Text used – Psalm 130
- I noticed something interesting this week.
- Just started reading The Two Towers[1] to the boys at night (2nd book of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series)
- Book I’ve read before
- Own the extended edition DVDs of the movies directed by Peter Jackson → watched them many, many times over the years
- So I’m more than familiar with the way The Two Towers begins.
- Basic beginning: two of the main hobbit characters (but not Frodo, the ringbearer and central character to the whole trilogy) have been kidnapped by a huge pack of orcs → a few of the other members of the fellowship decide to go after this orc pack to rescue their friends and companions
- Epic journey that involves days of running across vast plains dotted with rocky outcroppings
- Involves an encounter with a group of horsemen from another kingdom → discover that this group of horsemen have already come across the orc pack and killed them all
- Pursuing fellowship members fear for the lives of their friends → seek out the remains of the orc pack to see if they can find the still-missing hobbits
- Basic beginning: two of the main hobbit characters (but not Frodo, the ringbearer and central character to the whole trilogy) have been kidnapped by a huge pack of orcs → a few of the other members of the fellowship decide to go after this orc pack to rescue their friends and companions
- Now, as I said, I’ve read these books before, though it was quite a long time ago – back when I was in high school. That being said, the interesting thing that I realized as I started reading the opening scenes of this particular book to the boys last week is how much more drawn out the scenes are in Tolkien’s book.
- From the outset of their journey to rescue their friends to finding the remains of the orc pack, the film version takes maybe 10 minutes → even includes the conversation between the pursuing fellowship members and the horsemen from the other kingdom
- But in the book, the pursuit takes chapters! Four chapters, to be precise. The interaction with the horsemen is a whole chapter in and of itself! It was, like, a week’s worth of reading just to get through this whole interaction! And I have to admit that even as I was reading, I found myself anxious to get to the next part of the story. Even as I was reading, the waiting was sort of killing me!
- Just started reading The Two Towers[1] to the boys at night (2nd book of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series)
- I think Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers got it right: “The waiting is the hardest part.” [2] True that, right? I mean, there’s a reason that, whenever we’re praying for friends or family or anyone else in the midst of medical testing or those who are marking time until some sort of medical procedure, I pray for the waiting. Because waiting truly is hard.
- As humans, we are not fans of uncertainty → And what is waiting but an extended period of uncertainty?
- Book published in Nov. 2023 by author and journalist Maggie Jackson – Uncertain: The Wisdom and Wonder of Being Unsure[3] → exploration of why we as humans dislike uncertainty so much and how it can be a powerful tool in the processes of thinking, decision-making, and even “day-to-day flourishing”
- In an interview with The Gray Area podcast in Feb. of this year, Jackson described her work this way: As human beings, we dislike uncertainty for a real reason. We need and want answers. And this unsettling feeling we have is our innate way of signaling that we’re not in the routine anymore.[4]
- Book published in Nov. 2023 by author and journalist Maggie Jackson – Uncertain: The Wisdom and Wonder of Being Unsure[3] → exploration of why we as humans dislike uncertainty so much and how it can be a powerful tool in the processes of thinking, decision-making, and even “day-to-day flourishing”
- As humans, we are not fans of uncertainty → And what is waiting but an extended period of uncertainty?
- And that place of uncertainty … that place of unknowing … that place out of routine … that place of waiting is where we find our psalmist this morning.
- Place of waiting for redemption … place of waiting for God – text: I hope, Lord. My whole being hopes, and I wait for God’s promise. My whole being waits for my Lord – more than the night watch waits for the morning; yes, more than the night watch waits for the morning![5]
- “Waiting” in these vv. is not passive waiting – Heb. = waiting with tenseness and eagerness → even an element of worry, element of expecting something terrible implied with this waiting → This is the kind of waiting that takes on a life of its own. It’s the kind of waiting that has us up and pacing because if we sit still in the midst of this kind of waiting, we just might explode. It’s a fraught and frenetic kind of waiting. It’s the kind of waiting that gnaws at us the same way we gnaw at fingernails or cuticles while we’re in the midst of it. Few kinds of waiting are actually comfortable. This kind of waiting is definitively uncomfortable.
- It is waiting for test results – the kind that can change your whole life
- It is waiting to hear back about that job interview – the one for the position that you so badly want … so desperately need
- It is waiting for a child gone too long past curfew
- It is waiting for a deployed child or spouse who missed their last phone call because of the military’s favorite ambiguous term: “unforeseen circumstances”
- It is waiting for the ultrasound tech to react –any kind of face, any kind of reaction – after you’ve suffered a loss
- “Waiting” in these vv. is not passive waiting – Heb. = waiting with tenseness and eagerness → even an element of worry, element of expecting something terrible implied with this waiting → This is the kind of waiting that takes on a life of its own. It’s the kind of waiting that has us up and pacing because if we sit still in the midst of this kind of waiting, we just might explode. It’s a fraught and frenetic kind of waiting. It’s the kind of waiting that gnaws at us the same way we gnaw at fingernails or cuticles while we’re in the midst of it. Few kinds of waiting are actually comfortable. This kind of waiting is definitively uncomfortable.
