Matthew 2:13-23

Matthew 2:13-23 (NRSV)

¹³ Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” ¹⁴ Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, ¹⁵ and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.”

¹⁶ When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. ¹⁷ Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:

¹⁸ “A voice was heard in Ramah,

wailing and loud lamentation,

Rachel weeping for her children;

she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”

¹⁹ When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, ²⁰ “Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.” ²¹ Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. ²² But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. ²³ There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, “He will be called a Nazorean.”

 

2:13-23 From Bethlehem to Nazareth via Egypt (Second Reaction to a Christological Revelation - Whence of Jesus’ identity begins with hostility of Jewish leaders)

Matthew 2:13-23 (Year A First Sunday after Christmas) is the story of the travels of Jesus and parents from Bethlehem to Nazareth via Egypt. If there is a pre-Matthew source on which this passage relies, consider this possibility.[1]

13 … an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him." 14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. … 16 When Herod [Brown speculates the source said here “realized the search for the child had been unsuccessful] he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from [Brown speculates “from the dream.”] …

19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child's life are dead." 21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. …

 

The Lord appears to Joseph in a dream, showing divine intervention and intentionality. God often communicated with Jacob and Joseph in dreams: Gen 28:10-22; 31:10-13; 37:5-11; 40:1-41:36. Instructive for this context, Jacob once received instructions in a dream to return home after a sojourn in a foreign country (Gen 31:10-13; Matt 2:19-23). The Lord commands Joseph to leave Bethlehem and flee to Egypt because Herod will try to kill him. This will fulfill Hosea 11:1. In that case, the son, referring to Israel, is called by the Lord out of Egypt, but Matthew applies the passage to Jesus, already designated Son of God. The use of this passage, referring to God leading Israel out of Egypt is appropriate in that it emphasizes the filial relationship between Jesus and the Father. By fleeing into Egypt, the infant Jesus becomes the incarnation of the second exodus. The divine instructions direct Joseph toward Egypt, a destination obviously loaded with symbolism for a fleeing Jewish family. The flight of the holy family into Egypt allows Matthew to run the story of the exodus backward. Just as a divine word directed Moses to lead his people out of Egypt, to escape Pharaoh's cruelty and gain their freedom, now a divine voice declares that only by returning to Egypt will Jesus safely escape Herod's murderous intentions. Matthew sees Jesus as recapitulating the story of Israel, being called out of Egypt as the Son of his Father. However, Jesus will be Israel gone right, not wandering and grumbling in the wilderness for forty years. Jesus will pass the wilderness test in forty days (Matt 4:1-11). 

Matthew interjects into the birth narrative the intertwined stories of the baby Jesus' family's flight into Egypt, and the murderous rage of Herod the Great. The account moves from acceptance by Gentiles in v. 1-12 to rejection by the Jews and their persecution of Jesus in v. 13-23.  That rejection is by Jewish secular rulers, the high priest, and the scribes. “Egypt” is the place of safety, while “Israel” is the place of oppression. Thus, when Herod realizes the magi tricked him, he was angry and ordered the death of every child in the area around Bethlehem two years old and younger, thereby fulfilling a second scripture, Jer 31:15, where Rachel, whose tomb was believed to be in Bethlehem, weeps for her children then carried off into exile. The pattern for this story in Pharaoh and the slaughter of Hebrew children in Ex 1:23, emphasizing the connection between Moses and Jesus. It is also Joseph the patriarch who is understood as the father of the northern kingdom tribes represented by his sons Ephraim and Manasseh (Gen 48). He is the child of Rachel (Gen 30:22-24), and so his children, the members of the northern tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, are those same children for whom Rachel weeps when the northern kingdom falls. The image of the weeping matriarch of Israel is applied to the slaughter of the innocents but it still evokes an image of the ruin of the house of Joseph and juxtaposes this destruction with the escape and survival of the new Messiah, protected this time by his father Joseph, in a way that the first children of Joseph were not protected. Matthew sounds these echoes of the northern patriarchal traditions of the OT Joseph because he is building toward his explanation of why Jesus was raised in the North and not in Bethlehem.

            I do want to be clear. This is not history. I do not say this because Herod was not capable of such an act. He was. This Herod ordered the murder of his wife Mariamne and three of his own sons (Alexander, Aristobulus and Antipas). Of this Herod, Augustus declared he would rather be Herod's pig (ois) than his son (oius). To ensure that a grief-stricken mood would cover the country when he finally did die, this bloodthirsty Herod left strict orders that his soldiers would kill one member of every single family when the news of his death was finally announced. 

One can see this account in Josephus, Antiquities 17.6.6.

Now any one may easily discover the temper of this man's mind, which not only took pleasure in doing what he had done formerly against his relations, out of the love of life, but by those commands of his which savored of no humanity; since he took care, when he was departing out of this life, that the whole nation should be put into mourning, and indeed made desolate of their dearest kindred, when he gave order that one out of every family should be slain, although they had done nothing that was unjust, or that was against him, nor were they accused of any other crimes; while it is usual for those who have any regard to virtue to lay aside their hatred at such a time, even with respect to those they justly esteemed their enemies.

 

We know what people like Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, and Idi Amin can do.[2] Rulers are fully capable of the slaughter of children to achieve their political ends. My point is that Matthew is making a theological statement. Thus, we need to set aside any attempt that would stress these events as history. Rather, the focus needs to be upon the theological points Matthew is making. I would suggest that this emphasis is far more in line with the intent of Matthew than are modern attempts to make the focus history.

There are parallels in the Babylonian tradition regarding Sargon.  The rabbis do the same with Abraham.  It is present in an obscured form in the Moses saga.  A prophecy by a sacred tribe with the ability to foretell future events told Pharaoh of the birth of an Israelite ruler who would raise up the Israelites and bring low the Egyptians. He would excel in virtue and obtain a glory that future generations would remember. This information provokes Pharaoh to order the slaughter of children. The Egyptians sought the extinction of the Jewish people.

It reappears in Josephus, Ant., II, 9, 2.  

