Sermon Psalm 22:25-31 – When You Fear the Future

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Sermon Psalm 22:25-31 – When You Fear the Future
Eagle Rock Presbyterian Church
May 10, 2009

Listen to this sermon.

Today is Mother’s Day. And much of what we will talk about today is in mothers’ hands. Mothers are usually responsible for raising the young so they have an enormous impact on the future of our world. Many of you are mothers, or grandmothers, or great grandmothers, or desire to be mothers and you know the effects you have had on children. And I respect all you have done to guide future generations.

We are continuing today our celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ in these Sundays of Eastertide. And today’s scripture gives us a glimpse of the resurrection hope we have received. But first, please pray with me.

Holy God, we approach you in worship today in gratitude for the blessings we have received and in the hope for the glorious future you have planned for us in your kingdom. Give me the gift of preaching today so that I may communicate this hope to the congregation. And open their minds to receive this wonderful gift of hope from you. We pray this with your Son and our Lord, Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Psalm 22:25 - 31 25 From you comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will pay before those who fear him. 26 The poor shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the LORD. May your hearts live forever! 27 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD; and all the families of the nations shall worship before him. 28 For dominion belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations. 29 To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, and I shall live for him. 30 Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord, 31 and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn, saying that he has done it.

Psalm 22 is a familiar one for us. You may remember that we talked about it just a few weeks ago on Palm Sunday. The opening lines of this psalm were spoken by Jesus from the cross, “My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?” These words were probably written by David after a military defeat. He must have wondered where God went to during a disastrous battle. We too often wonder where God is when we need God and God seems to be no where in sight. The experience of the absence of God is frightening because without God we have little control over the present and no control at all over the future. Only God knows the future and has control over it. So we need God to calm our fears about the future.

That is what is happening at the end of the psalm. God is calming our fears about the future. God is telling us not to fear the future because God is in control. And if God is in control then everything will turn out all right. What we need is the gift of faith so that we can trust God with the future and leave our worries behind. And when we receive this gift of faith, and worries of the future leave us, we just can’t help but jump up and down and praise God. So let’s look at the promises of the future that God made to David which results in faith and praise for God.

The first thing we know is that the future will be characterized by justice and righteousness. This means that everyone will receive their daily bread and no one will go hungry. This aspect of the Kingdom of God has been partially accomplished. Here in Eagle Rock the poor receive Food Stamps and General Relief. The area churches supplement these benefits with programs of their own. An organization that we are a part of called Churches Assisting Neighbors or CAN facilitates the work of the area churches with information and volunteers. The Eagle Rock Seventh Day Adventist Church has a homeless dinner on Mondays. St. Barnabus Episcopal Church also has a homeless dinner on Wednesdays. St Dominic Catholic Church serves a bag lunch during the week and has a dinner on Fridays just before the Eagle Rock Farmer’s Market. And, of course, many of the poor in our community attend our 5:30 service and fellowship dinner on Sunday evenings. As you can see the prediction of the Psalmist that the poor will be fed and satisfied is partially being met here in Eagle Rock and the churches still have more work to do.

The second thing that we know about the future is that everyone who wants to know God will be filled with praise. This too is happening in Eagle Rock as many churches open their doors for worship and praise every Sunday. We are right here every Sunday at 9:45, 3 and 5:30 to worship and praise our creator God. But this part of God’s kingdom is also only partially met in Eagle Rock. Although there are many churches in our community not everyone who is longing for God in Eagle Rock comes to worship. This is our great opportunity as we go about our daily lives in this town to invite everyone we meet to come here for praise and worship. Believe it or not there are still many people who would love to come to church, but no one has invited them. This is a golden opportunity for us to grow this church.

The third thing that will happen in the future is that all who have known God and worshiped God but have fallen away will remember God and return to the church. We all know people who used to come to church but stopped. God’s promise is that no matter how far someone has drifted away, God’s love is so powerful that they will be pulled back. This is our great hope for our children who have wandered away from church. God still loves them and will find a way to bring them back to the church and to the saving grace of Jesus Christ. Just keep praying for your children and grandchildren and great grandchildren that God will give them the gift of faith and the need to praise God in worship.

The fourth prediction for the future in this psalm is that God will give the gift of faith to all the families of the earth, and this will result in universal worship and praise of the Lord our God. Of course this has yet to occur. Although faith is rapidly increasing in parts of the world including South America and Africa there are still large areas where the faith is present in only small portions of the population. This is why the church must continue its missionary work among those people who have yet to hear and receive the gospel. It is vital that the church continue and expand this effort to bring about the conversion of all the people of the earth to the true faith in Jesus Christ.

The fifth prediction for the future is that God will have dominion over all the governments on earth. Although the Kingdom of God is our ideal we are still waiting for it and it has not yet arrived. Few, if any, governments on the earth put God at the center of their policies. Many, like the current United States government, believe in a wall between church and state. President Obama broke tradition this week and did not celebrate the National Day of Prayer in the White House. We know that one day all the kings, premiers, presidents, and dictators will bow down to the one true God. And on that day the Kingdom of God will be firmly established for eternity.

The sixth prediction in this psalm is that everyone who is richly blessed by God will bow down in worship. We are a long way from this happening. Most people in this country believe that the things they have acquired have come to them by their own hard work. We live in expensive houses and drive nice cars thinking somehow we deserve these things because of our own efforts. Therefore they trigger no sense of gratitude and we fail to worship and praise God. Only when we realized that our prosperity results from God’s blessing will we become grateful for what God has done for us and bow down in worship to our living God.

The seventh promise for the future in this psalm is that those who have died will be given the opportunity to worship God. This is why we say in the Apostles Creed that Jesus Christ “descended into hell”. The saving grace of Jesus Christ extends even to the souls of the departed who will one day bow down in worship. This gives us great hope that those loved ones who have died without ever receiving the gift of faith will one day receive that gift and join us in heaven worshiping and praising God.

And the final promise of the Psalm is that future generations will be told about God and Jesus Christ. This is our mission as the church. We are here to proclaim the gospel, generation after generation until everyone has been brought to salvation through Jesus Christ. Our work with children is especially important because this is how we ensure that praise and worship of God will continue into the future. And this is the work of you mothers. You have the responsibility of teaching your children about God so that they might receive the gift of faith and bow down in worship to almighty God.

So according to David we have no reason to fear the future. In the future the poor will be cared for, those seeking God will be filled with praise, those who have fallen away will return to the faith, everyone in the world will hear the gospel and respond in faith, God will rule the world in justice and righteousness, everyone will realize that they have been richly blessed and will bow down in worship, even those who have died will have the opportunity to respond to God’s gifts, and the generations that follow us will continue to praise and worship God. With this good news about the future, what is there to fear? Amen.