The Whole of Life is in the Psalms

The Book of Psalms is frequently overlooked on Sunday morning. Some denominations regularly read on Sunday from a Psalter. Our hymnal contains a Psalter; however, we do not regularly turn to them. Although the Psalms is considered holy scripture, preachers, especially in our denomination, rarely turn to the book as a source for sermons. Probably the most common use of the Psalms is the reading of the 23^rd Psalm at funerals.

But there is much more to them than the 23^rd Psalm as our class on "Invitation to the Psalms" is discovering. The class is a mini-disciples class that looks at the Psalms in many ways—as poetry, as prayer, as song, as praise, and as heartfelt communications by God’s people to God.

I must admit the last time I preached on the Psalms was in 2003 when I supplied at Coloma and Watervliet for four weeks. The Rev. Hills ask me to speak from four Psalms during the period. The sermons were an important lesson for me. I became aware of the rich source of sermons for the first time.

Because of the class and the schedule of sermons, I thought it would be a good idea to give a little background on the Psalms in this column. First of all the Psalms were written by several writers, including David, over a period that may be as long as 600-700 years, beginning with the time of David and going through the time of the return to Judah from exile in Babylon by the Jewish people. In addition to the poems in "The Psalms," there are similar songs of praise in other Old Testament books. In fact, the book of "Lamentations" also qualifies to be called poetic songs. It is a book of laments, a particular type of Hebrew poetry.

The whole of life is found in the Psalms. There are messages from God to his people, but mainly the Psalms are prayers lifted up by his people. They contain all the thoughts and concerns we have. There are words of praise and thanksgiving, but there are also prayers that question God and wonder where God is and why he doesn’t act. There are also Psalms with warts, that is, Psalms that call for revenge and even death of enemies. The Psalms are very human. They haven’t been "prettied up" by theologians and preachers.

Many of us try to read the Psalms like we are reading prose. The Psalms are poetry. Poetry is very concentrated language that on many occasions includes several levels of meaning. We can’t read Psalms like we read the Gospels, Acts or even the historical books of the Old Testament. We need to read slowly and for meaning.

In most bible translations, the Psalms are divided into the stanzas and lines. It is a good idea to read them by line. For example, in the NRSV version, Psalm 1 is divided into two stanzas. The white space between the two stanzas indicates their separation. A line is really composed of two or three "lines" in Bibles that are double columned. For example, let’s look at the opening of Psalm 1.

In this case,

Each of these are one line of poetry.

Hebrew poetry is only very rarely rhymed. But it contains most of the same poetical devices of English poetry—metaphor, simile, hyperbole (overstatement), irony and so forth. It is different from our poetry mainly through the frequent use of parallelism. One of the main ways it does this is through using synonyms or related words to build and enhance the meaning of the line.

Psalm 1 offers a couple of examples of this type of parallelism. For example, the writer tells us that the happy and righteous person does not "follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread or sit in the seat of scoffers." You can clearly see the parallelism in wicked, sinners, and scoffers. In the more traditional translations (RSV and NIV) we can see the parallelism, too, in the first line. It reads: "Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of the sinners or sit in the seat of mockers." We also can clearly see the relationship of walk, stand in the way or sit in the seat. These are poetic ways of building the meaning of the phrase. We are happy if we don’t get involve in any of the aspects of the wicked life. This applies to our whole life.

Reading the Psalms is important. But there is another rich Christian tradition of praying the Psalms. They are poetic prayers. For example, here is one way to pray the Psalms. Look at the first line of Psalm 1: "Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked…" After reading the line aloud, then pray something like this: "O Lord, help me to live as you would have be to live. Help be to not speak evil of others, help me to not listen to those who would cause doubt instead of faith…" After each line or stanza repeat this spiritual exercise of applying the Psalm to your life.

Finally, we need to remember that Christians through the centuries have seen the Psalms as scripture, as written words inspired my God and words containing his revelation and message to us. The Psalms help us see how our human predicament is related to that of the ancient Jews, but it also provides us with spiritual understanding and guidance.

My prayer is that through the messages we will more clearly see Jesus and his message for us. Remember, the whole of life is found in the Psalms.

Christian theologian and philosopher Albert Schweitzer believed that through union with Christ we could live the Kingdom of God now on earth, instead of having to wait for some last days, the day of the Lord, to experience the Kingdom.

To Dr. Schweitzer, salvation was something we experience now and live now as we live in the earthly Kingdom. Our lives now should be connected with our eternal relationship to God. Philippians 2:12-13 appears to confirm this idea.

