The Flow of God's Saving Power in History (Psalm 68) River Sunday

The Clutha is New Zealand’s second longest river. It flows out of Lake Wanaka in the southern Alpes, through the wonderful rugged landscapes of central Otago, the rich pasture of south Otago, out to the Pacific Ocean about 70 Km south of Dunedin just past the town of Kaitangata. It is a unique and beautiful river with its amazing turquoise blue colour.

It wasn’t intentional but one Summer, we visited both ends of the river in a matter of a couple of days, and travelled along and over much of its length. We went to Lake Wanaka and watched it start it journey, we stopped for lunch by the remains of the old bridge in Alexandra, saw its blue water mix with the grey brown waters of the Kawarau, from Lake Wakatipu. We travelled down through the Cromwell gorge and along lake Dunstan, picked cherries at Roxburgh, visited the Hydodams.

W

e Crossed it by bridge and by car ferry, at Tuapeka mouth. We walked down to one of the two river mouths, in that wonderful long summer dusk they have down south. The whole place bathed in vivid golds as the sun loitered by the horizon.

The thing that sticks out about the Clutha, is yes that wonderful colour, but also the sense of constant flow. Vast volumes of water incessantly moving past. Flowing down through the landscape. You also get the sense of the flow of that river through history as well. Maori settlement near its banks, an early whaling station at its river mouth, the gold rush, the hundred year floods reminding us of the rivers wild power, building of dams to feed New Zealand’s growing demand for power, a whole town moved and then what was left flooded, agricultural change, vineyards in central Otago. When I first spoke at Clinton Church, where we were doing summer supply, my opening joke was that I was happy to be there as I had heard of the revival that was happening, that there were conversions going on all over the countryside, but then I realised it was to dairying, that dramatic change and its impact a pivotal issue in yesterday’s election. The flow of the river and the flow of human history inevitably linked.

Psalm 68, has that sense of flow as well, not of a river through the landscape although it speaks of God’s presence and blessing in terms of the land being watered, but the flow of God’s great deeds in history. It’s attributed as a psalm of David, if it comes from his life then it is very much after he has been made king and is bringing the ark of the covenant up to Jerusalem. Down through the ages its insistence on God’s sovereignty and power, have become a hope for Israel as they faced difficult times, threats from surrounding nations and the rise and fall of empires. It was comfort during the exile in Babylon and the return from that exile of God’s character and his sovereign power.  The same hope that we who look back at it from beyond the cross and resurrection also have in God’s saving acts and the ultimate victory of God’s just and righteous reign, in the Kingdom of God.

The four psalms we’ve been looking at this season of creation, form a subunit within the wider works of the Psalms. In Psalm 65 we saw the whole of creation summoned to come to a praise Party to give thanks to God. Its focus was on the countryside around Jerusalem bursting forth in luscious growth and vitality in response to God’s great deeds: His work in creation and providence, sending the rain, answering prayer and forgiving sin. In Psalm 66 we saw all the earth called to give praise to God, for his saving deeds shown to Israel and to the psalmist himself. In Psalm 67 we saw this extended so that people of every nation and people group tribe and tongue should come and   know God’s saving love; know his just rule and guidance. The ends of the earth and farthest seas are called to join creations praise for its creator and receive his blessing.  Psalm 68 acts as the high point of creations celebrations. The special guest arrives, the central figure appears, God arises and is pictured as coming in a victorious procession to Jerusalem to receive the praise and accolades of humanity and creation. 

It’s a hard psalm for us to appreciate, some of the images it uses are for us strange and foreign and it is full of the violent images of conquest and the brutal dealing with those who have been defeated. It’s good that the kids have gone out because it has an adults only feel with people ankle deep in spilt blood. It should have a warning on it…  for mature faith audiences only…

It’s poetry and pulls its imagery from the world around to speak of God’s victory. It attributed to David a warrior, who may have seen such acts of brutality. It is written to a nation that would have been and periodically was again on the receiving end of such brutal treatment. 

It’s the language of ‘Theophany’ the real physical turning up of God and as such is full of extreme language:  Enemies disappearing like smoke and hills melting like wax. The stars arrayed as God’s burning Chariots.

It also has a cosmic element to it, like apocalyptic language, That God’s moving in history is played out on a heavenly scale. It marks both real events in history but looks forward to the ultimate fufilment of God's soverign reign.  Cannan’s god Ba’al was the god who was seen as being the one who rode on the clouds a storm God, but here it is Israel’s God YHWH that has displaced him and rides on the clouds. It is YHWH who has provided the rain and watered the land. In Luke 20 Jesus quotes from the Psalm 110 and talks of God saying

“‘The Lord said to my Lord:

“Sit at my right hand

until I make your enemies

a footstool for your feet.”

From beyond Jesus life and death and resurrection we can see that the enemies that are defeated here are ‘sin, and injustice, evil and as it says in 1 Corinthians 15:26 that final enemy, of humanity and creation, death and decay itself. Paul in Ephesians also picks up this language, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

Psalm 68 also reminds us that God is full of compassion and concern and righteous. He is a father to the fatherless, a defender of the widows, the people of low or no status in society. He sets the lonely in families, and leads the prisoners out with singing. God’s rule is about justice and he opposes those who in act and entrench injustice.

The psalm gives us a picture of God’s saving acts through the wilderness and exodus. His providing water in the desert and as Israel come into the land, of there being plenty of water and a bounty of crops. Again, God’s purpose is to ensure there is enough for all including the poor.

