“ TRUST IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD”
Psalm 23 & Acts 2:42-47
23:1 The LORD is
my shepherd, I shall not want.
23:2 You make me
lie down in green pastures; AND lead me beside still waters;
23:3 You restore
my soul. You lead me in right
paths for Your name's sake.
23:4 Even though
I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your
rod and your staff-- they comfort me.
23:5 You prepare
a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
23:6 Surely
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell
in the house of the LORD my whole life long.
Acts 2:42-47
2:42 They
devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of
bread and the prayers.
2:43 Awe came
upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles.
2:44 All who
believed were together and had all things in common;
2:45 they would
sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had
need.
2:46 Day by day,
as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and
ate their food with glad and generous hearts,
2:47 praising
God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to
their number those who were being saved.
The 23rd
Psalm, this Psalm is definitely the most well-known of all the Psalms and one
of the top three most memorized scriptural texts along with the Lord’s Prayer
and John 3:16. In our culture, it
has come to be associated with the time of dying either as a comfort to the one
who is dying or to those at the funeral who
are mourning. Today let us look at this Psalm, as a
roadmap for the living. If we
follow this roadmap, we can feel anew the transformative power of dwelling in
the HOUSE of the LORD. In other
words, let’s look at that last line of the Psalm: “and I shall dwell in
the house of the LORD my whole life long.” in a radically God-centered way, then we are
invited into
household of God – where we always feel at home, no matter what our pain or
trials.
Let’s
walk through the Psalm’s as it builds to its ending in the House of the LORD:
First: The LORD is my shepherd, I shall
not want.
The
Psalm begins with the reminder that God provides all we need. We are encouraged
to have faith that we will have all that we need: God’s protective power and presence. In the ancient
world, kings were to shepherd their people and provide for them, but that did
not always happen. God, on the
other hand, could be counted on to provide life and security. Just
as the shepherd provides the water — sheep don’t like
gurgling water, they like still water — and the shepherd provides green
pastures — sheep like to save the greenest pastures for just before their
naptime.
“Makes me to lie down in green
pastures.”
And then:
“Even
though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me;
your rod and your staff-- they comfort me.”
“I will
fear no evil.” Well, that is
hard! FEAR can grip us, cause our hearts to race, tense our
muscles with clenched jaw. The top
fears are: fear of public
speaking, snakes, confined spaces, heights, and The fear of death. And yet the psalmist says, we are to
fear no evil.
The Hebrew words for death and
shepherd are strikingly similar — so the psalmist is pitting these against one
another—this is a PLAY ON WORDS.
the shepherd defeats death —— follow the shepherd and you will have, abundant
life and conquer death.
There
is an actual Valley of the Shadow of Death in Palestine and every shepherd
knows of it. It is south of
Jericho Road leading from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea. It is a narrow path through a mountain range. Four and one
half miles long, BUT it is only 10 to 12 feet wide at the bottom. Shepherds move the sheep through this
valley for seasonal feeding each year, and the road is treacherous with gullies
7 feet deep and wild dogs lurking in the shadows looking for prey. The good shepherd uses his rod and his
staff to protect the sheep. The rod was a stick about a yard long sometimes with a crook on
one end. This rod can be used to circle a sheep’s neck
or chest and
lift them across a gully, if their jump isn’t successful. So, too, God protects us and
provides us with just what we need when our leaps aren’t successful.
Wait a
minute. We aren’t sheep. Sometimes
we resist following blindly and unquestioningly. Some of us want to control our
destiny. Yes, and God has given us
the choice. Do we want to lay down
in God’s green pastures where we have all that we need or in the pastures of
the consumerist world where we are told that we NEVER have enough? Where advertisement after ad tell us to
buy this new telephone plan or that new car. Never, never enough.
Do we want to drink from God’s still waters or do we want to race and
race and rush and rush to conform to
some empty standard in our contemporary culture? Or we can dwell in the House of the
LORD and peace will follow us all the days of our lives.
So, we come to the part of the
Psalm about the House of the LORD.
What image does House of the LORD call up for you? A house can be a place of love, a place
of connection. OR….not… A house
can carry memories. A house can
have many rooms. This church is a house
with many rooms. Think about the
variety of experiences we have shared in rooms in this church. Some inspiring, some sad, some full of
tension and worry, some joyful.
At the very heart of this house of
the LORD are Goodness and Mercy, They are at the very heart of God’s character,
even in the midst of trial, tension and worry.
The
Christians in Fiji were dwelling in the House of the Lord. In the 1800s they were resting in the
peace and knowledge that God provided all they needed. Even though the Fiji Islands
were broken into warring
kingdoms and that warfare included cannibalism. Christianity spread through the
South Pacific through islanders, who traveled to enemy territory in their long
canoes. The Tongan Methodist Joeli Bulu went to Fiji as a missionary. Over forty years, Bulu spread the
Christian message of peace and reconciliation among the Fijians. Bulu was
persecuted, and non-Christian Fijians stole his pigs, killed his chickens Then one morning, the cannibals
surrounded Bulu’s village to kill all the Christians. Bulu had the villagers sit down in the grass and wait
peacefully. I feel confident those
people were grateful for the green pastures God had provided, even in the midst
of this trial. The war cry
sounded, and the cannibals burst in.
As they stood with their clubs and spears above the heads of the
peaceful Christians, and THEN the murderers felt a power take them over, and
they could not strike. One man
presented a whale’s tooth, a Fijian sign of atonement, to Bulu and said, ‘Joeli,
you are a true man. we have treated you badly. your God is a true God. tell us
the story of your God. Inspired by Jesus, the Fijians renounced warfare and
became Christians. These Fijians
knew that God had provided all they needed and that they dwelt in the House of
the LORD then and always.
Jesus
did not intend for us to dwell in God’s house alone. Jesus came so that we would
have life and have it
abundantly;
This is
a communal journey. Can guests really dwell in
the house? Can strangers dwell in
the house? No, we know the people
as our brothers and sisters! Just as the sheep stay safe in their flock, so too we are safe
together, we can endure trial much more easily —together.
Dwelling in the house is when the
people of Haiti pray for the people of Japan.
DWELLING in the house is when a
classmate of mine, Meredith
Hoxie, developed a
resource to address a pressing justice issue: violence in the context of our
most intimate relationships, so that these women can again find a sense of God’s safety and
peace.
Look
closely at the example of the early Christians in our text today from Acts:
“They broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and
generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people.”
This
community of support embodied the compassion and comfort that walks with us in
the valley of the shadow.
These early Christians survived because of this compassionate dwelling
together. When the plagues hit
Europe, who survived in great numbers?
Christians. Why? Because they took care of one another.
As we read:
”All
who believed
were together and had all things in common;” The Christians took care of each other and made sure that
each had plenty of water and food during difficult times.
“ WE ARE CALLED into community, to be weaned from the fears and narrow hopes of
the world.
We begin to measure life
differently, no longer are we
strangers in the house, nor
guests in the house — no, we are like trusting children at home.
So you see, The 23rd Psalm is not
just about dwelling in the House of the LORD after death. This is about the living. About
following the shepherd and dwelling in that transformative house — where
goodness and mercy follow us. We
have the choice. We just
need to turn around and accept them.
Amen.
Amanda Harmeling
May 15, 2011
