Psalm 111
1 Praise the Lord!
I thank the Lord with all my heart
in the company of those who do right, in the congregation.
2 The works of the Lord are magnificent;
they are treasured by all who desire them.
3 God’s deeds are majestic and glorious.
God’s righteousness stands forever.
4 God is famous for God’s wondrous works.
The Lord is full of mercy and compassion.
5 God gives food to those who honor God.
God remembers God’s covenant forever.
6 God proclaimed God’s powerful deeds to God’s people
and gave them what had belonged to other nations.
7 God’s handiwork is honesty and justice;
all God’s rules are trustworthy—
8 they are established always and forever:
they are fulfilled with truth and right doing.
9 God sent redemption for God’s people;
God commanded that God’s covenant last forever.
Holy and awesome is God’s name!
10 Fear of the Lord is where wisdom begins;
sure knowledge is for all who keep God’s laws.
God’s praise lasts forever!
SERMON (PASTOR)
Our job, not just as Presbyterians, but as Christians is to love our neighbor as our selves and love our God.
This is a dangerous text to show up in the Lectionary at a time like this.
It is dangerous to look at these ancient Hebrew scriptures praising God’s covenant.
It is dangerous because that covenant, has been interpreted, as God’s gift of land and progeny to the Hebrew people.
It is dangerous because, historically, that that particular land, is what we now know as Israel/Palestine, and that particular progeny was for the Israeli people to flourish over that land.
It is a dangerous scripture when the, “The Presbyterian Church [PC(USA)], has had a longstanding deep concern for Israel-Palestine for many reasons, including its place in Christian self-understanding and the prominent role the United States has taken there. Since 1949, the Church has taken public positions on the situation, supporting Israel as a safe homeland for Jews but also calling for just treatment for Palestinians, including Palestinian refugees. In later times, the PCUSA has recognized the right and power of Palestinian people to self-determination by political expression, based upon full civil liberties for all. ” Moreover, this is a dangerous scripture when your pastor is headed to the “Holy Land,” on sabbatical as a Christian pilgrim. Is my religious tourism just or does it exacerbate the divide, as well as ignore U.S. relations with the divided area?
This is a dangerous text to show up in the Lectionary at a time like this; in a time when the U.S.’s leadership has decided to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, at a time when U.S. Aid to Palestine has been threatened. This Psalm is a dangerous text when 128 countries and the United Nations rejected the decision to recognize a different capital. It is a dangerous scripture when Palestinian Christian leaders have rejected the administration's decision, describing it as (that word) “dangerous” and “insulting” to the sacredness of Jerusalem for both Christians and Muslims.
Paramountly, this is a dangerous text when people are, and have been, dying over this conflict for since before the time this Pslam was written.
This is a dangerous scripture, and it is our scripture, and we, as Christians get to deal with it. So how do we do that? Very carefully.
1. We pray.
2. We read the text.
3. We look at the scripture in it’s original context.
1. What was it’s intent?
2. We look at what it tells us about people and the created world then and now.
3. We look at what the scripture tells us about God/Jesus/the Holy Spirit, divinity.
4. We ask if there have been developments in science or general knowledge which help us better understand this scripture.
4. Then we look at the Old Testament with a Christian lens: What does our understanding of Christ, and the Golden Rule help us to understand about this scripture?
5. What does our tradition say?
6. Then we apply it to today, to ourselves as individuals, to our community, and to the wider world.
7. We then lay the newspaper next to the Bible and we ask how they speak to one another.
That is a lot all at once, so lets break that down.
Firstly, notice the word, “we.” We read scripture together; we study it together. You are given the upcoming scriptures in your newsletter and weekly blast. Then reading and then studying the scriptures to be used in worship is the main purpose of Lectionary Bible Study. It is also the reason we gather as a community for worship. We gather to praise God, we seek to better understand God, and to experience God in our midst. The word We is essential to Biblical Interpretation.
1. First, We pray.
1. We pray and pray a lot,
2. there are prayers before picking scriptures, there are prayers before Bible Study, before writing sermons, there are prayers before the liturgist and I walk up to the front of the church, there are prayers before preaching, there are prayers before the Word is read. These are called Prayers for Illumination.
