{"id":243,"date":"2010-08-27T09:56:01","date_gmt":"2010-08-27T14:56:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/acugst\/?p=243"},"modified":"2010-08-27T09:56:01","modified_gmt":"2010-08-27T14:56:01","slug":"the-psalms-in-our-worship-part-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/acugst\/the-psalms-in-our-worship-part-5\/","title":{"rendered":"The Psalms in Our Worship (Part 5)"},"content":{"rendered":"

As we turn to Psalm 8, let me present here a talk I gave a couple of years ago in chapel.\u00a0 I’m not sure what to add, so maybe it will be of use to you.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Out of the Mouth of Infants<\/p>\n

\u201cO Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth.\u201d\u00a0 The Bible is a very surprising book.\u00a0 The more you read it, the more surprising it is.\u00a0 And few texts are more surprising than today\u2019s psalm celebrating the stunning beauty and dignity of humankind.<\/p>\n

Consider the surprising line \u201cout of the mouth of babes and infants you have established strength.\u201d\u00a0 What does it mean?\u00a0 I know we like kids, but come on!\u00a0 Actually, if we forget for a moment the sentimentality that surrounds very small children \u2013 the infants and babes \u2013 we realize that in fact they are deeply troubling beings.\u00a0 They are untidy in their persons and surroundings.\u00a0 Sloppy eaters.\u00a0 They smell bad, and they hardly ever make deadlines.\u00a0\u00a0 Thanks to the invention of disposable diapers, they are a major factor in the pollution of the planet.\u00a0 You can never consult them for advice on your love life.\u00a0 Hardly the place to go when you want to build a foundation for anything, much less something as significant as God\u2019s plan for defeating his enemies, whoever they are.<\/p>\n

Of course, the psalmist knows that, and if he\u2019s like the other composers of psalms in our Bible, he\u2019s nobody\u2019s fool and not given to sentimentality.\u00a0 He \u2013 or maybe she \u2013 knows very well that there is a still darker side, not to children but to the lives that some of them must lead.\u00a0 Indeed, most of the time when you see this pair \u201cbabes and infants\u201d in the Old Testament it\u2019s in the context of warfare.\u00a0 \u201cBabes and infants\u201d cry out in pain as the invaders pour over the city walls.\u00a0 Children, the aged, and the sick are the victims of invasion, famine, drought, and disease.\u00a0 While some ride in their SUVs from soccer game to piano lessons to gymnastics, with a quick stop at Pizza Hut thrown in, other children live different lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cDifferent lives\u201d means that 91 of a thousand children born in the developing world \u2013 many of the 60 plus countries from which your fellow ACU students come \u2013 will die before the age of 5, while in the west the number is 9.\u00a0 The psalmist would not be surprised \u2013 though still dismayed as we no longer are \u2013 to see on the television news a few years ago the pictures of 10 year old boys toting guns in the civil war in Liberia.\u00a0 Or to hear of the children who live in the tombs around Cairo, or their brothers and sisters who pick through the trash in Manila.\u00a0 Or the children of New York and Dallas and Abilene whose parents cannot both feed them and provide them with medicine.\u00a0 And for the ancient Israelites, these would not be mere statistics but flesh and blood and bone and fat.\u00a0 Humankind.\u00a0 \u201cWhat is humanity that you are mindful of him, a human being that you pay attention to him?\u201d<\/p>\n

As I say, the psalmist is not blind to all this.\u00a0 Surely the condition of children is proof enough that humankind is seriously flawed, and perhaps beyond redemption.\u00a0 So why talk so oddly about babes and infants?\u00a0 Because there is another possibility, another vision.\u00a0 People of faith recognize that God has not given over his world to the warlords and the billionaires.\u00a0 The powers that be will fade away \u2013 even the world\u2019s last remaining superpower.\u00a0 To express this alternative vision, the psalm uses the language of divine warfare, language that began with the mythologies of the ancient Near East but in Israel came to be about not God\u2019s fight with a sea monster, but his triumph over men and women, Pharaoh and Jezebel, who use their power and wealth only to accumulate more.\u00a0 The message of Scripture is that God will tear apart stone by stone the walls of fear and prejudice that diminish human dignity.\u00a0 And with the power of love, unchoked by pride, God will overwhelm his enemies by restoring to them and to us all the true depths of dignity he intended for us originally.<\/p>\n

Nor is this all.\u00a0 In his book Ordinary Resurrections<\/em>, Jonathan Kozol tells the story of Stephanie, a young girl from a poor neighborhood in the South Bronx.\u00a0 Raised by her single mother, she longs for security and safety.\u00a0 In response to Kozol\u2019s question of what would make the world a better place, she says, \u201cWhat would make the world better is God\u2019s heart…. I know God\u2019s heart is already in the world.\u00a0 But I would like it if he would … push the heart more into it.\u00a0 Not just halfway.\u00a0 Push it more!\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a na\u00efve way of putting it, corny almost.\u00a0 But still, that\u2019s the vision.\u00a0 The psalmist sees it too.\u00a0 Humankind fills all the ecosystems ancient people know about \u2013 land, sky, and sea.\u00a0 And we engage all of creation responsibly, recognizing that our actions have consequences.\u00a0 We are responsible, as all entrusted with rule and crowned with glory and honor have to be.\u00a0 And the dignity of humankind is not just a set of empty platitudes, but a living, breathing reality that informs all we think and do and care about.<\/p>\n

So the vision is more than just an idle dream, a vague pleasant-sounding utopia we can talk about in the comfort of our churches.\u00a0 It is a challenge too, a clarion call to care, to work, to sweat, to sacrifice, to make a difference.\u00a0 And it is our call as people, Jews and Christians and others, who take seriously the words of this psalm.<\/p>\n

Let us see this vision.\u00a0 In those quiet moments when we are alone with God and ourselves, let us dream of a world in which no children go hungry or are beaten or ignored.\u00a0 Let us commit our lives and talents and skills \u2013 the wonderful things you have the luxury of studying at this place \u2013 to the realization of this dream.\u00a0 Let us dream of building this new reality, realizing this glorious vision, embracing this tomorrow of the soul.\u00a0 For then the words of Jesus will no longer be just words, but the way things are: \u201cLet the children come to me.\u201d\u00a0 And as we in awe whisper to each other, \u201cWhat is humanity that you are mindful of him,\u201d we hear from the mouths of the littlest of us we hear the grace-filled words, \u201cO Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark W. Hamilton<\/p>\n

Graduate School of Theology<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we turn to Psalm 8, let me present here a talk I gave a couple of years ago in chapel.\u00a0 I’m not sure what to add, so maybe it will be of use to you. Out of the Mouth of Infants \u201cO Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth.\u201d\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3538,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Psalms in Our Worship (Part 5) - ACU Graduate School of Theology<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/acugst\/the-psalms-in-our-worship-part-5\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Psalms in Our Worship (Part 5) - ACU Graduate School of Theology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As we turn to Psalm 8, let me present here a talk I gave a couple of years ago in chapel.\u00a0 I’m not sure what to add, so maybe it will be of use to you. 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