“A” IS FOR APPLE
Ken Peterson
11-23-03
Psalm 34
INTRODUCTION
It is a great mystery. Why aren’t we more thankful? There has never been a time or place in all of history as blessed as we have been in these United States of America. Yet, do our lives overflow with thanksgiving? Our annual observance of Thanksgiving Day is an important call to us to refocus our living and attitudes.
For most of us, our default mode seems to be to observe what’s wrong with things, not what’s right. I know I’m guilty, as I expect many of you are. Every day has 1,140 minutes. If just 15 of those minutes were bad or difficult, what do we talk about? Yes, I’m afraid we complain about those 15 minutes rather than the 1,125 other minutes of blessing. If 100 people smile at me and/ or look affirming and one person frowns or says something negative, where is my focus? If you go to Wal Mart and have to park a long way away and walk, do you give thanks that you are able bodied and can walk, benefitting from the exercise, and that you have a car to park? Or do we complain about the distance or the cold wind blowing? It seems there’s almost a magnetic pull to talk about what’s wrong, what’s not to our liking, and what we think needs to be changed. Our news media are heavily focused upon the negative.
We’re almost afraid of being too positive. If we get some unseasonably warm days in the late fall, how often do we hear a comment on the nice day bring, “We’re going to pay for it later!” or, “Yes, but...did you hear what’s coming next week?!” Those sturdy Norwegians had a good attitude when they said, “There’s no such thing as bad weather, just inadequate clothing!”
One of the great things about being a grandparent is getting to read to our grandchildren. I’m amazed at how many early children’s books deal with the alphabet. You know the scenario “A” is for apple, “B” is for ball, “C” is for cat.” In assigning a word for each letter of the alphabet, there are many variations, but most seem to resort to xylophone for “X”.
I’ve been thinking, our thanksgiving vocabulary needs expanding. Paul Freese taught the adult class on the spiritual disciplines last week on the discipline of worship. He had us try to praise God without using the stock phrases we often use like, Hallelujah, praise you Lord, thank you, etc. In my mind I quickly realized how limited I am. But also, if we scratch some of those words, and put our minds in gear, we begin coming up with some fresh expressions. The Psalms model this in a powerful way.
ALPHABETS OF PRAISE
Several of the Psalms (six) are constructed using the Hebrew alphabet of 22 letters. These are termed an alphabetic acrostic. Probably the most famous is Ps. 119, which has a different Hebrew letter at the beginning of each of the 22 stanzas, with each stanza containing eight verses. That’s a total of 176 verses– to the dismay of anyone who’s decided to read a chapter a day! But, here’s a theme that filled the Psalmist’s soul, as big as life, and nothing less than the full power of language would do. The Psalmist disciplines all the Hebrew alphabet to this end. A Psalm in praise of the wonders of God’s Word, each eight verse stanza beginning with a different letter of the alphabet, working it’s way from aleph to taw– our A to Z.
Other Psalms do this too, using one verse per letter of the alphabet. Psalms 33, 38 and 103 use the 22 letters to determine the length of the Psalm, in essence saying, I’ve praised God with all the language available. Psalms 25 and 34 are actually even more disciplined in beginning each verse with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Do you see what the Psalmists are saying? We’ve praised God from A to Z. It is like if we were to write a Psalm beginning with:
A for Almighty....
B for Bless Thee for...
C for Creator of...
All the way to Z for “Zealous for your children...”
It is a formal disciplining of language and imagination to praise God.
Let’s look again at Psalm 34 and see how David does this.
In doing this, David has worked his way through the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, beginning each verse with a different letter. He has forced all the alphabet into “glorifying the Lord (vs.3).” I like how the KJV puts that third verse:
O magnify the LORD with me,
and let us exalt his name together.
When you use a magnifying glass, it reveals detail you wouldn’t have noticed. David invites us into his look through a magnifying glass of creative language to reveal fresh insights into the Lord’s goodness.
I think most of us could use a bit of instruction along those lines. Our prayers tend to be a bit short on praise and rather uncreative. We feel like it is only polite to begin with thanking God for something. Then, we get on with the good stuff, our shopping list of wants and needs.
In Daniel Defoe’s classic novel, Robinson Crusoe, when Crusoe is shipwrecked on the island, he takes inventory of his life. He makes two lists: with the problems on one side and for what he can give thanks on the other. It goes like this:
Problem: no clothes But, he doesn’t really need clothes in tropics.
Problem: Lost all his food But island seems to have abundance of water, fruit, and food.
As the list goes on, he’s surprised at the size of the list of assets.
Our culture isn’t very helpful. Our materialistic society is driven by making us discontent so we feel we need: a newer car or truck; a nicer house with more bathrooms than people, a Jacuzzi, etc.; more gigabytes in our computer hard drive and more gigahertzes of speed. When compared to others, none of us has as much as we’d like. There’s always someone ahead of us– except for maybe Bill Gates. Who does the richest guy in the world envy? But even there, maybe there are spiritual longings and emotional needs. Maybe you have a joy and peace someone with vast wealth may only wish for.