In verse 11 the scene changes and in a profound way we see God’s word being announced by a group of women and the effect of that being God’s enemies are scattered. EM Blaiklock suggests this is a reference to Deborah in the book of Judges, calling God’s people together to battle, king Sisera, and his army being routed. His chariots of iron bogging down in the swamps before Mt Tabor. The difficult verses in that stanza may revolve around Jeal, killing Sisera by agreeing to hide him then driving a tent peg through his head. The passage finishes with a picture of God scattering the kings of the earth like snow on the mountain. It’s quite profound that it speaks of the impact of Women who are prepared to speak God’s truth to power. It is an affirmation of the place of women in that proclamation. Foreshadowing the women who were given the privilege of being the first to proclaim Christ is not dead he is alive, and are still called to proclaim that.

Mount Bashan refers to a rugged mountain range to the north east of the Jordan, it is a place known for its abundant grass lands and its healthy cattle. But this place blessed with natural abundance is told seen as being jealous of the lesser peak of Zion because that mountain is where God chooses to dwell.

In verse 24 the procession comes into view God is coming to his sanctuary, he is accompanied by all the tribes of Israel. Although only four are mentioned they are the ones from the furthest south and from the furthest north so represent all Israel coming together. They are led by singers and dancers. Not only that but as the procession moves on we see kings coming to bring gifts to honour Israel’s God. God in his strength also rebukes the nations that delight in war. The bulls amongst the reeds is an image of Egypt, and the bull amongst the calves gives the idea of the fat cattle and strong kings pushing and driving people to war. It is God who brings peace not only to Israel but to all the world.

The psalm finishes with all the kingdoms of the earth gathered in song, worshipping God for his power and his mighty deeds.

All Humanity joins with the creation in Psalm 65 in giving praise to God for what he has done for us. It is a psalm that looks forward to the coming of Jesus and the universal proclamation of God’s salvation, while it speaks of the blood of enemies, the blood that Is spilled to free us from the tyranny of sin and death is Christs. This is Good News for all humanity for all creation. It’s the postscript and the missing stanzas for this psalm, the continued flow of God’s coming and moving in history, bringing salvation and the possibility and reality of new creation. 

Its river Sunday, and how does that relate to Psalm 68.

But we also need to look what the psalm tells us about the physical rivers of our world as well. The fact that while we may see the whole water cycle and rivers and lakes as a natural process, the Psalmist sees it as a show of God’s blessing and providence. Israel are a desert people and for them constant and consistent water courses are of paramount importance. They are a real blessing. The land is full of wadi’s dry river beds that only run with water when it rains. We are used to a more temperate climate, with a reliable water source and plenty of rain, rivers that flow from snow-capped mountains or the drenched hills and mountains that form the spin of our island homes. We are effected by changes in weather and over the past decade we’ve seen droughts in many areas, and of course this year is going to be known as the year that it didn’t stop raining.  But we can forget how precious water is and how important our river systems are as well. With increased population, increased intensification of farming and intensification of urban and industrial water use we are in danger of losing this valuable gift. Already we have rivers in this country that are undrinkable and unswimable. It may have been easier for us to remember rivers as part of our summer holiday experience than the children here today. Whatever the makeup of parliament, we need to continue to be working at cleaning up rivers and looking at ways of preserving our God given water.

Rivers flow through the landscapes but also human history, and what we need is a change in that flow, of how we think about our rivers and water use. It’s a creation issues; caring for what God has given us; it’s a justice issue, Psalm 68 says God sends the rain to provide for the poor out of the bounty it provides. On an international scale that challenges us as well. Jesus parable of the sheep and the goats, talks of giving a drink of water to those who are thirsty as doing it for Jesus.

We didn’t have it read to us but in Ezekiel 43 there is another vision of Theophany, of God dwelling with his people in the sanctuary in Jerusalem. It is of a river starting at the altar and flowing through the temple and out into city and out into the countryside and down the hills into the dead sea. Where it flows there is new life, tress grow that always fruit and whose fruit brings healing. Even the dead sea laden with salt and minerals begins to team with life. God’s victory and God’s love and justice brings living water to the whole land. Like the Clutha it flows through the landscape, but also it flows through human history as well. It is a river that flows in Jesus Christ, the living water, that brings new life and healing, it flows as the Holy Spirit is poured out on all who believe. In our New Testament reading this morning from Acts, Paul goes looking for a Jewish place of prayer, down by the river. In the diaspora if there were not enough Jewish men to form a synagogue then they would meet by a river to pray…looking back to their exile in Babylon, where by the rivers of Babylon we sat down and their we wept when we remembered Zion.’ But here that greater river of living water flows into the life of Lydia and her household gathered there and they receive the living water of Jesus, the river flows into Europe. You and I find ourselves caught up in that rivers flow as we have come to know Jesus Christ and that river now flows through us to bring life and healing to the world around us, as we are prepared to let it well up more and more in our lives.  

 

Lets pray

Wilderness Renewal: from the Ends of the Earth to the ends of the earth... (Psalm 67)

I love the rugged west coast of Auckland, places like Piha, when it’s not crowded, Karekare, Muriwai and Whatipu. If I may be a little poetic…The drive out through the Waitakeres, separating you from the city streets and sights,  with the evergreen of native tree. The cliffs and bush clad hills sweeping down sharply to the iron sand beaches, that resound to the crash and boom of pounding surf.  Walking along the beach being accompanied by foam flurries and those little tumbling seed heads which bounce and skid past in the wind. There is a kind of awe that comes into my soul in those places, you feel on the very edge of the world, and I feel close to God.

