Psalm Forty
Year A. 2nd Sunday after the Epiphany, January 20th, 2002
Title: “Asking God to continue to be God.”
During the period between the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 587 BC and its reconstruction in 520-515 BC Israel realized first-hand what was a cardinal tenet of prophetic preaching: obedience is more pleasing to God than ritual sacrifice. God accepts prayers unaccompanied by rituals when an obedient person offers them. Psalm 40 is an example of that theology. It has two clearly distinguishable parts. Verses two to eleven are a prayer of thanksgiving. Verses twelve to seventeen, is a prayer for continued protection, what scholars would classify as a “Lament”. Verses fourteen to seventeen are virtually repeated as Psalm 70.
Verse one, I waited patiently for the Lord: The text has an infinitive absolute which is better rendered as “I hope intensely.” Verses three to ten, tell that this passionate hope was fulfilled.
In verse two, He drew me up from the desolate pit: The image here is one of being snatched out of Sheol or like the cistern in which Jeremiah was lowered in Jeremiah 38:6 and resuscitated, taught to walk again, taught not merely to speak but to sing, to sing a song about the new thing God has done. Recovery from a death-threatening illness or from one’s enemies can be described in such metaphorical terms.
In verse three, “He put a new song in my mouth”: New song: New songs were commissioned for special occasions, even for a new year. Here the phrase has taken on a more metaphorical meaning. It refers to a new orientation, life begun anew, requiring a new sort of speech, lyrical even, to match the new conditions, God’s recent, if repeated, gift of new life. If there was an actual, specific situation behind this “new song,” liturgical repetition and time have smoothed it out so that it now can apply to any new situation or new grace from Yahweh.
Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord: The psalmist’s rescue is not a private matter but one of public interest and benefit that will lead others to also trust in the Lord. Even though the basis for praise- help rendered to an individual- is a private act, the praise of God for it is a public one.
In verses seven to nine, sacrifice and offering you do not want but…obedience: These verses state the classic prophetic viewpoint. Neither the prophets nor this psalmist are condemning ritual wholesale, but its empty, external, formalistic expression. Even in this psalm this statement is surrounded by ritual texts. “Sacrifice,” Hebrew zebah, was an offering where the fat, considered the best part, was burnt and the rest was shared and eaten with the assembly. “Offering,” Hebrew minkhah, was a grain or animal sacrifice, in postexilic times restricted to cereal and oil, presented as a gift of homage before Yahweh. “Holocausts,” Hebrew `olah, were sacrifices of the entire animal, except the hide, saved for out garments, burnt, offered, but not eaten. “Sin-offerings,” Hebrew hata’ah, often indistinguishable from “guilt-offerings,” Hebrew ‘asam, were animals consumed by the priest and not the offerer.
In verse eight, “I delight to do you will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” God’s will is always a delight to do, because it brings us the greatest reward and all things work correctly when we strive to do God’s will written within our heart.
In Verses ten and eleven, “I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation.
The primary reference of “great congregation,” would be the people gathered for the liturgy. Yet, typical of thanksgiving psalms, this would extend concentrically to the whole nation, the other nations, the whole earth, and, finally, the universe. In giving witness regarding God’s loving kindness Hebrew hesed the psalmist is alerting others to that same loving kindness Hebrew hesed in their own lives.
In verse thirteen, “Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me; O Lord, make haste to help me. The fundamental quality of God’s covenant behavior, his hesed, variously translated as compassion, loving kindness, loyal love, steadfastness, fidelity, is the link between the thanksgiving part of this psalm and the lament part. The psalmist, in remembering God’s hesed in the past, a past right up to the present moment, is prompted to ask for its continuance in the future. Even though God is ever faithful and will behave consistently as he has always done, the psalmist does not take it for granted. He knows it is a gift and must be asked for.
In verse twelve, “For evils have encompassed me without number; my iniquities have overtaken me, until I cannot see; they are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails me.
Awareness of God’s love has made the psalmist aware of his own sin. Perhaps his sins are not as numerous as God’s acts of loving kindness, but they seem so in God’s presence. In the midst of expressing gratitude for God’s history of love the psalmist becomes aware of his own history of ingratitude to God. This is his reason for petitioning God to continue to grace him. He needs it. While his own heart fails him, he knows that God’s heart will not.
In verse thirteen, “Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me; O Lord, make haste to help me.” The situation is experienced as urgent. This does not necessarily mean the psalmist is in actual dire straits, but only that his heightened awareness of God’s innumerable good deeds and his own innumerable bad ones has made him feel the intense need of God’s minute by minute aid.
vv. 15-16 put to shame: These verses are more or less stock phrases and prayers describing the typical plight of a person besieged by enemies- sickness, slander, schemers, assassins, etc.
15 Let those be appalled because of their shame
who say to me, "Aha, Aha!"
16 But may all who seek you
rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who love your salvation
say continually, "Great is the LORD!"
