July 14, 2002 -- EIGHTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST --Proper 10
Psalm 65:[1-8] 9-14 (Psalm 65: [1-8] 9-13 NRSV)
Your paths overflow with plenty. (Ps. 65:12)
Color: Green
Title: “Praise is not a luxury.”
Psalm 65
This psalm is usually categorized as one of thanksgiving, yet the word “thanks” never appears in it. It is really a hymn of praise, though not a pure one. There are elements of lament, forgiveness and petition in it as well. Furthermore, praise and thanks are a continuum. Pure praise recognizes God as God and extols his characteristics in a general, inclusive way. Thanksgiving recognizes God’s acting in behalf of a specific individual in a specific instance, though it also can be more general. Yet, both praise and thanks are the same recognition of God and same honoring of him, only the context differs and can range from the most inclusive on the one hand, to the most specific on the other. So, this psalm is difficult to classify according to presently accepted standards. Suffice to say that it is a song of praise for God’s great deeds, especially the giving of rain, the basis for physical life, and of thanks for the forgiving of sins, the basis of the death of a covenantal relationship with God.
This psalm may well be a revision of very ancient prayers in the light of the return from exile. As such, it is post-exilic in composition, but has many images that pre-date even the monarchy.
In verse one, Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion; and to you shall vows be performed . A psalm of David. A song: It is generally accepted that phrases such as these found at the beginning of many psalms serve a variety of functions. They may classify the psalm, assign authorship, give indication of how it is to be sung, etc. There is no way of knowing when and by whom these markers were inserted, almost certainly long after the psalm was composed, and there is no certainty about what they really mean. The same “markers” do not always show up in both the original Hebrew and later Greek text. In this case the Hebrew assigns authorship to David, but in the Greek text, and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and the return from exile are also mentioned. None of these “markers” affect the meaning of the psalms they introduce.
Verses two and three, to you: This is repeated three times in staccato fashion, emphasizing that Yahweh is due praise, not Baal, the Canaanite god of rain, or any other idol. Yahweh delivers; they do not. “Praise” means “recognition” and the psalmist, speaking for all those assembled “on Zion” the mountain where the Temple is located, in order to praise and thank God for forgiving their sins and indicating it by providing rain, without which they could not continue to live.
Our vows must be fulfilled: When a farmer sows the seed, he would typically promise God something if God grants growth. Since that has happened, the farmers are now in the Temple fulfilling their vows. However, the language has become general enough to apply to gratitude at any answer to their prayers. No specifics are given. It would apply to the cessation of war as well as the cessation of drought or any other need. By the time the psalms reached their final written form, language specific to an occasion, be it a prayer of lament or for forgiveness or of praise or thanks, has become “generalized” so that the same language is appropriate for a variety of contexts. The same is true for proverbs and parables.
You who hear prayers: In contrast to other gods, Yahweh actually hears and acts. A living God, he ensures the life of those who recognize him as the only God.
To you all flesh shall come: “All flesh” might at first have meant only “all Israelites,” but over time some Israelites realized their choice by Yahweh as his special people to be less a privilege and more a mission to “all flesh.” They realized that from the center of their world, Zion, Yahwism would radiate to the ends of the earth by their example of worship and behavior. Everyone belongs to Yahweh and it would be their mission to proclaim that fact.
In verse four, When deeds of iniquity overwhelm us,
you forgive our transgressions. The recognition of Yahweh’s power prompts the recognition of the people’s abuse of their power, their sin. The verb, translated here as “pardon,” is Hebrew kapar and is related to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, an autumnal feast, which along with the feast of Tabernacles was a celebration of the last harvest of the year. Kapar/kippur denotes the removal of the primary effect of sin- a barrier between Yahweh and his people. While humans would perform acts such as offering sacrifice or giving atonement money or laying hands on a scapegoat and banishing it to the desert, the Israelite knew that God could and would forgive without any one these if the penitent sincerely prayed for it. “Atonement” is less the appeasing of an angry God than it is the removal of a barrier between God and humans. Thus, “pardon” or “forgive” means “restore the previous relationship.” Humans cannot earn this. God does it for his own sake and by his own power. The rituals of forgiveness are more for humans’ sake, to allow them to express their changed attitude, their contrite heart and broken spirit, rather than pay back to God.
In verse five, 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.
Now we move from lament to a beatitude expressing the penitents’ good fortune at being forgiven and given renewed access to Yahweh, described as once again being a welcome guest in his home, the Temple. The worshipping community is “chosen” by God to act as priests to “all flesh.” They are not chosen because of their personal holiness or qualifications or because they are better than the rest of humanity. It is God’s choice and requires his forgiving love.
May we be filled with the good things of your house: The consequence of being allowed back in to God’s presence brings back the blessings, but they must not be presumed, taken for granted. They must be asked for. Note how praise, thanks, forgiveness and petition have flowed one from the other in these four verses.
In verse six, you answer with awesome deeds of justice: The Hebrew nora’ describes both the fear and terror God’s deeds provoke in his enemies and the worshipful awe and spirit of praise and thanks they provoke in his people.
The hope of all the ends of the earth: “Hope of” means “you are the object of confidence of…” “The ends of the earth” means the whole world.
In verse seven, you set up the mountains: The psalmist becomes specific about why God is to be praised. First there are the mountains, symbols of all that is permanent and powerful. God is more powerful than the most solid.
In verse eight, you still the roaring of the seas: .God is more powerful than what is fluid, especially over and against the waters of chaos.
In verse nine, distant peoples: God’s power traverses and transcends national boundaries.
In verses ten to fourteen, These verses poetically describe God’s compassionate sending of rain to provide life to grain, to animals, to humans.
In verse twelve, you have crowned the year with your bounty: The harvest, result of abundant rain, is the “crown” of each year, each growing season ending in the harvest, the “crown.”
