Psalm 62
For God alone my soul waits in silence; from God comes my salvation.
The Lord alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall never be shaken.
How long will you assail a person, will you batter your victim, all of you, as you would a leaning wall, a tottering fence?
Their only plan is to bring down a person of prominence.
They take pleasure in falsehood;they bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse.
For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from God.
The Lord alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
On God rests my deliverance and my honor; my mighty rock, my refuge is in God.
Trust in God at all times, O people; pour out your heart before God; God is a refuge for us.
Those of low estate are but a breath, those of high estate are a delusion; in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath.
Put no confidence in extortion, and set no vain hopes on robbery; if riches increase, do not set your heart on them.
Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God, and steadfast love belongs to you, O Lord. For you repay to all according to their work.
*************************
Mark 1:14-20
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news." As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea--for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people." And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.
*************************
Psalm 62 is fantastic. The psalmist begins with a simple phrase… (Mozart in the background please) "For God alone my soul waits in silence; from God comes my salvation. The Lord alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall never be shaken." In essence; whatever she is going through, she’s going to trust in God.
God alone is her security and she knows it... Or does she? Because immediatesly in the next paragraph she jumps back into her own worry: (cue the Metallica music)
"How long will you gang up on me?
How long will you run with the bullies?
There's nothing to you, any of you—
rotten floorboards, worm-eaten rafters,
Anthills plotting to bring down mountains,
far gone in make-believe.
You talk a good line,
but every "blessing" breathes a curse." (Msg)
Now, I don’t know what happened next. Maybe she took a breath and caught hold of herself. Maybe she remembered. But right after she spouts off like that., it’s almost like she collects herself... and brings her emotions back to center… "Oh yeeaah! I’m supposed to trust God!"
And the next thing you know, Mozart is playing again, and she is repeating her opening refrain…
"For God alone my soul waits in silence... I only trust God… "
In fact she repeats this pattern again before she ends the Psalm.
What a wonderful illustration of how we humans pray... and worry... and pray... And who and what we humans put our trust in (and withdraw our trust, and trust again); Psalm 62 is a picture of how we wait…
This week I couldn’t get this psalm out of my head: “For God alone my soul waits in silence..."
I had been wanting to focus on Jesus rounding up more disciples. But I couldn't get there. Something was missing...
I kept hearing, and humming “be still and know that I am God” and so I decided, finally, to do that. It’s amazing sometimes the lengths God has to go to, to get us to slow down, isn’t it. I looked at the Mark passage- and I saw the disciples going about their business before Jesus got to the shore line… it’s almost like they were waiting for him to get there- and they seemed like nice people… so I decided to park myself on the beach with them and wait with them for God to speak.
I will be still- I’ll trust in God alone… I’ll wait in silence-
While I was waiting-
While I was waiting-
While I was waiting –
I got an email from the church that the pipe in the parsonage had burst, and that there was an accident in front of the church taking out the tree and the sign. We waited, for assurance that no one was hurt… we waited… for word that the pipe was repaired and maybe it wouldn’t be as much damage as it could have been- that maybe what we the church had been working on this far hadn’t been undone… I waited for good news on our buildings… for security.
This brought me to yesterday, when I finally sat down to write this message to all of you. I laid out the psalm next to the text of Jesus calling the disciples, and asked the question… “if we are waiting now… and what we wait for is some good news… some security…. Couldn’t that be the same thing the disciples… fishing on that fateful day when Jesus came to call them… have been waiting for the same thing? Were they waiting, like me this week… for assurance… that someone was going to bring some good news…. Some security to their lives?”
I thought about what that scene must have been like- Jesus walking along the shore line, and people going about their business. Jewish society during the lifetime of Jesus was essentially divided into four levels. Those at the top were the governing class of Gentile and Jewish rulers and the Jerusalem Clergy Aristocracy. They made up, at most, 2-7% of the population. Merchants and artisans made up of the second level of society. They made up about 13% of the population. Below them were the peasants who worked the fields of the merchants and landowners and who were employed in the shops of the artisans; they made up about 70% of the population. At the bottom of society were the unclean and the expendables. According to the economic health of the nation at any moment, those at the bottom could vary between 10% and 20% (when many peasants would fall into the expendable category) of the population.
According to our text “James and John left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed Jesus”. With the hired men! The Zebedee Fishing Company had employees! That meant that the family of James and John was at least economically “comfortable”. They belonged to an independent artisan class of people. They were not day laborers, the peasants or the poor of Israel.