While the affairs of the Hebrews were in this condition, there was this occasion offered itself to the Egyptians, which made them more solicitous for the extinction of our nation. One of those sacred scribes, who are very sagacious in foretelling future events truly, told the king, that about this time there would a child be born to the Israelites, who, if he were reared, would bring the Egyptian dominion low, and would raise the Israelites; that he would excel all men in virtue, and obtain a glory that would be remembered through all ages. Which thing was so feared by the king, that, according to this man's opinion, he commanded that they should cast every male child, which was born to the Israelites, into the river, and destroy it; that besides this, the Egyptian midwives should watch the labors of the Hebrew women, and observe what is born, for those were the women who were enjoined to do the office of midwives to them; and by reason of their relation to the king, would not transgress his commands. He enjoined also, that if any parents should disobey him, and venture to save their male children alive, they and their families should be destroyed. This was a severe affliction indeed to those that suffered it, not only as they were deprived of their sons, and while they were the parents themselves, they were obliged to be subservient to the destruction of their own children, but as it was to be supposed to tend to the extirpation of their nation, while upon the destruction of their children, and their own gradual dissolution, the calamity would become very hard and inconsolable to them. And this was the ill state they were in. But no one can be too hard for the purpose of God, though he contrive ten thousand subtle devices for that end; for this child, whom the sacred scribe foretold, was brought up and concealed from the observers appointed by the king; and he that foretold him did not mistake in the consequences of his preservation, which were brought to pass after the manner following

 

The story is reminiscent of legends about Moses. Birth, naming, persecution, escape, and return all parallel Moses' early life.  God stood by Amram and answered his prayer. His child will be the means of deliverance for the Israelites. Amram told his wife Jochebed of the dream. They made an ark out bulrushes and sent it down the river with the baby in it. Thermuthis the daughter of the Pharaoh found the child and adopted him as her own child.

Josephus, Ant. ii 205 ff, 210 ff, 254 ff, or Chapter 9. 

3. A man whose name was Amram, one of the nobler sort of the Hebrews, was afraid for his whole nation, lest it should fail, by the want of young men to be brought up hereafter, and was very uneasy at it, his wife being then with child, and he knew not what to do. Hereupon he betook himself to prayer to God; and entreated him to have compassion on those men who had nowise transgressed the laws of his worship, and to afford them deliverance from the miseries they at that time endured, and to render abortive their enemies' hopes of the destruction of their nation. Accordingly, God had mercy on him, and was moved by his supplication. He stood by him in his sleep and exhorted him not to despair of his future favors. He said further, that he did not forget their piety towards him, and would always reward them for it, as he had formerly granted his favor to their forefathers, and made them increase from a few to so great a multitude. He put him in mind, that when Abraham was come alone out of Mesopotamia into Canaan, he had been made happy, not only in other respects, but that when his wife was at first barren, she was afterwards by him enabled to conceive seed, and bare him sons. That he left to Ismael and to his posterity the country of Arabia; as also to his sons by Ketura, Troglodytis; and to Isaac, Canaan. That by my assistance, said he, he did great exploits in war, which, unless you be yourselves impious, you must still remember. As for Jacob, he became well known to strangers also, by the greatness of that prosperity in which he lived, and left to his sons, who came into Egypt with no more than seventy souls, while you are now become above six hundred thousand. Know therefore that I shall provide for you all in common what is for your good, and particularly for thyself what shall make thee famous; for that child, out of dread of whose nativity the Egyptians have doomed the Israelite children to destruction, shall be this child of thine, and shall be concealed from those who watch to destroy him: and when he is brought up in a surprising way, he shall deliver the Hebrew nation from the distress they are under from the Egyptians. His memory shall be famous while the world lasts; and this not only among the Hebrews, but foreigners also: — all which shall be the effect of my favor to thee, and to thy posterity. He shall also have such a brother, that he shall himself obtain my priesthood, and his posterity shall have it after him to the end of the world.

4. When the vision had informed him of these things, Amram awaked and told it to Jochebed who was his wife. And now the fear increased upon them on account of the prediction in Amram's dream; for they were under concern, not only for the child, but on account of the great happiness that was to come to him also. However, the mother's labor was such as afforded a confirmation to what was foretold by God; for it was not known to those that watched her, by the easiness of her pains, and because the throes of her delivery did not fall upon her with violence. And now they nourished the child at home privately for three months; but after that time Amram, fearing he should be discovered, and, by falling under the king's displeasure, both he and his child should perish, and so he should make the promise of God of none effect, he determined rather to trust the safety and care of the child to God, than to depend on his own concealment of him, which he looked upon as a thing uncertain, and whereby both the child, so privately to be nourished, and himself should be in imminent danger; but he believed that God would some way for certain procure the safety of the child, in order to secure the truth of his own predictions. When they had thus determined, they made an ark of bulrushes, after the manner of a cradle, and of a bigness sufficient for an infant to be laid in, without being too straitened: they then daubed it over with slime, which would naturally keep out the water from entering between the bulrushes, and put the infant into it, and setting it afloat upon the river, they left its preservation to God; so the river received the child, and carried him along. But Miriam, the child's sister, passed along upon the bank over against him, as her mother had bid her, to see whither the ark would be carried, where God demonstrated that human wisdom was nothing, but that the Supreme Being is able to do whatsoever he pleases: that those who, in order to their own security, condemn others to destruction, and use great endeavors about it, fail of their purpose; but that others are in a surprising manner preserved, and obtain a prosperous condition almost from the very midst of their calamities; those, I mean, whose dangers arise by the appointment of God. And, indeed, such a providence was exercised in the case of this child, as showed the power of God.

5. Thermuthis was the king's daughter. She was now diverting herself by the banks of the river; and seeing a cradle borne along by the current, she sent some that could swim, and bid them bring the cradle to her. When those that were sent on this errand came to her with the cradle, and she saw the little child, she was greatly in love with it, on account of its largeness and beauty; for God had taken such great care in the formation of Moses, that he caused him to be thought worthy of bringing up, and providing for, by all those that had taken the most fatal resolutions, on account of the dread of his nativity, for the destruction of the rest of the Hebrew nation. Thermuthis bid them bring her a woman that might afford her breast to the child; yet would not the child admit of her breast, but turned away from it, and did the like to many other women. Now Miriam was by when this happened, not to appear to be there on purpose, but only as staying to see the child; and she said, "It is in vain that thou, O queen, callest for these women for the nourishing of the child, who are no way of kin to it; but still, if thou wilt order one of the Hebrew women to be brought, perhaps it may admit the breast of one of its own nation." Now since she seemed to speak well, Thermuthis bid her procure such a one, and to bring one of those Hebrew women that gave suck. So when she had such authority given her, she came back and brought the mother, who was known to nobody there. And now the child gladly admitted the breast, and seemed to stick close to it; and so it was, that, at the queen's desire, the nursing of the child was entirely entrusted to the mother.

6. Hereupon it was that Thermuthis imposed this name Mouses upon him, from what had happened when he was put into the river; for the Egyptians call water by the name of Mo, and such as are saved out of it, by the name of Uses: so by putting these two words together, they imposed this name upon him. And he was, by the confession of all, according to God's prediction, as well for his greatness of mind as for his contempt of difficulties, the best of all the Hebrews, for Abraham was his ancestor of the seventh generation. For Moses was the son of Amram, who was the son of Caath, whose father Levi was the son of Jacob, who was the son of Isaac, who was the son of Abraham. Now Moses's understanding became superior to his age, nay, far beyond that standard; and when he was taught, he discovered greater quickness of apprehension than was usual at his age, and his actions at that time promised greater, when he should come to the age of a man. God did also give him that tallness, when he was but three years old, as was wonderful. And as for his beauty, there was nobody so unpolite as, when they saw Moses, they were not greatly surprised at the beauty of his countenance; nay, it happened frequently, that those that met him as he was carried along the road, were obliged to turn again upon seeing the child; that they left what they were about, and stood still a great while to look on him; for the beauty of the child was so remarkable and natural to him on many accounts, that it detained the spectators, and made them stay longer to look upon him.

