God's Personal Touch
God’s Personal Touch
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ay the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen!
A friend of mine recently passed away. At his request I performed his funeral — which truly was a great honor on the one hand, and a sad duty on the other. For you see, my friend did not believe in the same kind of God that you and I celebrate and worship.
He told me that he believed in a divine being; but that he believed that the divine being simply created the world, established the laws of nature, and then stepped out of the picture.
It was incomprehensible that a divine being would have the interest or the time to be concerned or become involved in the lives of human beings.
So, it seems, he believed in a creative God, but not a loving and a compassionate God who is very much concerned about and involved with my existence here on earth.
Our text for this evening is Psalm 121, which we read just a few moments ago. Listen to what David has to say about the kind of God who has chosen us to be his children: I lift up my eyes to the hills-- where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip-- he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD watches over you-- the LORD is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD will keep you from all harm-- he will watch over your life; the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore. u
Feelin’ down and out? Feeling the weight of the world on your shoulders? Well, then, look up, says David. Look to the high places where God dwells. For that’s where you find your help — from God himself!
David identifies God for us — he is the maker of heaven and earth. We confess our faith in God the Father, maker of heaven and earth with such regularity that the enormity of that claim may have become minimized for us.
Maker of heaven and earth! As we look at the complexities of the creation and the laws that govern the on-going existence of the creation, the wisdom of God, the power of God the knowledge of God simply boggle the mind.
Few people can honestly look at the creation and reject the idea that anything but a divine being could account for its existence. (Luther referred to this as the natural knowledge of God.)
Now, the natural knowledge of God may tell us that there is a God, but it does not reveal to us who that God is and what his on-going relationship with the world is.
To learn who that God is requires what Luther called the revealed knowledge of God — that knowledge which is revealed to us in Holy Scripture.
David reveals to us that we have a creator God who was not content to merely create, then spin this old blue ball off into space to fend for itself.
On the contrary, because God created out of love, it would go against his nature to abandon us to the fates.
Even when that creation rebelled against him, he did not rebel against the creation.
We know from Paul’s letter to the Romans that even though we were sinners, God sent his Son into the world to reconcile to justify — to make right the wrongs of sin. This was accomplished when Jesus paid the debt of sin on our behalf — a debt paid not with money, but with his precious Body and Blood. That payment was accepted by God and has been applied to our account.
Our sins now having been paid, we stand free of sin’s guilt; we stand before the Almighty free of anything that would stand in the way of being his adopted child.
That Creator-God is also the Helper-God whom David praises this evening. He is a God who is always near enough to hear and respond to your every need.
David creates some beautiful pictures with his words this evening. While we may slumber and sleep, David assures us that the Almighty, caring God never slumbers and sleeps, but is always alert to our needs.
David says that God constantly watches over us. He serves to shade us from the hot, scorching, lethal sun, and he serves to protect us from all the things that go bump in the night.
In these few short verses, David emphasizes over and over again that God loves that which he created, and that he is the caretaker of that which he has created.
Tonight, the lonely can celebrate that they are never alone; tonight, the unloved are given the good news that they are loved by the Almighty Creator himself; tonight the weary can celebrate that there is a respite when we trust in God and allow him to help bear the load. Tonight those filled with fear can celebrate a God who promises to help those who trust in him.
Let us rejoice and celebrate that God so loved each and every one of us that he has called us by name in our baptism, chosen us to be his child, and has reserved a special place for us to reside with him for eternity.
And may God’s peace that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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The Rev. John F. Pope
Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church
Tempe, Arizona
February 27, 1996