Psalm 24
Preaching
A Journey Through the Psalms: Reflections for Worried Hearts and Troubled Times
Preaching the Psalms Cycles A, B, C
Object:
It is an easily embraced equation. If you're good, you go to heaven. If you're bad, you go -- well -- you know where. It is precisely this notion that the psalmist here appeals to when we hear who it is that gets to "ascend the hill of the Lord." Wouldn't it be wonderful if this were true? The good, the upright, and the just get to be with God. Those who don't lie, cheat, or steal get to "stand in God's holy place," and "receive a blessing" from God. The only problem is that it's not true.
Writings like this bring out the cynic in our twenty-first-century hearts. Were things different when this writer was scratching the words onto parchment? No. Things were not different. And if we pay attention to our story, we know that the psalmist -- though well intentioned -- is missing some important details. Jacob, in a deal that would be the envy of any oil baron, took Esau's birthright for a bowl of soup. Moses, wanted for murder, led the people across the Sinai. Paul, chief pursuer of the followers of the way, became himself an apostle.
Who is it that gets to go up that hill? It turns out that it's not the good ones. In fact, the good ones sometimes get short shrift. After all, Job was "blameless" (Job 1:1), wasn't he? And let's not forget the holy innocents who died at the point of Herod's sword while Jesus escaped into Egypt.
There's no getting around it. God seeks out the frail, the broken, the fallen, and bids them step up to the plate. God reaches out and seizes the heart of a prostitute or a tax collector and invites them to the table.
So what's the deal? If God is on the lookout for human wreckage, what motivation have we to be upright and good? If a thief can enter paradise at Jesus' side, why are we wasting our time being truthful, just, and honest? Are we to "sin that grace may abound"? (Romans 6:1).
For us, the answer is found in the voice of Jesus who said that those who are well have no need of a physician (Luke 5:31). God seeks out those whose hearts need healing. The uplifting of the downtrodden does not excuse us from God's call to be just and true. We do not enter into faith as a business transaction, bartering with God for favors based on good behavior. No, we step into faith and follow, not seeking results nor looking for reward, but in all things discerning and trying our level best to do God's will. God will deal with all the others in God's own way and God's own time. The rest of us will stand where we have always tried to stand -- on the "promises of God our Savior."
Writings like this bring out the cynic in our twenty-first-century hearts. Were things different when this writer was scratching the words onto parchment? No. Things were not different. And if we pay attention to our story, we know that the psalmist -- though well intentioned -- is missing some important details. Jacob, in a deal that would be the envy of any oil baron, took Esau's birthright for a bowl of soup. Moses, wanted for murder, led the people across the Sinai. Paul, chief pursuer of the followers of the way, became himself an apostle.
Who is it that gets to go up that hill? It turns out that it's not the good ones. In fact, the good ones sometimes get short shrift. After all, Job was "blameless" (Job 1:1), wasn't he? And let's not forget the holy innocents who died at the point of Herod's sword while Jesus escaped into Egypt.
There's no getting around it. God seeks out the frail, the broken, the fallen, and bids them step up to the plate. God reaches out and seizes the heart of a prostitute or a tax collector and invites them to the table.
So what's the deal? If God is on the lookout for human wreckage, what motivation have we to be upright and good? If a thief can enter paradise at Jesus' side, why are we wasting our time being truthful, just, and honest? Are we to "sin that grace may abound"? (Romans 6:1).
For us, the answer is found in the voice of Jesus who said that those who are well have no need of a physician (Luke 5:31). God seeks out those whose hearts need healing. The uplifting of the downtrodden does not excuse us from God's call to be just and true. We do not enter into faith as a business transaction, bartering with God for favors based on good behavior. No, we step into faith and follow, not seeking results nor looking for reward, but in all things discerning and trying our level best to do God's will. God will deal with all the others in God's own way and God's own time. The rest of us will stand where we have always tried to stand -- on the "promises of God our Savior."
