GOSPELING AT THE LORD'S SUPPER
Ancient Jews weren't scared witless by the sea but there was enough about it that generated unease in them when they looked at it. Whatever else Genesis 1 taught them, it taught them that God was the Lord of the waters and everything else that existed. He spoke and it obeyed him (see also Isaiah 17:13-14). The sea was no god to be worshiped as it had been worshiped in Egypt, where they had spent so many years. Still, its restlessness, its destructive power and the fact that they couldn't control it were enough to make it a symbol of threat and chaos. They often spoke of it in those terms, as did other nations.
Isaiah said (17:12): "Oh,
the raging of many nations—they rage like the raging sea! Oh, the uproar of the
peoples—they roar like the roaring of great waters." Here the pounding of
huge waves as they smash against one another with destroying force is a graphic
picture of clashing armies. In their wickedness they never ceased to cast up
muck and debris (Isaiah 57:20). It was out of the restless Great Sea
(Mediterranean) that the four great Gentile kingdoms arose like monsters from a
science fiction movie, devouring all before them and oppressing the people of
God (Daniel 7:1-8). No wonder that when John describes the conditions of the
world freed from the oppressor that he says of it (and there was no more
sea)—Revelation 21:1.
With thoughts and images like
these circulating in a little nation that—on and off— for centuries had felt
the power of oppressors the psalmist's defiant words in Psalm 46:1-3 ring out all the finer and braver and more trustful.
These words aren't sung by people who've known no trouble—they've known more
than their share! These aren't the words of a people who think the world can be
fixed if only we give them "enough information". This man speaks for
his entire people who expect the world to be wild and oppressive
and who know that either today or tomorrow they'll feel the hurt that powerful
nations bring to others. Knowing all that, fully aware of all that, certain
that it will come to that he says this:
God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam and the mountains
quake with their surging.
Picture this believer standing on top of the cliff, watching the huge waves building out there and then rushing for the cliff face with increasing speed and power. Imagine the shudder he feels in the ground when they thunder against it, again and again, unrelentingly, threatening to bring down the entire mountain and him along with it. Think of him, then, looking landward, to his home and people and the irresistible forces lined up against them. It's with all those images and realities in mind that he sings into the wind:
God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam and the mountains
quake with their surging.
This song is sung by modern
believers as well. I know a few of them personally! They're intelligent,
wide-eyed, politically aware, as realistic as anyone you could meet and when
they feel the shudder under their feet they note it well but still get on with
their business of world-transformation by "gospeling," in all the
ways that each of them is able do that.
But look what another believer did in Psalm 117 with such faith-generating truth. This singer is no
bigot, no racist and no self-centered worshiper. He knew something about his
God that needed to be told to the entire world! He must have had his tough
times like everyone else; he might well have had long stretches of agony when
the first half of Psalm 22 was most often in his mind and speech and then came
to know the last half of Psalm 22. It would have been when he had come through
the long scalding experience and not only survived [see Psalm 124] but was
filled with a new experience of God, his power to save and His faithfulness—that’s
when he would have jumped up in the middle of the congregation and said, “I
have something I must sing.”
It is important to keep in mind as we listen to the psalm that
this singer is NOT speaking to Israel
but to the nations of the entire world.
Praise the Lord, all nations
Extol Him, all people.
For His kindness overwhelms us,
And the Lord’s steadfast truth is forever.
Hallelujah.
(Psalm 117, Alter’s Translation)
He calls on all the peoples and nations of the earth to praise God—Yahweh! And why should they? What reason does this believer give the human family to Israel’s God? Here it is, “Because His kindness overwhelms us.” His kindness overwhelms Israel—that’s a reason for the entire world to sing His praise? It’s clear the psalmist had a richer understanding of God than many of his fellows. He and the little woman in Matthew 15 had much in common. (See, Incident at Sidon.)
This psalm is not about individuals [though of course it includes them]—it’s about the experience of the People of God as a nation and it’s spoken to the nations as nations. It’s cosmic in scope, it’s humankind in breadth; it’s about the God and Father of all of us and paraphrasing the psalmist he says:
“Look at us and learn about Him. About Him! Like you we’ve been in and through trouble but here we are (Isaiah 43:1-7)—alive and well. In his goodness to us and his sustaining covenant faithfulness he speaks a message of his faithful love to you. Rejoice in Him. Rejoice in Him because his kindness overwhelms us.”
Let the Church Supper that Tomorrow!
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