A couple of years ago, Sue, in our former church was telling me about her grandson who brought some things home from kindergarten with a Thanksgiving theme. She was shocked to see that the message they were trying to instill is that Thanksgiving is about respect– showing respect to the Indians. Now, of course respect is important. But isn’t that a rather shallow idea for what Thanksgiving is really about? But then, Sue observed, “If you’re thankful, it implies someone to thank. And, doesn’t that “someone” ultimately lead us back to God?” Exactly! That is the problem if you’re trying to exclude God from the message of Thanksgiving. If there is no belief in God, it presents a serious problem to the secularist. In fact the great Christian apologist, G. K. Chesterton observed:
The worst moment for the atheist is when he is really thankful and has no one to thank!
What a privilege it is for us, as believers, to know from Whom all blessings flow. Our souls expand with praise and the very act of praising God brings joy into our hearts. The more we praise, the more we discern God’s gracious, loving hand in all we enjoy. Poet, Courtland Sayers put it this way:
Five thousand breathless days all new;
One million flowers fresh in dew.
Five thousand sunsets wrapped in gold;
One million snowflakes served ice cold.
Five quiet friends, one baby’s love;
One white sea of clouds above.
One June night in a fragrant wood;
One heart that loved and understood.
I wondered when I waked that day– In God’s name– how could I ever pay?
ADVERSITY’S ROLE
Often times it takes difficult times to help us focus on our blessings. At those times, our feelings of vulnerability contribute greatly to our sense of dependence upon God. When are you most thankful for health– after a year of perfect health or after a nasty bout with the flu?
I expect you’re aware of the difficulties of those early Pilgrims out of which they instituted the first Thanksgiving. Half their number had died of a combination of scurvy and pneumonia the previous winter. There were barely 50 souls left including children, as they faced another tough winter. Yet, that fall, after the harvest, they gave thanks. That first Thanksgiving was actually a three-day feast, with the Pilgrims inviting their Indian neighbors. That made 140 hungry people, with just nine Pilgrim women and teenage girls preparing the feast. (You might want to remember that if you feel a bit overwhelmed in the kitchen this Thanksgiving!)
While there were other infrequent Thanksgiving observances throughout our early history, it never became a national day of Thanksgiving until 1863. What was happening to our nation in 1863? We were in the midst of the Civil War. It was hardly a natural time to think of thanksgiving. But, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thurs. of Nov. to be an annual Day of Thanksgiving. Listen to his proclamation, just six weeks before the Gettysburg Address:
It has seemed to me fit and proper that our bounties should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice, by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow citizens... to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of Thanksgiving and prayer to our beneficent Father, who dwelleth in the heavens, and I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to God, for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to God’s tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as many be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and union.
Do you remember those months following the events of 9-11, 2001? In spite of the devastation and loss, I was impressed that mostly our country was united in realizing our blessings, and trusting God. I heard very little blaming God, but lots of thanksgiving for His blessings. It seemed to bring us again to a place of realizing the importance of things like family, love, and especially God and salvation. We saw how trivial our pursuit of things, success, and money is.
Maybe we are a little like a party of pioneers on the Oregon Trail I read about. They had suffered for weeks from scarcity of water and lack of grass for the animals. Most of the wagons had broken down, causing endless delays in the stifling heat. Complaints were being loudly expressed and a sense of futility prevailed. One night, the leaders called a special meeting to air complaints. After they gathered around the fire, one man stood up and said:
Before we commence our grief session, don’t you think we should at least thank God that he has brought us this far with no loss of life, with no serious trouble from the Indians, and that we have enough strength left to finish our journey?
They all agreed. After the brief prayer, all that could be heard were the cries of a distant pack of wolves. Otherwise there was stone silence around the campfire. No one had any grievances they felt were important enough to voice.
As Christians, we should major on gratitude, for we know God and belong to Him. Daily we benefit from His care for us. And even the tough times and the evil we face, all end up, in God’s providence, furthering His Kingdom and forming our character for all of eternity.
CONCLUSION
Greg Anderson in his book, Living Life on Purpose tells about a man whose wife had left him. Completely depressed, he’d lost faith in himself, other people and God. It was a rainy, dreary morning as he went to a small neighborhood restaurant for breakfast. Several people were there, but no one talking. He sat miserably at the counter over his cup of coffee. In one of the small booths along the window was a young mother with a little girl. They were served their food and the little girl broke the silence in a bright voice everyone could hear,
“Momma, why don’t we say our prayers here?”
The waitress who had just served them, turned around and said,
“Sure honey, we pray here. Will you say the prayer for us?”
The waitress turned to everyone in the restaurant and said,
“Bow your heads!”
The little girl then folded her hands and said,
“God is great, God is good, and we thank him for our food. Amen.”
That prayer changed the atmosphere. Suddenly people began talking to each other. The waitress said,
“We should do that every morning.”
And, the depressed man whose wife had left him reports,
All of a sudden, my whole frame of mind started to improve. From that little girl’s example, I started to thank God for all that I did have and stop majoring on all that I didn’t have. I started to be grateful.
Let’s be creative in expressing thanksgiving. Let’s employ every means we can imagine– including every part of our alphabet. It will change us and our world.