Sermon Tone Analysis
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Jewish Meditation Literature
As I have been going through the bible in a year with Kara, I have been introduced to a way of reading through that has just been fascinating.
We have the usual 2-4 chapters each day, but we have one Psalm per day as well.
On top of that, we are reading in the original order of the TaNaK.
I am finding that in this stage of my life, considering what I have learned in the last few years, it really is like reading it again for the first time.
There are still questions, but I am enjoying it immensely.
As we have gone through the Psalms, I have been reading them as Jewish meditation literature.
What that mean, in short, is you read it out loud quietly to yourself.
You might need to read it a few times.
English makes it very difficult to follow the poetry.
And look, I am not a poetry guy.
But once you are able to see the architecture of the poems, they come alive.
When you pray the Psalm’s as though they are your own prayer, they will start to mess with you mind!
One of the Psalm’s, Psalm 43, deals with a theme that we all wrestle with at some point in our lives.
The poet is working through a moment in their life where they are feeling like they are being controlled by others, God is their only safe haven and they believe God has tossed them aside.
The writer is expressing how to life in belief and grief at the same time.
SLIDE: Living in Belief with Grief
Living in Belief with Grief
Living in belief and grief is a monumental challenge for someone to overcome.
The two seem diametrically opposed to each other.
At times it seems there is a conversation going on inside yourself, between your thoughts and your soul.
When this happens you may find yourself stuck, like there is no agreement between your belief and your grief.
The poet gives no indication it is easy, rather the poem expresses how the author found themselves through distress by way of believing.
Let’s take a look at Psalm 43 and see if this writer has anything that might apply to us.
Remember, it is meditation literature.
The best way to read this is to see yourself as the speaker, as though you were speaking the words yourself.
Put yourself in the shoes of the author, make them your own.
You might find yourself standing in front of a reflective mirror, learning something about you.
SLIDE:
Let’s break this down into sections.
There may be just five verses, but they are dense with things to say to us.
SLIDE: Vindicate me...
1 Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people, from the deceitful and unjust man deliver me!
Have you ever felt like you were living in a nation of people, or even among a few people that just did not understand you?
The author is asking God to plead his case to the people around him and also to judge his case.
Vindicate would be to render a judgement, but also to defend his case.
He is asking God to be he defending attorney and the judge at the same time.
That should bring up an image for us, Jesus who represents us before the Father, and the Father who is the judge.
It so happens, they are the same.
SLIDE: For you are the God in whom...
2 For you are the God in whom I take refuge; why have you rejected me?
Implication: God is behaving just like the people in the nation!
The poet has described his circumstances, and in the middle of those circumstances they feel as though they have been rejected, expelled from God’s presence.
Notice the tension in this statement: I take refuge in you, yet you have expelled me.
This is how the author feels at the moment.
Their circumstances don’t warrant any belief there is any refuge.
They are perplexed by God’s absence in the moment.
“I always go to God and He seems to be so distant.”
The why is reflecting on the request for God to vindicate, to judge them, at least then they will know why God has rejected them.
SLIDE: Why do I go about mourning...
Why do I go about mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
Two thoughts here: 1) If God is not with me, then why worry about those against me, I might as well join them, and 2) why am I letting those against me cause me to mourn?
Why have I granted them this authority over my soul?
The implication is, “why am I giving so much power over me?”
The poet’s decision to mourn is just that, his own decision.
He can decide otherwise.
But where do you start?
How do you break the logjam in your mind?
You invite a third party to the conversation.
SLIDE: Send out your light and your truth
3 Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling!
You invite Light and Truth to your conversation.
Light and truth are trying to take you back in your mind to when Israel was led around by a column of fire in the wilderness.
To a time when the fire of God raged in the Tabernacle.
The truth is a desire to return to a time when you could plead your case before God, he would hear it and he would rule justly.
SLIDE: let them lead me;
Let the light and truth lead me, question, lead me where?
The author is longing to return to a time when the people simply followed the column of fire and pillar of smoke.
When the pillar of fire was with Israel, no enemy could withstand the power and presence of Yahweh.
The poet is asking God to send light and truth to lead him.
Light to show the way…Truth to calm their mind.
SLIDE: let them bring me to your holy hill and
Ah, that is where we are headed, that is where we want to go, to God’s Holy Hill.
Where is that?
Jerusalem.
SLIDE: and to your dwelling?
Even more specific, to the place that God dwells.
Where is that for this Old Testament writer?
In the Holy of Holies, deep in the center of the Temple/Tabernacle.
The place where the high priest goes in but once a year.
The poet wants to be with God in his dwelling.
God’s dwelling is the place of refuge.
That is important, keep that in mind.
SLIDE: Then I will go...
4 Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God.
The light and truth will lead the poet to the altar of God, to God who is exceeding joy!
What is the antidote to distress?
Joy.
What is the source of joy for this poet?
God.
What is the result?
The poet breaks out in song and praise for his God.
By inviting God into the conversation, being led to this moment of reminding, the writer has begun a journey towards joy.
We are never given an indication the author made it to the altar of God, but does it really matter?
Even if it is only a thought, the mere memory, the mental image of this moment is enough to break the tie between his mind and his soul.
At this point, the author resumes the internal conversation, but this time they are thinking from a very different perspective.
SLIDE: Why are you cast down...
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?
What a brilliant question the author asks of himself!
There is some very specific language in this verse.
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