Obviously, you are reading this document because, like all other serious believers, you want to develop intimate relations with God. Worshiping through prayer is the usual way of accomplishing this task. Expressing you gratitude to God for His being Maker and Maintainer of your life is the first step. It is my way, too. Worshiping is expressing gratitude to God for His goodness to us. We say it with words and songs, with prose and poetry. God loves us, and we love Him back.
We praise, pray and worship. Praying is communicating with God through words and feelings. It is indispensable for the children of God to spend time alone in prayer. Believers concentrate in what they are doing. They do little talking and much listening. They meditate and contemplate. They wait on God as they wait for God with great expectation. They talk with God and feel God's presence in their lives. The author of Psalms 46 has God telling us: "Be still, and know that I am God.” This is a good recommendation to folks wanting to get close to God.
Praying is also observed in the congregation. All along, the people of God have come together for corporate prayer. The psalmist says: "Behold how good and pleasant it is when brothers (and sisters) dwell in unity.... For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life for evermore" (133:1, 3b). In addition to whatever else this poem says, the message is clear as far as prayer is concern. When the people of God are together in harmony, emptying themselves to the Lord, absorbing all the presence of God in their lives, they are engaged in the central activity making them know and understand God and His will for His people. This community experience, if genuine, equips the people of God to be the people of God.
There is also a lamenting side to praying. When things go wrong, the people of God go to the Lord to lament and complain, grieving for the events causing the pain. The lament of believers differs from those of nonbelievers. Many times nonbelievers blame God for causing human misery. Most believers ask why in desperation. But this question is out of curiosity, a desire to know and understand the reason for the malady. It carries a willingness to act according to God's will in order to bring about change for the better. Usually, the laments of believers turn to praise. Having made lamentation for the situation at hand, the person or people express total confidence in God, trusting the Lord, that their lives are His and the outcome of this state of being will be supported by God, pledging devotion to God no matter what.
Praying and praising is what makes the worship experience. The two go together. There is praying in praising, and there is praising in praying. Praying and praising contain one another. Each time we come together to worship God, we pray and praise. When we sing hymns to the Lord, we praise and we pray. When we get down on our knees and pray, we are also praising God for being our God. It is about this worshiping experience going on through praising and praying that we want to focus attention.
Historical Background
We have a long history of worshiping God. All along the concentration has been the same: praising and praying. We will profit much and enrich our worship experience by examining the patterns of worship of the people of God whose experience is registered in the Old Testament. Specifically, we will look at the Book of Psalms, where we will find a big bulk of liturgical literature on the subject. We will look at the development of this literature, its use in worship and what happened in the congregation when the people of God used it and after. Finally, we will draw from the overall experience and derive some learnings for actual application for ourselves. Our religious roots are buried in the history of Israel. The historical account of the life of Israel is found in the Old Testament. Genesis chapter twelve begins the story. God called Abram out of Ur of Chaldea to originate and develop from his descendants a God loving people who would act according to divine expectations. It happened. Read the account, and you will be reading the history of Israel walking with God. Sometimes they walked close to God. At other times, they were not so close.
The main theme in the life of Israel is their religion. They believed in the sovereignty of God, the One and only Creator and Sustainer of all there is. They also believed and supported the concept of the brotherhood of all Israel. This belief shaped Israel's values, those things in life considered most important. In turn, Israel’s values formed their customs.
The leaders of Israel expressed Israel's main theme in prose and poetry. Prose is the ordinary way people talk. Poetry is the use of words in special arrangements to make people see images of things that cannot be explained with words in the ordinary way. The poets of Israel told of the plight of the people in their development. They expressed their myths and legends. And they explained their beliefs, values and custom sin the formation of their culture. These expression accumulated and were handed down to future generations. It is in the poetry of Israel that we want to concentrate our attention because in it we will find the worship experience of the people fromHel whom we have inherited our religion. By the time Israel left Egypt, the leaders appeared to have been well versed in poetry. Consider the following. Israel developed in the context of a people from whom they learned to be social beings. These were the Egyptians. In turn, the Egyptians had learned their ways from other cultures, and so on. Egyptian poetry dates from before 1350 B.C. There is a poem write then praising the sun as god of gods and creator of all there is. Much poetry of this type followed. This speaks highly of the Egyptian wit in matters of poetry. Israel simply used the knowledge of poetry they had acquired in Egypt to produce their own.
Songs of the Soul
The first recording of the poetic powers of Israel takes place early in the Book of Exodus. After God's delivery of the Hebrews from death at the hands of the Egyptian army at the Red Sea, Miriam, Moses' sister, led a women's choir in singing praises to the Lord for His victory. Her lead words were expressed in poetic form: "Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea" (Exodus 15:21). The dating of this hymn is of about the time of the actual happening.
