Rev. George Miller
March 4, 2018
Psalm 19
A few days ago I saw a TV show that captured my attention, called “Blue Planet II” on BBC America.
This particular episode showed how kelp, algae, and plankton play a part in the life of the ocean, and therefore the world.
There was one scene that featured a purple octopus that creeps out from under a rock to catch a passing crab.
No big deal, nothing we have not seen before on a nature documentary until a pajama shark comes along and grabs the octopus.
It seems for certain the purple fellow is going to be dinner, until he uses his tentacles to go into the shark’s mouth and through its gills, preventing it from breathing.
The shark spits out the octopus who then does something never observed before- the vulnerable mollusk, stuck out in the open with no place to hide, uses its 8 arms to gather as many shells, stones and rocks around it to create its own camouflage fortress, tricking the shark until it can get away.
Though this scene was heart-racing to watch, perhaps more interesting was the “Making-of” feature that followed.
Turns out that filming that scene was six years in the making.
It began with a guy named Craig who went snorkeling off the coast of South Africa. For six years he was in that water and he got to know the various octopi that lived there.
He claimed that each octopus had its own personality and level of curiosity, and eventually he found this purple fellow who not only was comfortable around him, but seemed to enjoy performing for the camera.
So after weeks of having the film crew with Craig and the octopus, they were able to catch this moment of crab catching, shark suffocating and shell shenanigans.
All made possible because of the relationship that had been created between this man and this mollusk.
A relationship that allowed the world to be a seen in a newer, deeper way.
Though today’s scripture does not feature an octopus, a crab, or a shark, it is a song that sings about relationship; it is a song that sings about creation.
Psalm 19 starts in the heavens, looking upon all there is like the lens of a documentary camera.
It notes how it appears that the natural world praises God. That even though our ears cannot hear it, the skies, the ground, the day, the night are all saying “Hallelujah” to the Lord.
That this is a relationship beyond space and time in which even something as enormous as the sun seems to emerge with the knowledge of God’s love and glory.
The psalm then takes this cosmic sense of relationship with God and brings it a little bit closer.
It talks about the laws God has given. It talks about the precepts and decrees, the commandments and rules.
But if you note, there is no sense of these laws being used as tentacles to suffocate our souls; there is no sense of these precepts being used as a way to camouflage and keep God away.
Instead, what we get is this relational sense that God is using this wisdom to make life as rich and full as possible.
Words that bring to mind the benefits of the sun shine forth in these passages- to revive the soul, to enlighten the eyes, and to rejoice the heart.
By using images of honeycomb and precious metal, the psalmist assures us that the kind of relationship our Creator wants with us is a relationship that is pure, a relationship that is sweet, and a relationship that empowers us to live golden.
Finally, after starting in the heavens and speaking about the Law, the singer makes it most personal, by bringing everything down to us: you and me.
The singer says to God, on our behalf:
Keep me safe, keep me blameless, clear me from my mistakes, clear me from my rebellious past, and clear me from my guilty, guilty ways.
This Psalm is a song for the soul, because it speaks about the relational way in which God interacts with creation, the way in which God interacts with the world, and the ways in which God interacts with the individual.
I think that sometimes we forget about this truly relational nature that God has with everything and with everybody.
I think that sometimes it is easy for us to become fragmented in our own faith.
There at times in which we only think God is “out there”. We feel we can only experience God in a sunrise or a sunset, or God can only be heard in the song of a bird or seen in the leaves of a tree.
That we can mistake the created for the Creator.
There are other times in which folk only think God exists in here- the pages of the Bible, in which God boils down to what you must or must not do,
In which religion is all about rules and rituals, with only a right or wrong way and no chance of an in-between or the possibility that God is still speaking.
There are others who think God only exists in the act of forgiveness, that we are all wretched, wretched beings who need to be constantly forgiven, constantly reminded of their sin, and constantly washed in the blood of a Savior who died for us.
But this psalm, this psalm, finds its own unique way to say God is simpler than you can imagine AND God is more complicated than you know,
God is more mysterious than we can ever think AND YET God is more personal than the things we try to hide.
This is a song that celebrates the relationship we all have with our Creator, from the skies to the sun, from the land to the law, from the servant to our self.
We are each unique. We are each greater than ourselves. We are all a part of the whole.
God intimately knows who we are. God knows each of our own personalities and quirks.
God is always engaging with us, ready to do something new, and ready to see how we are going to act, how we are going to engage, and how we are each going to be golden in our own ways.
For that, we can say, amen.
A UCC Pastor's walk through the spiritual waters of Scripture, pop culture and life.
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