David Bahn – Reflections

My first call to be pastor was to Vernal, (northeast) Utah, and Rangely, (western slope) Colorado. I was new at this so I spent a lot of time studying and preparing for Sunday worship as well as a good bit of time on the road, traveling the 51 miles between the two churches. We lived just around the block from the church in Vernal, and I would often go home for lunch. One day my wife was talking with a neighbor who said, “It must be nice having your husband home all the time.” She was surprised when Diane said, “He’s at the office now.” I’m not sure how the rest of the conversation went, but she apparently thought I just hung around the house all day long throughout the week, and only went to work on Sunday.

I suspect many people think of God that way. He just hangs around heaven and watches things unfold down here on earth: so they think. Except when I’m in urgent need of rescue. Then he better come to my aid. That is the view of Deism – to which many of our Founding Fathers may have subscribed. God simply created the universe and wound up the clock and watched it run, with little if any direct involvement in our lives. Providential guidance may be provided, but little else.

But not this psalmist! We get a powerful picture of God’s involvement in the affairs of his people in these verses. He is personable and worthy to be praised. He is one to whom all people will come for help and salvation. He answers prayer. He formed all of creation: rivers, mountains, seas, plants, and people. He brings daylight and evening to pass each day. He provides water for the plants and brings forth grain and growth of all manner of plants.

God’s gift to us of creation is not only remarkable. It is gracious. Martin Luther speaks so well of this when he explains the first article of the Apostle’s Creed:

I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them. He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all I have. He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life. He defends me against all danger and guards and protects me from all evil. All this He does only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me. For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him. [emphasis added]

This is most certainly true.

I didn’t deserve praise from our neighbor when she found out I worked more than just Sundays. But God deserves all that and more. This Psalm reminds me that God has not just wound up the universe and is sitting back and watching it run. It reminds me of God’s many ways of caring for me and all creatures. It reminds me that I can come to him with my prayers and requests, and my thanks and praise. It opens my eyes to the breadth of his care for us all. For all this it is my duty to thank, praise, serve, and obey him. This is most certainly true!

In Psalm 116 comes the question: “What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits to me?” This psalm shows at least one answer: praise and the acknowledgement by our actions that he is the only one to whom we must come for life and salvation.

I don’t think in those terms very often. I’m more often simply thankful for God’s blessings. I am deeply aware of how desperately I depend on God’s grace, forgiveness, steadfast faithfulness and love. This psalm is a reminder that we owe God something for all his benefits, blessings, gifts, and grace to us.

This is not like the debt we cannot repay and of which we must be forgiven. Jesus tells a parable about forgiveness. He compares the debts we owe God for the sins we have committed against him with those we commit against one another. The comparison is between 10,000 talents and 100 denari. That’s 160,000 years of earnings versus 100 days of earnings. The far greater debt is the debt owed to God. It’s beyond our ability to repay. Unless God forgives us of that debt we are doomed.

The debt we owe to God for his mercy and forgiveness of that impossible-to-repay-debt is different in nature and implication. It is not something we must repay lest we forfeit God’s grace and lose our salvation. It is something that we can repay simply in the way we live.

We repay God’s favor when we praise him. When we come to him in repentance and faith, we are giving God his due. When we take the cup of salvation, celebrating God’s deliverance in the Lord’s Supper, we are repaying God for his gifts. When we extend the same kindness and mercy to others that God has extended to us, we are repaying that debt.

Perhaps it would be better to say we are giving God his due. So it’s not quite like repaying a debt – even though we speak of what is due to God. This is a response to God’s kindness, not an attempt to climb out of a hole. A debt is something from which we seek to escape. We’ve been rescued. We’re out of the hole. God has lifted us up and put us in a place of honor. This is a time to say thanks. This is a time acknowledge the extent of his kindness. We do this because we have been gifted, not to grovel and beg to be relieved of the punishment for our failures and sins. We do this to give him the thanks and praise that is due his name.

After David sinned so callously with Bathsheba, he lost his sense of joy in God’s favor and blessing. There is nothing to suggest that David had experienced any qualms about his behavior with Bathsheba and Uriah. Life went on. It wasn’t until after Nathan confronted David that he came to grips with what he had done.

It’s also likely that David then realized he had lost sight of God’s favor and grace. He had traded his place as a man after God’s heart for a life of shameful denial of his unrepentant sin. Before this comeuppance his life was just fine. He had servants, wives, soldiers, a palace of cedar and all manner of worldly blessings. But he had lost sight of God’s part in all of life. Apparently he lost sight of God’s salvation itself and how much joy it brings to the repentant heart to know that God loves us even in the face of our failures.

Once David confessed his sin and received forgiveness, the table was set for a return to a greater joy than that of happy days, trophy wives, palatial digs, the king’s prerogatives, and the good life.

