All Saints, Dorval
March 10, 2024
Study for “Jesus Visiting Nicodemus,” 1899, Henry Ossawa Tanner. Wikimedia Commons.
We don’t talk enough about the Psalms.
Every week in worship, we say a short portion of text drawn from this vast, ancient repository of prayer, praise, longing, celebration, despair, joy, terror, and hope. The Psalms are the sources of countless hymn texts, and have been teaching people to pray – and showing them that God can handle any and all of our emotions, including the messy ones – for almost three thousand years. But we rarely if ever preach on them, and the selection of the Psalms in the Sunday lectionary is just a slice of what’s in the book.
(At Evening Prayer, on the other hand, we use a seven-week cycle of the Psalms that means that those who have been praying together this way since we locked down four years ago this week, have been through the whole thing many times over by now, which is a wonderful thing.)
Today’s selection, from Psalm 107, appears to have been chosen because of its connection to the story from Numbers, about the Israelites grumbling and whining in the wilderness and being stricken with illness as a result, and the whole bizarre episode with the bronze serpent. But there’s much more to this psalm, and I want to take a look at the whole thing, so I’ve asked for help from some readers.
The portion we just read [chanted] is the third of four stanzas, which follow a set pattern. In the reading you’re about to hear, I’ve combined the other three stanzas and reordered them slightly to emphasize that pattern. You can find the whole original text in your BAS at page 852.
4 Some wandered in desert wastes; *
they found no way to a city where they might dwell.
5 They were hungry and thirsty; *
their spirits languished within them.
10 Some sat in darkness and deep gloom, *
bound fast in misery and iron;
11 Because they rebelled against the words of God *
and despised the counsel of the Most High.
12 So he humbled their spirits with hard labour; *
they stumbled, and there was none to help.
23 Some went down to the sea in ships *
and plied their trade in deep waters;
24 They beheld the works of the Lord *
and his wonders in the deep.
25 Then he spoke, and a stormy wind arose, *
which tossed high the waves of the sea.
26 They mounted up to the heavens and fell back to the depths; *
their hearts melted because of their peril.
27 They reeled and staggered like drunkards *
and were at their wits’ end.
6 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, *
and he delivered them from their distress.
7 He put their feet on a straight path *
to go to a city where they might dwell.
14 He led them out of darkness and deep gloom *
and broke their bonds asunder.
29 He stilled the storm to a whisper *
and quieted the waves of the sea.
30 Then were they glad because of the calm, *
and he brought them to the harbour they were bound for.
8 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his mercy *
and the wonders he does for his children.
9 For he satisfies the thirsty *
and fills the hungry with good things.
16 For he shatters the doors of bronze *
and breaks in two the iron bars.
32 Let them exalt him in the congregation of the people *
and praise him in the council of the elders.
As you’ve heard, each section begins with a description of people faced with some kind of problem. In two cases, they have brought it on themselves through rebellion and sin; in the other two (wandering in the desert and going down to the sea in ships) it seems to be just part of life. Then, one of the two refrains that appear in the exact same word in each portion: “Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.” Next, one or more verses describing God’s response to the people’s cry. Then, the other of the two word-for-word refrains: “Let them give thanks to the Lord for his mercy, and the wonders he does for his children.” And finally, a concluding verse, either describing another of God’s saving acts, or encouraging the people to offer further thanks and praise to God.
This Psalm is more structured than most, but there are all kinds of patterns and echoes to be found in the Psalms, some of them more obvious than others in English translation. And Psalm 107 is also very typical in its subject matter: the pattern of people suffering or going astray, crying to God, being helped, and offering praise and thanks, is a very, very common one.
Whether we are wandering in the desert or in danger at sea, or in crisis because of our own selfishness and bad choices, the Psalms teach us to cry out to God. The response may not always be as immediate and straightforward as it is described in today’s text, but even if God doesn’t take away the whole situation, God will listen and deliver us from distress – if only by being with us in our trouble.
In three of the four parts of Psalm 107, God’s deliverance involves leading the people from one place to another. “He put their feet on a straight path,” “He led them out of darkness and deep gloom,” “he brought them to the harbour they were bound for.”
But in today’s selection – the part we actually read [chanted] in worship – God doesn’t bring the people from a state of crisis to one of security. Instead, “He sent forth his word and healed them, and saved them from the grave.”
“He sent forth his word and healed them.”
What does it mean for God’s word to be sent forth? And how does this bring healing?
The weekly commentary on this passage connects God’s powerful word in this context with the word that was spoken to bring creation into being in the first place, and the word that constantly goes forth from God to sustain everything that is. Elsewhere in the Psalms, God’s word sent forth both brings storms and snow, and makes them clear and dissipate. In the prophet Isaiah, God’s word goes forth from God’s mouth and accomplishes what God had purposed. In the letter to the Hebrews, God’s word is living and active, sharper than a two-edged sword.
God’s word brings things into being, and God’s word is truth. And healing in scripture is always connected with the revelation of truth. There can be no healing where there is deception, delusion, lying.
No one is really entirely sure how to interpret the story of the bronze serpent, but it certainly seems to rely on this connection between healing and truth. When the people acknowledge their sin and face up to their fears – in the form of the bronze representation of the serpent that has been preying on them – they are able to be healed.
In the Psalm, after the people have been saved by the sending forth of God’s word, they respond with words of their own, words of gratitude and praise: “Let them offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and tell of his acts with shouts of joy.” In the final segment, they exalt God in the congregation and praise him in the council. When God has shown forth God’s greatness in word and deed, our response is to offer our own words and deeds that are in accordance with God’s healing and truth. And of course, there is not necessarily a clear distinction between word and deed – God’s word is powerful and can make things happen.
The final place in today’s readings where God’s Word is central, is in the Gospel, in the account of Jesus’ midnight conversation with Nicodemus, the source of the famous verse about “God so loved the world.”
Wait a minute, though, you say – the word “word” doesn’t actually appear in this passage!
It doesn’t. But God’s Word – Word with a capital W, the Greek “logos” – does. “In the beginning was the Word”, as this same gospel begins, and the Word is present in the person of Jesus, the living and active Word of God that has come into the world, because God so loved the world. “God sent forth his word and healed them, and saved them from the grave” – and God did this on a cosmic scale when God became flesh in Jesus of Nazareth.
The Psalms teach us how to pray, how to respond to the sending forth of God’s word with our own words of lament, petition, thanksgiving, and praise. And at all times, God’s Word meets us in the human Jesus, the Son of God who came to bring us everlasting life.
Amen.
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