Psalm 145; 1 Peter 5:6-11
Ancient Israel’s King
David was a military war veteran of mighty
battles against the Philistines, Moabites, Syrians, Edomites and Ammonites. All that he had to say about these intense experiences
we will never know. But our Old
Testament pages clearly reveal what he did have to say about the good power of
Almighty God that he steadfastly believed upheld him and his people through
them all.
The vitality of his
faith was first revealed before he was officially a soldier, when he was just a
harp-playing shepherd boy, youngest and smallest of his father Jesse’s eight God-fearing
sons. It happened after her brought
food to his older, more strapping brothers stationed with the Jewish troops in
the Elah Valley, south of Jerusalem.
Upon arriving, David heard many blasphemous taunts uttered from the
mouth of a fierce, enormous enemy Philistine standing right on the other side
of the enemy line. Goliath was his
name, and his heckling was part of an ancient ritual that called for the best
warriors from both sides of a battle to face one another.
Little, mostly
overlooked David also noticed his well-trained brothers and their fellow soldiers
were cowering in the face of this challenge.
So he faithfully decided to
enlist himself for this battle. King
Saul was not easily convinced to let him, but did eventually send him out into
the ritual, an unexpected military move Goliath found rather hilarious.
This is a famous Bible
story, so we know what happened next. We know how this formidable enemy was swiftly
subdued by one smooth stone launched from a mere boy’s slingshot. But before this miraculous action, young David
launched something even more powerful.
He launched a great witness to the Almighty power upholding him and his
people, shouting, “You come to me with sword and spear and javelin; but I come
to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the
armies of Israel.” (1 Samuel 17).
Thus began quite an
incredible life of service to God and nation.
This journey took him from the provincial life of a shepherd boy on
through to forty years ruling as Israel’s greatest Warrior-King. All throughout, David committed his deepest
trust to God’s greatness, goodness and active involvement with humanity. He lived into this holy hope again and
again. His head and heart overflowed with words of
praise.
These praises weren’t unfeeling,
rote recapitulations of what he’d been taught was true. They weren’t lip-service for personal and
political gain. They were born from his specific, very personal
accounts of God’s powerful grace upholding him through conflict with all kinds
of ungodly Goliaths. He gave God singular
credit for guiding him and delivering him through all his epic battles – the
ones on fields constantly defending his holy nation against enemies, and the
ones within himself as he sinned time and time again. As a writer for the devotional Guideposts
puts it, “He was a great military conqueror but he could not conquer himself,”
so first and foremost “he trusted in God for the victory, not himself.”[i] God
alone was his strength, his commander, his king.
All of our lives have
been lived on a comparatively much smaller scale than all that David lived
through. But can you relate on some
level to his remarkable and complicated journey of faith? To how he trusted God was actively guiding
and protecting him? Perhaps it will
help to take a moment to consider a time of conflict in your life when what you
hold fast to in faith felt really, fully true.
This veteran
Warrior-King’s born-in-the-trenches praise for God got expressed especially well
when he wrote the magnificent Psalm 145.
This is an evocative witness to the transcending, cosmic power of Almighty
God, as when he wrote that God’s “greatness is unsearchable” and God’s “kingdom
is an everlasting kingdom” that endures “throughout all generations.” It is
also equally evocative witness to the strengthening, powerfully intimate presence
of God in our lives, as when he wrote
that God “upholds all who are falling,” “is near to all who call on him in
truth,” “is just in all His ways,” “kind in all His doings,” “gracious and
merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”
The sheer depth and breadth
of poetic praise for God’s creative, sustaining grace for us all that King David
presents in these twenty-one verses is summed up beautifully by theology
teacher Paul Myhre in this way –
“It is a reminder to
the people of God who the God is that they praise, extol, and exalt, [that they
are ] involved in a life giving relationship with a God who is great beyond
measure, a mighty actor on the cosmological and human stage, a wonder worker
and an active agent in the world, good to all, righteous and faithful in all
things, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love …
everlasting and ever God above and for all, intimately concerned with the
wellbeing of people in whatever circumstances they find themselves in … there
is great hope in these verses on which to cling in the difficult times and
places of life.”
As a shepherd body, as
military veteran, as a mighty king, and as a spiritual leader, David did a lot
of clinging to his own words. It’s a gracious
gift that these faithful words forged from intense personal and worldly battles
were recorded and exist as an empowering companion to all of our own spiritual
journeys.
This morning, we are
taking the time to appreciate King David’s life of service to God and nation
because it’s a good Sabbath day practice to do so and, of course, because tomorrow
is Veteran’s Day. This is day dedicated
to what we should do be doing every day as well -- honoring generations of
America's veterans “for their patriotism, love of country, and willingness to
serve and sacrifice for the common good.” To quote the first Veteran’s Day proclamation,
issued by President Eisenhower in 1954, it is nationally designated time for us
to “solemnly remember the sacrifices of all those who fought so valiantly, on
the seas, in the air, and on foreign shores, to preserve our heritage of
freedom.” This same decree also
extends an invitation to us, saying, “let us reconsecrate ourselves to the task
of promoting an enduring peace so that their efforts shall not have been in
vain.” [ii]
So along with public
opportunities to express our unending gratitude to veterans for their service, such
as the one I plan to attend at Chubb Park in Chester at 11 a.m., I hope you’ll
also take time to honor our Almighty, upholding God by being in faith
community. I’m very pleased to be
participating in the 7 p.m. Veteran’s Day ecumenical worship service at the
Catholic Community of St. John Neumann in Califon. It would be a blessing to so many to have you
present as well. This will be a
blessed time to gather and affirm how trust and hope in the saving grace, the
divine justice, and the powerful eternal peace of our one Lord Jesus Christ has
sustained many a veteran through tours of duty and returns back home.
I think especially of
a member in my former congregation named Bill.
On my frequent visits to his home, he talked a good bit about his
military service. Back in July of 1943,
Bill was a principal at an elementary school in Harleysville, PA. He was known to have a really dynamic way
with words. Then his country called him
to serve in the army. Before long, he
was the sergeant in charge of the Survey Section of the 283rd Field
Artillery Battalion. He went on to experience
and survive four major battles of the European Theater Operations. He especially recalled travelling 4, 241
miles and having 268 days of continuous combat from August 1944 to May 1945.
Near the end of this,
he found himself staring at what first seemed to him to be the gateway entrance
of a recreation resort. As a liberator
with the 45th Division of the US Seventh Army, he marched through
that gate on April 29, 1945, straight into the evil atrocity of Dachau
concentration camp. I recall listening
intently and compassionately to Bill’s eye witness account. And as a powerful keepsake of our talks
together, and as a reminder to never ever forget the great cause for which he
and so many others served, I have a folder that he gave me before he died with
copies of horrific photographs he took that day.
I’m incredibly grateful
to have known this veteran as pastor, neighbor, fellow American, and for the
blessing of his sharing faithful Christian witness to me. Particularly helpful to him were the letters
he received while in service from his home pastor. Having preserved them, he pretty much showed
them to me every time I visited. For
these and so many other words of faith, and as with King David, Bill praised the
amazing grace and mighty acts of our Lord, in whom he had firmly trusted to
both watch over and to intimately uphold his life.
Amen.
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