Trinity 19
Readings: Psalm 121; 2 Timothy 3: 14 - 4: 5
17/10/04
In this morning’s second reading, Paul writes to Timothy telling him to continue
with what he’s learned and believed from the sacred writings. He says, “All
scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and
for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient,
equipped for every good work.” He is instructing Timothy specifically as a preacher
and evangelist, which is obviously close to my heart, but he is also saying that everyone
should be familiar with the scriptures so we can all be ready to talk about God in any
circumstances. David Adam has written about how the monks of the early Celtic church would
memorise parts of the Bible, especially the psalms and gospels. It enabled them to
meditate on the scriptures as they went about their daily tasks, to make the scriptures
relevant to their lives, to have the words of scripture available to them at any time, and
it meant they didn’t have to carry the huge hand painted bibles of the day around
with them when they went out to evangelise.
When I went on holiday over the summer, I decided to give it a try. I set myself a task to
memorize a psalm during the two weeks we were away.
So on the first morning of my holiday in New Zealand I woke early and pulled back the
curtains and said: “I lift up my eyes to the hills – where does my help come
from?” The breath caught in my throat as I stared out on the view over Queenstown
from that window, across the glacier-formed valley of Lake Wakatipu and into the Eyre
Mountains, covered in snow, with the mist rising off the lake in the early morning
sunlight. The scale of those mountains is too much to take in at a glance; you are reduced
to wide-eyed staring.
But that awesome scale is brought into perspective by the second verse, “my help
comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.” Our God made those mountains, he
made the glacier that carved them out, he made human beings to stare at that view and
worship him.
I had real fun with this psalm throughout the holiday. As I clambered up the rocky paths
to reach Fox Glacier I reminded myself, “He will not let your foot slip”. When I
was woken up at a restaurant table after a very long day I remembered, “he who
watches over you will not slumber”. That’s a slightly flippant example, but it
did help me to remember the psalm and helped to make the message relevant to me at that
time and place.
Psalm 121 was important to me long before I was reciting it over the New Zealand
landscape. I first heard it when I learned it to sing at a wedding here when I was in the
junior choir, and it got under my skin way back then so that every time I hear those
opening words my eyes automatically want to look up – maybe that was my early choir
training, but it stuck with me and I had this psalm sung at my own wedding. These are
words of encouragement for times when we feel we’re down in one of life’s
valleys, they encourage us to look up out of the narrow sphere of fear or despair or just
weariness; they are also words of affirmation of God's nature.
I found out a bit more about this psalm for today; apparently it was a pilgrim’s
song, sung as a pilgrim band entered Jerusalem at the end of their journey. That makes it
very appropriate for a pilgrim church, making it’s spiritual journey through life,
and also appropriate for us all, as individual pilgrims in the world. It reminds us that
the journey we make is not made in our own strength but in God’s.
Our help doesn’t come from earthly things, but from God, the maker of heaven and
earth.
The words refer to the natural hazards that the pilgrims would have faced and the
protection offered by God on their journey. In those days, there were no roads so there
was a danger of losing one’s way, or falling and being injured. We might fear
departing from the Straight Road of faith, but are told, “He will not let your foot
be moved”.
The elements were a danger to the ancient pilgrims too, heat during the day and cold at
night, rain and wind, they were at the mercy of these things and sought God’s
protection. Although these things don’t have such a direct impact on us these days,
it was not long ago that hurricanes were causing chaos in the West Indies and Florida. We
are reminded that God is with us in every season of the year, every season of life,
through all of life’s ups and downs.
The psalmist reminds us that God never loses sight of us, he’s always aware of where
we are and what we’re doing. He is the vigilant shepherd of his flock, and parent of
his children, and “(he) shall preserve you from all evil; it is he who will keep you
safe”.
And we are reminded of God’s eternal, unchanging nature. He was with the Israelites
in the days of King David, and he is with us now, and he will always be with us, watching
over our “going out and coming in”. He watches over us “from this time
forth for evermore”.
We never have to go through our journey alone, in fact our own strength isn’t enough
to keep us going. We can only be in one place at a time, have our attention in so many
places at one time, can only stay awake so long. But God is bigger than that, he will be
watching out for us at all times, in all places, and he doesn’t sleep. It won't mean
that we will never get hurt - God’s own son couldn’t avoid that on his journey
to the cross - but it will help us know that he is always with us on our journeys.
We each need to find our own way of making God's message a relevant part of our life, of
writing his word on our hearts, so that we too can follow Paul’s instruction to use
all scriptures, to become equipped for every good work, the greatest of which is to spread
God’s message of salvation in Jesus Christ.