v. 9 "In his temple, all say 'Glory!'"
Not in God's temple that I serve! People wouldn't be caught DEAD saying
"Glory!" unless it was specifically written in the bulletin and then it'd come
out more like "glory."
Why is it we're too embarrassed to call out "GLORY!!!!"? even in God's
temple?
Sally in GA
In this psalm, God's voice is heard in the glory of thunder, in the mighty waters, and
in the flashing flame. The voice of God calls into our lives too, strong with promise.
"Ascribe" (that's a new word for me): to refer to a supposed cause, source,
or author. synonymy ascribe, attribute, assign, impute, credit mean to lay something to
the account of a person or thing. ascribe suggests an inferring or conjecturing of cause,
quality, authorship (ie. 'forged paintings formerly ascribed to masters').
[Merriam-Webster]
The interesting thing is this Psalm calling out to the "heavenly beings"
(lit. "sons of gods") to worship God. Pushing it a bit into speculation,
wouldn't we have ground to argue that demons and angels are convertible from one side to
the other? (While we at that, perhaps we should see how many of them can fit dancing on
the top of a pinhead as well <grin>).
The body of the Psalm is describing "the voice" of the LORD (Jehovah) - the
editorial title of the Psalm was "God in the Thunderstorm", but note v. 3
described Him as "God of glory thunders", so there was a seperation between God
and thunders, and not Patheism's "thunder is the voice of God" concept either.
v.3 talked about the setting, "over the waters"; v.4 talked about the nature
of His voice "majestic, powerful"; v.5-6 talked about its effect on the heathens
"breaking cedars/(strength) of Lebanon, making them jump". Notice the use of
Sirion in v.6: according to Deut. 3:9, it was the Sidonian name for Mt. Hermon - David
here didn't use the Hebrew name for it, so the application intended for the heathens.
v.7-9 talked about the effect of His voice on the elects. Here we found the reference to
the wilderness of Kadesh, the headquarter of rebellion from the Israelites during Exodus
journey. (See Nelson Bible Dictionary for more factual details).
So far from what we see, the voice of God as portrayed here is a display of power from
the soverign and mighty God. (Interesting contrast with the voice from Luke 3:22 from this
week lectionary's reading.)
The obvious application here is the conclusion in v.10-11: God wants us to know who He
is (note the reference of He sits enthroned over the *flood*/judgement), but all of this
is to help us to be strengthen, and from His strength we will also have peace!
The personal application for me is how am I proclaiming the Word of God - does it also
have the power of the Voice of God? If I don't see any power, is it because God could not
say to me, 'You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased'? If so, how well do I know
God love me? And how pleasing is my life to Him?
Oh God, help me to know both your unconditional love as well as help my life to be
pleasing to you.
Coho, Midway City
Sally I hear your frustration Sally. Could this be a cultural thing? A cultural
emphasis on mental and intellectual accuity (?) would make it difficult to spontaneously
"shout." But I know for a spirit filled preacher this can be annoying (and
sometimes annoying for first time visitors. Having served in both kinds of congregations,
I felt I had to be myself where ever I served. May God bless you as deal with this
frustration. I'm so glad all of you are looking at the psalm this week. Jesus Baptism has
special meaning. "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." was
declared by Abba at Jesus baptism. what of our baptisms? Perhaps this is a good time to
reflect on what happened at our own baptisms? Who was present? What baptisms have we
performed? With what family members were we a part of their ceremonies? I know we all come
from different doctrinal places with this sacrament, but there are some common places. On
this day after Epiphany, I am truly thankful for my baptism!
Shalom
bammamma
Bammamma - Nope. It's cultural, but it's not intellectual. It's a lack of passion,
period, about their being depressed, about their utter refusal to accept anyone different
from themselves, and to treat those people rudely when I try to bridge the gap. It's the
lack of caring for anyone but their immediate members, and the insistence that things
remain as they were when the churhc began. It's a despair that their white-flight church
can't flee anywhere anymore. It's about this dear lady saying, "I hear there's a
white family who moved in next to so and so. Maybe we could recruit them as members!"
It's about placing more value on race and the values of the Old South than on Christ.
Pardon my negativity; I'm feeling very fed up with this congregation.
Sally
Sally, Perhaps some of what you face actually proves that you, yourself are grasping
firmly, rightly ascribing to the Lord the glory due His name. Perhaps you recognize more
fully all that is splendid and glorious about a God who has no beginning, no end, and is
unable to find that any of the souls that He created are more or less lovely than any
other, as they all were created, that part which matters forever, created to look like,
and capable of looking like Him. Bless you, and bless His Name, as He gives you His words
to share. There is no promise that there will be a positive response, but there is a
promise that His mighty Word and Name carry weight that require some type of response.
Blessings. LKINHC
The New Interpreter's Bible says this may well be the oldest psalm adapted from a
Canaanite psalm to Baal. So this could be close to primodial spiritual imaging. I plan to
use the "The voice of the Lord is over the waters" as my theme as we celebrate
the Baptism of Our Lord. Members of the congregation will bring pitchers of water from the
six or so rivers and the LI Sound that border our parish. The will pour the waters into
the baptismal pitcher and then at the time of the baptism I will pour it into the fount.