Another occasion prompting a poetic cry took place at Sinai. After a year stay at the base of the mountain of God, the people were to march on. The Ark of the Covenant, recently constructed, was to lead the people. At departure, Moses articulated the following poetic expression: "Arise, 0 Lord, and let thy enemies be scattered; and let they that hate thee flee before thee." Later, after the march, when the people were in camp, in like manner Moses said: "Return, 0 Lord, to the ten thousand thousands of Israel" (Numbers 10:35-36). These lines were used subsequently. There is an entry dated from the days of the United Kingdom, which is recorded in Exodus 15, praising God for His deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Egyptian army. It appears as a composition written to be used in choral cantatas for Passover celebrations, annual enthronements of the Lord or some other festivals. The point is that this poem, along with so many others, were composed to be used in liturgical activities in the worship of God.
The list of entries of songs celebrating God's interaction with people praising Him for His care and concern is long. As you may see, poetry has been a very effective way for the people of God to relate to Him. The Bible does not contain every piece that was ever composed for this purpose. There is, however, an excellent collection of poems written by many authors at various points in the life of Israel, compiled in five books or parts. The collection is contained in the Book of Psalms. According to the arrangement in the Bible, book one covers psalm one to forty-one. Book two goes from psalm forty-two to seventy-two. Book three extends from seventy-three to eighty-nine. Book four goes from ninety to one hundred and six. Finally, book five runs from one hundred and seven to one hundred and fifty. These poems date back to the days of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, 520-515 B.C. They seem to have been used as the hymnbook of the Second Temple.
The Hebrew title for the collection of poems is Tehillim, meaning praises or songs of praise. The title advanced in the Greek version of the Old Testament known as Septuagint or translation of the seventy, made some two hundred years before the birth of Jesus, is psalmist, a word employed to signify the striking of musical chords on a musical instrument. In the past, psalms were used by Jews and Christians alike in singing and praying to God. Psalms are still used in some churches in choral presentations. Most Christians read psalms as prayers of confessions and petitions for various kinds of help. Psalms are recited in offering thanksgiving and praising God. Some psalms were intended for personal use. Others were meant to be used in corporate worship. This is the way psalms are used today. The distinctive characteristic of psalms is their devotional function. The purpose of psalms is to elevate the person or group through praying and praising to a higher plain of communion with God.
Most psalms are said to have been written by David. To be sure, King David, apparently, was a fine poet and musician. No doubt he was the author of poetry. The authors of the psalms, however, are unknown. Almost nothing can be learned from the psalms about authorship, dates and circumstances prompting the writing. For instance, the heading at the beginning of the third psalm, the first psalm with a superscription, gives authorship to David. But the text gives little evidence that it is so. The author of this psalm is unknown. The poem is a lament of a person referring to his own experience. Psalm twenty-three is another example of the kind. This psalm has a special place in the lives of the people of God. The superscription states that this psalm is of David. The date of the poem, however, indicates otherwise. The psalm was composed after the exile, a fact known when form, type and language were studied.
Let me give you another example. Psalm fifty-one, according to superscription, is clearly a psalm of David. It was supposed to have been prompted by David's need to confess sin. Analysis of form, date and language denies this consideration. The psalm is an individual lament of an unknown penitent who had a near death experience. What does it mean for the Bible to give David credit for psalms he did not write? It means that the poems belonged to a collection named after the great king.
Most psalms were written as aids to worship. These were sang, prayed and read as Scripture lessons. The important fact to remember about psalms is the inspired character of the poems. Authorship may be of interest to historians. Our interest is in the message, not the messenger. Psalms are songs of the soul in praise and prayer to God. These express in poetic form the thoughts and feelings of the people of God responding to God in love for His love for them. These arrangements praise God for deliverance from slavery in Egypt. They offer thanksgiving for victories over enemies, protection against diseases, nourishment and shelter during the wandering in the wilderness. They reveal the beliefs, values and customs of the Hebrew people. Fact and fiction are majestically brought together by able writers to say in poetic form of exquisite taste what could not be said in prose. The purpose was to praise God in bad and good times for His involvement with believers. Psalms will continue to be used by the people of God the world over in private and public worship to find consolation, assurance, hope and inspiration for themselves and blessing for others. These will continue to be used as aids in calling the people of God to worship, in congregational recitations and in choral renditions and prayers.
Hebrew poetry uses four types of rhythmic parallel lines to express their thought. Writers may use synonymous, expressions on a second line to say with different words what was already said in the first. For instance, look at a well known passage from psalm 119:105: "Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." The second line merely repeats what the first has already said. Writers also use opposite expressions or contrasts. They repeat the thought in the second line in a negative form. Look at psalm one: "The Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish" (v. 6). The writer states what will be the fate of good and bad people. God will prosper the good ones. The bad person, on the other hand, will not succeed. Writers may also continue the thought started on the first line. Look at the beautiful call to worship in psalm 100:1-2: “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all ye lands! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing.” Finally, writers may also combined the above forms and develop a variety of structures.
