The children who attended Camp E.D.G.E. will remember that E.D.G.E. was an acronym - or ‘acorn’ as Sparks referred to it – a word whose letters were in turn the first letters of words which formed a phrase or sentence. Do you remember what E.D.G.E. stood for? It stood for Experiencing and discovering God everywhere, right? And the Greek word for fish, IKHTHUS, was the ‘acorn’ for the phrase JESUS CHRIST, GOD'S SON, SAVOUR. Well Psalm 111 is one of seven psalms found in the Bible that are ‘acorns’ of sorts, using every letter of the ancient Hebrew alphabet to create an acrostic pattern that says God’s laws cover life from A-Z.
Psalm 111 is also a song of thanksgiving that teaches gratitude should be the core attitude for every part of our lives - "from beginning to end.” In fact, the ancient Hebrew people often memorized this psalm so they could meditate on it’s truth day and night – as it contained everything a person needed to know to be successful in life.
Can you think of anything more important in living our lives than gratitude? Are you grateful to God for everything in your life? When the heart is grateful, it is opened – and when it is, other hearts are opened as well. And yet, much of the time, gratitude may be the farthest thing from our minds, crowded out or push aside by everything we have to deal with at work, at school, or at home. It is at those times, we need psalms like this to remind us of what is really important in life so that we once again center our lives on what really matters.
So, listen once again to Psalm 111– and, as you do, pick out a few phrases that for you anchor the notion of gratitude in the text and in our hearts.
1Praise the Lord! I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation.
2Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them.
3Full of honor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures forever.
4He has gained renown by his wonderful deeds; the Lord is gracious and merciful.
5He provides food for those who fear him; he is ever mindful of his covenant.
6He has shown his people the power of his works, in giving them the heritage of the nations.
7The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy.
8They are established forever and ever, to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness.
9He sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name.
10The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever.
For me, the two phrases that stand out are: (1) " I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart " (v. 1) and (2) " The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom " (v. 10).
I. The Psalmist thanks God with his whole heart.
This thought also occurs in another acrostic Psalm: "Happy are those who keep his decrees, who seek him with their whole heart" (119:2). It is a phrase that comes from Deuteronomy relating to both worship and the law of God. Its message is that, if the Lord scatters the people of Israel among the nations (i.e. the Exile), the way to reverse that dispersion is to "seek the Lord your God...with all your heart and soul" (4:29). Also the first commandment Moses gave to Israel was the Shema: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might" (6:5).
Our seeking God with our whole heart means that God fully engages us – and we become fully connected. It doesn't mean necessarily that we drop out of other activities, though it could - if just for a short time, but it does mean God is to be “part of the equation” no matter what we are involved in. And if that is the case, Scripture says, we won’t go unrewarded. We will find God (in what we are doing). (Deut. 4:29 and Jer. 29:12-13)
A story is told that soon after the death of the greatest rabbi in the world, a traveler said to one of his disciples, “Your rabbi and spiritual teacher was famous for his wisdom. What did he focus his life on the most?” The disciple thought a while and said: “To whatever he happened to be doing at the moment.”
Wisdom, in other words, is the gift of living the present to the fullest, and learning from the now whatever is needed to respond honestly to whatever the future holds. And yet sometimes this wisdom can be risky. In living like this - in the moment - there are blessings beyond description and imagination, but whenever you give your heart to God completely, or anyone else for that matter, you open yourself up to loss and perhaps even pain. The Psalmist challenges our hearts today to the expectation of both as we continue (or begin) to thank God with our whole heart.
II. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
In the Biblical concept of wisdom, gratitude and "study" provide its foundation. When it says that the "fear" of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, the Psalmist is not talking about being afraid of what God will do or backing away from God in fear. As Gerhard von Rad, the leading OT theologian of the last generation says, “the fear of the Lord is not a state of anxiety but includes both the experience of awe and the irresistible attraction to the graciousness of God.”
With God described as "awesome" in the previous verse, the proper response in verse 10 is to "fear the Lord." Today we might think of "fear" as something scary, something we want to get away from, or something that will harm us. Yet in this Psalm of gratitude, "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." It is a good thing; it is a positive aspect of our faith. Sr. Joan Chittister, in Wisdom: A Gift or a Task? writes, “Scripture maintains that “fear of the lord”—means holy astonishment, complete wonder and awe at what God does in my life and the life of everyone around me. Scripture says such (wisdom) is basic to life, fundamental to holiness, and full of unrelenting challenge.”
Nancy deClaissé-Walford, Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Languages at McAfee School of Theology (Atlanta, GA) helps us to better understand today’s Psalm when she writes, “The word "fear" (yara') appears in the Hebrew Bible as a synonym for "love" (Deuteronomy 10:12); "cling to" (Deuteronomy 10:20); and "serve" (Deuteronomy 6:13; Joshua 24:14). It is powerful in meaning,” she says, “but it has more to do with feelings of awesomeness. It is more about being in the presence of the holy other with cautious reverence than it is about the sweaty-palmed, shaking, gasping for breath kind of fear we often experience.”
So, it is a wise thing to praise God whole-heartedly, to love God completely, and to fear God totally - when fear means being overwhelmed by God’s gracious love. When we give thanks with our whole heart, when we "study" the works of God through worship, when we cultivate an "irresistible attraction to the grace of God," we truly become wise. And in our wisdom we are almost as infatuated with God as God is with us. That is good news. Praise be to God!
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