A Definition of Worship

It is not surprising that a Psalm would cause me to think of hymns or songs.  Some of the hymns as well as some of the contemporary music of our day have words from the Psalms within them. The 35th Psalm causes us to think of our hymn book, not because of the words, but because of the literary structure.  Even as many songs have several verses and a chorus that is common to all of them, so does this particular Psalm.  While the words vary some, verses 9, 13, and 28 are like the  chorus of the verses of the hymn proclaimed throughout the whole of this Psalm.

 

At first glance it seems that the words of the chorus verses are from a man trying to bargain with God.  When verse 9 says, "Then my soul shall rejoice in the Lord...,"  or when verse 18 says, "Then I will thank You in the great congregation...," or when verse 28 says, "Then my tongue shall tell of Your righteousness...," it might be heard as what the Psalmist will do if the Lord acts.  We know the drill.  "God, You do this for me and I will do something for You."  However, a closer reading of the whole passage brings into clarity that the Psalmist is instead declaring what he will do in response to the Lord taking action.  It is not the pleas of a man trying to make a bargain that we hear, but the promise of a man who is responding to the work of God in the world. 

 

There is a sense in which this is a definition of worship.  True worship is not about the performance of the musician, or the preaching of the preacher, but our response to what God has done and is doing in our midst, or in our lives.  Response is an essential part of any real worship, and, unfortunately, it is the one part lacking in today's worship experience.  Feeling good when we leave worship is not the end result of worship.  What worship is about is responding to what God has done.

Memory of a Boy Preacher

My reading in the 34th Psalm today brought back a time when I was a boy preacher trying to become a man.  I was in the middle of seminary and at a point in my life when it was time to appear before the Conference Board of Ministry of the United Methodist Church.   It was another step on the journey which started a few years earlier with a call to preach.  Back then candidates for ministry were not required to submit a recorded sermon for scrutiny to the Board.  We only had to submit a manuscript for reading.  The 34th Psalm reminded me of the text assigned for the sermon.  It was Colossians 1:13-14, a Word which reads, "He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."

It was the Psalmist's use of the word "rescue" which brought this old memory back into the present moment.  Verses 17 and 19 read, "When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears, and rescues them from all their troubles....Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord rescues them from them all."  Being rescued is a good thing.  To be rescued means that we are caught up in a trouble too great from which to deliver ourselves.  We see people being rescued from floods.  We see people being rescued from perilous mountain peaks.  We see people being rescued from all kinds of tragedies which threaten to take away life.  In those situations no one is going to shun the ones who come to rescue.

My old preaching text from way back long ago reminded me again that I need rescuing from the power of darkness.  There is something about me which causes me to think that the wrong way is the right way and I am too eager to choose it even when it is obviously something which speaks of disobedience to the will of God.  Before I heard that call to preach, I realized how lost I was without God.  I needed someone to rescue me.  But, the truth is I have never gotten beyond the need for God to rescue me from the consequences of my wrong choices.  Like you, I am thankful He continues to hang in there with me offering both a mercy and a forgiveness that is beyond anything I could ever hope to receive. 

The Great Nation

Politicians and administrative handlers of government tell us that the key to a nation's greatness is found in the external things which can be seen and managed by more money and better programs.  The linchpin of the politician's view is more money for weapons.  The nation with the biggest and most deadly stick is sure to be the one which prevails.  Somehow, it seems these folks have forgotten a Word from the 33rd Psalm which says, "A king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.  The war horse is a vain hope for victory, and by its great might it cannot save."  (Psalm 33:16-17)  Most likely the politicians never heard the Word and if they did, they would surely declare it to be unrealistic and not workable.

 

And then there are those keepers of religion who know both the fallacy of the political view and the correct way forward to greatness as a nation.  Their way is rooted in the idea that social programs define the way forward.   Giving very little attention to a theology about the transforming power of a salvation gospel, they instead preach a message that men and women are changed by programs of social activism that attack issues such as poverty, inequality, and racism.  And while there is nothing bad about tending to these issues, the sin of the human heart is largely ignored.  Psalm 33:10 says, "The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing, he frustrates the plans of the people."  Well intended social programs and legislated change is always the short term solution to a problem that is not really external, but something of the heart.

The Psalms and the rest of the Old Testament provide a clear testimony that God is the Watcher of the nations, ours included.  The Word tells us this Watcher loves  faithfulness, righteousness, and justice.  (vs. 4-5)  He looks for those who revere Him, who hope in His love, and who depend on Him for deliverance. (vs. 18-19)  Our stockpile of weapons and books full of programs count as nothing to this God of the nations who makes great those who know Him as the Lord. (vs.  12)

The Offensive Thing

Sin is offensive to God.  Sin is an affront to His holy presence.  Our sin is the one thing which can separate up from God and the loving mercy He desires to continually bestow upon each one of us.  Through our sin we create a breech in the flow of God's love that is un-repairable by human hands.  Only the power of the cross can overcome the destructive, separating results of our choice to sin against God. 

