Vacation Bible School

Psalm 142

I’ll preach Psalm 142 on Sunday August 26th.

The following Sunday, Sept 2nd, will be Psalm 30.

Bono writes telling how the Psalms have impacted his life and art.

The original setting of Psalm 142

David was the young successful warrior/future-king. His father-in-law King Saul had not responded well to the pressures of the monarchy. He was paranoid and evil in his approach to David, whom Saul viewed as a threat to his own popularity and power.

David’s military success was acclaimed by the public as they sang “Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands.” Praise and taunting in the same song. Ancient hip-hop?

Do you think that the song’s equation…

David = Saul x 10

…perhaps stoked the soul of the troubled and insecure ruler?

When Saul realized that the LORD was with David and that his daughter Michal loved David, Saul became still more afraid of him, and he remained his enemy the rest of his days. 1 Samuel 18:28-29

...men have hidden a snare for me. Psalm 142:3

What happens when family, politics, and paranoia combine? Saul tried to use the love between his daughter and David as a trap. He calculated that Michal would be loyal to him and control her husband, preventing David from surpassing her father on the national scene.

But Michal’s love for David was true. Their united stand confounded Saul and stoked the king’s anger against David.

…rescue me from those who pursue me… Psalm 142:6

Saul, having set the failed trap, now pursued alternative hunting strategy, sending weaponed men to stalk his prey.

David had popular support, but at the same time had the tyrant’s forces after him. David had not tried to overthrow Saul, but Saul was behaving like a ruthless dictator pursuing an opposition leader.

Set me free from my prison… Psalm 142:7

David wrote Psalm 142 while confined in a cave, with his life in danger. The misery David lamented in Psalm 142 was dual:

1. He was righteous, but pursued by a powerful enemy.
2. He had God’s favor and Spirit to lead with broad vision, but was confined to the narrow canyons and caves at En-Gedi.

Here is the area where David hid from Saul and composed Psalm 142.

How the Psalm is structured

Scholars understand many units of scripture to have been arranged by their authors in a concentric circle pattern traveling from the outermost circle inward towards the central thought, then back out the other side, hitting each circle along the way.

The main point of the Psalm is found at the center. X marks the spot! The Psalm is composed as if the main idea is a pebble dropped in a puddle. The Psalmist sets his ideas in parallel ripples around the center.

Ancient readers had an eye for this kind of arrangement. They would have instinctively looked to the center for the main theme.

The remaining ripples of the Psalm surround the center, bracketed by the beginning and ending of the Psalmist’s prayer experience. This pattern is called chiasm, after the Greek letter chi, which looks like an “X” See how this layout moves left-to-right down the arm of the X, then right-to-left down the leg.

Chiasm is a kind of is parallelism, which happens in a variety of ways in Hebrew poetry. When you are reading the Psalms, try and notice when ideas are repeated or restated in different kinds of parallel arrangements. Knowing this helps us to understand the poetic sections of the Bible better.

The title I chose for preaching on this Lament Psalm is When I Feel Trapped. David composed the Psalm around the central theme of being trapped in isolation; abandoned. David was extremely popular and beloved by the masses. Yet suddenly he is on the run and all alone. Where are his friends? Where is God?

I wonder how this theme of abandonment intersects with life in this world of ours?

We just finished a wonderful week of Vacation Bible School. We had four evenings together, with a strong push to reach out into the neighborhood. I met several families for the first time as we ate and studied together.

I came away from the week feeling good about the outreach, and also more aware of the prevalent disconnectedness from true community, which is a fact of postmodern life.

I’ve used those two words “true community” intentionally. The people I met this week seemed hungry for relationships that would lead them to truth.

David is alone in the cave. He deeply misses his comrades, his family, his people. Foes surround him, not friends. There is no way out. It is as if even God has left him, yet there is a part of David that has faith to see beyond the cave.

You know my way. Ps 142:3

You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living. Ps 142:5

Set me free from my prison, that I may praise your name. Then the righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me. Ps 142:7

This Psalm reaches into the experience of isolation felt by so many in today’s world. God meets us in the cave as we bemoan our condition without Him, without true community.

God invites us to see beyond the cave, to a time when God’s mercy leads us out into the open, experiencing truth and community in God’s presence once again.

Basking in God’s presence, fed by God’s Word, embraced by God’s people.

Pretty soon we’ll have the VBS video up on YouTube.

I need to go see if my dog will accept the switch from small bites to chunky dog food. She’s a big girl now.

run to Sunday!

the Psalm series

I have two more sermons to preach in the summer Psalm series. I have preached on several types of Psalms; so far I’ve done a Torah (God’s Word) Psalm, and Psalms of Trust, Repentance and Wisdom. This coming Sunday I’ll preach on a Lament Psalm, and I’ll close the series with a Psalm of Thanksgiving.

I planned the series without picking specific Psalms in advance, just the types of Psalms. So now as the week begins, I need to choose a Lament to preach on.

Lament is another way of saying “complaint.” We discourage complaining and whining, and yet most of the Psalms are complaints. Were the authors of the laments just wimps – adult babies? Why couldn’t they just suck it up and have faith?

I had never thought of Jesus the complaining type; I wonder how we Christ-followers might use these holy hebrew complaints.

you know you’re lamenting like David if…

• Address – You are not just generally complaining; you address  your lament to God something like this “O Lord”
• Complaint – You have a real complaint and you tell God about your misery.  The main kinds of misery in laments are: enemies, death, confinement, and drowning.
• Trust – In the midst of misery your faith wells up and you express your trust based on God’s track record of deliverance.
• Deliverance Plea – You cry out for help – for God to save you from your miserable situation.
• Assurance – You declare that God will save you because He is kind and good.
• Praise – You praise God for some aspect of his character.

The above is based on Doug Stuart’s ACTDAP lament outline.

I found this blog from a Connecticut pastor helpful on the laments.

Bono writes telling how the Psalms have impacted his life and art.