November 3, 2024
William G. Carter
On the week of a national election, the scripture texts offer a faithful context of the work that is always before us. The call to worship comes from the central affirmation of the Jewish faith: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord alone; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and might. God is first in all that we feel, think, and do. Nothing comes before the One who gave us life. We love the One who first loved us.
The Gospel lesson takes a snapshot from a moment when Jesus was questioned by a Bible scholar. Which of the 613 divine instructions is the first, greatest, and best? Naturally, Jesus says, “Hear, O Israel, love the Lord your God.” Then he immediately glues it to have a verse from Leviticus, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” God comes first, and God gave us every person around us. We love the One who first loved us, we love the ones that God has given us. Jesus will not separate what God has joined together. That’s the foundation for all public policy and every decision we make.
And then there is
the psalm for today, which speaks of God and neighbor. Listen to this:
I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God all my life long.
Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals, in whom
there is no help.
When their breath departs, they return
to the earth; on that very day, their plans perish.
Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose
hope is in the Lord their God,
who made heaven and earth, the sea,
and all that is in them;
who keeps faith forever; who executes
justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets the prisoners free; the Lord opens
the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves
the righteous.
The Lord watches over the strangers; he upholds the orphan and the
widow,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
The Lord will reign forever, your God,
O Zion, for all generations. Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, love the Lord your God. Psalm 146 declares the primary theme of the book of Psalms, that God is the ruler over every human life. That the God of eternity will outlive every human life, for “the Lord will reign forever.” That the Holy One of Israel, church, and whole world, is worthy of human praise, because God offers help and hope and faithfulness.
There’s also mention of our neighbors, especially those who are struggling: the oppressed, the hungry, the prisoner, the blind, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow. The God who rules over everything is on their side. That’s the clear testimony of scripture. If there’s anybody out there who takes advantage of other people, who puts them down or keeps them down, God the Ruler will become the judge. As the psalmist says, “The way of the wicked (God) brings to ruin.” This is God’s world. These are God’s people. There is no dispute.
And then there’s that sticky little line in verse three: “Do not put your trust in princes.” The word for prince is a royal word, a leadership word, a word of economic privilege. The princes are those people who believe they are in charge. Don’t sink all your hopes in anybody like that, says the psalm. It’s a line repeated from Psalm 118:9, under the general Biblical rule that if it’s worth saying once, it’s worth saying again.
So, in the middle of a poem offering elaborate praise of God, the poet says don’t put all your faith in a mere mortal. Mere mortals cannot do everything they promise. Mere mortals are never going to live long enough to get it all done. In fact, they may be full of hot air and bluster, aiming to gain popular approval at best, or to scam you at worst. This is the word of the Lord; thanks be to God. And we know it is the word of the Lord because it tells the truth.
Regardless of its truthfulness, it is an unusual line, like finding a pebble in your oatmeal. Yet it’s worth remembering that a line like that is based in years of practical experience. In Israel’s case, at least five hundred years of experience. Some scholars believe the book of Psalms was collected as early as 500 years before ethe birth of Jesus, if not a good deal later. During that long history, the people of God had been disappointed by one bad national leader after another.
It began early, with the prophet Samuel. The people of Israel said, “We want a king. Every other nation has a king. We want a king, too.” Samuel said, “We already have a king. God is our king.” The people said, “But we want a king. Ask God to give us a king.” Samuel was beside himself. So, he prayed to the Lord, “What should I do?” God replied, “Remind them of what kings are like.”
So, Samuel said, “Let me tell you about kings. They send your kids into war. They take your fields and your crops. They demand you make his weapons for him. They steal your daughters. They take your livestock. They take your servants. They make you their servants. And when you wake up and see what kings are truly like, you will whine about it. You don’t want a king.”
And the people said, “But everybody else has a king. Why can’t we have one?” Samuel reported this to the Lord. The Lord shook the divine head, and said, “Well, give them a king.” They aren’t going to learn any other way.[1] And for the next five hundred years, they had one inadequate ruler after another. Inadequate is a kind word.
Saul was the first. Tall, good looking, subject to emotional turmoil. He made terrible decisions, got a little batty, finally exposed himself as a coward. Then came David, wise, good looking, morally suspect, beloved but with a profoundly ambivalent legacy, depending on which Bible book you read. Then it was King Solomon, a builder, a very wise man, who couldn’t keep his tunic on. After that, it really unraveled. Five hundred years of bad leadership can do that.
