Sunday, November 2, 2014

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Psalm 8 & 84

PSALM 8:

The images in Psalm 8 are familiar as Christmas carols. But the structure of it is unique in all the Book of Psalms. It is addressed entirely to God as a pure Song of Praise. The singer does not add pleas for mercy or request anything from God. And, it begins and ends with the same line. The power of this structure is that after all the images unfold inside the poem the last line takes on new, enhanced meaning when we hear it again at the end. The Psalm begins:

“Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”

Verse 1 sets the tone of God as a monarch, and verse 2 implies that even the voices of the fragile, weak children God has created may be a stronghold against his enemies. No doubt, “Out of the mouths of babes” has to be in the top ten misquoted lines in the Bible. At verse 3 we see an image that everyone who has looked up into the heavens at night clearly understands:

“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, …”

I have strong memories of nights at summer camp, sitting out on the granite rocks of Muskoka wondering these very same thoughts. Perhaps for Canadians, the image of the northern lights or the wide span of the stars was our first inkling of the vastness of Creation and our first intimation that perhaps there truly was a Creator. It is a powerful universal experience.

Verse 4 asks the central question. In the NIV it is translated as plural, “What is mankind that you are mindful of them?” But the original is more accurate: 

“What is a human being that you would remember him?
What is a mortal that you would care for her?”

It is an overwhelming thought that the God who has power to set the stars and moon in place would take the time to care for one small human being who is here today and gone tomorrow, like the lilies of the field. The answer to the central question comes in Verse 5. God has placed a human “a little lower than the angels.” Moreover, humans have been “crowned” in “glory and honour”. 

Verse 5 applies the royal imagery from Verse 1 to fragile, mortal humans. Humans are made royal rulers over the works of God’s hands. I particularly like the use of human imagery in describing the Creator. In this Psalm God has fingers that fashion the stars. He has hands that create life. The list Humans are asked to care for covers all life, domestic (flocks and herds), wild (animals of the wild), those farther from human life (birds of the air) and even farther (fish in the sea). In translation, the words ‘ruler’ or ‘dominion’ here do not mean that humans are to dominate and exploit other creatures on the planet. Far from it! The language is the language of stewardship, of caring. 

As the Psalm beautifully describes, God has compassion for fragile, mortal humans, and while we are included in the group of living finite creatures on the earth, we have been given a unique job, to act on God’s behalf as stewards of our fellow living creatures on earth. The whole of God’s creation is put, as the psalm says, “under their feet”. We are to care for, not crush our fellow creatures.

The implications of this psalm in our time are staggering, considering how we raise our food, what we eat and how we process it. Issues around how we board and feed domestic animals emerge. The morality of farm factories becomes an issue. We find ourselves torn between keeping prices down and honoring the job we have been tasked with in Psalm 8. Are we stewards of the living creatures of the earth or are we exploiting them for our own wants over our needs?

The Psalm ends with a repeat of the first line:  “Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”  Some days, I think the majesty of God’s name in all the earth would shine brighter if we could see more of the majesty of human behaviour in all the earth.

PSALM 84

In Psalm 84 we hear a singer whose soul cries out to be in the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. If the singer is David, this psalm was written after he was exiled. It’s not so much that he misses the building or even that he believes that God actually dwells inside the building. The psalm speaks of his longing to be in a place where he once felt close to God, a place where it was easier for him to communicate with God. As it stands, he and his small army are on the road, living in the hills, away from that experience.

“How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints,
for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.”

He is envious of the sparrow and the swallow that have each found a nest near the altar of the Lord. He blesses humans, birds, any living thing lucky enough to live in or near the Temple because they have the opportunity to praise God in the Temple, and he does not.

I have known church people who have the same attitude. They rise in the morning and look forward to any time they can spend at the church. Whether it is arriving at the church for a meeting or to arrange flowers and vessels in the Sanctuary, or to prepare food in the kitchen, or to work in the office, they approach it with joy and enthusiasm. Their life is the church, its furniture, and its people, all of it.

“Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you.”

In Verse 5 the singer turns his attention to pilgrimage. Those who are far away but are able to travel to Jerusalem to the Temple. In his song, he imagines them traveling through the Valley of Baka, a dry, barren valley of tears. But because they are bound for worship in God’s temple, because their hearts are set on praising God, he has given them his strength and blessing. As they pass through these dry places, “springs” well up and the “autumn rains” fill the desert with “pools”. As the singer puts it: 

“They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion”

By Verse 8 and 9 it is clear that we are listening to David, or a king like him. He calls on the God of Jacob and refers to himself as “your anointed one.”

His devotion and longing to be in the Lord’s Temple come out in the most famous lines:

“Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere;

I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.”

What follows is praise. God is a “sun and shield”. The Lord “bestows favor and honor”. He does not withhold good things from “those whose walk is blameless.” And he finishes with 

“Lord Almighty, blessed is the one who trusts in you.”

I think of those who love the atmosphere of a church, who feel close to God in the midst of a service of worship, surrounded by voices of praise, prayer and song, but for some reason find themselves unable to attend. Perhaps illness or infirmity prevents them from participating. Perhaps they have recently moved and have not yet found a congregation where they feel welcome. For whatever reason, they, like David are exiled to the wilderness and long to be in the heart of the Temple, feeling closer to God.

Sunday mornings I often find myself visiting my mother in her retirement home. She lives in the Assisted Care section of her residence. In that part of the complex, many folks are in wheelchairs. As I walk down the corridor on a Sunday morning, I am struck with how many of them are tuned in, all of them to the same television broadcast of a local service. Yet each of them is alone in his or her room. They need their wheelchair or bed for support. So while they are all ‘at’ the same service, there is no group worship. After this service, they all come together for lunch. Meals become their real communion and fellowship in one. And the staff members provide lots of loving support in full measure. It’s a community of sorts, and a place of many blessings.

David was not alone, out in the hills, longing to be at church. There are many like him all around us.

Peter Mansell October 24, 2014