CELC The Seventh Sunday of Easter

The Seventh Sunday of Easter – May 23, 2004

Psalm 97

Instead of playing “Name that tune” and having Shari Shull play a few notes on the organ and you guess the tune, let’s play today, “When did you hear that Psalm?”

Do you remember the last time you heard Psalm 97? It is at the heart of our worship today. It is the Psalm appointed for the morning service on “The Nativity of Our Lord, Christmas Day.” The last time you worshipped on Christmas morning you used Psalm 97.

It is intriguing that it would show up again on the last Sunday in Easter. With “The Day of Pentecost” only a week away, we are aware that we are ending that period of the church year in which the life of our Lord Jesus is celebrated. Psalm 97 ‘book-ends’ the celebration of our Lord’s life. The Psalm is used at the incarnation moment, the birth of our Lord, and on the final Sunday that delights in the good news of his death and resurrection. You could say that Psalm 97 is the “alpha and omega” Psalm, the beginning and ending scripture piece celebrating the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus, our Lord.

Psalm 97 is certainly an appropriate Psalm to hold such a significant place in the church calendar. Recall the stirring words that open the Psalm and summarize it so well: “The Lord is king; let the earth rejoice.”

The great proclamation, “The Lord is king,” recalls the First Commandment, “You shall have no other gods.” Appropriately so, because the first five verses of Psalm 97 tell us of God being present. If the true God is present, then you don’t want to be hanging out with false gods.

When you are a tourist in Washington, D.C., there are folks who will take your picture standing next to a full-size cut-out picture of President Bush. Thus, with the White House in the background you look like you are being greeted by the President himself. It is trick photography.

The Psalmist lets you know that you don’t want to be seen with a full-size cut-out picture of a false god when the true God is in your midst.

Know that the foundations of God’s throne are righteousness and justice. Why would you want a cheap imitation? Know that God burns up the enemy with a fire. Why would you want to trust a dud of a god that has no fire? Know that God lights up the world with lightnings. Why settle for cheap false gods with meager fireworks?

Settling is what is often done, though. God comes in righteousness and justice and you settle for being nice. “Niceness” seems to be more fashionable, so we trade the true God for politeness.

Settling happens when you see God defeating the enemy, even evil itself, and you seek your own revenge on others, thinking it is adequate to do this. Revenge may taste good as you chew it, but it is bitter in your stomach.

Settling happens when God lights up the world in power and you are willing to let a few fireworks entertain you. God comes in the death and resurrection of Jesus, the One you know as the very “Light of the world” and you let a Fourth of July display distract you as it entertains you.

The great and good news of Easter is that the true God of the cross forgives you all the settling you do; all the false gods you chase. In fact the Psalm tells us that even the false gods that would entertain and distract you bow down before the true God, the God of the cross.

It is the true God that delivers you saints from the hand of the wicked. Yes, in Jesus, God has gone from cradle to cross to resurrected life to defeat even the wicked that would be your undoing.

Here is the true God that gives you courage each day by reigning as king of your life. Here is the true God that gives you hope for your future as Jesus calls you to enter his kingdom yet to come and to sit at his banquet table.

Why settle for the false gods of power, prestige, possessions and the like? While it is so tempting to pursue with passion the power, prestige and possessions of the world as though they are a god that can deliver you, the truth of Psalm 97 is that the God who delivers is the God of the cross.

What then, should you do? Psalm 97 tells you this: “…Let the earth rejoice!” You see joy and gladness are the response the psalmist suggests when you believe in the true God; the God of the cradle and the cross, who gives you, resurrected life in Jesus Christ.

Rejoice, then, and be glad. The Lord is king. Amen.

Pastor Robert F. Holley