So what? Why is that important? I’m so glad you asked…
It’s important because of what they were waiting for- and for the “good news” that Jesus would bring that day. Jesus said “Repent and hear the good news of the gospel. Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people!” Let’s take it apart a little bit…
Repent… a term that literally meant “turn around… stop what you’re doing and take a new direction”
SO the people were to turn- and to hear the good news.. the gospel. But what is the good news? Jesus says “The Kingdom of God is here!” (not… it’s coming- but that it’s already here in Christ!) “Follow me,” he says, “and I’ll make you fishers of people.” Now, I know that traditionally the church takes that to mean that we are supposed to go out and create followers and in some circles “save souls of win people to Christ.” But there’s an interesting twist here. If we look at the phrase fishers of men, and look at the times when that phrase had been used among the Jewish people in the time of Christ, we can get a better sense of what Jesus might have meant by it.
There are only three places in the Old Testament in which this same image was used… in Jeremiah, Amos, and Ezekiel 29:4… And each of these passages talks about judgment coming on oppressive rulers and governments- and the powerful in society (business people, merchants…the middle and upper middle class) are criticized for not using their power to move their society toward increasingly becoming the Kingdom of God!
Now Jesus is coming to the shoreline basically saying “Time’s UP! The Kingdom of God is Here! Let’s go make fishers of people- in other words- let’s go change the world- use what power we have to make our community, our nation- our world a better place!”
Puts a whole new twist on it doesn’t it? That maybe when James and John were on their way to work that day, that maybe they talked about their neighbors who were getting thrown out of their house because they couldn’t pay the mortgage, or maybe they emptied their pockets of the change at the bottom to give someone money to buy food- or maybe they balked at a peasant being beaten for not working hard enough, or the incredibly unfair taxes, or the fact that over 70% of the people in their community lived below the poverty line. That they were also waiting for some good news… news that things were going to get easier… safer… for some security for the lives of those in their community.
But then, Jesus shows up with Good news… Follow me, and I’ll make you fishers of me. Maybe for the first time, they heard it. That the good news, that the act of following Jesus, meant that they could be a part of stopping the system of injustice that held the whole population captive. That following Jesus meant that they could be a part of something bigger then themselves… that for the first time, maybe they realized that the good news they had been waiting for didn’t mean security for themselves at all… but that there was instead, a chance for them to participate in changing the way things were- that they didn’t have to sit back and let things just happen to those they loved… that they could be an agent of change, an agent of peace, an agent of Shalom… because they could be secure in something bigger than their world.
That being a part of the radical ministry of Jesus Christ meant that they could participate in God’s righteousness making activity on earth. That there was no good news going to come down in any form that they had hoped for or had trusted in… whether from their government, or from each other- and that their only hope finally laid in their trust in almighty God and author of creation. And if they would put their trust in that God, they could be a part of making things better… That’s the news they needed to hear, and that’s what finally, I believe, made them drop everything they were doing and follow Christ. Because they realized that the things that they had put their trust in for their own security- their businesses, their bank accounts, their government… didn’t bring security at all.
In fact, it’s the same security the psalmist talks about… that as much as we run around and try to worry ourselves into a frenzy… there is finally, at the end of the day, no trust in anything except in God alone. That our trust can’t lie in our government, no matter who our president is- or our businesses, or our economy… we can’t trust in our health… or our families health being great- we can only trust in God to be with us, no matter what the report says… and to stay with us through it… We can’t trust in the state of our church… even when things have come so far... even when we’re fiscally healthy or have two hundred members… because our trust can’t rest in that… because the minute we start to rest secure in ourselves, or the things we have done… or buildings, or numbers, or finances… and God knows… even in each other- then we have given our trust over to things that are temporary... what the psalmist calls… a breath.
The only thing we can really trust in… the only thing we can depend on… is that God alone is our rock, that God alone is our salvation, that God alone is our fortress… and that regardless of what things look like right now or how we feel or what people tell us... that this God of wonder and might and power, loves you more than anything or anyone on this whole earth- regardless of where you’ve been or what you’ve done or what you will go through… and has promised to always love you and always be with you.
And when God’s time is right... we look to the left and see Jesus walking down the shoreline… and He puts out his hand and he makes us an offer… to stop casting our nets out into waters that are only going to come up empty and to start being a part of something that is bigger than ourselves… to begin to put our trust in the only thing in this whole creation worth trusting… and to follow…
For God alone my soul waits in silence; from God comes my salvation.
