Fourth Sunday of Lent | A Song of Glad Deliverance

Psalm 32
“Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered…” 

We all live under the shadow of our culpability, masked by our denial of the true state of things. We live in an illusion about what we’ve done. Maturity is the process by which we shed these illusions and move toward a more realistic view of ourselves.

No illusion is more persistent than our illusion of innocence.

Our feigned illusion of innocence is what derails our attempts to find home and community. Those of us who live on this side of Eden must surrender our claims to innocence so we can find our true home among the community of the lost and broken, where reconciliation may be found.

As Burt Burleson has noted, “Before Saint Augustine was a saint, he was a mess.” When we think of Augustine’s rampant sexual promiscuity as a young man in North Africa, “Sophie’s Choice” author William Styron might describe it as a “headlong rush toward carnal oblivion.”

Augustine agonized over his remorse for his wasted years, scarred by his guilt. As he struggled with these things and longed to know himself as truthfully as possible, he reported, “I was admonished to return to my own self…”

Some wise soul (perhaps his spiritual guide Ambrose?) directed him to look deep inside himself to see himself as completely as possible.

I read that Augustine had this Psalm inscribed above his bed so it would be the first thing he saw every morning. 

Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
Happy are those to whom the LORD imputes no iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit …
(Psalm 32:1-2, NRSV)

Richard Rohr, a native Kansan who has become a well-known Franciscan writer on spirituality and formation, says that, ultimately, there is no knowledge of self that doesn’t lead to a knowledge of God. Likewise, there is no knowledge of God that doesn’t lead to a knowledge of self.

Rohr likely had read Thomas Merton, who said, “If I find Him, I will find myself, and if I find my true self, I will find Him.”

When Augustine said, “I was admonished to return to my own self…” maybe he was suggesting that God is closer to me than I am to myself.

Psalm 32 is part of the traditional listing of the seven penitent psalms. It’s a psalm of thanksgiving offered by individuals after they have been forgiven of sin and experienced healing.

In his study of the Psalms, Walter Brueggemann identified a three-part pattern of how God works in the world.

First, there is a time of orientation. The Psalms sing the songs of creation and of God’s glory and power in making the world. These orientation psalms speak grandly of God’s world and the wonder about human creation, male and female.

But there’s a second group of psalms that describe a time of disorientation. These are the songs sung in sadness and disarray. They are mournful as they describe the days of lament, personal wrongdoing, or when the people of God were disobedient to God’s laws.

Finally, there is a third group of psalms dedicated to the time of reorientation. These are songs of surprise and celebration at God’s restoration of the unfaithfulness of the man or woman of God. They are hymns and songs of thanksgiving offered up to God for doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.

These are the days of reorientation when David the psalmist can see what a mess he has made of himself and how he has gone before God confessing his sin.

After his contrition has been offered, to his utter surprise, he discovers he has been granted a reprieve by forgiveness. In that great and boundless joy, he can say: Thou art my hiding place; Thou dost preserve me from trouble; Thou dost surround me with glad songs of deliverance.

In this season of Lent, our worship will focus on the interior world described by the psalms. Recognizing that the psalms are, in essence, ancient poetry, here’s a poem from our own time to allow the poets of then and the poets of now to carry on a conversation we can overhear in our own time.

When Someone Deeply Listens to You by John Fox

i

When someone deeply listens to you
it is like holding out a dented cup
you’ve had since childhood
and watching it fill up with
cold, fresh water.
When it balances on top of the brim,
you are understood.
When it overflows and touches your skin,
you are loved.

ii

When someone deeply listens to you
the room where you stay
starts a new life
and the place where you wrote
your first poem
begins to glow in your mind’s eye.
It is as if gold has been discovered!

iii

When someone deeply listens to you
your bare feet are on the earth
and a beloved land that seemed distant
is now at home within you.

 

The purpose of Lenten discipline is a self-examination that guides us to consider greater conformity to God’s mind and vision to adopt a more effective ministry for the world. In the theme of the shadows of Lent, we are invited into a dialogue exploring our inner being.

Help us, O God, as we seek our reorientation in you.