Sermon 4th September 2016

From now until Advent, adults will learn from the Psalms, about relating with God. 

Today, our Vicar, Cameron Barker, preaches. The reading is from Psalm 84.

Even if you really enjoy all the newness of this time of year (and there is a lot of that!), chances are there is something that you’re missing too. It may be the relatively slower pace of life in the holiday season; the having more time with family or friends; or the long light evenings. But I’m quite sure that I’m not alone in what I’m missing, now that the long-awaited return of Robot Wars has been and gone!

13 years it’s been since the BBC battle arena resounded with the roar of truly titanic encounters. 13 years without 100+ kg remote-controlled robots wielding spinning disks, flippers, crushers, titanium blades, smashing axes, reinforced steel armour plating – and so much more! And now, in 6 short weeks, it’s all done: for who knows how long. But what a 6 weeks; and just how much material has been left behind for serious reflection on as we go into the gathering autumn.

As you can tell, I could go on for some time here; and Ben Hughes is well up for building a Parish of Herne Hill robot for the next series, let me tell you! Now that is a thought … But for today there’s just the one point that I want to make. What struck me this series was how many roboteers brought interchangeable parts to the competition. From their weapon systems to their defensive set-ups they were equipped with options to take on all comers, no matter what they faced. Once they knew what robot they were up against they just put on the right parts So when I started thinking about the Psalms, the learning point was very obviously applicable, then!

Of course we know that all analogies break down sooner or later; and the one between Robot Wars and the Psalms can’t last for too long, admittedly. But it might just help us all to retain the key fact about this most amazing resource: that this book really has in it just about everything that we need. Obviously I’m not talking about smashing machines (let alone other people!) into bits, or winning cash prizes. No, it’s far bigger, and more important, than that: this is about living Life in all its fullness; fully engaged with God: at all times; in all things; and in all ways.

Yes, best way to live in and for God is not just to read the Psalms but to adopt them; to make them our own: to sing them, say them, and/or to pray them. That is, after all, not least what they are there for. They offer about 135 examples of things that we can say to God! There really is a Psalm suitable for any occasion, then. (The other 10% of this collection of 150 are either God, or one of his people, talking to us, so need listening to rather than being used as our own.) But those 135 fall into 4 general categories, or combinations of them – which are the same four general topics that we also cover in our essential everyday relating with other people, of course.

This too should come as no surprise. The story that the Bible tells – from start to finish – is of God’s consistent longing, and attempts, to communicate with people. He made us to know, and be known by, Him; and the Psalms are a written record of how certain people have tried to express or develop that relationship through the centuries. Each Psalm is set in, and arises from, their own specific circumstances – but isn’t primarily about those circumstances. Instead they are mostly left deliberately vague, so that other people in other ages – people like us – can try them for size; to see if the words of any particular Psalm can help us in our relating to God, in our own circumstances.

To return to those 4 overarching topics of the Psalms, John Goldingay (among others) says that they are: “You’re great”; “Help!”; “I trust you”; and “Thank you”. As you might guess from the simple profundity of the titles, they come from the For Everyone Bible commentary series. Yes, John Goldingay is the Old – he’d insist that I say ‘First’ instead – Testament equivalent of Tom Wright. He also happened to be my Professor – and personal Tutor, not to mention a very near neighbour – at theological college, so I know him well myself; and he’s usually very readable. But be prepared to be challenged as well: in his introduction he says that what we need to do most of all is not read his book, but to read the Psalms themselves instead!

I well remember him saying exactly that in lectures (and not just about the Psalms either!) But it does particularly apply to the Psalms because they are this open invitation to us. In them we find word that we can take as our own to say to God: “You’re great”; “Help!”; “I trust you”; or “Thank you” – or whatever combination we need – in the circumstance that we are currently facing. And that’s also why the specific Psalms in this series have all been chosen by the people who will preach on them. These are the words and ideas that have helped us, in some way, to engage with God in the circumstances of Life (with a capital L) as we have tried to live it in and for Him. And of course the hope is that our doing this will help you to do the same too.

A few more words of general introduction to the Psalms are necessary before I explain and talk, briefly, about my first choice, No 84. Of course we can’t possibly, and won’t, cover anything like all of the ground in this wide-ranging book in just 9 sessions! What we will do is have at least 1 of each of the 4 general topics, plus several with combinations of them (including today’s). We’ll also have at least 1 Psalm from each of the 5 books that make up the 150-collection. We won’t say much more about the 5 books; past noting that the number deliberately parallels the start of the Bible. It begins with five books about how God relates to the world, people, and Israel. Here, in the middle of the Old (First) Testament, are 5 book illustrating praise and prayer; teaching God’s people how to do those things, and more.

