Psalm 46 And Reformation Today
Sermon
Uplifting Christ Through Autumn
Sermons for the Fall Season
Object:
Chaos breaking into life, from creation to now -- today's psalmody was Psalm 46. The reason this psalm was chosen for Reformation Sunday is because this psalm was what inspired Martin Luther in the year 1529 to write his most famous hymn, "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God." It is a hymn that soon became a symbol of the Reformation and a creed, a statement of belief for the Protestant church and more recently for the whole Western church.
Historians are not sure of the exact context, the exact historical background from which the original Psalm 46 evolved. A few guess that the poem or psalm was inspired by the deliverance of the holy city of Jerusalem from the invading armies of Sennacherib, king of the neo-Assyrian empire in the eighth century B.C.
The inhabitants of Jerusalem were given new life when Sennacherib moved his armies elsewhere, so in this hymn, Psalm 46, with renewed hope they looked at the full meaning of their life in relationship to God.
Other historians connect the psalm with the chaotic times of the third century B.C. It was a time of senseless destruction and agony because of the wars throughout the Near East brought about by the struggle for power among the successors of Alexander the Great. After his death, Alexander's commander and advisors fought for control of his vast empire. In this crisis, the people of Israel looked for some meaning and they found an answer in Psalm 46.
I believe the psalm was used in both these times and that the actual origins of the psalm are much older. Its use of vocabulary and style seem to point to a time before the eighth century B.C. The allusion to wars, the roaring of nations, and tottering of kingdoms seem to be too general for particular reference. It's more of a general statement about life in the passage of time.
I agree with the theory that suggests Psalm 46 was originally a hymn for use in the important religious New Year's Festival. It was a time when the new crops were planted, and the people celebrated God's triumph at the time of creation over the forces of chaos.
The New Year's Festival celebrated this triumphant victory for them at the present time, and for all time to come. Psalm 46 offered renewed meaning to the Israelites in the eighth century and the third century B.C., and to Martin Luther in the sixteenth century and I think it has something important to say to us today. The psalm is divided into three sections and each section presents a pattern in the movement of time.
The first section speaks of the chaos in nature that was there from the beginning of creation. The second section talks of the present chaos in life now -- the chaos evoked by worldly powers and by people. The third section is about the promise of God for the future -- that his ultimate intent for life is for wholeness and peace. The general theme that pervades the entire psalm is the faith that God is near at all times and gives us the strength to face the chaos that constantly threatens to break into our lives.
Let's look now at each section. The first section gives us an interesting picture of early man's view of creation. They believed that in the beginning was chaos -- swirling water -- gases -- with no purpose. God separated the waters and made mountains to hold up the sky -- mountains as the foundations of the world -- and then he brought life to the world. Life that was good. God the Creator brought purpose, direction and has promised this to his people, even in the times when chaos seems to once again break into our lives.
Let's read the first section again:
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its surging.
-- Psalm 46:1-3
The psalm proclaims that at the time of the creation, God showed that he was mightier than the monsters of chaos and established forever his direction and dominion over the world.
Therefore we should not fear that the earth should change or even be dissolved. Though the foundations of our world totter and quake before the rearing, crashing, seething waters of meaninglessness which threaten to submerge our ordered lives and reestablish the reign of chaos; though natural and nuclear holocausts threaten to melt even the rocks, we will not fear because the Lord of hosts is with us. The Lord of creation is in our midst and we are now witnessing some of the worst imaginable catastrophes in the physical world. And more than that, the second section proclaims that the Lord is also the one who offers meaning to all the people of the earth even in the midst of nations and people that roar for war and kingdoms that surge in attack and explode in hate.
The second section reads:
There is a river that brings joy to the city of God, to the sacred house of the Most High. God is in that city, and it will never be destroyed; at early dawn he will come to its aid. Though nations are in turmoil, kingdoms totter, his voice resounds, the earth melts away -- the Lord of hosts is with us; our stronghold is the God of Jacob.
-- Psalm 46:4-7
God, our refuge and defense -- ein feste burg -- a mighty fortress. He has well proven himself to be a very present help in trouble since ancient times. The warring, the hatred, the hostility of others cannot separate us from the power of life.