There is a lot more about Hebrew poetry having to do with structure, meter and so on. In this study, however, we want to move in a different direction. We want to look at the content and its meaning. We will get a perspective on the religious habits of the people of Israel. We will see why and how worship was done. For example, by studying the psalms, one may come to know that the God of Israel is one, not many as were the gods of their neighbors. This God is the Creator of all there is, as the following author declares: "All the gods of the people are idols; but the Lord made heaven and earth" (Psalm 96:5). God loves His people with a firm, constant affection (Psalm 17:17). God's judgment is just (Psalm 96:13), and so on. The psalmists enumerate the characteristics of God. If you wish to know more about the characteristics of God, do the following. Write on a piece of paper all the good personal characteristics you can think of. Then look them up in a concordance in the section where psalms are listed. Watch for the lines ascribing those traits to God. You will be surprised to see how many wonderful things you will find and with what frequency.
Psalmists also have much about their views of life, this life. Mankind is the culmination of God's creation. God put mankind in charge of creation. Human failure in meeting God's demand resulted in a human sense of sin and guilt. Although God was displeased with human action, the Lord loved our first fathers. As humans repented of sinning against God, He forgave human. Then humans lived in communion with God until their days were over. Upon death, human life would dissolve. There was no further memory of man. Whenever psalmists referred to a future life, they referred to the future as we know it in this life. As a people in covenant with God in this life, Israel was busy maintaining what they had and trying to live according to their understanding of God's expectations. This they found very hard to do. There was no time for consideration of life after death. This came much later, as Israel was able to turn their attention to relations with other people who appeared obsessed with this question, perhaps because of their lack of relations with God.
In our human limitations, many times we find ourselves in helpless situations. There is a limit to how much a person can control in life. There are all kinds of events going on in the world having bad consequences for mankind because they do not know how to handle them. There are natural catastrophes such as eruptions of volcanoes destroying property and people, droughts and famines causing the starvation of entire populations, earthquakes causing massive death and destruction. Here are human conditions brought about by inability to relate with others causing all kinds of conflicts, often escalating and becoming wars between nations resulting in great human tragedies. We have health problems requiring medical attention, ultimately destroying our lives. These and problems of various other kinds present a sad picture of human helplessness, putting us in a weak and powerless condition requiring help. We can’t do anything to remedy our condition. No one can assist us either. In such situations, many people become emotionally unbalanced and incapacitated to function as social beings. This happens to believers and unbelievers alike.
The poets of Israel knew about these conditions in a worse way than we do today. These people lived over 2,500 years ago. The limitations of today have no comparison with the limitations of that time. There were countless deadly conditions then, long being eradicated from the face of the earth. The excellent manner the poets of Israel dealt with bad situations is a model to others. They have much to offer toward meeting all kinds of maladies. Their example, indeed, has helped humanity since. It will continue to assist people willing to examine their approach, assimilating what they have to offer and putting to practice their wise counsel. Repeatedly, the prophet Isaiah paints a portrait of the sufferings of Israel. The people are just being molded to be a special people, models of loyalty to God. Israel's loyalty to God was not contingent upon prosperity. They were the people of God regardless of circumstances. Psalms show this relationship. This collection of poems praise God for being the Creator and Sustainer of Israel. While Israel laments their bad times, questioning God for His allowing these to take place, they remained faithful to God. Laments conclude in acceptance and commitment. Israel understood and patiently submitted to the will of God in anticipation of their redemption and exaltation. The poems we are about to consider afford the reader the opportunity to see this mood. In order, we will examine a psalm of individual lament, a psalm of community lament, a psalm of individual praise and a psalm of community praise. Let us begin now with a psalm of individual praise.
Helpless yet Hopeful Palm 22
Psalm twenty-two is a supreme example of a psalm of individual lament. It is a very moving picture of a person torn by affliction, putting him at a near death condition. Adding to this person's miseries, his friends despised and forsook him. Being a member of the family of God, he was perplexed at what he perceived was God's lack of care and concern for his condition. His situation was desperate. Having made all kinds of lamentations, he confessed God as Lord of his life and recommitted himself to the praise and service of his master. The poet wrote the psalm in two parts. The first part runs from verses one to twenty-one. This is a cry to God for help. The second part goes from verses twenty-two to thirty-one. In this section, the psalmist praises God and offers thanksgiving for his deliverance from death.
Verse one. "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” This is a cry of desperation. The person is a member of the fellowship of the faithful. He has been loyal to the Lord, as he says further down. Yet, he feels abandoned by God. To be sure, this was not a unique experience. The cry is representative of the feelings of the people in the past whenever they felt victims of oppressions of various kinds. The cry must have been in the souls of the people of Israel. Jesus had it in mind when he uttered its words on the cross,expressing a feeling of abandonment by God. Lots of people find themselves in similar situations and cry out to God in search of an explanation. No disrespect is meant. These are cries of curiosity. This man just wanted to know why God had neglected him. Can you sympathize with this fellow? Regardless of difference between your situation and that of the poet at hand, you can understand his cry because it is your cry, too.
Verse two. “God, I pray to you day and night, but you do not answer my prayers. Why you do not answer me? I know that you hear the prayers of your people. I am part of your people. You should be hearing me. But you are not. Why?” I ask you, does God hear your prayers? Does God answer you when you pray? Why God does not answer your prayers?
Verses three to five. Now the poet begins to reason with God. “God, you are the Lord of Israel. Israel trusted you. They cried out to you, a nd you delivered them. Throughout the history of Israel, you have been with them. But you are not answering my prayers."
