Psalm 66
July 12
David A. Davis
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“Be joyful in God, all you lands; be joyful all the earth,” the psalmist says, and the psalmist goes on to describe the enemies cringing because of God’s great power. “Come now and see the words of God, how awesome are God’s deeds toward the people,” the psalmist says, and the psalmist goes on to describe the Exodus; the sea turning into dry land, the people of God passing through the river on foot. “Bless our God, you peoples, let the sound of praise be heard!” the psalmist says, and the psalmist goes on to describe a people being tested by God, “tried as silver is tried”. “Come and listen, all you who believe, and I will tell you what God has done for me,” the psalmist says, and the psalmist goes on to describe a God who truly listens when the cry goes out, when the prayer is lifted up, a God who gives heed when words are spoken.
Make a joyful noise. Come and see. Let the sounds of praise be heard. Come and hear. A psalm of praise. A psalm of thanksgiving that ends with this: “Blessed be God, who has not rejected my prayer, nor withheld unfailing love from me.” The psalmist ends with God’s steadfast love for me. God’s power. God’s Exodus. God’s testing. God’s hearing and heeding. God’s steadfast love. The song of the psalmist; it begins with God’s power, and it ends with God’s love. It begins with God’s creation, and it ends with God’s unfailing love. It begins with all the earth giving glory to God, and it ends with God’s steadfast love for me.
If one were to look at a table of contents of the Book of Psalms, one would notice themes or types of psalms often grouped. Psalms of lament here, psalms of praise there, psalms in celebration of the kingship of God here, psalms of ascent, psalms for going up to Jerusalem there. Psalms where every instrument and all of creation joins the song. Psalm 66 takes its place among a few psalms of thanksgiving and praise. On either side of the psalm, the psalm before and the psalm after the one numbered 66, there are songs of thanksgiving offered to God for a bountiful harvest. The last notes sung, the last words spoken in those psalms reverberate with the harvest. “The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy, the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together with joy.” Psalm 65. “The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, has blessed us; let all the ends of the earth revere the Lord.” Psalm 67. Songs of the harvest.
Right there in between, right in between the harvest songs, is Psalm 66. With Psalm 66, the harvest celebrated is the unfailing, steadfast love of God. With Psalm 66, the lingering echo rings of the unfailing, steadfast love of God. “Blessed be God, who has not rejected my prayer nor withheld unfailing from me.” Psalms of praise. Psalms of thanksgiving. Meadows and valleys shouting and singing together with joy. The earth yielding its increase. God’s unfailing, steadfast love never removed from me. God’s unfailing, steadfast love for me. The bountiful, overflowing, increase-yielding love of God for me. Thanks be to God.
Soon after I arrived at Nassau Church as your pastor, I sought to build a support system that would eventually include a gaggle of experienced pastors, a clergy bible study, an existing prayer group that I had been in for a decade or so, and a spiritual director. Hugh Smith had a practice as a spiritual director in an office at the Ewing Presbyterian Church. Hugh had been the pastor of the Covenant Presbyterian Church in Trenton for decades. At our first session, after some pleasantries and casual chat, Hugh said: “Well, let’s begin then”. He said a prayer, and he lit a candle. Then we sat in silence. After several minutes, never having been to a spiritual director before, I broke the silence. “I’m sorry, Hugh, how is this supposed to work? I have never done this before.” Hugh gently and patiently responded. “Dave, this is the time for you to reflect and share anything on your heart and mind as a beloved child of the God who loves you unconditionally.”
A long, long time ago, a church member came to me to ask for some advice. Their young child had been invited by a friend to go to Vacation Bible School at a friend’s church. The member of my first congregation was concerned because they didn’t know that congregation or what would be taught and whether it was okay to send their daughter along with the friend. I didn’t know the congregation or the pastor either. But I offered some encouragement with a suggestion. “If it were one of my kids (who were of Bible School age at the time), I would just listen as they told of the day at the dinner table. I wouldn’t want one of my kids hearing that God is a God to be scared about rather than being told over and over again that God loves them.”