The psalmist then ends his poem and confession by envisioning the final purpose for us in God's plan. He tries to envision wholeness and peace -- a time without war or hatred or chaos.
Section three looks at a personal future:
Come and see what the Lord has done. See what amazing things he has done on earth. He stops wars to the end of the earth, he breaks bows, splinters spears and sets shields on fire. "Stop fighting," he says, "and know that I am God, supreme among the nations, supreme over the world." The Almighty is with us -- the God of Jacob is our fortress.
-- Psalm 46:8-11
This is Psalm 46 -- a confession of intense faith, a realization that nothing can separate us from the love of God. It is a statement of belief by a person and a people that even in the face of meaninglessness, chaos, war, and distortion, God's will of love reigns supreme. It was a confession of belief that Luther adopted as his own in his hymn, "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God." Luther's primary addition to this psalm was to say that Jesus Christ is the one who clearly defines this all-powerful God of continuing creation.
The psalm and hymn became a symbol of the Reformation. The Reformation was really a call to reevaluate one's relationship to God the Creator -- reevaluate how one's life, one's hopes and fears, one's guilt, one's concerns, how one fits in with the power and direction of all life.
The Reformation asked if Christianity was affecting you on this personal level. Does it give strength and meaning to you even in the face of chaos? In October of 1517, Luther's 95 Theses were not a declaration of war against a denomination but rather an assertion that we must be open and receptive to the workings of the creative Spirit of God now in our daily lives.
Chaos is separation from God's plan of love. Where is there chaos breaking in today? Where is there need of reform today?
I read a short story written by a person who grew up in the rural midwest and who found signs of chaos and need of reform in his hometown churches. Outwardly there appeared to be peace and harmony. In his youth he was a member of one of the 63 different churches in his small county. The churches seemed to treat fellowship and friendship seriously. The people said table grace before meals, the children said their bedtime prayers, and they participated in individual and group Bible studies. Everyone attended baccalaureate services; there were popular quilting parties and potluck suppers. But on closer inspection, there was evidence of chaos breaking into the picture, disorder, and evil welling up in the soul of this life.
The children said their prayers but also included racial slurs in their school yard play. The people studied scripture verses on love of neighbor, but there was also a wrong side of the tracks in the town -- a division of class -- the foundations of love were shaken. There was always a good turnout for the visiting missionary but people wanted little of their church pledges to go to world missions; everyone knew everyone else but forgiveness was often slow in coming.
It was people -- the church in need of reform. Some of those needs for reform, I am sure, are valid for us also. But in many other ways, our situation is very different than that picture of the rural midwest. We live in an area and time where it seems that the majority of our neighbors sleep in on Sunday morning, or where time is planned around schedules and not worship; where the local band director can say, "If you want to go to church, you can quit the band" -- and a time and place where the Christians are very unsure of themselves. There is a loss of confidence not only about faith but also about our self and our purpose. People today easily slip into despair. Marriages and family life today seem so shaky and fragile. The Christians tend to keep their faith to themselves. They are often embarrassed to share it. We often don't have a vision of personal mission, sometimes even to our children. We have lost the concept of the home as the primary place of Christian education.
Signs of chaos breaking into our life and world can easily be seen around us, and we fear chaos more readily today. We have lost some of our confidence in God as a Mighty Fortress -- as the continuing God of creation in our lives now -- always creating and victorious over chaos.
Now is the time for reform. Reformation Sunday was never a celebration of a division in the church that occurred in 1500, but Reformation Sunday is a celebration of renewal and a day to recall the revolutionary, reforming, Word of God. It is a time of promise pointing to the power of God, of this movement toward wholeness for all life. It is a day that reminds the church of the provisional nature of all that is less than God.
Reformation was not a once-for-all event but rather it is a permanent state of the church. We are to be the reformers today -- we are the instruments of God's Word and we can't afford to play games with that kind of responsibility. Now as always is the age of the Reformation. The God we proclaim has the power to be our ultimate refuge and our strength -- an ever-present help in distress. Though the foundations of existence shake, though nations and people are in turmoil, and kingdoms totter -- the Lord Almighty is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. He is our mighty fortress. Now as always is the Age of the Reformation and we must be the instruments of reform.