7. Thermuthis therefore perceiving him to be so remarkable a child, adopted him for her son, having no child of her own. And when one time had carried Moses to her father, she showed him to him, and said she thought to make him her successor, if it should please God she should have no legitimate child of her own; and to him, "I have brought up a child who is of a divine form, (21) and of a generous mind; and as I have received him from the bounty of the river, in , I thought proper to adopt him my son, and the heir of thy kingdom." And she had said this, she put the infant into her father's hands: so he took him, and hugged him to his breast; and on his daughter's account, in a pleasant way, put his diadem upon his head; but Moses threw it down to the ground, and, in a puerile mood, he wreathed it round, and trod upon his feet, which seemed to bring along with evil presage concerning the kingdom of Egypt. But when the sacred scribe saw this, (he was the person who foretold that his nativity would the dominion of that kingdom low,) he made a violent attempt to kill him; and crying out in a frightful manner, he said, "This, O king! this child is he of whom God foretold, that if we kill him we shall be in no danger; he himself affords an attestation to the prediction of the same thing, by his trampling upon thy government, and treading upon thy diadem. Take him, therefore, out of the way, and deliver the Egyptians from the fear they are in about him; and deprive the Hebrews of the hope they have of being encouraged by him." But Thermuthis prevented him, and snatched the child away. And the king was not hasty to slay him, God himself, whose providence protected Moses, inclining the king to spare him. He was, therefore, educated with great care. So the Hebrews depended on him, and were of good hopes great things would be done by him; but the Egyptians were suspicious of what would follow such his education. Yet because, if Moses had been slain, there was no one, either akin or adopted, that had any oracle on his side for pretending to the crown of Egypt, and likely to be of greater advantage to them, they abstained from killing him.

 

Joseph discovers in his fourth dream that although Herod is dead, his equally oppressive son Archelaus had been placed in charge over Judah, making that southern region too dangerous for the child Jesus. Matthew returns to the exodus theme. The angel tells Joseph he can return to Israel because "those who were seeking the child's life are dead," just as Moses received instructions to return because the men "who were seeking your life are dead" (Ex 4:19). To underscore that God preordained his change of residence, however, Matthew invokes a prophecy which only he finds in Isaiah 11:1, declaring that Jesus’ eventual residence in the northern city of Nazareth, which fulfills the prophesy that he will be called a Nazarene (similar to Nazirite)[3] identifying him as the messianic “branch” (Hebrew netzer) of David’s royal house. Matthew intends to show all the movements of Jesus' early life as a reflection of his messianic identity and future. There would have been no doubt in the minds of Jesus’ contemporaries that he was more a citizen of Galilee (viewed by many as a pagan territory, Galilee of the Gentiles) than he was of Jerusalem or Judah, where one would expect to find a messianic descendant of David. Reminding his hearers of the intimate relationship between God and David’s northern ancestor Jacob, and the northern patriarch Joseph, would have served Matthew’s rhetorical purposes well — concerned as he was that Jewish hearers come to understand Jesus as the legitimate Jewish Messiah. By raising all these references to northern traditions, it is as if Matthew is reminding his Jewish hearers that God initially blessed the northern citizens of Israel with numerous direct revelations from God through great anointed leaders long before the days of David and his royal house. Why, then, should not the Messiah appear in the North?

The primary reason for Matthew including this text in his birth narrative is to show that from the moment of his birth, the life of Jesus was a divine replay of Israel's first deliverance. The wickedness and willfulness of Pharaoh return in the person of Herod the Great. Israel's historic exodus out of Egypt has its mirror in the "little exodus" of Jesus' family back into Egypt.  Like the baby Moses, the baby Jesus is born under a death sentence, which necessitates drastic parental action.  Both Moses and Jesus live under divinely imposed exile until a voice "re-calls" them by proclaiming that those who sought their lives are now themselves dead (see Ex 4:19).

Yet, Matthew may have a broader theological point as well. Secular and religious leaders persecuted the people of God, just as they persecuted the Holy Family. The birth of Jesus as told by Matthew is a realistic story. The Incarnation occurred in a world like this, with political leaders like this. The real world includes Herod. If we leave Herod in the narrative of the birth of Jesus, we can address the shadow of evil hovering over our celebration of the birth of Jesus every year. Herod still stalks the earth

There is a Christmas carol about this woeful business. the Coventry Carol (1500s England). Ironically, it has one of the most achingly beautiful melodies of all Christmas music. The words are a melancholy lullaby, sung by grieving mothers to their dead children: 

Herod the king, in his raging,

Charged he hath this day,

His men of might, in his own sight,

All young children to slay.

Then woe is me, poor child for thee

And ever mourn and say

For thy parting, nor say nor sing

By, by, lully, lullay.

 

The marvelous vision of the peaceable Kingdom, in which all violence has been overcome and all men, women, and children live in loving unity with nature, calls for its realization in our day-to-day lives. Instead of being an escapist dream, it challenges us to anticipate what it promises. Every time we forgive our neighbor, every time we make a child smile, every time we show compassion to a suffering person, every time we arrange a bouquet of flowers, offer care to tame or wild animals, prevent pollution, create beauty in our homes and gardens, and work for peace and justice among peoples and nations we are making the vision come true.[4]

Many on the political left seek to tie Jesus’ sojourn in Egypt to the plight of refugees or illegal aliens in America today will at once encounter a plethora of problems, according ot Tyler O’Neil.

Herod, the king who sought to kill Jesus, owed his position to the Roman Senate. Jesus fled Roman-ruled Judea to reside in Roman-ruled Egypt, and then returned to Roman-ruled Judea.

Politically, Jesus’ flight to Egypt resembles a conservative family fleeing New York for Florida, or a liberal family moving from Texas to Illinois, more than it does a Somali refugee seeking asylum in the U.S.

Jesus did not immigrate to Egypt and did not seek to become a citizen there.

Merely shouting, “Jesus was a refugee!” does nothing to address the serious concerns that illegal immigration poses.

---

[1] (Brown, The Birth of the Messiah, 1977)110)

[2] ( (Wright, Who Was Jesus?, 1992)p. 87.)

[3] Schaeder, TDNT, 878-9.

[4] (Nouwen, Bread for the Journey, 2006)13.

Hebrews 2:10-18

Hebrews 2:10-18 (NRSV)

¹⁰ It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. ¹¹ For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, ¹² saying,

“I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters,

in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.”

¹³ And again,

“I will put my trust in him.”

And again,

“Here am I and the children whom God has given me.”