Verses six to eight. The poet explains the consequences of what he understands as God's silence. "I feel as a worm, a creature of insignificant value when compared to the value of man. People treat me so. They are mocking me because I trust in you in vain. They are saying that you do not answer me because I am of no value to you."
Verses nine to thirteen. “Lord, you created me. You have sustained me all my life, keeping me from all problems. I have been your man all along. Not only you protected my people all throughout their lives, you also protected me. Why can’t you help me now? I mean no disrespect in questioning you. I just want to know why are you turning your back against me. If you don't help me, I am as good as dead. People are treating me as if I were already dead. They come at me like bulls and lions against an easy prey.”
Verses fourteen and fifteen. Here the poet presents a vivid picture of helplessness. He says that God is ending his life. His body hurts beyond comparison. His heart is stopping. He has lost almost all his body fluid and strength. He feels death approaching him rapidly.
Verses sixteen through eighteen. The poet returns to the theme of verses twelve and thirteen. As he continues to dwell on his misery, the poet already sees his body without life. He presents a picture of the body of an animal lying on the street where dogs desecrate its remains. He says that he feels like so, a dead animal on the street being desecrated by dogs. He sees his friends as evildoers, turned against him, already deciding what garment of his each will possess.
Verses nineteen to twenty-one. After this terrible picture, the writer issues another cry for help from the Lord. He calls for God's immediate intervention, as his death was imminent. Look at the progression of the imagery. God is his absent helper. Death is the sword ready to cut his soul or life to the bones. It is also the dog standing around to pull his soul or life out of his body, just as it would dismember all parts of a dead animal lying on the street. Dying is like being eaten by a wild lion, ran over, goaded and mangled by wild oxen. This ends the first part.
The rest of the poem is a hymn of thanksgiving and praise. In verse twenty-two, the writer commits himself to the worshiping of God and the sharing of his experience of deliverance with fellow believers. He will give his testimony in the congregation to build the faith of the congregated. In verse twenty-three, he issues a challenging invitation to the people of God to remain firm in their faith on the Lord in all circumstances. This should be shown through praises to God as a testimony to others. God has come out on behalf of His people (v. 24). Let God's people now come out on behalf of God. The faithfulness of God to His people should be the motif moving the people to be faithful to God (v. 25). Again, the poet calls for the people to enjoy God's presence in their lives (v. 26). This will give the people a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment, actualizing their lives into real existence. Then, the writer issues a universal challenge to all the people of the world to turn to the Lord God because the Lord is the sole ruler of the cosmos.
The final verses (29-31) form one of the finest doxologies ever written. It includes a prediction of the complete future submission of all humanity to God. God will reign in the lives of all for ever and ever. Humanity will praise God and proclaim His person to future generations.
The writer has come full circle. He complained to the Lord, lamented his condition, analyzed the possible reasons for God's silence in light of His affectionate interaction with Israel in the past, and decided what his position would be towards the Lord. He would be for the Almighty. He would strongly urge others to be for the Lord. At one time in his life, the writer stood helpless but not hopeless. This attitude resulted from his personal, close fellowship with God. Having lived to see the work of God in him, the writer is confirmed and strengthened in his confidence in the Lord. The experience has been faith building. This experience he would share with others.
Discussion
Psalm twenty-two has a parallel in the story of Job. Job was a man of God hit by bad times at a great lost of property and people. In spite of his condition, Job did not complain to God for his fate. On the contrary, Job accepted his fate as an eventual condition inherent to humanness. He was patient and careful of his consideration of the circumstances surrounding him. Job's experience was faith building. Like Job, the protagonist in this poem is a man of God hit by bad times. Unlike Job, he did not lose property or people. He complained to God about his condition. He was impatient and careless in his considerations of his circumstances. Both had faith building experiences.
You and I cry for God to intervene immediately in our behalf. Other people are making us cry. They are pressing hard against us. We are hurting. And we cry to God. Other people cry, too. They cry because evil and sin oppress them. They cry against us for our sin against them. We all cry against one another and to God. What can we do to stop this cry? We need to cry to ourselves. We need to find answers to our cry. We need to stop the cry.
His lament was an expression of his cry. His cry was an expression of his lament. To lament is to cry for the sorrow of evil and sin. We lament, too. We lament the results of the perceived injustices against us. Others lament our injustices against them. We all lament to God for our mutual treatment. Are we lamenting to ourselves for the conditions we all create? We need to lament to ourselves. We need to find answers to our lament. We need to stop lamenting.
The psalmist commitment resulted from his experience with God. God delivered him. He entrusted his life to God. His dedication stopped his cry and lament. The praise of God filled his life. His devotion changed his attitude. He was a pessimist. But he became an optimist. His depression led to cheerfulness. He was upbeat.
This is what commitment to God does for a person. It changes his or her character. Old attitudes are replaced by new and better ones. Life becomes exciting. The believer is in God. God is in the believer. The believer then lives for God and for his or her fellow human being. No more cry, no more lament. Let us utter a prayer of praise and commitment to God for His goodness to us.
