First Presbyterian Church
Heartbeats of Wisdom
Sermon for March 15, 2009
by Pastor Susan Barnes

Psalm 19 is on page 498. This psalm speaks of the sun. The sun was created by God and its existence and actions testify to God's power. It brings warmth which offers life, and shines light which brings vision. One theologian described this psalm by saying “God's law is built into the structure of the universe.” 1I'll be reading from my translation. Listen for the word of God as it is found in Psalm 19. 2

1 To the director. A lyric of David.

2 The heavens are recounting God's glory and are proclaiming the work of God's hands.

3 Day to day flows with speech, and night to night declares knowledge.

4 There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard;

5 From all the earth comes a sound 3, and from the ends of the world, their words.

In those ends 4, God has set a tent for the sun,

6 which comes, like a bridegroom from his wedding canopy and joyfully runs its path like a strong man.

7 Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them; and nothing is hid from its heat.

8 The LORD's law is perfect and all-encompassing, restoring the soul; the LORD's decrees are lasting, making wise the simple;

9 the LORD's precepts are right, rejoicing the heart; the LORD's commandment is clean, enlightening the eyes;

10 the fear of the LORD is pure forever; the LORD's judgments are true and just altogether.

11 More to be desired are they than gold ore, even much purified gold; sweeter also than honey, and honeycomb drippings.

12 Moreover by them is your servant enlightened; in keeping them there is great consequence.

13 Their errors, who can discern? Clear me from hidden things.

14 Keep back your servant also from arrogant things; do not let them rule over me. Then I shall be complete and innocent of great transgression.

15 Let the words of my mouth and the reverberating music of my heart be a pleasure to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

 

This ends our reading of the psalm.

That Hebrew word your pew Bibles translate as ‘meditation' is used to describe the motion of string on a lute in Psalm 92:3. That's why I used ‘reverberating music' instead. The thumping vibrations of our hearts are supposed to please the Lord. In those days, the heart was considered the origin of our thoughts and the location of our conscience. So our heartbeats shape our words.

God is called our rock and redeemer. To redeem someone means to buy him or her out of debt slavery. Those of you who know the old testament story of Ruth remember that her relative, Boaz, acted as her redeemer. There was a closer relative who declined the honor, not wanting to take care of Ruth and her mother-in-law. To be a redeemer one has to be willing as well as related to you. I like the idea of God being our willing next of kin.

The psalmist asks God to keep him or her back from ‘the insolent' or ‘the arrogant.' But it's a plural for arrogance, so I translated it ‘arrogant things.' It can mean arrogant thoughts or arrogant people. Either one can rule over us; our arrogant thoughts can make us treat others as if they are beneath us; as if we are more deserving of luxury and convenience than they are.

Arrogant people can treat us as if we are beneath them, and don't deserve even common courtesy.

Either way, the psalmist wants to be protected from arrogant things. The last four verses of the psalm are a prayer. The first ten verses are about God's power and wonderful law. Walter Brueggemann translates verses 8-10 by saying God's torah is “soul-reviving, wise-making, heart rejoicing, eye-enlightening, forever-enduring. 5

Like the psalmist, our choir sings about God, and then it sings to God. Let us listen.

Anthem

In Isaiah 29, the Lord is lamenting Jerusalem, and how its citizens honor the Lord with their lips, but not with their hearts. God says, “The wisdom of their wise shall perish and the discernment of the discerning shall be hidden.” The wisdom of the city was not godly. Yet God saved Jerusalem.

Paul quotes from that verse in Isaiah when he writes to the Corinthians. In Corinthian society, like the rest of the Roman world in the first century, they compete for status; they want the patronage of important people. They want upstanding citizens and community leaders to be in their debt. As much as people in our time want to be famous and on tv and to win contests, the Corinthians wanted to have status. Our reading is on page 166. Listen for the word of God as it is found in 1 Corinthians 1:18-25.

18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

19For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart."

20Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation to save those who believe.

22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, 23 but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,

24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

25 For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.

This ends our reading of God's word.

The early church was made up of Greeks, who worshiped at pagan imperial temples, and Jews who worshiped in synagogues. They came from two very different cultures and traditions. Paul's mission was primarily to the gentile Greeks, although he also spoke with his own people, the Jews. So when he says Jesus is a stumbling block to Jews, he is acknowledging that Jesus was a stumbling block to him. The church in Corinth was primarily Greek, and the Greeks valued wisdom.

Paul draws on both traditions to let them know of God's wisdom and strength.

The Jewish wisdom tradition is written in Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. Lady Wisdom is one symbol for God's intimate presence and action in the world. According to scripture, Wisdom fashioned all things, led oppressed people through the Reed Sea, and against Wisdom, evil does not prevail.

Paul speaks of Jesus' crucifixion as the wisdom of God.

The book of Proverbs tells us to learn and get wisdom. Proverbs 11: 2 says, “When arrogance comes, then comes disgrace; but wisdom is with the humble.”

When we allow God's wisdom to come into us, we will know how little we know. That humility will keep our hearts from being arrogant. When we have wisdom, we are humble. When we just have knowledge, we are arrogant.

Arrogance can get in our way.

I heard this from a church newsletter a long time ago. I hope that the story is true. The pastor wrote, “Three months after moving to his new farm in Greenville, South Carolina, farmer Bob Olson realized he had a serious problem. A utility pole on the corner of his driveway was in a bad location…so bad that four visitors had hit it with their cars.

He called the power company and reported the hazard. Eventually they sent a supervisor to evaluate the situation. After looking it over, the supervisor concluded that there was no problem. But as he drove away, a loud thud was heard which shook the entire house. The supervisor had hit the pole—and the next day a crew arrived to move it!” 6

Sometimes we have to get wisdom the hard way.

With the psalmist, we ask God to keep us from arrogant things.

That includes arrogant people who imagine they rule over us, so they can dictate our behavior. That can make us retaliate and answer rudeness with rudeness, unkindness with unkindness. And sometimes we don't settle for making things even; we have to score more and win.

Last year, I was at a conference where about fifteen workshops were going at once. At my workshop, it was hard to hear the speaker, because the workshop next door kept getting louder and louder. I finally went next door to ask them to be quieter. They told me we were the ones being too loud and they couldn't hear, so their speaker had to be louder. Both classes had been increasing their volume. I said, “We'll be quieter if you'll be quieter.” Everyone agreed, both classes were quieter, and we all could hear just fine because both of us quit trying to be the loudest.

When God's wisdom informs our lives, we know that the only one who rules over us is God. We are Christians so we trust that following God's law in our lives is “soul-reviving, wise-making, heart rejoicing, eye-enlightening, forever-enduring. 7 We are ready to embrace God's foolishness and weakness over the world's wisdom and strength. Amen.

1New Interpreter's Bible X, p. 752.
2 versification follows the Hebrew, not the English
3 or line
4 really them, but the ends are the antecedent
5 Brueggemann et al, Texts for Preaching, Year B, p. 215.
6 Pastor Don, The Word, First Christian Church, Chickasha, 11-26-96,
7 Brueggemann et al, Texts for Preaching, Year B, p. 215.