It’s the same sort of thing that you can experience as you go along the desert road and after navigating the twists and turns of creeks flowing through that rather desolate landscape you come up to the plateau and there off to your right (if you’re going south) are the awe inspiring mountains Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu. They take your breath away. Maybe you’ve been more off the beaten track than I have and its tramping through bush clad hills or deep southern beech forest, or you’ve been overseas and there are wilderness places that stick in your memory: Glaciers and snowy peaks, jungle greenery, desert dunes, places that feel like the ends of the earth, that inspired awe and praise. The proclaim the greatness of the creator.

In this season of creation, we are working our way through a series of four psalms that speak of God’s awesome deeds and calls all of creation to give praise to God for what he has done and is doing: for Creation, for his sovereignty in the world, for his providence and as we saw last week for his saving acts for Israel. In Psalm 65 it was cause for a praise party, agricultural and pastoral fields, alive with rejoicing. In Psalm 67 that invitation is extended to the ends of the earth, not just the land we inhabit and use but the wild and wilderness places, as well. Not just Israel or the church but  all people and all of creation to come and praise God for his awesome deeds.

The Psalm we are looking at today builds on the previous one, it extends God’s saving grace and acts to a universal level. No longer just Israel but the whole of the earth, all nations and all people groups, all tribes and tongues are to come and know God’s salvation and God’s Kingdom. It starts and finishes with a benediction a blessing, and in between there is a prayer that all peoples would know God’s righteous rule and his guiding presence.

I remember one day going out to the beach and in front of the sun was a large storm cloud. There were rays of light coming through breaks in the cloud and shining down like spotlights on the water. The patches where it hit looked like sparkling jewels on what was otherwise a grey and foreboding sea.  As I continued to walk along the beach suddenly the clouds moved further offshore and the sun came out, the sky and the sea turned blue and the whole place was filled with light. The opening benediction of this psalm is like that. It takes the words of the Aaronic blessing in Numbers 6 “the Lord Bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you, the lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace”, which was a blessing specifically for Israel, like they are in that beam of God’s light and presence and peace and takes it over the border to include all nations. It’s a radical Psalm for Israel that includes all the pagan nations around them as objects of God’s love and his blessing. 

 It looks back to the blessing of Abraham in Genesis 12, where Abraham is blessed to be a blessing to the nations. It reminds Israel that their mission is to show God’s goodness and justice to the world.  It looks forward to the coming of Jesus Christ, his death on the cross and his resurrection and the amazing truth that this new life in relationship with God, is not just for the Jews but for the gentiles as well. It’s for all people. The sun has come out and shines on all.   EM Blaiklock sums it up like this…

“God’s rich benevolence, bathing humanity and the world like the life giving and comforting sun. In order that those who are blessed may pass the blessing to others…”

The central section of Psalm 67 is a prayer that that blessing might become a reality. It starts and finishes with the petition  “may the people praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you.” And is a hope that all people may experience the joy that Israel knows because of their relationship with God. In verse 3 & 5 the psalmist had used the Hebrew word for nations but in this repeated refrain it is extended to be more universal, it is a call to all people groups and tribes. God’s love and grace is for all. God’s love is for all humanity fulfilled in Jesus Christ: For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Just like the sun shines over all the earth and gives it light and warmth so God’s love is for all people.

Rules with equity and guides the nations look forward to what we know as the Kingdom of God, inaugurated by Christ. It looks forward to the reality of the presence of God’s Holy Spirit poured out on all who believe to lead us and to guide us in God’s ways. The picture is of God as the Good Shepherd caring for his flock and leading them to good pasture and plenty.

The psalm is a mission prayer, it’s a prayer that is answered in Jesus commission to his disciples, to you and I as those whom he has blessed, to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them everything I have commanded you, and I am with you even to the end of the age.  We fit into this psalm not only as those from outside Israel, from the ends of the earth,  who have come to know God’s blessing and ways in Christ, but as embodiment of its central prayer.

The final benediction is a statement of confidence in God’s blessing. Israel has experienced God’s blessing in the plentiful harvest as we saw in Psalm 65 and here God’s care and love for all peoples is seen as resulting in that same bounty in all lands.  Now we know that that is not a present reality, there is famine and drought and starvation and malnutrition. This benediction looks forward in hope to what God is going to do. Gerald H Wilson comments “ there is an apocalyptic expectation that as the fractured and corrupted earth is restored to its originally intended productivity so fractured and divided humanity will be restored to its originally intended unity and reliance on God.” It is the whole of nature groaning waiting for the sons of God to be revealed that Paul talks about in Romans.

This is not just some distant future hope, in the opening benediction God’s blessing was to cause the nations to know God’s ways. Abraham was blessed so he could be a blessing on others. In James 2 it says what good does it do to say to your brother or sister bless you and send them away empty handed. God’s provision is to be shared with those in need and through that people will see his goodness and come to acknowledge him.

It's wilderness Sunday, and it would be easy to simply talk about care and preservation of the wild and wonderful places in this world. Places that do need our protection and care. When we thing of the land producing its harvest you can think of land only in terms of its usefulness to humans. We can forget about how the various wilderness environments contribute to the whole ecosystem. How these different places are God’s provision of various habitats for God’s amazing creatures, it is God’s blessing that they produce the harvest needed to sustain that life.  On a spiritual level as the Psalms say they proclaim the wonder of God’s awesome deeds.  National Parks and world wilderness heritage sites marine reserves, and other conservation efforts are wonderful.