So, the psalmist looks back and says, “Don’t put your trust in a prince, in a mere mortal. Put your trust in God. God give help and hope.”
It was an important word for Israel. The historians kept a record of all the achievements and failures of Israel’s princes. It was so long they had to break it into two scrolls, titled “First Kings” and “Second Kings.” If we read them, we discover two things noteworthy about those scrolls. First, the primary characters are not the kings, but the prophets. The truth tellers of God. The preachers. They are the mighty ones. When they are full of God’s Spirit and clearly speaking for God, the prophets interpret God’s ways. That means they are constantly going up against the long chain of imperfect kings.
The second thing noteworthy is the title of the scrolls: Kings. In his commentary on the book, one scholar says the title should have a question mark. “Kings? You call these kings?” They are certainly a poor substitute for God, who rules over all.
All of this is the backstory for the lesson from the Psalms. The people of God need good leaders. But none of them are perfect. Some of them aren’t even close. The possibility of power twists them away from the virtues of public service. As one of our retired county commissioners said once to one of our adult classes here, “If money gets in their pockets, elected leaders can easily forget what they are there to do.” We asked, “What are they there to do?” And he replied, "Serve the public good.” There it is.
So, what’s the word of God for us? “Don’t put your trust in princes.” By subtraction, that means, “Put your trust in God.” It’s all about investing in the things that God cares about. To care about the people that God created. And Psalm 146 provides a list. The end of the Psalm sounds like a drum beat of righteousness:
The Lord executes justice for the oppressed; the Lord
gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets the prisoners free; the Lord opens
the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves
the righteous.
The Lord watches over the strangers; the Lord upholds the orphan and
the widow,
but the way of the wicked the Lord brings to ruin.
It’s clear to me that the Lord undertakes these tasks through the people who care about God’s own values. None of them will be perfect. Yet perhaps they can prove that they are worthy of our investment in their service. There is no reason for us to name names. The names change, the issues are the same. We are fortunate to have a democratic system to choose our leaders or replace our leaders. It’s imperfect but it is the best system we have, and it means we are not stuck with whoever was born next into the royal line. We have choices.
Back in 1989, I attended an event at Muhlenberg College. It was the bicentennial of the American constitution. That Lutheran college brought in Martin Marty, the Lutheran church historian, to talk about the constitution. The first thing that Lutheran said to that mostly Lutheran audience was, “Thank God for the Presbyterians!” All the Lutherans gasped, then he explained.
When James Madison was drafting the American constitution, he drew from his college education. He surprised his family skipping out on the College of William and Mary, choosing instead to study at the College of New Jersey, now called Princeton University. He studied Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and theology, and then stayed on to study political philosophy with John Witherspoon. That’s the Rev. John Witherspoon, Presbyterian minister, the only clergy person who would go to sign the Declaration of Independence.
Witherspoon taught him two key ideas. First, drawing upon Presbyterian principles, the people must be empowered to elect their own leadership. No princes, no kings, no endless tenures. Second, and just as important, Witherspoon taught we should never put absolute power in the hands of a single person. They can’t be trusted with it. The possibility of corruption is too high. There must be checks and balances. Leaders must be accountable to the people who elected them to serve.
So, when Madison sat down to work out the constitution, he rolled both of those ideas into our founding document. He knew it was an imperfect system, but there would always be the possibility of amendment and improvement. And it all began with his studies with a Presbyterian: elect your own leaders, don’t give them unchecked power. Or in the words of Dr. Martin Marty, thank God for the Presbyterians.
The good news is that the election season
is coming to an end. It’s been long. It remains contentious. It could be
contested. But it’s almost over. Some will cheer the outcome. Others will not. The
challenge of an imperfect system is the imperfect people who run for office and
the imperfect people who vote for them.
Yet here’s the one question that lingers
for me. I hope it will linger for you. How will the decisions that you and I
make reflect the values of the Lord our God? Will we move toward improving our
love for God and neighbor? Or will we settle for something far less than the
hope and help that God sets before us. All of us get to decide that one. Time
will tell.
Meanwhile, God will continue to rule over
heaven and earth, watching to see if we are paying attention to what really
matters.
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