Sermon: Jesus’ Prayer Book: A New Song
June 28th, 2020 Rev. Betsy Perkins
Scripture passage: Psalm 40 First Baptist Church, Delavan WI
Psalm 40 begins, “I waited patiently for the Lord…” Are you kidding me? Is the person who wrote this prayer for real? Most of us have a hard time waiting patiently for anything. It has been hard to wait to get back into our church building for worship, hard to wait during the weeks of lockdown to be let up. As we now face a resurgence of COVID infections in more than half the US states, there has been some reflection on our American culture and how it is contributing to the spread of COVID compared to other cultures. It’s been noted that there is greater impatience in Americans generally. We get impatience when we are told ‘no’ or when we have to wait – when the line is long in the grocery store, when the traffic gets backed up, when the doctor is running late and there’s a crowded waiting room, when we are waiting for our bodies to heal after surgery. We can be impatient!
I was a somewhat relieved to learn that many scholars who study this psalm and are involved in more recent translations, acknowledge that the English word ‘patiently’ gives the wrong impression. The Hebrew author of this prayer was describing how long he had to wait, not so much his attitude while he waited. He waited a long time! Several new English translations now start the psalm with “I waited and waited and waited some more for God” (TPT, see also MSG, VOICE, EHV), “I didn’t give up waiting for the Lord” (NLV).
Last Sunday we prayed with Psalm 27 – a prayer of trust in God our Father, but it was trust in the midst of great crisis. The one praying is calling out to God to be rescued and protected – longing to run and hide in God’s house. Today’s psalm is the song of thanks written when those earlier prayers are finally answered. The pray-er had waited and waited and waited some more, had prayed and prayed and prayed some more. Now God had heard and answered and the writer witnesses to what God has done: “God lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. God set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along.”
Recall for a moment, a time when God answered your prayers and brought you through a difficult situation or a difficult season. Recall that feeling of relief and gratitude, when the worst seemed to be over and the hardest part of the struggle behind you. Allow that feeling of gratitude to well up in you and fill you like a deep breath. That is the feeling of this psalm. And when the one who wrote this prayer had filled her lungs with gratitude and began to breathe out, what came out was a new song, a new song of thanks and of praise to God.
Like the hymn we started with this morning, Blessed Assurance, Jesus is Mine – with the chorus, “This is my story, this is my song: praising my Savior all the day long!” Or like the hymn that goes, “On Christ the solid rock I stand; all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand.” Or the one that goes, “Victory in Jesus, my Savior, forever!” Oh, I can hear some of you thinking, those aren’t new songs, those are old songs. Well, I learned something else this week about what can get lost in translation between Hebrew and English, and over the centuries between the time of King David and today.
Apparently the Hebrew phrase “new song” meant more than just a song that no one had ever sung before, a song being heard for the first time. The term “new song” was a genre of songs – like country or rock or gospel. It described songs written after a deep crisis. The song-writer has sailed through a terrible storm and reached a new shore. There is no going back to the old harbor, that old state of being. The naïve self that existed prior to facing the crisis is gone, so she is singing a ‘new song’. The composer is changed by the storm, scarred perhaps by the experience of pain and brokenness. And yet he is also wiser, having grown in faith and can now sing the truth of God’s mercy and grace in a new way, in a ‘new song’.
So the song-writer of Psalm 40 sings this new song God has put in his mouth. She sings it so many others will see and hear and put their trust in God (verse 3). In verse 9 and 10, he sings this song of thanks and praise to the whole congregation, to all God’s people. “I have told everyone in the great assembly of your unfailing love and faithfulness,” the new song goes.
And then we come to a surprise in this psalm. This new song makes a shift, a key change perhaps. The prayer goes from singing a victory march to singing the blues. The ship may have reached safe harbor, but the storm isn’t over. He may have been lifted out of the mud and mire, but he isn’t out of the woods. Listen again (vs.11), “Lord, don’t hold back your tender mercies from me. (As in: Don’t stop now, God, keep it coming!) For troubles surround me – too many to count! My sins pile up so high, I can’t see my way out. They outnumber the hairs on my head. I have lost all courage. Please, Lord, rescue me! Come quickly and help me!”
This indeed sounds like the ‘new song’ we sing in this day! Here we are, back in our sanctuary, at least some of us, and we are singing a song of praise to God! God has been faithful! What a glorious day! And yet, we are still in the midst of a pandemic. It has not let up. Things are not the same as before. We cannot go back to the pre-pandemic nonchalance about being in crowded places or touching door handles. We cannot go back to pre-George Floyd unawareness of the pain our black brothers and sisters continue to endure or the fear they live in. We cannot go back to not knowing that many children are still separated from their families in caged rooms. Many cannot go back to jobs that have disappeared or to health care plans they’ve lost. We need a new song to sing!
There is one more thing that I learned about the difficulties of translating into English what the pray-er of this psalm wrote in Hebrew. It’s the first word in verse 4 – the word that in most English translations is either ‘blessed’ or ‘happy’. The NLT, printed on the back of our bulletin this morning, uses “Oh the joys…” But the NIV and KJV read, “Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord.” Others read, “Happy are those who make the Lord their trust.”(NRSV) The Hebrew word is not about being blessed as having tangible good things, and is not about happiness as we might think of it today – smiles, fun, and good times. The word the composer used is more about the state of the soul than about a fleeting emotion that can change with a shift of the wind or of circumstances.
I learned that in today’s English, we might get a better sense of what is being said by using the word ‘content’ – “content is the one who trusts in the Lord.” The composer promises a deep contentedness, that peace that passes all understanding, that is not impatient through long waiting and many prayers, that is not discouraged by seeing others who act in pride or arrogance, that is not distracted in the walk of faith by every new shiny thing. This is the contentment Paul speaks of in his letter to the Philippians when he writes, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances, whether fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or being poor. I can do all this through the One who gives me strength.” (Phil.4:11-13)
Through the One who gives us strength, through trust in Jesus – who also sang this new song. Jesus, who said to his Father, just as this psalm does, “I desire to do your will, my God.” Jesus, who came through difficult seasons of rejection, of violent threats, of a painful death on the cross, of the darkness of the grave, but who rose to new life and to a new song of victory for all people! Jesus, who puts His Spirit in our hearts to teach us the new songs.
Can we sing the new song God puts into our mouths this day? Can we sing the new song of contentment rather than the song of impatience? Can we sing the new song of community rather than the song of me-first? Can we sing the new song of wellness and wholeness in the midst of a pandemic? Can we sing the new song that integrates our faith and our lives that began to sing when worship was moved into our homes? Can we sing the new song of justice, of mercy and compassion? Can we sing the new song of love, even for our enemies? The new song of Jesus Christ as Lord and Ruler over all! What is the new song in your mouth of God’s unfailing love and faithfulness? What is the new song God is giving you to sing to the world?
Closing Song: “It Is Well With My Soul”
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