We probably also need to be aware at the outset that this collection of 150 was put together over centuries: like up to 1 000 years. Some commentators compare it to a cathedral in design, with bits being added as people in each age saw new need. That’s why the book of Psalms looks and feels as varied as it does; though the clear uniting theme and presence in it is always God. Psalms are mostly songs – which nobody now has any idea how were sung! There are all sorts of notes in the text itself, about how they’re to be sung, and/or who they were written by, or for; and again we have absolutely no idea now what any of those actually mean either! John Goldingay says that it’s best not to pretend that we do know, or try and work it out; because that will only distract from what the Psalms are truly for!

What the Psalms are for – which I hope you’ve heard loud and clear already! – is to help us to engage with God, in our circumstances as they are. And there are several ways in which Psalm 84 can help us to do just that; as it has done for me many times over many years. It has a signature phrase that I sometime use when people thank me for opening the church door for them – yes, the one about being “a door-keeper in the house of my God”. There’s a fully serious point to be made about that too, of course; but it comes some way down the line. Instead, we need to start where the Psalm does – because that’s where we so often start ourselves: quite some way off.

So I can ‘own’ – as in, say, or pray – Psalm 84 because it begins for me with someone who isn’t where they want to be with God; as I so often am not either. I know what it’s like to be there, as the Psalmist does; because I have been there myself; as they have been. For them it’s a place, the Temple, where they feel safe – just as even birds feel safe in the presence of the God of creation. In the Old/First Testament that place was where God lived. The Temple symbolised the presence of God Himself, which is what Psalmist longed for: to the point of fainting; their heart and flesh crying out for this God – in whom the Psalmist wasn’t; but so wanted to be. I’ve been there before in my own way; so often: have you been? Is that where you are right now?

Psalm 84 is built around 3 neat blocks of 4 verses, each with a central “Happy (GNB) / Blessed (NIV) …” phrase – which come in verses 4, 5 and 12. The first of them, as we might expect, is a wistful one: a desperate wishing for something or someone not present. And what that does is lead to the Godly second one – which is said resolutely. We all know that when things, or we, are not how we want, we usually have a choice to make. We can just accept it in a victim-like way, and grump around; or we can choose to do something about it; as this Psalmist did. And that’s the second reason I’ve found this Psalm so helpful in so many different circumstances: because it reminds me that with and in God I do have a choice in my relating to Him. I don’t have to be stuck where I am, a long way off from Him, and where I want to be.

The Psalmist reminds themselves: “Happy/Blessed are those whose strength is in you”. Of course if we depend on ourselves alone then we’ll always struggle. But if we set our hearts and minds on Him – as this Psalm has so often encouraged me to do – then pilgrimage becomes a possibility. It’s a journey of transformation, potentially: making a Valley of dryness (which is what “Baca” literally means, rather than an actual place) into somewhere not ‘just’ of springs but of pools, even. No wonder, then, that those who undertake this journey – as I have done – “go from strength to strength, till each appears before God”; and is that not the place to be? O yes indeed: “Better is one day in your courts than 1000 elsewhere”, as the Psalmist voiced it: having completed that journey; from so very far off. And so good that just being a humble doorkeeper there, for that one day, is enough, even.

And this Psalmist knows who is responsible for all of that, in ways that I have so often needed to be reminded of too. “For the Lord God is sun and shield; the Lord bestows favour and honour; no good thing does he withhold from those whose way of life is blameless. Lord Almighty, happy/blessed is the one who trusts in you.” And so our Psalmist concludes with this deeply contented “happy/blessed”; because God has brought them – as God can do – into this place, to where they so wanted to be. So this Psalm has also given me words to express my own joy and thanks at the end of this sort of a journey: from far off, to close; from a distant memory of being in God’s presence to it as present reality. And it gives me hope that with God this journey is possible again and again and again – as we all need it to be. No matter how often we make it, it won’t be long until we feel far off from God once more.

Psalm 84 starts out looking like a “Help!” one; and it ends by looking like a “Thank you” one. It clearly is a combination Psalm; but at its heart it’s an “I trust you” one; and that is not least why I have found it so helpful so often. Of course all this may be long way from where you are right now; but I hope that you will at least mark Psalm 84 for future reference – for when these words may be just what you need too. I’ll hope as well that other Psalms in this series will be what you need to hear, and can use where you are. But don’t just wait for that to happen. There are 150 of them! So read the Psalms for yourself in these weeks, and pray them. As St Augustine of Hippo once put it, “The Bible is shallow enough for a child not to drown, yet deep enough for an elephant to swim”; so there is no doubt that God can will meet you just where and how you are along the way, and engage in communication with you there. So let’s pray we’ll go there, then …