Recently we experienced an untimely death in our church family. Everyone was shocked. When we gathered for Ash Wednesday worship, however, there was a sense of joy among all those in attendance. You could sense it. People were talking, greeting one another, and sharing in the joy of God’s salvation. We knew we had lost a dear brother all too early in his life. We knew it would hit his wife, children, and extended family so hard. But we knew even though we are dust and to dust we would return, that wasn’t the final word. My friend and classmate, and retired seminary professor posted on Facebook:

If you are a Christian, the chances are extremely good that you will return to dust. The chances are not, however, 100%; it all depends on what “soon” means. The chances of you not REMAINING dust are, I’m happy to say . . . 100. Per. Cent. – Jeff Gibbs

A friend of his added this: “It’s not in the hymnal, but my Ash Wednesday saying is ‘from dust you have come, to dust you shall return, and from dust you will rise again.’”

Whether the sting of death has bitten hard, or you are crawling out of a dungeon of your own sin, when you seek God’s grace there comes along with it, the joy of God’s salvation. And what a joy it is! Jesus earned it for you and all people when he died for the sins of the world. He secured it when he rose from the dead. God promises it to all who believe in him. And like David, if we continue that prayer we will recall that the joy of God’s salvation is to be shared so that transgressors will be taught the truth of God’s salvation and sinners will return to God.

Talk about joy! Take a quick look at Luke 15 and you see played out how complete that joy is. It’s shared by God and all the angels in heaven when one sinner repents. What glorious joy that is!

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…and it was very good” (Genesis 1:1, 31).

“The creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. ²² For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now” (Romans 8:20-22).

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10).

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).

“For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).

In spite of all that God has done, we continue to wander from his ways. We sin. We and all of creation are held in bondage. We constantly need God’s mercy and forgiveness. We never outgrow the need to repent this side of eternity. As Martin Luther famously said, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent,’ He willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance” (Luther’s first of his 95 theses).

The ultimate answer to this prayer will be given on the Great Last Day, when Jesus returns and takes his own to heaven. We have begun our observance of the season of Lent. It is a time of repentance and sorrow. It is a time to reflect on the harsh realities of life here and now. Soon we’ll celebrate Easter, the feast of victory, the foretaste of the consummation of all that God has promised.

This prayer, especially the verses beginning, “Create in me a clean heart, O God…” are a favorite of many. This is a worthy prayer for us all during this season, and every day.

It was a mess! The fishing line was tangled around itself on the reel. I couldn’t get it unsnarled. I had to call the deck hand to come and help. He managed to get it fixed after some effort.

The ball did not hit the green. It did not hit the fairway. It did not hit the rough. It went into the water. That’s pretty much the story of my golfing expertise. I’m a hacker. And I often miss the mark when I hit the ball. And still I play.

The gravel bar in the middle of the creek looked like a good place to drive the truck. But I definitely should not have driven onto it. I got it stuck. And I mean stuck! It was so stuck that the wrecker that went out to retrieve it got stuck as well. It took a nearby farmer’s tractor to pull them both out.

Sin is missing the mark. It’s not just missing the green, it’s missing the target of God’s goal for our lives. In Hebrew the word for sin is hata, meaning to go astray.

Transgress has to do with going where we ought not go. It’s a violation of a “Do Not” of God. When we go where God has prohibited we transgress. Transgression refers to presumptuous sin. To transgress is to choose to intentionally disobey; transgression is willful trespassing.

Iniquity is like a tangled fishing line. It’s twisted in upon itself. It’s knotted, and fully enmeshed in itself. Those endless loops of false thoughts, distracting ideas, snarled imaginations all turn in upon themselves. We lose sight of God and his goodness. We are stuck in the mess of our own making.

In the opening verses of this psalm David mentions all three. He missed the mark when he took upon himself the idea of having Bathsheba for himself – even though she was married. He sinned against her, Uriah, and God. He also transgressed when he willfully took her for himself and sought to cover up that evil by bringing Uriah back home for some time with his wife. And when Uriah wouldn’t go in with Bathsheba he entangled himself completely in a snarl of his own making by having Uriah killed on the battlefield. The entanglement was complete. Sin led to transgression. Transgression led to iniquity.

We need God’s mercy, grace, and forgiveness for all three. And it’s not just the acts of sin and transgression, it’s the condition of our hearts. Fallen, broken, sinful beings that we are, we have no hope of gaining God’s favor on our own. But God is rich in grace, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. This is the good news we believe and share. Jesus came to redeem us from the penalty of our sin, forgive us for our transgressions, and rescue us from our self-inflicted entanglements so all manner of sin.

Just as we are not sinners because we sin, God is not gracious because he forgives. We sin because we are sinners. And God forgives us because he is gracious.