Video Transcript: Communal Laments

We continue our look at the psalms and their variety. Last time we took a look at the  individual laments noticing how many, many, many of the Psalms Express difficulty, express  tough times express those moments of our lives when we don't know where to turn, or we  find ourselves helpless in the face of overwhelming obstacles. Today, we're going to take a  look at communal events which are cries of the community, we have often very individual  expressions of pain and suffering and sorrow. But we also have times in our lives and in our  social experiences, where the cries come not just from us, but from all those around us. And  that's what we're going to take a look at today. Remember that in this particular  understanding of the Psalms, I suggest there are eight different kinds of Psalms. And we're  going to take a separate opportunity to look at each one of those. But for today, the  communal laments, they are similar to the individual laments in that their cries in times of  distress. The unique factor here separating them from the individual laments is that in each  case, here, the voice is that of the community, not just of the individual, I often have my own  experiences of life. I always have my own experiences of life, you do too. But there are times  when the experiences of life transcend my limited perspective or experiences when we  collectively experience something. We get a sense of that maybe with the Olympics, when  nations begin to say, Yeah, we did it win, not only most of the people in that country didn't do  a thing, but watched a particular athlete achieve some great feat. We do that sometimes the  sports teams where our team wins and not your team. And we're really not out there on the  field playing. We have that sometimes in political elections where people align themselves by  virtual virtue of their political relationship with various parties. And so one team wins and  another team loses. And there's a sense of hopelessness, that sometimes goes along with  that. That's a little bit of like, of what communal events are perhaps more striking strikingly  come those times when there is such a large calamitous disaster, that a nation or a collective  as a whole needs to voice its difficulties. It certainly was true in the United States after  September 11 2001. When there was a collective sense of anguish about the bombings of the  plane smashing into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon. There was a sense of  national grief at a time like that there was something of the same when, when the hurricane  slammed into the southern coast of the United States here, Hurricane Katrina, or when the  tsunami overwhelmed so many of the communities of Southeast Asia or when the certain  planes have been shot out of the skies, or bombs have gone off, or a large number of people  have died in an earthquake, and whole communities or nations, certainly certain segments of  Earth's population suddenly become sorrowful and upset and experienced this sense of loss  and a gripping. Concern about what's meaningful are where does meaning derive in times like this. That's what the communal events are about. Now, there aren't as many of these in the  book of Psalms as there are the individual laments. In my own reading of the Psalms, I find  them in Psalm 60, 74, 79, 80, 90, 108, 123 and 137. We'll look at a couple of these Psalm 60  is a powerful and notice the variety of things stated in the title including expressions of how  the psalm is itself to be sung or performed in the context of worship. Notice the opening lines, you have rejected us God and burst upon us. You have been angry now restore us. That's the  essence of the message in just one couplet of parallelism. There's a tragedy that's taken  place. It's beyond measure. It's beyond comprehension. And obviously there have to be  designs to the universe, and somehow this fits into them. But it doesn't make sense right now. And if God is powerful, and we still believe God is powerful, then somehow God is related to  this tragedy. You have rejected us and burst upon us. You have shaken the land and torn it  open, mandates fractures, for it is quaking, you have shown your people, desperate times you have given us wine that makes us stagger, there's a sense in which we've been forced to  drink something. So we become senseless with what's going on. We do not know what's  happening around us. The Psalm continues to, to express those horrible ideas, those  expressions of tragedy of suffering. But notice how it be it comes round and turns to  something else. It begins to question these things in verse 10, is it not you, God, You who  have now rejected us, and no longer go out with our armies, give us and aid against our  enemy for human health is worthless, we know that we are helpless. We know that somehow  you have allowed this to happen. But allow us now also to see your other side with God, we  will gain the victory and he will trample down our enemies. Those are some powerful words 