The Suffering of the Faithful Psalm 74 Present psalm is a community lament. The problem the author presents is not personal; rather, it a condition affecting the entire community of the faithful. It is a time of national calamity in Judah. The place of worship has been destroyed and desecrated by pagan enemies of Israel. As the shaper of life in Israel, religion permeates the life of the citizens. So, the nation mourns the great loss, as Israel expresses this feeling to God.
The psalm has four distinct parts. These are: a plea to God, a lament to the Lord, a hymn of praise to the Almighty and a renewal of the plea to God. Let us look at each part. Then, we will attempt to find some learnings for us today.
Verses one through three. These verses show the plea to God. "Lord, why does thy anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?” As in the previous psalm, there is no disrespect. It is clearly understood and accepted that man does not question God as a reproach for His human treatment. No, this is cry of curiosity. The people want to know why this calamity has come upon them. It is a long lasting disgrace. There is no relief in sight.
“Lord,” the writer says, “we are your people, the sheep of your pasture. We are your family, very dear to you. We are the folks you selected to be a special people for a special job. Why, why do you allow this tragedy to befall your people? Perhaps, Lord, you have forgotten who we are. We are the sons of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses. We are the people you freed from Egyptian slavery. We are the people of the covenant with you. Surely you remember the covenant, God, as you remember dwelling with your people. Lord, look at the situation. Survey the damage. Walk through the long standing ruins of the places of worship. The enemy came and destroyed all, and the destruction remains to this day. Lord, we don't understand why.”
Verses four to eleven. Now there is a lament to the Lord. This is expressed through descriptions of the happenings. The enemies of Israel attacked and overran the city, setting up headquarters in the temple. In an effort to subdue the people, the enemy destroyed and burned the sacred place along with all objects in it. They took down all the religious symbols and banners of Judah, replacing them with their own emblems and signs. This was an action pretty much as that done by Hitler in Germany. Hitler took down the German flag and those of the countries he occupied and replaced them with his heinous swastika, the emblem of Nazism. The difference was that the enemies of the Jews destroyed and replaced the very fabric of Jewish culture. This action cut the people to the bones. To add insult to injury, the damage remained for long, in perpetual ruins. There is no indication in the text whereby the occasion may be identified with all certainty. Nor can the extent of the destruction and desecration may be established in like manner. Solomon's temple, for instance, was burned and destroyed by the Chaldean's in 587 B.C. (see II Kings 25:8-9). The temple was left in ruins for sixty-seven years, between 587 and 520 B.C. If you wish to read about this temple, you will find a description in I Kings 6 and 7.“Now, Lord,” the poet continued: “This is terrible. We are confused. There is no direction to our lives. There is no prophetic voice, nor indicator of any kind in all of Judah. No one among us has discernment to perceive what the future holds for us. You tell us how long are our enemies to keep us down, mocking and abusing us. How long are you going to put up with this situation? Why do you hold back and do not deal with this problem? Why do you have your hands in your pockets while your people suffer severe afflictions.”
Verses twelve through seventeen. This segment is a hymn of praise to the Almighty. It is a confession of faith in the God of the entire community. It begins with a clear, precise declaration that God reigns in the lives of His people. Speaking for the nation, the poet declares: “The Lord is my king. He has saved me in ages past.” Then, the poet begins a long recitation of God's power at work. God created the universe. He created man. He has been the saviour of His people, protecting and guiding them all along the Egyptian ordeal and the wilderness experience.
Verses eighteen to twenty-three. Finally, there is a renewal of the plea to God to intervene immediately on behalf of His people. The appeal reminds God of the bad deeds of the enemy. Supported by non-existing, imaginary gods, the pagan army conquered the people of the living God. This action resulted in great material loss to Judah. But the great bad loss was emotional and spiritual. The humiliation of the dethronement of God, the Lord of Judah, was too severe to take. The plea is for God to redeem His people just as He had done for them in ages past. God is reminded of the covenant existing between Israel and Him, where Yahweh would be Israel's Lord. Israel would be God's people. “Do not allow your downtrodden people to suffer further shame,” the people said. “Help us in our miserable condition, at least to be able to praise you, Lord. Consider, Lord, that you have been severely offended. Fight and defend Yourself against the desecrater. God, this is what hurts the most, that you are treated badly.”
The final words of the prayer are intended to move God into action, "Arise, 0 God, plea thy cause. Your cause is our cause. You are our God. We are your people. We have a covenant binding us together. Your affront is our affront. Continuously, the enemy ridicules you, treating you as a powerless, imaginary god, comparing you to their fictitious deities. Demonstrate your mighty existence. Vindicate Yourself. Save us. Punish the enemy.”
Discussion
Does religious experience depend on religious organizations? What is the role of religious organizations in the practice of religion? What would happen in America if our religious establishments were shutdown? Religious experience does not depend on organizations. These develop as the result of religious experience. Religious experience will go on in America even after all religious establishments are shutdown.
