Psalm 27
A few years ago, I was
blessed to see the Mary Poppins production that is still on Broadway. The music, of course, was totally infectious
and amazing. The cast was stellar and
the stagecraft exceeded all expectation.
What I loved the most were the many
truly magical moments. We need those now
and again in life, don’t we? For me,
chief among such moments is when Bert --
the chim-chiminey-chim-chiminey-chim-chim-cheree friend of Ms. Poppins -- taps
and sings his way up the side of the stage then straight across the top of
it. At one point, he was tapping and
singing on center stage fully suspended upside-down! This stunt fully supports one of the
musical’s central themes – anything can happen.
As my mind replays
that scene, I am inspired by the strong confidence British actor Gavin Lee had
to have had to perform Bert so perfectly.
He had to have had strong confidence in himself, in the stage crew
responsible for his harness, and in the producers for spending money on quality
safety equipment. I believe a lack of confidence would have
showed and dimmed the shine of the dazzling production.
Having confidence in
yourself and in others is a rather big key to lots of things we do and to
living an overall contented life. Do
you consider yourself a confident person?
A person who clings to intimate trust in particular truths about yourself,
a special someone, other people and social systems in your life? Even more to the point this morning, let me
ask you this – are you confident in God’s care for you?
The magnificent Psalm
we just heard, rock solid #27, is a help and reminder for all of us to be
completely confident in the caring, saving grace of our God. Its fourteen verses can be broken out to
help us more fully understand what this means.
Verses 1 – 6 make up
one of the strongest, most remarkable professions of faith in all of
Scripture. It is, I’ve discovered, the
only place in the entire Old Testament where God is referred to as “my
light.” There are plenty of other
general references to God as a great light.
Isaiah 9:2 comes to mind – “The people who walked in darkness have seen
a great light.” But none is so direct
and intimate as we find in Psalm 27:1.
Instead of an entire nation, the spotlight falls on one single, special
soul. This soul has made the choice to
live in faith rather than fear, to have complete confidence in the care of God.
In this opening
section, verse 3 has long been a personal favorite of mine. I’ve read it to myself in many a precarious
emotional moment and I’ve read it aloud on many pastoral visits. “Though an army encamp against me,” it
reads, “I shall not fear; though war rise up against me, I will be confident.” Stated in the lighter, contemporary tone of
biblical interpreter Eugene Peterson, it reads, “When I am besieged, I’m calm
as a baby; when all hell breaks loose, I’m collected and cool.”
Like King David, the
likely author of this Psalm, many folks I’ve known and cared for have been physically
in a military war zone with real life enemies encamped around them. Great is the power of recalling these holy
words during such a time. Other folks
have lived in domestic war zones where emotional and physical violence encamped
around them. Great is the power of
recalling these holy words during such a time.
As I’ve mentioned from
time to time as part of my witness to the amazing grace of God, I grew up in an
environment where every day and night I felt besieged by abusive words. I lived with a good amount of fear. Yet I have this special memory about how I
used to hang sun-catchers on my bedroom windows throughout those growing years. They were splendid, save for when the little
suction cup thingy let loose, sending the catcher crashing down in the middle
of the night.
I also had this very special crystal-like tear
drop a close friend gave me in high school.
In fact, I just found this while cleaning out closet space a few days
ago. I spent many hours staring at
this, the way the sunlight would strike it and disperse itself into tiny
fragments of hope all across my room and life.
Not having ever attended church, I didn’t have the faithful language then
to say the Lord is my light … but I sure experienced divine presence. I felt bathed in bright confidence …
confidence in myself to survive and thrive and more importantly in something
greater and beyond that would guide and deliver me.
After verse 1-6 the
language in the Psalm shifts subtly but significantly. It’s a shift is from a broad profession of
faith to a precise plea-filled prayer for help. It shifts from speaking to us, as in “One
thing I asked of the Lord” to speaking for us and directly to God, as in “Hear,
O Lord, when I cry aloud … do not hide your face from me … teach me your way …
lead me on a level path.” This is
intense salvation language conveys a message of bold interior confidence that
God will protect and deliver.
Can you recall a time
when you cried out a similar sort of prayer?
Made a dramatic, faithful appeal to the Almighty? How was it answered? Were you lead from a valley or a rocky ridge
to a level path?
By the time the Psalm
moves into its final verses, everything shifts back to a more general profession
of faith. In a good way, it’s downright
preachy. It is personal witness and
full-on exhortation rolled into one holy nugget – “I believe I shall see the
goodness of the Lord in the land of the living … wait for the Lord, be strong,
let your heart take courage!”
That the powerful
prayer song that is Psalm 27 ends with a command to wait on the Lord is not
something to quickly gloss over when reading and meditating on it. This is an invitation to return to your
confidence in God time and time again, if not daily. It’s an invitation to closely examine and
re-examine where you place your most intimate, faithful trust and
confidence. If you are waiting for the Lord, you are believing in the Lord as your light and
salvation. Not just as a distant
reality that happens at the time of death, but shining in the land of the
living. Where do you go to receive
resplendent reassurance that God totally cares for you?
Rev. Bill Davis, our
Pastor Emeritus, and I both share a fondness for Celtic spirituality. Evidence of this is found at the Celtic cross
right outside the sanctuary door. In
general, this branch of Christian spirituality focuses on our having very
personal and less formalized faith. In
a word, it’s more “folksy.” It is
strongly centered in the revelations of God’s light and love that are
interwoven throughout nature, while at the same time guarding sacred
mysteries.
I mention this in the
context of Psalm 27 because this tradition has a helpful expression for where
we go to find and re-find God’s light and life. It speaks of “thin places.”
A “thin” place is both
physical and metaphysical, earthbound as well as otherworldly. It is a place where people go because they
experience God as nearer there than in other locations. It is a place where past, present and future
are perceived as being very thinly divided.
According to one Presbyterian colleague, as this tradition grew from the
fifth and sixth centuries and then out beyond actual locations around the Irish
Sea, the phrase “thin place” came to encompass any “moments when the holy
became visible to the eyes of human spirit … where a person is somehow able to
encounter more ancient and eternal reality within the present time.”[i]
Do you have at least
one “thin place” in your life? Every
inch of nearby Camp Johnsonburg’s 400 acres works this way for me, especially
the outdoor prayer labyrinth located in the middle of the woods.
I pray this sanctuary
and all the ministry spaces of FPC fall into the “thin place” category for
you. When our building spaces and the
time we spend in them giving time and talent are perceived in this way, they
become centers of holy light and of growing spiritual confidence that the Lord
cares for us all. This same faithful perception
can be oriented to your home and workplace as well. “Thin places” help sustain our deepest most
intimate confidence in the nearness of the Lord. As I
believe the Psalmist knew well, they transform all sorts of spaces and
situations from being dark dens of despair into bright beacon-lit harbors of
hope and salvation.
I wonder if hanging
upside down, center stage, while singing and tapping is a thin place for Gavin
Lee. It sure would be for me! I’d have the utmost confidence in God to keep
me safely suspended by working through the good gifts of everyone involved in
the entire production. Say, come to
think of it, this is quite a good illustration of how our church life should be
in the divine production of our Lord’s light and salvation in the world. So may the Lord first and foremost be the
true confidence of all our lives, and of our life together as Fairmount
Presbyterian Church, as Faithful People in Christ! Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment