Psalm 148
January 2, 2022
Introduction
Today is the first Sunday of a brand New Year—2022. We all know the traditional practice at this time of year is to consider what we would like to do differently or better in the year to come by making a New Year’s Resolution. And asking ourselves what we’d like to do differently or better in the New Year is a good question. But New Year’s resolutions can end up doing more harm than good if we are not careful because while resolutions are what we pledge to do or accomplish in the New Year, few of us are able to make them happen. And the reason for such is because the things we resolve to do are hard, difficult, and immense.
Now aiming to do what is hard, difficult, and immense is not a bad thing, but what happens is that our New Year’s resolutions often become like giant rocks, difficult to move—sometimes impossible to move. And so we give up. And then we suffer and beat ourselves up for failing to do what we resolved to do.
But recently I heard of a different way of asking this same old question, “What’s my New Year’s resolution?” And that question is: “What moves your rock?” I like this question because it implies the truth that resolutions are hard, immense, and difficult to make happen. Additionally, it calls for introspection and honesty, intentionality, even accountability. So many of us make resolutions of what we want to do—lose weight, quit smoking, get out of debt—but rarely do we have a very good plan to make it all happen. “I’ll just start going to the gym.” “I’ll just throw away my cigarettes.” “I’ll just stop spending money.” If that’s your plan, then all I can say is “good luck” because you’re going to need it when it comes to moving those immovable rocks in your life.
So how about this instead… On this first Sunday of the year, how about we consider—not resolutions we want to make—but what our my life is going to be able to move the immovable in the New Year. First though, a little back story about where this question comes from can be helpful.
Move 1
In California’s Death Valley, a giant dry lake bed known as Racetrack Playa has been the site of an interesting natural phenomenon. With the exception of rare rainstorms during the summer and winter, the playa remains an arid, wind-honed mud flat, where no vegetation survives and no signs of animal life exist.
But strangely, there’s a lot of movement still happening there—something right out of X-Files or Stranger Things, if you are familiar with those TV shows. Giant rocks dot the lake bed are somehow being moved around the perfectly flat valley… and no one knows how or why. There are no human, animal, or bulldozer tracks around to show that something pushed them, yet there are straight, curved and even zigzagged ruts in the dried mud which unmistakably indicates these giant, several-hundred-pound, immovable boulders, have been moved. It’s a bit creepy for sure.
The famed sailing rocks have UFO bloggers and paranormal aficionados all geeked-out about who— or what— is turning Racetrack Playa into an intergalactic Zen garden. But there are much more plausible and probable explanations than paranormal activity.
Some geologists speculate that during the rare rainstorms that do soak the lake bed, the surface mud becomes slick enough that the 90+ mph winds slide the rocks along the temporarily low-friction surface. Other scientists suggest that the winds and the freezing desert nights create a thin layer of ice, turning the quarter-inch-deep rainwater runoff into an ice slick that the rocks blow across.
Regardless of your theory, the fact remains—immovable objects are being moved. And such can serve as an inspiration to aspire to the same in 2022
So then, with that bit of information, the question for this First Sunday of the New Year is: “What can move the immovable in our lives?”
Move 2
Our text for today is a Psalm of praise, but its method is a progression of praise given to God. It starts with the heavens and their host in verses 1-4, then moves down to earth in verses 7-9, to creatures and all of humanity in verses 10-12, and finally to the people of God in verse 14—the whole created order is called to, and united in, exalting and praising God.
Charles Spurgeon gushes poetically regarding this psalm, saying: “As a flash of lightning flames through space, and enwraps both heaven and earth in one vestment of glory, so doth the adoration of the Lord in this psalm light up all the universe and cause it to glow with a radiance of praise…. For its exposition, the chief requisite is a heart on fire, with reverent love to the Lord over all, who is to be blessed forever.”
This Psalm, and these words from Spurgeon, show us what can move the immoveable of life—that when we are overwhelmed, there is still reason to give praise— that when we make an achievement, there is reason to give praise because the immovable rocks of life never have to hold us down, or back, because our God is God, and all God’s faithful are forever close to God.
Psalm 148 is, therefore, a faithful jumping-off point for recognizing that God is an invisible force who is moving the immovable in our lives. And as we recognize such, and believe in such, and depend on such, it can move us to give praise to God for such… even when there seems to be reason not to.
