Inspired by Psalm 82.
Unceasing God, Your endless power is shown by everything that is True. Your endless forgiveness is shown when we doubt you. Amen
Music stirs our emotions. It gives us goose bumps, like Elvis Presley singing How Great Thou Art. Music stirs activism, like Johnny Cash’s Bitter Tears album about the plight of our Indigenous people. Artists write songs to speak up and make us aware of serious problems, somehow forgotten. Like the rock artist Alice Cooper and his ballad about violence towards women.
Music has been stirring our emotions for thousands of years. The Book of Psalms was the hymn book at the time of King David, and different artists contributed to the collection over the next 500 years.
King David was a talented poet. He wrote psalms to speak up to God with unfettered songs of praise.
There are also psalms of lament, including today’s scripture Psalm 82. Psalm 82 is one of a dozen psalms attributed to King David’s choir master Asaph.
All of the Psalms of Asaph have a different tone compared to the more common psalms of praise and thanksgiving. All of Asaph’s psalms relate to God’s judgement on those who have strayed from the path. Asaph speaks up about society turning away from God. More and more, the people of Jerusalem were worshiping false gods and engaging in forbidden, occult practices. In Psalm 82, Asaph pours out his soul and begs God to do something about about these false gods.
Why does Asaph need to use his voice to sing songs of redemption rather than praise? Was Asaph a perpetual pessimist, or was there underlying descent among the people? What are the false gods that people were worshipping, and why did people stray from God’s path?
The people of Jerusalem were engaging in practices that recognized Moloch, the god of fire worshipped by the surrounding foreigners. Moloch worship is ancient and brutal.
It is Moloch worship that is front and centre with Moses when he reads the laundry list of occult practices that we shall not practice: sacrificing our children to fire, sorcery, interpretation of omens, and consulting the dead. These are the practices that were becoming more and more common in Jerusalem, and prompted Asaph to speak up.
Our relationship with God is vastly different when compared to the relationship that people had with Moloch. With God, we are blessed with prosperity when God decides that we shall be blessed. With Moloch, prosperity is purchased by sacrificing the life of a loved one. God blesses everyone, regardless of status. Moloch is a hired gun, only available for the wealthy. Or available to the poor if they commit to becoming even poorer. The practices associated with Moloch encouraged people to be selfish. Those who sold the practices became powerful and wealthy.
Asaph tells us who is at risk from worshipping false gods. The poor, the needy, the oppressed. These are the people that need prosperity. They are at their wits end, they feel abandoned by God, and they are turning to whatever may provide for them. Hopefully child sacrifice was not practiced, but the other occult practices would be sold to desperate people.
But the practices are all hollow, alluded to in the Psalm with:
The ‘gods’ know nothing, they understand nothing. They walk about in darkness.
This is a slippery slope for the desperate. Making expensive sacrifices that promise a better future, only to get nothing. They become more desperate. A spiral with a bleak outcome.
This is why Asaph needed to speak up. He saw society crumbing and needed to do something. He needed to use his talents to ask God, to beg God, to step up. And as inspiration for the congregation to give their heads a shake and to ask themselves “are we doing what God wants?”
Years ago I was at wits end with psoriasis and pursued an alternative treatment.
I didn’t see God in any of the hand waving that was used in the diagnosis.
I didn’t see God when asked if I had dreams about my condition.
I didn’t see God in the mystic powers promised in the tincture that I was prescribed.
Was this what God wanted me to do?
Asaph sang out about the false promises that are heard when one worships false gods. Asaph sang of their false power, reminding us that these ‘gods’ will die like all mortals, and they will fall like any king. God shows us true power, visible power. Power as ferocious as a storm toppling trees, or a gentle breeze across a lake. Power that we do not buy. Power that is graced to us, unconditionally.
Thanks be to God,
Amen
