Psalm 16
“My Chosen Portion and My Cup”
August 2, 2020
In your home, if I had to guess, every one of you could find something that was handed down to you from a previous generation. Maybe it’s a photo of your grandparents’ wedding or a piece of art that once hung in your in-law’s home. Perhaps it’s those silver spoons that you keep meaning to polish that a dear aunt was meticulous in taking care of just as her aunt did before her or some other keepsake that has a story and a name and a face attached to it.
If we don’t have an actual object we can pick up or point to, I invite you to step into the bathroom – when the service is over, of course – and take a good look in the mirror. There you will find your grandfather’s eyes or your uncle’s chin or the sprinkle of freckles that look an awful lot like those of your mother or some other trait – your laugh, your walk or the wave of your hair that has the power to transport you back in time to that family member.
In this beautiful Psalm of trust, this prayer song of trust, are verses 5 and 6 that Phyllis read as “Lord, you give me all that I need. You support me. You give me my share. My share is wonderful. My inheritance is very beautiful.” This concept of inheritance comes first in the book of Joshua and refers to land and the concept of figuring out each Israelite’s portion that represented a future that would include the possibility of sustenance, survival and thriving. The language from Joshua is being used by the Psalmist to express the fact that they are putting their life in God’s hands knowing that God will always be there and always provide a way even when there seems to be no way.
In the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, Peter cites this Psalm in his Pentecost sermon. These are words that make a powerful statement to new converts to this Jesus-following tradition. They are also words we can lean into here and now because in this short psalm of prayer we hear the ABCs of our faith in a nutshell. “You are my Lord (v. 2), You do not give up on me. (v. 10), and You show me the path of life.”
This past week was filled with the homegoing of Congressman and Civil Rights leader John Lewis. Lewis studied to be a minister starting out on the traditional path of seminary but soon recognized that his ministry would be outside of a church building where he felt God was calling him in the face of entrenched injustice and racism. His was a powerful example of someone whose faith in God showed him the path he was to take and who felt God was ever-present in the struggle.
In an interview he gave a few years ago John Lewis said, “I’m deeply concerned that many people today fail to recognize that the movement was built on deep-seated religious convictions. And the movement grew out of a sense of faith—faith in God and faith in one’s fellow human beings.”
He went further:
“Sometimes when I look back and think about it, how did we do what we did? How did we succeed? We didn’t have a website. We didn’t have a cellular telephone. But I felt when we were sitting in at those lunch counter stools, or going on the Freedom Ride or marching from Selma to Montgomery, there was a power and a force. God Almighty was there with us.”
The inheritance we each have – that we are held and treasured by God – what is possible with such knowledge? If you had full confidence that no matter how risky or scary something you felt called to do by the power that is beyond our full understanding that is our God, would you be able to take that chance? Those ancestors of ours – the risk takers that went before us, letting their faith in God help them forge a path for others can be found throughout scripture.
Think of Queen Esther who risked her life in order to preserve the lives of the Jews living in Babylon or Nehemiah who led a number of Jews in repairing the walls of Jerusalem that were broken in spite of threats and enemies who tried to kill him or even Zacchaeus the tax collector who climbed a tree to get Jesus’ attention and ended up giving half of his possessions to the poor and repaid those he had cheated four times over.
Maybe you have a relative who took great chances in their life for a better way. Knowing that the great God of all of us will stick by us and show us that better way can endow us with the power to seek out a new path for ourselves and those we care about.
In an interview with PBS 16 years ago, John Lewis shared these words:
“In my estimation, the civil rights movement was a religious phenomenon. When we’d go out to sit in or go out to march, I felt, and I really believe, there was a force in front of us and a force behind us, ’cause sometimes you didn’t know what to do. You didn’t know what to say, you didn’t know how you were going to make it through the day or through the night. But somehow and some way, you believed — you had faith — that it all was going to be all right.”
Carry this 16th Psalm with you and all that it says about the power of God that we have inherited for our living and breathing and doing and loving. In another take on the prayer that is Psalm 16, hear the final verses in this interpretation from Nan C. Merrill:
I bless the Counselor who guides
my way;
In the night also does my heart instruct me.
I walk beside the Spirit of Truth;
I celebrate the Light.
I bask in The Oneness of All!
Thus my heart is glad, and my soul
rejoices;
I shall not be afraid,
nor fall into the pit of despair;
For in Love’s presence I know fullness
of joy.
You are my Beloved, and, in You
will I live forever! (Psalms for Praying)
Amen.