Presence Weekly 11/20/2023

[THE DEVO] Thanksgiving: The FULL Spread

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. 

How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? 

How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? 

How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,  lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,” lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken. 

But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me. - Psalm 13:1-6 (ESV)

This week, many will travel to gather with family (with various levels of joy and stress) to celebrate Thanksgiving. Our family will assemble in Galveston, Texas, since that is where our grandchildren will be while our son-in-law does a “residency audition” as he finishes up his final year of medical school. Our other children will fly in from locations across the country so that we can all enjoy a family Thanksgiving that would make Clark Griswold proud.

Speaking of the Griswolds, while together, we will likely watch at least one of our family’s favorite Christmas movies - Christmas Vacation. We love it because, despite the comedic farce elements, it depicts a not-yet-ready-for-Instagram version of a family coming together. 

This raises the question, what should we be thankful for? 

As we all know, accessing thankfulness is not always easy. Perhaps that is because our perspective on what gets categorized as worthy of thankfulness is truncated. Scripture is rightly considered a guidebook for the formulation of our measurement criteria. Over decades of faith, I have come to increasingly see the Psalms as essential in thinking about thankfulness. Not because they paint a rosy picture of life, but because they present a fully-orbed picture of human life between Eden, the New Heavens, and New Earth.  

Psalm 13 is a perfect example, and one that those serving and leading in Washington should reflect upon.   Four times, the Psalmist asks the question, “How long?” Remember that all of the Psalms were written with the intention of congregational singing by the people of God. This means that in the hymnal God authored, He wanted songs of our exhaustion and even despair sung as worship to Him. Consider that for a moment. The LORD of Creation expected our worship to include cries of exhaustion. 

Further, in this Psalm, the writer declares feeling isolated from God when he writes, “Will you forget me forever?” His isolation and perceived abandonment have led him to state that his only option is to “take counsel in my soul.” We do not know the context of this Psalm, but we all know what it is like to feel so isolated that we have no one to turn to for advice. In Washington, this frequently comes from the commonality of workplace distrust as everyone works to advance themselves. 

Depression is also at the forefront of the author’s mind as he lives with “sorrow in my heart all the day.” For those laboring in the government, the drudgery of the workplace can suffice for driving us into depression. But, government workers also have lives outside of their vocations. Serving and leading in the public square does not provide immunity from marital conflict, divorce, cancer, addiction struggles of family members, death, financial hardship, sexual harassment, and any number of traumatic events. 

Perhaps one of the hardest situations for those serving in public office to endure is when our “enemies are exalted” over us and “rejoice” because we are shaken. In Washington, this happens sometimes in the privacy of a party caucus, an office, or within an agency. But, thanks to 24-hour news channels and social media, these end-zone celebrations are often public and humiliating. Honestly, it’s enough to make most people leave the public square. This has a winnowing effect on the quality of servants and leaders working for the flourishing of our nation. 

It seems odd, then, that this is a Psalm not just of deep lament but also of rejoicing. Yet, that is exactly the trajectory the writer intends.

“But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me.”

How can this be? 

The key to offering all of these aspects of our fallen, fragile, and finite selves as worship comes from the fact that it focuses us on the otherness of God. As we frequently see in the Old Testament, addressing God as the LORD has serious implications for worship and thankfulness.  Three times in Psalm 13, the Psalmist refers to God as the LORD.  We could  read this as, “How long, O God of steadfast love and faithfulness who has entered into a covenant of redemption with his people that he will never ever abandon?”

Effectively, this Psalm allows us to find thankfulness in the promises of God to deliver us from the feelings of exhaustion, despair, isolation, abandonment, depression, and humiliation because of his steadfast love and faithfulness. Against the backdrop of the fallen world, we find joy in the salvation that the LORD has accomplished for us. 

In saying that the LORD “has dealt bountifully with me,” the Psalmist simply recognizes that he does not merit the salvation of the LORD. Yet, against the backdrop of everything, he rejoices in the graciousness of a loving God. 

This has huge implications for those leading and serving in Washington. If our thankfulness rested solely upon our accomplishments, financial advancement, and public accolades, very few would have anything to be thankful for. Thankfully, as Christians, we can persevere in a posture of faithful presence because we know that the God of steadfast love and faithfulness has dealt bountifully with us. 

Application Questions

1. Make a list of the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of this year, and then consider how you might find reasons for thanksgiving in each of these. 
2. How does Psalm 13 help you process some of the events of this past year and prepare for events of the upcoming year?

Last Things...

Enjoy your Thanksgiving everyone!!