When I was dating, I remember one of the things I learned from the various woman I dated was that public attention, particular in front of other women, was very powerful. If I held hands with, or praised, or declared my love for a woman in front of others, and particularly in front of her female circles, well, that woman would just adore me, as would all her girlfriends. Sending flowers to the woman at work, for example, where all the women she worked with would see it, declared that the is woman was truly special to me.
Public praise is powerful. It gets people's attention. It says something both about the one being praised and the one doing the praising.
We don't often hear sermons preached on the psalms, and for this reason I thought for the season of Epiphany I'd draw your attention to these ancient songs.
And songs are what they are. The psalms were written to be sung, and to this day in Jewish worship, they are. The psalms were written to be sung when the people of God were gathered together. Even though many of the songs use the first person voice, they were all intended to be sung by a congregation, they are all of them meant to be acts of public worship carried out by the gathered people of God.
I think it's always important to pay attention to the original purpose of a biblical writing. While we may use the psalms for all kinds of purposes, the original purpose of the psalms was to be sung in the context of public worship. Some psalms were entrance rites, some were for the occasion of a new king's coronation, some were laments, some were confessional. This psalm's purpose was very simple. It is a call to worship and praise God.
God requires us, commands us really, to praise him. It's part of our job as God's people, part of the way that we make God known in the world. In praising God right out in public, or as the saying goes, in front of God and everybody, we are carrying out a part of the mission God has given us. This practice has tremendous power, not only for the world who hears us praise God, but for us who do the praising.
In this psalm we begin by calling the heavenly beings to join us in bowing down to God and ascribing to God all power and majesty and glory, forsaking all other gods. We then go on to sing in praise of God's voice.
In the psalm, we declare that voice of God is in the howling of a storm. Now I don't think the original psalmist actually thought that God had vocal cords. He is using a metaphor and since he is using a metaphor we know that he is trying to say something even more profound.
The psalmist has given us a way to make a surprising, even shocking announcement. The whole congregation, the church all over the world, says at one time and in one voice that God, the creator of the universe, deigns to be present to ordinary people, that the eternal deity chooses to enter into the fleeting moments of history, that the one who could with a word destroy all that is broken and imperfect chooses instead to love it and gently nurture it into wholeness.
Now, I'm reminded of a very funny sermon Fred Craddock preached about people's terror of saying anything. Some of us were talking about it the other day with regard to our early service here at Philippi. It seems that certain people always do the talking. The rest keep their mouths shut. Some of this is due to the fear of being expected to say something.
"I can do anything you ask me, preacher, but for God's sake don't ask me to say anything."
And yet when we are truly devoted to someone, when we really care about someone, when we really admire someone, we seem to have no difficulty carrying on at length about our admiration or love, don't we? The person who was commenting that the same people always spoke during early service also was terrified of saying anything during the service about God, but in our conversation went on at some length telling about a friend. Now if we can talk at length about a friend, why is it we can't talk at all about God?
References are powerful. They get people jobs. Recommendations are powerful. They get people to visit businesses. Good reviews are powerful. They get people to go to movies or watch TV shows. And the praise of God by a human being is powerful. It gets people to believe.
And if the voices of people are powerful, how much more so is the voice of God. And the voice of God almost always comes to us through the vocal chords of people. The words of holy scripture, the inspired words of a preacher, the testimony of a believer, all become in some way the voice of the Lord. What is awe-inspiring is not simply how far beyond us God is, but that the God that is so far beyond us nevertheless chooses us ordinary folk to speak with God's voice, and to do what God wants done in the world.
Did the voice of the Lord actually speak supernaturally at Jesus' baptism? Perhaps it did, but even if it did not, it was clear from Christ's life and teaching that he was indeed the fulfillment of the law and the prophets, that these writings, these words, this voice of God throughout history, endorsed Jesus as the Christ, the son of the living God, not merely begotten of flesh but actually begotten of God.
Do we send flowers to God at work? Do we hold hands with God in front of our friends? Do we declare our love for God in front of other people? In our baptisms, God declared for us, right in front of everyone. He said, "This one will do great things for me." God put trust in us, and at the same time gave us a mission to carry out. Every Christian that gives up on that mission or only carries it out half-heartedly contributes to the growing faithlessness of our culture. And everyone who testifies to God with real words is like the mighty wind that strips the bark off oaks and makes mountains jump, but which nevertheless chooses to move with gentleness and peace among the beloved people.
In the coming week, make note of how many times you give testimony. How many times do you recommend a product, how many times do you speak highly of your spouse, how many times do you commend a friend or acquaintance? And how many times do you in your speech tear someone down, ruin their reputation, undermine them in their pursuits? How many times do you listen to others speaking well or harshly about others? And most importantly, when do you give testimony to Jesus Christ? When do you encourage others to have faith in him? When do you discourage faith? When do you remove the stumbling blocks for others and when do you put them out there like booby traps for others to fall over?
In our baptism, God has offered us God's own mighty voice. It's not for nothing that there are not one but two commandments regarding speech. One is to be careful not to use the name of God wrongly. The other is to be careful not to use anyone else's name wrongly. What we say is powerful, and as God's people, what we say can take the bark off trees.
In praising God's great power, we receive it. In declaring for God, God declares for us.
Amen.
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