St. Luke Ev. Lutheran Church-WELS

Sermon delivered by Pastor Anthony E. Schultz

June 17 + 20, 2004 Pentecost 3/Father’s Day Psalm 30

Sing to the LORD, you saints of his; praise his holy name. For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. When I felt secure, I said, “I will never be shaken.” O LORD, when you favored me, you made my mountain stand firm; but when you hid your face, I was dismayed. To you, O LORD, I called; to the Lord I cried for mercy; “What gain is there in my destruction, if I go down into the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it proclaim your faithfulness? Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me; O LORD, be my help.” You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever.

This is God’s Word!

People of God—rescued from the flaming lake of fire in hell by the innocent blood of the very Lamb of God:

There is a commercial on Television for a Scottish Bank. It shows a small group of businessmen having supper in a very nice restaurant. Suddenly it becomes painfully apparent one of these young men is choking—choking on a piece of steak. Desperately he looks to his friends for help. They all just sit there—while one of them explains in painful detail how what is needed is the Heimlich maneuver. Someone needs to wrap their arms around this poor man who is literally turning blue—and dislodge this food that is making it impossible to breath. Suddenly a man from a nearby table hurries over—grabs the choking guy—and Heimlichs the offending chunk of steak. Then comes the tag line—make it happen! If you were the choking guy—and somebody saved you—what would you do? How would you thank them? Would you offer to buy their lunch? Would you offer to buy their lunch from now till the day they die? Or would you dedicate every moment from now on—to take care of their every possible need and want and desire? Would you dedicate yourself to serving them from now on? Jesus has rescued us for eternity! He died for us! He laid down his life for us! He suffered the torture my sins deserved so I can life forever in Heaven. Jesus saved our immortal soul. That’s why:

We Will Thank the LORD Forever!

1. Sometimes we weep

2. But the LORD will turn our wailing into dancing!

Last Sunday we listened as wise King Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD—at the dedication of the Temple—lifted up his hands and prayed. Solomon reminded God’s people to remember their prayers and to remember missions. People from far far away would come to love and serve the great I AM—the Holy One of Israel—through the power of the Word of God! The Psalm we sang today was written by King David—Solomon’s father. It says in the subtitle A Psalm. A song. For the dedication of the temple. Of David. Whenever we study God’s Word it is always important to understand the context. We are not studying cracked and broken pottery down dark and dusty museum halls. We are studying the living and enduring Word of God! Psalm 30 is a song of thanksgiving that the LORD has rescued and delivered King David from very terrible danger! There are two very good possibilities for this very terrible danger near the end of David’s life. One possibility is recorded in 1 Kings chapter 1. God’s Word says, “When King David was old and well advanced in years, he could not keep warm even when they put covers over him.” That is a terrible feeling—to be so very cold—that you shiver and ache—and no amount of blankets can make you warm! So they searched throughout Israel—and found a very beautiful lady named Abishag. God’s Word says, “She took care of the king and waited on him.” She was very pure. She did not have “hugs and kisses” with the king—but she would hold him and keep him warm. When you are the king—and are very old and well advanced in years—one of the last and most important things you have to do—is make sure who will be the king after you are gone. The LORD had already taken care of that—saying Solomon—the son of David and Bathsheba—was to be the next king. The problem was Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith, put himself forward and said, “I will be king.” So he got chariots and horses ready, with fifty men to run ahead of him. His father had never interfered with him by asking, “Why do you behave as you do?” He was also very handsome and was born next after Absalom. Fatherly discipline was not David’s best thing—not with Absalom and not with Adonijah. David did not discipline his sons—and the whole nation—the whole nation suffered! Adonijah wanted to be king. And how simple that would be—if he had the backing of Joab—the head of the joint chief’s of staff—and the blessing Abiathar the priest. Nathan the prophet and the secret service people were conspicuous by their absence. Adonijah sacrificed sheep, cattle and fattened calves—invited all the important people he could think of—and declared himself the new king! Now what? The LORD said Solomon would be king. The LORD’s will would be done! David crowned Solomon King—gave him his father’s throne. One by one—those who had rebelled not only against David and Solomon but rebelled especially against the LORD were put to death—Adonijah—Solomon’s older brother—Joab, the head of the army—Shimei—who had called down bitter curses on David. Abiathar the priest’s life was spared—Solomon had mercy on him because he had literally carried the Ark of the Covenant before his father David and literally shared many of David’s hardships. But he could not be a priest any more. The family tree of Eli was no longer part of the priesthood! King David had causes horrible damage to the family of Uriah the Hittite—by his adultery with Uriah’s wife Bathsheba. And just part of the consequences of that adultery and contract murder to try and cover it up—and the months and months of denying his sin cost David. There were terrible and painful consequences from this sin—in David’s own family. How sad is that? The path of sin didn’t bring the pleasure it promised. It brought only the bitter wormy fruits of pain and guilt and grief. David sinned. And yet the LORD was merciful. The LORD still sent his Son Jesus to die not only for David’s sins but for my sins and yours!