3. We pray that the Spirit might use our hearts and minds to Illumine God’s Word, and bring the Word of God to God’s people. We pray humbly that our words and thoughts not be about us, but about God.
4. I invite you to pray this prayer as you get ready for worship, as you get in the car, as you enter the sanctuary, as you listen to the scriptures and the sermon, as we pray throughout worship, as we go out into the world, etc. We pray for for God to help us interpret.
2. Secondly, we read the scripture.
1. We read different translations. I read to you the Common English Bible, which is seen as the best to be able to hear and understand the scripture’s intended meaning, while remaining accurate to the original Greek and Hebrew, in which the Bible was first written. You have in your pews, the New Revised Standard Version, which is also known for accuracy. At Lectionary Bible Study, we also read other versions and translations.
2. Today you have an example of the Hebrew acrostic psalm form on the front of your bulletin; this allows you in the congregation to see the scripture in yet another way. Secondly, to interpret scripture, we read the scripture.
3. Thirdly, we look at third at the scripture in it’s historical context.
1. We ask when was it written? Who wrote it? To whom were they writing? What was their intent? What practices or beliefs were common at the time that might help our understanding? How does geography both physical and political influence the scripture?
1. In this case, here are some things we know about Psalms.
1. Psalms are a collection of prayers and songs composed throughout Israel’s history.
2. The date of composition varies from psalm to psalm and is in most cases impossible to determine.
3. Some psalms were probably composed fairly early in Israel’s history.
4. Many may have been composed after the exile.
5. Some psalms changed over time, as like in a game of telephone.
6. Although many of the psalms are associated in their headings with David, who may have written some of them, the authorship of the individual psalms is unknown.
2. Here are some things we know about Psalm 111,
1. although an individual voice gives thanks, the psalm focuses on the wonderful deeds of God for the people rather than the particular way in which God has helped an individual.
2. We know historically that when Covenant is mentioned we can look at that same word in other Psalms to better glean its meaning, in Psalm 105.8–10 God is mindful of God’s covenant forever, of the word that God commanded, for a thousand generations, the covenant that God made with Abraham, God’s sworn promise to Isaac, which God confirmed to Jacob as a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan as your portion for an inheritance.” We can look at Psalm, 106.45 “For their sake God remembered God’s covenant, and showed compassion according to the abundance of God steadfast love.” From these two scriptures we know that the Hebrew people believed God gave them the land of Canaan, for 1,000 generations, around 20,000 to 25,000 years if each generation is about 25 years, so from 5 BCE in the five centuries when the Psalms were written + 25,000 years of. That said, if this is read metaphorically, 1000 years could mean forever.
3. If I look at the Psalm verses, “God remembers God’s covenant forever. God proclaimed God’s powerful deeds to God’s people and gave them what had belonged to other nations.” I tend to wonder if this was written by a Hebrew in exile. If I were in exile I would want a God who’s covenant is forever. If so that would mean I would be returned to my land (land that the Psalmist describes as belonging to other nations).
4. I think this desire of people to have a homeland continues today. A Psalm describing that covenant would be encouraging to the people of that time as well as today.
5. I believe For the community to praise the steadfastness of God despite their exile is what the Psalmist was trying to convey.
6. What does this scripture tell us about God? When we look at what this scripture tells us about God, we can see God’s steadfastness. But is God’s steadfastness and God’s covenant to a particular land and a particular people? Is God’s steadfastness only to Israel and to the Land of Canaan?
7. We look at Psalm 111 with a Christian lens, What does our understanding of Christ and the Golden Rule help us to understand about this scripture?
1. As Christians, when we lay the Golden Rule, Love the Lord with all your heart and soul and strength, and your neighbor as yourself, over this interpretation of God, it is hard to reconcile a God who wants us to love our neighbor as ourself with a God who promises a particular land and progeny to just one people.
2. If we look at Jesus and the parable of the Good Samaritan, which he told when someone asked him, “Who is my neighbor,” we can see Jesus saying that our neighbor is often the person who believes the most differently than us, the person we shun, or oppress.
