October 27, 2024 Teach Me , Reformation Sunday | Psalm 143

Today we will reflect on Psalm 143, Teach Me. In Psalm 143, the psalmist asks God for his mercy as his spirit is faint and his heart is dismayed. He meditates on all God’s works, he hides himself in the Lord, putting his trust in God. He asks the Lord to show him the way and to teach him how to do the Lord’s will. This Reformation Sunday, we will reflect on the importance of sitting at the feet of God to learn, walk in the way of Jesus, and be shaped by God. We will also have the opportunity to celebrate the Lord’s Supper together.

Transcript

Teach Me

Psalm 143

This week we’re remembering the beginning of the Reformation; how on October 31, 1517, Martin Luther posted 95 theses 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 of faith. 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 guilt and feelings of inadequacy before God, recognizing his sin and the reality that he wasn’t good enough to earn God’s forgiveness. David understands this, beginning Psalm 143 with “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 the seven psalms of penitence in the psalms. This is a psalm of confession and a plea for forgiveness, but David also knows the importance of repentance, expressing a desire to be obedient, and to be changed and transformed 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, the Hebrew gives us a picture of David’s fear that he’s unable to please God because of where he’s at in his sin; his soul or spirit is dead. This is an image of depression and hopelessness, enemies are not always physical, they’re often spiritual, emotional, or mental. We can also be our own worst enemy by sinning and disobeying God. The word David uses here for faint or failed means complete destruction: he’s in a deep place of darkness of the soul. David comes to God with a spirit of humility with hands spread out; he’s pleading with God.

To make his way back to the Lord, to experience the sweetness of God again, David meditates on God. David meditates on what God has created and is creating, he meditates on what God has done in the past, seeking hope and renewal in God’s faithfulness to his people and the covenants he made to be their God and claim Israel as his people. he meditates on how often Israel drifted away from God and how God never gives up on them, always restoring them again, giving them his blessings again and again. David seeks the guidance of God’s Spirit. In Hebrew, Spirit means breath, soul, spirit, but also 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. 

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, especially in his relationship with God. He’s feeling like a parched land, like a traveler 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 afraid that God will hide his face, a way of saying that 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. For me, 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. 

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 is best for us, that his call on how to live, what to believe is what will help us flourish and grow best as people created in the image of God, into who God calls us to be as his adopted children and heirs in his kingdom, even when it’s hard. We trust because we see Jesus’ commitment to us by taking all our sin on himself and washing it away with his blood on the cross.

David puts his life in God’s hands; as Isaiah says, God is the potter and we are the clay, as both Jeremiah and Isaiah remind the people of. 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 changed and transformed from the sinner he is into more of whom God wants him to be. 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; it can be 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, this gives weight to our testimony of who Jesus is.

David asks God, “Show me the way to go,” show me who to be, how to be faithful, to be a king after God’s own heart, to please God again. David shows he’s open to being led, to following God’s way, to be shaped by God in his life, his values and ethics, in how he understands himself and who God is, in how he thinks and how 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. Teaching was not just sharing words, it’s about learning how to live, about obedience to God’s will over his own, it’s about gaining practical wisdom in how to be God’s king, it’s about justice and mercy; it’s whole life learning all under God. David’s trust and obedience is rooted in God’s “unfailing love” which in Hebrew is “hesed.” Certain words seem to hold a particular importance in God’s vocabulary.  This is one of them. It is a special word, an expression of deep covenantal faithful love, of God’s love for us.

This is the heart of the Reformation, to turn to God’s Word to shape us: our character, life, and beliefs. The Reformation called us back to trusting in God’s way 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.