Thankful, from Aleph to Tav

Transcription

1 Thankful, from Aleph to Tav Psalm 34 has a long and strange title, doesn t it? A psalm of David, regarding the time he pretended to be insane in front of Abimelech, who sent him away." My first question when I read today s Scripture was, Who the heck is Abimelech? My second question was, Why did David act crazy in front of Abimelech? Here s what I found out: The title refers to a story about David in the book of 1 Samuel. David is fleeing from Saul, the King of Israel, who wants to kill him. David comes to a place called Nob, and he asks a priest there for five loaves of bread. The only bread available is holy, consecrated bread not ordinary bread but the priest gives the bread to David. Then David sees one of Saul s men, his chief of guards, and becomes afraid, because David has no weapon. David asks the priest if he can borrow a spear or a sword. The priest says, The only sword I have here is the one that belonged to Goliath, whom you killed. Take it if you will. And David says, There is none like it; give it to me. David flees to a town called Gath, and the king s servants take David to their king. The servants say to the king, Is this not David, the king of Israel? Did they not sing of him Saul has killed his thousands and David his ten thousands? So they believe that David is a powerful and dangerous man. David realizes he s in trouble again, and to get out of it he pretends to be crazy. He scratches marks on the doors of the gate, and lets spittle run down his beard. The king says to his servants, Look, you see the man is mad; why then have you brought him to me? Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house? So the king wasn t afraid of David, and he let him go on his way. David wrote Psalm 34 to thank and praise God for helping him to escape from the king of Gath. 1

2 Here s something else I think is interesting about Psalm 34. It s called an acrostic poem. You can t tell by reading it in an English translation, but in its original Hebrew, each verse begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet, from alif to tav. In English, that would mean beginning verse 1 with the letter A, verse 2 with the letter B, and so on all the way to Z. This morning we read only verses 1-8 of Psalm 34. The psalm is 22 verses long one verse for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Why did David go to all the extra trouble to write Psalm 34 this way? By using each successive letter of the alphabet as the first letter in each verse of the psalm, David was trying to include everything that could possibly be said about his thankfulness to God. In other words, by using the whole alphabet, he was covering the subject from A to Z in Hebrew, from alif to tav. David couldn t use every word in his language, but he could use every letter, his entire alphabet, in his psalm of thanksgiving to God. He was so thankful to God for delivering him from a dangerous situation that he wanted to thank God in every possible way. He didn t want to leave anything out. As we look forward to our Thanksgiving holiday, I hope that we re as thankful to God as David was when he wrote this psalm that we want to thank God in every way we possibly can, thanking God for everything from A to Z. I want to focus now on just one verse from Psalm 34 verse 8: Taste and see that the Lord is good. What is it that David wants us to taste, that we will see that the Lord is good? There isn t anything about food in Psalm 34 no bread or fish, no olives, dates, or figs. There s no turkey and stuffing, green beans, cranberries, sweet potatoes, or fresh-baked pumpkin pie. What are we supposed to taste, that we will see that the Lord is good? I think David wants us to taste life. To taste all that life has to offer. 2

3 Eleanor Roosevelt expressed it this way: The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experiences. How do we taste experience to the utmost? How do we live life to its fullest? I believe that we get the best taste of what life has to offer when we do good things for others and when we are good to ourselves. It s not hard to think of good things we can do for others. Visit them, listen to them, bring them something to eat. Drive them where they need to go. Donate food and clothing. Support your church with your financial resources, time, talents, prayers, and love. Tell someone about your faith journey, about how your relationship with God and the people in your church gives meaning, joy, and purpose to your life. Helping others gives us a strong taste of what life is really all about. I hope we also remember to do good things for ourselves. Do we take time for ourselves every day to taste some of the good things life has to offer, to taste the good things God provides? Life is not a problem to be solved, but a banquet to be enjoyed. I m not just talking about food, not just talking about Thanksgiving dinner. We all have so much to be thankful for, but many people take the good things in their lives for granted and focus instead on the things that aren t going too well or on the things they don t have. Living in a state of constant gratitude is one of the keys to having a happy life. You can t be miserable and filled with gratitude at the same time. Being grateful makes us happy. So what are some of the things you are grateful for as you look forward to Thanksgiving this Thursday? Here s a suggestion: Do like David did when he wrote Psalm 34. On a sheet of paper (or on your computer screen), make a column of the 26 letters of our alphabet, A to Z. Then think of something you re grateful for that begins with each letter. For example, A: I m grateful for apples. 3

4 B: I m grateful for broccoli. Well, maybe not broccoli. How about books? I m grateful for books. C: Christ. I m very grateful for Christ. D: David. I m grateful for King David, who wrote many of the psalms that we love. And so forth, all the way down to Z: zebras, zoos, zucchini, Zechariah anything you re grateful for that starts with the letter Z. Write down one thing you re grateful for for each letter of the alphabet. If you make a list of 26 things you re grateful for from Aleph to Tav I mean from A to Z I guarantee you will have a happy Thanksgiving this week and more happiness in your life every day. Happy Thanksgiving! 4

5 5 Rev. Tom Bierovic First Christian Church Shelbyville, TN November 23, 2014