Hello, Friends,
I know I am way behind sharing with you, but these past months have greatly altered our daily lives. After I started working with the local UMC, my time use has shifted. Anyway, I will continue to share whenever I can, and today is the sermon I gave on July 19. Hope you are all well and know you are in my prayers even when I do not connect every week.
Susan
Summer with the Psalms:
Psalm 42–Prayers for help
Growing up in the 1960s, music seemed to fill my world. Mom and Dad sang in the church choir, so my brother and I sang in the choirs throughout our school years. We wore those little white robes, too.
We also took piano lessons from Mrs. Updyke, who lived in Wellsville. My cousins and I would even carpool from our Buell farms and have to sit on the front porch while we would wait through the half hour lessons one at a time.
This was the time when the world seemed filled with strife–Vietnam and race riots filled the evening news. And we farmed, so we had the typical ups and downs of drought, Army worms, weeds, and the flies that seemed to swarm the cattle constantly.
Troubles are simply part of our life and music seemed to soothe the days. And music changed a great deal during those years between World War II and the 1970s: from big band music to the advent of rock and roll, from steel guitars of country to electric guitars of heavy metal.
What did I pick? Even though my very first cassette was Jimi Hendrix, I quickly settled into easy listening; and Simon & Garfunkel rose to the top of my listening. Music lifts our spirits and are our prayers for help. The psalms, with which we are spending our summer, are the ancient hymns filled with praise and prayers. Please join me in prayer:
Dear God,
When time gets tough and we seem lost,
You are there.
When we feel alone,
You are there.
Open our hearts to your words,
Knowing you are always there. –Amen
Spending the summer with the psalms is spending the summer with music. If there was ever a time we need to sing, it is now–and ironically that is one of the very things we are asked not to do during public worship for fear of spreading COVID-19. That puts us in a bit of a predicament as the psalms were the earliest hymns of the Israelites, but we read them today and can ‘hear’ the lyrics in our minds.
Therefore, since we can’t even reach out and pick up a hymnal while sitting in our pews, let me share words from one of its introductory pages which lists the directions for singing written by John Wesley in 1761. The first one reads, “Learn these tunes before you learn any others; afterwards learn as many as you please.”
That line reflects what we know about Jesus and his knowledge of the psalms. Even as a pre-teen, when he stayed behind in the temple “sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.” (Luke 2:46)
Jesus learned and used the psalms in his ministry. We need to follow his example and know the psalms well enough that we can turn to them when we face difficult times. As Pastor Peter began this sermon series, he provided the daily scripture readings aligned to the six themes found in the psalms.
Our first week focused on the wisdom psalms and the second week centered on the hymns of praise. This week’s theme is prayers for help. The human condition, as explained through various sources, simply means dealing with the positives and the negatives which are experienced throughout one’s life. Knowing the psalms, provides us the words we need to manage the positives and negatives that pop up in our lives.
Just like when we were kids and we fell and scraped our knees, we turn to our parents for comfort, for wiping away the tears, for cleaning up the torn skin, and for assurance that we are going to be ok. Turning to the psalms is going to our Father for comfort.
As a deer longs for flowing streams,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God. (Psalm 42:1-2)
Words comfort us and for me these first two verses make my heart sing, because I am immediately taken back to my childhood on the farm. The words trigger connections to my mom who loved the deer, the birds, the trees, the wildflowers and all nature. These are my comfort images, so to speak.
Throughout history, psalms have provided God’s people the words to express what ails them. Psalm 42 was transformed into a hymn that is now included in numerous hymnals of various denominations including the Faith We Sing hymnal usually found in our pews–number 2025 to be exact.
Marty Nystrom, a music graduate from Oral Roberts University, transformed this psalm in 1984 into the modern hymn we now use. The opening words:
As the deer pants for the water
So my soul longs after You
You alone are my heart’s desire
And I long to worship You . . .
This hymn and Psalm 42 have become connected to my own spiritual life because it takes me close to my own family experiences and Mom’s passion for the deer. I see deer, and I hear these opening words of the psalm and the hymn. I know the meaning of God’s presence in my life just like the deer turn to water for their sustenance.
We must deal with the reality of life and it can exhaust us, physically and mentally. Using the psalms can direct our energies to stay focused on God, to talk with God, and to trust God. Psalm 3 tells us this:
But you, O Lord, are a shield around me,
My glory, and the one who lifts up my head. . .
I lie down and sleep;
I wake again, for the Lord sustains me.
When we are challenged with an ongoing issue, the days can be drained of any joy that we typically experience. The sunshine can be clouded when we are facing a long-term problem.
On the farm, there is always the looming concern of a drought. The days, the weeks, and the months without rain can drain a farmer’s resolve and even love for nature. Watching the crops struggle, wither, and fail makes an entire lifestyle difficult as it effects the land, the livestock, and even the soil itself.