But I want to finish however by going off the deep end a bit and talk about the place of the wilderness in spiritual renewal and revitalizing the faith. In scripture and church history the wilderness has often been the place where people’s faith and in fact God’s people, both Israel and the Church have found renewal of faith and zeal for sharing God’s blessing with the world.

Israel’s journey to learn how to be God’s people was in the wilderness, in scripture Israel looks back to that time, as pivotal and formative.  They learned to rely on God, the lessons were not always easy, they didn’t always get it. But it was the preparation they needed to move into the promised land.

In the passage from Matthews gospel we had read today, John the Baptist was out in the wilderness calling people to repentance and to spiritual renewal. There is sometime important about stepping out of the everyday into the wild places and the edge that allows for that renewal to happen. It’s in the wilderness that Jesus comes and starts his ministry, he is baptized by John and goes out into the wilderness and is tempted for forty days, in preparation for his ministry. During his ministry Jesus would regularly go away from the crowd out in the wilderness and the lonely places and pray. There is something about it that renews the soul.

Under emperor Constantine Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, and one of the big question in church history is was that a good thing or a bad thing? It’s the start of Christendom, one of the responses to that was the desert Fathers. People who went out and sort for spiritual renewal in the wilderness. Some of them went to great extremes and we have stories of crazed hermits, but for many of them there came a renewal of the Christian faith, a renewal of discipleship and passion for the gospel.

The Celtic monks followed in that line as well instead of going to the desert they held on to the craggy seashore of Ireland and were willing to travel and wander in the wilderness.  They would go to seek a place where they could focus on developing their relationship with God. What would happen is they would set up their community and they would become a place of healing and learning, on many levels and become places of plenty as there agricultural practises tended to be better. People would come and join them and there are many towns and cities in Scotland and England that grew round them. They Christianize Ireland, Scotland and helped re-Christianize much of Europe in the dark ages. Where ever they went they shared the good news along the way. It just flowed out of them. I ’ve mentioned it before but there is a great book called “the day that the Irish saved civilization’ that talks of the impact the Celtic monks had on the world.

Francis of Assisi, is another who sort spiritual renewal and revival by going out into the wilderness.

While it wasn’t exactly the wilderness, john Wesley and later movements like the   salvation army responded to the industrial revolution by going to the edge and into the urban wastelands that sprung up, and preaching and serving there.

Now I’m not saying we need to all move out to through the  Waitakere’s and go live in a cave out on the west coast, or find a craggy outcrop on the side of the mountain somewhere to spend years meditating and praying. But there is a lesson for us from those west coast beaches. In New Zealand for water safety reasons we are always told to swim between the flags, as a parent with the kids we will always try and swim between the flags. But at the same time as a body boarder my eyes would wander to the wild waves, where maybe it wasn’t so safe, but the waves were better. We’ve allowed that water safety message to apply to our faith as well. We’ll only go in between the flags, in a well defined safe environment. But our faith needs a bit of wilderness, its needs a bit of wild, not just tame and safe. God’s inviting us to meet him in the wild waves, in the wilderness places, on the edge, where it’s not safe, off the beaten path. That might be going on a retreat, or as Leonard Sweet calls them Wilderness spiritual advances, it maybe willing to step out of our comfort zones to do something we’ve never done before… But just like when we find ourselves awestruck by a ocean coast vista or mountain range or forest or desert landscape, it’s in those more wild places we will experience God’s presence, provision and glory. It is as we are prepared to step into the wild that we will renew our sense of God’s love for all the world and his call for us to go and share, and be, the good news of God’s kingdom.

A Covenant Relationship with the Land (Psalm 66)

Land and stories go together. Wonderfully illustrated in New Zealand’s and possibly the world’s longest place name, given to an unassuming hill near Poranagahau in the Hawkes Bay, "Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu”, its 85 characters long and tells a love story. in English it is "the place where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, who slid, climbed and swallowed mountains, known as 'landeater’, played his flute to his loved one." The locals just call the place Taumata hill for short.  

Land and identity are also very linked, as people groups, families and individuals… I was named ‘Howard” after the place where our family lived when I was born… “Point Howard” in Wellington, and of course I am always grateful that the family didn’t live in Christchurch in the suburb of Shirley. But having moved to Titirangi, in west Auckland when I was very young I can’t help but look at the Waitakere’s or down at the Manukau and feel a sense of belonging to that place. You could say “Mt Atkinson is my mountain and Big muddy creek is my river.”

Faith and land also go together. Our faith looks back to the Israel, to the small town of Bethlehem, a cross on a hill outside Jerusalem, an empty tomb carved into the rock, a gathering of disciples in an upper room in Jerusalem as the spirit of God descended on them.  Our denominations journey looks back to the Celtic saints and places like the island of Iona that St Columba used as a base for the Christianization of Scotland. It moves through the city of Geneva where John Knox fled religious persecution and sat under the teaching and influence of John Calvin. It moves to lands and islands where the missionary descendants of those people went to share the gospel.  In New Zealand it holds the story of people coming from all over. As a parish it talks of early growth of the town of Ellerslie, and the housing developments in Mt Wellington in the 40’s and 50’s and a coming together of two congregations that were planted to be God’s people in those places,  to this place and this building.

