Pastor Rusty's November 2010 Highlander Column

NOVEMBER 2010
PASTOR’S COLUMN

Brothers and sisters,

As I began considering the intertwined and related Eighth and Tenth Commandments for this installment of our study, I thought back on my time as a security guard while I was in seminary. I saw a great many things that truly astounded me and came to the conclusion that we people are “interesting critters” who continually provide our own proofs of original sin.

To refresh our memories, the Eighth and Tenth Commandments, as recorded in Deuteronomy 5:19 & 21 are, “And you shall not steal. And you shall not covet your neighbor's wife. ... or desire your neighbor's house, his field, or his male or female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.”

A case-study in the total violation of both the “letter and spirit” of these commands came for me in the form of one particular fellow security guard with a kleptomaniacal fixation with office supplies. He always arrived at work looking neat and trim in his uniform, working through his eight-hour shift. But invariably, when he “punched-out” at 7:00 A.M., he appeared seven to 10 pounds heavier around the middle than he did eight hours earlier. Short of starting his own Staples’ franchise, I don’t know what he planned to do with all that stuff. . . or how this guy with “bulges and rolls” in all the wrong places escaped detection for six months. By the time he was “laid off”, he must have “creatively acquired” five to six dozen boxes of ball-point pens and a case or two of 20-pound bond copier paper from supply stocks he was supposed to protect.

My time as a dockhand with a Pittsburgh-area tourist-boat company also provided “grist for my mental mill”. For most of my tenure there, enormous quantities of food were squandered — left to spoil. And, while this may not have been the obvious theft occurring in the first example, it was equally dishonest and repulsive. You see, meat (generally, prime rib or chicken) was weighed before it was loaded aboard the boats’ galleys for dinner cruises. It was then re-weighed when the boats were off-loaded. This meat was then left to sit and spoil overnight in open warming trays. Then it was “re-”re-weighed in the morning. If any of the meat was missing, some employee would be fired and grand theft charges filed against him or her.

Food was never given to employees, a food bank or soup kitchen. That is, it was never given away until someone in the Front-office discovered that donating food to one of the city’s food banks would net a big public relations benefit for company. This theft was the “theft of trust and of human responsibility”. The meat had never before been donated or used, but always left to rot.

I'm not saying that donating food is a bad thing — I thought it was great that Pittsburgh’s hungry would be fed. But the motivation for the donation was all fouled up: “We'll just let the food rot, unless, of course, we get some sort of tangible double-return on it!”

Both of these examples point out the real-life problems people get themselves into when they violate the related commandments against stealing and coveting. This is God’s message, warning and command to us from scripture and catechism. And it's all so simple, so basic. Yet, all-too-frequently we assume that so long as we haven’t “knocked over” a bank or gotten busted stuffing VCRs under our jackets and jumpers at Wal-Mart that we've somehow obeyed these commands.

But, if we look at these commandments, we see that while they forbid outright theft or robbery, they also forbid us from longing for the possessions, affections and goods belonging to other people.

Simple, straight-forward and easy to follow, right?!? One would think so, but then that's where we run into the answer to Heidelberg Catechism Question 110 and the prophet Micah's words of challenge and warning:

• Q] What does God forbid in the eighth commandment?

• A] He forbids not only outright theft and robbery that are punishable under law, but also cheating neighbors with schemes that are too good to be true, or through false weights and measures, false merchandising or advertising, counterfeiting, charging of excess interest (Note: call my credit card company, I've been ripped off! ) or through greed or the squandering of God's good gifts.

And this answer to the catechism question is the substance of Micah's message to the people of Israel and Judah.

• MICAH 6:8-16

• 8 He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
• 9 The voice of the Lord cries to the city ...: “Hear, O tribe and assembly of the city! 10 Can I forget the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, the scant measure that is accursed? 11 Can I tolerate wicked scales and ... dishonest weights? 12 Your wealthy are full of violence; your inhabitants speak lies, with tongues of deceit in their mouths.
• 13 “Therefore I have begun to strike you down, making you desolate because of your sins. 14 You shall eat, but not be satisfied, ... you shall put away, but not save, .... 15 You shall sow, but not reap; you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil; you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine. 16 For you ... kept Omri’s statutes and the works of the house of Ahab, .... Therefore I will make you a desolation, ... so you shall bear the scorn of my people.”

He tells them they are ignoring God’s clear intent in these commands and that He is really flamed about their disobedience. Micah describes the “on the ground” situation in which the wealthy cheated the poor when they bought and sold their merchandise; farmers clear-cut their fields at the end of the harvest rather than leaving some of grain for gleaning by the poor. The poor, in turn, resorted to theft of wealthy farmers' crops because they were hungry or felt cheated.

In short — Rampant Immorality! In practical contemporary terms: this would be like going to the grocery store and buying 5 lbs of potatoes for the price of 10 lbs. because the manager “fixed” the scales. Or, conversely, it’s like switching the price tag on a 10 lb. bag with one from a 5 lb. bag so you don’t pay full price. . . . Or, swiping company office supplies because the “big execs have too much money already;” . . . or, letting left-over food rot until “we figure out how to make double profit from it.”

Regardless how we try to square it, it still amounts to covetousness and theft. And when we succumb to the temptation to covet or desire things that we haven't earned or that don't belong to us, then, Micah warns us, God will give us over to our evil desires.

But when He does, God ensures that, even if we get what we ever coveted, we'll never be satisfied by it. The leaders and common people of Micah's time didn't listen to him then, and, even now, many, many people still fail to listen to these words of correction and warning. Today, we tend to be attuned to glitzy commercial advertising, to the lottery and sweepstakes and to a culture that truly believes that because we’re “modern and civilized and sophisticated” we’re somehow entitled to get “something for nothing”.

The underlying problem, however, is the same one Jesus addresses in His commentary on the Eighth and Tenth Commandments in Matthew 6:19-24 as He shows us that such desires actually rot away our souls and leave emptiness and corruption behind.

• 19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
• 22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; 23 but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
• 24 “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

Christ shows us that “where our treasures are, there our hearts are also.” When we cease to rely on God for our “daily bread” and the necessities of life, we begin to rely on ourselves. We put ourselves in God's place and figure that we can do a better job than He does.

“If then the light in you is darkness -- how great the darkness”?!?! We come to expect “getting something for nothing” and find, instead, that Micah’s promise and Jesus’ words come true in real life. We get “nothing for something” as we exchange our health, wholeness, prosperity and God's providence for endless desires that are never satisfied and lead us to ever-greater emptiness and eventually Hell.

We will have falsely weighted our own scales and God will say to us, “Sorry, but that's the full measure.” In practical terms, God may forgive us for our covetousness and evil desire, but He will not excuse us from the consequences of our actions. That’s why so many compulsive gamblers and “quick-scheme operators” are miserable. They have mislaid the real prize and don't know where it is.

But, in a more positive fashion, Jesus also reminds us that if we are faithful and seek God's good gifts we will never be disappointed. We may never own the way cool Porsche, or win the lottery or have as may CDs or DVDs or clothes as we want, but we won't suffer by our own hands, either.

If we, who are too often inclined to give false measure — to play with the scales to even the score — are willing to do well for our children, how much more, then is our loving Father willing to give to us if we'll only rely upon Him?