Getting up each morning, knowing that there is nothing one can do to effect a positive change can destroy not just the farmer, but his entire family and even a community. Trusting God is the shield. Does not that trigger another familiar hymn?
“Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus,
But to trust and obey.” ( UMH #467)
Trusting God makes it possible to lie down, sleep and wake again happy.
Turning to the psalms guides us to find comfort and assurance in challenging times. Even as a drought looms ahead of us even today, we know that the cycles of life continue. The dry days may seem to last forever, but rain will once again soften the soil:
O God, you are my God, I seek you,
My soul thirsts for you;
My flesh faints for you,
As in a dry and wary land where
there is no water.
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
Beholding your power and glory.
Because your steadfast love is better than life,
My lips will praise you.
. . . for you have been my help,
And in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.
[Psalm 63:1, 3 & 7]
These are the words David wrote while in the wilderness. The trials of the ancient world are the same as those today. The words build us up, give us confidence as we continue to manage the daily challenges.
In more recent history, but not specifically the last century, the challenges of the American slaves reflects how the psalms provided them the spiritual prayers and the comfort of a relationship with God. Do you recognize these words?
Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen;
Nobody knows but Jesus.
Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen;
Glory hallelujah.
Sometimes I’m up; sometimes I’m down;
Oh yes, Lord.
Sometimes I’m almost to the ground;
Oh yes, Lord.
Although You see me goin’ along,
Oh yes, Lord.
I have my troubles here below;
Oh yes, Lord.
What makes old Satan hate me so?
Oh yes, Lord.
He got me once and let me go;
Oh yes, Lord.
Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen;
Nobody knows but Jesus.
Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen;
Glory hallelujah.
How many times have you thought the very same thing? How many times have you turned to this hymn in your soul and sang it out loud?
Turning to Psalm 34, we hear David teach us how to use the psalms and even how to teach the psalms as a way to deliver or to keep us from trouble
Come, O children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear [respect] of the Lord.
Which of you desires life,
and covers many days to enjoy good?
Keep your tongue from evil,
and your lips from speaking deceit.
Depart from evil, and do good;
seek peace, and pursue it. (Psalms 34:11-14)
The psalms we study are filled hymns of praise and prayers for deliverance. We are the 2020 version of humanity and there is the common reality of the human condition that exists since the beginning of humanity. We experience the positives and the negatives of our earthly experience, and we can rely on these ancient words to keep us grounded in faith.
Just as the American slaves lived through trying times, we all live through trying times. Rely on the words of the psalms to guide us. Rely on the lyrics of the hymns to deliver us from troubles and from our enemies. David knew how difficult it is to defend one’s self:
How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I bear pain in my soul,
And have sorrow in my heart all day long?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
(Psalm 13:1-2)
Yet his words continue to show that remaining faithful will lead to triumph over the troubles and even over one’s enemies: [
But I trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the Lord,
Because he has dealt bountifully with me.
(Psalm 13:5-6)
Spend time with the psalms, look up your favorite hymns, and listen to the music of our times knowing that we are never alone. This is the final direction for singing that Wesley shared
Above all sing spiritually. Have an eye to God in every word you sing. Aim at pleasing him more than yourself, or any other creature. In order to do this attend strictly to the sense of what you sing, and see that your heart is not carried away with the sound, but offered to God continually; so shall your singing be such as the Lord will approve here, and reward you when he cometh in the clouds of heaven. (UMH p. vii)
Today our troubles and our enemies are looming all around us. Spending time with the psalms and with our hymns lifts us up and keeps us grounded.
In closing, I cannot ignore another set of lyrics that surface
When you’re weary, feeling small
When tears are in your eyes, I will dry them all, all
I’m on your side, oh, when times get rough
And friends just can’t be found
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down. . .
I will comfort you.
These words from Simon and Garfunkel may never have been written in our ancient psalms or be found in our pew hymnals, but the lyrics are a prayer and God will be our bridge over troubled waters. We long for God, especially when we are down and out, when we are on the street, when darkness closes in on us.
As we close today, let us return to Psalm 42, but this time from Eugene Peterson’s
A white-tailed deer drinks from the creek;
I want to drink God, deep draughts of God.
I’m thirsty for God alive. . . .
“Why am I walking around in tears,
harassed by enemies?”
They’re out for the kill, these
tormentors with their obscenities,
Taunting day after day,
“Where is this God of yours?”
Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul?
Why are you crying the blues?
Fix my eyes on God–
Soon I’ll be praising again.
He puts a smile on my face.
He’s my God.
Let us close with this as our prayer:
Dear Lord, our God,
Thank you for the words of the psalms
Thank you for the words of the hymns
we sing today.
Thank you for these bridges
that carry us over troubled waters.
Let us sing out loud,
fixing our eyes on you.
Let our words be your words
so others may hear you speak. –Amen.
Susandoodles Weblog 