Religious experience is a personal phenomenon. God created man for a purpose. This is, according to Scriptures, for fellowship with God. The image of God and man together in the Garden of Eden speaks volumes about this. So does God’s interaction with Israel. So does the message of the prophets. So does the teachings of Jesus and his apostles.
The commandment: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me” clearly addresses the issue of divine desire to have a close interaction with humankind. The Lord says further: “I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.” This saying advances the desires of a divine relationship with humanity.
We were also created for fellowship with one another. Whereas four commandments emphasize Gods yearning for fellowship with His creation, the other six stress God’s expectations concerning relations among individuals. The sages of Israel summarized this divine anticipation: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord” (Leviticus 19:18). When someone asked Jesus about the greatest commandment, he quoted from Deuteronomy: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” (6:4). Then, Jesus added the quotation from Leviticus, also as a most important commandment (Matthew 22:34-40).
Individuals living in fellowship with God and others usually bind together in groups to accomplish their goals in solidarity. Having God as father and others as siblings give individuals a sense of freedom and equality. Individuals living under these conditions work to maintain these principles. They set up governments, develop laws and elect members to enforce them. They construct houses of worship and build other religious agencies to teach their children, assist the needy and cure the sick. The United States of America were founded as the result of the coming to America of people seeking to worship God in freedom. All along, the founders of the nation worked to establish a democratic republic under God with liberty and justice for all. How well the system has worked is a subject of much speculation and constant heated debate. Much has been accomplished, and much is yet to be achieved. Our society is still developing. And religious establishments help believers realize projects individuals may not complete alone.
What would happen in America if our religious organizations were shutdown? Theologian Paul Tillich predicted a fifty years ago the end of the Protestant era. He said that the Protestant ideal will live on as a system of beliefs, values and customs, but not so the Protestant organizations. For years some people have been referring to our era as a Post-Christian era. Yet, God's expectations from humanity as expressed in the Ten Commandments are as relevant today as they were yest
Our psalmist has the people of Judah crying to God and lamenting a condition brought about by the negligence of the people. Jeremiah, the prophet calling Judah to get right with God before it would be too late, gives a pretty good idea of the self-destructive path of the people. Through Jeremiah, God called the people to repentance and renewal. This was at no avail. Soon the people were conquered by the enemy and taken into captivity. One respected commentator observes that this poet may be attempting to indict the leaders of Israel for allowing the spiritual and moral fiber of the nation to deteriorate and subsequently be conquered by the enemy. This is more than a cry and a lament to God for permitting this condition to take place. The point is that, when the people become demoralized and careless, the enemy advances.
What can we learn from this situation? As the people of God, we too must repent of our sin. In churches and synagogues, every week we confess our sin: "We have failed to seek God in His knowledge and counsel. We have failed to treat our fellow human being with respect and dignity as a child of God and a brother or sister to ourselves. We have failed to follow the directives of Jesus to proclaim God's good news to mankind, etc." We have a crisis of the spirit of major proportions. Shall we have to cry to God and lament the lost of our religious organizations because of our own neglect? May God help us to take immediate steps to avoid this catastrophe. Let us now voice a prayer of repentance, commitment and praise to God as we seek to conform our lives with His expectations from us.
Mourning Turned into Dancing Psalm 30
No matter how serious the situation, no matter how much the person or the people are hurt, laments always turned to prayers and praise in the Book of Psalms. The next two psalms we will study will be psalms of praise. The first poem we will look at will be psalm thirty.
The occasion for psalm thirty is similar to that of psalm twenty-two. The author had been seriously ill and at the point of death. His health has been restored and he offers thanksgiving and praises to God. There is no lamenting in it. The closes he comes to lamenting his condition is in a passing comment in verse five where the author points to the brevity of God's punishment when compared to His blessings.
According to superscription, this psalm was used also at the annual ceremony of the re-dedication of the temple. In these cases, the poem took on a national character. The people used it then as an instrument for the corporate worship of God. Reference of verse five to the "anger" versus the "favor" of God gives a clue to the time of the composition after the exile.
The poem has five distinctive parts. First, the psalmist gives reasons for his praising God. Second, he invites worshippers at the temple, where he is, to join him in praising God. Third, the writer recounts the sinful condition leading to his sickness. Fourth, he explains the character of his supplication to God. Finally, the poet recommits his life to the Lord, praising Him for his blessings.
Reason for praising God. In verses one through five, the writer gives three reasons for his praising God. First, the author says that God heard him: "I cried to thee for help, and thou hast healed me" (v. 2). Second, when God heard the writer, the Lord responded with action: "healed me" from a severe illness. Apparently this person had a near death experience. Third, the Lord protected him from people who appeared to have been mocking his faith in God. The psalmist calls these people: "my foes" (v.
Invitation to pray, and praise. In verses four and five, the poet stands in the middle of the temple court and invites worshipers to praise God for His goodness. The author mentions two reasons for the praising of God. These are God's love for man and God's temperance in dealing with man. In this instance, God loved the psalmist in spite of the psalmist backsliding. God remained faithful to this man, though he had been unfaithful to God. God's wrath against the poet had lasted a second in comparison with His love for the writer. The result of God's love for the poet was the restoration of his health.