I challenge all of us to consider how our personal scales measure up? Are we trusting our heavenly Father, or watching the scale's balance needle on our own? Let's all remove the excess weight, the desire that kills us and trust God to provide full measure of what we need rather than what we may want. So then, “How are our scales measuring up”?

Grace & Peace,
PASTOR RUSTY ✠

Pastor Rusty's October 2010 Highlander Column

OCTOBER 2010
PASTOR'S COLUMN

Brothers and sisters,

One of the all-time great teen-age boys' pick-up spots is the senior high church youth group. It is so popular because it is neutral ground, it's a place Mom and Dad are comfortable with and because — at least in the minds of most of the teenage boys I've met — no one will suspect church boys of trying something!

I can remember, as a kid, hearing other guys trying to sneak kisses, hugs and such-like with girls they were sweet-on. I also remember hearing the girls in questions saying things like: “CUT IT OUT! We're in CHURCH !"

Girls at this age just seem to be naturally brighter than boys about such matters.

Now, this may seem an odd way to begin a column, but such reminiscences and scenarios are particularly relevant to us this month as we begin our look at the Seventh Commandment (Thou shalt not commit adultery) — no matter how old we are. And they are so relevant to us because they serve to remind us of a valuable and powerful truth about relationships, commitments, trust, covenant and the ever-present fight against lust in an age and society seemingly driven by lust and the prurient.

Even here in sleepy Slippery Rock, the youngest and most vulnerable among us are increasingly “sexualized” and “objectified”. One need only walk past the “girls department” at Wal-mart to experience the real sense of coarse oppression under which we labor as we encounter entire clothing racks of “thong underwear” designed for five and six year old girls! Heidelberg Catechism Questions 108 and 109 bring laser-like Scriptural focus to the topic of sexuality, fidelity and lust.

Those driving questions this month are:

• What is God's will for us in the 8th commandment?

• Does God forbid only such bad sins as adultery, itself?

As we seriously and honestly examine both ourselves and these questions and the commandments they address, we should recognize and admit that the core problem we face goes far deeper than simple adultery. That, in itself, is a critical difficulty in a society where teen-age “hook-ups” are incredibly common and the divorce rate stands at nearly 50 percent. But, all of this stems from the root problems presented by unconquered or uncontrolled destructive desires, emotions and temptations that lead to the sin of adultery.

If we're honest with each other and ourselves, most of us are forced to admit that the intent goes far deeper than adultery; we know we stand convicted of our disobedience and sin and that our sense of timing and of appropriate place really stinks. Now, that last phrase probably has some of you wondering if I'm little tetched — a proper place and time for lust or adultery?

Bear with me for a moment, though, as we take a quick look at some relevant scripture texts and you'll see what I'm talking about:

• DEUTERONOMY 5:1 - 3 & 18:

• 1 And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the rules that I speak in your hearing today, and you shall learn them and be careful to do them. 2 The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. 3 Not with our fathers did the Lord make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive today. . . .

• 18 “‘And you shall not commit adultery.’”

This simple, straight-forward passage from Deuteronomy forbids a very easily understood and particular set of pre-defined activities. Adultery is condemned. You may not have sexual relations with the husband or wife of another person. If you are married, you may not have sexual relations with anyone other than your own spouse. God forbids it. Period. It's really that simple.

Confusion, however, frequently arises because we get adultery and fornication tangled. Both are forbidden, and are related, but are different infractions. Fornication is any sexual relation between any two un-married people. Both proscriptions bind our Christian lives. But only adultery is specifically referenced in the 10 Commandments.

But, both activities are forbidden because they are a form of theft in which the offender steals a form of intimacy and affection from the one and only person to whom that affection rightly belongs — the offender's spouse or future spouse. Moreover, both have their roots in lust and lead us to deepening levels of impure thought and behavior which, in turn, open us to other obvious sins and to that worst of all sins, idolatry.

The temptations to sin are both obvious and abundant.

The risk of idolatry is more subtle. It becomes an issue because our thoughts and feelings about the wonders of the human body and about intimacy over-ride the sense of obligation, the devotion and the meditation which we rightly owe to God.

How many of us know someone so enamored of someone else that he or she just can't think straight? How often do we hear stories about those left devastated and robbed of their ability to trust because of a spouse's real or perceived infidelity? No less than Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, while she was first lady, was obviously troubled and touchy on the subject of her husband's dalliances with Jennifer Flowers and Monica Lewinski.

All of these items stem from lust, the desire to possess the intimacy and affections of another person. And these are just the points that Christ made when He offers His own commentary on the Law in Matthew 5:27 - 30: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.”

Christ points out to us, as only God's only Son and Lawmaker can, that the intent of the commandment is rooted in the overthrow and defeat of simple thoughts and desires — not just by actions. Whether we like it or not, thoughts and emotions lead to actions for most people. Perhaps none of us will ever actively go out and fornicate or commit adultery, but off-color jokes, leering looks and inappropriate comments might follow from such lustful thoughts.

It's the old principle: Garbage in, garbage out.

How often do we see such garbage offered to us on television, in magazine, in books or movies? How often does one hear such things while listening to Don Imus, Howard Stern or while watching the sitcoms Friends, Two and-a-Half Men or The Office?

Our Lord tells us we must work actively to avoid impure thoughts and actions. He says it in such a blunt and graphic way that even when we're being deliberately dense, we can't miss it's importance. I don't think Christ actually means for us to rip out our own eyes and sever our optic nerves, or that we should take meat cleavers to our extremities, but we must avoid anything — thought, word, glance or behavior — causing us to stumble into sin.

Surely, there is still forgiveness for those who have committed these sins, but we must consider that our King -- the King of kings — gives clear marching orders for our progress on the road of Christian faith and discipleship.

Even beyond that, as Paul tells us in his letter to the Corinthian church, we who have been redeemed by Christ and have felt the cleansing presence of the Holy Spirit are now walking, talking temples or churches of Jesus Christ. For us, this means that we must think back to the days when we would hear the girls say, “Cut it out, we're in church!”

Paul's words in I Corinthians 6:14 - 20 are binding upon us and remind us that, as Christians, we carry our churches on our own backs because we are the Church: “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food” — and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? . . . your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

We are never out of God's sight and we never leave His presence. He knows and sees all. We must always be careful because this is a God-given matter of trust, not merely some issue about which God is incredibly close-minded.

God knows that we needs Him and each other. Adultery and fornication distort or rupture our relationship with God. They destroy or shatter our relationships with each other.

And, as little as we may think about them after a few months or a year, these sins can come back to bite us many years after the fact. Thinks about Bill Cosby and his reputed daughter Autumn Jackson. Yes, Cosby told his wife, Camille, about his affair with Jackson's mother, and they were reconciled and have stayed together despite the breech of trust.

But, a quarter-century after the fact, the issue raised its head and an old wound was re-opened to inflict new hurts and pains for all concerned: For Cosby and family. For Jackson and her mother. For the other man who claims paternity of Jackson.

Much of the fall-out that results each year from the explosions within families rocked by adultery and fornication could be eliminated and the pain and harm diminished if Christians would spread the message of purity and familial trust delivered to us by Moses 3,500 years ago at Sinai.

