Standing On a Rock, Singing

The federally funded Medicare hospice benefit is one of the finest programs that the federal government has ever created.  At a time of life when terminally ill patients need the most care, and when their caregivers are either too busy or too elderly to provide sufficient care for them, the federal government provides services, medication, and equipment that make staying at home to die a reality.  I am passionate about end-of-life issues and one day this year, I promise I will involve those of you who are interested in a Bible study and discussion group about the end of our lives and what guidance the scriptures give us, as well as what programs and services our society provides that many of us remain unaware of and, therefore, do not use.

When I worked as a hospice chaplain before coming to Stephenville, I spent a lot of time visiting my terminally ill patients in their homes.  One lovely lady I visited last year, whom I will call Mabel, suffered from Alzheimer’s Disease.  She lived in a small, cozy home on the outskirts of Smithville, a thriving metropolis of 3,000 people.  I used to sit with her on her porch and we would talk.

If you have never been around Alzheimer patients, you will not know that, as the disease progresses, they retreat further and further into themselves.  Their inability to remember the most recent encounters of their lives… or those who visit them… is frustrating and confusing for them.  Mabel never remembered who I was and I became very comfortable introducing myself each visit, as though it was something that everyone routinely did.  (Of course, my memory of people’s names is so bad that I wish we would all just routinely introduce ourselves as a part of our greetings each time we meet.)

The parts of a conversation that are most frustrating to an Alzheimer patient are the questions that we routinely ask, usually just to be polite.  “How are you today?” elicits a blank stare.  “Did you get a good sleep last night?” usually results in a puzzled frown… staring off into the distance… or no response at all.  Most Alzheimer patients simply are not capable of responding to such questions.  It makes every conversation a challenge for those who are attempting to communicate.

On one of my early visits, as I was learning how to deal with this challenge of conversing with Mabel, I simply ran out of questions and did not know how to proceed.  I did not know enough about Mabel to discuss something that might interest her.  Each minute seemed to drag on forever and my heart grew heavy with despair.  Finally, I fell back on a routine that I sometimes used when visiting strangers in the hospital.  I pulled out my Bible and began to read from the Psalms.  I started with Psalm 23, which is a favorite of many elderly folks. When I was finished, I looked up to see Mabel looking at me with tears streaming down her face.  “It’s been a long time since I have been able to read the Bible, “ she told me.  “I can’t read the words any more and the book is too heavy for me to hold.”  I asked Mabel whether she would like me to read to her from her Bible… for I thought she might have her favorite passages marked… and she said yes.  Getting up from my seat, I wandered through her house until I found it… the big, white family Bible with the gilt-edged pages sitting on the table in the dining room.  I brought it out to the porch, sat beside her, and I opened it to the 23^rd Psalm.  It was the King James Version, of course, and Mabel’s lips moved silently as I read the words on the well-worn page out loud.  By the time I was finished, she had pulled out a handkerchief to try to stop the flood of tears.  I asked her to share with me what she found most meaningful in that psalm and, for the next hour, she talked to me about the importance of her faith in God and how it sustained her, even in this time of darkness before her death.  At the end of my visit, we prayed together and I went out to my car, my steps light, and my own concerns diminished to nothing in the blinding light of this woman’s faith in God.

The irony in all this to me was that I had gone to Mabel’s home with the intent of ministering to her.  Instead, she had shared stories of her faith in God and how that faith had sustained her through all the adversities in her life in a way that ministered deeply to me.  Why are we so reluctant to share our own personal stories of faith with others?  Is it because we think we have no stories to share?  Or is it because we think no one else wants to hear our stories?  Or is it because those stories touch a part of our lives that is so deep and so close to our souls that we are afraid to reveal so much of ourselves to others?

Psalm 40 was written by King David, who had a gift for writing his deepest thoughts and feelings in song for others to hear.  In the opening lines of the psalm, he shares his reason for writing this new psalm.  He says, “I waited patiently for the Lord.  He inclined to me and heard my cry.  He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my step secure.  He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.”

So, the occasion for the new song is David’s joy in being rescued by God from a horrible place.  And the rest of our text today deals with several things that David believes he owes to God for that act of mercy… and he specifically names three things.  But, before we get into a discussion of those three things, let us understand what God did for David.

We don’t have much to go on, but let me see if expanding on just a couple of thoughts might help you understand David’s joy.  First, understand that David did not simply wait for God to act.  The repeated Hebrew verb and its unusual form make it clear that David waited… and waited… and waited… and not impassively, but intently waited… and continuously waited … for God to act.  God heard David’s cry and rescued him from what he calls a “desolate pit,” which is a euphemism for hell itself… the deepest of dungeons, or graves, from which there is no escape… and in which there is the thunderous noise of chaos… like the noise of battle… and from a “miry bog”… or a place that is totally disgusting… that has trapped him and is sucking him down to hell.

