Lent 2, Year A
Psalm 121
Like many of you, I
have a newsfeed option that pops up on my phone. Lately, especially because of the primaries,
I have gotten in that very bad habit of checking it as soon as I wake up. I
tell myself I am only checking the weather, but then I find myself scrolling
through the trending news stories before I even get out of bed. The problem with this habit, is the news is
rarely good news. It’s usually dismal
and slightly terrifying. It’s just not a
good way to start the day. It’s been
even worse lately because the majority of the stories are about the
coronavirus. I mean, how many articles
can you have about how important it is to wash your hands? So many…. I’ve read
about how to prepare. I have read about
recent outbreaks. I have read about what regular doctors are saying, what our
national leaders are saying, even what foods to have on hand when stockpiling
for a quarantine. And this isn’t me
searching for articles. These are just
popping up, because they are trending…which means that everyone else is reading
them and therefore I too must read them.
It is maddening.
While
this virus is scary, a lot of news has been scary recently. I am not sure if life is more scary now than
it was 20 years ago, or it’s simply that the 24 hour news cycle and multiple
ways that we have access to news, is making us more aware of all the terrifying
things happening in the world. But
here’s the thing about so much of the crazy stuff going on right now-- there is
not much we can do about most of it. I
am not saying that we should just sit back and let the world descend into
chaos. There are all kinds of places
where we can take action—where we can make our world better. But for some things, well a lot of things,
there isn’t much we can do, except pray.
At some point, when you are feeling anxious or worried, make a list of
all that you are worried about. Then put
a mark next to the things you have absolutely no control over. My guess is that
the majority of the things you are worrying about are things you can’t control.
That
can be both comforting and frightening. For
instance, let’s consider traveling. If
you are flying somewhere and you want to make sure you arrive safely, there are
a few things you can do. You can arrive
at the airport in plenty of time. You
can make sure you have everything you need for the flight. You can fasten your
seat belt and read the safety brochure.
But you can do nothing about the pilot, or the plane, or the
weather. Once you get yourself buckled
in, all you can really do is pray. And
that’s where the psalms come in. The psalms are wonderful tools for prayer.
Psalm 121 is referred
to as a Psalm of Ascent. Biblical
scholars believe it was written for people traveling or even going on pilgrimage. In the time when this psalm was written,
people were not worried about planes falling out of the sky. But traveling was still a very dangerous
thing. There were animals that could
attack. You could get lost. You could be robbed or killed. You could get
stuck in a horrible storm. You could run out of food or water. Of course, there were things you could do to
prepare, but there was so much that was unknown. Because of the fear of the unknown and their faith
in an all knowing God, the Hebrew people prayed before and during a journey. When the journey was over and they had
returned safely, they gave thanks.
The
psalm begins with “I lift up my eyes to the hills; from where is my help to
come?” When I have read or heard this psalm, I have imagined someone looking
heavenward. Isn’t that where we imagine
God? We imagine God in heaven, looking
down on us. That might be what this
psalm meant. But it’s also possible that
it was warning people about looking for help in the wrong places. Much like today, the world then was full of
false gods, false assurances of safety and control. There was the God of the Hebrew people, the
God who we pray to. Then there were the
other gods. The Sun god, the fertility god,
the god for good crops. These were the
gods that people turned to in weaker moments, moments when it was tempting to
forget the one true God. These gods
lived in the high places. Altars were placed on these high places so people
could worship them.
Thus when the psalm
says, “I lift my eyes up to the hills…” it was imagining people in their time
of need looking up to these false gods.
Now we might wonder, why look to a false god when they had the one true
God? Because the false gods were easier.
They were easier to conceptualize, easier to encapsulate. They had human
attributes and human expectations because they were created by and for
humans. The one true God is a lot more
mysterious, more difficult to understand.
While
we are wise enough now to know that there are no moon gods, sun gods, or
fertility gods resting on our hills, we still find false gods to cling to. We
find them in our politicians, the Hollywood stars, the newsfeed on our phone,
and even---ourselves. When we are in
trouble--when we need help and direction, it’s astounding how many places we
can turn to before we turn to God. So
often, God is the last place we turn to, when all else has failed. “From where
is my help to come? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.” It doesn’t say that our help comes from
earth, or even heaven. Our help comes from the one who made heaven and
earth. Our help comes from the creator
of all the places we turn to first.
Psalm
121 is a pilgrim’s prayer. It is a
prayer for people who are on a journey. We are in the season of Lent, a season
that leads to another hill, not one of the high places where altars to false
gods are placed, but Golgotha, the hill where Jesus was crucified. That is where our journey leads. Because it is the season that leads us to the
cross, perhaps we can bypass the false gods of worry and fear and instead place
our fears and concerns at the foot of the cross. I am not saying all problems will go away and
you will be free from all stress, but your heart might feel a little lighter.
It’s all about
perspective. When you stand at the cross
and you look up to see our God suffering for us, then sometimes our concerns
and fears seem more manageable, not because they are any less of a concern, but
because if we look close enough, we will see that they are already hanging
there on the cross. Jesus died carrying
our burdens so that we could be free to worship him, free to serve him, free to
look to him when we are in need. Remember the journey never ends at the cross. It always ends with the resurrection.
