The Message, March 3, 2024: "Striving for Perfection," Psalm 19

Author: Rev. Scott W. Cousineau
March 05, 2024

 

“Striving for Perfection”
A Message by Rev. Scott W. Cousineau
Psalm 19

            Are there any other perfectionists here with us this morning? It is not an easy life, is it? I mean … we have plenty of good days, but every once and a while, we can struggle.

            A long, long time ago, when I was in high school, my school district gave students the opportunity to take classes that taught us life skills. We could take sewing, cooking, typing, drafting, and wood shop. I chose to take one semester each of sewing, cooking, drafting and woodshop. Obviously, in a handful of weeks, they could not really go into too much depth with their instruction.

            I did fine with cooking, I was okay at sewing, and I was surprisingly good at drafting. Wood shop, on the other hand, gave me fits. We did not actually build anything in wood shop. They gave us two patterns … a rabbit and a fish. We could choose one, trace it onto the wood, cut it out, sand it, stain it and varnish it. It was springtime, so I chose the rabbit.

            The problem with rabbits is that they have two ears. I traced the pattern, cut it out, and began sanding. I noticed that one ear was larger than the other, so I sanded the larger one down. Then … as you might have guessed … the other ear was now larger. So, I sanded the other ear. Back and forth I went until the ears were much too small in comparison to the rest of the body, so I tried shrinking the whole thing down. It got smaller and smaller and smaller … until I threw it away and started over.

            That time I grabbed the fish pattern.

            You may recall my list of jobs from the Children’s Message last week. I can assure you that woodworking and carpentry were NOT on the list.

            Even as easy as the shop instructor tried to make the assignment for us, I still struggled.

            Two weeks ago, my message focused upon Psalm 25, and David’s appeal to God to instruct him on the Way. David knew that he had struggled in his life, he had strayed from God’s Way, and he implored God to help him.

            In this morning’s psalm, we once again encounter David in his relationship with God. Psalm 19 is considered to be an instructional psalm. It is included in the section of “Royal Psalms,” and it describes the orientation to life that faithful kings were supposed to embody and model for their people.

            In the psalm, David lifted up the three great gifts from God: Creation or life, Torah, or the Law, and grace.

            All Creation declares the Glory of God. “Glory” is the outward “clothing” of God, it reveals God. The heavens, the skies, day and night, the mountains and the seas … all Creation reveal God’s greatness and God’s power.

            There were cultures in the Ancient Near East that worshipped the sun, worshipped the stars, and worshipped other parts of the creation. But David was proclaiming that Yahweh God is greater than all of that. God CREATED the heavens, the sun and the stars. God CREATED the day and the night. Yahweh is greater than that which Yahweh creates. Yahweh is great and greatly to be praised.

            God created the paths and patterns that the sun and the stars travel. And just like the pattern that my shop instructor attempted to give me … God gave us a pattern to travel as well. God gave us Torah, the Law. Some people may recoil at the use of the word “law,” but the proper translation of the word “Torah” is “instruction.” God’s instruction is the pattern and the path that we are to travel.

            If you were to pull out your phones right now and Google “The Law of God” you would get hundreds of hits. You would see things like “Is the Law of God the same as the Ten Commandments?” “What is the Law of God?” “Do we still need to follow the Old Testament?” and so on. How can we possibly know what path or pattern to follow when there are so many people and preachers, churches and websites, and schools of thought competing to ‘show us the Way’? Who are we to believe?

            At this point we can consider what Jesus had to say on the matter. Jesus clearly stated that he did not come to replace the Law, but rather to fulfill the Law. And when he was asked by the Pharisees, “What is the greatest commandment?” He responded with the passage from scripture that every faithful Jew recites daily, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” Deuteronomy 6:5 … the Shema. The words that are on their doorposts and in their hearts and uttered daily. And then as we know, Jesus added, “This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it, ‘you shall love your neighbors as yourself.’ All the law and the prophets hang upon these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:36-40)

            The first was the instruction that David knew; that and the Ten Commandments. All the other laws, restrictions, prohibitions originated there. But that was the greatest commandment, and as we heard it is perfect. It revives the soul. It gives life. It gives joy. It opens the eyes and expands the mind. It is pure and unspoiled. Love God with all that you are, and you will follow God’s path.

            The Torah, the Instruction of God, is not some mechanistic, onerous system of reward and punishment. It is not a prison that holds us and kills the life within us. Rather, keeping Torah … following the instruction of God … consists of connecting with the True Source of Life … God. The Instruction of God is all-encompassing. It gives life and it restores life. It is not a burden. It is a joy! It is more precious than gold and it is more desirable than the sweetest honey.

            However, even as easy as Jesus made it for us, even as helpful as it was to take all of the hundreds of rules and regulations and offer them as the two greatest commandments, it can still be a struggle for us. “Love God. Love your neighbor.” Just five words, but they can be difficult to practice.

            We are only human after all. We stumble, we struggle, we fall. We have our good days, but we also have our bad days. We want to be better. We want to be perfect. Will God accept almost perfect? The so so? The close enough? Will God accept righteousness light?

            That is why we are so grateful to God for that third gift … grace. Grace is also soul reviving, soul refreshing. Grace is life giving.

            We do not want to disappoint God. We want to be good. We try to be good. We may try to sand down the edges, but sometimes we fail. Sometimes we hurt others. Sometimes we hurt ourselves.

            We thank God for grace. God does not condemn us. God forgives. God releases us from the shackles of our shame and guilt and offers us new life.

            We are about halfway through our Lenten journey. We still have time to linger with Jesus as we walk together. We still have time to consider that to which he calls us … to live lives of love.

            May the concluding verse of the psalm remain with us: “May the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O God, our rock and our redeemer.” (Psalm 19:14)

            May the things that we think, and say, and do proclaim and reveal God’s glory for all the world.

            And may we love … love … and love some more. Amen.

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