On a personal level there are places that I readily identify with significant events in my faith journey. Some church buildings like The little war memorial church on park road in Titirangi where I first experienced the reality of the presence of God, and the present Presbyterian Church there where that experience developed into a strong faith and I was nurtured and encouraged to take on leadership and ministry. There are many others, including this one. Beyond church buildings, places like Piha where I was baptized in a stream. The hill above the Arataki information center on the scenic drive where I went to pray when I had to decide about staying in Auckland or moving to Rotorua, and received a profound answer from God through his word. I remember God's guidance everytime I go past that hill. Even last week sitting on Maungakiekie (one tree hill) early in the morning and having God speak encouragement from my daily devotions. Probably you have those same connections to places as well. I don't think I will look at One Tree Hill anymore without remembering Paul's words "Do not Lose Heart" As you held the small pottle of dirt this morning in the service those kinds of stories, of who you are and your relationship with God may have come to mind.

The psalm we read this morning, invites all the earth to come and praise God and rejoice because of ‘His awesome deeds!’ following on from the psalm we looked at last week, this is not just an invite to the earths various people groups but the whole of creation to join in a great praise party. The previous psalm ended with images of harvest fields joining in a liturgical dance with the wind, grasses and wild flowers responding to God sending of rain, by painting the normally barren hillsides with vivid color. Animals reveling in what God has provided and the hills dressing themselves in there festive finery. As it was Forest Sunday we saw that as a reference to the forest and trees which Isaiah 55 tells us clap their hands with joy because of God’s saving deeds. If you’d seen the Church car park here on Thursday you’d think the trees were holding a dance party as the cabbage tree leaves shivered and shimmied in the wind, the Pohutukawa in the corner rock its head back and forwards and everything was in motion, as the wind blew.  

Psalm 66 invites all the earth to give thanks to God for his awesome deeds and moves on from the previous Psalm which looked at those deeds as creation, forgiveness, God’s sovereignty and God’s provision to look specifically at God’s saving acts for Israel. The Psalm gives no indication of when it was written, but it was a time when God had once again delivered Israel from their enemies, but like most of the Psalms it ties that in historically with the exodus. Specifically, God leading the people of Israel through the red sea and through the Jorden river on dryland. Leading them to victory over the various tribes and nations that had opposed them. The whole of creation is to see that what God has done for Israel now  is as miraculous as those two occasions and only makes sense when you see that it is God who is moving, God who is on the side of his people. For you and I equally we look back at the cross and the resurrection as God’s saving act in history, one that only makes sense when it viewed from the reality of God.

The psalmist then invites the people of the earth to see that God has been with and for his people during those past events and this present event and his purpose was to refine Israel. The imagery used in verse 8-12 are those of smelting precious metals like Gold and silver going through the furnace to have all the dross removed. Israel can look at the hardships and difficulties they have been through and see God using them to bring them in closer and closer relationship with him. Despite the fierce suffering’ says Gerald H Wilson, “ God’s intention for His people were good from the beginning and a blessing in the end when he bought them to a place of abundance.”

At the end of verse 12 the psalmist tells us Israel is bought to a place of abundance. In the case of the exodus it was into the land of Milk and honey, as a fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham. For Israel their relationship with the land and the lands around them is very much tied to their relationship with God, and their identity as God’s people. Israel’s story cannot be separated from the land, their continued occupation was dependent on their keeping their covenant with God and God’s covenant faithfulness, in the exile there hope was for God to restore them and during the diaspora, their heart cry had always been ‘next year in Jerusalem’… Now the Psalmist equally sees the end of the time of hardship and a return to knowing all the good things of God in that light as well.

The psalm then takes a turn. It moves from the Awesome deeds of God being for Israel to the psalmist’s individual experience of God’s forgiveness. It turns from communal experience of God’s salvation to personal testimony. From ‘Us” to “I”. The psalmist offers sacrifices to God and  invites God’s people to see that God has answered his personal prayers, forgiven him and bought him through the time of testing to being right with God. It’s a personal testimony of God’s saving grace. Creation is invited to see God’s awesome deeds in creation, forgiveness, sovereignty, provision and saving his people and now that becomes personal. It opens the psalm up to all of us to join our stories, our experience of the grace of God in Jesus Christ, our journeys through times, and suffering to places of abundant life. For God’s people to hear and be encouraged by and as part of why all of creation should rejoice and celebrate God’s goodness. In Jesus parables of the lost sheep and coin, the punch line is that the whole of heaven rejoices and parties when one sinner repents.

The psalm also gives a good picture of the truly repentant heart as one that does not cherish sin in my heart. It is easy to say the religious words of forgiveness but it requires a change of heart. Seeking God’s good not our own sinful desires.

It’s land Sunday and what does this have to say to us about the land.

We can’t simply bring the idea of Israel’s covenant relationship with God and its effect on the land forward to our own situation today.  We are not Israel, some people have tried to do that and it is a false interpretation of the scriptures. Brian Tamaki for instance made the connection between moral standards in New Zealand and natural disasters. That is in my humble opinion a wrong understanding of scripture. But when we think of land in New Zealand we do have to think of a covenant relationship, between Maori as Tangata Whenua, people of the land and the crown, the treaty of Waitangi. Part of the historical reasoning behind the treaty was that because of the awakening in England after the Wesleyan revivals that amongst the social changes that occurred such as the abolition of slavery and child labor, the setting up the RSPCA to look after animals, the push for universal education, and a great missionary movement, in foregin policy it showed itself in a desire to treat other people groups with respect and honorably, in New Zealand’s case with a treaty between two equal peoples. Sadly our history is that that covenant agreement has not always been honored. We have a bad track record. While there have been some attempts to address the wrongs of the past, we still have a long way to go to honor the intent of that treaty, it impacts on how we think of land and use land and make decisions today and in to the future, and who gets to make those decision.