 

Our contemporary secular culture has created a god in its own image which largely allows it to bypass the issue of sin as it is defined in the Scripture.  This god of our creating is one who wants and approves of what we want for ourselves.  He is the one who declares self-justification as commandment number one.  According to culture what is wrong is determined by the one who commits the sin and not the One who so vehemently abhors it.  Sin is determined not by holy scripture, but by human experience and reason.  Instead of a divine absolute to guide, there is the common consensus of the majority.  The way so pervasive in our day is a deadly way that may provide a temporary solution to the problem of sin, but never to the point of removing the unsettling uneasiness of a heart still troubled at its core by unresolved guilt and fear of brokenness. 

The 32nd Psalm does not sweep sin under the rug, but declares that it is only handled rightly when there is openness, transparency, confession, and honesty.  The blessed are those whose sin is not explained away, but forgiven.  As verses 3 and 4 points out, nothing is gained by being silent and living as if our sin does not exist.  Only in acknowledging and confessing it before God do we put ourselves in a place where our sin and all its consequences can truly be handled.  The way advocated by contemporary culture is a lie.  On the other hand, the cross takes us to a place where our sin is handled and our guilt no longer has any hold on our life.

Another Round

Back in the summer I started a journey through the book of Psalms.  My intention was to use one each day as a part of my devotional time.   Honesty  requires confessing the obvious and that is that I am behind schedule.  There were days I missed going to this collection of prayers.  And, there were Psalms that would not turn me loose for several days.  While I did a similar thing some years ago, this trip has been different in that I have used my blog as a way of sharing some of the ways I have experienced the Word of God as I read these ancient words. 

 

During the month of July I offered a daily blog for each one of the first 31 Psalms.  Some of those blogs expressed my desire to pray a particular Psalm.  Others were meditations, or poems, or simply a response to what was being read and experienced as the Word of God.  I made a decision not to use any commentaries as I wanted the focus to be more on how the Word of God was being heard as an inspired Word rather than a reflection of research.  Nothing is wrong with commentaries.  I just decided to leave them at home on this journey.

 

So once again I come to a place of offering another round of reflections on the next 31 Psalms.  Tomorrow I will begin with Psalm 32 and continue through the month of October.  Once again I invite you to share this spiritual journey with me.  First read the Psalm.  Hear the Word as the Spirit speaks to you through the sacred word.  Then, read the blog.  If you would like to share your thoughts on a particular Psalm, click on the word "comment" at the bottom of the blog posting.  Your shared thoughts would greatly add to my experience of this journey through the Psalms. 

Conversation with the Doctor

There was not much eye contact in today's conversation.  I was stretched out on a table looking at the ceiling while the dermatologist focused her eyes on my arm as she took out a chunk of meat from a spot that had proven not to be benign.  When she found out I retired from the ranks of the clergy a few years ago, she told me some of her story.  She went to college and majored in religion planning a stop at seminary before becoming a theology teacher.  Instead, she landed in the social work field a few years before going to medical school.  One of the questions she asked was, "What is your favorite book in the Bible?"   Having never been asked the question, I had to think a minute before answering, "The gospels, but particularly Luke and John because they told such great stories."

 

After the stitches were finished and I was on the way home, I thought about the conversation with the doctor and the answer offered for that particular question.  It occurred to me that there were many ways to write about Jesus.  Someone could have recorded His sermons and teachings.  Or, someone could have written a chronological biography of his life.  Instead, the medium used was story telling.  The Holy Author of the Word chose to tell a story which included not only sermon and teaching moments, but countless encounters with people who turned out to be not so different than those of who would read the story long after it was fleshed out on earth.  And while some fiction carries with it a measure of truth, this story is not fiction but truth.  There is no other way to read it.

 

A good story keeps us glued to the page while telling us something important about the character who walks midst the print and often times even more about the one who is reading it.  Such is surely true about the gospel story as well as the Biblical one which begins in the pages of Genesis.  The Holy Word is the story of how God is with His people.  It is the story of His people responding to Him.  First and foremost it is God's story.  He is the central character.  But, it is also our story for we find ourselves present in so many of its pages. 

Two Tables

When I arrived at the IHOP for breakfast, I immediately became aware of the two tables.  One table had about twenty men and women seated up and down the six or eight tables pulled together.  The other was no more than three tables long and around it were seated somewhere between six or eight men.  The big table was loud.  Not hearing was impossible as they stood and testified to success in selling.  The end of each testimony was followed by a round of applause and just before they broke up to leave, the leader said, "Go and sell something!"  The second table was much quieter, making eavesdropping something akin to a real effort.  Someone read a devotional, some people in trouble were named, and then the leader said, "Let's pray." 

Before my eggs and grits were gone, both groups broke up.  The big table people left going separate ways with the appearance of being alone.  Strange it seemed when there was such camaraderie around the table.  The small table people left with some reluctance, stayed around talking to one another, and even in their leaving seemed connected.   I confess to having sat at both tables.  The church has sometimes invited me and others to the big table so that we could hear from others how to build the church.  And even less do I want to confess that I have sometimes invited folks whose souls were entrusted to me to gather so that some sales pitch for a church program could be pitched. 

Time and energy would have been better invested at the small table where the spiritual work of the kingdom gets done.  There are no rounds of applause offered at the small table.  In fact, hardly no one notices its presence or those gathered around it.  Sometimes church work and soul work can be the same thing, but not most of the time.  The big table work may make the church bigger, but the small table work gives it a stronger soul.  I wish I had spent more time at the small table.