“Blessed be God, who has not rejected my prayer, nor withheld unfailing love from me.” Some of you will remember the Sunday in the early 2000’s when there were protestors out on the sidewalk from the Westboro Baptist church in Topeka, Kansas. The group was and is well known for their hatred, bigotry, and vitriol for the queer community. We had been notified by the Princeton police that they had applied for a permit and planned to protest all the congregations on Nassau Street. We were able to let the congregation know before that Sunday with a letter and a request to not engage the protesters. That mostly worked. As I stood shaking hands with my robe on outside at the door, someone kept yelling, “Your pastor wears a dress.” But the much more troubling, disturbing part was all the signs that began with the words “God hates”. I don’t see how one can believe deep within the soul that “God loves me” and turn around at the same time and believe that God hates someone else. For “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.”
As you can imagine, pastors get asked a lot of questions. Parents send us their children for the tougher questions about God. Folks make appointments to ask questions about God and life that have tugged at them for years. Questions about the bible about theology, about eternity, about just about everything. I can’t remember the last time anyone asked me if I believed that God loved me. Or if ever I’ve been asked. By you, by the Pulpit Nominating Committee that called me years ago, by a presbytery committee when I was ordained in 1986, when I was examined on the floor of presbytery, by one of my parents when they sent me off into the world, by the pastor of my church in high school when we talked about the ministry as a vocation. “Hey Dave, do you believe that God loves you?”
The psalmist sings of God’s power, God’s Exodus, God’s testing. God’s hearing. God’s heeding, and the biblical hymn of praise ends with God’s unfailing, steadfast love for me. Blessed be God who has not removed God’s unfailing, steadfast love from me. Come and see what God has done! Bless our God, O peoples, let the sound of God’s praises be heard. Come and hear, all you who worship God, and I will tell you what God has done. The psalmist proclaims that the God who created the heavens and the earth, the same God, creates this steadfast love for me as sure as the rising sun, as essential to salvation history as crossing the sea on dry land, as real as the challenges and testing that come day by day. As much as I believe God hears my prayers, the psalmist concludes, I believe God’s steadfast love is for me.
I rise before you church, to proclaim that I believe deep within my heart, with all the confidence that I can muster, that God loves me; that before I am a husband, or a father, or a grandfather, or a brother, or an uncle, or a friend, or Steeler fan, or a minister, or a preacher, or a pastor, before all of that, I rise each day and go to bed each night giving thanks for God’s steadfast love for me. That I am a child of God who yearns to nestle into that love, knowing that I belong, in life and in death, to Christ Jesus. And that God will never remove God’s unfailing, steadfast love from me.
My peer group of Presbyterian pastors met at the Palms Presbyterian Church in Jacksonville Beach quite a number of years ago. 25 senior pastors from around the country. As our time together was coming to an end, we ended with worship and communion led by a young associate pastor and a few members of the session. We were also invited to come forward for anointing for wholeness and healing, an anointing on the forehead with oil. As we came forward and were waiting in a line for our turn, the words of the elder anointing foreheads could be heard over and over. “May the God of all love and grace fill you with God’s Spirit, that any brokenness may be healed by the God of life.” Or in other words, the elder was reminding the clergy, know again, right now, that God loves you.
Later in the day, a few of us were golfing together at TPC Sawgrass. It was a stunningly beautiful day. A breeze blowing, the sun setting. We hit some good ones. We hit some bad ones. At one point I realized I could smell the oil. I could still smell the oil from my forehead. Appropriately so, it smelled like baby oil. Getting a whiff again, an aroma reminder of God’s love. That I am a child of God and God will never remove God’s unfailing, steadfast love from me. I don’t know about you, but I could use a whiff of that every now and then.
“Blessed be God, who has not rejected my prayer, nor withheld God’s unfailing, steadfast love from me.” Or from you.
Thanks be to God.