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Shout and Sing for Joy - Psalm 65
PSALMS 65
Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion; and to you shall vows be performed,
O you who answer prayer! To you all flesh shall come.
When deeds of iniquity overwhelm us, you forgive our transgressions.
Happy are those whom you choose and bring near to live in your courts.
We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, your holy temple.
By awesome deeds you answer us with deliverance, O God of our salvation;
you are the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas.
By your strength you established the mountains; you are girded with might.
You silence the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples.
Those who live at earth's farthest bounds are awed by your signs;
you make the gateways of the morning and the evening shout for joy.
You visit the earth and water it, you greatly enrich it;
the river of God is full of water; you provide the people with grain,
for so you have prepared it.
You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges,
softening it with showers, and blessing its growth.
You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with richness.
The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy,
the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain,
they shout and sing together for joy.
LUKE 18: 9 - 14
He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Commentary
I have to start by saying that some of the things Jesus says seem very incongruent to me. Maybe it is the translation, maybe it is the 2000 years of change in the world, but to me it seems odd that in the same sentence Jesus tells us to be humble, AND that if we are humble we will be exalted. Huh?
I have said before that I think we have to take the gospels as a whole. In the Episcopal creed somewhere there is a statement that Jesus is BOTH fully divine and fully human. I believe that. More to the point, I think it is important. I believe that Jesus walked the earth as a man, and he spoke to us as people and certainly we hear him as people. So a little contradiction seems natural. If I think about all of the gospels on this subject what jumps out the most is the statement, “Why do you call me good? Only God is good” In the context of this text, what I hear is “Why do you want to be exalted? Only God is to be exalted.” We walk this earth in the constant presence of God! That is why we need to be humble. Not so we can be exalted but because we are not worthy in the presence of God. Judge not that you be not judged.
I think that is all I have to say on this subject, which is good because I would really like to talk a bit about the Psalm.
“Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion;” Well of course. It kind of just rolls off the tongue. But why is the praise due? If we just take it for granted I think we are giving God short shrift. Why is the praise due? I think the Psalm reminds us. “O you who answer prayer!” “you forgive our transgressions” “you are the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas”
I am a scientist as well as a Christian. I don't believe there is any contradiction in that at all. Everything we learn about our universe, we learn about our God. Science still has no answer for the how in the world did it happen question. All we have to address that is awe and amazement. Awe and amazement for our God. It hurts our feeble brains to think about it, but I suggest that is exactly why we need to. How can we possibly love our God with all our being, if we never stop to meditate on what he has done?
“By your strength you established the mountains;” “You silence the roaring of the seas,” “you make the gateways of the morning and the evening shout for joy.” Look, LOOK you people. See what God has done. Millions of years in the making, our whole earth and every creature on it was made from nothing but energy. From NOTHING. This is the God we walk in the presence of. Are you not humble?
And the world God has given us is good! “You visit the earth and water it”
“You water its furrows abundantly” “The pastures of the wilderness overflow,” “the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy”
THEY SHOUT AND SING TOGETHER FOR JOY! I would suggest that statement is more than just an observation. It is even more than just a suggestion. It's a yard stick. If we are not joining the throng in shouting and singing in joy, then we are just not paying attention. And if we are not paying attention, then we are depriving ourselves of the joyful presence of our God.
PAY ATTENTION!