A Sermon Based Upon Psalm 19
Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, DMin
Zion Baptist Church
Epiphany 3, January 27th, 2012
“The heavens are telling the glory of
God;…Day to Day pours forth speech. (Psa
19:1,2 NRS)
How would you like to have a sermon without words?
A few years ago, mysterious billboards started popping up in
Greensboro, and other cities around the nation. An anonymous donor sponsored these
billboards with a spiritual message that caught the attention of drivers all
across the nation. Each quotation was signed "God." Originally eighteen sayings were selected
for billboards in south Florida, but it soon mushroomed into more than 10,000
across the nation.
SERMON WITHOUT WORDS
Long before any billboards were erected claiming to be a message from
God, God had already emblazoned God’s own handwriting for all to read. More than three thousand years ago a king looked
at the vast array of stars and cried, "The heavens declare (NRSV ..are telling) the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands."
That king was David, and he was speaking of God’s sermon, the sermon
that is preached every day the sun rises----a sermon without words. Although David was a powerful man, David
felt dwarfed by the power of the creator of the heavens. On a clear night David could likely see
2,000-3,000 stars. If he’d had a good pair of binoculars he could have seen
100,000 stars. Today, with the Hubble
Telescope it is estimated that in our galaxy alone there are 100’s of millions,
or about 10 to 10th or 12th power stars; and we also know
that there are at least 10 to 10th power galaxies out there all with
hundreds of million stars in each one.
David would never have dreamed that, but interestingly, even with the
relatively few stars he could observe, it was enough to stagger him, as he
observed God’s sermon without words.
David didn’t have a laptop, but he had a rooftop where he watched the
sunrise and sunset, and what he saw spoke to him of the grandeur of God. He believed God was speaking to the
inhabitants of the earth by means of God’s amazing, limitless, creation. What if David had had not only a telescope,
but a microscope? What more could he
have said or seen? The late Dr. Carl
Sagan marveled that a single human chromosome containing 20 billion bits of
information. This corresponds to four
thousand 500 page books—and that’s only one chromosome!
The created world preaches and reveals God in a very general way,
pointing people beyond themselves to the ultimate power, creator and source of everything.
The apostle Paul reiterated this truth
when he wrote, "From the time the
world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made…so
they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God." (Rom 1:20) For decades, philosopher Anthony Flew argued
that religious beliefs could not meet modern, scientific criteria for rational
acceptance. But in 2004, at the age 81,
he changed his mind. The complexity of DNA convinced him that "intelligence must have been involved"
in the design and creation of life. Flew
is not yet a Christian, but he became a deist. The evidence available to everyone of us, when
we walk outside, seen a sunrise or sunset, or see the star-lite heavens, is evidence
that can persuade even the most ardent atheist that some sort of ultimate
power, truth, or creator, must exist.
Who cannot see the truth of God in the glittering stars flung across
his heavenly billboard? There is so much
to consider: The earth in perfect orbit
around the sun—close enough to sustain life but far enough away to keep from
burning up.
Sculpted mountains, the earth’s crust carved into a breathtaking
canyon, fish that glow in the blackest depths of the sea, the meticulously spun
web of a gray spider, molecules, atoms, electrons, the growth of a child in the
womb, birth—these all clearly attest to a Creator who made everything,
including us. One leader of the French
Revolution, Jean Bon St. Andre, said to a peasant, "I will have all your steeples pulled down, so you will not be reminded
any more of your old religion." The peasant replied, "But you cannot help leaving us the stars."
SERMON WITH WORDS
After describing in the first six verses how nature reflects God’s
glory, David switches gears. From the sun, moon and stars he turns to consider
the beauty of God’s law: God’s sermon with words.