- And just like the psalmist so many millennia ago, we cry out to God in the midst of these moments of fraught and frenetic waiting. – text: I cry out to you from the depth, Lord – my Lord, listen to my voice! Let your ears pay close attention to my request for mercy!
- Scholar: In Psalm 130, the writer calls out to God from the depths of human suffering, hoping for, expecting, and insisting on God’s hearing. The psalmist has every confidence that God will hear and respond to every cry of pain because mercy, the writer insists, is who God is. The lament of Psalm 130 is familiar to our hearing and our living. The psalmist cries out to God from “the depths” … That abyss takes different shapes in individual and communal human life, but we all have had or will have some experience of it, and not always tangentially.[6]
- Without actually calling it “waiting,” another scholar describes waiting period: Any fool can see evidence of sin in our world, but only through the eyes of faith can we begin to see signs of redemption. Psalm 130 plays within this space, standing in the black night of despair and scanning the horizon for the bare glow of hope.[7]
- Place of waiting for redemption … place of waiting for God – text: I hope, Lord. My whole being hopes, and I wait for God’s promise. My whole being waits for my Lord – more than the night watch waits for the morning; yes, more than the night watch waits for the morning![5]
- And this second scholar brings in an important element of this exploration of waiting, especially when it comes to waiting for God and waiting for salvation: the confession part.
- Not the part we like to talk about → confession requires not only internal recognition that we’ve screwed up but an outward acknowledgment of that sin
- Reminder that we find in this morning’s Ps = God already knows it all – text: If you kept track of my sins, Lord – my Lord, who would stand a chance?[8] → implies that, should God desire to do so, God could keep a laundry list of every misstep, the intentional ones as well as the unintentional ones → Is anyone else picturing those classic cartoons where the main character (Bugs Bunny, for instance) unrolls a scroll that’s so lengthy, it unrolls for miles? Yup. “If you kept track of my sins, Lord – my Lord, who would stand a chance?”
- Not the part we like to talk about → confession requires not only internal recognition that we’ve screwed up but an outward acknowledgment of that sin
- Good news woven in with the pleading and the confession and the waiting of this morning’s psalm: our God is a God of forgiveness, of steadfast and faithful love, of redemption … Our God is a God of hope.
- Hope = flipside of the waiting coin → It is undeniable that waiting can be excruciating, but the reason that we continue to wait – that we endure that uncertainty without giving up immediately – is because we have hope: hope for a good outcome, hope for joy, hope for life, hope for new opportunities and blessings. – text: I hope, Lord. My whole being hopes, and I wait for God’s promise.[9]
- “Waiting for God’s promises” = particularly poignant when we think about how this psalm was initially used – one of what scholars call the Psalms of Ascent – Nancy deClaissé-Walford (author and Old Testament scholar): These psalms are most likely songs that ancient Israelite pilgrims sang as they made their way to Jerusalem to celebrate a number of annual religious festivals, including Passover, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. Jerusalem sits on a hill; so no matter where one comes from, one “goes up” to Jerusalem. Imagine traveling from your village home, meeting up with others, joyously anticipating the festive time that you would celebrate together in the city of God. And you, the travelers, would perhaps sing as you went along: well-loved, well-known traditional songs. And as one group met another, they mingled their voices and sang together.[10] → Picture that for a moment. The main road to Jerusalem was wide and heavily traveled. Every time a smaller road fed into that main road, more and more pilgrims joined the throng making their way to the Holy City for one of the many festivals – one of the many sacred times set aside during the year for repentance, for confession, and for seeking God’s forgiveness. And as they walked, bearing the physical burdens of their travel supplies and the spiritual burdens of their darkest nights, they sang. “I cry out to you from the depths, Lord,” with every step. “My Lord, listen to my voice.” “Forgiveness is with you, Lord.” Step. “I hope, Lord.” Step. “My whole being hopes.” Step. “And I wait for God’s promise.” Step.
- One of the possible translations for that Heb. “hope” = … “wait” → In fact, “hope” is used twice in this sentence (at least, in the way it’s translated for the Common English Bible). The first way is the same word as before – the same word we used for “wait” earlier. But the second time – when the psalmist says, “My whole being hopes” – it’s a different word.