We must force ourselves to remember that all of us who believe are each temples of Jesus Christ that hold the light of the world for all to see and believe.

And then we must ask ourselves again, “what won't we do in church?”

Grace & Peace,
PASTOR RUSTY ✠

Highland Presbyterian Church Sunday Sermon: Sun., 5 September 2010

DATE: Sunday, 5 September 2010
TEXT: Psalm 146:1 - 10 [ESV]
TITLE: “Put Not Your Trust in Princes!”

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TEXT:

Psalm 146:1 - 10

1 Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
2 I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

3 Put not your trust in princes,
in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.
4 When his breath departs, he returns to the earth;
on that very day his plans perish.

5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord his God,
6 Who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
Who keeps faith forever;
7 Who executes justice for the oppressed,
Who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets the prisoners free;
8 the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
the Lord loves the righteous.
9 The Lord watches over the sojourners;
He upholds the widow and the fatherless,
but the way of the wicked He brings to ruin.

10 The Lord will reign forever,
your God, O Zion, to all generations.
Praise the Lord!

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INTRODUCTION:
Danger comes in many and various forms and temptations are seldom overtly ugly, or else the dangers would not be half so dangerous, and the temptations would not be tempting.

Now, taken in passing, this statement might seem both innocuous and self-evident, but as with a great many things in this life that we live (and, fallen human beings being who and what we are), the Devil is quite literally in the details.

I mention this now, at this time, in the wake of Fox News’ commentator Glenn Beck’s “Divine Destiny” pep-rally at the Kennedy Center and his much larger “Restoring Honor Rally” on the National Mall. On the surface, these events were quite successful and drew at least a couple hundred thousand souls who handsomely filled the Mall from the World War II Memorial to the Lincoln Memorial. Some 250 largely evangelical pastors and leaders from a variety of denominations and para-church ministries participated, thereby, lending their patronage and prestige to the event and adding to its overall popularity.

And this is precisely where the Devil began to enter the details — its popularity lent the twin rallies a patina (or veneer) of evangelical respectability and popularity. The rally was conservative , both culturally and politically; it was a high energy event that made full use of Beck’s inherent personal charisma and his considerable popular communications skills.

BUT . . .
And this is a huge but, this so-called moment of “national revival” was, at best woefully inadequate, and, at worst, spiritually fatal to the gullible — it was possessed of the ability to critically wound the naive and the unwary.

Now, right at this point, some of you will be quite vexed with me, or inclined to think that the knot has slipped my mental thread. After all, Beck shares many of our cultural values; he is a political and fiscal conservative and he mentioned “god” so frequently, so positively and with such enthusiasm that it seemed totally on “the up-and-up”; “what possibly could be Rusty’s problem?!?”

Chiefly, I have two problems, but they are major systemic, foundational problems that revolve around a third even more central and overwhelming Biblical problem addressed by our text for this morning:

• PROBLEM ONE: Glenn Beck has now billed himself — both explicitly, and by implication — as a spiritual leader, mover and shaker of the “Religious Right”. This is, at best, problematic because, [A] Beck is Biblically and theologically under-informed to uninformed; and, [B] he is not a Christian; he is a highly committed and active Mormon.

• PROBLEM TWO: The god to whom Beck repeatedly refers and directs our attention is a generic god of secular civil religion, and the religion itself is not orthodox Biblical Christianity, but rather, the limp, anemic counterfeit of publically-accepted ceremonial civic Deism — that is to say it is the “cosmic watch-making god” of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin who is seen to have constructed and “wound-up” the universe only to watch it “run-down”. This is the idolatrous god of Franklin’s vain imaginings who “helps those who help themselves.”

The third, and by far most serious, of the problems, as I mentioned above is that this god presented last Friday night — and all day last Saturday — is not the God of heaven and earth presented generally in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments and, specifically, in Psalm 146. Beck’s god is not the only true God who is Sovereign Monarch Who rules over His subjects not only with supreme justice, righteousness and holiness, but also with love and grace. This God, Yahweh, the Lord, is the one Who “executes justice for the oppressed”, “Who keeps faith forever” (even when we are faithless), “Who gives food to the hungry”, “Who sets prisoners free”, “Who opens the eyes of the, lifts up those who are bowed down, and loves the righteous”.

This Biblical God is, most assuredly not the god appealed to by Glenn Beck last Saturday in the nation’s capital. Our God is not the god who offers only “individual salvation” to those who work hard enough, well enough and sinlessly enough to “make the grade” and merit salvation.

So it is here that we properly begin our study, this morning, into the Scriptural God of Psalm 146, who tells us through the psalmist “put not your trust in princes; in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.”

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BODY:
As with Psalm 8, we don’t know a great deal about this psalm or the events surrounding its composition. And, again, it is one of the psalms traditionally attributed to David. But as we examine it, several important things should powerfully strike us about it “right out of the gate”.

First among these considerations is the fact that, as with Psalm 8, and so many others of the psalms, it is immediately apparent that David presents us with a portrait of a personal God with Whom he is well acquainted and for Whom he has a genuine love, high regard and definite passion. Again, God’s personal name, Yahweh, represented by the Tetragrammaton, Lord, is heavily used — in fact, “Lord” appears 11 times. Additionally the personal pronouns “He” and “Who / Whom” are used an additional six times, and the explicit descriptor, “the God of Jacob” is also used once.

I do not mention this to either bore you with statistics, or to hone your skills and “personal knowledge bank” for Trivial Pursuit, but rather because these references make it, or should, abundantly clear that David speaks of one Whom he knows and knows well. This is no amorphous, anonymous god who is either unknown or lightly regarded.

This understanding is crucial to grasping the faith and life of believers, and its importance cannot be overstated. We love, praise, worship and serve a known and knowable God Who has, does and always will reveal Himself to us. Whether here in the psalms, or a millennium later with Paul at Mars Hill in Athens, the believer is called to know, praise and proclaim this Covenant God of ours (remember Paul, in Acts 17:23 saying, “For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.”).

Psalm 146 begins and ends, as our lives of faith should also begin and end, with praise, literally with shouts of “Hallelujah!” to the triune Lord of heaven and earth because it is His very existence, His creation and rule of the entire cosmos that brings us order, purpose and hope, especially when we are suffering and in need of God’s salvation.

Vv. 1 & 2: Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD, O my soul! I will praise the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being: David begins this psalm by calling for praise to Yahweh, something that can only be considered and accomplished if one genuinely knows Him. And, in fact, this psalm can be seen structurally as a responsive reading for worship, much like ones we still use to this day, a feature common to many if not most of the psalms. That said, picture David calling out to the assembled Israelites saying, “Praise the LORD!” to which they respond, “Praise the LORD, O my soul! I will praise the LORD as long as I live! I will sing praise to my God as long as I have my being.”

The opening two verses set the tone and tenor for the entire psalm and call us in a very definite way to look toward and offer our praise, even the whole of ourselves — our very being and essence — back to the Lord “from Whom all blessings flow.” We are called to offer this praise (and this act itself goes far, far beyond some sort of supernatural cheerleading because God is neat and nifty) for the whole of our earthly and resurrected lives. In light of the Resurrection, and what we know of both salvation and condemnation, this is the full sense and impact of the statement “as long as I have being.” We will never be without being. Whether in this earthly life, or after our natural deaths, we still have being and stand in the presence of the ever-living and all powerful God.

