Psalm 138: 1-8

I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart; before the gods I sing your praise; I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted your name and your word above everything. On the day I called, you answered me; you increased my strength of soul. All the kings of the earth shall praise you, O Lord, for they have heard the words of your mouth. They shall sing of the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord. For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he perceives from far away. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve me against the wrath of my enemies; you stretch out your hand, and your right hand delivers me. The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands

Luke 11:1-13

He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” So he said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, may your name be revered as holy. May your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.” And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’  And he answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’  I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything out of friendship, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs. “So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.  For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asked for a fish, would give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asked for an egg, would give a scorpion?  If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Lord, Teach us to Pray

Through these summer months, we continue to read from Luke’s Gospel. And our Old Testament reading this morning is from Psalms. Our focus this morning is on prayer. How to pray. What to pray. All the various kinds of prayers. This morning we have a rich menu of prayers.

Through these summer months, one of my goals is to encourage your interest in reading the Bible. I am hoping to inspire you to read the Bible. This is not meant to be a guilt trip. Many of us grew up in what I would call a “heavy handed Christianity” in which guilt was used as a motivator. But I want to inspire your interest in the Bible, because reading the Bible is enriching. Reading the Bible, especially for Christians, is something we do to enrich our lives. It makes us richer.

Now, last week we looked at Amos, and the week before, we looked at Deuteronomy, both difficult texts. This morning, I could have chosen a passage from Hosea. Hosea showed up in the lectionary readings for today. But I decided to spare you. So we are going to look at The Psalms. In general, I’m glad we can take a look at some of these Old Testament books together, because reading from the Old Testament connects us to an ancient community.

Loneliness and Connection

Speaking of connection, you know, so many people are lonely these days. And when a person is lonely and isolated, he or she is looking for a connection to others. Human beings need connection. We need community. We need to belong to a group of some kind. It’s just the way we are made.

Shari was in the grocery store this week and she told me about something she saw. A man in a wheelchair needed some help in the grocery store. He wanted some fresh corn on the cob, but it was all bundled up in bulk packaging and he couldn’t get to it. So, he asked a woman standing there to please help him. “Oh, you can do that yourself,” she said. And she walked away. (Without saying anything, Shari went over and helped him open the container.) But the point here is: how sad. Maybe the man could have done it himself. But he was obviously asking for connection. He needed someone to see him. To witness him as a human being, right there in the grocery store. People who need connection are everywhere. We all need a connection. We all need to be connected to some kind of community. This is because each one of us needs to be seen, needs to be heard, needs to be recognized and witnessed and shown that we matter, for who we are, right now, in this life.

Connecting to the Ancient Community

So, reading the Old Testament connects us to the ancient Israelite community. And it connects us to people all around the world right now who share this connection. The Old Testament is timeless. It speaks of the timeless needs of human beings. And so, it is valuable and enriching to read these ancient texts. They may not always be up to date with the complex needs of modern culture. But they are up to date with the timeless needs of human beings, those things which never change, those needs which are alive in each generation.

This brings us to the Psalms. This morning, we take up Psalm 138. But first, let’s begin with some background on The Psalms as a book in the Old Testament:

Some Background on The Psalms

Have you ever wondered why the word Psalm begins with the letter “P”? Well, here is your Bible trivia for the week. We have to go back to the Greek translation, to the Septuagint. Remember, a few weeks ago, I mentioned the “Septuagint”? The Septuagint was the name given to the first Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, translated in Alexandria, Egypt in the 3^rd century BC.

The Seventy (LXX)

“Septuagint” is a Greek word that means “seventy.” Sometimes the book is called “The translation of the seventy.” At the time of its translation, Ptolemy II Philadelphus was the Pharoah of Egypt. He lived during a time when the entire region was still under the influence of the Greeks, after Alexander the Great’s conquest.

Ptolemy II was culturally a Greek, but he was ruling Egypt as Pharoah! So, here we have such an amazing mix of culture and language. The history here is fascinating. (If you want to pursue this, check out the “Ptolemaic Kingdom” and the “Hellenistic Period.”)

Ptolemy II

Ptolemy II was a bookworm. He was a scholar. He liked libraries. So, as Pharoah of Egypt, he funded an expansion of the Library of Alexandria, the most important library in the ancient Mediterranean world. At the time, the city of Alexandria was the seat of power and culture in Hellenistic Egypt. The city was a mixing pot of three cultures: Egyptian, Greek, and Jewish. So, it was a natural place for the translation of ancient texts.

Now, in the Jewish community in Alexandria, there were few Jews who actually read or spoke Hebrew. Most of the Jews there spoke either Greek or Aramaic. So there was a need for the Jewish scriptures to be translated. As the story goes, Ptolemy II gathered 72 Hebrew scholars in Jerusalem and sent them to Alexandria to translate the Hebrew Bible into Greek.

