Promises, Promises: Well-Loved

Have you ever done something that you wished you hadn’t? Lied? Cheated? Something you were embarrassed about? Something you kept secret? Why did you do it? The Apostle Paul confesses, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” We have all wrestled with WHY we have done things that we KNEW were wrong…even BEFORE we did them, we knew they were wrong WHILE we did them, and yet, we did them.

We may have justified what we were doing to ourselves while we were doing it. We may have thought of it as the lesser of two evils. We may have hoped it would all work out and no one would ever know. But, we know. And we know it is wrong, but we do it.

I asked Hudson if I could borrow Blue Dog. Blue Dog is much loved. Hudson’s response today was that “he wants Blue Dog to be held by people he hasn’t seen in a while.” Hudson wants only the best for Blue Dog. Blue Dog has had a hard life, though, and it shows. His stuffing has shifted. He has probably spent more time dirty than clean. He doesn’t look like he started out.

We are a lot like Blue Dog. We don’t look like what God created us to be. Our choices have left us dirtier more than clean. We have bent the rules and twisted our own arms. It is not that we don’t know how we are meant to live, how God dreams us to be…it’s just that we don’t do it.

That paradox is the subject of Psalm 19. The heading says: To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. This is a hymn that they used in worship that comes from the time of King David, before even the first Temple was built, they were singing this hymn together a prayer for God to, “Forgive my hidden faults. Keep me from willful sins; keep sin from ruling my life.” And then the hymn concludes with these familiar words, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”

These words suggest that this might have been a song that they sang as part of the ritual of worship. The Hebrew word that we translate as “be acceptable to you” is the technical term that is used for sacrifices in the Sanctuary.

We tend to use these words as a prayer before we read Scripture and discuss it, before a Bible study or before a Sermon. But, the prayer is for all of our lives, “Let the words we speak and our contemplations that stir within us be an acceptable and pleasing offering to you, O Lord, for you are our Rock and our Redeemer.”

That last phrase just rolls off the tongue, “You are our Rock and our Redeemer.” But they aren’t just there to sound strong, they pull the whole psalm together.

If we think of the psalm as a song, there are 2 verses and a conclusion. The first verse is about the glory of God revealed in nature. The second verse is about the glory of God revealed in Holy Word. And the conclusion is this prayer of confession that we still sin and need to be restored.

All you have to do is look at the sky, says the psalmist, and you will see the splendor of the work of God’s hands! Every day the sun runs its course with joy, up on one side, all the way across, completing its circuit at the other end. Nothing is beyond its rays; there is no way to miss it! All of nature praises its creator; the very beauty of its predictability day after day, night after night witnesses to God. And so when the Psalmist sums up God’s glory revealed in creation, the hymn says, “God is our Rock.” The congregation knew what rock was the opposite of – water. It was God who controlled the chaos and evil of the sea and created dry land. The words are lovely, “The heavens are declaring the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork…. the sun which comes out…and like a strong man runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and nothing is hid from its heat.” We only understand the imagery of the poetry if we understand the worldview of the people who were singing this hymn, though.

For the Hebrew people, the world was flat. They had wells, so they knew that under the world was water. And the sky was blue and sometimes opened up and rained, so above the sky was water. Beyond the edges of what they knew, the dry land on which they lived, was water. So, they saw the sky as a dome set by God to hold back the water. Every day, the sun comes out and runs across to the other side. If not for God, who is our Rock, all would be water, chaos, evil, unpredictable. All we have to do is look at nature, and we know it.

And if nature doesn’t convince us, God’s Word is given to us. The second verse is all about God who is our Redeemer, who knows that nature was not enough and has given us law, rules to live by. The instruction of the Lord is a blessing. God’s teaching has integrity and restores our lives. God’s principles are upright. God’s judgement is true and faithful. God’s commands are pure and stand forever. It’s like gold, sweeter than honey straight from a honeycomb.

And yet…

Consider the glory of this world God has shaped and formed, all the care that has gone into it, it’s reliability, it’s protections. Consider the order not just that God has given creation, but us in God’s Word, in law and teaching.

And yet…

I love the way the hymn begins the conclusion, that final stanza, “Who can understand mistakes?” The one who looks at us like Hudson looks at Blue Dog and only sees love.

And so, we pray, ““Forgive my hidden faults. Keep me from willful sins; keep sin from ruling my life. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable offerings to you, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.” Amen.