Psalms: (Subdued) Excitement

Psalm 145:8–14 NRSV

8 The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. 9 The Lord is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made. 10 All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your faithful shall bless you. 11 They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom, and tell of your power, 12 to make known to all people your mighty deeds, and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. 13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. The Lord is faithful in all his words, and gracious in all his deeds. 14 The Lord upholds all who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down.

The City of Subdued Excitement. If you don’t know this yet, this is the unofficial slogan of the City of Bellingham. I did a little research into where this comes from and found out a little bit of the history. The motto was coined by a man named Stephen Stimson, former owner of Lone Wolf Antiques on Prospect St., downtown Bellingham. In 1994, Stimson painted a mural on the wall of the 109 Prospect building, just down the street from the Post Office and the old Bellingham museum with the words “Ye Olde City of Subdued Excitement” scrawled across the bottom. He used those words, according to the story, because City and Subdued flowed well together, and the slogan stuck.

I’d argue that Stimson hit on something deep in our city’s psyche, a relaxed, laid back, yet crackling vibe of exuberance and possibility that our city typifies. When I came up to visit Bellingham in the year 2000, preparing to come to school at Western, I felt that crackle of subdued excitement as I walked down Railroad Avenue. This place is quirky, yet welcoming, vibrant and hopeful, while also honest about the truths of our struggling world.

Now, as I’ve been a part of this community for over 20 years, I still feel that crackle when we get together for community events and celebrations.

If there’s something Bellingham knows well, it’s how to celebrate and bring the excitement. This weekend, our city celebrates Pride, joining with the LGBTQIA+ community to celebrate the fullness of our humanity together, joyously affirming that Love Wins, Love is Love, and Love Conquers All (which, of course, are deeply biblical principles).

But it’s not only Pride: Bellingham’s subdued excitement can be tasted all throughout the year, at things like the St. Patrick’s Day parade, Ski to Sea, Welcome Back Weekend for Western Students, and other various and sundry celebrations that pop up, seemingly out of nowhere. This city knows how to celebrate.

I want to highlight this about our city because this posture of subdued excitement is something we can understand and learn from as a church.

The hope of the church, our Christian faith, rests upon the glorious reality of God’s ultimate reign here on earth as it is in heaven. And our work, as liturgical people (people who do the “work” of worship), is to celebrate this impending gathering up of all creation to praise God. We are a people who are preparing for celebration, longing for things to be made right (remember, we are also a “how long” people). Each time we turn our praise to God, or when we gather in Christ’s name, we forecast and prepare to taste the fullness of God’s goodness, while also acknowledging that we are awaiting it still.

How can we sing these songs of praise in a broken, hurting world?

How could the Hebrew people sing these songs when their world was full of struggle between the nations, failures in their leadership, and a general wandering away from God that was indicative of their history (and also sounds strikingly like our history, as well)?

They worshiped, the sang, they prayed with words like these, from Psalm 145, because they speak of a joy and hope that we can glimpse, taste, and anticipate.

Leanne Van Dyk, in her commentary on this passage, says:

Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year A, Volume 3 Theological Perspective

Because God’s greatness is unlimited and comprehensive, praise is unlimited and comprehensive.

Let’s look a bit more at this text, Psalm 145.

Psalm 145:8-9 is one of the most oft quoted verses in the Psalter, a reminder of God’s deep compassion for us: Psalm 145:8-9

Psalm 145:8–9 NRSV

8 The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. 9 The Lord is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made.

God is not like what we expect. Here we do not have a vengeful, wrathful God, but rather a God who is slow to anger. Let’s pause on that and note: there is deep wisdom and maturity in being slow to anger. Obviously, we’ve grown to expect that from God, but contrast that to other rulers, leaders, powerful people in our lives: are they slow to anger? Are they abounding in compassion? Well, as a general rule, I’d guess probably not — that’s not how we expect people to function, sadly. So when we hear God is this way, it should reinforce our joy that something different and much more right is happening when we experience God’s love.

The Psalm goes on: God’s works are praised, the way God takes care of all creation, from everlasting to everlasting. Generation to generation. God is faithful in words and deeds. While we might be quick to question each others’ motives, we can say with assurance that God’s designs upon creation are just and righteous, full of compassion and grace.

All of this, all of this — it points to a core emotion: excitement. How? Well, rising out of this song of praise, can’t we see that it is good to celebrate? It is good to respond with excitement and joy!