Vv. 3 & 4: Put not your trust in princes;, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that day his plans perish. The hue and cry in life is frequently, and realistically always has been, to call for our leadership from “the best”, “the strongest”, “the most telegenic” or the “most novel proponent of change”, whether conservative, liberal radical moderate, or what have you. This is a temptation that goes back to the very foundations of the human family, and it’s a product of sin and the Fall that beset us continually.

Though we are here warned that we should never put our trust and hope in those who are physically, spiritually and morally unable to fulfill the mandate they either seek, or that we seek to thrust upon them, we nonetheless “pursue the dream” of new and better utopias (that mythical perfect state that always, without exception, turns quickly into dystopia, the habitation of evil and dysfunction). We see it early, in Genesis 4:23 & 24, under the self-appointed leadership of Cain’s son, Lamech, who boasted to his two wives, “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice, you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say: I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. If Cain’s revenge is seven-fold, then Lamech’s is seventy-sevenfold.”

We see it time and time and again, even in the covenant people:

• as they leave from Egypt, and many followed the leadership of Korah and Dathan (in Numbers 16) as they rebelled against Moses’ leadership under God, and sought to implement the coming “new thing”. Korah, Dathan, their sons and families were destroyed and buried by God in the sun-baked sands of the Sinai.

• In Judges 16 we have The Israelites attempting to follow Samson, the strongest, by far among them, as a Judge over Israel. He very nearly led them to destruction at the hands of the Philistines, and only won in the end by his suicidal pulling down of Dagon’s Temple.

• Then, we see the Israelites demand a king to replace God’s chosen judge and priest, Samuel. God gives them exactly the king the ask for when he commands Samuel to appoint and anoint Saul as their king. Despite promising beginnings, Saul’s kingship was disastrous. It led to civil war on account of Saul’s personal jealousy and thirst for personal power. Saul allowed himself to be slain by his armor-bearer rather than be taken by the Philistines in a losing battle. He died on a hill and his plans perished with him.

Even in this past century, leader after leader of movement after movement in nation after nation have led their followers and nations into the götterdämmerung of broken dreams, slaughtered lives and burning nations. And, all because they dreamed grand and lofty dreams, sought fantastic visions, but almost always either ignored God completely or so twisted His word and His designs that their systems became satanic havens of cruelty, abuse, tyranny and destruction.
Consider:

• The “Christian Empire of Russia” and the “Christian Empire of Germany” went to war in 1914 dragging all of Europe, Western Asia, Africa, India, Australia and North America in World War I in which military and civilian casualties — wounded and killed — were posted at 39 million in the four-and-a-half years of the war. That’s nearly 9 million per year — the population of one New York-sized city per year wiped out every year for four years.

• This was immediately followed by the beginnings of the Russian Civil War and the beginnings of the 70-year-long communist Soviet Empire in which another 12 - 15 million people were killed between 1917 and the beginning of World War II.

• World War II erupted as Hitler’s “glorious 1,000 years Reich” and Japan’s “Empire of the Rising Sun” plunged the entire world into the hell of war, death and destruction in the name of “scientific racial superiority” and their mutual and allied attempts to control massive territories and create new utopias. In 1945, the once-flat plain upon which Berlin was constructed, for the first time had hills in the city that were the remains of the thousands of buildings leveled by the Red Army and Allied bombing campaigns. Another 60 Million dead in seven years. Hitler took cyanide and shot himself in the head. His breath departed from him and his plans perished.

No matter the time frame, Scripture’s clear warning rings out. Princes promise many things. They may even promise national salvation and the “1000 year Reich”, but they never produce the promised results. The only crops they ever produce are the massed field of cross-shaped tomb-stones that litter a thousand-thousand fields and hillsides around the world. Death, destruction, mayhem and misery are their commodities produced in train-load lots.

It is for this reason that the psalmist says, in the parallel verses of Psalm 118:8-9: “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.”

Will we never learn?!?

There is only one solution to our difficulties: trust in the Covenant God of Jacob who offers this salvation through the completed work of His Son, Jesus Christ who is the King of kings and Lord of lords. And this brings us to the next section of the psalm.

Vv. 5 - 9: Blessed is he whose help is in the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God, Who made heaven and earth,... keeps faith forever, ... executes justice for the oppressed,... gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets the prisoners free,... opens blind eyes, ... lifts up the bowed down, ... loves the righteous, ... watches sojourners, ... upholds the widow and orphan and brings the way of the wicked to ruin. Our trust, loyalty, faith and service should be placed firmly and always in the God who truly is our only hope. This is the unlimited and all-powerful Covenant Lord who made heaven and earth and all that is in them. He is the one Who knows us warts and all, at our best and our worst; He knows us when we rise and when we sit and lie down; He knows us through all the seasons, trials, tribulations and temptations of our lives and has made provision for us in His eternal will.

Despite some of the best care in the world, socially, medically, politically, militarily and any otherwise, we are protected, preserved and lifted up not by the size of our armed forces, not by our social service and welfare systems, not by our representative republican government, not by our scientists or anything else other than by the hand of the known and knowable God of Jacob. He is the one Who uses all of these other programs when they work, and do not seek the credit for themselves. But when they seek to usurp His domain, or claim some other lord, temporal or religious, He dashes them to pieces and sends them, as President Ronald Reagan once observed to the “dustbin of history”.

We must reckon on, meditate upon and understand these verses and to the reality to which they point. We must see that they refer to the completed work of God in His universe among the people whom he created, breathed the breath of life and in whom He placed His image — that same image to which we referred last week as we studied Psalm 8.

We must see that this is the God of remnant Who has time after time, century after century and epoch after epoch made covenant with His people whom He has chosen for Himself. He has ransomed, released, transformed, empowered, saved, sanctified and preserved them from the very beginnings of human history to the very present.
We live in a university town, and Slippery Rock Township and Borough are at the very heart of our school district. Three months ago, we passed through the baccalaureate season and recognized our highschool and college graduates. We’ve listened to them as they’ve shared their dreams with us. We’ve commiserated with them as they’ve compiled their resumes (the curriculum vitae) in the sometimes elusive search for that first big job.

Right here in these verses we possess God’s accomplished C.V., His eternal resume. It is not padded, it does not misdirect, mislead or lie. It is the "real deal".

And this resume of His is the accomplished list of those things that He has done, even now and ever-will completes on behalf of those who are His. This is more than a list of promises of “new and better tomorrows”; is the accomplished listing of the Creator, redeemer and sustainer of the entire cosmos.

This past week, Nobel laureate physicist Stephen Hawking, the Newton Chair at Oxford, announced that God was unnecessary and that “theories about His role” in creation and history are either, at best illusory wishful thinking, or at worst, detrimental to humanity’s future.

Thus speaks “human wisdom”.

But, Hawking, undisputed super-genius that he is, misses “the big picture” while mired in the minutiae of his theories and calculations. He is severely misled, is misleading others and in as desperate need of the God of Heaven and Earth as every other human being ever born.

