5 Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the clouds.
6 Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains,
your judgments are like the great deep;
you save humans and animals alike, O LORD.
7 How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
8 They feast on the abundance of your house,
and you give them drink from the river of your delights.
9 For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light we see light.
10 O continue your steadfast love to those who know you,
and your salvation to the upright of heart!

Prayer: God who speaks to us through the faithful witness of those who love you, who are called according to your purpose. Speak to us now from the past and the present for we are listening. Amen.

The 36th psalm is a puzzle of sorts. It contains 5 lines of beautiful poetic verse that affirm God’s character (God’s steadfast love). Oddly, this “CALL TO WORSHIP” is surrounded by critical commentary on the wicked (those who because they do not fear God, act deceitfully), which the Sunday lection has left out for obvious reasons.

The psalm actually begins verse 1:
1 Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in their hearts; there is no fear of God before their eyes. 2 For they flatter themselves in their own eyes that their iniquity cannot be found out and hated. 3 The words of their mouths are mischief and deceit; they have ceased to act wisely and do good. 4 They plot mischief while on their beds; they are set on a way that is not good; they do not reject evil.    

Not only does the Psalmist condemn the wicked but in verses 11-12, calls for divine judgment, that the wicked be “thrust down.”

11 Do not let the foot of the arrogant tread on me, or the hand of the wicked drive me away.12 There the evildoers lie prostrate; they are thrust down, unable to rise.

Why would the Psalmist wrap something as beautiful as God’s steadfast love in something as ugly as condemnation?

The psalmist’s contrasting words serve as a call to confession as well as a confession to worship.

God’s “steadfast love” does not mean that anything goes. In fact, I would argue it is because of God’s steadfast love that God acts against the presence of wickedness and evil. God refuses to stand quietly as others are victimized.

Isn’t that what we pray when we repeat the words, “And deliver us from evil?” We are asking God to act against the presence of wickedness and evil in the world. But at times the one I need saving from is myself.

The person who praises God for being steadfastly loving, may also be the one the psalm describes as deceitful, whose arrogance leads them to conclude they will not be found out. But God is no fool.

The parsonage is located in Rosemead Heights, a development populated by bunnies! Every night I take my Manchester Terrier for a walk through the neighborhood and I can tell his predatory nature is in high gear! He talks on this alert stiff stance, and leans forward, ready to chase down his prey; so much more exciting than playing “Kill the sock.”

I repeatedly have to reign him in by firmly stating, “Taz! Just say ‘no’ to the bunnies.” He knows what I’m saying because his ears drop back and he resumes his trott. We’ve walked those streets so much that the bunnies actually recognize us, so instead of running away, they sit there on the lawn (taunting him!).

Just say “no” to the bunnies. Don’t hunt bunnies?  Materialism, voyeurism, racism, are all evidence that our predatory natures haven’t disappeared. They’ve just become more domesticated!

Forgive me if it sounds like I’m moralizing but allowing your possessions, your achievements, or your prejudice to define who you are demeans both you and your creator.

God’s steadfast love challenges our predatory nature saying, “Just say no to the bunnies.”  

So taken as a whole, Psalm 36 is both a call to worship and a call to confession.

And there’s some wonderful imagery in this psalm that speaks to God’s deliverance.

Verse 6
Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your judgments are like the great deep; you save humans and animals alike, O LORD.

Few stories in the Old Testament better define God’s judgment and salvation then the story of Noah’s ark. Our song compares God’s steadfast love to an ark that saves both animals and the righteous (those who fear and thus obey God), from the deep waters of God’s judgment, depositing the survivors “on the mountains.”

Verse 7
How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings.

Using Temple imagery, God’s steadfast love is compared to the golden cherubim that adorned Solomon’s temple. The cherub were mythical divine winged creatures that served as guardians of the temple.

1 Kings 6:23-28
In the inner sanctuary [Solomon] made two cherubim….and put [them] in the innermost part of the house; the wings of the cherubim were spread out so that a wing of one was touching the one wall, and a wing of the other cherub was touching the other wall; their other wings toward the center of the house were touching wing to wing. 28 He also overlaid the cherubim with gold.

