The Green Olive Tree

Text:  Psalm 52

Theme:  "The Green Olive Tree"

9th Sunday after Pentecost

July 21, 2013

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Denton, Texas

Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

 

+In the Name of Jesus+

For the director of music. A maskil^[b] of David. When Doeg the Edomite had gone to Saul and told him: “David has gone to the house of Ahimelek.”

¹ Why do you boast of evil, you mighty hero?
    Why do you boast all day long,
    you who are a disgrace in the eyes of God?
² You who practice deceit,
    your tongue plots destruction;
    it is like a sharpened razor.
³ You love evil rather than good,
    falsehood rather than speaking the truth.^[c]
4 You love every harmful word,
    you deceitful tongue!

⁵ Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin:
    He will snatch you up and pluck you from your tent;
    he will uproot you from the land of the living.
⁶ The righteous will see and fear;
    they will laugh at you, saying,
⁷ “Here now is the man
    who did not make God his stronghold
but trusted in his great wealth
    and grew strong by destroying others!”

⁸ But I am like an olive tree
    flourishing in the house of God;
I trust in God’s unfailing love
    for ever and ever.
⁹ For what you have done I will always praise you
    in the presence of your faithful people.
And I will hope in your name,
    for your name is good.

If you're going to meditate, then, hopefully, you have something meditate upon.  There's more to meditation than deep breathing techniques -- which are more about getting in touch with what your body is telling you as opposed to what God might be saying.  If meditation and prayer is something that does interest you or could possibly interest you, allow me to suggest the book of Psalms.    It's part of the library that we Christians call the Bible.  In fact, it's also a song book.  One might even call it a hymnal.  By the way, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the denomination, is coming out with a new hymnal.  It seems every generation wants one.  It's not a bad idea because there is new material out there that deserves its place along with some of the standard classics.  We certainly started with a piece that has withstood the test of time:  Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise.  Such lofty language!  Of course, it was written at a time when words meant things.  But nowadays, the thrust isn't so much with what words mean or with what words teach.  These days, it's about the evocative power of language; it's about how words make us feel.  Simply stated, "Don't teach us; make us feel something."

 

Last week, Dr. Snider, our Music Director, mentioned article on Facebook which shared the news that some people "disapproved" of the new music.  What's fascinating about that is that the article was written in 1755.  The more things change, the more they stay the same.  When the new hymnal comes out, I've got five dollars that says that some folks are going to disapprove of things in it.  What would we Christians do if we didn't have something to disapprove of? 

 

There's not much of anything to disapprove of in the Book of Psalms. I doubt if God is sitting around waiting for us to approve or disapprove of it.   Psalms is like the entire Bible in a nutshell.  Better yet, it's in poetic and musical forms.  There are one hundred fifty psalms, and they cover a vast amount of material.  There are psalms of praise, psalms of lament, psalms that ask "Why?", psalms that are angry at God, psalms for the morning, psalms for the evening -- and on it goes.  Calvin was a student of the psalms -- so was Luther; so was Bonhoeffer; so was C.S. Lewis; and so was Jesus.  He quoted Psalm 22 while He was dying on that cross:  "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" 

 

This summer, treat yourself to the adventure that is the book of Psalms.  It won't be long and you'll come across something that speaks to you.  When I get ready for the Sunday sermon, I always read the appointed psalm because I don't want to miss out on the possibility that there's something in there that's going "to preach", as they say. 

 

Psalm 52, appointed for today and the one I just read, is not a well-known psalm.  It's not like Psalm 23 that almost everyone knows:  "The Lord's my shepherd; I shall not want.  He maketh me to lie down in green pastures," etc.   Some folks might not approve of Psalm 52 because there's some mighty nasty language in it.  It's not a kind psalm; it's not a gentle psalm.  There's not a whole lot of sweetness and light in it.  It doesn't make you feel happy and bursting and energized and spiritually effervescent -- and all that stuff.  Quite to the contrary, it's a rather caustic, bitter piece of writing.  It's a startling reminder that we don't live in a benign utopia where everyone gets along with one another.  Psalm 52 was written in the understanding that there is such a thing as an enemy. 

 

Will Rogers, that icon of American folklore, once said that he "never met a man he didn't like."  Well, Rogers never met Doeg the Edomite.  Doeg the Edomite is the enemy, the antagonist, in today's psalm.  This Doeg was giving the young King David what we today call "conniption fits."  He was blisteringly mad at Doeg -- and for good reason.

 

Let me put it this way:  the young King David wasn't exactly having a calm, cool, and relaxing summer.  The fact is, he was on the run, on the lam, off the grid.  He was being chased down by Saul.  Saul, the deposed king, had sent his hit men to take David out.  They were on to him; they were after him.  His pursuers were "enemy combatants", we might say.  They were on offense, and David was playing defense.

 

At one point, David took refuge with a house of priests headed up by a man named Ahimelek.  They gave David protection, food, and even some weaponry.  But when Saul found out that Ahimelek and the priests were giving David a place to hide out, Saul ordered that Ahimelek, the rest of the priests, and all of the family members, children, and grandchildren of the priests be killed.  As the story goes, even Saul's commanders thought that such an act -- a mass execution -- was too much.  They wouldn't do it.  But one man was willing to do it, and that man was Doeg the Edomite.  He slaughtered Ahimelek, the priests, and their families.

 

When young King David gets wind of this, he goes on the offensive, and he begins with his pen, with his writing, with the baring of his soul.  First, he describes Doeg -- calling him, basically, a boastful and disgraceful liar.  Doeg's "tongue", he says, "plots destruction" and is like "a sharpened razor."  That's very vivid language, I might add.

 

Secondly, he starts to write about what God is going to do about Doeg the Edomite.  He's going to get plucked from his tent and removed from the land of the living.  In the end, the people of God would laugh at Doeg -- for he was a man who trusted only in his wealth and sought to strengthen it by destroying others.  Doeg was what the CIA today would call a "wet boy", an assassin, a predator.  David had him pegged, and, in the end, God would have Doeg pegged for his atrocities.  God's justice may come slowly, but it will not be denied.

 

But what about David --  who is still on the run, still on the lam, still off the grid?  He didn't speculate about what his chances were.  He didn't scratch his head wondering why bad things happened to good people like him. 

 

Instead, he focused -- or refocused, as the case may be -- on his God.  That's what meditation is -- and does!  It's gets us focused -- or refocused, as the case may be -- on God.  In the end, he discovers -- or rediscovers, as the case may be -- that his trust is in the unfailing love of God, to borrow his language.   The best thing going for him was that unfailing love of God.   In addition, his hope is not in his own power to escape or to avoid capture.  No.  Instead, his hope is in the good name of his God.  If your hope is lodged and embedded in the name of God, then what is there that you cannot face?

 

Trusting in the love of God, hoping in the good Name of God, you are like a green olive tree!  David writes:  "I am like a green olive tree flourishing in the house of God."  Yes, there are enemies.  But there is also life and vitality and growth and flourishing! 

 

Jesus had His enemies, and they did a Doeg job on him.  They had him killed.  But then came Easter and the resurrection, and there was new life, vitality, growth, flourishing. 

Like David and like Jesus, we, too, flourish -- like a green olive tree -- in the house of God.

 

Today we celebrate the thirty one years of flourishing like an olive tree that has been Harriet Hoff's life among us.  And we rejoice that our people have returned safely from mission to Haiti.  Whether here or there, they, too, are like that green olive tree -- bursting, growing, flourishing.

 

In a world of enemies, there is still so much to be grateful for.  Focus on that.

 

Amen.