Earlier in the chapter the psalmist refers to God with a general name
that anyone, of any religion, might use—just like our English word god. But from verse seven on, God is called "the Lord" (a translation of the
Hebrew Yahweh)—the personal name God revealed to Moses from the burning bush
(Ex 3:15). It seems as if David is
saying, "Yes the heavens declare the
glory of God, but God’s law reveals even more—God’s personal voice to God’s
people." General revelation (creation) declares God’s glory, but the
Scriptures tell us what God did so that we may celebrate that glory. We need something more specific than creation
that reveals clearly the character of God. That "something more" is the truth,
and rule of God found in the Bible. Today’s
Psalm contains synonyms for God’s word: God’s
law, testimony, precepts, commandments, fear of the Lord—each describes
what God’s word is; and each pronounces
what it effectually accomplishes. We
need both the nonverbal and the verbal to experience the wonder of God’s
majesty: God’s world and God’s word. The better you understand your Bible
and obey it, the more you will appreciate creation, and the better you will
understand yourself and others which gives us stability and vitality for life.
What does it mean to obey God’s law?
A great modern example is found in the Oscar-winning movie, ‘A River
Runs Through It’ (1992: dir. Robert Redford), which is based on the 1976
semi-autobiographical novella of the same name by Norman Maclean. The
movie focuses on the Maclean family, especially brothers Norman (Craig Sheffer)
and Paul (Brad Pitt). Their father (Tom Skerritt) is a strict but loving
Presbyterian minister, and he and the boys’ mother (Brenda Blethyn) raise the
brothers in the mountains of Missoula, Montana. Reverend Maclean is fond of
fly-fishing and teaches the sport to Norman and Paul. Indeed, in the film,
fly-fishing becomes a motif that points to the spiritual components of
communing with nature. For this minister and his two sons, there is something
sacred about nature. Thus, just as Psalm 19 sees God in nature, so does the
film.
Regarding adherence to the law, the movie explores this theme in the
two boys. Norman is more responsible and diligent. He goes to college. He works
hard. He does not engage in dissolute living. He becomes a teacher and begins
dating a sweet young lady named Jessie Burns (Emily Lloyd). Younger brother
Paul, by contrast, is rebellious, taking up drinking and gambling. Paul,
however, masters fly-fishing to a degree that Norman does not. Paul ends up
beaten to death in a drunken brawl. Thus, he is at once tragic and a figure who
achieved perfection as a fly-fisherman. Paul defies laws and propriety and pays
a huge price as a result. Nevertheless, he also connects with nature and
spirituality through his family’s beloved sport.
This film functions as a visual cautionary tale against disobeying
God’s law and pursuing sinful behaviors. But at the same time, the film also shows the
merits of following a different kind of law, the law that teaches us to see
God’s grandeur in nature. As the film
declares, quoting Maclean’s novella, "Eventually, all things merge into
one, and a river runs through it."
Ulitimately, God’s truth is not many, but one thing. And even as we contemplate finding God in
nature or following God’s law, we are always the greatest message in all things
is the message of God’s love.
There is no conflict between what God does in God’s universe and what
God says in God’s word. They work in
harmony together as in the Christmas story—the Magi in Matthew’s gospel started
on their journey by following God’s star, a special messenger in the sky to
direct them. Then they consulted God’s Word and found that the King was to be
born in Bethlehem; so they went to Bethlehem, and there found and worshiped the
Savior. When you study God’s creation with a Bible in your hand, you can’t help
but find the best directions for life. David says God’s Wordless Book and the
Word Book are truly a wonderful pair that belong in every library.
SERMON IN YOUR OWN WORDS
But now consider this final word about God’s sermon, with and without
words. The Psalmist concludes this
Psalm with a prayer about his own words:
“Let the words of my mouth and
the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O LORD, my rock and my
redeemer (Psa 19:14 NRS).
The work and word of God is of no use to you or to me, unless you put
your own “two cents” in, as we say. You
must join in the chorus of praise and prayer or all this glory and grandeur is
worth very little. Isn’t this why we are
created in the ‘image’ of God? Isn’t
part of our reason to be, to be able to see, enjoy, and make use of God’s
marvelous wonders for our own time, moment and situation?