17 As for me, I am poor and needy,
but the Lord takes thought for me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
do not delay, O my God.
Verses fifteen to seventeen, rejoice and be glad: These verses are more or less stock phrases and hopeful prayers describing the result of Yahweh’s intervention and bringing of justice and love to the situation prayed for in verses fifteen and sixteen.
Sermon
What God has done in the past we call his wondrous deeds or miracles. What God will do in the future we call his plans. God’s plans, then, are future miracles. Since God is faithful we can be sure he will behave in the future the same way he has always behaved. Thus, the psalmist, after giving thanks for God’s past deeds, his miracles, goes on to ask that God continue to behave in the future as he has always done. He asks God to continue being God as he promises to continue recognizing him as God.
The prayer of thanksgiving for God’s delivering on his promises only makes us more aware of how dependent we are upon God. It makes us more aware of our sinfulness and our need of his redeeming help minute by minute. It makes us aware that once one problem is solved another jumps into first place and pre-occupies our minds.
Frequently, the prayer of petition would be followed by an anticipated thanks for God answering a prayer we are so sure he will answer. However, life is not so neat. Thus thankfulness can make us aware of other needs. Thankfulness also, oddly, makes us aware of our usual un-thankfulness, our presumption of God’s presence and care. As we are overwhelmed by God’s countless miracles and as we expect countless more, we are likewise overwhelmed by our countless need and, especially, countless sins. As responsible as our and God’s enemies are as external threats to our well being, they are never fully responsible. In some sense all suffering is a result of sin. Who can claim that his or her own personal sin has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with personal suffering? Yes, we can, at least, count our external enemies- those who wish us ill, do ill towards us, physical illness, etc.- but who can count our internal enemies, our sins? The prayer of thanks makes us aware not only of God’s goodness to us, others and the world, but of our own ingratitude. No wonder this psalm begins with thanks and ends with petition. And no wonder in the New Testament ethics is seen as gratitude to God for God.
Hebrews 10: 5-10 puts verses seven to nine, of this psalm on the lips of Jesus to describe his attitude regarding his self-sacrifice. Jesus took the psalms personally. He believed what they said was true of him, expressed his sentiments and described what would happen to him. We should do the same.
Patience pays off. “Waiting for the Lord,” expresses the patient attitude that recognizes that God will act, but in his own time and on his own terms.
God is always working miracles. Everything he does is a miracle. They are too numerous and happen too often to be able to notice them all, let alone count and recount them. Our mention of any miracle is but an example or a sample of a much larger event. This goes on twenty four hours a day.
Religious rituals, even daily prayers, are meaningless unless they are part of a bigger package, which is obedience to God’s will.
Frequent and unembarrassed praise of God is a sure sign that a person is in conscious contact with God.
As God’s miracles and mercies are countless so are a person’s sins.
Hidden mercies: Whether we recognize it or not God is always showing mercy towards us. Breathing, seeing, walking, not aching, not getting into an accident, eating, not choking, etc. Because many bad things do not happen to us, we can forget that that is so because of God’s constant protection and mercy. But when we think about it, we are moved to praise him. Praise is simply recognition or acknowledgment of what is.
Thanksgiving: If praise is the intellectual recognition of God’s presence, power, miracles and mercies, then thanksgiving is the emotional recognition. In theory, we could spend our lives recounting, specifically mentioning, all the mercies of God and we would only scratch the surface. We simply cannot know ALL the mercies of God. Yet, we can know that they are there, have always been there, and always will be there, because we know God. Praise and thanks should replace all those negative and nasty thoughts and emotions that run rampant through our consciousness minute by minute. Thinking negatively is like eating junk food. It is mental junk and it clutters our mind and clogs our heart. With that stuff on our minds we cannot help but sin. With praise and thanks on our minds we cannot help but rejoice and be glad.
Prayer: Prayer does us more good than it does God. He does not need our prayers, even of praise and thanks, but we do. Without prayer, conscious and deliberate contact with God, we lose perspective and fall “into the pit of destructive behavior.” Praying the prayer of thanks makes us aware of God’s goodness as well as our lack of goodness, our sinfulness. That is not a bad thing in and of itself, for it makes us aware of our need for God and God’s mercy. Thanksgiving teaches us how to pray the prayer of petition and should always precede petition.
Waiting for the Lord: This is not a waiting for the Lord to show up, but a waiting for him to act in ways that change the situation. God is always acting on our behalf, but not always in such a way as to change a situation of distress or stress. Apparently, when God sees what we think is a negative situation, he sees it differently. There may be something for us to learn or for others to learn, so he lets it string out and be prolonged until all his good purposes are accomplished or, at least, humans have had a chance to change. Only then does he intervene. Our awareness of the way God is and the way he acts makes us patient and wait for him to decide when to intervene. We are sure he will, just not when and how. Amen.