The second reason the psalmist proposes for worshiping God is God's temperance. If God would had not exercised self-control, the psalmist would not had been healed. God's love was more powerful than any inclination He might have had of allowing the poet to perish. God heard the poet and restored his health. Thanks be to God.
In verses six and seven, apparently, the psalmist indicates that he had been faithful to God, and God had prospered him. In his prosperity, however, the psalmist had neglected maintaining fellowship with God, failing to recognize the favor of the Lord. The poet had been overconfident in his apparent solid position. Then, the poet fell badly ill. He realized his sin of confidence in false security. This was idolatry causing God to abandon the psalmist but for a second. A second, however, was time enough for this man to become terminally ill.
In verses eight through ten, the poet gives an explanation of the nature of his supplication. First, the poet bargains with God for his health. God had made the psalmist for praising Him. God needed the psalmist to accomplish His purpose. But if the psalmist were to die, God would not have his servant to praise the Him. In order to praise God, the psalmist needed to live, not die. So, the psalmist asked God to restore his health for the purpose of being useful to Him.
Then, there is the praise and commitment of the psalmist to God. He praises God because of "mourning turned into dancing.” The psalmist mood changed from deep sadness to great joy, the result of his movement from certain death to full life. God caused this to happen in his life. This caused the psalmist to recommit his life to God, resolving to do two things as acts of worship. He would praise God the rest of his life, offering continuous thanksgiving to God. And He would witness of the mighty acts of God in his life.
Discussion
What is worship? Why should God be worshipped? How do we worship God? Worship is the honoring of God through sincere personal and communal acts of recognition, appreciation and thanksgiving for His being Lord of our lives. Primitive man engaged in simple acts of worshiping the supernatural with the intention of appeasing the wrath of whatever spiritual entities they thought caused calamities of various kinds. Human refinement has seen much progress in worship. About 4,000 years ago the Hebrew people were already worshiping God, the Creator of all there is, the One God of their fathers, your father and my father. According to this psalmist, God is to be commended in worship for His love for disobedient man because in spite of man not responding to God with love, God remains faithful to man.
Worship is to be done privately and publicly. Private worship is individual devotion to God expressed in the silence of seclusion. No words are expressed as the person is lost in awe and meditation, remaining so until the person is saturated with the presence of the Almighty. The person waits on God and for God. A spiritual bonding develops between the human and the divine. The person recognizes God's love for himself or herself, and corresponds to His affection with a similar affection. As the individual opens himself or herself to God, the Lord reveals Himself to them. The person may use Scripture as a means of further revelation. The believer articulates prayers of praise to God for His goodness.
The demands of modern living makes it difficult to have these periods of seclusions. Yet, private worship requires it. Solitude is indispensable for solid communion with God and good mental health. Many people attain this condition by regularly getting up earlier than the usual time, going into a favorite location in their residence and spend time alone with God. Others find different means of attaining the same result. Private worship prepares the person to join with the fellowship of the faithful in public worship.
Public worship is indispensable to the believer because we are social beings. We need each other. We cannot exist apart from each other. We were made to depend on one another for support and solidarity as siblings. We share our resources. We learn from one another. Our brains work when they are stimulated from each other. I need whatever you contribute to life in society. You need whatever I contribute to life in society.
Public worship gives a tremendous opportunity to continue our private devotions in the cozy atmosphere of the family of God. For the sake of order and uniformity, public worship follows an schedule of events. This way worshipers know the order of items to be covered. All participate with enthusiasm and in full understanding of what is being done. The presence of brethren holding the same attitudes generate warmth. The presence of God gives the occasion the touch that makes it so vitalizing. Praying together, singing praises together, reading the Word together carries a superior quality. The preacher opens the Scripture and offers new insight into known and loved passages. The entire experience is meaningful and life imparting. The believers individually and collectively develops further, according to God's expectations, when they participate in public worship.
The author of psalm 133 new it. In a teaching intended to preserve the solidarity of the Jewish people, the post-exilic poem brings out the importance of maintaining close family ties because there is where the blessing of God is. Listen to these words: "Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! For there, the Lord has commanded the blessing, life for evermore." God reveals Himself in the midst of His people. That's just the way it is. The learning, support and stability that goes on in a close fraternal group have no equal.
God is good. He has been good to you and me. This merits our praising Him continuously. May we always have a sincere and serious attitude of devotion for God. May we always offer prayers of praise in commitment for His faithfulness to us.
Divine Deliverance and Human Gratitude
Psalm 124
The history of Israel reveals that these people have had their share of enemies for different reasons. Much of the lamenting we read in the psalms is the expression of this condition. Lamenting turns to praising in many cases. God delivers His people from their foes, and the people express thanksgiving for the gracious act of the Lord. On the other hand, some psalms contain praises, only.
Psalm 124 is representative of a series of short poems of praise found from psalm 120 to 134. Some of these are individual expressions, which could also be interpreted as community expressions. Others are definitely community expressions.
