Sunday
01/14/18 Freeville/Homer Avenue UMC’s
Sermon Title: “Psalm 103”
Old Testament
Scripture: Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18
New Testament
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 6:12-20
Gospel Lesson:
John 1:43-51
My friends, my sisters and brothers welcome again, and once
again Happy New Year to you all! May this new year of 2018 be a year of opportunities,
peace, love, mercy, hope, and justice. Welcome also on this Human Relations
Day, and on this the Second Sunday after the Epiphany.
There are giving envelopes available this morning, if
anyone would like to give to our annual Human Relations Day special offering. On
this day if you give to this special offering, “Your generous gift” will
support “the Community Developers Program and community advocacy through the
United Methodist Voluntary Services, related to the General Board of Global
Ministries, and at-risk teens through the Youth Offender Rehabilitation
program, General Board of Church and Society.” (www.umcgiving.org/giveHRD). So
once again giving envelopes are available if you want to give to this special
offering.
With these things said, many of you have probably noticed
that every Sunday in worship, we tend to read a scripture from the Old
Testament, a scripture from the New Testament, and we read a reading from one
of the four gospels. Every Sunday in fact, and for some special holidays, we
are often given four lectionary scriptures. The idea behind the lectionary, is
that over the course of three calendar years, the church will cover the
majority of the entire Bible. By reading some from the Old Testament, some from
the non-gospel books of the New Testament, and some from the gospels themselves
every Sunday, we will all hear the entirety of the word of God every three
years. At least this is the goal.
You may have noticed therefore, that my sermon title is
called “Psalm 103”. You may have also noticed that we do not have a reading for
this morning from Psalm 103. To an extent this morning then, I am preaching off
of the lectionary scriptures. Now before you get your torches and pitchforks
out, let me explain. This sermon topic for this morning was a sermon that was
cashed in for me to preach.
While we have read three of the four lectionary scriptures
this morning, like we generally do, this morning I am mostly going to preach on
Psalm 103. At the end of this message, I will tie in the Gospel of John lesson
for this morning, this message, as I said, will mostly be on Psalm 103.
So onto Psalm 103! Just to remind us all, in our Bibles we
have 150 Psalms, while some other Christian and Jewish traditions might have
more Psalms. In fact, there could be as many as 1-18 more Psalms depending on
the tradition. The Psalms are written to be largely poetic, and some of them have
historically been sung like hymns. Some Psalms express great joy, some express
great sorrow, some are more prayerful, and etc. The Book of Psalms is truly a Book
of the Bible that expresses a broad range of human emotions, while experiencing
the living God.
The authorship of Psalm 103 is historically attributed to
being written by King David, as the Psalm says “Of David” before it begins (Ps.
103, NRSV). The subtitle above Psalm 103 in our Bibles, says that the theme and
the nature of this Psalm is that it is a Psalm of “Thanksgiving for God’s Goodness”
(Ps. 103, NRSV). I was asked to preach on this Psalm, because of the significant
message and the theological ideas that are contained within the Psalm.
I also hope that we are regularly reading our Bibles,
engaging and wrestling with the scripture, and a good challenge for us all is
to try to read one of the Psalms each and every day. Some of them are rather
short, and some are quite long.
What
is unique about Psalm 103, isn’t that it is 22-verses of scripture. What is
very unique, is that Psalmist, likely King David, is speaking the words to himself.
This is to say, the Psalmist is speaking the words of this Psalm to himself,
and not to others. We can certainly say the words of this Psalm to others, but
this Psalm was written as almost “self-talk”. It was written as something that King
David individually thanked the living God for. This Psalm and others, has also
been the subject of hymns, prayers, and contemporary Christian Music.
In
fact, one of our centering songs from the beginning of the service for this
morning, called “Bless His Holy Name,” is taken from Psalm 103:1. Our “Hymn of
Preparation” for this morning number 66 “Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven,”
if you look, was taken from Psalm 103. Our closing hymn for this morning,
number 139 “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty,” is taken from Psalm 103:1-6 and
Psalm 150.
Why
didn’t I pick all hymns that are based on Psalm 103 for this morning? Well because
those were the only three that I found. Clearly though, Psalm 103 is
significant. Contemporary Christian artist Matt Redman in fact has a very
popular song on Psalm 103 called 10,000
Reasons (Bless the Lord), which our own choir has sung.
