Seek First His Kingdom

Call to Worship

Guide and direct us, O Lord, always and everywhere with your holy light, that we may discern with clear vision your presence among us, and partake with worthy intention of your divine mysteries. We ask this for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen.

Welcome

Good evening everyone, we find ourselves tonight working through the next Psalm in our series on those particularly wisdom-filled poems. Tonight’s readings are short, the Psalm being only 10 verses, and I think this can be a great time for us to work deeply through the message of the Psalm, not just verse by verse, but message by message. There’s a continuous story being told that can only be fulfilled in its totality, and that continuous story follows us today. St. Jerome, living in the 4th c., writes that this section is addressed to the neophyte, meaning new believer. Maybe that be some of you in this room tonight, maybe it’s your first time hearing my sermon, maybe it’s not. Hopefully tonight the preaching of the Word can instill in all of our hearts, from the new believer to the experienced to the doubting unbeliever. Either way, it is great to have you all hear, and let us begin in prayer and the reading of the Word.

Scripture Reading

Blessed Lord, who caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and the comfort of your Holy Word we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Old Testament

A reading from the Old Testament, the Book of Psalms, the 112th Chapter,

Psalm 112 “Hallelujah! / How blessed is the man who fears the Lord, / Who greatly delights in His commandments. / His descendants will be mighty on earth; / The generation of the upright will be blessed. / Wealth and riches are in his house, / And his righteousness endures forever. / Light arises in the darkness for the upright; / He is gracious and compassionate and righteous. / It is well with the man who is gracious and lends; / He will maintain his cause in judgment. / For he will never be shaken; / The righteous will be remembered forever. / He will not fear evil tidings; / His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord. / His heart is upheld, he will not fear, / Until he looks with satisfaction on his adversaries. / He has given freely to the poor, / His righteousness endures forever; / His horn will be exalted in honor. / The wicked will see it and be vexed, / He will gnash his teeth and melt away; / The desire of the wicked will perish.”

The Word of the Lord.

New Testament

A reading from the New Testament, the First Epistle of St. John, the 4th chapter, the 18th verse,

1 John 4:18 “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.”

The Word of the Lord.

Gospel Reading

The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, According to Matthew, the 6th chapter, the 33rd verse,

Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Matthew 6:33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Prayer for Inner Renewal Through the Word

Let this be a reminder that the Lord be with you. And with your Spirit. Let us pray.

Gracious God and most merciful Father, you have granted us the rich and precious jewel of your holy Word: Assist us with your Spirit, that the same Word may be written in our hearts to our everlasting comfort, to reform us, to renew us according to your own image, to build us up and edify us into the perfect dwelling place of your Christ, sanctifying and increasing in us all heavenly virtues; grant this, O heavenly Father, for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen.

Sermon

Tonight’s Psalm begins with a literal calling of praise for God, or, as in its Hebrew, “Hallelujah,” a phrase some may be familiar with. It precedes a number of Psalms, standing in for an association with the Psalm as a particular praise of thanksgiving to God. Compare it to Psalm 73, which I preached a little over a month back, in which the Psalmist describes his distress with the state of the world before praising God (as a literary device to express his unending praise nevertheless). We then can look at this Psalm as one that will be consistently praising the Lord throughout. This follows the same structure as Christ’s prayers. In the Lord’s prayer, for example, it begins with thanks and praise, “Hallowed be thy name,” then it leads into supplication (requesting from God). Now, there is a place for divine protest in Scripture, best exemplified by Job and the Preacher of Ecclesiastes, and the Psalmist of Psalm 73, but notice how they even use the supposed “unfairness” of the world as a way to praise God. Their limited visions are used as a background to their unbounded understanding with God at their center. They break past and reflect with the question, “Are we ever truly seeing the world, or only the idea of it within us?”

So in today’s Psalm, preceded and followed throughout as a song of thanksgiving, we are asked to see the world as our face to face interaction with God, a God who intimately keeps us in His fold. That in the Mosaic blessing, its twice repeated that the Lord will make his face shine upon you, and life up his face upon you, such that you will receive grace and peace. And of this face to face interaction, the Psalmist of Psalm 112 writes, “How blessed is the man who fears the God, / Who greatly delights in His commandments.” In the Mosaic blessing, we have a calling for God’s intercession to face us, and in the Psalm we have a calling for us to respond. Note how this is the same formula for wisdom described in the wisdom books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes,

Proverbs 9:10 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding”… Ecclesiastes 12:13 “The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person.”