¹⁴ Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, ¹⁵ and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death. ¹⁶ For it is clear that he did not come to help angels, but the descendants of Abraham. ¹⁷ Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people. ¹⁸ Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.

Hebrews 2:10-18 relates the Son to believers. The full humanness of Christ makes possible his saving death. The author stresses that God has come near to us in Jesus Christ. We do not truly know God by making surmises about the world that lead us to the logical conclusion that God exists, using the analogy of being. Rather, we know God when we turn in faith to the revelation of God in Jesus Christ, using the analogy of faith. When we turn to the event of revelation and the event of faith occurs in us through the Holy Spirit, God has come near to us. If so, we are dealing with something far more important than an historical event of the distant past. We are dealing with its present reality in the word of proclamation, in the community of believers, and in the work of the Holy Spirit.

It might be difficult to believe that Christ looked at life fully through our eyes. This is a meditation upon the mystery of the incarnation, God become human in Christ.  The writer has the Christ call us "brothers" and "sisters."  Next, he hears the Christ calling us "children," his very "flesh and blood."  He wants us to know how closely, how intimately God has related to God's creation in the Christ.  The writer wants us to know that the angels are not the beings that are the subjects of Christ's Incarnation.  No, Christ even dared "to become like us in every respect" so that he might intercede and be our priest to God.

¹⁰ It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist. This statement is like saying that all things are from, through and for God (Romans 11:36) and that all things are from God to the point where we exist for God (I Corinthians 8:6). To say that all things exist “through” God is something most of us understand quickly. However, to say that all things exist for God places our existence on a personal level. God intends our lives to be spiritual acts of worship (Romans 12:2). Everything we do is supposed to be for God’s glory (1 Corinthians 10:31). Even nonhuman creation — stars, seas, mountains, trees, animals — all praise God by their very existence (Psalm 148). It seems fitting that since the existence of all things is through God, God is bringing many children to glory. It also seems fitting that God should make the pioneer (ἀρχηγὸν) of their salvation, an interesting title for Jesus. Jesus is author of life in Acts 3:15, 5:31 and Leader and Savior. The emphasis of this author is on Christ as pioneer, champion, and high priest. Jesus is the captain and the author of our salvation. The word can refer to a “founder” in the sense of one who establishes something, or a “pioneer” in the sense of one who blazes a trail ahead of his followers. The letter makes clear that Jesus both establishes the reality of the audience’s salvation and leads them to it. He took the lead, forged out into new spiritual territory, and wrote the example we are to follow. Hebrews subsumes Christology under the crises he sees facing this congregation. Christology may become so functional to him that it ceases to be Christology.[1] Yet, such a title is close to the modern exegetical insight on the theme of the proleptic presence of salvation and the divine rule in the message and work of Jesus.^[2] Such a statement does not allow us to separate universal resurrection from that of individual destiny. The new life imparted to him relates to a totality, the new humanity.^[3] If cultic ideas of sacrifice, expiation, and substitution no longer communicate to a modern world, this notion of Jesus as pioneer or initiator of our salvation is still valid.[4] God has made Jesus perfect (fully qualified for his priestly ministry) through sufferings. The author feels no need to specify but focusing on his death as well as the course of his human life. Jesus willingly walked this path. Any life short of suffering and death would have been less than an identification with humankind and, therefore, less than a full understanding of the human condition.[5] Hebrews calls this “fitting” for God to do this, trying to explain why Jesus tasted death for all. His suffering and death were no accident. They are part of the divine drama of redemption. Thus, this passage relates to the difficult modern task of dealing with the development of Christology in the New Testament. Only in his completed life is he the Son, for his sufferings perfect him as the Son. The practical effect of this insight is that one must not limit the notion of incarnation to his birth, for if other things did not happen, such as his baptism, his proclamation of the rule of God, the path of suffering, and his resurrection, he would not be the Son.[6] ¹¹ For the one who sanctifies, the Son, for which see John 17:19, and those whom the Son sanctifies all have one Father. For this reason, Jesus is not ashamed to call them (Jewish) brothers and sisters. Jesus looks at us — with all our imperfections, insecurities, and ignorance of him — and calls us family. The Son is on the same plane as those he is saving. This fact does not cause him “shame,” I find this to be a quite remarkable statement, given the shame we often have of ourselves, as well as for how others act. He bases his statement on Psalm 22:22, which boldly states, ¹² saying, "I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters, in the midst of the congregation I will praise you."  Applied by this author, this assertion stresses the Son among the people of God. Jesus refers to the people around him as his mother, brothers, and sisters (Mark 3:33-35). The risen Lord refers to “my brothers” who need to receive the word and go to Galilee (Matthew 28:10). The risen Lord tells Mary that his brothers need to hear the word of his resurrection (John 20:17). ¹³ And again, in Isaiah 8:17, "I will put my trust in him." And again, in Isaiah 8:18, "Here am I and the children whom God has given me." These scriptures have a tone of boldness, stressing that these verses reflect the Son among people. The speaker in Isaiah 8 chooses to trust in God amid incredibly difficult circumstances. Others are disregarding God’s law (Isaiah 8:15), and God himself is “hiding his face from the house of Jacob” (Isaiah 8:17). The speaker, even in difficult circumstances, takes his stand of trust. This is the attitude Jesus displayed when God was perfecting him through the sufferings of humility and death: He put his trust in God his Father. Yet he does not do so alone. Instead, he includes the children whom God has given him in this instance, as well. This is Jesus’ articulation of what the author has portrayed in the previous verses. Jesus is leading the other children along, and, in this instance, he does so in the act of trusting in God. Because Jesus has trusted God even in his suffering, God has entrusted him with the care of his children. ¹⁴Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, (John 1:14) he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, of which this belief was common in the ancient world. If Satan is the origin of death, one can easily connect sin with it. The point is that Jesus defeated the supreme enemies, death, and the devil, providing release from an enslaving fear. Paul has a similar view in I Corinthians 15:54-57, where the risen Lord makes it possible say that death has lost its sting because Christ has defeated it.  The risen Lord holds the keys of hell and death (Revelation 1:18). Christ Jesus has abolished death (II Timothy 1:10). God revealed who the Son was to destroy the works of the devil (I John 3:8b). The author has Jesus taking on the active role of making others holy while also identifying with those who need to become holy. ¹⁵ And free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death. ¹⁶ For it is clear that he did not come to help angels, stressing the difference between humanity and angels, but the descendants of Abraham, using phrases from Isaiah 41:8-9. Paul has a similar view in Galatians 3:7, where God justifies gentile and Jew alike by faith. Luke 3:8b, where he urges the Jewish people not to trust their physical heredity, for God is able to raise up children of Abraham from stones, putting a similar view on the lips of John the Baptist. ¹⁷ Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, Jews would never accept a foreigner as high priest, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, a unique designation for Jesus in the New Testament. Yet, Jesus was not a Levite or a descendent of Zadok. God made him high priest to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people. Paul had a similar view in Romans 3:25, where God has put forward Christ Jesus as a sacrifice of atonement by the blood of Jesus. With John, Jesus Christ is also the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world (I John 2:2) and God loved us enough to send the Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins (I John 4:10.) ¹⁸Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, testing the obedience of the Son as was the pioneer and founder Abraham in 11:17, he is able to help those who are being tested. Paul has a similar view in I Corinthians 10:13, where he stresses God is faithful to the one tested in providing a way to endure. Paul shared similar views of Jesus in Romans 8:3, where Jesus comes in the likeness of sinful flesh, in 8:29, where he is the firstborn within a large family, and Philippians 2:7, where the Son takes the form of human likeness. Hebrews lays particular emphasis on the idea that Jesus experienced temptation like other people. Like them, he experiences temptation and is in the fight against temptation. Yet, he is also unlike us in that he did not yield to temptation.^[7]