The Lord alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall never be shaken.
How long will you assail a person, will you batter your victim, all of you, as you would a leaning wall, a tottering fence?
Their only plan is to bring down a person of prominence.
They take pleasure in falsehood;they bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse.
For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from God.
The Lord alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
On God rests my deliverance and my honor; my mighty rock, my refuge is in God.
Trust in God at all times, O people; pour out your heart before God; God is a refuge for us.
Those of low estate are but a breath, those of high estate are a delusion; in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath.
Put no confidence in extortion, and set no vain hopes on robbery; if riches increase, do not set your heart on them.
Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God, and steadfast love belongs to you, O Lord. For you repay to all according to their work.
*************************
Mark 1:14-20
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news." As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea--for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people." And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.
*************************
Psalm 62 is fantastic. The psalmist begins with a simple phrase… (Mozart in the background please) "For God alone my soul waits in silence; from God comes my salvation. The Lord alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall never be shaken." In essence; whatever she is going through, she’s going to trust in God.
God alone is her security and she knows it... Or does she? Because immediatesly in the next paragraph she jumps back into her own worry: (cue the Metallica music)
"How long will you gang up on me?
How long will you run with the bullies?
There's nothing to you, any of you—
rotten floorboards, worm-eaten rafters,
Anthills plotting to bring down mountains,
far gone in make-believe.
You talk a good line,
but every "blessing" breathes a curse." (Msg)
Now, I don’t know what happened next. Maybe she took a breath and caught hold of herself. Maybe she remembered. But right after she spouts off like that., it’s almost like she collects herself... and brings her emotions back to center… "Oh yeeaah! I’m supposed to trust God!"
And the next thing you know, Mozart is playing again, and she is repeating her opening refrain…
"For God alone my soul waits in silence... I only trust God… "
In fact she repeats this pattern again before she ends the Psalm.
What a wonderful illustration of how we humans pray... and worry... and pray... And who and what we humans put our trust in (and withdraw our trust, and trust again); Psalm 62 is a picture of how we wait…
This week I couldn’t get this psalm out of my head: “For God alone my soul waits in silence..."
I had been wanting to focus on Jesus rounding up more disciples. But I couldn't get there. Something was missing...
I kept hearing, and humming “be still and know that I am God” and so I decided, finally, to do that. It’s amazing sometimes the lengths God has to go to, to get us to slow down, isn’t it. I looked at the Mark passage- and I saw the disciples going about their business before Jesus got to the shore line… it’s almost like they were waiting for him to get there- and they seemed like nice people… so I decided to park myself on the beach with them and wait with them for God to speak.
I will be still- I’ll trust in God alone… I’ll wait in silence-
While I was waiting-
While I was waiting-
While I was waiting –
I got an email from the church that the pipe in the parsonage had burst, and that there was an accident in front of the church taking out the tree and the sign. We waited, for assurance that no one was hurt… we waited… for word that the pipe was repaired and maybe it wouldn’t be as much damage as it could have been- that maybe what we the church had been working on this far hadn’t been undone… I waited for good news on our buildings… for security.
This brought me to yesterday, when I finally sat down to write this message to all of you. I laid out the psalm next to the text of Jesus calling the disciples, and asked the question… “if we are waiting now… and what we wait for is some good news… some security…. Couldn’t that be the same thing the disciples… fishing on that fateful day when Jesus came to call them… have been waiting for the same thing? Were they waiting, like me this week… for assurance… that someone was going to bring some good news…. Some security to their lives?”
I thought about what that scene must have been like- Jesus walking along the shore line, and people going about their business. Jewish society during the lifetime of Jesus was essentially divided into four levels. Those at the top were the governing class of Gentile and Jewish rulers and the Jerusalem Clergy Aristocracy. They made up, at most, 2-7% of the population. Merchants and artisans made up of the second level of society. They made up about 13% of the population. Below them were the peasants who worked the fields of the merchants and landowners and who were employed in the shops of the artisans; they made up about 70% of the population. At the bottom of society were the unclean and the expendables. According to the economic health of the nation at any moment, those at the bottom could vary between 10% and 20% (when many peasants would fall into the expendable category) of the population.
According to our text “James and John left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed Jesus”. With the hired men! The Zebedee Fishing Company had employees! That meant that the family of James and John was at least economically “comfortable”. They belonged to an independent artisan class of people. They were not day laborers, the peasants or the poor of Israel.
