For the Glory

If it’s been a while since your congregation engaged with the psalms for an extended time, they may now be ready for the joyful, happy psalms. However, that’s not what this week (or the next) presents us. Far from victorious or jubilant, the first half of Psalm 79 reads like a list of social media headlines and nightly news reports, viscerally true reports of the chaos we humans create for ourselves and the worry that we will never find our way out of the harm we’ve done to ourselves. We have enough of this in our daily life. Can’t scripture give us a bit of a break, a quiet respite from the chaos surrounding us?

But keep reading. The complaints and the laments lead us to the simplest but often most meaningful prayer: Help us. This is the difference between the media and the Psalms. More often than not, social media, twenty-four-hour news, and current events podcasts tell us what’s going wrong. And we need that information when it comes from trusted sources. But the Psalms show us how to tell the truth about the world in the context of the truth about God. And the truth about God is that God shows up for us.

We can learn a lot from Psalm 79 about how to address the difficulties of our world in worship. We must tell the truth about the pain, suffering, and dysfunction in our communities, our nation, and the world. Worship is not an escape from the world but a place where we are edified and equipped to live as the people of God in the world. We must not stop at telling the truth about our world, because God’s truth has and will set us free from the chaos and pain that surrounds us. So, as you plan the prayers, rituals, songs, and proclamation for this Sunday, remind yourself and your congregation that God helps. Our hope and perseverance to continue in the face of all the world throws at us comes not from our strength or our faith in human leaders, but in our belief that God hears our cries, knows our pain, and actively loves and helps us through it all.