And as we look to these verses, we are, or should be, struck by the ways in our ever-faithful God provides daily for us, and of the demands that He places upon us based upon His super-abundant providential supply of our needs.

In fact, we must consider that this resume is repeated over and over again throughout Scripture and points the way to God’s greatest provision for us in the atoning sacrificial work of Christ in the cross. These verses “set the score straight” and point us to Isaiah’s prophesy in Isaiah 61, which Jesus references in Luke 4:18 & 19 and fulfilled by His death on the Cross and Resurrection from death: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”

Many kings, princes, presidents and other leaders have pledged and promised to do grand and noble deeds. They offer us milk and honey, but deliver vinegar and ashes. They promise enlightenment and broad vistas of human potential, but lead us to intellectual dead-ends and the abasement of human dignity. They promise to release the oppressed from their bondage, but bind the body, the soul and the spirit to ever deepening and debased degradations that mock God and strip away the dignity over our God-created nature and His image within us.

Once understood, even if imperfectly, as creations, we now join with Lamech and declare our independence of God and our supposed freedom. And in so doing, the world around us, particularly this western culture of ours, has bought into the great lie and counterfeit. As St. Paul tells us in Romans 1:21 - 25:

• . . . although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

Glenn Beck is correct that the calculus of God’s salvation is an individual one. All human beings must come to a point of decision and choose whether they will love, serve and follow the God who created and saves us, but he has missed the point that this salvation, while individual, is always lived out in community.

As Christ, the Lamb of God, has died for us to ransom us from the consequences of the Fall, He has done so, that, by the inward power and witness of the Holy Spirit, we might fully live into the delivered promises made by our Triune God.

And this brings us round again to where we began this morning’s study of Psalm 146.

V. 10: The LORD will reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the LORD! Our call is to always remember and seek Yahweh, the LORD, our eternal God Who has reigned and held the entire universe in the palm of His hand from eternity past unto eternity yet to come.

We seek and find Him through His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ the Lord as we experience the intercession and work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and minds in order that we may truly see, know and understand Him.

We begin, live out and end our lives of loving fellowship with this utterly holy, righteous, just, loving and grace-filled God of ours in the same place: we are filled with reverence, holy fear, love and praise for Him.

Whether we always recognize it or not, He does reign forever. He is The King Who truly provides for His subjects and has so designed and worked His plan that He enables us to be far more than mere creations. Instead He calls us His own children and has so arranged things that the “Father/Children” relationship is no mere appellation and title. Instead it is an ever present reality by virtue of our adoption through the atonement won by His own Son, our Lord.

We are truly His legal children and heirs. The God Who takes care of the widow and orphan has ensured that we are orphaned no longer because we have an eternal Father Who never forgets or forsakes us.

So we truly are enabled to live out our lives of thanks and praise in real time everyday by living into the salvation to which He has called us and which He has definitely delivered.

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CONCLUSION:
Our call is to be faithful to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Our call is to proclaim and publish the grace of God available only through Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Our call is to do the works of Him Who calls & sends us, even when that means getting our knuckles dirty.

To say this does not mean that we don’t get involved with politics. It does not mean that we cannot have political opinions or that we remain aloof from philosophy, the arts, sciences, and the frequently messy nitty-gritty of daily life in the here and now. But it most assuredly does mean that our first allegiance is always, & must always be, to King Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords, Who executes justice for the oppressed, gives food to the hungry, frees the prisoner and provides for the widow and the orphan, loves the righteous and brings the way of the wicked to ruin. To do less than this is treason against the Kingdom of God and the reigning Sovereign thereof.

I bear Glenn Beck no ill-will. I do not think he is a bad man, and I do believe he is quite sincere in the call he has just made to the nation. But, I also believe that he is honestly misled. He seeks an anonymous and generic god who is, ultimately a pale shadow and weak counterfeit of the God Whom we definitely know, Who has been revealed to us through the fulfilled Gospel of Jesus Christ which we are called to publish and proclaim with loud and joyful voices.

Beck is correct to a point about the origins of the malaise in which we, and all other human beings find ourselves. He is right when he says that our problems and deficiencies are spiritual ones. But, we will not find the help we need if we do not seek its true source and realize that we cannot and will not ever work our way to that God.

We must seek the God Who proclaims Himself to us. We must surrender to the God Who delivers us from “this body of death”. We must offer our praise, our thanks — even our very selves — to the Lord, the personal God of Jacob, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and the one Who warns us “never to put our trust in princes” and Who alone delivers salvation to us as He lovingly and graciously saves and restores us.

“Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.”

Amen.

Highland Presbyterian Church --- Order of Service for Sun.,- 5 September 2010

Order of Service
for
Sun., 5 September 2010

✙ ✙ ✙ Assemble in God's Name ✙ ✙ ✙

The Welcome & Announcements: Elder Joe Landa

* The Passing of the Peace: Elder Joe Landa

• Leader: Since we have been justified through faith, we now have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us live into and share this peace & grace with our neighbors in all we do. May the peace of Christ be with you.
• People: And also with you.

* The Call to Worship: Elder Joe Landa

• Leader: God is good!
• People: All the time!
• Leader: All the time. . .
• People: God is good!
• Unison: Because that is His nature!
(I Timothy 1:17, 2:5-6 & 3:16[b] [NRSV] )

• Leader: To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, Himself human, who gave Himself a ransom for all.
• People: Without any doubt, the mystery of our religion is great: He was revealed in flesh, vindicated in spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among Gentiles, believed in throughout the world, taken up in glory.
• Leader: Let us glorify our mighty God with full voice as we sing. . .

* Hymn: “Great Is the Lord” # 31

* Hymn: “O Worship the King” # 10

* The Call to Confession: Pastor Stuart

• Pastor: For all have sinned and fallen short of God’s Glory, Yet the miracle of God’s love is this, that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Therefore If we confess our sins and seek His face in faith God, who is faithful and just will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. In humility and faith let us confess our sins before Him. [Romans 3:23, 5:8 & I John 1:9]

* Prayer of Confession: Elder Joe Landa

• Unison: Almighty God, creator of all, You marvelously made us in Your image; but we have corrupted ourselves and damaged Your likeness by rejecting Your love and hurting our neighbors. We have done wrong and neglected to do right. We are sincerely sorry and heartily repent of our sins. Cleanse us and forgive us by the sacrifice of Your Son; remake us and lead us by Your Spirit the Comforter and Advocate. We ask this through Jesus Christ our merciful High Priest. Amen. [Adapted from Our Modern Services; the Anglican Church of Kenya; pg 35.]

* A Time for Silent Reflection:

* The Assurance of Pardon: Pastor Stuart

• Pastor: Hear the Good News! Who is in a position to condemn? Only Christ! And yet, Christ died for us; He rose for us; He reigns in power for us; and He prays for us. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, that one is a new creation. The old life is Gone and a new life has begun. Amen. [I Timothy 1:15 & I Peter 2:25]

* The People's Response: Gloria Patri

✙ ✙ ✙ Hearing God’s Word ✙ ✙ ✙

The Prayer for Illumination: Elder Joe Landa

The Scripture Lesson: Pastor Stuart

• Psalm 146:1 - 10:
• 1 Praise the LORD!
  Praise the Lord, O my soul!
  2 I will praise the LORD as long as I live;
  I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.
  