Most of us do not have the custom of addressing Jesus in this way. He is like a pioneer. He is like our brother. To put even more directly, in Jesus of Nazareth God has become brother and family member to every human being, acquainted with our grief, hurts, struggles, pains in our attempts to establish true family and true home. God become broken humanity to show us the path toward our wholeness. He is flesh and blood, just as we are. Even though he is not part of the official priestly line, he can be our high priest before God because he has faced the tests of life victoriously and he has endured suffering and death. Jesus has become the brother of every human being. If he is the pioneer of salvation for the human family, then he has paved the way for healing, liberation, and guidance in how to live a human life. We may feel the alienation from God, others, and even from our desire to be our best self. Jesus is the pioneer in showing us the way to communion or fellowship with God, others, and our best self.

---

[1] Ernst Kassemann (Jesus Means Freedom, 1970, 101-16)

[2] Pannenberg (Systematic Theology Volume 2, 402)

[3] Pannenberg (Systematic Theology, Volume 3, 579, 628)

[4] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology volume 3 p. 421)

[5] Fred Craddock

[6] Pannenberg, (Systematic Theology Volume 2, 384)

[7] Barth (Church Dogmatics, IV.1, 59.2, 259-260)

Isaiah 63:7-9

Isaiah 63:7-9 (NRSV)

⁷ I will recount the gracious deeds of the Lord,

the praiseworthy acts of the Lord,

because of all that the Lord has done for us,

and the great favor to the house of Israel

that he has shown them according to his mercy,

according to the abundance of his steadfast love.

⁸ For he said, “Surely they are my people,

children who will not deal falsely”;

and he became their savior

⁹      in all their distress.

It was no messenger or angel

but his presence that saved them;

in his love and in his pity he redeemed them;

he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. 

Isaiah 63:7-9 is the beginning of a community lament that continues to 64:12. The psalm of the decimated post-exilic community of the Jewish people recounts the magnalia Dei — the mighty redemptive acts of the Lord by which the Israelites’ ancestors were delivered from bondage — and pleads for a similar deliverance from their current distress. The dynamic in the passage is retrospect as the basis for prospect. The writer offers a prospectus. This is what God has done. This describes the relationship of the Lord to us. This describes our relationship to the Lord. We can expect this valued relationship to continue in the future. As is typical of a lament, it begins with a recitation of earlier deliverance from the Lord. ⁷ I will recount as in meditate on and live by what he remembers, the gracious deeds of the Lord, the praiseworthy acts of the Lord, which were the deliverance from Egypt and the preservation of the Hebrews through 40 years of wilderness wandering (cf. vv. 9, 11-12), those twin events — collectively described as “the exodus” — remaining for the duration of the biblical period and beyond the defining event in Israel’s theological memory, because of all that the Lordhas done for us, and the great favor to the house of Israel that he has shown them according to his mercy, according to the abundance of his steadfast love. ⁸ For he said, “Surely they are my people. The Lord will give them a heart to know the Lord, so that they will be the people of the Lord (Jeremiah 24:7, 30:22). A day is coming when all the families of Israel will be “my people” (Jeremiah 31:1). A day is coming when the Lord will write the law on the hearts of the people, and they will be the people of the Lord (Jeremiah 31:33). The Lord will gather the exiles in such a way that they shall be the people of the Lord (Jeremiah 32:38). God will become the God of the descendants of Abraham (Genesis 17:7-8). The Lord promises the exiles they will gather in the land again and be the people of the Lord (Ezekiel 36:28) A day is coming when David will rule, the sanctuary rebuilt, the people shall know they belong to the Lord, and the nations shall witness it all (Ezekiel 37:27). The Lord will refine the remnant so that they will call upon the Lord, and the Lord will answer that they are my people (Zechariah 13:9). Those who persevere through tribulation will inherit eschatological blessings and become the children of God (Revelation 21:7). As people who belong to the Lord, they shall become children who will not deal falsely”; children is unusual, becoming typical in the New Testament, but in parallel with the typical “my people,” and he became their savior ⁹ in all their distress. It was no messenger or angel but his presence that saved them;In Genesis 32:24-32 we have the origin of Peniel, “face of God,” with Jacob wrestled. One can also see Exodus 14:19, where the angel of God went before and behind the Israelite army, Exodus 33:14-15, where the Lord assures Moses of the personal presence of the Lord, Deuteronomy 4:37-38, where the direct presence of the Lord brought the people out of Egypt, and Numbers 6:24-26, where the priestly benediction is that the face of the Lord shine upon them. Such presence will later have an identification with the Spirit of God in Isaiah 63:10-14, where the Spirit is the one who led the people out of Egypt and protected them, as well as Psalm 139:7 and 51:11, where the spirit and the presence of the Lord are in poetic parallelism. In his love and in his pity he redeemed (ga'al) them. The root word for "redeem" appears 25 times in Isaiah 35, 41-63, including 63:9, 16; (kinsman) redeemer, redeem and redemption, along with the kindred word "ransom," appear frequently elsewhere in Scripture. He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. See Exodus 19:4, where the Lord carried Israel on the wings of an eagle to carry them to the Lord, Deuteronomy 1:31, where the Lord carried them as one carries child from Egypt to the Promised Land, Deuteronomy 32:11, where the Lord carried them like an eagle carries its young on its wings, Isaiah 40:11, where the Lord will gather the people like a shepherd carries the lambs, Isaiah 46:4, where the Lord carried Jacob in its youth and will carry them in their old age. The point is, God has fulfilled his end of the covenant, delivering them from their enemies; now, would they remain loyal to him, trusting in him alone and obediently following the stipulated requirements of his covenantal laws/instructions? 

           Such remembering of the past deeds of the Lord among the people of God historically, and possibly among a particular community, and even in our personal lives, may well be a good spiritual discipline. In times of uncertainty, doubt, and distress, we will find some strength, comfort, and guidance for our future as we remember the past gracious acts of the Lord. A journal would be an effective way to do this. It could be helpful to write a prospectus at the end of the year. What is the state of our lives? Do we have prospects? What are they? On what basis might we say that the future looks bright? Or does it not?