May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds through Jesus Christ. Amen.
Historians are not sure of the exact context, the exact historical background from which the original Psalm 46 evolved. A few guess that the poem or psalm was inspired by the deliverance of the holy city of Jerusalem from the invading armies of Sennacherib, king of the neo-Assyrian empire in the eighth century B.C.
The inhabitants of Jerusalem were given new life when Sennacherib moved his armies elsewhere, so in this hymn, Psalm 46, with renewed hope they looked at the full meaning of their life in relationship to God.
Other historians connect the psalm with the chaotic times of the third century B.C. It was a time of senseless destruction and agony because of the wars throughout the Near East brought about by the struggle for power among the successors of Alexander the Great. After his death, Alexander's commander and advisors fought for control of his vast empire. In this crisis, the people of Israel looked for some meaning and they found an answer in Psalm 46.
I believe the psalm was used in both these times and that the actual origins of the psalm are much older. Its use of vocabulary and style seem to point to a time before the eighth century B.C. The allusion to wars, the roaring of nations, and tottering of kingdoms seem to be too general for particular reference. It's more of a general statement about life in the passage of time.
I agree with the theory that suggests Psalm 46 was originally a hymn for use in the important religious New Year's Festival. It was a time when the new crops were planted, and the people celebrated God's triumph at the time of creation over the forces of chaos.
The New Year's Festival celebrated this triumphant victory for them at the present time, and for all time to come. Psalm 46 offered renewed meaning to the Israelites in the eighth century and the third century B.C., and to Martin Luther in the sixteenth century and I think it has something important to say to us today. The psalm is divided into three sections and each section presents a pattern in the movement of time.
The first section speaks of the chaos in nature that was there from the beginning of creation. The second section talks of the present chaos in life now -- the chaos evoked by worldly powers and by people. The third section is about the promise of God for the future -- that his ultimate intent for life is for wholeness and peace. The general theme that pervades the entire psalm is the faith that God is near at all times and gives us the strength to face the chaos that constantly threatens to break into our lives.
Let's look now at each section. The first section gives us an interesting picture of early man's view of creation. They believed that in the beginning was chaos -- swirling water -- gases -- with no purpose. God separated the waters and made mountains to hold up the sky -- mountains as the foundations of the world -- and then he brought life to the world. Life that was good. God the Creator brought purpose, direction and has promised this to his people, even in the times when chaos seems to once again break into our lives.
Let's read the first section again:
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its surging.
-- Psalm 46:1-3
The psalm proclaims that at the time of the creation, God showed that he was mightier than the monsters of chaos and established forever his direction and dominion over the world.
Therefore we should not fear that the earth should change or even be dissolved. Though the foundations of our world totter and quake before the rearing, crashing, seething waters of meaninglessness which threaten to submerge our ordered lives and reestablish the reign of chaos; though natural and nuclear holocausts threaten to melt even the rocks, we will not fear because the Lord of hosts is with us. The Lord of creation is in our midst and we are now witnessing some of the worst imaginable catastrophes in the physical world. And more than that, the second section proclaims that the Lord is also the one who offers meaning to all the people of the earth even in the midst of nations and people that roar for war and kingdoms that surge in attack and explode in hate.
The second section reads:
There is a river that brings joy to the city of God, to the sacred house of the Most High. God is in that city, and it will never be destroyed; at early dawn he will come to its aid. Though nations are in turmoil, kingdoms totter, his voice resounds, the earth melts away -- the Lord of hosts is with us; our stronghold is the God of Jacob.
-- Psalm 46:4-7
God, our refuge and defense -- ein feste burg -- a mighty fortress. He has well proven himself to be a very present help in trouble since ancient times. The warring, the hatred, the hostility of others cannot separate us from the power of life.
The psalmist then ends his poem and confession by envisioning the final purpose for us in God's plan. He tries to envision wholeness and peace -- a time without war or hatred or chaos.