The idea of seeking “sanctuary” evolved from this holy place being a kind of “pirates parlay,” a safe-house of sorts respected by all in the community, foe or friend.
 
Jesus applies this image of sanctuary to himself in Matthew 23:37-39, saying,

Matt 23:37-39
"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!  38 See, your house is left to you, desolate.   39 For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.'”

Verses 8 and 9 combine this temple imagery with apocalyptic images of the Kingdom of God come.

8 They feast on the abundance of your house,
and you give them drink from the river of your delights.
9 For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light we see light.

These images of deliverance are picked up in Revelation 21:22-24, 22:1…

22 I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb

In light of God’s incredible steadfast love, the psalmist invites us to bend our lives toward God.” What does it mean to bend one’s life toward God?  
It is fulfilling our God given identity both individually, as Children of God, and as a church.  

One of the things I care deeply about is Holy Covenant reaching people for Jesus Christ. I’ve love this church and while I have not always used the best judgment in how I approach things, I would never intentionally do anything to harm it. So I’m always surprised to hear someone question my motives. For example, suggesting I’m advocating “growth for growth” sake. When your adult child decides to have a baby, you don’t criticize her/him saying, “Oh, you just want to justify buying a bigger house!” No, it’s a blessing. So we adjust, we make room.

As a church, if we don’t make room, what message are we really sending? Are we not called to make disciples for Jesus Christ?  

How resistant we are to change and yet every time this church steps out in faith, God blesses it! Isn’t that true?

Our Metrocrest ministers fellowship had lunch at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Farmer’s Branch last week. According to Father Bradley, his church is now 61% Hispanic? If that were our community, our church, would we celebrate or “cut and run?”

We are called to claim our Christian identity and racism is not a part of it.  

I was watching TV a couple weeks ago and they were televising a protest at a funeral. It was a conservative Christian group and as the cameras panned the crowd, one sign stuck out in my mind more then any other. It read, “God hates you.”

I don’t care if you are poor, undocumented, or whatever, God loves you! I’ve always considered myself a tolerant person but the one thing I will not stand for in this church is hate.

We bend our life toward God in our stewardship. If stewardship is a commitment to live a generous life, why is it so hard to “put it on paper”?

Less then half of all the families that make up HC have made a pledge of their time, talents and finances. I know there’s not much left after all the bills and our other commitments have been met, but God deserves more then leftovers. Doesn’t God deserve to be a priority?

Jesus calls us, his church to be a community of dreamers. Dreamers, who in remembering the past, God’s great works of salvation, can dream a future yet come to. Dreamers who constantly ask the question, “What if?” And then imagine ways to make it all happen.

I want to close by reading prayer inspired by one of the greatest dreamers of the last 50 years, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Let us pray:

We remember the gentle, patient courage of Dr. King, as he made the teachings of Jesus the literal rule for loving: refusing the temptation to render an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth but rendering instead good for evil; nonviolently offering the other cheek to those who, blinded by hate, taunted and loving those who chose to be his enemies and persecutors; following his Lord in showing the greatest love of all by laying down his life for others. Lord, give us the courage to live by what we say we believe and to accept the teachings of Christ as codes of conduct rather than mere words of inspiration.

We remember the restless and unrelenting commitment of Dr. King, as he refused to barter justice or compromise thy Word; insisting that the demand for justice, freedom and human dignity applies to all thy children in Southeast Asia as well as the South Bronx, and throughout the two-thirds of thy creation where injustice and oppression preserve the privilege of the other third. Lord, save us from the temptation to be satisfied with partial fulfillment and limited expression of thy truth. Help us both to love our neighbors and also to see the whole world as our neighborhood.

O God, fashion and mold our memories into a guiding vision for active discipleship, so that we may not only long and yearn for thy coming kingdom but may also recognize its arrival and presence in the risen Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, in whose blessed name we pray. Amen.