Sermon – Psalm 111 – Seeing God in the World

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Sermon – Psalm 111 – Seeing God in the World

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches

January 29, 2012

We have been looking at the character of God through the lens of the Book of Psalms for the last few weeks. We have learned of our need to praise God the creator of the world. We have learned to worship pledging our total loyalty and full obedience our all-powerful God. Surprisingly, we learned that this all-powerful, creator God knows our names and we can express our feelings to him in prayer. And last week we learned that this God can be trusted no matter what happens. Today we will learn how to recognize this all-powerful, trustworthy, creator God who knows us in the world we live in. But first let's pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

Psalm 111:1 Praise the LORD. I will extol the LORD with all my heart in the council of the upright and in the assembly. ² Great are the works of the LORD; they are pondered by all who delight in them. ³ Glorious and majestic are his deeds, and his righteousness endures forever. ⁴ He has caused his wonders to be remembered; the LORD is gracious and compassionate. ⁵ He provides food for those who fear him; he remembers his covenant forever. ⁶ He has shown his people the power of his works, giving them the lands of other nations. ⁷ The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy. ⁸ They are steadfast for ever and ever, done in faithfulness and uprightness. ⁹ He provided redemption for his people; he ordained his covenant forever-- holy and awesome is his name. ¹⁰ The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise.

In the sixth century before Christ the people of God were in exile. Last Fall we studied the Book of Daniel and saw how the Babylonians tried to turn the Hebrew children into good Babylonians who worshiped the Babylonian gods. We also saw how Daniel and his companions resisted this effort. In Psalm 111 we have literature from this period that was probably used to train Hebrew children in their culture and religion while in exile. In this psalm each half verse, each line of the poem begins with a different letter in the Hebrew alphabet, and they are arranged alphabetically, literally from A to Z. This would have been used to teach young people how to read. The Psalm also taught them about the God of their ancestors, and gave them wisdom to revere this God and obey his commandments. The reason this Psalm was written, I think, was to ensure that the young Hebrew children living in exile would be able to see their God in the world around them.

Seeing God in the world is not something that everyone does. It is a skill that has to be taught. We teach children how to recognize God by sharing with them the stories of how we have seen God working in the world and the Bible stories where ancient people saw God in their world. These stories train children to see God in their own lives and this brings them to faith.

Sadly, not everyone learns to see God at work in the world. I've been thinking about the writer and political commentator, Christopher Hitchens, who died last month. Hitchens was an atheist because he was never able to see God in his world. Hitchens' world view was too narrow to see God. It was conditioned by his own habits of body and mind, and he was never able to see beyond his own small world into a much larger world where God is at work.

The ancient Greek philosopher, Plato, described this phenomenon in his book Republic. Plato makes up a story about a group of people chained to a cave wall at birth. They remain chained for their entire lives and the only thing they see are the shadows cast by the torches of the people who bring them food and water. These chained people perceive a world that is extremely narrow; it consists of flickering shadows on a wall. For them this is the world.

The exchange students who live with Grace and me have, as all children do, a narrow view of the world they live in. For them the world consists of home and school and drives from Pocomoke to Salisbury. I wanted them to see a larger world so I turned off the wireless internet and encouraged them to use the free wireless in the library across the street. I wanted them to see Pocomoke as a place where their could walk the sidewalks, talk with people and use the resources we have here. Given their limited English they were reluctant to leave the house and use places like the library.

We all need to be taught to see a larger world than our own minds perceive on their own. And this done by sharing stories. For us we need to share the stories of how God has been a part of our lives. This is a excellent role that grandparents can play. My grandmother was a very faithful woman. She prayed every day in the morning and evening and went to church every Sunday. She prayed for each of her grand children that they would see God in their worlds. And she shared her stories about God. When she a teenager her mother died, but her mother's and grandmother's faith sustained her as her father raised three children and worked in a coal mine in the next town. When her father died she moved to a mining town where her brother managed the company store, and she got involved with the Presbyterian church, the only protestant church in town. Her faith sustained her through this period, and a picture with the Lord's prayer and Ten Commandments hung over her bed. If you would like to see my grandmother's picture it is now hanging in the church office in the Dickinson Memorial Manse. My grandmother's stories about God in her life have stayed with me ever since. I wish everyone could be blessed with a faithful grandmother.

Pitts Creek church is certainly blessed. A grandmother of the church, Linda Holland, teaches Sunday School. She shares stories of God in her life with some of her grandchildren and other children in the church. She also shares stories from the Bible of how ancient people saw God in their worlds. Through her these children experience an expanding world beyond their own limited experiences, a world where God can clearly be seen.

The tragedy of the American church today is that generations worship separately. This has been going on now for three decades. Seniors are in one church singing hymns and saying Psalms responsively. Middle aged people are singing songs that remind then of the 60s. And young people are gathered in the auditorium of Pocomoke High School listing to Christian rock concerts every Sunday. I know that different generations enjoy different music and worship styles, but the tragedy is that it is now difficult for children to hear stories from seniors who have experienced God in their lives. These children will now grow up with a much narrower view of the world.

Last week I had a conversation with a senior member of Beaver Dam. Franklin told me a story of God at work. He was at a Presbytery meeting with Dick Hughes and an elder from the town church. The three of them were talking about how to form a committee that would organize activities at the country church. God gave them an idea. Why not make Beaver Dam a church with a session that would plan activities. The three agreed and proposed that to the Presbytery. God spoke through the Presbytery that day and Beaver Dam Presbyterian Church was formed.

And this brings us to the gospel lesson that you heard read earlier. You remember the story. Jesus was in a synagogue and saw a person with an evil spirit. Jesus cast out the spirit and told it to be quiet when it tried to reveal Jesus' true identity. In our world we have difficulty seeing evil spirits. We have been conditioned by science and our culture not to look for spirits. We have been trained to believe that natural events must have natural causes. So we don't see spirits at work in the world around us.

This limiting of our world by the exclusion of spiritual beings from our perception is a phenomenon in North America and Europe. But in Asia, South America, and Africa, people are not so conditioned to not see spirits in the world around them. For them evil spirits are a reality that must be dealt with. Their world is large enough not only to see spirits, but also to recognize the need to have Jesus deal with them. And their churches are packed with people praying that Jesus will deal with the evil spirits that plague them.

Since we are conditioned not to see spirits in our world we have difficulty understanding what is happening in these churches. I think that the problem is ours. We have a too narrow view of our world. We don't see spirits. We don't see God at work. We are chained to the cave of science and a modern world view. That's why it is so important for us to come to church and hear the stories of the faithful people in the Bible and the stories of the faithful seniors in the church who have spent lifetimes with God in their lives. Though this our world expands, we see the spiritual world around us, and we see God at work.

Lord, God Almighty, we ask that you expand our view of the world around us. Enable us to see the spiritual world. Enable us to see you so that we may approach you in reverence and obey your commands. This we pray in your son's name, Jesus Christ. Amen.