Song for the Summertime
“Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the
earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into His presence with singing! Know
that the Lord, He is God! It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His
people, and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His
courts with praise! Give thanks to Him; bless His name! For the Lord is good; His
steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations” (Psalm
100).
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and
the Lord Jesus Christ!
You’ve surely heard of how early Christians
were tortured and threatened. Those threats posed a temptation for them to give
up on Christ. You may know stories of personal rejection and humiliation that
others less famous faced because of their faith, which created painful pressure
for them too. Today there are folks like Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece
Cakeshop; Baronelle Stutzman, owner of Arlene’s Flowers; and Kimberly Davis,
the former county clerk of Rowan County, Kentucky, each of whom have been
harassed and taken to court numerous times due to their refusal to participate
in recognizing same-sex marriages that go again their consciences because of
their Christian faith. And there’s a good chance that you and I are going to
experience some of that same kind of opposition ourselves.
But there are other forces that can tempt and
pull us away from God’s Word, our worship, and our Savior. Sometimes our
pressures are all the more seductive because they aren’t evil in and of
themselves. One of them is with us right now. It’s called summertime.
A friend of ours, the ancient psalm writer, has
a news flash for all of us today. Even in the midst of summertime distractions,
it’s always time for thanksgiving and praise. “Make a joyful noise to the Lord,
all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into His presence with
singing!” (Exodus 100:1-2).
This day calls for a song that’s bold, loud,
and immediate! This day calls for you to gather with others and to sing in the
assembly of God’s people. This day calls for you to invite others to sing too.
If the words of this psalm sound a little too bright
and cheery, don’t get the idea that God is ignorant of the pulls that might
keep you from praising Him strongly. The other Scripture readings you just
heard today are honest about the pressures believers face. To be sure, you can
always find reasons not to sing
The writer of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon,
reminds us that the burdens and seeming senselessness of life can wear you down
(2:18-26). Here is man who “had it all,”
if ever there was one: wisdom, women, wealth,. Solomon was a renaissance man
long before the renaissance: philosopher and theologian, poet and patron of the
arts, architect and builder, scientist and statesman, lover and king, tycoon and
teacher. But none of these accomplishments brought him satisfaction or meaning,
causing Solomon to write: “I hated life, because what is done under the sun was
grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind” (Ecclesiastes
2:17).
Solomon’s words, “I hated life,” brings to mind
Christ’s statement, “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his
life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (John 12:25). Solomon describes
himself as a weary embittered worldling. Christ speaks of the man of faith who
overcomes this dying, sinful world by clinging to that which is eternal. Yet
the two are not so far apart as they might at first appear. The person whose
heart is filled with despair and hatred of his earthly life is often ripe for
the good news of Christ and His victorious love.
Four times in this short section, King Solomon
uses the term “vanity.” Solomon is emphasizing that without God all human
effort in meaningless. Reliance to human effort leads to despair. Initially,
Solomon’s achievements brought him some happiness (Ecclesiastes 2:10). But as
he gives them more thought, he becomes agitated and despondent.
As if obsessed with the thought, the Teacher
repeats the fact that the wealth of an industrious man often falls into the hands
of a good-for-nothing. It’s one of the things that make life so unfair. Not
only does a person struggle and sweat for a lifetime, but he goes down to the
grave without any guarantee that what he leaves behind will be appreciated or
used wisely. Solomon’s question, “What has a man from all the toil and striving
of heart?” fits right in with these thoughts.
To complete the picture, Solomon describes the workingman’s
daytime efforts and nighttime restlessness. What he describes is not an overly
pessimistic view of work but life as it is actually lived. Though written
centuries ago by a Jewish king, it could have been written yesterday by an American
businessman.
Having examined wisdom, foolishness, pleasure,
achievements, and everything else under the sun, Solomon found it all wanting,
meaningless, vanity.
The drive to get the most out of life’s wealth
can also turn you from God (Luke 12:17-21). A most serious temptation is to
become attached to money and worldly possessions. In our Gospel, Jesus takes
the opportunity to warn against greed and covetousness when someone from the
crowd makes this request of Him: “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the
inheritance with me.”
Jesus refuses to be drawn into this dispute
between brothers, just as He did not intervene when Martha wanted His support
to get her sister’s help in our Gospel from a couple of weeks ago. Rather,
Jesus uses this request to warn against the underlying problem: greed.
So easily people imagine that the worth of life
is measured by the abundance of possessions. Both rich and poor can easily fall
into this trap. No wonder the author of Proverbs prays: “Give me neither
poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be
full and deny You and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ or lest I be poor and steal and
profane the name of my God” (30:8-9). Disciples of Jesus need to be especially
on guard against this sin of greed and covetousness.
