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Psalms: 1, 25, 145, 119
Pentecost 6C
July 11, 2004
The Rev. Karen Siegfriedt
St. Jude the Apostle Episcopal Church, Cupertino,
CA
"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside the still waters." [Ps 23]
"I lift my eyes to the hills; from where is my help to come? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth." [Ps 121]
"As a deer longs for the water-brooks, so longs my soul for you, O God." [Ps 42]
"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me...Open my lips, O Lord, and my mouth shall proclaim your praise." [Ps 51]
"Lord, you have searched me out and known me; you know my sitting down and my rising up; you discern my thoughts from afar." [Ps 139]
These are verses from some of the best known psalms in the Bible. For the next three weeks in July, I will be preaching a series on the Psalms. The word psalm means "song of praise." The psalms are a collection of Jewish poetry that was set to music. In the Hebrew Scriptures, there are 150 psalms which form the 19th book of the Bible. We call this collection of psalms, the Psalter. In more ancient times, the Psalter was embraced by the Jewish people as their "prayer book and hymnal" and was used in worship. In former times, it was believed that King David was the sole composer of the psalms. Today, we have come to realize that the Psalter is a collection of poetry gathered together over a period of many centuries. Different psalms were written at different times for different purposes by different people.
Generation after generation, faithful people, (and people struggling to be faithful), have turned to the psalms as a way to be in conversation with God about things that matter most. For others, reading or singing the psalms are an expression of a devotional piety. Still for others, the psalms are jammed packed with life saving theology.
The psalms express both sides of a conversation between people of faith and God. The psalms include the whole gamut of human feelings and expressions: from profound praise and confidence in God, to utterances of unspeakable anger and darkness.
In his book, The Message of the Psalms*, Walter Brueggemann divides the psalms into three categories that mimic the different cycles in human life. These three cycles of human life are orientation, disorientation, and new orientation. Orientation is a time of equilibrium; a time when the status quo is operating; a time when life is predictable and moving forward in an expected way. But sometimes, this cycle is interrupted. A painful event upsets the status quo and the "apple cart" is overturned. This is a time of disorientation, when suffering, death, and alienation are at the doorstep. The third cycle of human life consists in turns of surprise, when we are overwhelmed with the new gifts of God, when joy breaks through the despair, and light breaks through the darkness. This is called the cycle of new orientation; a time of new life & possibilities. Seasons of well-being are often interrupted by the seasons of anguish and suffering, and then revived by the possibility of new life. The psalms are a reflection of these three seasons of the human life cycle.
While the contexts of people's lives differ, the experiences of joy, grief, anger, doubt, complaint, and consolation are always part of the fabric of human life. Today, I will focus my comments on the cycle of human experience known as orientation: that time of life when things are going well and in accordance with a well ordered universe.
Let me begin with a personal, concrete example of orientation. In the early 1970's, I went away to Indianapolis to attend nursing school. The University of Indianapolis was a small, conservative, Methodist College in the Midwest. The expectations and code of conduct were well articulated by the school. Life was predictable. As long you paid your tuition and room and board, you were assured of a good education, three meal per day, and a warm and clean room. The expectations of each professor were laid out on the first day of class. A student knew what books to buy, what pages to read, the dates of each exam, and other special projects. As long as I received a grade of "B" or better, I was assured of continued financial support and a degree at the end of my course of study.
The predictability of life in those days paved the way for a fairly peaceful time. That didn't mean that there were not any challenges. There were many. For instance, I had to be on the hospital floor by 7:00am. It was a challenge to balance a heavy course load with hospital duty, sleep, and recreation. Many of the students were very conservative and often didn't understand my passion. But I was grateful for the privilege of attending this University and I responded by being the best student that I could be. This was a cycle in my life that was one of orientation.
We all go through times of orientation. This is a time in life when we can take a "breather", when a family is in harmony, or a country is economically stable, or the world is at peace. It may be a time when the children love going to school and to church, when the marriage is strong, and the job is invigorating. During times like these, it is easier to offer God praise and thanksgiving. For the people of Israel, a time of orientation was a time in which life was experienced as reliable, equitable, and generous. During these times they found themselves to be safe and free. They experienced creation through a well-ordered world. In response to this fruitful creation, they gladly obeyed God's laws with a posture of gratitude. God provides the community with blessings- the faithful respond with praise and faithfulness. There are many psalms that reflect this cycle of orientation: They include songs of creation, songs of Torah (i.e. God's law), psalms of Wisdom, psalms of retribution, and psalms that reflect occasions of well being. Let's take a closer look at a few of these psalms.
Psalm 1 opens up the Psalter and sets a tone for the entire collection of hymns. It is a psalm of orientation; a torah song. It announces that Israel's primary agenda is obedience to God; that those who are faithful are to conduct all of life in accordance with God's purpose. Those who are righteous walk in the ways of the Lord. The wicked are those who ignore God's purposes and who disrupt the order. "Psalm 1 does not allow for ambiguity. It is the voice of a community that is familiar with risks, dangers, costs, and boundaries. It fully appreciates the givenness of God's world and has confidence that the Torah is the only thinkable response to the givenness of creation. The community trusts its morality to be a way to fend off trouble. It is life and death, and the young had better learn it while there is time." [See Psalm 1, BCP 585; also see Psalm 119]
Psalm 145 is a song of creation. We just sang this song at the introduction of the gospel (i.e. the gradual hymn). Hymn #414 is a translation of Psalm 145 set to music. It is a song of creation. How does a community of faith respond to the blessings of God's creation? During times of orientation, a community of faith responds to the blessings of God's creation through praise and through the affirmation of the goodness and greatness of God. We sings songs of creation on "Rogation Sunday", thankful to God for this church campus that God has placed under our stewardship. Psalm 145 is the "fullest representative of those psalms that understand creation as a mode of equilibrium, coherence, and reliability." [See Psalm 145, BCP801]
Another expression of a well-ordered, reliable world is in the wisdom psalms. Wisdom psalms usually articulate a close and predictable connection between deed and consequence. The purpose of such instruction is to instill in the young, acceptable modes of behavior. Such behavior contributes to the well-being of the entire community. "Do not fret yourself because of evildoers; do not be jealous of those who do wrong. For they shall soon wither like the grass, and like the green grass, fade away." [Ps 37]
The psalms are a source of comfort, of insight, of direction, of theology. At the core of the psalms is a theology of abundant life. Happiness and well-being result when a community of faith has a complete orientation of life towards God, including a perpetual openness to God's instruction. Happiness and well-being are derived from living in complete dependence on God rather than upon the self. How different this theology is from the prevailing theology in America where independence, self-sufficiency, and self-gratification are the goals of human development. Could this be why we feel so "out of sorts," anxious, empty, depressed, and out of touch with God who is the source of life and the true delight of the heart???
"Show me your ways, O Lord, and teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation. In you have I trusted all the day long. Remember, O Lord, your compassion and love, for they are from everlasting." [Ps 25]
* The Message of the Psalms, by Walter Brueggemann, Augsburg, Minneapolis, 1984.
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