Canvey Island Methodist Church Bible Study 24th November 2020.
ADVENT HOPE
Psalm 19[a]
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
3 They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
4 Yet their voice[b] goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.
5 It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
6 It rises at one end of the heavens
and makes its circuit to the other;
nothing is deprived of its warmth.
7 The law of the Lord is perfect,
refreshing the soul.
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
8 The precepts of the Lord are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
9 The fear of the Lord is pure,
enduring forever.
The decrees of the Lord are firm,
and all of them are righteous.
10 They are more precious than gold,
than much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey,
than honey from the honeycomb.
11 By them your servant is warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.
12 But who can discern their own errors?
Forgive my hidden faults.
13 Keep your servant also from willful sins;
may they not rule over me.
Then I will be blameless,
innocent of great transgression.
14 May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight,
Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.
Footnotes
Psalm 19:1 In Hebrew texts 19:1-14 is numbered 19:2-15.
Psalm 19:4 Septuagint, Jerome and Syriac; Hebrew measuring line
Comment
I know it's hard to believe, but the “Season of Advent” actually begins this coming Sunday. Where has the year gone! With Christmas fast approaching, it therefore seems appropriate to conclude our studies of the Book of Psalms with Psalm 19, a psalm of David. Unlike the other psalms we have studied, Psalm 19 has eluded categorization by the theologians. They just didn’t know where to fit it! The reason? It is, along with a few others like Psalm 66, one which contains a mixture of all the different Psalm grouping themes.
At its heart, Psalm 19 praises the Lord for His two great gifts to humanity: creation and the law. It does this as it speaks of God being revealed in both nature and in Scripture.
C. S. Lewis, the well-known Christian writer loved Psalm 19. He said,
“I take this Psalm 19 to be the greatest poem in the Psalms and one of the greatest lyrics in the world.”
And who could disagree with this sentiment as the pages of Psalm 19 turn and its vaulting tones and its picturesque language lift the spirit and inspire the soul. We read, “The heavens declare the glory of God...They pour forth speech……..yet they use no words…..but their voice is heard in all the Earth.
Anyone who has ever found themselves on a still, dark night, in a place free city lights, and, who has then glanced up into the dark, velvety expanse of sky above their heads, will have experienced something akin to the wonder and awe felt and described so succinctly by the psalmist David ; The Milky Way, stretching like an ethereal ribbon across the skies, its gentle light meeting, and, being pierced by myriads of other, more local stars, that stretch their brilliance into shapes and constellations, clusters, groupings, and distant galaxies. Planets, patrolling the midnight skies, (and so marking the year), change their position each night, all bearing witness to, all singing a unified song of sheer radiance, all proclaiming the joyful and impelling song of the creator's loving hand.
The crescendo of Advent is the birth of Jesus, God's only Son, and incredibly, a star played a big part in this glorious nativity of grace. Astronomers looking back over records from antiquity have identified various celestial candidates that might have served to catch the eye of the “Magi” (Wise Men) as they travelled from Babylon to Jerusalem following the star. Chinese Astronomers recorded a “Nova” or an exploding star in 4BC, and they also saw a comet in 5BC. More recently, David Hugges, Professor Emeritus at the University of Sheffield has calculated that back in 7BC, a very rare triple conjunction of Earth , Jupiter and Saturn occurred, where all these planets lined up in their orbits so that on earth, Jupiter and Saturn would look to have merged. Who really knows? In the end, I suppose that it doesn’t really matter. Whatever happened, the Magi found their way to the house in which Jesus lay and in the words of Psalm 19v1,
“The heavens did indeed, declare the glory of God, and the skies proclaim the work of his hands”.
It is, perhaps, no coincidence that this particular Psalm 19, is assigned by the church to be read on Christmas Day, when the “Sun of righteousness” came into the world (Mal. 4:2. But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves), and the living Word was laid in the manger (John 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth).
The emphasis, then in the psalm is on God’s revelations of Himself in creation, Scripture, and the human heart.
When Jesus came, he was described as “The Word Made Flesh”. (John 1:14
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth).
Psalm 19 also speaks about the blessings of God’s law, otherwise known as the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament. The Ten Commandments are part of this written law and they have formed the basis of law in many nations and societies across the world, including our own in the United Kingdom.