Israel’s covenant relationship with God did have an impact on the land. As you look through the books of the law that make us the beginning of the scripture you see that their relationship called them to treat the land with respect and care. I guess you’d call them sustainable farming practices. While I don’t think you can simply take those practice across to be a text book for modern land uses. However, they do question intensification of farming where instead of harvest being a gift of god’s abundance land we can push for ever higher and higher productivity. The impact of such things on our waterways are an example of how this is not sustainable. 

Israel’s covenant relationship also spoke to who was to benefit from the land. The land was given not just for those who had the wealth to acquire it and profit from it, in fact Israel had strong laws to stop the wealthy from taking a lion’s share of the land. The jubilee was to be a time when land was given back to its original owners. It could be why it never happened. But the poor were to be allowed to glean the crops in the fields. In the book of Ruth Boaz instructs his harvesters to leave a little extra for Ruth and Naomi, yes because he was attracted to Ruth but also because he was a honest and righteous man. In a time of increased inequality, it’s important that remember that the abundance of the land is to be for the benefit of all. In our more urban non-agrarian world, it may be more about living wages and a better welfare system, be it governmental or the non-government sector.  Part of the housing crisis is that instead of having the New Zealand dream that everyone should be able to own a home we tell ourselves the narrative that land ownership is wealth creation. Even first home buyers are said to be getting on the first rung of the property market, rather than simply getting a home for their family.

Going back to the connection between the land and God’s awesome deeds. The land as part of God’s creation is invited to join in giving praise to God for what he has done. I think it calls us who know God’s salvation and grace, who have experienced God’s lavish love and mercy should care for our fellow worshiper. Psalm 65 painted a picture of the land in its festive best as both God’s provision and as being called to celebrate his awesome deeds. The picture is of creation in its finest, not as beaten and battered, marred and scared, polluted and misused, limping in and made to stand at the back like the poor person in James chapter 2, while we all jostle for front row seats. Our story of God’s awesome saving deeds in Jesus Christ, is one of grace that calls us to new relationship with God, a love for God’s people and a universal call to all people to know God’s goodness and it calls us to identify with the land God has given and to care for it as God’s creation.  It is the story of God leading all of us to a place of his abundance.

A reslient Faith: Knocked down but never out (Psalm 129)

In the recent News Hub leaders debate Bill English was asked a question about the last time he was leader and lead the national party to its worst election defeat ever. Surely that was a fatal blow for him as a political leader? What is different now?  “well” said Bill “I got back up.”  His vision for serving New Zealand meant he wasn’t going to give up, He is going to keep going. Psalm 129 presents a faith like that a resilient faith that has often been knocked down but never out.

Psalm 129 is a song of confidence: resplendent with images from agriculture and rural life. That confidence says Bible commentator Leslie Allen.  “is not a trite statement of easy faith or shallow optimism.”  it comes from suffering and lament tearfully bought before God. It is a confidence that is “painfully aware of past ordeals and of present threats”, that has “learned that the light of salvation lies at the end of a dark tunnel of suffering.” It is a confidence in the righteousness of God.

The Psalm is introduced by a personal statement of suffering “they have greatly oppressed me from my Youth”. It is probably written in the post exilic period, when the psalmist recalls his own experience of captivity, displacement and persecution. At least it as written in a time when scars and wounds of that time still very raw and real.  He then identifies his personal suffering with that of His fellow Jews. Let Israel say “they have greatly oppressed me from my youth”. This is a psalm of ascent and the pilgrims coming to worship in the temple in Jerusalem are invited to see their own stories of struggle and sorrow, pain and persecution, as part of a wider and bigger story of the people of God. In that identifying with all of God’s people is both comfort and hope.

It invites the pilgrim to look back at Israel’s history, and that of Jerusalem and see that from the exodus onwards there have been times when the people and the city has been threatened, laid siege to, overrun and finally conquered by the Babylonians, but here it is now flourishing again. It has been oppressed but they have not gained victory over it. It has been knocked down but never out. The Psalmist uses the language of the field to talk of the suffering involved. Ploughing and making long furrows the metaphor he uses for the bite of whip and scourge on a back.

The first half od the psalm however finishes with an affirmation of God’s righteous intervention on behalf of his people. God has cut free the cords of the wicked. Not only did the people of Israel feel the  oppressors whip but the image here is of being tied to the plough made to bear the yoke of oppression, but God has come to their aid and set them free. This is the hope that gives the psalmist confidence that in the past God has intervened, God has moved and bought freedom. Here even after seventy years in Babylonian captivity when the temple was destroyed and the city walls knocked down is Jerusalem once again a city, once again the centre of worship. The psalmist and the pilgrim both are back in the land, back in the city and back to the temple.

For the psalmist and for the pilgrim and for us. As we connect our suffering and sorrow with God’s people, down through the ages we can have the same confidence in God’s righteousness. That God can set us free from the things that would bind us and oppress us. We may not see the way forward now but we can have confidence in God’s righteousness. From beyond the cross and the empty tomb we see how that was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Not just the foes of Israel as a nation but the very oppressive forces of sin and death, are overcome, and await their final ultimate defeat in Christ return. WE look back at the saints and martyrs who have followed Jesus Christ and suffered the scourge and captivity, pain and sorrow, hardship and suffering and see the perseverance of their faith and the perseverance of the gospel. Their trust in the ultimate victory of God’s righteousness. Mahatma Ghandi puts it on the world scale like this “Remember that all through history, there have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they seem invincible. But in the end, they always fall. Always.”.