  3 Put not your trust in princes,
  in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.
  4 When his breath departs, he returns to the earth;
  on that very day his plans perish.
  
  5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
  whose hope is in the LORD his God,
  6 Who made heaven and earth,
  the sea, and all that is in them,
  Who keeps faith forever;
  7 Who executes justice for the oppressed,
  Who gives food to the hungry.
  
  The LORD sets the prisoners free;
  8 the LORD opens the eyes of the blind.
  The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down;
  the LORD loves the righteous.
  9 The LORD watches over the sojourners;
  He upholds the widow and the fatherless,
  but the way of the wicked He brings to ruin.
  
  10 The LORD will reign forever,
  your God, O Zion, to all generations.
  Praise the Lord!

Response:

• Pastor: This is the Word of the Lord!
• People: Thanks be to God.
  

The Sharing of Joys and Concerns: Pastor Stuart

The Prayer for the People & Lord's Prayer:

* Hymn: “ I to the Hills Will Lift My Eyes ” Pres Hymn # 234


The Offering:
The Offertory:
* The Doxology:
* The Offertory Prayer:

Sermon: “ Put Not Your Trust in Princes ”

✙ ✙ ✙ Responding to God’s Word ✙ ✙ ✙

* The Affirmation of Faith: The Apostles’ Creed

• Unison: I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth;
• And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
• I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic Church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen.

* Hymn: “ The Solid Rock (My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less) ” # 402

✙ ✙ ✙ Go Forth in God's Name ✙ ✙ ✙

* The Charge & Benediction:

* Threefold Amen:

Highland Presbyterian Church Sunday Sermon: Sun., 29 August 2010

DATE: Sunday, 29 August 2010
TEXT: Psalm 8:1 - 9 [ESV]
TITLE: “How Majestic Is You Name!”

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TEXT: Psalm 8:1 - 9

1 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!
You have set Your glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
You have established strength because of Your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.

3 When I look at Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which You have set in place,
4 what is man that You are mindful of him,
and the Son of Man that You care for Him?

5 Yet You have made Him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned Him with glory and honor.
6 You have given Him dominion over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under His feet,
7 all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

9 O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is Your name in all the earth!

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INTRODUCTION:
As any current teenager — or any other member of Generations X and Y — could tell you, we live in a culture and time in which hope, purpose and the much touted concept of “self-esteem” are seen as the rarest of rare and priceless commodities. These are quantities which everyone seems to wish to have, but which — if the weekly news magazine and television news programs are to be believed — singularly few Americans under age 30 seem to possess in any meaningful way.

Lack of this concept of self-esteem, of hope and a sense of meaning in his life, combined with a chronic, devastatingly powerful addiction to the hardest of hard drugs led then-teen “grunge Rock” idol and Nirvana band leader in 1994 to forsake his wife and then-two and-a-half-year-old daughter, place the twin barrels of his 12-gauge shotgun in his mouth and pull the trigger. He left behind him a young, troubled wife and an orphaned daughter (his widow, rudderless, and as — or even more — drug addicted than he was himself; his daughter, an orphan raised without a father and mired in the maelstrom of evil he left behind). In addition, Cobain deserted millions of adoring fans who professed themselves shell-shocked and distressed when they found their perceived sense of purpose and hope swallowed by a nihilistic philosophy of bleak nothingness embodied by the band’s own name, Nirvana.

Millions of Americas youth still, 16 years later, wander the streets intentionally dressed in rags and dog chains or collars, black nail polish and death-pallor-gray face powder in order to trumpet to adults and their peers their heart-felt belief that life has no intrinsic meaning, and that they possess no sense of hope or self. Millions more listen to music filled with dark imagery of violence, death, wanton sexuality and utter hopelessness. When they are not watching and listening to such un-edifying sights and scenes, they are watching the most banal and lascivious of “reality shows” on M-TV and VH-1.

They cry for help. They attempt to proclaim to the world their belief in that we pilot a rudderless ship in a cold, black void of meaninglessness, lust and hate.

If you think I overstate the case, I challenge you to watch an hour of any of the corral of M-TV or VH-1 sister-channels late at night sometime. You will — I guarantee you — receive a quick tutorial, by full-immersion, into the dark and murky depths of the lack of human concern, self-loathing and hopelessness that fill roughly a quarter to a third of the songs and attendant videos shown there. You will bombarded with short, sharp, disjointed and bleak micro-messages about the pointlessness of human existence.

Even as adults of the current X-Generation, we are not immune to feelings of rootlessness and pointlessness. In terms of sheer scale, and the disdain or fat boredom that greets our true condition, those of us born anywhere from 1960 on are part of the most aborted, abused and abandoned generation in human history. We live in a nation that trumpets its horror at the Chinese practice of leaving the girl-baby to die on the dung-heap, while at the same time practicing a quicker and earlier form of the same by means of sex-selective, and/or medically conditioned abortion. Daily we hear new, grim tales of a veritable explosion of physical, psychic and sexual child-abuse. We witness the mass-phenomenon of parental desertion in the form of 50 - 60 percent divorce rates, or of parents who just flat-out “up and quit” without notice — whether they actually vacate the family home or not.

The truly amazing thing in the face of such depravity is that more teens and young adults haven’t lost hold of their mental and spiritual moorings.

And it is precisely toward this type of miracle of solidity and well-rootedness that we are directed this morning’s scripture text.

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BODY:
We don’t know terribly much about this psalm or the events surrounding its composition. We do know that this is one of the psalms traditionally attributed to David’s authorship. But as we examine it more closely we begin to see that we really don’t need to know all that much about its history and setting. Its message — with the exception of two verses that are clearly prophetic of Christ’s earthly life and His completed work — is straight-forward and universal in application. Even within a framework of straight-forward Biblical interpretation of the entire psalm, we see a clear message of hope and sheer awe at the order, magnificence and purpose of God’s created order, and of humanity’s premiere role in that order.

Basically, what we have here is an inspired hymn of David’s praise of and wonder at, and awe for the fact that the sole and sovereign God is both all powerful and yet still involved with and careful over the fate of His seemingly pitiful and pitiable human creations. David — who has known doubt, fear and temporary feelings of abandonment, despair and hopelessness as his father-in-law, the king, chased and tried to kill him — marvels that there is light, purpose and hope at the end of the stifling darkness of the tunnel of human sinfulness and fear of death.

David, in a moment of overwhelming crystal-bright insight, sees fully that Yahweh (the Lord) is a personal God who has always, does now and always will hold us in the palm of His loving hand. He has created each of us in His own image (Imago Dei) with a purpose that extends over, under around and through the seemingly impenetrable pall of despair and pointlessness of our lives.

Let us then take up the challenge and look more closely at this message of hope that we so desperately need to hear, understand and grab-hold onto.


V. 1.: O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth! / You have set Your glory above the heavens: We begin Psalm 8 with David’s speech directed toward God. He calls to God in the same way in which you or I would hail down someone on the street whom we know. This, in and of itself, tells us that God is a personal being Who can be addressed.

