SCRIPTURE READINGS FOR SUNDAY, JUNE 5
Psalm 30
1 Kings 17:17-24
Galatians 1:11-24
Luke 7:11-17
I shall exalt You, LORD, for You drew me up,
and You gave no joy to my enemies.
LORD my God, I cried to You
and You healed me.
LORD, You brought me up from Sheol,
gave me life from those gone down to the Pit.
Hymn to the LORD, O His faithful,
acclaim His holy name.
But a moment in His wrath,
life in His pleasure.
At evening one beds down weeping,
and in the morning, glad song.
As for me, I thought in my quiet days,
“Never will I stumble.”
LORD, in Your pleasure
You made me stand mountain-strong.
— When You hid Your face, I was stricken.
To You, O LORD, I call,
and to the Master I plead.
“What profit in my blood,
in my going down death-ward?
Will dust acclaim You, will it tell Your truth?”
Hear, LORD, and grant me grace.
LORD, become helper to me.
You have turned my dirge into a dance for me,
undone my sack-cloth
and bound me with joy.
O let my heart hymn You and not be still,
LORD my God, for all time I acclaim You.
- Psalm 30: Robert Alter’s translation, 2007
Life-and-death situations are all around us.
You have probably heard preachers say many times, over the years, “You never know, from moment to moment, when you will be leaving this earth.” That’s true.
But plenty of other things are also true.
For instance, when someone is young and healthy, we are more surprised if we hear that she has died, than if she were ill and elderly.
Likewise, we may notice that there are many older folks who demonstrate a strong will to live, while, at the same time, there are young folks who feel ready to give up and die.
When serious illness comes upon someone, his acquaintances often comment on the “fight” he is waging against the threat of death. Yet, quite often, the disease “wins” in spite of valiant efforts by medical personnel, the individual who is ill, and other supporters. Then sometimes, we hear that he has “lost his battle” with the illness. But, can we really know whether any degree of “will-power” or “fight” could have made the difference between life and death, in any given situation ?
Certainly, the psalmist places the whole matter of life-or-death in God’s control:
LORD, in Your pleasure
You made me stand mountain-strong.
— When You hid Your face, I was stricken.
This past year, I read the book, God’s Secretaries, about King James’ project to produce the 1611 translation of the Bible. Author Adam Nicolson set the scene of King James’ arrival in London in the Summer of 1603: the plague. Countless Londoners were dropping dead from contagious illnesses. Nicolson reminded me that the very word, “plague,” comes from the Greek word meaning “hit.” They believed that God was literally hitting people. The story of the word, “stroke” is exactly the same.
The theology behind that way of thinking is worth a long, serious discussion. We will continue to work at it.
As we read the psalm, we may remember feeling that God has knocked us down sometimes, and also that God has picked us up sometimes.
If you are reading this, it seems that you are currently alive: God is maintaining you on the up-side of the grass. Others we know are on the other side. Why ?
This week, we have two stories of people being raised from death: one by Elijah, one by Jesus.
In 1 Kings 17, we find Elijah staying with a widow and her son in a town outside of Israel, in the kingdom of Sidon. The boy dies. The widow and Elijah are extremely distressed. Elijah prayed to God in shock and grief. Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried out to the LORD, “O LORD my God, let this child's life come into him again.” Some modern scholars have suggested that Elijah was performing a primitive version of CPR on the boy. In any case, God restored life to the boy.
In the story about the widow’s son of Nain, in Luke 7, Jesus merely said to the dead man, “Young man, I say to you, rise !” That worked, too.
Psalm 30
1 Kings 17:17-24
Galatians 1:11-24
Luke 7:11-17
I shall exalt You, LORD, for You drew me up,
and You gave no joy to my enemies.
LORD my God, I cried to You
and You healed me.
LORD, You brought me up from Sheol,
gave me life from those gone down to the Pit.
Hymn to the LORD, O His faithful,
acclaim His holy name.
But a moment in His wrath,
life in His pleasure.
At evening one beds down weeping,
and in the morning, glad song.
As for me, I thought in my quiet days,
“Never will I stumble.”
LORD, in Your pleasure
You made me stand mountain-strong.
— When You hid Your face, I was stricken.
To You, O LORD, I call,
and to the Master I plead.
“What profit in my blood,
in my going down death-ward?
Will dust acclaim You, will it tell Your truth?”
Hear, LORD, and grant me grace.
LORD, become helper to me.
You have turned my dirge into a dance for me,
undone my sack-cloth
and bound me with joy.
O let my heart hymn You and not be still,
LORD my God, for all time I acclaim You.
- Psalm 30: Robert Alter’s translation, 2007
Life-and-death situations are all around us.
You have probably heard preachers say many times, over the years, “You never know, from moment to moment, when you will be leaving this earth.” That’s true.
But plenty of other things are also true.
For instance, when someone is young and healthy, we are more surprised if we hear that she has died, than if she were ill and elderly.
Likewise, we may notice that there are many older folks who demonstrate a strong will to live, while, at the same time, there are young folks who feel ready to give up and die.
When serious illness comes upon someone, his acquaintances often comment on the “fight” he is waging against the threat of death. Yet, quite often, the disease “wins” in spite of valiant efforts by medical personnel, the individual who is ill, and other supporters. Then sometimes, we hear that he has “lost his battle” with the illness. But, can we really know whether any degree of “will-power” or “fight” could have made the difference between life and death, in any given situation ?
Certainly, the psalmist places the whole matter of life-or-death in God’s control:
LORD, in Your pleasure
You made me stand mountain-strong.
— When You hid Your face, I was stricken.
This past year, I read the book, God’s Secretaries, about King James’ project to produce the 1611 translation of the Bible. Author Adam Nicolson set the scene of King James’ arrival in London in the Summer of 1603: the plague. Countless Londoners were dropping dead from contagious illnesses. Nicolson reminded me that the very word, “plague,” comes from the Greek word meaning “hit.” They believed that God was literally hitting people. The story of the word, “stroke” is exactly the same.
The theology behind that way of thinking is worth a long, serious discussion. We will continue to work at it.
As we read the psalm, we may remember feeling that God has knocked us down sometimes, and also that God has picked us up sometimes.
If you are reading this, it seems that you are currently alive: God is maintaining you on the up-side of the grass. Others we know are on the other side. Why ?
This week, we have two stories of people being raised from death: one by Elijah, one by Jesus.
In 1 Kings 17, we find Elijah staying with a widow and her son in a town outside of Israel, in the kingdom of Sidon. The boy dies. The widow and Elijah are extremely distressed. Elijah prayed to God in shock and grief. Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried out to the LORD, “O LORD my God, let this child's life come into him again.” Some modern scholars have suggested that Elijah was performing a primitive version of CPR on the boy. In any case, God restored life to the boy.
In the story about the widow’s son of Nain, in Luke 7, Jesus merely said to the dead man, “Young man, I say to you, rise !” That worked, too.
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