So I'm interested in your ideas about water - the void, the source element of creation
and in the womb, etc. What is the voice of God saying over the waters? To Jesus,
"This is my beloved son", to us? "You are mine. I name you." The child
I am baptizing is Matthew born premature after his mon was in the hospital for weeks. The
family has a clear sense that he is a "gift from God". And there is the woman in
the congregation who so wants a baby and has not conceived. Where is her gift? Ah, the
complexities of preaching. Caroline in CT.
Caroline,
If you have access to the United Methodist Hymnal there is a wonderful prayer during
the baptismal service that focuses on the theme of God's saving power through water. In
the beginning...through the Red Sea, Jordan, the water of the womb, John the Baptist.
I like the idea of the people bringing the various water sources. We did this at our
Annual Conference several years ago.
Perhaps you may offer the congregation a chance to renew their baptismal vows after
Matthew is baptised. Perhaps this may speak to the woman wanting a child.
Walter Wangerin has a wonderful story about baptism in his book, Miz Lil & the
Chronicles of Grace. The story is called Baby Hanna.
Perhaps the voice over the waters for Matthew would be a lullabye. Again check out the
U.M. Book of Worship under the song section...wonderful baptismal lullabye. We have the
choir sing it during the baptism.
John near Pitts.
Another thought about the voice over the waters. I have taken various white-water
rafting trips for about 25 years and it's amazing how hard it is to shout above the roar
of the water. Hand signals are used to guide rafters to the places where they should be.
Perhaps God is one who can speak above the roar of our society, our deepest concerns and
anxieties. (Sometimes those anxieties are all we can hear.) Nothing can silence God, not
premature births or concerns about bearing children.
Just a thought.
John near Pitts.
The (Episcopal) Book of Common Prayer 1979 has a Thanksgiving Over the Water (see
p.306) that has its origin in Martin Luther's words. DPS has a link in the sidebar to the
BCP -- I haven't tried it.
Here's the prayer:
The Celebrant blesses the water, first saying The Lord be with you. People: And also
with you.
Celebrant: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. People: Itis right to give him
thanks and praise.
Celebrant: We thank you, Almighty God, for the gift of water. Over it the Holy Spirit
moved in the beginning of creation. Through it you led the children of Israel out of their
bondage in Egypt into the land of promise. In it your Son Jesus received the baptism of
John and was anointed by the Holy Spirit as the Messiah, the Christ, to lead us, through
his death and resurrection, from the bondage of sin into everlasting life.
We thank you, Father, for the water of Baptism. In it we are buried with Christ in his
death. By it we share in his resurrection. Through it we are reborn by the Holy Spirit.
Therefore in joyful obedience to your Son, we bring into his fellowship those who come to
him in faith, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit.
At the following words, the celebrant touches the water: Now sanctify this water, we
pray you, by the power of your Holy Spirit, that those who here are cleansed from sin and
born again may continue for ever in the risen life of Jesus Christ our Savior.
To him, to you, and to the Holy Spirit, be all honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.
Preacherlady
To really get the flavor of this psalm, you need to have lived through a hurricane:
trees dancing, boughs breaking, and a flood. Look at a map, Lebanon to Kadesh. Who cannot
then say "Glory"? Water and the Word, gentle, perhaps, but where either has
been, in power, it is never the same. PastorRj
Eugene Peterson does a great job with this Psalm in his translation. Worth a look!
Nazarene in Florida
Great contributions on this text! Thank you for filling in the gaps! My plan is to have
a sermon dialogue asking people to share with me three areas of their faith: (1) How they
experience the glory of God. (2) How they experience the voice of God (theophany or
appearance of God) in their life. (3) Relating to the baptism of Jesus, how is their
ministry affected by the voice of God. In between each section we will sing a verse of To
God Be the Glory Great Things He Has Done. Then end with a renewal of baptismal vows (as
given in the Whole People of God curriculum). As I have studied and prepared for this
sermon I have felt an overwhelming presence of God. To God be the Glory! Rev. D in BG
I've been wanting to do two things. One is to preach a sermon series on the Prayer of
Jabez. The second is to preach a series of Psalms. It seems that the five weeks we are
entering allow doing both. Each of the lectionary Psalms in some way helps to illuminate
part of Jabez's prayer. For instance, this one puts our request for God's blessings in its
proper place -- as a result of the magnificence of God, not as an outcome of our own
selfish desires.
I love how this Psalm majestically and enthusiastically sings God's praises. The words
alone, even without music, make me want to get and dance in joyful celebration of the
wonderful God we serve. There is joy in the power and danger.
I'm reminded of that great line from "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe".
I don't know it exactly, but it's regarding Aslan (the Lion who is the Christ figure).
It's something like. "Is he safe? No, he's not safe... but he is good." I'm
definitely going to have to grab that line for this week's message.
Judge Dredd
Here's the dialogue from C.S. Lewis's "The Lion, The Witch, and the
Wardrobe":
"Is - is he a man?" asked Lucy.
"Aslan a man!" said Mr Beaver sternly. "Certainly not. I tell you he is
the king of the wood and son of the great Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea. Don't you know who is
the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion - the lion, the great Lion."
"Ooh!" said Susan, "I'd thought he was a man. Is he - quite safe? I
shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion."
- Judge Redd
"That you will, dearie, and no mistake," said Mrs Beaver. "If there is
anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver
than most or else just plain silly."
"Then he isn't safe?" said Lucy.
"Safe?" said Mr Beaver, "don't you know what Mrs Beaver tells you? Who
said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King I tell
you."