God’s abundant grace is shared with us all. All of us. The joy and exuberance, the excitement and providing hand are not limited by who we are — God pays attention to and cares for us all. Can you hear this? You, me, all of us — God’s grace extends over us all.

All reality:

- Good to all

- Compassion over all God has made

- Raises up all who are bowed down

- Goes on: near to all who call, fulfills the desire of all who revere, watches over those who love him

In case this imagery needs further reinforcement, it’s important to note something of how this Psalm is structured. To engage with the original Hebrew of this text is to see it glimmer with symbolism and depth. This Psalm is written as an Hebrew alphabet acrostic. Each new line begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet, beginning with Alef and finishing with Tav. The Hebrew people would have had this poem memorized, ready to be prayed and sung in their celebrations. It is easier to remember because of the acrostic styling, each successive line reminding us of God’s abundant love and grace, Alef, Bet, Vet, Gimel, Dalet, Heh and beyond!

This simple pneumonic device illuminates the beauty and intentionality of such texts. These are meant to be accessible, tools that teach and help us remember who God is. This would be the kind of thing you could pass down quickly through the generations, everyone remembering that God is good, gracious, merciful, full of love, slow to anger, great in all things.

Do you find, sometimes, that you need to be reminded of this immense Goodness of God? I know I do. Often, it feels like my joy is much more subdued, a little bit underwhelming, sometimes downright absent.

When we talk about joy and excitement in the Biblical text, it very easy to slip into a mode that says everything has to be great, we need to always see splendor and glory and joy every where we look. And we all know this is not the case.

I go back to the word “subdued” in our city slogan. I find that this word actually gives permission to experience the exuberance, joy, and praise of God — while also knowing feelings like depression, anxiety, despair, and uncertainty. We need texts like Psalm 145 to speak of God’s goodness — AND we need to know that it is ok, as the Psalmist speaks of, to be bowed down, falling, struggling, crying out. Not that we want these things, but it is important to acknowledge it is from these spaces God hears us and offers this immense, unlimited grace.

So are you down? Or maybe are you just a bit subdued? Remember this good promise, that the Lord is faithful in all his words and gracious in all his deeds. God meets us and is good to us.

This is Pride Sunday, as we’ve already noted. My hope, each year that we participate in the Pride celebration with our city, is that we can be a Christian witness to how God meets us where we are and loves us for who we are. If you come down to the event after church, I hope the thing that stick with you is that it is a chance for us, as the church, to love and welcome and celebrate those around us who are often pushed away, denied, and harmed by systems of power in our world. This event is a chance for that excitement to become less subdued and more truly honored.

Remember, the Lord is gracious and merciful — The Lord provides with open arms, in abundance.

And so we give thanks. And we share this good news — God is with us and God is love.

We’re visiting these Psalm texts this summer in order to build out our emotional understanding, our emotional and praise intelligence. We acknowledge the deep difficulties and pains of this world — and we work with these Psalms to train our hearts and minds in a different way, a way that expects God to work with us in those emotions, those struggles, and provide grace and mercy freely to us, where we are. God hears our cries. And not just our cries, like we have a corner on the market, but rather the cries of all who lift their voices up to God. Our praises rise together today, praising God for all God does, even amidst all our struggles and pain. God is good and faithful.

There are so many things in our lives today that bring us down. We can look at our nation’s politics, the work of our justice system, the impending doom of climate disaster, 500 days of war in Ukraine, and a long list of other immense struggles we face as a collective humanity. There is much to be concerned about.

But our posture, as the people of God, is to subversively resist despair and, instead, to celebrate.

The people of God, in times of famine and times of fullness, learn and practice celebration. Joy. Excitement.

I’ll close with this thought: In a hurting world, a world that struggles to be made right on its own, I believe that the Christian story is a healing balm. And it is for this reason: In the face of all adversity and struggle, the Christian story is one of dancing and joy and excitement, even in protest and resistance of such difficulties. We sing God’s song and tell of God’s goodness in spite of, in the face of, in resistance against, all such deep pains. We lift our voices in praise AT THE SAME time as being a people who say “how long?” We embrace this dissonance, knowing that in our joy and celebration, healing happens, hope arrives.

So church, we must be people who celebrate! Who bring whatever manner of excitement and hope we can. And we do this acknowledging the pain, affirming the harm that we’ve experienced, and faithfully saying: God you are good, your grace and mercy are abounding; even still.

Will we be this kind of people? Will we be this witness in the world? I pray it may be so.