Today\u2019s psalm, Psalm 119, gives us 176 ways to say the same thing: \u201cHappy are those who walk in the way of the Lord,\u201d and \u201cOh, how I love your law!\u201d and \u201cAll the day long, it is in my mind.\u201d At 176 verses, it is the longest of all psalms. It consists of 22 eight-line stanzas, each stanza beginning with a sequential letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It is an astonishing exercise in puzzle working, poetry, and praise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Psalm 119 calls for the kind of continued learning Paul commends in his letter to Timothy. As a subject of our recitation and meditation, it offers an entrance into a life of continued, endless prayer. So Jesus tells a story to underscore our need to pray always and not lose heart. It is what Paul elsewhere commends: \u201cpray without ceasing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And note the forceful summary by Jesus: for those chosen ones who pray day and night, justice shall come and come quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Are we even aware of this linkage? That our prayers are to be linked to justice?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Don\u2019t we often tend to be rather selfish in our prayers? We would always like immediate results \u2013 but would like those results to be centered on what we want rather than what we need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And what Jesus says we need is to pray always and not to lose heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is no better place to begin to pray always than with Psalm 119. One hundred and seventy-six verses reminding us to have Torah, God\u2019s law, in our minds all day long. The word \u201cTorah\u201d or one of its synonyms appears in almost every one of the 176 verses: Torah, law decrees, precepts, statutes, commandments, ordinances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A rabbi was once asked, \u201cWhat does a rabbi do?\u201d He replied, \u201cA rabbi is to lead God\u2019s people to study Torah so that one day everyone will know Torah. On that day when everyone knows Torah, everyone will be a rabbi so that there will no longer be any need for rabbis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the dream of God as revealed to the prophet Jeremiah, \u201cI will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.\u201d God wants us to become experts in loving the law and living the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We in the church tend to suffer grave misunderstandings about this word law. These misunderstandings come from misreading of Paul, compounded by particular Christian theologians throughout the ages. The word \u201claw\u201d sounds static with the sole purpose of convicting us of sin and misdoings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whereas a regular reading of all 176 verses of Psalm 119 would reveal a much richer range of meaning. The \u201claw\u201d is a treasure, a gift, really, that makes one wise and happy. The psalm is written in the first-person narrative voice, making the words of the psalm personal, words that belong to us, words that are given by God to be ours. Torah is not a static set of rules, but a map that provides a personal way of life, a guiding force, a pathway from which it is all too easy to stray but is sweeter than all alternative paths available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At its core, Psalm 119 as a source of our daily prayer and meditation directs us to endlessly reflect on the Decalogue \u2013 the fancy theological name for the Ten Commandments. The first \u201ctable\u201d or \u201ctablet\u201d of the Ten Commandments focuses on our love of God; the second \u201ctable\u201d or \u201ctablet\u201d focuses on our love of neighbor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus spent much of his time discussing the law, Torah, with any and all persons he could. Jesus demonstrates that continual focus, discussion, and meditation on God\u2019s law is what leads one in the way of life that is really life, and offers justice for all people. Torah, as understood at the time of Jesus, was a continual unfolding of God\u2019s will, new each day, new in each age. Torah, or law, was not confining, but empowering, and necessary to being God\u2019s people in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And meditating on the law day and night, as Jesus lives and instructs us to do ourselves, reminds us of our God-given responsibilities to love and care for our neighbors, especially those in greatest need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It turns out God does have a plan to care for those in greatest need: we are that plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How wonderful it would be if all of us, every day, would read all of Psalm 119. How might the world be different if our love of God\u2019s law was something we treasured in our hearts all day long? For Jesus this is faith: Torah in action every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This sermon was written by the Rev. Kirk Alan Kubicek<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today\u2019s psalm, Psalm 119, gives us 176 ways to say the same thing: \u201cHappy are those who walk in the way of the Lord,\u201d and \u201cOh, how I love your law!\u201d and \u201cAll the day long, it is in my mind.\u201d At 176 verses, it is the longest of all psalms. It consists of 22…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":201212,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[33,3],"tags":[357],"class_list":["post-511041","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-season-after-pentecost","category-worship-and-prayer-menu","tag-proper-24c"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":33,"label":"The Season After Pentecost"},{"value":3,"label":"worship_and_prayer_menu"}],"post_tag":[{"value":357,"label":"Proper 24C"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":[],"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/511041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/sermon"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/511041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3478590,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/511041\/revisions\/3478590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}