 

Psalm 148

Psalm 148 (NRSV)

¹ Praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord from the heavens;

praise him in the heights!

² Praise him, all his angels;

praise him, all his host! 

³ Praise him, sun and moon;

praise him, all you shining stars!

⁴ Praise him, you highest heavens,

and you waters above the heavens! 

⁵ Let them praise the name of the Lord,

for he commanded and they were created.

⁶ He established them forever and ever;

he fixed their bounds, which cannot be passed. 

⁷ Praise the Lord from the earth,

you sea monsters and all deeps,

⁸ fire and hail, snow and frost,

stormy wind fulfilling his command! 

⁹ Mountains and all hills,

fruit trees and all cedars!

¹⁰ Wild animals and all cattle,

creeping things and flying birds! 

¹¹ Kings of the earth and all peoples,

princes and all rulers of the earth!

¹² Young men and women alike,

old and young together! 

¹³ Let them praise the name of the Lord,

for his name alone is exalted;

his glory is above earth and heaven.

¹⁴ He has raised up a horn for his people,

praise for all his faithful,

for the people of Israel who are close to him.

Praise the Lord!

Psalm 148 is a hymn of praise. 

Introduction

The central theme is universal praise of God. Psalm 148 is a cosmic hymn in which every level of creation—heavenly beings, celestial bodies, weather, landscape, animals, rulers, and ordinary people—is summoned into a single chorus of praise.

Several related themes develop from that center:

• Creation as an ordered community: The correspondence with Genesis 1 presents the world as intentionally created, bounded, and directed toward God.
• God’s transcendence and nearness: God’s glory is “above earth and heaven,” yet Israel is described as being “close” to God. The document treats this tension as the theological climax of the psalm.
• Praise in difficult circumstances: The application section argues that praise is not limited to moments of happiness; it can emerge through reconciliation, grief, compassion, and communal care.
• Spiritual movement and transformation: “Movement” becomes a metaphor for responding to God through the Spirit, Christian community, Scripture, prayer, and willingness to change.
• The sacredness of all life: Because nothing in creation lies outside God’s rule, every part of life can become an occasion for worship.

 

The hymn is of uncertain date.  Psalms 146-150 form a hallelujah chorus, a doxological conclusion to Book V (Psalms 107-150) of the Book of Psalms, ending the psalter with a sustained note of praise. As the hymnbook of ancient Israel, the religious community called upon the Psalter to express the range of human experience with the world and with the divine, and Israel expressed its faith nowhere more clearly than by concluding its hymnal on a sustained note of praise. The Septuagint of Daniel 3 includes this Psalm as a song of praise by the three men in the burning furnace, called the Song of the Three Holy Children in the Apocrypha (200-1 BC). Placed between Daniel 3:23 and 3:24, it begins with a confession of sin and after an angel keeps the fires of the furnace away from Azariah and the other three faithful of the Lord, they offer a praise to the Lord, and this psalm is part of that offer of praise. Verses 28-68 relate to this psalm and would offer a nice expansion of all that is to offer praise to the Lord: night and day, light and darkness, ice and cold, lightning and cloud, seas and rivers, whales and all that swim in the waters. As it invites people to bless the Lord, it includes Israel, priests, servants of the Lord, spirits and souls of the righteous, the holy and humble in heart, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael, the latter because the Lord has rescued them from Hades and the power of death in the fiery furnace. It concludes by giving thanks to the Lord for the Lord is good, the mercy of the Lord endures forever. The Psalm begins and ends with Praise the Lord! (halelu-yah).^[1] It praises the Lord for creation and invites that creation to praise the Lord, from celestial beings to all the rulers and people, including the animate and inanimate. It invites us to look at our world as something dedicated and committed to God. No aspect of life is beyond the purview of the Lord. The glory of the Lord is everywhere. Let us give all our hopes and dreams, all that we possess, over to the Lord. The Psalm echoes part of the story of creation in Genesis 1. 

Verse-by-verse study

In Psalm 148: 1-6, the heaven and celestial beings offer praise to the Lord. ¹Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise him in the heights! Genesis 1:1-2 refers to the heavens, earth, with the earth being a formless void and darkness covering the deep. The psalm begins with the note of cosmic scope that the ancient writers envisioned a single heaven with multiple layers. Eventually, in later Jewish and early Christian writings, cosmology developed into seven layers. The psalmist then identifies the personnel of the heavens/heights. ² Praise him, all his angels (malakh, which can refer to either an entourage of angels or divine biengs, as in Psalm 8:6 and Job 1:6, or that the celestial bodies are messengers of the Lord), praise him, all his host! (tseva`ot, fighting multitude, armies)<sup>[2]</sup> One of the most prominent appellations of the deity in the Hebrew Bible is “(the) Lord, (the) God of hosts” (II Samuel 5:10; I Kings 19:10, 14; Psalm 59:5; 80:4, 7, 14, 19; 84:8; 89:8; Jeremiah 5:14; etc.), which means “Yahweh, God of armies.” Israel’s patron deity was not a pacifist; he was a divine warrior who commanded heavenly armies: “The Lord came from Sinai and dawned from Seir upon us; he shone forth from Mount Paran. With him were myriads of holy ones; at his right, a host of his own” (Deuteronomy 33:2, one of the most ancient fragments in the Hebrew Bible; see also Judges 5:4). Of what, exactly, those heavenly armies consisted — later tradition will identify them as angels, e.g., III Maccabees 6:18 — is uncertain, but one ancient poetic fragment identifies them as the ordinary celestial body of stars: “The stars fought from heaven, from their courses they fought against Sisera” (Judges 5:20). Wind, fire, and flame are messengers of the Lord (Psalm 104:4). Throughout the ancient Near East, various aspects of nature, including heaven, earth and the heavenly bodies, religions worshiped such objects as living deities. (Vestiges of that perception of a sensate nature remain in the Hebrew Bible, such as Deuteronomy 4:16, where it calls upon heaven and earth to witness the covenant between God and Israel.) While the practice of worshiping “all the host of heaven” was specifically prohibited for the Israelites (e.g., Deuteronomy 4:19; II Kings 17:16; 21:3, 5; Jeremiah 8:2), the temptation nonetheless remained for the Israelites to confuse their divine heavenly ally with living celestial allies. Further, <sup>3</sup> Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars! Day four of creation (Genesis 1:14-18). Job 38:7 refers to the morning stars and the heavenly beings shouting for joy at creation. <sup>4</sup> Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens, as in Genesis 1:7, where God separated with a dome the waters above from the waters below on Day 2 of creation! Here is where the Lord dwells, usually enthroned upon the cherubim (which are winged, griffin-like creatures, not chubby babies with wings; Psalm 80:1; 99:1; Isaiah 37:16; Ezekiel 10:1). In the cosmology of the Hebrew Bible, the heavens were both the lowest part of as well as the upper extension of the transparent dome (traditionally called the “firmament”) that separated the waters above the flat earth from the waters under it (Genesis 1:6, 7, 8, 14, 15). The layer nearest the ground and most apparent to humans is the sky, which is the natural habitat of birds (“... and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky,” Genesis 1:20b). Well above that layer (“high and lofty,” Isaiah 6:1), separated from human view by the celestial waters and clouds (upon which the Lord rides, Psalm 68:4) is the abode of the divine beings: God, angels, the “host of heaven,” and the bene `elim, “the sons of God” or “heavenly beings” (Genesis 6:2, 4; Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7; Psalm 29:1). ⁵ Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded and they were created. A reminder that each day of creation in Genesis 1 begins with: And God said. ⁶ He established them forever and ever; he fixed their bounds, which cannot be passed. Jeremiah 5:22 refers to the Lord making the sand a boundary for the sea. Job 38:4-6 refers to foundations of the earth, it measurements, its bases, and its cornerstone, while 38:8-11 prescribed boundaries for the sea and the clouds. Thus, the psalm begins with a cosmic scope of praise. The Lord has a personal relationship with every part of nature. All of this suggests that an order and teleology is at work that nothing can break.^[3]

