Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost August 17-18, 2024
“Living With Losing” Psalm 34
Rev. John R. Larson Ascension Lutheran Church Littleton, Colorado
February 9 in 2025 will be a monumental day for one of the teams in the National Football League. They will be lifting the Vince Lombardi Trophy and will be declared the winners of the Super Bowl.
I don’t know what music will be played as they do that but so often when someone wins a big game or Thee Big Game, the 1977 song from Queen, “We Are The Champions” is played. Part of the lyrics go:
“We are the Champions, my friends. We’ll keep on fighting to the end. No time for losers, ‘cause we are the Champions of the world.”
I don’t know who will hoist the trophy – but I hope that we don’t see the team from Kansas City up there again. Anybody, anybody, but them!!
Today I’m using the psalm assigned for today for my text – Psalm 34. Please read it with me. You’ll find it on page 573 in your pew Bible. The song that I cited mentions, “No time for losers”. What do you think about that? What does this psalm think about that? Verse 2, “Let the afflicted hear and rejoice.” Verse 6, “This poor man called, and the Lord heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles.” Verse 4 spoke about fears. Verses 17-18 say, “The righteous cry out and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their trouble. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”
“No time for losers?” No. We lose a lot. We struggle a lot. Always a smile? Never a tear? No. Maybe our struggle is the body that is failing us. The problems for some of being independent or getting around are immense. Maybe we struggle with family and relationships, and we don’t know where we are going in all of that. Maybe our soul and spirit is troubled and we lack peace with self and with our God.
Psalm 34 is interesting in the superscription that proceeds that psalm. It reads: “Of David. When he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he left.” What was that about? It comes from I Samuel 21:10-15. (We believe that Achish the king mentioned in I Samuel and Abimelech, the king mentioned in Psalm 34 are the same king.) “That day David fled from Saul and went to Achish king of Gath. But the servants of Achish said to him, ‘Isn’t this David, the king of the land? Isn’t he the one they sang about in their dances, Saul has slain his thousands, but David his tens of thousands?’ David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath. So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the door of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard. Achish said to his servants, ‘Look at the man. He is insane! Why bring him to me? Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on like this in front of me? Must this man come into my house?’”
What was David doing? He had been anointed King as a young man while Saul was still on the throne. He had to run from Saul. Saul was going to kill him. And now he knew that Achish had plans for his demise. He drooled all over his beard. He acted insane and scratched on the doors.
I don’t believe that you had a superscription to any of the psalms that speak about David’s great moments. About David and Goliath. About carrying the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem. About the peace that would finally exist within the borders of his land. No. The reason the psalm was written was that God’s anointed, the great king of Israel, was in a situation of which he had no solution and no strength and he showed weakness so he could live. That is why he speaks about his fears and his trouble and being afflicted. That is why he says he was among those who are brokenhearted and those who are crushed in spirit.
Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller was pastor at Hope Lutheran Church in Aurora until a few years ago. Now he is pastoring in Texas. Some of you watch his YouTube channel. He regularly gets 10, 20 even 50 thousand views. He is a Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod rockstar. He regularly uses a phrase when he recounts the great actions of God. He’ll say, “God be praised!” Every focus is on how God intervenes. That is what David in the psalm does. Let’s walk through the psalm again. Look at all the hope that God provides for those who suffer and are challenged: Verses 4,5,6, “I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame. This poor man called, and the Lord heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles.” Verse 8, “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.” Verse 15, “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry.” Verse 19, “A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers them from them all.”
David is telling them, ‘You have experienced trouble and struggles and weakness; now you must experience the Lord.” The Scriptures are honest about the hardships of life and the struggles of living the faith but they always, they always bring hope. It is like Paul says in Corinthians, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” (II Corinthians 4:8-9)
In a way, we boast about weakness. With humility we speak about who we are and how much we need God in our lives. We even boast about the weakness of Jesus. In the Apostles’ Creed we speak about how low Jesus chose to go in order to save us, “Conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried.” In Philippians the weakness of Jesus is mentioned in this way, “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:6-8)
No one gets out of life without some type of loss. David is honest about that. Christ experienced it in deep ways. And you’ve had some. And I have had some. But our story doesn’t end there. We have experienced the deep love of God. How can He love us so? How can He continue to consider our needs and struggles and pains? Yet He does and has. We have Jesus. Jesus has us.
David, in all of his honesty gives us his words about troubles. David, in all his words about the presence of God in our darkness, now is filled with praise to God. Verse 1-3, “I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips. My soul will boast in the Lord; let the afflicted hear and rejoice. Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together.” Verse 8, “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.” Verse 22, “The Lord redeems his servants; no one will be condemned who takes refuge in him.”
May God open our eyes to our weakness, and then to the great salvation and strength of our God, and may we live in praise to our great God for our full redemption in Jesus. Amen!!