Section three looks at a personal future:
Come and see what the Lord has done. See what amazing things he has done on earth. He stops wars to the end of the earth, he breaks bows, splinters spears and sets shields on fire. "Stop fighting," he says, "and know that I am God, supreme among the nations, supreme over the world." The Almighty is with us -- the God of Jacob is our fortress.
-- Psalm 46:8-11
This is Psalm 46 -- a confession of intense faith, a realization that nothing can separate us from the love of God. It is a statement of belief by a person and a people that even in the face of meaninglessness, chaos, war, and distortion, God's will of love reigns supreme. It was a confession of belief that Luther adopted as his own in his hymn, "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God." Luther's primary addition to this psalm was to say that Jesus Christ is the one who clearly defines this all-powerful God of continuing creation.
The psalm and hymn became a symbol of the Reformation. The Reformation was really a call to reevaluate one's relationship to God the Creator -- reevaluate how one's life, one's hopes and fears, one's guilt, one's concerns, how one fits in with the power and direction of all life.
The Reformation asked if Christianity was affecting you on this personal level. Does it give strength and meaning to you even in the face of chaos? In October of 1517, Luther's 95 Theses were not a declaration of war against a denomination but rather an assertion that we must be open and receptive to the workings of the creative Spirit of God now in our daily lives.
Chaos is separation from God's plan of love. Where is there chaos breaking in today? Where is there need of reform today?
I read a short story written by a person who grew up in the rural midwest and who found signs of chaos and need of reform in his hometown churches. Outwardly there appeared to be peace and harmony. In his youth he was a member of one of the 63 different churches in his small county. The churches seemed to treat fellowship and friendship seriously. The people said table grace before meals, the children said their bedtime prayers, and they participated in individual and group Bible studies. Everyone attended baccalaureate services; there were popular quilting parties and potluck suppers. But on closer inspection, there was evidence of chaos breaking into the picture, disorder, and evil welling up in the soul of this life.
The children said their prayers but also included racial slurs in their school yard play. The people studied scripture verses on love of neighbor, but there was also a wrong side of the tracks in the town -- a division of class -- the foundations of love were shaken. There was always a good turnout for the visiting missionary but people wanted little of their church pledges to go to world missions; everyone knew everyone else but forgiveness was often slow in coming.
It was people -- the church in need of reform. Some of those needs for reform, I am sure, are valid for us also. But in many other ways, our situation is very different than that picture of the rural midwest. We live in an area and time where it seems that the majority of our neighbors sleep in on Sunday morning, or where time is planned around schedules and not worship; where the local band director can say, "If you want to go to church, you can quit the band" -- and a time and place where the Christians are very unsure of themselves. There is a loss of confidence not only about faith but also about our self and our purpose. People today easily slip into despair. Marriages and family life today seem so shaky and fragile. The Christians tend to keep their faith to themselves. They are often embarrassed to share it. We often don't have a vision of personal mission, sometimes even to our children. We have lost the concept of the home as the primary place of Christian education.
Signs of chaos breaking into our life and world can easily be seen around us, and we fear chaos more readily today. We have lost some of our confidence in God as a Mighty Fortress -- as the continuing God of creation in our lives now -- always creating and victorious over chaos.
Now is the time for reform. Reformation Sunday was never a celebration of a division in the church that occurred in 1500, but Reformation Sunday is a celebration of renewal and a day to recall the revolutionary, reforming, Word of God. It is a time of promise pointing to the power of God, of this movement toward wholeness for all life. It is a day that reminds the church of the provisional nature of all that is less than God.
Reformation was not a once-for-all event but rather it is a permanent state of the church. We are to be the reformers today -- we are the instruments of God's Word and we can't afford to play games with that kind of responsibility. Now as always is the age of the Reformation. The God we proclaim has the power to be our ultimate refuge and our strength -- an ever-present help in distress. Though the foundations of existence shake, though nations and people are in turmoil, and kingdoms totter -- the Lord Almighty is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. He is our mighty fortress. Now as always is the Age of the Reformation and we must be the instruments of reform.
May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds through Jesus Christ. Amen.
