Ascribe...

 

Psalm 29
29:1 Ascribe to the LORD, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.

29:2 Ascribe to the LORD the glory of God’s name; worship the LORD in holy splendor.

29:3 The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD, over mighty waters.

29:4 The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty.

29:5 The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars; the LORD breaks the cedars of Lebanon.

29:6 God makes Lebanon skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox.

29:7 The voice of the LORD flashes forth flames of fire.

29:8 The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness; the LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.

29:9 The voice of the LORD causes the oaks to whirl, and strips the forest bare; and in his temple all say, "Glory!"

29:10 The LORD sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD sits enthroned as king forever.

29:11 May the LORD give strength to God’s people! May the LORD bless God’s people with peace!

 

I knew a man, years ago, a great man, indeed. He was a Christian missionary and a pastor, and after returning to the United States, he began a new ministry. His loving wife, and faithful disciple of Jesus Christ herself, often bore the brunt of the day-to-day work of keeping this new ministry afloat. Her husband, always the visionary, relied upon her to care for their family, help maintain the large home which also served as a retreat center for various church groups, and prepare the meals when retreats were held. He knew he could rely upon her, and she was happy to “sell out” her life to her husband and to Christ. I’m sure, though, that often the burden was large, and it was her faith that sustained her through it all. I’m telling you this story because her husband regularly polled the family as to where they were reading in the scriptures, a dedication he demanded of them all, including himself. When he asked his wife, her answer was always “in the Psalms.” That was probably her way of communicating to her Bible scholar/husband that her stress level was often at its peak, and only in the Psalms could she find God’s soothing voice. So it is with the Psalms.

 

Jesus’ stress level was probably at its peak on the cross, at least that’s my guess. Oh, I’m sure there were many times Peter tried his patience, some of which are recorded in the pages of the Gospels, and he certainly had to contend with James and John, the “Sons of Thunder,” who liked to argue which was the greatest. But still, after enduring a horrible beating and ridiculing by Pilate’s people, and when nailed to the cruelest form of capital of his day, he must have felt such loneliness and abandonment. Where did he turn? The Psalms. Jesus shouted out a verse from Psalm 22: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Less a cry of abandonment, and more the venting of anguish and frustration, these words have been echoed by faithful followers down through the ages when things don’t go their way, or when it seems to promises are not being kept. I have uttered them when my “big picture” apparently didn’t match God’s “big picture,” and mine lost out, at least in the moment. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” are not meant as indictments against God at all. Instead, they allow our spleen to vent in God’s direction in our most difficult moments, which is better than kicking the dog, yelling at our spouse, or taking it out on the kids or the neighbors. Besides, we have a good model in Jesus! Yell at God because God can take it, and is obviously the one in the best position to do something about our plight. I’m sure that there were days when my friend’s wife was “in the Psalms,” and it was Psalm 22 she was “in.”

 

The Psalms are the hymns of the early Jewish people. They were read, sung, or recited in corporate worship, but they were also terribly personal, as I’ve related. Why would a congregation sing “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” unless something better came next, which it most certainly does in Psalm 22. In fact, all of these kinds of “griping” Psalms, which we call the Psalms of lament, DO include a resolve, when God comes to the rescue, offering peace in the least, and a fix in the most. Of course in Jesus’ case, the Resurrection was the resolve, and that is the best of all!

 

Psalm 29 is mostly a praise Psalm, giving words and images for the worshipper to use to indulge Yahweh in a bit of unearned praise, meaning it is mostly praise for praise, sake, with the exception of the final verse, which is a bit of a prayer the author slips in while he has God in a good mood. It invokes the “voice” of God, which is another way of stating the “word” of God, and God’s word holds sway over nature—trees, weather, water, fire, the wilderness, and the wind. Being that this Sunday is often celebrated as “Baptism of the Lord” day, images of God’s word and the waters are appropriate. Our United Methodist baptismal liturgy, in its “Thanksgiving over the Water” section, evokes numerous times when God saved through “the waters.” And it is in the waters of baptism that God begins the longer effort of “saving” the life of the one baptized.

 

All this said, I was most intrigued by the first word of Psalm 29, “ascribe.” The psalmist tells the “heavenly beings” to do the “ascribing,” but ultimately, I think the command applies quite nicely to God’s human creation. It is we, whom God would much rather have do the ascribing! The Hebrew root of the word we translate “ascribe” is yahab, which is short for “give” or “ascribe” to Yahweh. It may also mean “grant” or “credit to.” The psalmist says we are to “ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.” “Glory” is a worship word; “strength” is an attribute we acknowledge to God. I want to push us on this “ascribing” business a bit, so please indulge me.