So what? Why is that important? I’m so glad you asked…
It’s important because of what they were waiting for- and for the “good news” that Jesus would bring that day. Jesus said “Repent and hear the good news of the gospel. Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people!” Let’s take it apart a little bit…
Repent… a term that literally meant “turn around… stop what you’re doing and take a new direction”
SO the people were to turn- and to hear the good news.. the gospel. But what is the good news? Jesus says “The Kingdom of God is here!” (not… it’s coming- but that it’s already here in Christ!) “Follow me,” he says, “and I’ll make you fishers of people.” Now, I know that traditionally the church takes that to mean that we are supposed to go out and create followers and in some circles “save souls of win people to Christ.” But there’s an interesting twist here. If we look at the phrase fishers of men, and look at the times when that phrase had been used among the Jewish people in the time of Christ, we can get a better sense of what Jesus might have meant by it.
There are only three places in the Old Testament in which this same image was used… in Jeremiah, Amos, and Ezekiel 29:4… And each of these passages talks about judgment coming on oppressive rulers and governments- and the powerful in society (business people, merchants…the middle and upper middle class) are criticized for not using their power to move their society toward increasingly becoming the Kingdom of God!
Now Jesus is coming to the shoreline basically saying “Time’s UP! The Kingdom of God is Here! Let’s go make fishers of people- in other words- let’s go change the world- use what power we have to make our community, our nation- our world a better place!”
Puts a whole new twist on it doesn’t it? That maybe when James and John were on their way to work that day, that maybe they talked about their neighbors who were getting thrown out of their house because they couldn’t pay the mortgage, or maybe they emptied their pockets of the change at the bottom to give someone money to buy food- or maybe they balked at a peasant being beaten for not working hard enough, or the incredibly unfair taxes, or the fact that over 70% of the people in their community lived below the poverty line. That they were also waiting for some good news… news that things were going to get easier… safer… for some security for the lives of those in their community.
But then, Jesus shows up with Good news… Follow me, and I’ll make you fishers of me. Maybe for the first time, they heard it. That the good news, that the act of following Jesus, meant that they could be a part of stopping the system of injustice that held the whole population captive. That following Jesus meant that they could be a part of something bigger then themselves… that for the first time, maybe they realized that the good news they had been waiting for didn’t mean security for themselves at all… but that there was instead, a chance for them to participate in changing the way things were- that they didn’t have to sit back and let things just happen to those they loved… that they could be an agent of change, an agent of peace, an agent of Shalom… because they could be secure in something bigger than their world.
That being a part of the radical ministry of Jesus Christ meant that they could participate in God’s righteousness making activity on earth. That there was no good news going to come down in any form that they had hoped for or had trusted in… whether from their government, or from each other- and that their only hope finally laid in their trust in almighty God and author of creation. And if they would put their trust in that God, they could be a part of making things better… That’s the news they needed to hear, and that’s what finally, I believe, made them drop everything they were doing and follow Christ. Because they realized that the things that they had put their trust in for their own security- their businesses, their bank accounts, their government… didn’t bring security at all.
In fact, it’s the same security the psalmist talks about… that as much as we run around and try to worry ourselves into a frenzy… there is finally, at the end of the day, no trust in anything except in God alone. That our trust can’t lie in our government, no matter who our president is- or our businesses, or our economy… we can’t trust in our health… or our families health being great- we can only trust in God to be with us, no matter what the report says… and to stay with us through it… We can’t trust in the state of our church… even when things have come so far... even when we’re fiscally healthy or have two hundred members… because our trust can’t rest in that… because the minute we start to rest secure in ourselves, or the things we have done… or buildings, or numbers, or finances… and God knows… even in each other- then we have given our trust over to things that are temporary... what the psalmist calls… a breath.
The only thing we can really trust in… the only thing we can depend on… is that God alone is our rock, that God alone is our salvation, that God alone is our fortress… and that regardless of what things look like right now or how we feel or what people tell us... that this God of wonder and might and power, loves you more than anything or anyone on this whole earth- regardless of where you’ve been or what you’ve done or what you will go through… and has promised to always love you and always be with you.
And when God’s time is right... we look to the left and see Jesus walking down the shoreline… and He puts out his hand and he makes us an offer… to stop casting our nets out into waters that are only going to come up empty and to start being a part of something that is bigger than ourselves… to begin to put our trust in the only thing in this whole creation worth trusting… and to follow…