Living salvation now is an interesting idea. Is salvation important to you? Salvation is a difficult idea for many moderns. We are an independent bunch. We don’t need the help of anyone. He seem to be more interested in living to be 90 than to living eternally. We believe we can do "salvation" all by ourselves. And sometimes we turn to scripture to confirm our self-concocted notions.

In Philippians 2:12-13, Paul urges the Philippians to "work out their salvation with fear and trembling." To be this is a call to live our faith now. But is this scripture contrary to Paul’s emphasis on faith. Paul repeatedly tells us that we can not do works and earn salvation points. Salvation is a gift of grace, and salvation is from God. It’s not something we do ourselves. It happens through faith, through our response, to God’s grace.

So what is Paul saying in Philippians 2:12-13, when he says: "…work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure ?

I believe it is obvious from the references in the letter to Philippi that Paul is not recanting his "grace through faith" theology. He says in Philippians 3:7 that we are made right with God through faith in Christ.

The key in understanding Paul’s admonition is to understand the meaning of "work out." It seems to mean we are to continue and complete our salvation. Salvation has a past, a present, and a future. It will not be completed until the day of Christ, his second coming.

To "work out" salvation there must be a past. We must already have salvation. Paul is talking about our personal experience or personal relationship with Christ now—to be in Christ now. God wants that relationship to grow and mature. That’s what we are doing in the present. We are growing and maturing. We are working out. We are to work out our salvation with "fear and trembling." That is an Old Testament phrase that means we are to do some cautiously and in awe of God’s presence and power. It is something we should take seriously,

It appears that the text is telling us that we have responsibility for our relationship with God. Paul says God is working in us to have us do his will, but we also are responsible for a response. Faith in God in Christ is a response. But also are good works, the fruit of our salvation.

This passage has bothered others also because it seems to confirm that we can have individual religious experiences outside the church and outside the Bible. The text also appears to give us some freedom in our relationship with God. We all have different gifts and God calls us in different ways. Freedom, especially, bothers the religious legalists who want a rule or written law for everything.

Some church leaders want the Church itself and the Bible to have absolute authority in the matters of salvation. Paul implies that they don’t need him (he is in prison) to work out their salvation. They can do it with the help of God. It is a private matter between believers and God. It is a personal experience.

But is personal experience more important than Biblical authority? This is an important issue for United Methodists. John Wesley was a man of one book, the Bible, and our "Book of Discipline" states that all doctrine should be grounded in Scripture. However, we also say, with Wesley, that experience also is a significant way to discover God and to know his will for our lives. We all receive the gift of the Holy Spirit at the New Birth. The Holy Spirit guides in our journey of salvation.

"The Book of Discipline" states that we interpret Scripture using the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. The most significant part of the Quadrilateral is Scripture, which is like the seat on a three-legged stool. The legs are reason, tradition, and experience that help us in interpreting Scripture. Reason, tradition and experience never trump the Bible. Ten reason legs or ten experience legs don’t outweigh the Bible’s authority, according to our Discipline. However, we may use experience in interpreting the Bible.

Working out our salvation appears very close to Christian mysticism. Dr. Schweitzer wrote a book in 1930 titled "The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle," in which he discovered many ways in which Paul was a mystic and many of his teachings mystical. For example, Paul uses the phrases "in Christ" or "in the Lord" 26 times in Philippians alone. Being in union with Christ is definitely a mystical idea.

The Greek preposition (en) "in" is more than just a little preposition. It denotes to be within, inside, in union, in relationship with. One of the most mystical passages is in Romans 6:1-5 where Paul compares our relationship with Jesus on three mystical levels. Beginning with baptism, we are in water, in the life of Christ; we experience death and the sufferings of Christ while immersed, and then when we are brought to the surface we experience the resurrection.

Paul also says in Philippians 3:10-11 that he wants to "know Christ." And he wants to experience the power of the resurrection and the sharing of Jesus’ sufferings by becoming like him in his death. He also wants to attain the resurrection of Jesus. Some what go so far as to say that the idea of "in Christ" is almost equal in importance to grace through faith.

I believe that we are all responsible for our own faith and the maturing of our faith. God has given us this freedom. And one of the ways we mature our faith is through experience. Experience is to the individual as tradition is to the church. Experience authenticates the truth revealed in Scripture. It is not something to be feared. Experience provides us freedom in Christ.

We truly do live now in the Kingdom of God, but we continue to work out, to grow and mature, our new life in Christ through the help of the Holy Spirit.