A Good Summer Psalm

Text:  Psalm 13:1-6

Theme:  "A Good Summer Psalm"

3rd Sunday after Pentecost

June 29, 2014

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Denton, Texas

Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

+In the Name of Jesus+

¹ How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
    How long will you hide your face from me?
² How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
    and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
    How long will my enemy triumph over me?

³ Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
    Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
⁴ and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
    and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

⁵ But I trust in your unfailing love;
    my heart rejoices in your salvation.
⁶ I will sing the Lord’s praise,
    for he has been good to me.

In Las Vegas high-rise hotels, the thirteenth floor is missing.   You can't have the thirteenth floor!  Thirteen is thought to be an unlucky number -- and if there's any place where one would hope to be lucky, it would be Las Vegas.  Vegas, of course, is where they gamble -- among other things to do. 

Some would say life itself is a gamble; it's high-risk and high-reward! You never know what any old day will bring, so you best give whatever day you have the best you've got.   There is a school of thought -- an ancient one, really -- which essentially says that we need to go all in.  Don't bother with all that fiddle-faddle about heaven or hell or such touchy subjects like justice or peace.    The God question is really beside the point.  If there is a god at all, then he, she, or it is busy with other fish to fry.  If God was involved with life as we know it, he/she/it is not anymore.   What matters most is that you're having your best life now -- with all the finest skin creams and a Pepsodent smile!  Epicurus, though dead, is yet alive, and Americans are nothing if not Epicurean.   Live life to the full, or, as they say, "eat, drink, and be merry."  While you're at it, do stay away from anything with the number thirteen!  That's bad luck, don't you know?

I didn't pick Psalm number thirteen.  The people that put together the lectionary did.  If you have bad luck today, blame them.  But wait.  I could have avoided Psalm 13, so I guess I deserve partial blame if today's not your lucky day.    But Psalm 13, out of all the readings scheduled for today, seemed to speak the loudest to me.  "Preach me," it seemed to say.

Fortunately, Psalm 13 has nothing to do with luck or the lack of luck.  It has everything to do with faith.  The anonymous psalmist prays:  "But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.  I will sing the Lord's praise, for he has been good to me."  Another translation puts it this way:  "The Lord has dealt bountifully with me."  The psalmist does not prepare to roll the dice.  Instead, the writer is ready to start a gratitude list.  Write down all the ways the Lord has dealt bountifully with me.

This week might be a good one to start that practice.  There was, last week, an article I read -- chock full of statistics -- which made the case that America is becoming a plutocracy.  In other words, we're being ruled by the rich.  While we do whatever we do on any given day, the dissolution of the middle class is picking up speed at an alarming rate.   Meanwhile, in Denton, seemingly oblivious to all of this, we're all being careful not to send text messages while we drive.  Frenchy still bustles around town in his bright orange, Nissan Frontier pick-up.  Gas prices can be lower if you use your Kroger points.  In the little cocoon of daily life, we are, at times, unaware of the larger picture.

A little over a week ago, the Presbyterian Church (USA) met in General Assembly.  They gathered in Detroit.  The theme was "Abound in Hope."  There were overtures, resolutions, discussions, votes rendered, authoritative interpretations given, and decisions made.  Hot topics were the definition of marriage and how the denomination's endowment fund is spent.  Churches were urged to create "gun free" zones.  In the aftermath (as is the case with every general assembly or national church body convention I've ever read about or had anything to do with), there was mixed reaction.  Some were repulsed by the actions taken; others, however, rejoiced. 

There's no word on whether the author of Psalm 13 attended anything like a general assembly.  But there is word on where his trust rested and where his faith was put -- and it wasn't in a general assembly or a national church convention.  "I trust in your UNFAILING LOVE," says the psalmist to God.  "My heart rejoices in YOUR SALVATION."

God's love and God's salvation!  By the way, that love and salvation got dished out in a tiny little Nebraska town a week ago last Sunday.  I speak of the community of Pilger.  You see, while PCUSA commissioners were gathering in Detroit, parts of that town got wiped out by a tornado -- including the Lutheran church. 

But there, on that Sunday following the storm, standing amid the rubble, stood their pastor.  He wore his gown; the green stole was around his neck.  And in the outdoors which used to be the indoors, he distributed the sacrament of the Lord's Supper.  Some were dressed up while other were in shorts, t-shirts, and flip-flops. What they wore didn't matter.  What did matter was that they were on the receiving end of the means of grace.  Nothing -- including tornados or general assemblies -- can stop the Gospel! 

At this point, it must be said that the psalmist is not some dreamy-eyed optimist -- like folks we see who always seem to be breezing through life all chipper and happy.  Whenever I see someone like that, I wonder what it is that really gnaws at them. 

No, the psalmist didn't bury his feelings or take them out with the trash.  Quite to the contrary, if you remember the first four verses, it's clear that he's upset.  The difference is that he's not keeping it to himself.  He's bringing it to the Lord.  Listen to it again:

¹ How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
    How long will you hide your face from me?
² How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
    and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
    How long will my enemy triumph over me?

³ Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
    Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
⁴ and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
    and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

The psalmist, if I might borrow a popular phrase, is "sick and tired of being sick and tired."  He's angry.  He's frustrated.  And the finger of blame gets pointed at God, and all that anger and frustration is dumped on God! 

At least, God was there for the psalmist to dump on.  Others, including many moderns, reject God out of hand and then work mighty hard to convince themselves that they really are not feeling as bad as they are.  In other words, they practice the sad art of lying to themselves. 

Not the psalmist.  He throws all the crap at the Lord's doorstep. 

But then, inexplicably, he shifts gears.  Then, inexplicably, come verses five and six: 

⁵ But I trust in your unfailing love;
    my heart rejoices in your salvation.
⁶ I will sing the Lord’s praise,
    for he has been good to me.

Here's what, in the end, carried the day:  not his feelings, but his faith; not his circumstances, but His Lord; not his opinions, but his blessings. 

This is what the Gospel does for us:  it shifts our gears; inexplicably, it creates faith in divine love, and trust in God's salvation, and a people bent on praising the Lord no matter what -- because the Lord is good to them.

We see this Gospel most clearly in Jesus.  Speaking of Lord Jesus, there's this lovely little story making the rounds, and it goes like this: 

So, it seems “St. Peter and the Archangel Gabriel had a problem.  Peter was sorting people at the Pearly Gates letting some in and keeping others out, but Gabriel was finding more people in heaven than Peter was letting in.  They were befuddled.  Gabriel told Peter to keep working and he’d get to the bottom of this.  A few hours later he came back and told Peter not to worry; he’d figured it out.  ‘It’s Jesus.  He’s pulling people over the wall.’”

We are a people "pulled over the wall" by our crucified and risen Lord.  With the psalmist, we trust in and rejoice in such a Lord as this.

It really is a good, Summer psalm!

Amen.