Foundry United
Rev.
“Is Hope Hopeless”
Sunday, October 23,
2011
Rev.
Hope in Trouble
Psalm 31:21-24
If you take just about any Bible and open it up in the middle you will find the Book of Psalms.
How many know that the Book of Psalms was Israel's hymnal? The Psalms are the words to songs and hymns and chants that were sung during temple worship in Jerusalem in ancient Israel.
There are two kinds of psalms in the Book of Psalms. There are choral psalms, sung by great choirs. And then there are solos -- psalms for one voice.
The choral psalms tend to be communal. They speak for the people as a whole.
The solo psalms tend to be personal. They express the personal experience of the individual. For this reason they are often more existential, more intimate, and sometimes more disturbing.
We want to pay attention this morning to Psalm 31, which is a solo psalm. The reason we selected this particular psalm is because it ends with the words: "Be strong, be courageous, all you who hope in the Lord." (Good News translation) That's the Good News Today's English version translation.
We are doing a series of teachings about hope that Dawn began last Sunday. And we want to look at Psalm 31 because it ends with the words "Be strong, be courageous, all you who hope in the Lord."
The psalm-writer who wrote Psalm 31 had trouble in his or her life. First of all, he or she had enemies. He or she had adversaries. The psalm does not say who the enemies and adversaries were. The psalm does not even say whether they were people or things. They could have been people – military enemies or political opponents or business competitors or family or bill collectors or lawyers. Or they could have been things: spiritual forces or health challenges or a psychological condition or a disease or an addiction.
The psalm does not tell us who or what the enemies and adversaries are. It just makes it clear that the psalm-writer was convinced that someone or something was out to get him or her.
In fact, the psalm-writer sounds almost paranoid. He or she sings: "Take me out of the net that is hidden for me." (Ps 31:4)
They used to catch wild animals by hiding nets in the woods. Animals would not see the net and step into it and it would fall on them and trap them. The next day they were dinner.
The psalm-writer had come to feel that every time he or she stepped outside the door there was a net ready to trap him or her.
The psalm-writer is not doing well either emotionally or physically. He or she sings: "I am in distress; my eye wastes away from grief, my soul and body also. For my life is spent with sorrow and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my misery, and my bones waste away." (Ps 31:9-10) This is a person in a bad place.
"I am the scorn of all my adversaries, a horror to my neighbors, an object of dread to my acquaintances; those who pass me in the street flee from me, I have passed out of mind like one who is dead." (Ps. 31:11-12) This is pretty intense stuff for a solo in church.
I would be surprised if Stanley would allow a solo with words like these to be sung here in church.
We do not know exactly what the trouble is but the psalm-writer is facing big trouble in his or her life.
Yet the psalm ends with the words: "Be strong, be courageous, all you who hope in the Lord."
So I want us to look at two things that happen between the beginning of the psalm and the end of the psalm that move the psalm-writer from big trouble to hope. From big trouble to big hope.
Two things that move the psalm and the psalm-writer from trouble to hope.
The first thing that happens, and it happens in verse 19 of the psalm, is that the grammatical number of the pronouns changes. The pronouns change from singular to plural. The pronouns change from I, me, mine, to those [of us] and them.
Some scholars speculate that the 31st Psalm may only be a solo piece until verse 19 and then the whole choir joins in. The grammatical number of the pronouns changes from singular to plural, and the focus of the psalm begins to move from big trouble to big hope.
One of the meanest things about trouble in our lives is that it wants to isolate us. It wants to make us feel as if we are the only ones in trouble. It wants to make us feel as if we are the only ones in the particular trouble we are in. It wants to make us feel as if we are the only one who have ever been in the trouble we are in.
The meanest thing about trouble is that it wants to isolate us and make us feel alone and ashamed to be in trouble.
I've been visiting Occupy DC in McPherson Square. I was very moved by a picture in the Washington Post of two women who have come from West Virginia to live for a time in McPherson Square as part of Occupy DC. One woman was $40,000 in debt because her retirement income was too small to live on. The other women was $40,000 in debt from student loans she had no income to pay off.
Can you imagine the number of people there must be across America who are unemployed and who are in debt and who are blaming themselves and who are feeling that there is something wrong with them and who are ashamed? The meanest thing about trouble is that it wants to isolate you and make you think you are alone and that you are all to blame for your trouble.
So these two women, unemployed and in trouble financially, came from West Virginia to stay in McPherson Square with other people who are in trouble. What a healthy thing to do! To not be alone in debt! I think every unemployed person in debt in America ought to move to McPherson Square. They should take over every square in the city. To not be alone in trouble.
We have a cancer support group here at Foundry. Actually, it is not the kind of group that holds meetings. If you are diagnosed and you give us permission, we will let the group know and someone from the group who is a cancer survivor or the spouse of someone who had cancer will call you. Often it will be someone who will have had the same kind of cancer.
Someone who was diagnosed recently told me she was lost after her diagnosis. But the person she spoke to in our cancer support group calmly told her what would happen next and what she had to do, and it made all the difference not to be alone in this trouble.
The psalm-writer begins to move from trouble to hope when he or she changes the pronouns from singular to plural. One way to move from trouble to hope is to find others who are in the same kind of trouble. Church is one place to do that. Anyone who is in trouble ought to be able to find someone else here who has been in the same kind of trouble.
Got that? It is very important. Change the number of the pronouns from singular to plural when you are in trouble.
Here's the other thing that happens in Psalm 31. The psalm-writer starts by being obsessed and overwhelmed by his or her trouble – which is only natural – but then he or she moves from being obsessed with today's trouble to remembering. The psalm-writer remembers that this is not the first time he or she has been in trouble.
"Bless the Lord," the psalm writer sings. I've been in trouble before and I remember now that when I was in trouble before God wondrously showed steadfast love to me. When I was beset as a city under siege before, God heard my supplications when I cried out for help. (Ps. 31:21 paraphrased)
The psalm writer moves from being obsessed with how much trouble he or she is in today to remembering.
The psychiatrist Nassir Ghamei says he believes early hardship in life can be a good thing. "The absence of early hardship often has a negative effect," he writes. "When difficult times arrive, one is vulnerable."
He quotes Leston Havens, whom he calls a wise psychotherapist. Havens says that he has known many people who have been improved by failure and many ruined by success.
In other words – It is good to have been in trouble before and persevered because when trouble comes again, we can have hope that we can persevere again because we've been in trouble and we've made it though before.
We've come this far by faith, trusting in the Lord. He's never failed me yet.
Two things move the writer of Psalm 31 from big trouble to big hope – moving from singular to plural pronouns and moving from crisis to remembering.
"Be strong, be courageous, all you who hope in the Lord."
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