“THIS is the Day!”

Meditation on Psalm 118:1-9, 14-29

RenVilla Worship Service

June 2, 2013

***

Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.
2 Let Israel now say,
“His mercy endures forever.”
3 Let the house of Aaron now say,
“His mercy endures forever.”
4 Let those who fear the LORD now say,
“His mercy endures forever.”
5 I called on the LORD in distress;
The LORD answered me and set me in a broad place.
6 The LORD is on my side;
I will not fear.
What can man do to me?
7 The LORD is for me among those who help me;
Therefore I shall see my desire on those who hate me.
8 It is better to trust in the LORD
Than to put confidence in man.
9 It is better to trust in the LORD
Than to put confidence in princes…

14 The LORD is my strength and song,
And He has become my salvation.
15 The voice of rejoicing and salvation
Is in the tents of the righteous;
The right hand of the LORD does valiantly.
16 The right hand of the LORD is exalted;
The right hand of the LORD does valiantly.
17 I shall not die, but live,
And declare the works of the LORD.

18 The LORD has chastened me severely,
But He has not given me over to death.
19 Open to me the gates of righteousness;
I will go through them,
And I will praise the LORD.
20 This is the gate of the LORD,
Through which the righteous shall enter.
21 I will praise You,
For You have answered me,
And have become my salvation.

22 The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone.
23 This was the LORD’s doing;
It is marvelous in our eyes.
24 This is the day the LORD has made;
We will rejoice and be glad in it.
25 Save now, I pray, O LORD;
O LORD, I pray, send now prosperity.

26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!
We have blessed you from the house of the LORD.
27 God is the LORD,
And He has given us light;
Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.
28 You are my God, and I will praise You;
You are my God, I will exalt You.
29 Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.

***

      Before I became a pastor, I was a writer for a daily newspaper in Pennsylvania.  One of the things I enjoyed most was telling people’s stories—doing profiles of ordinary folks.  I learned that everyone has a story to tell. And that no one is really “ordinary” at all.
     
     God has made each of us to be unique. Our personalities and our life experiences are different than everyone else’s.  Yet there is always the human connection—the common joys, struggles, and sorrows we share, that make us feel the same as the person telling their story.
   
     As a pastor, I continue to be interested in people and their stories as I share the old, old story of God’s love and mercy revealed in Jesus Christ.  This past month, I started writing down the stories of some of our church members for a column in our monthly church newsletter.
     
    Some people are a little nervous about sharing their stories—at least, they are at first.  But then I start asking them questions like, “Where were you born?” ; “Where did you go to school?” ; and “What are the names of your brothers and sisters?”   They soon realize there’s nothing terribly revealing or scary about these brief bios. The challenge is, sometimes, remembering all the dates!
   
    The most interesting part of the interview, for me, is when we talk about their most vivid church memory. Henry Feldman, who turns 101 tomorrow, shared with me about preparing the sleigh on Saturday afternoon—filling it with hay or straw and blankets to help keep the family warm as they traveled by horse power to church Sunday morning through the snow. He remembers the barns where the horses were kept during worship and other church activities. Henry attended German Sunday school, taught by Fannie Schmidt. Imagine that! Ebenezer’s services were conducted in German through at least the 1930s.
     
     Henry, like other older members of our congregation, recalls our first church building. Built with wood in 1906, it was smaller than our present brick structure. There were no separate Sunday school classrooms; children and adults sat in the pews for Christian education before the worship service began.  I doubt that there were any indoor bathrooms in the first church! And electricity did not come to our area north of Renville until the 1940s.  And though they had telephone service before then, Henry says, the phones often did not work due to wind and weather conditions damaging the lines.
     
     What Henry remembers most vividly is the building of the “new” church in the 1950s, though there have been at least 2 more expansion and renovation projects since then.  Henry tells how everyone pitched in with the labor. But also how farmers like to talk and this sometimes slowed the progress.  He remembers how they traveled long distances for some of the building materials. Hauled bricks from Iowa.  Other materials from the Twin Cities.
   
    He remembers the atmosphere of excitement.  “We really thought we were doing something,” he says. You can plainly hear the hope and happiness in his voice stirred by the memory.

    The church of mostly middle-aged and older adults today was packed with children and youth and was growing like crazy back then. Families were much larger—with 5, 6, 8, 10 kids or more. And many people married and stayed in the area to continue the farming life they learned from their parents.
   
     The future seemed so bright.
 
  “We really thought we were doing something,” Henry says.

***
     In Psalm 118, we praise the God of enduring mercy.  The God who is on our side—the one who protects us from those who seek to hurt us; therefore we shall not fear.  We shall not place our trust in human beings.  The Lord alone inspires our confidence, knowing His strength and faithfulness to us in the past.

     When we hear, “he is the stone the builders rejected, He has become the chief cornerstone” we think not of a long ago church building project, but of Jesus, the cornerstone of our faith, though this Psalm was written many years before our Messiah came to teach us his loving ways.

     When we hear, “The LORD is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation,” we cannot help but think of Jesus—fully human like us, but innocent of sin when he became the sacrifice for our transgressions, suffering and dying on a cross.

     We can hear the hope and happiness in the Psalmist’s voice as he gives thanks to the Lord for His goodness, mercy, help, and salvation.

      What touches my heart as I meditate on this Psalm is verse 24, when the Psalmist says, “THIS is the day the LORD has made! We will rejoice and be glad in it.”  The Psalmist isn’t remembering one day or some time in the past, long ago.  He is declaring his faith in God’s goodness, mercy, and salvation THIS DAY.  TODAY. And FOREVER.
   
      The Psalmist’s happiness doesn’t spring from youthful memories of bygone days, but rather the recollection of God’s continual faithfulness to those who trust in Him.   The Psalmist’s hope springs from the God of enduring mercy-who is the same today as He was when He created the world in 6 days and declared all Creation, including human beings, “Good!”  He is the same as the day He mercifully sent His Son, Jesus, to die in our place so we could be reconciled with Him and one another.
   
    Friends, keep on sharing your happy memories, your stories of church, family, and community.  But remember, above all, God’s lovingkindness to you and your church, family and community. Remember your faith, kindled in your youth! May these memories turn your focus up to God and to what He is doing in your life and in the lives of those around you RIGHT NOW.  Look around at your brothers and sisters in the faith, gathered here to worship Him and experience His loving presence, His comforting Spirit, among us.
     
       His salvation is THIS DAY!
     
       THIS is the day that the Lord has made!
     
       Our future is bright as we place our trust in Him.
     
      May we today and forevermore give him our praise, gratefully crying out like the Psalmist,
   
     “O give thanks to the Lord, for He IS good. His mercy endures forever!”

Let us pray.

     Dear Lord, we thank you for your goodness to us, your love for us, and your mercy that never ends!  Thank you for our happy memories of church and for the love of family and friends. Give us a vision for your righteous, loving Kingdom, Lord. Build up our faith! Lead us to trust you with the future because you have given us Jesus Christ, your Son, so we may have eternal life in your presence.  Give us everlasting hope for every new day—a hope that is a witness to others who don’t know you and an encouragement for our brothers and sisters in the faith. May your Spirit strengthen us with your joy so that we wake with your praises on our lips. Because THIS is your day, Lord!  The day You have made! And we will rejoice and be glad in it! Amen.