Verses one through five. These verses contain an expression of gratitude, an act of thanksgiving to God in recognition of what He has done for the people. There is no identification of the occasion. Israel has been assaulted by the enemy. As so many cases in the past, the enemies of Israel were bent on their destruction. To the day of the writing Israel had been surrounded by powerful opponents. All along, God made it possible for Israel to survive. The same may be said to this day
Verses six through eight. These verses talk about divine deliverance. In an effort to show a clear picture of what would had happened to the people if the Lord would had not been protecting them, the psalmist presents three images representing the enemy. First, he says that the foe is like a gigantic monster, capable of gobbling all the people with one swallow upon its getting mad at them. Second, the psalmist compares the enemy to a flood. This is not a flood of standing dead waters covering streets and parts of houses in a subdivision such as those taking place in Houston, Texas, and other cities in the United States every year. As bad as these floods are, the psalmist is talking about a much worse experience. The enemy of Israel is like a whirlpool, whose turbulent waters violently agitate its victims, pulling them toward the center, covering and drowning them with a swift action. Think also of a dam breaking and letting its water move rapidly and with great force over houses and people standing on low lands. The death and destruction caused, from which there is no escape, would be immense. So it is the image here presented concerning the foes of Israel. Third, the enemy is compared with powerful, mad hunters. Their prey is a fragile, little bird. The hunters have their prey in a trap. They are ready to devour it, their teeth in position to cut into the tiny and tender flesh of the body of the small bird and tear it into fragments. Suddenly, a friend of the prey appears in the scene, breaking the trap and letting the prey out to fly away to freedom.
Discussion
Then, a cry of gratitude is heard. It is to the Creator of the universe, who is the Lord of Israel. He was on the side of the people. The enemy raged with extreme violence and fury. If it had not been for the Lord, the enemies would have destroyed people and possessions. But God was amidst Israel. The Lord intervened as the savior of His people. The people had been protected and freed from all harm. This called for celebration. And celebrate they did in a supreme act of worshiping of God.
Divine deliverance and human gratitude is the theme of this psalm. It is the theme of the existence of Israel in their pilgrimage through life. God's deliverance of the people from Egypt under the leadership of Moses marks the beginning of the long list of divine interventions on behalf of the people. The people, in turn, showed their gratitude to God for His love for them. This is all contained in the Old Testament.
This psalm, along with the other fourteen, appear to have been used by pilgrims going to Jerusalem from remote parts of Palestine to participate in the yearly religious festivities celebrating the earlier pilgrimages from Egypt to their present state. Pilgrims to the temple at Jerusalem encountered various types of dangers in their passage to the city. The roads were unsafe. Travel was done in groups for protection and mutual help and support. Many were hurt on the way. But danger was no impediment. The satisfaction and fulfillment to be received at being with the people of God in the house of prayer in intimate communion with the Father and siblings moved people to risk all physical safety. They pressed toward Jerusalem regardless of cost in anticipation of the blessing awaiting them in the city.
The pilgrims went to Jerusalem to express gratitude to God for His being their God. Gratitude is a noun deriving from the Latin adjective gratus meaning satisfying. For example, you may say: “It is gratus to know that God loves me.” The love that God has for you gives you a feeling of exhilaration or merriment. The joy of your state of being, in turn, makes you to want to express your feelings to God. The feeling that you express is gratitude. You are deeply thankful to God.
It is in the parallel found in this adventure that we find our lesson. Life is a pilgrimage. It is also a series of pilgrimages. Each day of our lives is a pilgrimage. Each hour of the day is a pilgrimage. With God on our side, as the poet says, we will make it. There are all kinds of dangers in our passage through life. One gets the impression that as time goes on, danger becomes greater and more frequent. Danger is caused by man. The word danger comes from the Latin dominus or dominate. To endanger is to dominate by force. Domination by force is evil. Read your commandments. Hear what God has to say about that.
Conclusion
But travel through life we must. We are going to make it. How? Let us take our cue from the people of Israel. Let us travel together for solidarity and mutual help and support. Some of us will be hurt on the way. But the danger will not hold us back. The people of God must rise high above all calamities caused by evildoers. We must move on. The promises of life permeated by the presence of God for all future for the person embracing the love of God moves the individual to remain committed. He or she must stand tall and press on to higher levels of spiritual development.
We have briefly examined the origin and development of Israel's sacred poetry in the Book of Psalms. Psalms may be studied according to different arrangements. We looked at psalms as a collection of prayers of praise and commitment to God. Four psalms were selected to observe the movement from four different points of view. We had four lessons, one per psalm. These point in one direction. Invariably psalmists praised and committed their lives to God in response to God's love for them. Psalmists called Israel to maintain a clear, current, genuine, desirable attitude toward worshiping God. The sages of Israel urged the people of God to keep fresh in mind the mighty acts of God on their behalf from the Egyptian slavery to the present. This would be motif enough to maintain a firm commitment to God. We are also the people of God. We too have been called to commitment and fellowship. We are to maintain lives worthy of our calling. The sacred poetry of Israel can help us a great deal in attaining our goals. The message of the psalms is faith building. The central theme is commitment. May we always maintain such an attitude. This will move us closer to living more according to the purpose for which we were created, as our lives will be actualized.