To illustrate His point, Jesus tells a parable.
A rich man had an abundance of possessions. His barns quickly became too small
to hold all the grain his fields produced. He had larger ones built. He had no
worries about the future as he looked forward to a retirement filled with
leisure and good time.
But the rich man had not taken one important thing
into consideration—God and His judgment! He thought he was all prepared for the
future, but he forgot about eternity. He was unprepared when God’s summons came.
Far from being wise, he was an utter fool. For the sake of earthly gain, he forfeited
his soul.
Obsession with money can crowd God’s ways out
of our hearts. That is why Jesus warns so sternly against covetousness. Luther
writes in the Large Catechism: “This is the most common idol on earth. He who
has money and possessions feels secure [Luke 12:16-21] and is joyful and
undismayed as though he were sitting in the midst of Paradise. On the other
hand, he who has no money doubts and is despondent, as though he knew of no God”
(LC 1 7-8).
Jesus underlines the danger of being rich in
earthly things but poor toward God. In a consumer culture, the dangers of
covetousness are often downplayed; in fact, some make greed a virtue. In love
for us, however, Jesus warns us against the self-destructive nature of
covetousness and gives us new hearts, which He, the very source of life and
goodness, fills with joyful satisfaction through the Gospel.
To be rich toward God is to believe that God is
the Giver of all things, including life and salvation. To show that one
believes is to share with others the gifts God gives. This is the consistent
teaching of Jesus in His various words about possessions. Behind it is the Gospel
of grace: forgiveness is bestowed as God’s free gift in Jesus Christ. Yet a
time of accountability will come when God will ask whether His free gift of
forgiveness was appropriated through faith or was abused by the arrogant
assumption that God’s gifts were personal possessions earned by one’s own
efforts and therefore at one’s disposal to hoard or waste foolishly.
For the sinner, God’s gifts are easily
corrupted and exploited for pleasure, rather than being used for the good of
our neighbor and the glory of God. Such is the subtle seduction of summertime. Even
innocent things, such as summer travel, visits with loved ones, and the desire
to get away from work routines, can keep you from thanksgiving and praise of
the Lord. Think of your own life, how easily such things can begin to
overwhelm, even dominate your calendar, until you find you have little time for
worship and the study and hearing of God’s Word.
Yes, if you and I look at ourselves, our life,
our pulls and pressures, it’s easy to rationalize and justify neglecting
intense and continual praise of the Lord. The old psalm writer moves all of
that aside. He explains that the Lord Himself is your reason to praise. He
tells you who He is: Yahweh, the God of the psalmist and the Father of Jesus
Christ. He is the Lord of all the earth, the one who created the times and
seasons for our comfort and pleasure, who gives you the summer sunshine, the
family and friends you like to gather with, who made all those beautiful places
you visit these lazy days. And this great Creator we know, for He Himself came
into this world and share it with us!
The Lord of the earth made you, He knows you,
and He provides for all your needs in this life (Psalm 100:3; Jeremiah 1:5).
The time away to rest and recharge, those friends and family you’re enjoying
this summer, and the means to pay for your trip are all gifts from Him. The
protection as you travel through the air or on busy highways is by His hand.
Like a shepherd, He also sacrifices for you and
redeems you (Psalm 100:3; John
10:11-15). We are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. He is our
Shepherd, our Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep, only to take
it up again. Every blessing—including all these of summer—is a result of our
being reconciled to God by the cross of Jesus. And, of course, the
reconciliation of the cross brings endless summer!
Our distracted life in the summertime in this
affluent land is a real faith test, isn’t it? Like all tests, it carries with
it the risk that we could stumble and fall. And sometimes we do. But our
steadfast Lord is faithful even when we are faithless. He forgives us and
renews us. And under God, it can be one of those tests that is almost like
doing spiritual push-ups. In other words, it can be a hurdle that makes us
stronger and more devoted than we were before. God gives us grace to come into
His presence often—whether at home or away on vacation, to crawl into the words
of Psalm 100, to make them our own, and to shout our praise to the Lord, whose mercy
and kindness never ends!
“Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the
earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into His presence with singing! Know
that the Lord, He is God! It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His
people, and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His
courts with praise! Give thanks to Him; bless His name! For the Lord is good; His
steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations” (Psalm
100).
For His sake, you are forgiven for all of your
sins!
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit. Amen
Unless
otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, English
Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of
Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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