are like a breath; their days are like a passing shadow.

But in Psalm 8, the psalmist was making a contrast between God and humans to show how amazing it is that God cares for us at all. In Psalm 144, I'm not convinced it's the same idea. Especially when you look at what comes next in verses 5-8. Here the Psalmist calls down the holy wrath of God on his enemies: Come down with smoke and lightning to scatter them; send out your arrows and rout them. I mean, after all, God--they're just puny mortals. What are human beings that you regard them? Their days are like a passing shadow, so you probably won't miss them much.

Rescue me, the Psalmist says, from the hand of aliens (or strange children, or foreign sons, take your pick!), whose mouths speak lies, and whose right hands are false. The right hand--in ancient Middle Eastern culture just like our own culture today--would have been the hand upheld to swear an oath. So the Psalmist is saying that the foreign invaders lied, they broke their promises.

I want to pause here and remind us one more time: In the Psalms, we hear the voices of the people, for better or worse, in all their humanity. And likely they had good enough reasons to be upset with the aliens, the foreigners who were attacking them on all sides. But if you want to hear what God thinks about aliens and foreigners (and presumably not the violent kind who come with sword in hand), you can find that in the book of Leviticus, in the law that God gives to Moses at the beginning of Israel's existence. Leviticus 19:33-34 says that "When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the native-born among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God."

Now back to our Psalm! In verses 9-11, the Psalmist promises to write a song to God, and play it on a ten-stringed harp, which presumably is what he has done with the writing of Psalm 144. But it sounds kind of like he's trying to strike a deal, to make a transaction with God: If you do this thing I'm asking, O God who gives victory to kings--then I will write you a really cool song, and people will sing it for centuries to come! And just in case you're still not sure what I'm asking, let me repeat verse 7 again: "deliver me from the hand of aliens, whose mouths speak lies, and whose right hands are false."

Have you ever said that kind of prayer? God, if you'll just let me have my wish, I promise I'll go to church every single Sunday, and I'll read the Bible every night (by the way, if you did pray that prayer, know that I'm rooting for you!). God, if you just get me out of this mess I made, I promise I'll never do x, y, or z again!

That kind of prayer reminds me of the wealthy businessman who was late for an important meeting, and when he got to his destination, there was no place to park. After driving around the block a few times, he got really worried. He couldn't afford to be late to this meeting, so in desperation he prayed: Lord, if you'll just find me a parking place, I promise I'll donate 10% of all I have to you! As soon as the words were out of his mouth, a parking space miraculously opened up right in front of him. He quickly pulled into the space, looked up to heaven and said, "Never mind, Lord--I found one myself!"

The last four verses of Psalm 144 mark a pretty drastic shift in tone. Gone are the angry words about the Psalmist's enemies, about fire from heaven, and preparing for battle. In the end, the Psalmist settles on the language of blessing. It's still a blessing for his people--may our sons and daughters grow healthy and strong, may our barns be filled, may our livestock increase by thousands.

I wonder if he's remembering who God is, and what God has said elsewhere in the scriptures about loving your neighbors--foreign and otherwise--and realizing that his prayer is just a little out of sync with its target audience. He's clearly still anxious about those who might attack him--but here at the end his hope shifts away from a desire to be victorious over them, to a desire that the anticipated conflict just won't happen at all: May there be no breach in the walls, no exile, and no cry of distress in our streets.

The final verse (15) is surprisingly broad, given where we've come from in this Psalm. The Psalmists says "Happy are the people (not my people specifically, but any people) to whom such blessings fall. Happy are the people (any people) whose God is the Lord.

Wrapping things up, I've pointed out in other sermons how the psalms *can* be model prayers. I'm not so sure I would say that Psalm 144 is, in its entirety, a model for how we ought to pray. But it is a reflection of how we often DO pray. And I think sometimes it's easier to see the crazy in someone else's words than our own, to laugh at or raise an eyebrow at them--and then to ask the question, "wait a minute...do I do that, too? Ok. You got me there, God."

I think we can also see in Psalm 144 a prayer that evolves grows as it progresses. That may not happen in the span of one prayer for you, but I hope that over time your prayers to God become more deep and broad, embracing not just your own desires, but God's desires for you and for the world.

It's okay to start with raw emotions and even selfish wants--that's part of who we are as humans, and I think God would rather hear a brutally honest, horrible prayer than no prayer at all. But I know he also wants us to keep at it, to keep trying, to keep growing, to keep loving, to keep learning, and to keep forgiving.

So... keep praying. Happy are the people whose God is the Lord.