Waiting and Singing

Second Sunday after Epiphany – Year A

January 19, 2014

Psalm 40:1-11

I waited patiently for God;
   who inclined to me and heard my cry.

God drew me up from the desolate pit,
   out of the miry bog,
God set my feet upon a rock,
   making my steps secure.

God put a new song in my mouth,
   a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
   and put their trust in God.

Happy are those who make God their trust,
   who do not turn to the proud,
     to those who go astray after false gods.

You have multiplied, O God my God,
   your wondrous deeds and your thoughts towards us;
none can compare with you.

Were I to proclaim and tell of them,
   they would be more than can be counted.

Sacrifice and offering you do not desire,
   but you have given me an open ear.
Burnt-offering and sin-offering
   you have not required.

Then I said, "Here I am;
   in the scroll of the book it is written of me.

I delight to do your will, O my God;
   your law is within my heart."

I have told the glad news of deliverance
   in the great congregation;
see, I have not restrained my lips,
   as you know, O God.

I have not hidden your saving help
   within my heart,
I have spoken of your faithfulness
  and your salvation;

I have not concealed your steadfast love
   and your faithfulness
I have not concealed them
   from the great congregation.

Do not, O God, withhold your mercy from me;
   let your steadfast love and your faithfulness
   keep me safe for ever.

It seems like one of the constants in life nowadays is waiting. Perhaps it's not just nowadays, maybe it was something that we've had to do since the Garden of Eden; and it's just something that seems more a part of our daily lives now. I don't know about you, but it seems like a spend a lot of time each and every day waiting. To be honest, I'm not sure I want to know how many minutes, perhaps hours I spend each day waiting.

I start my day waiting for the coffee to brew. I wait for the girls to come downstairs. I wait for them to make up their minds about breakfast. I wait for them to finish getting dressed and ready for school. I wait for the dog to be done outside so I can let him back in. I wait for the lights to change at intersections. I wait in line at the store. I wait for the girls after school. I wait for dinner to be done. I wait for bedtime to come, so the girls will go to bed. And that's just in a normal day.

Many times there will be other things happening that require waiting. Waiting for food at a restaurant. Waiting for the doctor to come into the room. Waiting for them to finish fixing the car. Waiting for the meeting to begin. Waiting for the meeting to end. Waiting in line at the driver's license office. Waiting in line at the movie theater. If you go on vacation to a destination of some kind, you will likely be in a line of some kind. Lines at the gate of an amusement park. Lines to get on a ride. Lines and waiting seem to be something that we can't escape.

I've noticed there are times when waiting is really, really annoying. But, there are times when waiting is hardly even noticed. I once stood in line for 3 hours, and barely noticed because I was engrossed in a really great conversation with the people I was with. I've waited for an hour in line at an amusement park, waiting to spend 2 minutes on a ride; and it was totally worth it. But, there are times when I've waited for 2 minutes for an hour-long event that was totally not worth it. It seems to me that our willingness to wait, is directly related to how much worth we place on what we are waiting for. The more valuable, the more willing we are to wait; the less valuable, the more impatient we become.

Our Psalm this morning is about waiting, and the rewards of waiting. As we read the words, we discover the story of someone who had been in trouble, in turmoil, in distress; someone who cried out to God for deliverance and their response to God's action.

As we read through the Psalm, as we listen to the accounting of the events of the Psalmist's life there are three specific things we can discover about waiting for God, about crying out to God: God is listening, God responds, and God inspires us to respond.

Most of the time it seems like lots of people are talking, but not that many people are listening. Day after day, we post something on Facebook and wait for someone to respond, for someone to have “listened” to what we have to say – often with little or no response. Even with some of our closest friends it may seem as if we are having two one-sided conversations at the same time; we are talking about what we want, they they are talking about what they want. Lots of talking, not a whole lot of listening. And then, we're surprised to learn they are sick, that they're moving.

Listening is important. The German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer stated that the first service we owe to others is to listen to them. If we fail to listen, there are spiritual consequences because as he says,"...he who can no longer listen to his brother will soon be no longer listening to God either.' "1

The good news is that God is listening to us. Whether we are enjoying good times or languishing in tough times - the affirmation of the scripture is that God is paying attention to the details of our living, and listening to our laughter and our cries.

But God does more than just pay attention to us, listen to us. God responds to our need, God guides us. In faith, when we cry out to God, God listens and responds. As the Psalmist says, "He drew me up from the desolate pit, set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure." God responds to our need. Not only does God come to our need in the moment, but when we learn to trust in God's ways, when we learn to be patient, God will guide our ways, guide our comings and our goings in such a way that we are secure. It's not that we will be free of turmoil, that we will have lives of ease. It's that when we wait on the Lord, when we are patient and trust in God, we discover that much of what we are worried about isn't really worth worrying about. Trusting in God automatically reduces the level of worry we have about life, our lives feel more at ease, more secure. God sets us free from the desolate pits. Then, in response to God's actions in our lives we give thanks. A new song of praise explodes out of our being. A song of thanksgiving.

I have this tendency that when I get excited about something, I can't help but talk about it; I want to share my new discovery with others. Maybe it's a new book that I found moving. Maybe it's a movie I just saw. Maybe it's a piece of trivia or a recipe. When I have found something, discovered something, experienced something I found to be valuable, to be life-changing I want to tell others about it.

This is what the Psalmist is saying. God has heard. God has responded to his cries. God has done wonderful, powerful, life-changing things in their life, and they want others to know. They have shared the stories of God's deliverance with the people they meet. As the gospel song says, “How can I keep from singing?”

All of us have different things that spring to mind when it comes to scripture readings. For me, this Psalm causes me to hum a song, a song by U2 called 40. It's words are taken directly from this Psalm. It was wonderful as I prepared this week to see that I was not the only one who thought of the song when reading the Psalm. One of the commentators shared a story about the power of the song I want to share with you.

“In the spring of 1985, U2's The Unforgettable Fire tour stopped in Hartford, Connecticut.” “The final encore of the evening was '40,'” As the band left the stage one by one, the enthusiastic crowd continued the songs refrain: “I will sing, sing a new song.” Even as the crowd poured out of the stadium, huge bands of fans carried the tune onto the city streets: “I will sing, sing a new song.”2

God has done wonderful things for us. God has rescued us from the pit of sin, from the bog of pointless life. God has placed our feet upon a secure path, a way of living that reflects God's love and desires for us. How can we keep from singing?

As a lover of music, one of the things I often find myself doing is humming a song. Sometimes it's a song that just springs into my mind for no apparent reason, sometimes it's something I heard on the radio recently, but often it's the result of hearing another person singing or humming it. A good song, is sort of like a yawn: it's contagious. And the song that God inspires within us to sing is also contagious. We sing because we have heard the songs of others, and others will be inspired to sing when they hear our songs of praise, when they hear our declarations of God's acts of love and faithfulness in our lives.

May we follow the example of the Psalmist and wait patiently on the Lord, and then share with others the powerful stories of God's deliverance and love. Amen.

1   p. 97, Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, Life Together. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, Inc., 1954

2  p. 249 Feasting on the Word, Year A volume 1, edited by David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, WJK press, 2010