Teach Me - Psalm 143

                  

This week we’re remembering the beginning of the Reformation; how on October 31, 1517, Martin Luther posted 95 theses, or statements on the church, on the door of the church in Wittenberg, Germany. When you wanted to start a community discussion about something, this is what you did, this was the Facebook of its time. As we learned in Tuesday Night Youth, the Reformation had its roots in the work and desire for reformation in the church that went back a few hundred years before this. People like Francis of Assisi, Hildegard of Bingen, John Wycliffe, and others were calling out corruption in the church leadership and their teaching. There was a longing to return to the teachings of Scripture and the hope found in it. As the Encyclopedia Britannica writes, “Martin Luther claimed that what distinguished him from previous reformers was that while they attacked corruption in the life of the church, he went to the theological root of the problem—the perversion of the church’s doctrine of redemption and grace. Luther, a pastor and professor at the University of Wittenberg, deplored the entanglement of God’s free gift of grace in a complex system of indulgences and good works.”

Martin Luther struggled with feelings of guilt and inadequacy before God, recognizing his sin and that he wasn’t good enough to earn God’s forgiveness. David understands this, “Lord, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy; in your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief. Do not bring your servant into judgement, for on one living is righteous before you.” Psalm 143 is the last of seven psalms of penitence found in the psalms; a psalm of confession and a plea for forgiveness. David knows the importance of repentance; expressing a desire to be obedient and shaped by God.

David’s going through a time of fear, a time of inner struggle, and pressure from enemies.  Verses 3 and 4 show us David’s spirit is faint, his heart is desolate; a picture of David’s fear that he’s unable to please God because of where he’s at in his sin; his soul is dead. This is an image of depression and hopelessness. Our enemies are not always physical, they can be spiritual, emotional, or mental. We can be our own worst enemy by sinning and disobeying God. The word David uses here for faint means “complete destruction,” he’s in a deep place of darkness of the soul. His sin has separated him from God and created a barrenness in his soul. David comes to God with humility and hands spread out; pleading with God.

To make his way back to the Lord, to experience the sweetness of God again, David meditates on God. He meditates on what God has created and is creating, on what God has done in the past, seeking hope and renewal in remembering God’s faithfulness to his people and the covenants he made to be their God and claim Israel as his people. David would have meditated on how often Israel drifted away from God and how God never gives up on them, always restoring them, giving them his blessings again and again. David seeks the guidance of God’s Spirit. In Hebrew, God’s Spirit carries the image of sweetness. For David, the sweetness of God is gone and only God can give it back. David thirsts for God; he has a deep need and longing, an ache in his soul to be close to God again, to be forgiven and experience the sweetness of God’s presence again.

George S. Hendry writes, “Meditation is an exercise, an exercise of the mind and spirit. And it's one that has to be learned…. the Hebrew word for "meditate" is almost always translated by one of the German words for "speak." For example, the Godly man who's portrayed in the first Psalm as one "whose delight is in the law of the Lord and in whose law doth he meditate day and night." In the Luther Bible he becomes a man who "talks" of his law day and night. But that's wrong. The Psalmist's comparison in the next verse of this man to "a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season," surely this suggests a man whose spirit is nourished at hidden springs below the level of speech.”

David recognizes that without forgiveness he has no life; no nourishment for his soul to grow again in his relationship with God. He’s feeling like parched land, like a traveller in the wilderness searching for water with the sun beating down on him. David’s exhausted and can’t carry on in his own strength, he needs water, he needs living water like what Jesus offers the Samaritan woman at the well; water that restores and renews, water that washes away the dirt and sin. But David’s scared that God will hide his face; David fears losing a sense of God’s blessing and presence. It’s like being in a dark pit, a place of darkness and hopelessness. It reminds me of the story of Joseph and his brothers when they grabbed him on order to sell him as a slave. They threw him in a pit, alone and afraid, unable to see a way out.

David chooses to trust God, to trust who God is calling him to be. David’s trust comes because of God’s faithfulness in the past, because of the covenants God has made with his people to be their God, that they are his people and he will not abandon them. It’s no different today, at a time where we’re told to choose our own way, to determine for ourselves what our values and ethics are. Followers of Jesus are called to trust in the way he taught, in the way he walked, in the call he makes on us to show our love for him through obedience to his commands. We’re called to trust that Jesus knows what’s best for us; that his call on how to live, what to believe, is what will help us flourish and grow as people created in the image of God, into who God calls us to be as his children and heirs in his kingdom, even when it’s hard. We trust because we see Jesus’ commitment and great love for us by taking all our sin on himself and washing it away with his blood on the cross. The Reformation took us back to Scripture and how it reveals to us a God who loves us and gives us a path of life that brings strength and hope.

David puts his life in God’s hands; God is the potter and we are the clay as both Jeremiah and Isaiah remind us. David asks, “Rescue me from my enemies, Lord, for I hide myself in you.” He trusts the Lord to be the ultimate place of safety, but also the place where he can be shaped into a masterpiece of God’s. David reminds the Lord that this is about who God is, that the world is watching to see if God is going to remain faithful even when David’s unfaithful. David wants God to show the world the Lord’s power and unwavering commitment to his people. When we’re transformed by the Holy Spirit to be more like Jesus, people around us notice, whether it’s when we learn grace, compassion, or forgiveness; or when we become more generous, more passionate about sharing our faith, more conscious of the importance of building strong healthy relationships with each other and God, or concerned for justice and righteousness, this gives weight to our testimony of who Jesus is.

David asks God, “Show me the way to go,” who to be, how to be faithful, how to please God again. David shows he’s open to being led, to following God’s way, to being shaped by God in his life, his values and ethics, in how he understands himself and who God is, in how he thinks and what he feels; all to be directed by God. He goes on, “Teach me to do your will.” He’s willing to sit at God’s feet to learn, showing humility and trust. We all need constant reminders on how to live, how to be obedient to God’s will over our own. It’s about learning practical wisdom, and justice, and mercy; it’s whole life learning under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. David’s trust and obedience is rooted in God’s “unfailing love” which in Hebrew is “hesed.” Some words in Hebrew give us a deeper glimpse into who God is, and this is one of them. It’s an expression of deep covenantal faithful love, of God’s love for us.

The heart of the Reformation was about turning back to God’s Word to shape us: our character, life, and beliefs. The Reformation calls us back to trusting in God’s way and grace, and to live it. We do this better together rather than alone. The Reformation called us back to humility and gratitude, as we live in the comfort of knowing that we are not our own, but we belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to our faithful saviour Jesus Christ.