"I shall not die, but I shall live"
Psalm 118:1,19-29
How many of you like Nestles Crunch Bars? Have you had the Nestles Crunch Bars with caramel? I thought Baby Ruth was the best candy bar until I ate one of those. I have decided that next year I am going to have to give them up for Lent. In an odd sort of way they remind me of the Psalms. Last week was supposed to be the last week that the Psalm was the scripture the sermon was based on but as I studied the scriptures for this week I could not stay away from the Psalm for the day. Martin Luther described Psalm 118 as the psalm that I love.for it has often served me well and has helped me out of grave troubles, when neither emperors, kings, wise men, clever men, nor saints could have helped me." Listen now to a portion of Psalm 118.
Frederick Niedner wrote in the latest Christian Century, "Matthew's gospel has blood spattered all over it." That comment made me think of the movie that won best picture at the Academy Awards this year, No Country for Old Men. That too has blood spattered all over it. This week that begins with a triumphal entry turns into a blood stained cross.
We know the story all too well. It was for us he hung and suffered there. We helped pound those spikes in his flesh. While there is plenty of blood and gore in the Bible, that is finally not what the story is all about. It is a story of love, of forgiveness, of grace.
The gospel in a nutshell is portrayed in Psalm 118. It is important to remember that the Psalm begins and ends with the same words, "O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures for ever!" What happens inside of those words is life, the life of the Psalmist, our lives.
The Psalm was written by someone who had been down and out. It is the celebration of one who thought he had been given over to death but by the hand of God survived. He said he was falling but the Lord helped him. Because of what the Lord has done he shall live, not die. David might have written those words after he met and conquered the giant Goliath. In a seemingly hopeless situation he discovered that the Lord was his strength and salvation.
One of the interesting things about this Psalm is that there is a good chance that it was the last song Jesus sang with his disciples. According to Mark and Matthew, just before Jesus and the disciples left the upper room on the night before his death, they sang a hymn, and then they went out to the
If this is true, the night before he died, Jesus and his disciples sang about the changing fortunes of a man, someone who was rejected, despised and persecuted who was saved by the hand of God. He was a stone that was cast aside by the builders as useless and he became the chief cornerstone. The cornerstone carries the weight of the building pressing on it from two directions. Jesus was good enough and strong enough to carry the weight of people pressing down on him from every direction. He was the chief cornerstone for them all. The night before they put him to death he was able to say with confidence, "I shall not die, but live."
That line reminds me of the scripture in Proverbs about the good woman. It says she laughs at the time to come. She is not dying but living.
When Jesus rode into the city on the donkey, he rode with the confidence of the writer of Psalm 118. He had an experience much like the writer of the Psalm. On the night before his death, in one of his darkest hours God spoke to him and he knew that he could face whatever came his way the next day because he was in the hands of God. As we live out our lives it would be good if we paid attention to Psalm 118. It serves as a reminder to us that it is often during our most difficult times that God reveals himself to us. In an odd sort of way sometimes our worst days turn out to be our best days. It is often in the midst of our most difficult times that we come face to face with God. We can face each new day with confidence because we know whose we are.
When enemies sneerlingly asked Martin Luther where he would be when church and state, princes and people, were against him, he responded, "Where shall I be then? Why, then as now, in the hands of the Almighty God." They may be the main message for us this Lenten season as we are surrounded by banners that depict the hands of God. It is an affirmation of Romans 8:31, "If God is for us, who is against us?"
The Psalmist reminds us that from our first breath to our last, from the beginning to the end of each day, from all that we go through both good and bad, from the triumphal entry into Jerusalem to the death on Calvary to the resurrection, we can affirm with faith and confidence, "O Give thanks to the Lord, for God is good, God's steadfast love endures for ever."