 

God is none of these things to me—glory, strength, power, wisdom, or even love—unless I “ascribe” them to God. While in the beingness of God, God is these and more, they mean little to the one who does not acknowledge or “ascribe” them to God. “Ascribe,” a word we probably don’t use in our daily vocabulary, may be the most powerful “faith” word of all. When we say we “believe,” this is more like Dorothy repeating “There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home” as magic words leading to Kansas, or like Peter Pan saying “I DO believe in fairies, I do, I do, I do!” But “ascribing,” that is another thing, entirely. Ascribing means acknowledging, which implies accepting the reality of, which, in turn, means we are putting ourselves under the jurisdiction of what we ascribe. It’s kind of like what an old preacher told me the word “Amen” means: “I’m in favor of it, I’m with it, and here’s my share of the cost.” When we ascribe things to God, it’s like getting into the car, starting the engine, putting it in gear, and driving off. “Believing” is sitting in the idling car, hoping it will go somewhere. No wonder the psalmist uses the “A” word here! To quote a sermon by our former Bishop Tom Bickerton, the psalmist wants us to “take this baby out onto the road and see what she will do!” Note, however, that “ascribe” is very different than “prescribe.” There are many who, either because of tradition or what they understand as “orthodoxy,” take great pains in “prescribing” what is right belief, not just for themselves, but for all others. We must all wrestle with scripture and how it defines our faith, and we may or may not all agree on what we read, interpret, and attempt to apply, in these efforts. Ancient creeds were an attempt to summarize and codify certain key beliefs, but they were only effective if a given sample of the faith community agreed to them—if they weren’t “ascribed” to by the faith community, they were just straw doctrines. In terms of our individual appropriation of our Christian faith, we are the gatekeepers on what we “ascribe” to God. If we believe God to be a benevolent, grace-granting, pardoning, and just God, then we will respond accordingly. If we ascribe to God anger, judgment, and fear, then this is what we will respond to, unfortunately. Our own understanding of the nature of God is how we will tend to respond to God. 

 

In my own ministry, for example, as it grew and matured, I came to ascribe to God the attribute of justice as a necessary progression of grace and love. A God who loves is a God who gives grace, and makes this grace available to all people—ALL people. Working for justice for all people became for me a direct result of God’s love and grace. Think of it this way: Justice is grace with shoes on—taking it to the streets and offering the witness that this is who God is, especially as God witnessed it to us in Jesus Christ. 

 

On a day when we honor baptism, isn’t this precisely what the parents, pastor, and church “ascribe” to doing with this child when they all take their vows? Baptism ascribes to God what is God’s, to the parents what their responsibilities are in this little one’s life, and reminds the church what they are to do, if God’s vision for this child is to become a reality in the years ahead. In terms of Jesus, think of the “vow” of John the Baptist in preparation for christening Jesus: “Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” If that isn’t ascribing a vision to the life and ministry of Jesus, I don’t know what is! Too often, in our time, the church “hopes” stuff may happen, rather than “ascribing” that it will, through the power, glory, and majesty of God. There’s more hand-wringing going on in the Christian church today than hand-clapping, hand-joining, and hands working, unfortunately. It’s time for us to do a little less “believing” and a whole lot more “ascribing,” in my way of understanding discipleship.

 

I mentioned earlier that this is a worship and praise Psalm. What is worship? And what does praise “do” for God? Have you ever thought about that? Praising is certainly a way of showing appreciation to God, and I’m in favor of that. But do you think God just sits around waiting for us to offer praise when living out our Christian faith is about so much more than that, like actively loving, carrying out acts of compassion and mercy, mending relationships and fostering new ones, following the teachings and example of Jesus in an effort to help usher in the “kingdom” or vision of God for the world? I’ve spent quite a bit of time contemplating what “worship” is, and why God would get a kick out of it. Here are a few of my conclusions:

 

·      Worship is an occasion to center ourselves, in preparation for connecting with God.

 

·      Worship is an opportunity to show our appreciation to God for God’s steadfast love and exceeding abundant grace.

 

·      Worship is a classroom wherein we hear and absorb God’s “voice” (word) for us.

 

·      Worship is a time of centering ourselves in preparation for “ascribing to God” what we will be doing in response to God’s vision, power, and in acknowledging God’s glory.

 

·      Worship is a time to bless God by God’s witnessing God’s people gathered, praying, praising, listening, learning, and ascribing together; God gets a kick out of us when we do this!

 

·      Praise may be done in private, but worship is a corporate experience.

 

As we learned from the life of Jesus, there is a time to “come away” and have our private time with God, but most of life is lived in community. This is why Christ chose the twelve—he wasn’t just training them, he was building a church, an ecclesia, or gathering of believers (or, in accordance with this message “ascribers!). And together, they went forth to heal, redeem, and serve. Sounds like a benediction to me.

 

Remember the little prayer at the end of Psalm 29 that the psalmist sneaks in? “May the Lord give strength to God’s people. May the Lord bless God’s people with peace.” May this be our benediction, too, as we go forth to ascribe, act, and serve, in the name of Christ our Lord. Amen!