Psalm 145
David A. Davis
July 9, 2023
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Everyday I will give you a shout out, O God. Everyday I will bless you and praise you and love you and serve you and live for you. Everyday now and forever. Well, that’s my prayer, that’s my desire, that’s my intent, Holy One. By your grace and in your Spirit, and yes with your help every day. But everyday is not a mountain top. I know that. You know that too. But God is great and God is good. I know that too. I try to tell myself that every day. A greatness that defies definition and understanding and a goodness that I can only describe as steadfast love. A goodness I can only imagine in your Son Jesus and his servanthood, his selflessness, his self-emptying, his vision of the world you intend. God is good all the time, they say. But the world surely isn’t. That’s why the everyday part is a prayer not a pledge, not a promise.
One generation after another and after another sings about you, worships you, gathers in your name. Each generation passes forward the gift of faith you give us. Each generation tells the stories to the next. Indeed, multiple of generations get together every week; infants, toddlers, children, young people, students, new parents, new grandparents, saints whose life has reached the psalmist span of four score and ten by reason of strength. They sing praise to you together. They talk and listen about Jesus together. They pray to you together. They pray for one another together. They pray for, yearn for, work for a world that can be good, should be better. The world you long for. One generation praising your works to another. I see it every Sunday. Its part of what Millie’s baptism means. One generation to another telling of all you have done, of what you have done for them. We don’t go to the fount by ourselves. We go arm in arm with the generations who tell of your wonderful work.
Tell of your beauty. Talkabout your works of forgiveness, and new life, and gifts of the Spirit, and resurrection hope. Your greatness, your majesty, your wonder, it’s not just something to see in the beauty of creation unstained by human touch, or a stunning sunrise at the shore that trumpets the gift of a new day. For your greatness, your majesty, your wonder is alive and abundant in us, through us, if we just look around. Or maybe if everyone could sit where I sit and see what I see; your people, your children, gathered to praise and worship you. Here to tell again and remember again your goodness, you joy, your righteousness. Generations gathered to lift our hearts before you. Here we are to worship you. It is like a kiss of your grace that we try to save for later. Because everyday we will praise you and bless your name forever. It’s a prayer, not a pledge, not a promise.
Precious Lord, you are gracious and full of compassion. Your mercy is always your first move; quicker than anger. A mercy that drips with love. That compassion, that mercy, that love pours out upon all that you have made. All of your handiwork. All your handiwork shall show forth your praise and speak of the glory of your kingdom. Everything you have made should be a mirror, a reflection, an echo of you and your goodness. Should be. Shall be. But it isn’t. It doesn’t. We don’t. Certainly not every day. The world’s brokenness, it’s fallenness, is real. Sin and evil and darkness and hatred and violence and greed and power. It’s gone viral. It’s infectious. Contagious. Always has been. We know that. You know that. That’s why the everyday part is so darn difficult, God.
When the July 4th holiday is measured not by the number of parades but the number of mass shootings. When the highest court in the land issues decision after decision that preserves power and privilege for some while tearing at the fabric of liberty and justice for all. While so many seem to invoke the name of Jesus to claim superiority or justify bigotry or declare others less worthy, less human. When the literal storms of life seem to come more often, destroy more often, when wars never cease and tyrants rage, when the onslaught of illness and death never seems to stop. Yeah, the everydayness of singing your praise is a challenge Lord.
Your kingdom is an everlasting one. Your kingdom cannot be shaken. The kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours forever and ever and ever. You are faithful but in word and in deed. You reach down to embrace the broken. You lift up the weak. You strengthen the brokenhearted. You comfort the grieving. You find the lost. You are near to all who call upon you and you watch over all who try to love you every day. Even when it’s a rag tag love. Even when it’s a half-hearted love. Even when we forget our love for you. You love us still. Your love is for us still. Because God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. Every Day! Our mouths will give shouts to you, our hearts, our flesh, our soul will bless you and lift your holy name forever and ever.
It’s a prayer, not a pledge, not a promise. The promise is yours. The promise is you. “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, God’s mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (Lamentations) “Weeping may linger for the night but joy comes with the morning.” (Psalm 30) “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you…You are precious in my sight and honored and I love you” (Isaiah 42). “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God and God abides in them”. “As I have loved you” Jesus says, “you should love one another.” “I will be with you to the end of the age.” God is grace. God’s first move is mercy. God abounds in steadfast love. God’s promise. Our prayer.
It is our prayer for Millie. Our prayer for all the baptized. That with the same grace she baths in this morning, that with your same grace you will bath her every morning. That with your love that I described to sister Rosie, a love that will never, ever be taken away, that Millie will bask in your love all the days of her life. That your Spirit, the Spirit that so freshly anoints Millie this morning, that your same Spirit will go before her, surround her, fill her, and forever anoint her life in you as a child of God. Everyday. Everyday. Everyday. For how your love, grace, and mercy comes to ritual focus in our lives through the gift of baptism, our mouths will give shouts to you, our hearts, our flesh, our soul will bless you and lift your holy name forever and ever.
It’s our prayer for Millie, for all the baptized, for us. It’s our prayer, your promise. Not that we can praise you everyday but that you walk with us every day. Not that we can tell of your handiwork everyday but that you will give us sure and certain signs of resurrection hope every day. Not that there won’t be days when we fall, when we fall right in with the world’s brokenness but that healing forgiveness of Jesus Christ picks us up every day. On the longest of days and the darkest of nights when the only shout we can muster is one of anger or lament, you are there. Like the psalmist, if we find ourselves on the highest mountain top reaching for heaven or if we plunge into the depths of suffering that is hell on earth, you are there.
But we know, and you know too, that we are so utterly, profoundly, deeply…human. So when it comes to your promise, we ask you to tell us, remind us, poke us, prod us, tell us about your promise every day. Yes, yes, it’s true. We probably can’t and don’t give you the proper shout with our lips, our hearts, our lives every day, But we are bold enough, confident enough, needy enough, human enough to ask for to tell us every day. Everyday. Everyday. It would be a gift, really, God. And it sure would help us to be better when it comes to our prayer. “I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever.”
Holy, Loving, Merciful God, it was not long ago, a few weeks, a few days, it seems like just yesterday actually, our granddaughter Franny, told me something for the very first time. She was on facetime. A screen full of face. She said, “Love you, Poppop”. And I know, and you know too Lord, I will never, ever forget that moment. Franny may not remember, she’s just a bit over two. I will never forget. So I hope it’s not too much to ask but I think you will understand, Holy One. Some days, maybe not every day, but somedays, even just one day, in the mystery and gift of your Spirit, can you tell us again of your love for us so we can hear it again for the first time. Maybe that will help us not to forget.
That’s our prayer and it is your promise. For like Millie and all the baptized, we bath in your grace every day. We bask in your love every day. Your Spirit will go before us, surround us, fill us, and forever anoint our life in you as a child of God. Everyday. Everyday. Everyday.