Even a mentally ill person name Charlie can put his ‘two cents’ into
God’s message. Charlie has a great longing
to "be whole and sound" at least since the war in Vietnam, which
ended in 1975. He suffers from war-related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
(PTSD) as well as schizophrenia. As he
explained to a government office, "My situation when I was in Vietnam was
that I was on a small gunship compound in the Central Highlands at the height
of the war. The whole time I was in Vietnam we were surrounded by enemy
soldiers who were plotting to kill us. I had a sense that they could see us but
we could not see them. They regularly attacked us…. Repeatedly when I was in
Vietnam I would become so terrified that I would freeze up. This is not
something I did on purpose but something that happened to me.
"So my understanding now is that when I would freeze up I
imprinted the traumatic situation that I was in, in such a way that this traumatic
imprint became for me a permanent way of seeing and experiencing the world…. I
am still very frozen up inside. A large central part of my soul is missing.
This really scares me! What if I die and part of my soul is still missing?....
I sit on top of the frozenness and I have a small supply of energy and a short
leash…. I can only function briefly, maybe for an hour or less, and then I
collapse emotionally into the frozenness. At this point I need to just sit down
or lie down and wait for a new supply of energy. I wait a long time."
Charlie’s double maladies, PTSD and mental illness, hinder him from
having a relaxed enjoyment of God’s presence in nature or community. Yet, even
with his handicap and illness, Charlie knows the grace and glory of God in his
own way. He knows better than most of us that he depends upon grace every day. He has said, My basic understanding of God’s
grace comes from theologian Paul Tillich: ‘Accept that you are accepted even
though you are unacceptable.’ That is really, really, helpful! I would be
totally lost without that! My other
understanding of grace comes from another spiritual saying: ‘When you know that
God knows everything there is to know about you and still loves you, then you
are free.’ Knowing we are known and loved—that brings unspeakable comfort to
me."
But there is one more word from Charlie. Once, when Charlie noticed the heavens
declaring the glory of God, his mouth and the meditation of his heart brought
him trustingly into God’s presence (vv. 1, 14), and he wrote his own Psalm of praise.
Even with all his handicapps and hang ups, he put into words and praise his
own two cents worth: The poem or psalm
is entiled, “The Sky Is Big Enough.” He
wrote in on mother’s day.
It is the middle of the night I
am on the farm again under the night
sky w
aiting and watching the sky and
listening
I am on a bunker waiting to be blown up
watching the sky and listening the
one who is condemned becomes the one who
condemns so I curse at the sky and the sky watches and listens and waits with
deep big silence so I keep on cursing at the sky until the cursing loses its charge
and so I cry out "I need you!" and I keep on crying out
"I need you!" until it loses
its charge and the sky listens with deep silence the sky waits and watches and
listens and I cry out "Have mercy on us!" and I am gnawing on the
sky!
as fiercely as I can as long as
I can and the sky watches and waits and
listens
with deep silence with deep silent longing that echoes the deep silent longing in my
heart deep silent peace,
deep silent gratitude , snuggling
up to the sky so now when my neighbor curses at me I wait and watch and listen
with deep silent longing
Sometimes sand does turn into a pearl and I can rest in the pearly
gates. (As printed an article by Joan Beck, www.goodpreacher.com/journalread.php?id=2996).
How can we put our own ‘two cents’ in?
Notice what Psalmist declares near the end. After going through a list of what God’s law
or words can do in our lives, he adds this conclusion in verse 11: “Moreover by them is your servant
warned; in keeping them there is great reward. (Psa 19:11 NRS).” Do you see his point? The world and the word of God are wonderful,
but even as wonderful as they are, they are of no real value, unless their
truth gets into us and make a difference in our lives.
What does he recommend us to do, to find what this difference might
be? Go outside this week on your work
break go outside, observe and enjoy creation. In the evening watch a sunset or gaze into the
night sky, and ask yourself what does creation teach you about God’s power and
divine nature? Thank God for speaking to
you through nature and ask God for greater insight into God’s written
revelation as you read your Bible in this New Year.
This morning let us praise God for the story of salvation in the pages
of scripture, but let us not forget to praise God for all of God’s creation---and
let us also value it and put our own ‘two cents’ of praise into this moment.
Whether we look at the grandeur of the heavens or the intricacies of a
chromosome, let us stand in awe of our Creator, and let us be all that he has
created us to be. Amen.
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