God lifted him out of this hellish place and put him on safe, solid ground… on a rock… and God created a pathway of safety for him, protecting him from the hell from which he came.  The joy of his deliverance from this hell is the reason that David writes a new song… one that God has given to him…to praise God.  How many of you have ever walked through a dark and desolate place in your life… or lived through a time when you felt like you were being sucked down… pulled under… and were afraid you would never come up again… only to be lifted up by the hand of God?  Many of us have been there.  But, what I want you to see is not just the wonderful thing that God has done for David, but what David believes he should do for God as a result of this wondrous gift of new life that God has given to him.

There are three things that David mentions:  First, David says that he will put his trust fully in God.  “Happy are those who make God their trust.”  And why does he believe this?   Because God has always been faithful to him.  In verse 5, the Psalm reads, “You have multiplied … your wondrous deeds…none can compare with you.  Were I to proclaim and tell of them, they would be more than can be counted.”  This is still true for us today.  As God has been to us in the past, God will be in the future.  That was the message of the special music that our choir sang this morning… “O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come.”  When we examine the many ways in which God has been faithful to us in the past, we come away with the conviction that God will continue to be faithful in the future.  So, put your trust in God.

The second thing that David does in response to God’s saving action in his life is to do God’s will.  “In the scroll of the book it is written of me.  I delight to do your will… your law is within my heart.”  What David is talking about goes beyond just grudgingly doing the will of God because we know it is the right thing to do.  It is taking joy in doing God’s will… not as if it were a hated requirement of life…but instead, our greatest pleasure… or, to steal a concept from “Snow White,” it is whistling while we work.  Rejoice in doing God’s will.

The last thing that David mentions here is the importance of sharing the good news with others.  “I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; see, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O Lord.”  David was a king.  The “great congregation” he refers to is the entire tribe of Israel… all of the people of God.  David has shared his story with all of his people.  And David goes on to say, “I have not hidden your saving help within my heart,” he says.  “I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation.  I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation.”

I wish I could point out to you today all of the places in the scriptures where we are told to share the good news with others.  Our stories of God’s deliverance provide comfort and strength to other Christians… and give hope to those who have not heard the good news.  And we are called to spread the news.  Our reading from the Prophet Isaiah this morning said, “the Lord who called me before I was born… who formed me in the womb to be his servant… says, ‘I give you as a light to the nations, [so] that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.’”  In his final words to his disciples, Jesus told his disciples to share the good news with the whole world.  In our New Testament lesson today, the Apostle Paul, in his words to the congregation in Corinth, tells all of them that God is faithful… and that it is God who has strengthened the testimony of Christ among them.  It is not enough for us to merely thank God for  the wonderful things that God has done for us.  We are called to share the incredible story of what God has done for us with others… so that they will hear the good news as well.

A woman I knew in seminary shared this story with me.  She told me that, in the middle of one of the darkest periods of her life, she found herself on a business trip, alone and far from home, in a hotel room in Indianapolis.  Late that night, discouraged and depressed, she tried to call several of her friends… but no one answered their telephones… probably because they did not recognize the telephone number on their Caller ID… (which will be the subject of another sermon one day).  Searching for a telephone book, hoping to call a local pastor for counseling, she opened the drawer of the beside table and found a copy of the Bible, generously given to the hotel by the Gideons.  Blindly she opened it and found herself reading Psalm 40, out text for today.  Over the next two hours, she read that psalm over and over, and poured her heart out to God.

I would love to say that God responded to her cry in that stark hotel room in Indianapolis that night by sending someone to help her.  It didn’t quite happen that way.  But that night began a search for her for something that was missing in her life that culminated in an encounter with God that changed her life completely.  And, in response to God’s gift in her life, she took the words of this psalm to heart and, like David, she gave back to God what David also gave to God… complete trust in God… delight in doing God’s will for her life… and sharing the story of God’s wonderful, saving grace with as many people as she can.

It is not enough just to thank God for the wonderful things that God has done… and continues to do in our lives.  We are called to share the good news of all that God has done with others.  Do we need to stand in front of a church full of people to do it?  No.  Do we need to give speeches at community organizations that testify to God’s saving grace?  No.  Like Mabel, we can share our stories with just one person at a time… speaking of God’s love… God’s acts of mercy in our own lives… and our confidence that God will continue to act in ways that will save us from all of the hellish places that we find ourselves in… not just today, but all the days of our lives.  Trust in God.  Delight in doing God’s will.  And share your stories of God’s love and God’s deliverance with others… one person at a time.  Stand on a rock… the rock of God’s love for you… the rock of God’s faithfulness to you.  Stand on the Rock and sing… for you are a child of God.  Amen.

Psalm 40:1-11