We see more of this theme when we look at how it is that God has been addressed. He is addressed by name — a self-revealed proper-noun that applies only to Himself. In all of our current modern language English translations, we see this rendered as, Lord, all in capital letters. This is used to denote the Tetragammaton — the four-letter name that was never to be uttered because it was too holy to be uttered by human lips. That name is Yahweh, means “I AM WHO I AM” or “I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE”. It is the name by which God personally identified Himself to Moses at Mt. Sinai when Moses asked “who is it that I should tell them sent me to them?”

The Hebrew scribes used the consonants for Yahweh but always superimposed the vowels for the word Adonai, which means “Lord”, “master” or “governor”. In, as written vowels were added to the Hebrew alphabet, Jewish scribes used the vowels for Adonai and placed them into the spelling of Yahweh. This is where the antiquated name "Jehovah" comes from. Current translations take seriously the original concern about the holiness of God’s name and continue to render God’s revealed name as we have it here: LORD.

While, on the surface, this may seem like useless quibbling about consonants and vowels, it is not. This tells us something highly significant about God’s nature and character. He is the God Who makes Himself known to us personally. He introduces Himself to us by a personal name in an intimate context and tells us that this is how He is to be identified. He gave His name to His people as a sign of His covenant with them — and with us. This is absolutely crucial for our understanding of Who God is and what our relationship to Him is and should be. Consider it in our current context; which is the more personal, intimate and more meaningful form of identification and address?

• “I have these two acquaintances whom I see somewhat regularly,” or;

• “Fred and Jenny are my close personal friends. I meet and talk with them everyday.”

Or, even more to the point, the knowledge and use of first names in our culture is an almost-visible sign-post or marker of intimacy with someone. If you call someone, “Mr. Green”, it means that you know him not as a friend, but as a mere acquaintance, or as a subordinate to a superior. But when you talk to “Mr. Green” as “Charlie”, then it is seen and understood as a tangible fellowship of closeness and near-equality that can be grasped and cherished.

That’s what we have here. David, the man whom God called His own friend, intimately addresses his friend Yahweh.

Next we move on to look at the use of the word “Adonai,” (Lord, Master, or Governor). This tells us that God, while personal and intimate, is Sovereign over us and is, in fact, “Lord” or “King”; but He is a king of such incredible kindness and mercy that He condescends to allow us — His subjects — to call Him by name. We don’t have to approach Him groveling and scraping in terror as we call Him, “Your Majesty,” as we await the fall of the headsman’s axe.

The use of Adonai also tells us that God is our Chief Executive Officer, Legislature and Supreme Court all rolled into one by virtue of the fact that He created, redeems, sustains, nurtures and cares for us. Beyond that, because we have come to faith and have publicly professed and acknowledges our dedication and allegiance to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, He is our covenant God, King and Head. We are His covenant people.

Now, as we move on, we see that this God of ours is so great and magnificent that His name is known by all the earth. Even when we, His human creation made in His own image, fail to acknowledge Him as Lord, we find that the rest of the created order is more than ready to do so. We are reminded of this by Jesus in the Gospels’ “Triumphal Entry” narratives when He tells His critics that if He were to force people to stop praising His name, and acclaiming Him as God and King, then the rocks, trees and roads would pick up the chorus and acknowledge Him as their rightful Creator and Lord. All things bear the hallmark — the artisan’s stamp — of His creative authorship and, therefore, give testimony to His glory and honor as God and Creator.

V. 2: Out of the mouth of babies and infants, / You have established strength because of Your foes, / to still the enemy and the avenger: We now see in the next verse that the psalmist explains God’s greatness and creativity, and the created- nature of the universe are so blindingly obvious that people overlook the fact and actually get confused about where it and its creatures really come from. We must see this stark and simple truth in terms of contrast and paradox.

Infants and little children are enabled to perceive God’s great handiwork and testify to it while the strong and the fully-grown often fail to perceive it. God has so ordered the universe that our weakness and reliance upon Him yield the ultimate human strength, superior intelligence and perception appear weak and small beside Him who gave us the gifts and marks of human character.

To put this into more familiar terms, consider the weak child paddling a canoe downstream on a huge, fast-moving river, while at the same time pro-wrestling greats Hulk Hogan or Steve Austin attempt to paddle their canoes upstream on the same river. Which one will get furthest fastest? Which one will be relatively refreshed after his labor, and which one will be exhausted and near useless for the rest of the day? Or, if you prefer swimming and surfing metaphors, think about swimming or surfing into the oncoming tide versus riding the waves back to shore.

Either way, our strength or weakness are like the situations mentioned. We can either allow our weaknesses to be turned into strengths by the Master’s hand, or we can ignore God, pretend He doesn’t exist and then rely on our own strength and abilities, such as they are.

In fact the praise of the weakest, most handicapped child are more profound before a Holy God than are the most heinous crimes, sins, abuses, sins and degradations performed throughout history by the strongest and most sinful among the human family. Compare this in your minds with telling Messrs. Hogan or Austin to try crushing the children’s toy Slime in his bare hands. It won’t work. It would just squirt between clenched fingers.

Yet throughout human history, Satan, with the same degree of ultimate futility, has tried to use evil people and brute force to bring down the entire human race.

He has utterly failed!

The cries of praise for God from even one child in the Nazi death camps, the Soviet Gulag, the “Killing Fields” of Cambodia, or the death-filled deserts of Janjaweed-controlled Southern Sudan are more powerful and of stronger more lasting effect than anything Hitler or Stalin ever tried to accomplish. Those martyred children are now with their God and King for all eternity while the dictators and brutal criminals will be forced to suffer eternally with Satan through their own self-inflicted hatred and brutality because the Loving and Just Judge will find them without excuse. And even then, they will still suffer from the final “indignity” when, under compulsion, they are forced, as Paul tells us, to “bow the knee and confess with the tongue that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father!”

That this is so should give hope to all of us. Most of us — no matter how bleak our lives may seem right now — have not suffered anything near so brutal and hideous as what those in those camps suffered. And yet God strengthened and empowered them for service and witness (even inside the very heart of the enemies’ battle camps). How much more hope should this give to those of us who suffer the daily doubts, despair and search for some meaning in our lives here and now?

Just these two verses alone tells us that we have a personal God who really does care for a pay attention to His human creations. We are no Play-do models to be squashed underfoot and then re-made into something else.

And while this may sound unrealistic to us right at this moment, we should remember that we have the Lord’s own promise on this — His own solemn pledge that this is the way He and His created universe really function despite our current perceptions. Jesus tells us in Matthew 18:3 that if we are to be saved that we must approach Him with simple, sincere and trusting faith — like children who give their parents their unreserved trust and love.

Consider the reactions of your children when they were small. I know, when they were small, that Sarah, Caleb and Josiah firmly expected and believed that I could make the pain flee from their bruised knees just by kissing them when they would fall and scrape themselves.

We are called to be like that with respect to God, our heavenly Father.

The Apostles did this. They were reviled by the Jewish — and Gentile — worlds as hopeless simpletons. Yet from such faith (which the world regarded as abject weakness and stupidity) God saw fit to raise up and build them from almost nothing into the mighty bastions that have become the Christian Church.