Your paths overflow with a rich harvest: Lit, “the tracks of your chariot drip with fatness.” Baal, the Canaanite rain god, was poetically pictured as riding on storm-clouds as in a chariot. Israel brought this imagery into the psalms and applied it to Yahweh. The picture is one of a chariot passing quickly through storm-clouds and spitting rain; “fatness” in the Hebrew refers to what was considered, erroneously, the best part of meat and was a synonym for “prosperous” from its wake, rain which is the necessary ingredient and catalyst for growth or “fatness”.
Sermon
In dry areas of the world like Palestine, rain is highly treasured. In counties like ours rain is frequently considered an inconvenience at best and as the ruin of an otherwise good weekend. In agricultural communities where rain means the difference between life and death and where it produces an amazing contrast to aridity with its blossoming of grass, flowers and crops, rain also produces wonder, and then praise and thanks to its producer, God. Rain is not something to pray against, as in industrial communities, but to pray for and to praise for, not lament. What a difference perspective makes!
This psalm links two unlikely things- rain and forgiveness. It is as though the psalmist had a premonition of our own contemporary post-industrial society. This psalm was prayed by the whole people assembled together, conceding their sin and guilt and celebrating their forgiveness, thanks to God. Our society is too filled with pride, too self-serving, too morally numb to ever confess its sin, be it in regard to the exploitation of the environment or of those who are weaker than others. To ask for and receive forgiveness is to be vulnerable and that is a vice in our society, just as rain is an intrusion on our comfort. It is no surprise that a society which cannot get rain right, cannot get repentance right either. If a society resents rain, will it be grateful for anything? Will it accept anything without an attached price? How will it forgive or ask to be forgiven or accept forgiveness?
Praise is recognizing that there is more to a person, thing or event, than what meets the eye. Praise, exaggerating to get at that truth, attempts to put into words and make audible, felt, what one “invisibly” sees. Praise is also the school of forgiveness, where one learns to “overdo” it, to treat others better than they treated you, better than they deserve, better than they ‘earned.” When a whole society is based on earning and earnings, it is in trouble. It is alienated from God, from each other, from nature. It values all the wrong things.
Praise is not a luxury, even if it is an exaggeration. It is necessary to keep things straight and to see things as they really are, not just as they appear on the surface. It is to appreciate things as they really are in the light of eternity, not as they appear at the time. If we misunderstand the Creator, who sends the rain as a blessing, we will surely miss the Savior who gives forgiveness for the asking.
Nothing exists, lives or grows unless it is empowered to do so by the only living God.
Israel is God’s chosen people, chosen to be missionaries to the rest of humankind, not chosen because of some inherent advantage over others.
A good harvest is an example not only of God’ power, but of his forgiveness of Israel’s sins.
Rain is to the land what forgiveness is to the people of the land.
Technology: Technology is the harnessing of the energy of the universe for human purposes, that is, to live life beyond the survival level. Farming is technology. It is a more or less scientific method of harnessing the energy of the universe, energy found in seed, soil, sun and rain, in order to live life beyond the survival level, beyond the level of mere food gathering, like berry picking. While industrial nations might have a more efficient and effective technology, technique, of farming, all forms of farming are technologies. There was a time in Israel’s history when they were not farmers but shepherds, semi-nomadic shepherds. Their sustenance and enjoyment of life was based on livestock. However, upon entrance into the Promised Land, many became farmers and their economy became largely agricultural. That shift from semi-nomads to settled farmers changed more than their economy. It changed their religion as well. This is reflected in all their rites and rituals and is not absent from the Psalms, prayer-songs that span their entire history. While we have psalms that bespeak the shepherd outlook on life, like the well-loved Psalm 23, we also have psalms like Psalm 65 that bespeak the farmer outlook on life. They always worshipped, prayed to and related to the one, true God, but the Israelites, like all other peoples of the earth, shaped that relationship on the basis of their technology and economy. Thus, in their semi-nomadic phase of history, Yahweh was their shepherd. In their transitional phase from slaves in Egypt to farmers in the Promised Land, Yahweh was their deliverer, their redeemer. And in the post-desert period, Yahweh was the “Lord of the Manor.” The Manor was heaven and earth and Yahweh provided seed, soil, sun and soaking rain. The Israelites were “to the manor born” and, as such, God’s chosen children, his favorites, dwelling in his house and playing in his surrounding courtyards. God’s people felt close to God because they experienced his loving presence when they walked upon his ground, holy ground if you will, when they planted his seeds and picked his crops. The rain was a sign of his love and care; a drought or flood a sign of his anger and their need to apologize and be forgiven. Their relationship with God was shaped by their technology.
Modern Technology: We who read and pray the psalms today are still in contact with God through agriculture and gardening, but we also need to translate these notions into our own more advanced technological experiences. The same God who is present in the process of growing, be they plants, animals or people, is also present, for instance, in the process of going, of travel, be it space travel or just riding in a car. Today we can trace the process of growth scientifically sown seed to picked plant, but it still does not take the mystery out of it. There is still something left over after all the analysis, something that won’t and can’t be analyzed, namely, mystery. The same is true with driving a car or flying a jet or electricity or plumbing or whatever. Although we can analyze all these phenomena and explain them scientifically, we do not all need to know exactly how things work, only how to work them. We need to know nothing about electricity in order to flick a switch and enjoy the end product. Yet, for all of that, we today can and should experience God in our own technologies, just as the ancient did in theirs. We simply need to translate their expressed truths, as in the psalms, into our experience. That process is possible because the revelation of old is still happening today because God is involved in both. He is still involved in the rain, but now, thanks to human cooperation with him, he is now involved in the plumbing that brings us the water into our homes. Amen.