Whilst, the law, spoken of so warmly in Psalm19, as “giving stability like a rock beneath a persons feet”, has many strengths, it does, being an inanimate tool, have its limitations. The Law can point out someone’s faults; identify when they have broken one of its rules, but it could not and cannot now, “keep a person either sinless or blameless” or from “being ruled by sin” (v13) . However, Jesus can!!! How, though, can Jesus do this? The answer seems simple and plain but it cost Jesus everything.
Jesus, the original lawgiver, in coming into the world, became subject to the demands of the law. Only Jesus, unlike us, was completely pure, sinless and kept all the rules, and so when he was punished for something he didn’t do, he was “made sin in our stead”. The result: When God looks at you and I, he sees the righteousness of Jesus, wrapped around our lives, and so you and I are now free of guilt and it’s burdens both now and into eternity.
(2 Corinthians 5:2. For he has made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him).
In my book, (and I suspect in yours also), such grace and love outshines every star in the sky. The world can be dark and gloomy, the seas rough and stormy, and the path ahead steep and rocky, but with Jesus our Saviour and friend lighting the way we all have hope for the future. In Jesus we have truly found the “Rock and Redeemer of Psalm19.
At this time, when the current Covid 19 lockdown 2 restrictions are still in place, and the likelihood of future government distancing tier restrictions are threatening to change or limit Christmas Celebrations and our lives beyond into 2021, it is easy to feel grumpy and gloomy or even scared or alarmed. But even such limitations can be used of God for blessing,
Last year as Christmas approached, Anna and her team in Lebanon were suddenly faced with cancelled bookings as schools were closed by street protests.
Here is the poem that Anna wrote in response.
Advent Hope
The box is wooden
Green and white stripped
A prop from last years Christmas play
Which we're going to revive
I lift the lid
And it's full of Christmas tat
You know tinsel and baubles
And tiny elf hats
But to me suddenly
it's like all of Christmas is inside
Stars and sparkles
Wrapped in nostalgia
And I'm back in my parent's
Front room
And we're opening the boxes
Of decorations from the attic
Which somehow have always managed to stay the same
However much else has changed
I mean genuinely my mum and dad
Have decorations they bought
From shops that closed years ago
Threadbare Robins
And slightly crinkled tinsel
But still
I'm standing in work
In front of that box
Reliving the feeling of Christmas
A warm, magical, full kind of feeling
That could be a memory
(But no real feeling is as perfect as that)
And I'm excited for the show
For spreading Christmas cheer
But . . . two days later
Were putting everything back
Tinsel And baubles and
Tiny elf hats
The boss tells us as we sit
In the same room as the box
That the situation is too uncertain
For us to keep rehearsing the play
Maybe we won't be able to get into work
Maybe the schools will be shut anyway
So we pack everything up
And put it back in the box
And practically this is the
Right decision
There's other things we can do
And part of me feels
That right now
Amidst corruption
And economic collapse
Celebration feels a bit incongruous
Like a multi coloured scarf at a funeral
But still another part of me thinks
Isn't advent
Isn't Christmas kind of like that
It's light shining out in the darkness
Hope bursting in
When everything is hardest
A Saviour born in the
Midst of a people's oppression
Not shouting orders from above
Or clinging onto position
But exchanging heaven
To become one of them
and surely we need that kind of story
Right now?
A story that tells me
That however I feel
Whatever crazy things are going on
Around me
Hope is a reality that can be found in
The most unlikely of places
Caves and hillsides
And occupied roman territories
So I have decorated my house
With a tree and lights
And tinsel and elves
Not to distract me from
The injustice in the world
But to remind me that I have faith in injustice's defeat
I have faith that there can and will be peace
And that hope can come
In unexpected places
And this hope is something
I want to stay out
When it's time to pack
My Christmas things
Back into the box on the shelf
Even when the tinsel's
Not there to remind me
I will cling onto the hope that I find in
The story of the divine bursting into
The ordinary
And I will trust the words of the story
That tell me that light will
Shine forth in the darkness
And that colourful scarves will
Replace black clothes of mourning
Anna Turner
May each of us have and live in that same Advent Hope.
God Bless you all
Colin