With all of this said, let me read to you the words of
Psalm 103. This is what it says:
“Bless
the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless
the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits—who forgives all
your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the Pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good as
long as you live so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord works
vindication and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to
Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. The Lord is merciful and
gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always
accuse, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according
to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are
high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from
us. As a father has compassion for his children, so the Lord has
compassion for those who fear him. For he knows how we were made; he remembers
that we are dust. As for mortals, their days are like grass; they flourish like
a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its
place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from
everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to
children’s children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his
commandments. The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and
his kingdom rules over all. Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty
ones who do his bidding, obedient to his spoken word. Bless the Lord, all
his hosts, his ministers that do his will. Bless the Lord, all his works, in
all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul” (Psalm 103,
NRSV).
I don’t know about you, but when I hear these words, I hear
a beautiful piece of writing that very poetically praises the God of heaven and
earth. There is also no way this morning that I can unpack every single verse
of this Psalm. What I do want to say though, is that in this Psalm, King David
is remembering “all that God has done for him in the past (103:3)” (Africa
Bible Commentary). If we believe that God loves us, has blessed us, has saved
us, and wants to be eternally in relationship with us, should we praise and
bless Him? In this Psalm, King David says yes.
The Psalmist in Psalm 103 is thanking God for His
faithfulness, and love. The Psalmist also “urges his soul and his whole being
to praise the Lord” (Africa Bible Commentary).
In a church that my parents used to attend in
the Adirondacks, there was a banner on the wall with the acronym “F.R.O.G.”.
This acronym had nothing to do with an actual frog that goes “ribbit, ribbit”,
but each letter on the banner meant something. This acronym of “F.R.O.G” meant,
“Fully Rely On God”. In Psalm 103, it would seem that King David is telling God
directly, that he fully relies on Him. Do we this morning fully rely on God?
Are we frogs?
In
Psalm 102 however, King David is crying out to God with his and his nations
troubles (Africa Bible Commentary). Fully relying on God doesn’t mean that our
faith journeys are always a bowl of cherries, but rather that in the end, God is
faithful. In the end God wins, holiness wins, and righteousness wins. This is
the message of Psalm 103. The idea that God is mighty to save, merciful, and
loving. I would challenge us all this morning to realize the many blessings
that God has and continues to give us. Psalm 103 once again ends as it begins, “Bless
the Lord, O my soul” (Ps. 103:1a, NRSV). May we realize this day that God
is good all the time, and all the time God is good.
To attempt to briefly connect Psalm 103 to our gospel of John
1:43-51 lesson for this morning, we pick up with Jesus calling the Apostle
Phillip to follow him and to be his disciple (Jn. 1:43-44, NRSV). Phillip then
tells Nathaniel of Jesus, and Nathaniel famously says of Jesus being the
Messiah raised in Nazareth, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth” (Jn.
1:45-46, NRSV). Jesus then of course is able to convince Nathaniel that he is indeed
the Messiah, the son of the living God, and Nathaniel then praises him (Jn.
1:47-49, NRSV). The gospel reading ends with Jesus saying, “Very truly, I tell
you, you will see heaven opened up and the angels of God ascending and
descending upon the Son of Man” (Jn. 1:51, NRSV). Jesus says to Nathaniel and
to us, as we continue to believe more the truth, the love, and the hope that he
reveals to us, we will see great things, and our faith will increase. Jesus
this morning then, is reassuring Nathaniel that he is the fullness of God.
Jesus is saying that he is God in the flesh that he desires to be in
relationship with us. For these reasons we can say as the Psalmist said in
Psalm 103 many years before Jesus’ birth, “Bless the Lord, O my soul” (Ps.
103:1a, NRSV). God loves us, and through Jesus Christ can redeem us all. All we
need to do is repent and ask for it, and then we can say as Psalmist said, “Bless
the Lord, O my soul” (Ps. 103:1a, NRSV).
My friends, my sisters and brothers, I pray that
this day, this week, and always, we may as the term goes, “count our blessings”.
May we be truly grateful to God for all that we have, all that we have been
given, and for the many blessings that God has bestowed upon us all. May we say
“Bless
the Lord, O my soul” (Ps. 103:1a, NRSV). Amen.
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