Psalm 148: 7-12 hints at the earth, even the sinister parts of life on earth, offer praise to the Lord.^[4] 7 Praise the Lord from the earth, you sea monsters, which on Day 5 of creation God created (Genesis 1:21), the Lord crushed the heads of dragons and Leviathan, giving their bodies food to other animals (Psalm 74:13-14), and the Lord cut Rahab in pieces and pierced dragons (II Isaiah 51:9) and all creatures of the deeps, as Genesis 1:2 refers to covering the face of the deep and as Job 38:16-17 refers to the springs of the sea, the recesses of the deep, and the gates of deep darkness, ⁸ fire (lightning, which the Lord asks Job can send it forth in 38:35) and hail, snow and frost, stormy wind fulfilling his command!  Psalm 104:4 refers to the wind and fire as messengers of the Lord. Job 38:22-23 refers to the snow and hail the Lord is reserving for the time of trouble, battle, and war. ⁹ Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, viewed as the stateliest of trees and were used in the construction of the Temple! Day 3 of creation brought forth all this (Genesis 1:11-13). ¹⁰ Wild animals, such as lions (Job 38:39) and all cattle, creeping things and flying birds (such as ravens in Job 38:41)!  Day six of creation included their creation (Genesis 1:24-25). Only in this great chorus of heavenly beings and nature are people to praise the Lord. Those of social and political standing among human beings are to praise the Lord. The nearness of the Lord assures people of salvation and new vitality.^[5] 11 Kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all rulers of the earth! ¹² Young men and women (belulah, young woman of marriageable age and not necessarily a virgin, as the Septuagint famously translated it in Isaiah 7:14) alike, old and young together! Day six of creation included human beings made in the image of God and giving the command to be fruitful and receive dominion over the living things of the earth (Genesis 1:27-30). 

Psalm 148: 13-14, offer the reason for offering such praises to the Lord. It is precious in the Jewish liturgy as the words are included in the liturgy for returning the Torah to the Ark. Since the Lord alone is sublime, ¹³ Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone, the divine essence, is exalted; his glory is above earth and heaven. For modern persons, a name is an arbitrary identification. “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”^[6] Ancient people saw the name as symbolic and revelatory of the thing named. “Name” functions as the hypostatized reality of the deity, as names functioned in general in the ancient world. Thus, the importance of the disclosure of the divine name to Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3:14): “I am who I am” (or “I will be who I will be” or “I cause to be what I cause to be”). Summoning people to praise “the name” of the Lord was to praise the very essence of the Lord. ¹⁴ The Lord has raised up a horn, the power of a king or savior or even the people of the Lord, for his people, praise for all his faithful, for the people of Israel who are close to him. Thus, the entire world is to give praise to the Lord for the victory given to the people of the Lord. This expression describing the Israelites as close to the Lord is unique and peculiar; nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible is Israel described as being “close to” the Lord. A similar expression occurs in the apocryphal book of Judith — “[T]he Lord scourges those who are close to him in order to admonish them” (8:27) — and in the book of Ecclesiasticus (in the hymn inserted between 51:12 and 51:13, which quotes this psalm). Quite amazing, really. Amid such cosmic praise, where the glory of the Lord is in the highest heavens, the people of the Lord are still close to the Lord. The Lord has raised up a savior. The psalm ends as it began, Praise the Lord!

Application

I am going to offer two approaches to this text.

One approach focuses upon the movement contained with this psalm.

I hope you do not mind a little humor. Three friends die in a car crash, and they find themselves at the gates of heaven. Before entering, St. Peter asked each of them, “When you are in your casket and friends and family are mourning upon you, what would you like to hear them say about you?” The first person says, “I would like to hear them say that I was a great doctor and a great family man.” The second person says, “I would like to hear that I was a wonderful husband and schoolteacher who made a huge difference in our children.” The last person replies, “I would like to hear them say ... LOOK! HE’S MOVING!”

Movement in a human life is important. Sometimes, we see movement where we did not expect to see it. How will you allow this great movement of praise to affect the movement of your life? Well, most of us would like to see some movement in our lives. Some movement may come in unexpected places. I want to offer you some suggestions for some spiritual movement, spiritual growth, in your life.

First, let us reflect upon the subtle influence of the Spirit of the Lord. I mention this first, in part, because I have been mentioning the influence of wind. The word “spirit” is in both Hebrew and Greek a word that means “wind” or “breath.” “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So, it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). When asked if he had ever seen God, Billy Graham said he had never seen the wind, but he had seen the effects of the wind. While God is not physically visible, the way God affects people is. Where is the Holy Spirit convicting us of needed life change today? 

Second, let us reflect upon the ways in which we connect with Christian community. The Psalm mentions the people of the Lord as those who are faithful to the Lord, those who are close to the Lord. We want to be with these people. We want to be that person. We need to be around people who know us, and whom we can know; we care for us, and for whom we can care; whom we can challenge us, and whom we can challenge. How do we intend to allow giving and receiving from community to shape our today? 

Third, let us reflect upon the ways in which Scripture will shape us. Are there particular things about the Lord that you want to learn? Are there parts of the Bible you want to understand and love better? What truths do you want to shape your life this year?

Fourth, let us reflect upon prayer. How has prayer influenced your life? What is your plan for prayer? What would happen if your prayer included more praise?

Fifth, let us reflect upon our unwillingness to move. We give ourselves far too much credit. We want to think of ourselves as people who always want to move where the Lord wants us to move, but we also have an inner resistance to such movement. 

