ELECT PILGRIMS
Psalm 105: 1-22
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A PRESBYTERIAN PSALTER - by Pastor Max A Forsythe |
Long before there were walkmen or portable radios, travelers were able to carry their entertainment with them as they very often sang their own songs. Of course it sounds kind of silly to tell such an obvious fact. Yet, we must not be too careful in defining such things. Many of my students have a hard time visualizing entertainment in the pre-MTV era. Why the very fact that the first automobiles at the turn of the century did not have radios astounded some of my history students this week. When I told them television broadcasting had to wait until after World War Two before there was an audience, they were even more amazed. I told them about the first television broadcast I witnessed in my grandfather's home in little Lewistown, Ohio. When my family arrived to see grandpa's new toy, there were at least thirty townsmen gathered in his living room looking at the tiny five to six inch screen. At the end of the show, which was broadcast from Dayton, the station went off the air at the end of its broadcast day. It was even still daylight out!
For once, everyone in the class was listening to how primitive it once was. Why on my spelling list this week, a couple students were even puzzled over a four letter word I had on their list. H Y M N! I hate to think what confusion might be caused by a simple little word like Psalm. Of course, the very concept of singing outloud is foreign to many in our day who have learned to be entertained by their walkmans, televisions and radios. Cultural enrichment, I once heard someone lament, is indeed getting scarce. How well I remember music classes in grade school when we sang the old folk tunes and words which carried on our American traditions and way of life. Once, when I was in the third grade, the teacher brought in her record player and demanded that we sit and listen for a change of pace. I think she had a cold or something. It didn't go over very well. Yes, most of us did know about radio and had heard something about the development of television. But somehow, the practice of singing which none of us did very well, was part of our classroom expectations. Why we even sang hymns long before they were being outlawed for having religious content. Indeed, an era has passed and it has been long since, the joy of human voices was regularly raised in public places to the God of heaven and His only Son Jesus Christ. I can actually play hymn tunes in my classroom with hardly anyone knowing what I'm doing!
Well, today we are going to begin a period of Judeo-Christian cultural enrichment. Our new Psalters are in and after a year and a half hiatus we return to a weekly consideration of the Psalm, Hymn and Song book of ancient Israel. Besides, reading and singing through the Psalter through over the next five years, we will meditate as well on the meaning of these precious words which have strengthened the saints of many times a places. Our psalm for today is a pilgrim psalm, partially written for the journey of the Ark of the Lord to David's capital city Jerusalem. This psalm is also a historical psalm, recounting God's ancient dealings with His people, especially in their great coming out from Egypt. In celebration of that seminal event, all of Israel was invited to "give thinks to the Lord". Even more than personal thanks, Israel was "make known among the nations" what God had done. And so, under David's inspired leadership that sang this song of praise.
In the second verse, this theme is well established. "Sing to him, sing praise to him;" The call here is for song, holy song in the praise of our Sovereign God. Particular songs have special memories for each one of us. These Scripture songs of the Psalms ought to become special to us as well. Of course we know that there are songs that are popular for a short time, then there are classics that are sung over the time of centuries. One comedian once suggested that all music originated from heaven, but many of our composers are extremely hard of hearing. Given the various tastes in music and noise in our time, we might easily agree. John Philip Sousa, the great march composer of the last century once spoke about the origin of his most popular song The Stars & Stripes Forever. He claims not to have agonized over the composition at all. He simply reported that on the way home from Europe, he was standing at the rail of the ship one night when he couldn't sleep. He said that it was almost like he heard the tune being played in the distance. We might call this inspiration. If a composer that close in time to us reports this experience we ought to take seriously the Scriptural report that not only the Psalms but all of Scripture are indeed the work of the Holy Spirit. And His work must be made known in every age and place. This telling "of all his wonderful acts", is also urged upon us in verse two of our psalm today. The remainder of our Psalm portion this morning reminds us of this obligation for song and story.
There are even instructions here regarding our preparation and content. Verse three reminds us that we are to "Glory in his holy name;" we are to "let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice". And how may the hearts of those who are seeking hear unless we are willing to share what the Holy Spirit has given to us. People are tired of mere opinion, but they will listen as the Spirit allows if we will give glory only to our God and King. I have noticed lately that some of our most avid humanists of a mere twenty years ago, are jaded with the policies and educational ideas that they so eagerly adopted in the mid-seventies. Their idealism has perished, perhaps they are ready to tune their hearts to the songs of our Lord God Almighty? But, we have to be careful, let us speak no personal views in His Name, but let us joyfully relate the revelations of His precious Word.
Verse four shows us how to do this. The essential word here is "seek". Seek, seek, seek, we have the word three times and though the words differ in the Hebrew, the sense is the same. We might translate this verse in this manner: "Seek the Lord, seek his strength, seek his face evermore." In this sequence there is provision for personal growth. There are many of our relatives, friends and acquaintances who are still wrestling with the first prompting of our verse. And that seeking is for knowledge of our Holy God. Once we were there in that situation and then the Holy Spirit came into our lives and we realized our desperate need to settle accounts with the God of His universe.
That first step is essential, then like little children we may move on to the second. In this stepping out in faith, we move from giving the personal reverence due our Father to experiencing His imparted power. This power is described in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians: "the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." Even, having being saved, as the New Testament writers encourage us, we must continue our seeking. Notice that last word in verse four: "always" or "evermore" in older translations. We must always remember that the continuing sanctification our Lord desires must include further seeking all the days of our New Life in Christ. Our psalmist encourages us to remember the wonders, miracles and judgments of our God. And the Covenant promises are again affirmed in verses eight to eleven. We are reminded that God's covenants are indeed forever, even for a thousand generations.
Now we have a hard time understanding the experience of God's promises over time. After all, the Church in this century has been dwelling on sudden conversions, going down an aisle to the front of the Church and finding oneself emotionally trapped in a convenient fellowship. Most of those conversions, studies have shown, last about eighteen months. But, God tells us that our being saved is within the context of a spiritual kingdom with roots in the ancient ages of pre-history. God's spiritual Israel remains whole from Adam down to our own time. My family is fortunate in that we can trace the Covenant promise of God to save our children back two hundred and some years to the 1790's. Six generations have come into Christ's Church and prayerfully in time a seventh and even an eighth as well! Millennia ago when Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Israel in Sinai the Lord God kept His promised covenant.
He does so even today in the midst of Christ's Church. In Abraham and Jacob's time the Covenant applied to mere handfuls of people. Jacob took seventy-some family members into Egypt. They came out by the hundreds and hundreds of thousands. By God's provident care "He allowed no one to oppress them; for their sake he rebuked kings;" and God kept His own people safe down through the ages. Even so it is the same today, God's elect remnant according to the election of grace cannot be destroyed or even touched without the divine consent. Certainly we may be tempted within the Lord's allowance, and that we are. Certainly we may be tested as God's ancient servant Joseph was in the report of this psalm. However, we are eternally secure if we glory in his holy name, if we give thanks to the Lord, if we call upon his name. And for the fulfillment of His covenant promises we are called to Sing to him and tell of all his wonderful acts on our behalf! May we be encouraged by God's Holy Spirit to sing and tell the sacred story so that generations after us may know of God's Covenant promise to His people in all ages. Amen.
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Resources Used: |
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Alexander, Joseph. |
Commentary on Psalms. | |
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Kidner, Derek. |
Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries: Psalms | |
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Spurgeon, C.H. |
The Treasury of David. | |
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IBS: The Holy Bible, New International Version (1984) | ||
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Psm 105b |
14 October 90 & 02 April 95 | |