with which the Psalm concludes. Notice, again, these kinds of things. The Psalm in its title is  directly connected to difficulties in the time of the life of David. Somehow, things are going  awry. This may have been at the time when the enemies or the armies were running in front  of the Philistines. They were the major enemy during those times. As I had said in another  section, we do not know what the Hebrew word Miktam means. But we do know that all of the Psalms in which Miktam appears in the title are Psalms of David, and psalms of distress. So  we have a fair sense that Miktam is related to some cry for deliverance or overwhelming  sense of grief or subdued reflection. Maybe it's the kind of somber note by which the Psalm  ought to be performed, maybe a minor key rather than a major key we don't know for sure,  but that is related. So if you see Miktam and the title of a Psalm, you can quite be sure that  this is related to some time of difficulty in its writing. And some somber reflections on the  meaning of this distress is a great connection made between the difficult fortunes of Israel in  battle and the sense of divine judgment. Remember that for Israel and for YAHWAH, there was an inseparable union between the nation and the faith. Since the time of Jesus, we have  understood our faith to be separated from attachments to any particular country, that  Christianity is spread throughout all nations, and that Christianity is not to be understood as  confined to or more pronounced in one nation than any other nation, but not so with Israel. In  Israel's time, Israel was nationally the expression of God's care and connection with the  nations. And so what happens with Israel is somehow a reflection of Israel's very relationship  with Yahweh. And David expresses that in this Psalm, note, also the concluding confidence it's the case with the individual laments except, not so pronounced in that one of Heman the  Ezrahite, but here again, God has heard, and God will certainly help. Another expression of  individual laments Psalm 80. Here there's a it's a Psalm of Asaph, so it's not during the days of David, it's much later in Israel's history. But notice how the psalm begins, oh God, the nations  have invaded your inheritance. They have defiled your holy temple, they have reduced  Jerusalem to rubble. Is this at the time of Jeremiah when the city of Jerusalem was actually  destroyed? Or is it one of those times earlier when invaders came in and did much damage to the city but did not displace the people as a whole? There is certainly a lot of battle imagery  in this Psalm. And it happened at a time when other forces from other countries actually came into the land of Palestine. They have left the dead bodies of your servants as food for the  birds of the sky, the flesh of your own people for the animals of the Wild. Notice again, they're the parallelism that takes place. They have poured out blood, like water all around Jerusalem,  and there's no one to bury the dead, we be objects of contempt to our neighbors of scorn and  derision to those around us. Again, parallelism, but now about some pretty nasty things of  life. How long Lord, will you be angry forever? How long will your jealousy burn like fire? Pour  out Your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge you and on the kingdoms that do not  call on your name. Notice the parallelism again. For they have devoured Jacob and devastated his homeland parallelism all the way through. Notice how the Psalm has shifted from the  expressions of horror at the after effects of war and battle into this kind of now what do we  do? And then it shifts again, about verse nine, help us God, our Savior. Now God is not merely  our God, but the one who saves us and the one who rescues us, for the glory of your name,  deliver us and forgive our sins for your namesake. Maybe we've done wrong, maybe you're  justified in allowing this to happen to us. But remember that we are tied to your honor. And so what happens to us is a reflection on you as well notice the next couple of lines, why should  the nation say where is their God? In other words, even if this is justified, because we have  forgotten you, or we have been less than, in tune with your ways in your will, somehow we  are in covenant together, and your fortunes and your future is connected here on Earth, with  the manner in which you work among us and with us, before our eyes make known the nation  says the psalm is that you avenge the outpoured blood of your servants May the groans of  the prisoners come before you, with your strong arm, preserve those condemned to die, pay  back into the laps of our neighbors, seven times the contempt that they have hurled at you,  Lord, not just at us, but because they have heard hurled at us, you also are tarnished, then  we your people, the sheep of your pasture will praise you forever. You've heard that line  before. From Jenner to generation to generation we will proclaim Your praise note these  things. Israel's idea of blessing is tied to its inheritance in the land of Canaan, fleeing before 

conquering nations is considered to be part of the curses of the Sinai covenant that actually  kick in when the people are unfaithful to God. So there's a reason why these things are  happening to us. But God's very honor is at stake in the outcome of the conflict. So the people are certain that God will turn things around and bring them a victory. Still in the middle of it,  they cry out together, it's a communal lament. A third example of these communal laments  Psalm 137. This comes from very late in Israel's history, from the time when the Babylonians  have in fact overwhelmed the city of Jerusalem destroyed the temple, and have taken many  people captive back to Babylon. By the rivers of Babylon, we sat and wept when we  remembered Zion. They're the on the poplars we hung our harps for their captors asked us for songs, our tormentors, demanded songs of joy. They said, sing us one of the songs of Zion.  Well, how can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land? So there's this sense of  frustration, I want to live my faith in a meaningful way. But everything about my faith right  now is shattered and uncertain. But then comes this, this idea of May that my tongue cling to  the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy.  Remember a lord with the Edomites did on that day that Jerusalem fell, tear it down, they  said, tear it down to its foundations. And now they're looking for payback the people of God.  But notice the movement of the Psalm, we are living at a distance from our homeland  because others have taken over because we sinned. Now it's up to us to learn again what it  means to be the people of God and in our remembering, maybe restoration will come. The  psalm certainly dates from late in Israel's existence. The Babylonian exile, which began in 586 BC. The alienation from the land of promises an indication of God's judgment against the  people but even living in an alien environment God's people do not have to imagine  themselves forgotten or lacking the watchful care of their God. Still the unique practices of  the people of God separate them from other religious groups and cultures and make them  stand out. That's why they cannot sing songs of Zion. And we'll get into the songs of Zion  later on. In this circumstance where the culture itself only laughs at it, others taunt and  persecute them. Now it's important here to think about Zion, the word Zion comes in, you'll  see the word Zion, often throughout the Old Testament, and especially in the Psalms, it  becomes the code name for God's dwelling on earth. Now, of course, physically represented  by God's dwelling is the temple in Jerusalem. But Zion stands for that kind of larger sense of  God's presence. So it can mean not just the throne of God or the temple of God or Jerusalem,  it can mean in fact, the entirety of Palestine of Canaan, of the people of God wherever they  are. So Zion becomes this larger code term for where God lives, and God lives with us.  Remembering and the Faith and Faith and faithfulness are all part of the same package, we  lose our sense of confidence in God. When we remember what God has done in the past, then we're left just to the Wiles and disappointments of the moment. If we remember how God has  promised and acted, we can look toward the future, even in our distress, with a much greater  sense of confidence. And that's part of the outcome of all of the communal laments, difficult  Psalms, but important Psalms for us to sing. We live in a world that often thinks of worship as  mostly Psalms of praise and prayers of thanks. But laments help us remember our own needs  and our failures and they give voice to the cries of communities that transcend individual  experiences. They keep us focused on segments of society, they're inherently lacking access  to justice, and positions of influence who right now even if you're singing a Psalm of praise,  might be crying out an individual or communal lament, you need to hear that I need to hear  that communal laments arise from the devastations that are much larger and more critical  than simply one person's misfortunes. And they also indicate that we share each other's grief  as we share each other's faith, powerful Psalms, Psalms not to be missed in the collection of  the Psalms. More on these things, of course, in my meditations in the Psalms, hear me Oh  God, and also background in covenant documents. They may be very helpful to you