This is a good story. But it’s more likely that the Jews already living in Alexandria did the translation themselves. However, this is where the name comes from. “The translation of the seventy” shortened to “the seventy,” that is, the “Septuagint.” And that’s what the book has been called ever since.

Translating the Hebrew Bible into Greek eventually brought many Greek words into English. And so, circling back to our original question, “Why does “Psalms” begin with the silent letter “p”? It comes from the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible.

The Hebrew word was “mizmor,” meaning songs sung with or without instrumental accompaniment, often expressing praise and thanksgiving.  But in the Septuagint, “mizmor” becomes “psalmos”.

The word “psalm” comes from the Greek word “psalmos”, which was a “song sung to a harp” or “performance on a stringed instrument”. This Greek word “psalmos” comes from the verb “psallein,” meaning “to play a stringed instrument,” or “to pluck a string.” All of these Greek words begin with the letter “p”. And this carried over into English.

An Ancient Collection of Sung Prayers

So, we could have just called them songs, or prayers, but we have this word Psalms with a “P” from the Greek. They are sung prayers. The Psalms are a collection of sung prayers. This is the only book in the Bible that does not tell a story. There is no narrative structure. There is no order or chronology. The Psalms is essentially an ancient prayer book, a collection of prayers that often were set to music, music often played on a plucked string instrument.

In the Psalms, we hear the voices of people talking to God, having a conversation with God, and we can recognize the entire range of human conversations. We hear the entire range of human emotions expressed in the Psalms. Each Psalm is unique. Each Psalm tells a story of it’s own. Some are heartbreaking. Some are jubilant. Some are private and solitary. Others are sung by entire congregations.

In The Psalms, we have a record of the community’s worship. We know what they said and what they did in worship. From generation to generation, people have spoken these prayers and have sung these songs. And we can see ourselves in this record. The Psalms connect us to this ancient community, and we see that we are like them. We are human beings, just like they were.

Psalm 138

Our reading this morning, Psalm 138, is a Psalm of thanksgiving and praise. It is a prayer offered by an individual, speaking to God. “I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart: before the gods I sing your praise.”

Now, this “before the gods” refers to the host of heaven. A better translation is probably “angels”, that is, all the angelic host of heaven gathered around God’s throne.

I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart: before all the angels of heaven I sing your praise.”

The psalm continues: “I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness; for you have exalted your name and your word above everything.”

Here, we have an example of praise. Praising God. If you have ever wondered what praising God looks like, here is an example. The speaker is happy, and grateful, and expresses this with whole heart and body, singing and bowing down, giving thanks to God.

Now, we may not always feel like this. But every once in a while, haven’t you ever felt like this? Something happens, something good happens, and you are so happy, so relieved, so thankful, that you want to jump for joy! You want to bow down to the ground. You want to do something! You want to praise God, and to express this with your entire body!

Luke

Now, let’s take a brief look at our reading from Luke. This is a teaching on prayer. One of the disciples asks Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray.” And Jesus shows them how to pray. Here we have the origin of the Lord’s prayer, which we pray each week. Then, in the next section, Jesus talks about asking. “Ask, and it will be given you; search and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.”

Sincerely asking from the depths

So many times, we don’t really know what we want or what we need. Maybe you feel that something is missing, that your life is not going well, or that something doesn’t feel right. And yet, you are not sure what that is. You don’t know what you really need.

This asking Jesus is talking about– this is a deep kind of asking. It’s the asking that comes from the depths of the soul. He’s not talking about frivolous requests. “I want a new car!” or “I want some chocolate ice cream!” He’s talking about the things that feed our soul. Ask for things from the depth of your heart. And this brings us back to the Psalms.

Longing of the Soul

In the Psalms, we are given words that express the deepest longings of the soul. These words are written down for all of us. They are public expressions. In Psalms we have an entire catalogue of soul-felt expressions. And this is why they are important. We find in the Psalms expressions and examples of prayer. Deep prayer from the hearts of people. And we can pray these prayers, too. We can find expressions of our longing, our joys, our hopes, our fears, all right here in the Psalms.

 A Daily Prayer Practice

In conclusion, our readings today suggest a recommendation for a daily prayer practice. If you are interested in a daily prayer practice, but are not sure what to do, you could follow this simple example from our readings. Each morning when you wake up, you could begin the day by praying the Lord’s prayer and then reading a Psalm. That would be a very nice way to begin the day. Remember that with these two forms of prayer, The Lord’s Prayer and a Psalm, we find connection to people of faith both now and going back generations. May it be so for you. Amen? Amen.