This opening is why St. Jerome describes this Psalm as one for the newer believer, that this fear—which in the Hebrew is best understood as reverence, rather than the Halloween-style fear we are so quick to think of it as (given the season)—is the mark of beginners; and love, indeed, is that which we seek to take over, from our New Testament reading, “perfect love casts our fear.” Such, this Psalm, speaking to the new believer, is one that is setting the soul on the road to sanctity. And maybe it’s also one for all believers, when we age with God and he transforms us it’s not always easy for us to return to our roots. Think of schooling, we might know, via formulas, how to do more complicated math as we progress, but then we forget how to do said math without said formulas. Let us, then, cling to a deep reverence for God, not having in him a fear of death or punishment, but a love for his will. For the man who follows the commandments out of the fear of hell is not following God at all, and does not receive the same reward as the man who follows God out of perfect love, that perfect live which casts out fear. For the man that follows God out of love desires to accomplish the will of God. It is not just doing one’s bidding, or being a mere servant, but of a willing towards Him who has protected and blessed us, infinitely. That we note that the verse says he “who greatly delights.” As Jerome writes, [those] who have obeyed God from [their] own choice am worthy to become the father of saints.” Such then is the Law of God so different to the law of man, in which the law of man focuses primarily on the deed done, while the Law of God focuses on the intent and desire.

The third verse states, “Wealth and riches are in his house, / And his righteousness endures forever.” It would be gross and wholly unbiblical to compare these to the wealth and riches that come from the world. Christ spoke against the false content that comes from money when he speaks that Luke 18:25 “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Rather, he is speaking of the wealth and riches of the spirit, that which sanctifies and purifies us now through the Father and the Son. In the Beatitudes—the blessings—for example, Christ says, Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Notice the focus on the kingdom, that same kingdom from the Lord’s prayer after the praise/thanksgiving that, “your kingdom come, your will be done.” From our Gospel reading, just after the Beatitudes, Christ advises us to “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” And what are the “these things” here if not the “wealth and riches” of the Psalmist. Restated, what value is there to anything that is not in God, from God, and for God. Certainly the Psalmist references the kingdom by the wealth being “in his house,” for what house does Christ prepare for us other than the kingdom which did not come out of this world, but out of him who created it.

And the Psalmist recalls this preparation when he sings of “light aris[ing] in the darkness for the upright,” that, “he is gracious and compassionate and righteous.” Inseparably linked then is the wealth and riches of God’s heavenly kingdom, righteousness, and blessing. Being made right, in God’s eyes, or becoming reconciled with Him, is in the act of participating in the kingdom he made for us. And so the wealth is that of being filled with the overflowing and unending grace of God, given to us, and his riches the enrichment of knowledge of God (as Paul phrases it in his letter to the Corinthians) that arises in the upright. Again after the Beatitudes Christ says, “you are the light of the world.” Take that message and remember it. In this room we have a group of people who come from different walks of life, yet find themselves in this room tonight to praise God as the Psalmist does. And so we are called to be a light of the world when we leave tonight. This is why I used to end with that Mosaic blessing, and now end with a verse of peace week after week to bless you all, that in the hearing of the Word we are ever-blessed by the power of God such that we can be transformed by grace. You are not called to stay as you are, you are not called to relish in your past—past sin, regret, hopelessness—but to rest yourself in the Christ who died on that cross such that we are guaranteed life in Him alone. It is He who assures so much for us, we are assured in our salvation, assured in our wealth and riches that come not from this earth, and assured in our love of Him.

So what do we do with this grace given to us, the Psalmist continues, “It is well with the man who is gracious and lends… / For he will never be shaken.” I recall the story of St. Francis of Assisi, in whom we will be praying his prayer of participation in the Peace of God (which is Christ). Francis renounced the wealth he was owed by his parents in order to serve the church, he forsook all worldly possession so that he could care for those others in need. Many Many of you find yourselves in a place like his, worldly wealth and riches taken away, but note how the Psalmist does not preclude, rather fully includes exclusively, those that care not for the world. The man who is gracious and lends, then, is not that which showers the church in money, but he who showers the church in loving those as Christ did. In that perfect love which casts out fear.