3. When I read this scripture with the lens of the Golden Rule, and in comparison with scriptures such as the Good Samaritan, I do not believe that God has a chosen people whom God rewards. I believe all people are chosen and all people God seeks to reward.
4. So then I look back at this scripture and say, so What part of this is a result of the context of the author, and what part is the Word of God. I believe the Psalmist’s context of being a Hebrew is exile makes him blind to the inclusiveness of God. Yet, the ability to praise God even in exile, and know that God is with him is profound. I believe this is one way God is speaking through this scripture.
8. So, it is important to apply this scripture to today, and to ourselves as individuals, and to our community.
1. We point the finger at ourselves before we start to point it outward. I ask what are the ways I have felt in exile? I was once not invited back to a camp I loved, my favorite place on earth. I have lived in a bunch of different places and even growing up with parents as New Yorkers in Texas, I never quite felt like a belonged in that state, or any of them. Even in my seventh year in Baker I still am suspect because I didn’t graduate from here, much less have generations of family who came over on the Oregon Trail. I certainly have felt like an exile and to praise God in those moments takes a courage I do not always have, especially those times I have felt alone in foreign lands.
2. Then, when having our own understanding, and hopefully some compassion, we look outward, we ask what are the ways people are in exile? as individuals, I believe each person has had times where they felt like the other, not included, maybe because of the clothes they wore, their accent, their religion, the color of their skin, the things they were not good at, or because they excelled at something. Would it be hard to praise God in those times? How might we learn from the courage of the Psalmist?
3. Metaphor
4. Then we ask, Are their ways our community exiles, or we are in exile in our community? We in Baker haven’t had a Women’s March, or a Pride Parade, and people tend to think that our lack of diversity means racism isn’t an issue, rather than our lack of diversity being an issue in and of itself, these are way’s people may feel exiled in Baker. The lines between the haves and the have nots are drawn very sharply in this community, might this be another version of exile. Ownership of land is a huge subject in our community, what does the scripture have to say to us about that? Where might God’s promise of steadfastness be needed here in Baker?
5. Then understanding our own context we look at the world. What might this scripture say to the places where cultures and peoples draw lines and boundaries? How might it speak to those in a customs line? How might is speak to those who speak Spanish, or Chinese, or Russian? How might it speak to those of different ages.
6. Finally, what happens when we lay the newspaper next to the Bible and we ask how they speak to one another.
1. I look at that Land of Canaan and see that it is the same as the current Palestine-Israel. I can’t help but think about both those groups feeling a sort of exile from their homeland even in their homeland. The land they believed God promised to them. The land where I also will go to see to better understand my own faith
2. . When I look at the scripture, I do not believe that God is promising this land to the Israeli people. Because I am a Christian, I believe God has promised it to us all. I believe as a Christian that all land is promised to us all. I believe that God seeks the flourishing of all people.
9. So what does this scripture have to tell us today?
When I read this scripture, I look at those dangerous verses,
“God remembers God’s covenant forever.
God proclaimed God’s powerful deeds to God’s people
and gave them what had belonged to other nations.”
And I don’t see them as dangerous words anymore. I see them as liberating words. Words that get us out of the mess of, mine and theirs, and into the beauty of, ours, all of ours together. Maybe this is what God is telling the people in exile. Not that what was theirs and what was others will be returned to them, but that that there will be unity and sharing beyond their human imagination. That this is God’s covenant to God’s people for 1,000 generations.
And I think that is what God does, God can take a dangerous scripture, a scripture that has been used for violence and hatred, and allow us to find peace and unity in those same words. God’s word is a different kind of dangerous, lay this interpretation over the news, and there are a lot of people who are not going to like what it suggests, but we have a dangerous God, one who fights with peace, and justice and unity for all and that is the covenant we are to remember in exile.
https://www.pcusa.org/site_media/media/uploads/news/pfjp_two_state_final_w_map.pdf
https://www.pcusa.org/news/2016/2/29/pcusa-policy-committee-issues-new-report-israel-pa/
https://www.pcusa.org/site_media/media/uploads/news/pfjp_two_state_final_w_map.pdf