Vv. 3 & 4: When I look at Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, / the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, / what is man that You are mindful of him, / and the Son of Man that You care for Him? From such incredible assertions in Vv. 1 & 2 David then moves on to ask the question that plagues so many of us who are caught up in the midst of such an incredibly vast, complex and beautiful universe and find ourselves feeling small, puny and utterly insignificant. He refers here explicitly (if not exhaustively) to all the things that God has created by His own hand. David reminds us that God has created everything that exists, from the smallest, most simplistic particle of matter to the largest and most complicated star-clusters and galaxies. And the he stops and ponders how God can possibly be impressed with people when He has created so many other things that are so much more grand than we are.

Granted people are complicated pieces of machinery with millions of pieces and parts that we are only just now beginning to identify and understand them. But what are we when compared with supernovas and the latest photographs of the birth of stars tens of millions of light-years away? Why should God be even remotely interested in having contact with sinful and broken people who ignore and revile Him and who shoot each other in broad daylight in arguments over who has the better and more hip pair of $200 sneakers?

If I were God, I wouldn’t want to talk to me, or to the rest of you, either. It would seem a whole lot like asking the sophisticated “plastic-surgeon to the stars” wearing a brand new Fifth Avenue suit and silk tie to stop on the street to diagnose and treat a fallen “Sterno-bum.”

Vv. 5 & 6: Yet You have made Him a little lower than the heavenly beings / and crowned Him with glory and honor. / You have given Him dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under His feet: Fortunately for all of us, God doesn’t think or act the way I — or many others — would if we were Him. We can see this in these two verse which tell us that every man, woman and child, from Adam and Eve on down, have been created in the image and likeness of God. This Image of God , is the Creator’s “Master Craftsman’s mark of authenticity” on all of the humans He has created.

It is a mark that sets us off from, and above, all other creations He has made with His hands. It is the mark upon our spirits that makes us, in some sense, like God. It is this that enables us to have conscience, morality, love and the desire to run toward and embrace the God Who calls to us. It is a likeness and image to God that He has placed upon us because He has sovereignly determined that it is humanity that will carry His image and have authority and responsibility over the created order. As we can see, the image the image we possess is solely because of God’s graciousness and not on account of any special quality resident in any of us as individuals, or because of the works that we do.

The lesson for us here is that we should never be prideful over our status as either human beings or as Christians because, while we do clearly and irrevocably possess that state, God could have elected chipmunks to become the bearers of His image.

Now that we have looked at the “plain sense” of this verse couplet, let’s consider it’s other nature as a prophetic pronouncement from God about the nature of His Son and Messiah, Jesus Christ. Indeed, we must look to this sense because this couplet is quoted in Hebrews 2:6-8 in reference to, and explanation of, the work of Jesus Christ (“It has been testified somewhere, ‘What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the Son of Man, that you care for Him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.’ Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.”)

These verses show us that Jesus is the man Who redeems, restores and transforms believing humanity to its originally intended created order. He is the God-Man Who restores the now tarnished Image of God in humanity to its pristine condition — to the way in which it was before the Fall of Humanity from unity and friendship with our God.

We are also shown here the answer to the question posed in Vv. 3&4 as to why and how God can regard humans as anything more than broken toys at the bottom of the “cosmic toy-chest.”

God sent His own Son to earth as a human being — not as a rat, rock or water-buffalo! This is unprecedented in all of cosmic history and even the strongest god-myths from different cultures — the Creative God of the entire Cosmos condescends to become human as we are human. He shows us in “real-time” how valuable we are by becoming one of us. Even in the very best of ancient myths about the gods and their dealings with mean and women, this never occurs. Sometimes, in the myths, a lesser godling or son of a god might live among people on earth as a god — he might even seduce or rape a woman here and there. But never anywhere does the God become one of his created beings and redeem them.

All wrapped up into one neat package, this is the perfect example of strength in weakness and of the importance of humanity and its resident Image of God. God loves and regards us as His own by virtue of His having become one with us and suffering as we do in the person of His one and only Son.

The answer to the question of the source of our hope, purpose and sense of esteem comes, then, from the fact that we possess all of these qualities through Jesus Christ Who is our God, our glorified Older Brother, and our resurrected Covenant King Who exercises dominion, authority and responsibility for creation.

Our hope is in Jesus Christ.

Our self-esteem and value as creatures in the cosmos come in knowing that we are made in God’s Image and that God shared, in full-measure, in the human condition when Christ became incarnate as the Son of the Virgin Mary.

Our purpose comes in fulfilling the things God has created us to accomplish.

Our responsible exercise of dominion over creation is done as the King’s stewards over the vineyard. We are exercising the trust and commission He has given to and placed upon us.

Vv. 7 & 8: all sheep and oxen, / and also the beasts of the field, / the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, / whatever passes along the paths of the seas: This brings us, then, to the listing of other creatures over which we are given charge. It is used to show us just how far runs God’s writ. Everywhere and for all time and eternity. But the list also shows us that, subject to Christ’s authority, all things and other creatures have been placed in our care and control by the owner of the vineyard who will return at some future date to make a full accounting of our stewardship of His possessions. We may use them, and we are to care for them, remembering always Who has made and entrusted them to us.

V. 9: “O LORD, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth!” This brings us full-circle then to the repetition of the opening lines of V. 1. This identical closing serves to envelope or bracket and highlight everything that falls in between. In this verse, though, we also note a new and fuller understanding of God’s grace and love on David’s part. We see, now, not just awe, wonder and praise, but also thanksgiving for God’s great gifts to humanity and for His friendship and kinship with us.

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CONCLUSION:
We have been given the gift of hope, purpose and meaning by our own Creator and Father. We can see now that He has created us for a reason and with much care and skilled workmanship. He did not create junk. He does exist and He is not a capricious, cruel cosmic four-year-old burning ants with a magnifying glass, or pulling the wings off us benighted flies. He is our covenant God Who has, does and will redeem us by an act of His own love for us. We need only ask Him to redeem and transform us by the gift of Faith in Christ Jesus as Savior and Lord.

We can remember and rely upon Question and Answer 1 of the Shorter Catechism : “What is the chief end of man? Man’s chief end is glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” Similarly, but in a more full manner, Question and Answer 1 of the Heidelberg Catechism ask us:

• Q.1] What is your only comfort in life and in death?
• A 1] That I am not my own, but belong — body and soul, in life and in death — to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven: in fact, all things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.

No longer do we need to be contained within the high walls of black, bleak hopelessness. No longer do we need to fear death, or contemplate with apprehension and dread the black nothingness that follows that fatal shotgun blast. No longer need we wonder how and why we have been placed on this rock floating aimlessly in darkest cold space.

We can see that all of these feelings and thoughts — real as they may now appear to us — are lies uttered by Satan to snare, deceive, abuse, destroy and devour us. We can see that we are created not for destruction or despair but for joy, hope, love service and communion with each other and with God because that is the way He has made us to be; they are the way that His Son frees us to follow.

What are we that God is mindful of us?

We are His Covenant Children created to bear His image and live with Him for all eternity in joy, praise and thanksgiving. So rejoice, open your eyes and see that the darkness of this present age is not the impenetrable shroud we once thought it to be. It is a broken shell that encases, but no longer suffocates us. It is broken and we are God’s loved and redeemed Children through the grace and love He has shown to us in Jesus Christ.

“O LORD, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth!”