- Heb. “hope” = waiting/enduring interlaced with implications of hope
- One of the possible translations for that Heb. “hope” = … “wait” → In fact, “hope” is used twice in this sentence (at least, in the way it’s translated for the Common English Bible). The first way is the same word as before – the same word we used for “wait” earlier. But the second time – when the psalmist says, “My whole being hopes” – it’s a different word.
- “Waiting for God’s promises” = particularly poignant when we think about how this psalm was initially used – one of what scholars call the Psalms of Ascent – Nancy deClaissé-Walford (author and Old Testament scholar): These psalms are most likely songs that ancient Israelite pilgrims sang as they made their way to Jerusalem to celebrate a number of annual religious festivals, including Passover, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. Jerusalem sits on a hill; so no matter where one comes from, one “goes up” to Jerusalem. Imagine traveling from your village home, meeting up with others, joyously anticipating the festive time that you would celebrate together in the city of God. And you, the travelers, would perhaps sing as you went along: well-loved, well-known traditional songs. And as one group met another, they mingled their voices and sang together.[10] → Picture that for a moment. The main road to Jerusalem was wide and heavily traveled. Every time a smaller road fed into that main road, more and more pilgrims joined the throng making their way to the Holy City for one of the many festivals – one of the many sacred times set aside during the year for repentance, for confession, and for seeking God’s forgiveness. And as they walked, bearing the physical burdens of their travel supplies and the spiritual burdens of their darkest nights, they sang. “I cry out to you from the depths, Lord,” with every step. “My Lord, listen to my voice.” “Forgiveness is with you, Lord.” Step. “I hope, Lord.” Step. “My whole being hopes.” Step. “And I wait for God’s promise.” Step.
- And it’s on this note of hope and impending blessing … on this note of confidence and faith that God will indeed hear our cries and be with us in the midst of the dark nights of our waiting, that our psalm ends this morning. – text: Israel, wait for the Lord! Because faithful love is with the Lord; because great redemption is with our God! He is the one who will redeem Israel from its sin.[11]
- Heb. “wait” here (“Israel, wait for the Lord!”) = hope-waiting, not tense-waiting
- Reason for this hope-waiting = simple: GOD → More specifically, a confidence and faith in the steadfast love of God.
- Heb. “steadfast love” = one of my favorite Hebrew words → This is the Hebrew word hesed, and it’s a word rich with meaning. It’s a word used to imply loyalty, faithfulness, kindness, favor, and grace. In my admittedly-inexpert opinion, this is the Hebrew word that is the closest equivalent to that particular “love” word that Jesus uses so often throughout the New Testament – that agape love that encompasses love for the good of others. This is the love that God has for us. This is the love in which the psalmist has unwavering faith. This is the love that gets us through – through the waiting, through the rough patches and the bumps in the road, through the struggles and the darkest nights, through all our pilgrimages … the ones we choose, and, even more importantly, the ones we don’t. “I hope, Lord. My whole being hopes, and I wait for God’s promise. My whole being waits for my Lord.” Amen.
- Reason for this hope-waiting = simple: GOD → More specifically, a confidence and faith in the steadfast love of God.
- Heb. “wait” here (“Israel, wait for the Lord!”) = hope-waiting, not tense-waiting
- Hope = flipside of the waiting coin → It is undeniable that waiting can be excruciating, but the reason that we continue to wait – that we endure that uncertainty without giving up immediately – is because we have hope: hope for a good outcome, hope for joy, hope for life, hope for new opportunities and blessings. – text: I hope, Lord. My whole being hopes, and I wait for God’s promise.[9]
[1] J.R.R. Tolkien. The Two Towers. (United Kingdom: Allen & Unwin), 1954.
[2] Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. “The Waiting” from the album Hard Promises, released by Backstreet Records, May 5, 1981.
[3] Maggie Jackson. Uncertain: The Wisdom and Wonder of Being Unsure. (Guilford: Prometheus Books), 2023.
[4] Sean Illing. “Why we fear uncertainty – and why we shouldn’t” from Vox, https://www.vox.com/the-gray-area/2024/2/17/24046794/gray-area-joys-of-uncertainty-anxiety-maggie-jackson. Posted Feb. 17, 2024, accessed June 9, 2024.
[5] Ps 130:5-6.
[6] Elizabeth Webb. “Commentary on Psalm 130” from Working Preacher, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-10-2/commentary-on-psalm-130-10.
[7] Deborah Anne Meister. “Proper 5 (Sunday between June 5 and June 11 inclusive) – Psalm 130, Homiletical Perspective” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary – Year B, vol. 3. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), 105.
[8] Ps 130:3.
[9] Ps 130:5.
[10] Nancy deClaissé-Walford. “Commentary on Psalm 130” for Working Preacher, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/fifth-sunday-in-lent/commentary-on-psalm-130-7.
[11] Ps 130:7-8.
Fearfully and Wonderfully Made 