Pastor Debbie Spangler
Sermon Text: Psalm 19 (also Psalm 119 and Isaiah 50: 4-9)
We have students in our church family as well as teachers and former teachers (once a teacher always a teacher, I believe). We also have Sunday School teachers, professors, and those who have been Administrators. We all are learners too. We are never too old to learn. I think it’s great that anyone can take courses at our universities—and you can take courses online. Any kind of course---even Star Trek Academy courses ( you have to love it!). We all can be and should be Bible students as well. We do have Sunday School as well as Wednesday Night Bible Study and Prayer Group----just saying……
There are three readings that I would like to lift up this morning. The first is from Isaiah 50: 4-5:
“The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.”
To begin with, where do we find what we need to know to successfully live our lives? Don’t we want to go where we can find all we need to know in one place and where it all is true and correct?
Tim, a pastor, related that his old laptop simply would not run the MacBible software program anymore. Tim spent hours trying to get it to run. His wife suggested that he call the makers of the software to get help. Tim thought he could fix it on his own. Finally, he gave up and called the company. After speaking to a friendly voice, Tim was assured that he was being referred to someone who would know exactly how to fix the program. He soon learned that the “someone” was the man who had written the MacBible software. The man gave Tim a brief set of instructions, which he wrote down. In minutes, after the call ended, he had the program up and running. He just had to go to the man who wrote the program.
How many times in life do we try to work out our problems our own way? Finally, when all else has failed, we go to the one who designed us. Soon, if we obey, we find ourselves once again at peace with God and functioning as He planned. [Tim Quinn]
Psalm 119 is known as the longest psalm in the Bible as well as the longest chapter. It has 22 carefully constructed sections, each corresponding to a different letter in the Hebrew alphabet and each verse beginning with the letter of its section. Almost every verse mentions God’s Word. Such repetition was common in the Hebrew culture. People did not have personal copies of the Scriptures to read as we do, so God’s people memorized his Word and passed it along orally. The structure of this psalm allowed for easy memorization. God’s Word, the Bible, is the only sure guide for living a pure life.
Here are a few verses from Psalm 119:
• “Blessed are they who keep his statues and seek him with all their heart.” (v. 2)
• “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” (v. 11)
• “Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.” (v. 18)
• “Your word, O Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens.” (v. 89)
• “Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes. I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts. I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I might obey your word.” (vs. 97-101)
• “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” (v. 105)
Don’t we want to know how to walk in His right paths? Consider this story: A scuba diver told me that he had been in water so deep and dark that it was almost impossible to keep from being disoriented. What a terrifying feeling—being underwater, unable to see your hands in front of your face, not knowing which way is up, panic engulfing you. I asked my friend, “So what do you do?” “Feel the bubbles,” he said. “Feel the bubbles?” I asked. “That’s right. When it’s pitch-black and you have no idea which way to go, you reach up with your hand and feel the bubbles. The bubbles always drift to the surface. When you can’t trust your feelings or your judgment, you can always trust the bubbles to get you back to the top.”
Sometimes in life we get disoriented and desperate. At other times, we find ourselves drifting aimlessly. God knew we would need advice and instructions on how to live. In the 66 books of the Bible, we have a reality library---stories, letters, guidelines, and examples from God that tell us what is real and true.” [Terry Carter, Scott Duvall, and Daniel Hays, Preaching God’s Word]
From Psalm 19 we learn: “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the decrees of the Lord are sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever; the ordinances of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”
Leslie Brandt wrote a paraphrased version of the Psalms. For Psalm 19 he wrote: God made a path on which we are to walk. In His will there is order and purpose. He has proclaimed and demonstrated eternal truth through the lips and lives of His children. There are set before men and women precepts and principles that direct God’s creatures in the way of peace and joy. He has given meaning to life, goals and objectives to this existence. Therein lies the answer to our inner need, the fulfillment of our deepest longings.”
Too often Christians think of the Old Testament (Torah) (law) as legalistic restrictions of behavior that must be obeyed under pain of divine punishment. In this viewpoint Christ has freed us from bondage to the law of obedience to the law of grace—we are saved not because we keep the law but because we believe in (rely completely on) the saving death of Jesus Christ. While this statement concerning the Christian view of grace is accurate, the view of the law described is too narrow and one-sided to capture the robust understanding of Torah that characterized Israel at her best. Israel proclaimed the Torah to be no onerous burden but instead the source of wisdom, joy and light. Torah is both precious and pleasurable (remember the honeycomb). Formed from the Hebrew root YRH (instruct, teach), Torah in Wisdom Literature embodies and is more properly understood as “instruction” or “guidelines.” The purpose of Torah is to “warn” the faithful servant of Yahweh to remain on the path that leads to “reward.” By its guidance, one is empowered to understand one’s errors and to avoid “hidden faults” or “willful sin”. Rather than restriction, Torah offers freedom from the rule of sin and consequently escape from divine judgment. The appropriate response to Torah, according to the psalmist, is “delight” and “love”, not grim-lipped adherence. It is through the Torah that life is preserved.
In the Jewish community, Simhat Torah (Joy of the Torah)is celebrated in this way: The Torah is read through the year and at the beginning of the next cycle of re-reading the Torah, they celebrate Simhat Torah emphasizing the joy the Jewish community experiences in having the Torah to guide their lives before God. The Torah scroll is paraded around the synagogue, accompanied by joyous singing and dancing. This joyous and festive night follows immediately on the heels of the solemn New Year observance Rosh Hashanah—a week of fasting and reflection, and repentance culminating by Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). [By the way, Rosh Hashanah began last Monday (the 10th) and Yom Kippur begins this Wednesday (the 19th)—to be more precise, their observances begin at sundown, so that’s actually the 9th and the 18th). ] The contrast could not be more radical, and yet the linkage of these occasions is highly important as repentance (Rosh Hashanah) leads to forgiveness and restoration (Yom Kippur), followed by the joyous celebration of the means of continued communion with God (Simhat Torah) (which will be Monday, October 1st).
Christians need to incorporate this broader, more positive view of Torah into their understanding of the Old Testament law. Rather than a heavy burden, the law was the guide to continued life and restoration of communion with the holy God. Jesus responded primarily to misinterpretation and abuse of God’s law when he criticized the teachers of the law and the Pharisees for piling up burdens on those seeking to approach God. He expressed his acceptance of the validity of the Torah when he declared that he had not “come to abolish the Law or the Prophets…but to fulfill them.” (Matthew 5: 17)
Torah is a delight because it offers shape, meaning and purpose to life. It offers guidance for appropriate relation to God. One man recalls his summer job as a young man working in a factory that made corrugated cardboard boxes. The process of printing, cutting, folding, gluing, stacking, and shipping boxes of a variety of shapes and purposes was fascinating for a summer employee who did not have to look forward to a long career of box making. One day, though, when he arrived for work on the night shift, he found that the machine to which his crew had been assigned had broken down and was in the process of being repaired. He found himself left with nothing to do for a whole 8 hour shift from 11 pm to 7 am. He could not go home since he had to stand by in case the machine went on line again. He relates that never had he spend a more “forlorn” 8 hours. He was free but had no purpose or direction to order his time. He spent most of his shift trying to look busy sweeping nonexistent dust particles from one part of the shop to another. He almost was delighted the next night to resume the monotonous labor of stacking endless piles of boxes as they came off the line.
Humans are not left alone and forlorn with no purpose or meaning in life. God’s Word---his Torah----is a delight because through it we discover who God is and how to assume our place within His creation---a place of unexpected honor, responsibility, and communion with Him.
“Let the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.” Amen.