And the next verses confirm, in praise, this truth that in perfect love fear is cast out: “He will not fear evil tidings; / His heart is steadfast, / trusting in the Lord / His heart is upheld, he will not fear…” Throughout this Psalm, there is praise given to God through the example of a man who, at first fears the Lord (in reverence), and then is led to him such that the man’s heart is held steadfast, such that the man will no longer fear. Think again to St. Jerome recommending this Psalm to the neophyte, new Christian. It almost seems like this Psalm documents the life of the new believer so beautifully. At first, we put our whole trust in God, revering Him even if that may be an initial difficult reality due to the hardness of our hearts. Then, as God works and transforms us, we no longer fear, but still revere. We no longer worry, but gain hope. We no longer despair, but trust in the Lord who upholds are hearts from his perfect love. Fear involves punishment, the Lord seeks not to punish us for our transgressions, for Christ came to wholly satisfy, but to rear us according to His ways.

Finally, hear how God speaks to us in our poverty, for after the just man—who indicates the Christian life of transformation, sanctification, and union with Christ—is described as being ‘gracious’ and ‘lending,’ we see it in action when the Psalmist ends,

Psalm 112:9–10 “He has given freely to the poor, / His righteousness endures forever; / His horn will be exalted in honor. / The wicked will see it and be vexed, / He will gnash his teeth and melt away; / The desire of the wicked will perish.”

Given to the poor are not those riches that only sustain for some time, or distract from what one spiritually needs, but that which allows one to share their righteousness so that both men endure forever. This goes against the wish of the wicked, like in Psalm 73, they, in their glamour of worldly pleasures, will gnash their teeth when their hardened hearts come and see the path of perishing they have bought for themselves. The desires of the wicked will perish, and the desire of the just will endure.

See how the just man has been described throughout, understand his purpose, and see it as a pre-figurement of Christ, St. Jerome in his commentary notes that, “ Now the happy man who is being described in this psalm is a just man in truth, but this just man is a type of the true just Man.” That throughout Scripture we see examples of the just, of the wise, of the peacemakers, of the holy, but all as traits in still yet broken men. Jerome continues, “If the saints are types (examples) prefiguring the Savior, the truly holy man, for example Isaia[h], is a type of the Lord and Savior, and so, too, are Joseph, David, Solomon, and the rest of the saints.” These saints, lit. ‘holy ones,’ can only express a modicum of the true just Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is God and Man, and, as such, our one true mediator between God and Man; Who although he is God and Man; yet he is not two, but one Christ; so God and Man is one Christ. Who suffered for our salvation, who gave to our spiritually poor souls all the wealth and riches of heaven.

There is much for discussion in this psalm, but since time prohibits, let us bless the Almighty Lord; and He who has such wealth and riches, that we can only attain through Him, may He give to those who have not; and may those who are without receive it in all joy. May the Lord grant to us, also, the grace to possess these riches that we may give them to those who have not, and to those who have that they may the more abound; and may the blessedness of the just and praising man be ours both in speaking and in heeding.

Last sermon I spoke of the difficulty in trusting God, the reality of that. But reading this Psalm as a positive thought on God has helped keep my head in the correct position. It’s hard to accept reality sometimes with anxiety, with undue fear. But God turns that fear into perfect love, and is that not exemplified here with such a beautiful example of how God works in the just man. [SMALL TESTIMONY] That only the positives are mentioned, in praise, that God could work in us, forevermore.

What benefit for me to pour forth wine if immediately that wine is spilled and wasted? You recall that in the Gospel water is put into jars, and it turns into wine and is preserved lest it be wasted. Let us, therefore, attend diligently to the words of God to whom be glory forever and ever. Let us attend to this Psalm, who, in praising God through the life of the just man and his heavenly reward, pre-figures that Christ Philippians 2:6–8 “who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” The true just man fulfilled the judicial gap between God and man, fully satisfying our transgressions. He gave wealth to the poor, blesses us by His being, turns our fears into perfect love, and lights a fire in our souls to share His gospel ‘good news’ to all the ends of the earth. He holds our hearts steadfast, that we would trust in Him, and will keep us above the wicked until the end of the earth.

Prayer for Participation in the Peace of God in the Tradition of St. Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace: where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is error, truth; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. O divine Master, grant that I may seek not so much to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

Lord’s Prayer and Absolution

Now let us end in community by praying the Lord’s prayer, receiving absolution in the embolism, and leaving blessed,

Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. 

We have erred and strayed from your ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against your holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done; and apart from your grace, there is no health in us. O Lord, have mercy upon us. Spare all those who confess their faults. Restore all those who are penitent, according to your promises declared to all people in Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake, that we may now live a godly, righteous, and sober life, to the glory of your holy Name. Amen.

For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. In the name of the Father, who creates, and of the Son, who redeems, and of the Holy Spirit, who sanctifies and purifies us before You, Amen.

Benediction

Let us end tonight in a benediction, from the words of St. Paul,

Colossians 3:15 “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.”