Maybe it was rescue from the grief of Adonijah that David gave thanks about. And maybe it was a different trouble also self inflicted. King David said to Joab and the army commanders with him, “Go throughout the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and enroll the fighting men, so that I may know how many there are.” But Joab replied to the king, “May the LORD your God multiply the troops a hundred times over, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king want to do such a thing?” Don’t do it! Don’t do it! Don’t count how many soldiers you have. Trust in the LORD! He is your strength! He is your rescue and protection! But they did count the soldiers. There were 800,000 able-bodied men who could handle a sword in Israel—and another 500,000 soldiers in Judah. God’s Word says, David was conscience-stricken after he had counted the fighting men, and he said to the LORD, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, O LORD, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.” Again—there would be painful consequences for David’s sin. The LORD would discipline his people—because he loved them so much. Through the prophet Gad—the LORD told David he would have to choose. “Shall there come upon you three years of famine in your land? Or three months of fleeing from your enemies while they pursue you? Or three days of plague in your land?” What would you pick? Which would you choose? King David said, “I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hands of the LORD, for his mercy is great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men.” So the LORD sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the end of the time designated, and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beersheba died. When the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the LORD was grieved because of the calamity and said to the angel afflicting the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” Can you imagine 70,000 people dead—and it’s your fault—your responsibility? Imagine the guilt and the sadness that must have filled David’s heart. And yet—there is mercy. There is forgiveness. There is grace for the sake of the Lamb of God—the Messiah—the Redeemer!

Maybe David was thinking about his son Adonijah. Maybe David was thinking about his sin of counting the army. Maybe David was thinking about both—when the Holy Spirit moved him to write Psalm 30, Sing to the LORD, you saints of his; praise his holy name. For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. When I was in high school I worked in a grocery store. At night—when the store was closed we used to play hockey. We all had hockey sticks and those great big armored gloves. We used banana boxes for goals and day old bakery buns for hockey pucks. We would scuff up and down the meat counter—checking guys into the hamburger section. Once in a while—if somebody did something really mean and low down—we would throw them into the penalty box for a minute—a minute and a half—if it was really really bad—two minutes! They had to sit out—to watch helplessly—while their team played short handed. It’s a power play—when you are outnumbered by your opponent. You feel painfully responsible. You realize you let your whole team down. You watch and you wait—until the penalty is over—then back into the game you go! Sometimes our Heavenly Father disciplines us. He disciplines us because he loves us. Sometimes there are painful consequences because of our sins. God uses this time of discipline to teach us! The discipline of our Heavenly Father might be so painful we even cry literal tears. The precious good news is—the discipline of our Heavenly Father lasts only a little while. Each day his mercy—his forgiveness—his never failing love is new. God’s mercy never fails for Jesus’ sake!

You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever. Wailing—by the grace of God—isn’t something you hear very often—the screaming out loud that comes from the most terrible heartache! If you spend much time in Emergency Rooms you have heard wailing. It is the scream that comes when you realize that someone you love has died! If you have been the first person to come upon a horrible car crash you might hear wailing. Dancing—on the other hand—isn’t something you see too often, either. They dance in Africa. They dance when the choir marches into church. Sometimes they start dancing about three city blocks away. You can hear them coming. The whole congregation dances when they sing hymns. No sitting in pews—they are on their feet dancing for joy. They dance when they bring their thank offerings. Small children—dance on their mother’s hip. Small children who have just learned how to walk—plant their feet and move their whole body to the drums. Some of the little grandpas—their bodies painfully thin—literally skin and bones—dance as hard as they can. They scuff their feet and are down to the floor—then stretch toward the heavens. This is not the dancing you see on TV for candy bars or soda with lots of caffeine or degrading youself—eating more filth faster than anyone else—in exchange for money. This is the joy that comes from an inheritance in Heaven. They dance in the drug rehab center in the poor dangerous crime ridden part of Lima—where men who have degraded and prostituted themselves rejoice in Jesus’ forgiveness. They dance—they cannot stand still—as they celebrate Jesus’ love—when their families don’t love them—and they can’t even love themselves. They know that Jesus loves them with an unconditional never failing love. It is only by God’s grace that the awful ugliness of our sins have been washed away. The sackcloth of our painful mistakes has been replaced by the clothing that is joy. We thank Jesus here and now. And we will thank him forever in Heaven. Amen!

+To God alone all glory!