There is a scene in the movie, The Godfather, Part III, in which the Godfather, Don Corleone, must visit Cardinal Lamberto, bearing the unwelcome news that a business deal involving the Vatican Bank has gone bad. After hearing the Godfather’s news, the Cardinal picks up a stone and says, “Look at this stone. It has been lying in the water for a very long time. The water has not penetrated it.” Then, he smashes the stone. Picking up one of the fragments, he shows how the inside is perfectly dry. “The same thing has happened to men in Europe. They have been surrounded by Christianity for centuries, but Christ does not live in their hearts.” 

Are we willing to let the Lord change us? Are we willing to do the sometimes hard and uncomfortable work of moving to where the Lord has directed us?

Another approach focuses upon the note of praise that dominates this psalm. 

When was the last time you wanted to invite all nature to join you in offering praise to the Lord?

Stan Purdun was pastor at a wedding and a funeral that suggest that praise can happen in the most difficult of circumstances.

First, we consider the wedding. 

A pastor was newly appointed to his first church when a member of the congregation asked him if he would officiate a wedding for the parishioner’s nephew, whom the pastor did not know. The member said the nephew did not have a church, so the pastor agreed to perform the ceremony. When he met with the couple in advance to go over the details of the service, he found them to be pleasant people and clearly in love. But when the pastor asked Jody if anyone would be walking her up the aisle — “giving her away” as it was called in those days — she looked sad. “No,” she said. Her father, with whom she’d been very close, did not approve of Tom because he was older than she was, had been married previously, and had a child she would be helping to raise. Her father was so against the marriage that he not only refused to contribute toward it, he refused to even come. Jody was a grown-up and had made her own decision to marry Tom, but her father was adamant: he would have nothing to do with the wedding. Later, Tom told the pastor privately that her father’s attitude was breaking Jody’s heart. Things went well and the bridal party was supportive at the rehearsal and at the wedding itself. But it seemed to the pastor that there was a note of sadness there in the bride. He thought about that, especially as she walked up the aisle by herself to the sound of the wedding march. She did not cry and she smiled bravely, but still, the sad tone was there. At the end of the ceremony, as Tom and Jody started back down the aisle together as man and wife, the pastor saw a man walk in the back door. He just stood there in the back, without removing his coat or sitting down. And the pastor thought, I bet that is Jody’s father. Indeed, it was, and when the newlyweds reached the back of the church, the man put his arms out and Jody moved into them, and they both wept.

Praise the Lord! …

Praise him, sun and moon; 

   praise him, all you shining stars! 

Praise him, you highest heavens, 

   and you waters above the heavens! 

Let them praise the name of the Lord …

(vv. 1, 3-5)

 

         Second, let us consider the funeral.  

Rosie, along with her daughter and granddaughter, were active members of a church. Rosie sang in the choir, helped with church projects, served on committees as needed, and so forth. Once, when the pastor accidentally tore his pastoral robe, she took it home and repaired it for him. But Rosie endured some hard knocks in life, and one of the biggest was when she discovered that her husband had another family in a nearby town. Rosie had since divorced that man, but one of her grown sons somehow took his father’s side in that split and made no effort to stay in touch with her. Her other grown son, Mike, had stayed in contact with her, but he had his share of problems. He had two sons of his own, but no longer lived with their mother and had a rocky relationship with his current wife. And then suddenly, Mike was on the front page of the local paper. An argument with his wife had gotten out of hand, he shot her, and she died. He called the police, told them what he had done and where he was. Before the police arrived, he used the gun to kill himself. The local newspaper had obtained the 911 call Mike made and posted the audio on their website. They also reported the contents of the call in the paper, and it was headlined: “Killer’s 911 call offers chilling insight into wife’s slaying.” Can you imagine what it must have been like for Rosie to learn about this terrible thing her son had done, and then, the next morning, to see that headline in the paper? Rosie asked her pastor to conduct the funeral for Mike. Mike’s wife’s family was having her funeral separately. As the pastor thought about what he might say at the funeral — and there were some good things to say about Mike — he decided that he should listen to the phone call. The pastor did not think news services contributed to the common good when they played private 911 calls for the public to hear, but since they had published it, he listened to it, knowing that he would be speaking to Mike’s family. Once he heard the call, he realized the headline was wrong. There was no “chilling insight” into the tragedy. Some editor, he suspected, was trying to sensationalize an event that was not sensational; it was just sad. In fact, there was nothing “chilling” in Mike’s final phone call. What the pastor heard was deep weariness, the sound of a man for whom the struggle to wring meaning and joy from life had finally become too much. And that made his very last act — the ending of his own life — understandable, even if the pastor could not condone it. At the funeral, where those gathered grieved both for Mike and for his wife, the pastor explained that he had listened to Mike’s 911 call and said there was nothing chilling about it. The pastor talked about the life-weariness he heard in Mike’s comments and voice and went on to share some words of Scripture and some things about Mike. After the funeral, they went to the cemetery where Mike was laid to rest. Country churches have a wonderful practice called the funeral dinner. After the committal, the deceased’s survivors and guests come back to the church for a meal prepared by the church folks. And there, many church members came to Rosie and hugged her. The same thing happened the following Sunday when Rosie came to church. People surrounded her with compassion, and it occurred to the pastor that God’s goodness was there in loving actions of God’s people — in their response to the event. After the morning service, Rosie sought out the pastor privately and said, “What you said at Mike’s funeral about his call not being chilling but simply sad — that helped me. Thank you.” On the way home in the car, it occurred to the pastor that if his words had helped Rosie, then he, too, had been a channel for God’s mercy and goodness to someone who was facing one of the hardest things there is in life. “... that helped me, Rosie said.

Praise the Lord! …

Praise the Lord from the earth, 

   you sea monsters and all deeps, 

fire and hail, snow and frost, 

... stormy wind fulfilling his command! 

Mountains and all hills, 

   fruit trees and all cedars! 

Wild animals and all cattle, 

   creeping things and flying birds! 

Kings of the earth and all peoples, 

   princes and all rulers of the earth! 

Young men and women alike, 

   old and young together! 

Let them praise the name of the Lord, 

   for his name alone is exalted; 

   his glory is above earth and heaven. …

Praise the Lord!

(vv. 1, 7-14)

 

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[1] The form comprises the Piel plural imperative of the verb halal, which means “praise” (in the base form it means, “be boastful”), plus the apocopated (shortened) form of the divine name, Yahweh. The form appears as two words in Psalm 135:3, but otherwise (and always when it opens and closes a psalm) as a single coalesced word (as the English word “another” joins “an” with “other”). The verb is common in biblical Hebrew, especially in the Psalter, where the praise of God is second only to personal lamentation as a theological theme.

[2] the basic meaning of which is “multitude,” but which has the more common meaning of “fighting multitude.”

[3] (Pannenberg, Systematic Theology 1998, 1991), Vol. 1, p. 387)

[4] (Barth, Church Dogmatics 2004, 1932-67), III.1 [41.2])

[5] (Barth, Church Dogmatics 2004, 1932-67), III.2 [44])

[6] Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet, II, ii, 1-2)