In this psalm, I also couldn’t help but hear the words of Jesus in juxtaposition with the oppressor’s plough. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Not a demand but an invitation, not placing unbearable hardship on a person, but rather an invite to carry the load together.

That’s a good way to turn to look at the second strope in the Psalm, which deals with the present threats that Israel and the pilgrim face. If you read through Nehemiah and Ezra, we see that there were forces that did not want to see Jerusalem rebuilt or prospering, that planned to see it turned back to shame. With the assurance of God’s past intervention, the psalmist now knows that their schemes and plans will come to very little.

I was waiting down on princes wharf for my wife to finish showing her family through the maritime museum and I looked down and out of the wooden beams that made the original wharf I saw these plants growing. Several different types. They were flowering and looked quite nice and healthy against the blue of the harbour, they may have even been stowaways from boats that had docked there from overseas, but despite their best efforts there future was bleak, they were not going to flourish or develop here, there was nowhere for them to grow and I’m sure they would soon be spotted by the city council and disposed of.  This is the picture that the psalmist uses for those who plot against Israel.

In the ancient near east houses had flat roofs and people would spend time on these outside roof spaces in the hot weather. The Psalmist uses the metaphor of grass that grows in the dirt that would be blown or swept to the corners and sides of that roof to talk of people opposed to Jerusalem. Weeds that try and spring up between the pavers on our patios or tiles on the balcony The current threats that he and the pilgrims who would use this psalm faced. The Psalm is a prayer that such things would produce a harvest that could even be held in the hand of the harvester.  With the memory of God’s saving acts in the past he can have such a confidence.

In the Old Testament at harvest time, the greeting to the harvester from those walking pasts would be “the blessing of the Lord be on you” you can see it in the book of Ruth as Boaz greets the workers in his field in Ruth 2:4. But here the image is that they will not be greeted in such a way as their fields and endeavours and plans have been thwarted. Rather the Psalm finishes with a priestly benediction on those whom God has showing his salvation to “We bless you in the name of the LORD” the psalm finishes with an affirmation of God’s blessing despite current threats. What started with memories of Oppression and suffering now finish with the assurance of God’s blessing and presence.

My prayer for you today is that you may know God’s blessing. In our New testament reading today from John16, the night on which Jesus was betrayed and right before his death on the cross Jesus summed up the faith and the confidence of Psalm 129 for his disciples and for us who follow in their footsteps just as the pilgrims did the psalmist. After he had finished talking of his crucifixion and a time when because of it we can ask thing in Jesus Name he finished “I have told you these things that you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But Take heart! I have overcome the world.”  We have the confidence in weather we face personal battles and hardships or we join with our persecuted brothers and sisters round the world of God’s goodness and his justice and its final victory in Jesus Christ. May prayer is that you may have that confidence and trust in our good God.

Psalm 65:God's awesome deeds shown in forgiveness, stabilizing presence and provision (Forest Sunday)

The view out our kitchen window never fails to amaze me. We can see out over the neighbours rooftops down to the port at Onehunga, over the Mangere basin to Mangere bridge. Mt Mangere kind of hides behind a kauri tree in the vacant lot next door. Then if you look left you can see the Manukau stretching down to the distant Awhitu peninsula. It is particularly wonderful at dawn and dusk. That magic hour as the sun rises and sets. As our outlook is to the south we can see the impact of first and last light on this vista.

On clear days that kauri tree next door, glows with reds and golds, it’s leaves take on a vivid almost iridescent green. The water reflects the same hues and can be gold or red, just a breath taking moment.  As a prelude or curtain call to when  sun and horizon meet, the harbour and the distant hills everything can become the subtlest of mauves. Even the concrete silo’s down at the wharf catch the light and reflect the amazing colour changes. These rather ugly industrial structures join in the light show, which proclaims the grandeur of God’s creation. A bit flowery I know but that’s what came to mind when I reflected on verse 8 of Psalm 65

“The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders

Where morning dawns, where evening fades

You call forth joy”

This Psalm of David invites the entire world to give praise to God for his awesome deeds. Verse 8 is just not about those awe inspiring sunrises and sunsets but is a universal call for all people from the east where the sun rises and to the west where it sets to come and worship God. 

In three stanzas. It gives three reasons to praise God.

The first is that God answers Prayer and forgives sins. This starts with the faithful who fulfil their vows before God. But it expands beyond just the faithful, just Israel, to all people. God is the one who hears all prayer and answers, who is able to meet that most basic of human need of forgiveness and fresh start. The psalmist finishes that with a wonderful picture of people coming from all over the world to the temple, coming as God’s invited guests to be filled with the good things that God has for us.  

It points us to a God who loves and care for all of humanity, it points us to the person of Jesus Christ, his death on the cross and his resurrection, which are means by which God has answered our prayers for forgiveness and fresh start. It looks forward to the invitation Jesus offers to all who will come to him to be the Children of the most high and dwell in the presence of God and experience the abundant and eternal life Christ offers. Not just in a building, like the temple but by the Spirit of God dwelling within them, within us.

