God's Steadfast Love

Text: Psalms 25:1-10

Focus: God's love and Protection

Function: To help people see the value in developing a relationship with God.

Form: Story Telling

Intro:

30 years ago, we used to sing this Psalm as a praise chorus. We sang it from the King James Translation: (SING) Unto Thee, O Lord, Do I lift up my soul (repeat), Oh my God, I trust in Thee, let me not be ashamed, let not my enemies triumph over me.

I was a new Christian, and as I mentioned last week, I was also recovering from a pretty traumatic event in my life.

And for some reason, this Psalm, and the thought, the prayer, with the confession of trust in God, “Let me not be shamed” resonated, -resonates- with the needs of my soul.

I go through this Psalm and it almost seems as if every line is my favorite one.

Let us start with his confession:

“Oh My God, in You I trust.”

There is something wonderful in prayer when we enter into the personal, when we enter into the loving bond with God.

“My God.”

I heard someone once question the meaning of that phrase: “My God.”

The question was this: “when, or if, you say `My God,' does that mean that you are claiming an exclusive right to God? If God is your God, then is God my God as well? Whose God is it?”

I loved her question.

In one sense, she was pointing out to me what felt to her like arrogance on my part. She was pointing out what felt to her like I was involved in some sort of exclusive faith that was limited to only a privileged sect.

I loved the sincerity with which she asked that question.

Like the rest of the world, we are all on some sort of journey.

She was exploring. She was contemplating for herself her own spiritual journey.

She was wrestling with some of the claims of Christianity and its relationship to the rest of the world, both as a corporate religion and as an individual faith.

We have to be careful in sharing the good news. 1 Peter 3:15 tells us to give an accounting of the hope that is within us with gentleness and respect.

Did my claim to God project “Gentleness and respect?”

I hope so. Or at least it appeared that way by the end of the conversation.

And the rest of that phrase, in one very clear sense, gives us what it means to be a believer.

“Oh my God, in you I trust.”

Simply put, a believer is one who places his or her trust in God.

I think at times that my confidence in God has led me to some arrogance. Or, perhaps it has led me to a lack of understanding of where other people are.

To me, in one sense, living by faith in Jesus feels like a privilege.

When I behold the beauty of creation, when I hold my darling grand daughter and see her smile at me, when I hear beautiful music, when Kathy and I are reunited after being apart for a couple of days and I feel the joy of her embrace, when I contemplate the initial successes of the civil rights marches which followed the teachings of Jesus, I realize that the God who is the progenitor of all of that is the God that I trust, the God I call “my God” and I realize that it does feed me with a sort of sense that of privilege.

Walking with God is a wonderful thing.

So, enjoy the meaning of faith, but don't be arrogant about it.

And then, the Psalmist says this in his prayer: “let me not be ashamed.”

I pray that often: “God, deliver me from shame.”

I hate shame, and I am sure that God does as well.

One rather moderate Brethren minister, a sort of mentor of mine, used to drill this idea into my head: “Shame is never from God. Shame is Satanic.”

I never asked him if he actually believed in a literal devil, or if the devil was a symbol of evil.

That belief didn't make a difference to his point.

His point was God's steadfast love.

And shame has no part in it.

Shame, he said to me, has no part in preaching the good news.

My favorite Seminary prof took us through three classes in Spiritual formation.

He was profound.

He asked us to do this exercise.

He said: “Close your eyes and imagine your worse sin, your worse moment. Imagine the one place, or the places, that if others found out about, you would be terrified. Imagine that place or act that would mortify you if your mother, or your pastor discovered.”

Then, he said, “sit there in that place a moment. And now, Imagine Jesus coming to you at this place.”

(pause)

It was a very real experience.

And do you know what?

When Jesus came into the place, I felt no shame.

Instead, I actually pictured Jesus with His arms open. He just folded me up in His arms and held me.

Then the prof said: “at the place of our weakness, at the place of our greatest weakness, at the place that we are tempted to be the most ashamed about, at the place where we experience the messiness and brokenness that is this world”, “That.” He said, “that is the place that Jesus loves us the most.”

The great Social Justice Christian and author, Tony Compolo was once preaching about his deliverance from a shame based faith to one of grace.

He said, “when I was a youth, we weren't allowed to go to movies.

“We would hear this statement: `What would you do if you were in a movie and Jesus returned? What would you do?'

And Tony said this, after he finally understood the meaning of grace, he said: “When someone is shouting a sort of shame was yelling at me, `what would you do?” I guess I wouldn't get to see the end of the movie.”

God's grace covers us. We cannot be perfect. And the sacrifice of Good Friday happened just because of that.

Because of Grace and God's steadfast love, at the place of our greatest shame, or temptation to shame, that is the place where God loves us the most.

As I thought about this professor's exercise I realized something that was profound to me:
“there is no hiding my worse thoughts from God, God knows them anyway... and God still loves me.”

This is the first Sunday in Lent.

During Lent, we take a significant amount of time to do soul searching and contemplation before God.

In light of the cost that Jesus paid on the cross to show us how to live, forgive and to restore humanity -all of humanity- we pray and fast.

It is a good spiritual discipline.

Let us do it in full confidence of the steadfast love of God.