A Reflection on Psalm 16 and the N.T.Book of Hebrews – by Geoff Serpell
The16th Psalm reveals that fear can be overcome by trust in God. Being complete means happiness and contentment whilst we have the gift of a conscience to help our unswerving faith in God.
The lectionary reading from Hebrews requires us to keep stirring up- the church, having the example of God’s Son, making a supreme sacrifice, forgiving, and loving so we too may follow His great example, putting our tangible assets to one side and encouraging each other to have a stronger faith.
If we see the psalms as a book of worship for the Hebrew congregation of the day, then this `16th is a hymn. The request to be kept from harm in uncertain times is similar to the Lord’s Prayer, “Save me from the time of trial”. Verse 7 is like a prayer, leading to contemplation, meditation and reading the scriptures.
Beth Tanner, connected to the South Melbourne Baptist Church, comments on the psalm and reports a game her family plays with local and national news programming. They list all the things they were told to be afraid of in a 30 minute span. The average is from 6 to 8 per broadcast, ranging from races of persons, to scary multi-national terror groups, “to the dangers of sunscreen”. It is Mrs Tanner’s way of showing her children just how much of the media is designed to keep them fearful. The theme of the Psalm is an antidote to a culture of selling fear. The theme is trust God in the face of an uncertain future.
The person who has the characteristics in this psalm is “complete” and so is happy and content. Being content lies not in material assets, which are not going with us when we pass on, but rather being content with God and our relationship with God and our relationships with each other and our place in God’s Kingdom. This completeness provides us with strength and confidence to speak out and act against worldly unjust powers. We have also been gifted a conscience to keep us in the way of the Lord. Finally the psalm concludes with praise of what is to come in the future and that future is secure in God’s hands.
The kingdoms of the world are violent and unjust taking Saudi Arabia and Nigeria as two examples, so trust should rather be placed in God’s right hand where our complete selves are to be found.
My New Bible commentary says that the NT book of Hebrews is a gold mine for those who want to dig deeply. There is much treasure here to enrich our understanding of God and his purposes. We are provided with insights into the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ and the nature of salvation. Of interest is to ask who wrote this book. Paul? Maybe not. Maybe Barnabas, the Levite from Cyprus. Another guess is Apollo, a highly educated Alexandrian Jew. It matters little who God chooses to write Hebrews.
The book was written to encourage Jewish converts, familiar with the Old Testament, to not revert to Judaism. The theme of the book is the absolute supremacy and sufficiency of Jesus Christ as revealer and mediator of God’s Grace. The promises and prophecies of the Old Testament are fulfilled in the ‘new covenant’ or New Testament, of which Christ is the mediator. Hebrews could be called the book of better things.
In our secular litigious society, there is the trend to make more and more laws. Rarely do we examine the heart of what is going on. This resembles the situation in Hebrews in which every priest stands day after day at his service offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins. When the way is lost we want more laws and control, but these do not change the underlying situation.
The writer of Hebrews is clear that Jesus’ offering changes this dynamic for all time. Now a new covenant will be made with people’s hearts and minds, and the Holy Spirit will institute and enable a whole new way of being and doing for God’s people. In acts of love and Christlike service there is no law or legal impediment.
Jesus was to share fully in our humanity, to suffer and die, so that he might fulfil the high-priestly role of making atonement for our sins. Hebrews encourages us to endure in faith, hope and love whatever the struggles and difficulties we have. We are able to live out our faith to the full, and have a life of love in action.
The fact that Christ, our great high priest, has opened the curtain to the blocked access to the Most Holy Place in the Jewish temple, calls us to exercise our freedom- confidently drawing near to God in faith, continuing public witness to our faith, and encouraging one another through service and love.
Here is an analogy from cooking: if you don’t stir up the pot on the stove, the ingredients will settle to the bottom, stick to the pot and eventually transform into a mass of charred gunk. Stirring not only keeps the goodness from settling to the bottom but also serves to blend a dish that is savoury, delicious and nourishing. Through love, we are required to stir up one another and encourage us all to do good works. We should keep the pot cooking and we need to be regular in worship.
In a gift book from our son Andrew, called “Australian Stories of Hope and Joy”, a chapter written by the Australian Rev. Gordon Moyes who was the Minister at Cheltenham Church of Christ years ago, relates the recovery of an World War two aeroplane from a crash site in Greenland. Years after the crash, a Bob Cardin planned to burrow 268 feet down through ice to remove the plane piece by piece using a meltdown generator pumping hot water to melt the ice about two feet per hour down a narrow shaft through the ice. Every piece of the plane was eventually removed and taken to USA for restoration. The world’s only P-38 was flying again.
Bob was an example of what the New Testament calls a ‘witness’. A witness is someone like Bob, who was there and who can testify to what he saw and heard, telling a story of rescue, restoration, renewal and rejoicing. His message in its essential parts was similar to that of Christians making their witness to Jesus Christ.
Rescue. The whole point of the coming of Jesus was an expression of God’s love for a lost humanity. Outside of God, each of us is lost. We need to be rescued.
Recovery. Once found, we must be brought back from the icy grip of death. As the plane was entombed without any future, so we are dead in sin until we hear a voice calling us to come out of the tomb, and we are raised to walk in new life.
Restoration. That recovery leads to our restoration. Paul wrote, ‘If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.’
Rejoicing. We have no alternative but to witness to this restoration of our true nature. We have been rescued, recovered, restored! The outcome of all witness is praise to God. The witness is always rejoicing.
When such a person witnesses to the life-changing power of Jesus Christ, others want to receive it and believe it too.
Finally, from the 2018 Friendship Book, for 31 October there is a reference to the Australian Coat of Arms. Being a book published in Britain, they know about the emu and kangaroo on it.
Both the emu and the kangaroo can cover ground rapidly when moving forward, but have more difficulty backing up.
The notion was that Australia, like the animals on its Coat of Arms, should always be striding forward.
Sometimes in life we have to move backwards but, as often as we can, let’s make it a run up to a great bound forward.
In the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