The second stanza calls us to give thanks because of God’s awesome deeds in the provision of security and stability in the midst of turmoil. Again it starts with God’s people as they call God their saviour but broadens out to encompass the ends of the earth and the farthest sea. For the Hebrews the seas were unknown and uncertain symbols of conflict and chaos. The power of God is shown in the fact that he has established the mountains, he has set a limit to the sea and is able to calm the sea and the equally chaotic turmoil of human history as well.

It is easy for us to think that the world is out of control, that there is no hope. But the psalm invites us to see that God is still sovereign and moving. The psalm answers the disciples question about Jesus after he has calmed the storm that threatened to swamp their boat out in the middle of the lake. In amazement, they wondered “who is this that even the wind and the waves obey him”. The Psalmist knows. It gives us hope as we face issues in our lives and crisis in our world that God is present and at work. I wonder if the recent uprise in people’s concern about climate change and the churches rediscovery of creation care as part of our mission isn’t part of God’s sovereign move in history in the face of our rampant growth in technology and consumerism with little regard for its effects on the world.

The stanza finished with a declaration that all of creation shows God’s awesome deeds. EM Blaiklock comments “ All creation speaks to a reverent mind of the might of the intelligence behind Creation.”

The final stanza talks of God’s great acts in providence. It may have been a psalm originally written for harvest time, and it celebrates a good harvest. It starts again with God’s blessing of Israel but soon moves to include all people, they are to see how God has blessed Israel and so come to worship him as well. More than that because of God’s provision of water and sun, the whole of creation is pictured as joining in a joyful party to praise God. the corn sprouts and ripens and waves its head in a liturgal dance with the wind. The grass and wildflowers blossom and bloom and paint the desert with joyful and vibrant colour, stock revel in abundance, and the hills dress themselves in their party clothes, which maybe a reference here to the remnants of forests in Israel.  

It’s forest Sunday and it would easy to ask the question where are the trees and the forests in this psalm. Didn’t they get an invite to this party. Israel you have to remember was a desert and agrarian people. Their harvest was dependant on rain at the right time, in marginal lands. When it did come the barren rocky ground on the hills round Jerusalem would have been covered with grass and flowers, for the sheep and cattle to graze on. So there wasn’t much forest in Israel at that time. But they did see trees as a form of blessing from God. In Psalm 1 a tree with a permanent and reliable water source is used to illustrate someone who puts their trust in God. The cedars of Lebanon are one of God’s wonders. In Isaiah 40 as Isaiah talks of God bringing his people home from exile, the picture he uses is a straight tree lined road. God’s restoration of his people is echoed in trees growing in the desert. In Isaiah 55, which we had  as a call to worship this morning, trees rejoice and clap their hands because we come to know him, we respond to the word of God which comes down to the earth and achieves everything God had for it to do, creation rejoices because of what Jesus Christ has done for us. In the vision that Ezekiel has in chapter 47, a river flows from the temple refreshing the land.  Along its banks fruit trees grow, that provide healing and that are always in season. It’s an image of God pouring out his spirit and you and I bearing fruit that bring healing as we allow the spirit to water our lives, But also a picture that that should have an impact on a dry and barren land. I’m also sure if David knew the science of how the trees and forests act to provide the air we breathe he would have placed forests equally in a psalm that spoke of Gods providence and provision.

Maybe it’s easy for us to be like this Psalm and forget the forest and the role it plays in God’s good creation.  When I drive around New Zealand I am always struck by the beauty of the green pasture on the rolling Hills. Then I am reminded that this is a relatively recent development in our country. Off on the distant hills there is the darker green of native bush, and you realise how much has been cleared. A process of deforestation that is going on all round the world, contributing to the erosion of our top soil, taking away the filter for what gets into our water ways.  Destroying valuable habitat for the animals that live there, Habitats that Psalm 104 says are equally God’s provision, God’s purpose for all flesh, human and animal.

It’s good to see on a local level people doing something about it. Land in native forest being set aside. I have a friend Tom who works for the Queen Elizabeth II trust in the South Island to encourage and help land owners put blocks of native forest into that trust so they are preserved for future generation. Marginal land is being reforested, another friend of mine is a well known New Zealand conservationist. Who I used to drive round the country because he didn’t have a car and he would tell me stop and get out and disappear into the bush and come back with karaka berries, or the seeds of a rear golden rata tree that he knew was in the bush by the side of the road, or at Cape reanga I had to watch as he disappeared out tha car and over the cliffs to get seeds for dwarf manuka and kanuka trees that grew only there. But he has been involved in buying land and replanting native forest in northland to link the kauri forests. He invented the special roading that goes through the waipoua forest, to protect the tree roots from the damage of ashphalt and cars.  Way back in 1987 he sat up trees in the Pureora forest to save it from logging and pushed to have it made a conservation reserve. That is part of his Christian faith. For us it maybe as simple as being willing to plant more trees.

In the end psalm 65 invites us to see the creation around us as a gift from God, part of his blessing and provision for the whole of humanity. Beyond that focus on what it does for us it declares that the whole earth is God’s and speaks of the awe of his wonderful deeds. These form a solid foundation for Christians to see how we use and care for what God has given as an important part of our witness and practise. The universality of these gifts from God call and challenge us to engage on a global scale as well. What we have learned is that the ends of the earth and the farthest seas are a lot closer than the Psalmist imagined What we do here has an impact all over. Finally this Psalms praise of God as the one who provides forgiveness gives us hope, beyond simply being about coming to faith in Jesus Christ, can I say that’s important and central to our mission as a church but it speaks to the fact that change is possible, that we can make a fresh start and do things differently.