Move 3
So let us consider how to move the immoveable of our lives in 2022.
Permit me to make some recommendations.
First, let us seek to move the immovable by resolving to read God’s holy word.
Sure, sitting down and cracking open your bible would be great, but first ask yourself: What do you want to learn about God? What parts of the Bible do you want to better understand and then live?
Consider such, then open yourself up to God’s word while resolving to live out, in 2022, the biblical truths that have blessed you.
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Second, let us seek to move the immovable through prayer.
The power of prayer is often missed or even forgotten. The habit of prayer is easily lost. But consider what it would be like to engage God daily, frequently even. Would doing so result in a closer, deeper relationship? Would the immensity of life, be made less daunting? Would the joys of life be made even more joyful?
Consider such, then open yourself up to more prayer in 2022.
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Third, let us seek to move the immovable while in Community.
All followers of Jesus need a group of people around them whom they know and are known by. A group to care for, and are be cared for by the group. A group to challenge and be challenged by. Ask yourself, how do you intend to allow the giving and receiving you’re your community to shape you in 2022? What commitment will you make? What will you be willing to share and be open to?
Consider such, and then seek out community in 2022.
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Lastly, may I recommend that in the New Year, we let God’s Spirit move the immovable of our life.
And may we do so by asking ourselves: Where is the Holy Spirit convicting us when it comes to areas of our lives that need change, that need new life breathed into them in 2022? Discern that question, find your answer, and then hand over to God that which weighs you down, and holds you back.
Do such a thing, faithfully and honestly, and we will discover a resolution that is infused with redemption, filled with hope, absent of failure, and leading us to joy—and not just in 2022, but rather throughout the rest of our lives.
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May we be ever mindful that in all of these “immovable-moving means”, our own willingness to move and be moved is the one piece we need to most closely examine. We must ask ourselves: Are we willing to look for ways in which we need to be changed by God? Are we willing to open ourselves up to God and God’s ways and call, and then take the needed faithful steps to propel our own growth? Are we willing to do the hard and uncomfortable work of moving to where God has directed us?
If we are, then something special can and will happen. If we are not, then we can expect the same fate of all our previous resolutions that never really worked out.
Conclusion
On the first Sunday the year there is much in our lives to give praise to God for. Even if your year has been far from a good one—and it has been yet another hard one—there is still reason to praise God. There is still reason because once again, at Christmas, we have been reminded that even in the dimmest of nights, even in the darkest of valleys—Jesus has come. Jesus has come—Immanuel, God with us.
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Psalm 148 encourages the people of God to praise God for how God moves us and blesses us. And the biggest move, and the biggest blessing, has always been, and will always be, Jesus.
It is as legendary preacher Billy Graham said when asked if he had ever seen God. Graham said he had never seen the wind, but he had “seen the effects of the wind.”
While God isn’t physically visible, the way God affects people, is. The way God affects us, is. The movement of God can be as clear as the movement of immovable boulders, given their trails in the mud. Because it is God who can and does move the immovable.
May we recognize such; may we depend on such; and most of all…may we praise God for such. Happy New Year. Amen.
Pastoral Prayer, January 2, 2022
Creator God, you know all about new beginnings, and today we come to you at the new beginning of a New Year.
For many of us the New Year is a time of new beginnings—a new chance to start fresh, a time to “turn over a new leaf”. And we certainly need some newness in our lives because for a long time now, too long, not much good newness has come. For too many, it is still just the same old struggle and the fear is this year will be more of the same—a global pandemic, strained relationships, chronic pain, addictions, failed efforts, relationship issues—all we struggle with are no less abated because it’s now 2021 and not 2022. And all of it can seem and feel so immovable.
Holy God, come to us again, and remind us—everyday if need be—that you can and do move the immovable; that your work for such is happening all around us always, and that we can continue to find the hope, peace, joy, and love that came again at Christmas.
So give us eyes to see our neighbors in order to see and experience the uncertainty and fear that plague so many. Disquiet us with the scandal of injustice, inequity, and human misery so that, in following the ways of Jesus, we choose to stand alongside all your children, and partner with all so that together we can be led by you and find a way through all we struggle with so that all can have a happy new year.
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Hear now, we ask, the prayers we need to share in this time of Holy Silence.
All this we pray in the name of Jesus the Christ, in whom we find our new beginnings, who taught us to pray saying, “Our …”