A Thought For The Week Of February 1, 2016

"I will declare your name to my people; in the assembly I will praise you." (Psalm 22:22) Clearly what we're being reminded of in this verse is our need to bear witness to God and to praise God in worship. There's nothing especially difficult or confusing about that. I'm reminded that this is a Psalm - a prayer or hymn directed by God's people to God. That makes this in a way at least not a divine command but an encouragement from one group of believers to another. There's a sense of accountability, then, within the community of God's people. We help each other; we encourage each other to be as faithful as we can possibly be. All those things ring clear - but strangely they only ring clear to me upon reflection. For whatever reason my first thought when I read this was that it was God bearing witness to us - that somehow God was making us known to God's people everywhere. And as I think about it that also may be not a bad way to interpret the verse. It's a Psalm - it is a prayer of hymn to God. But as a Psalm it's also Scripture - and so it's God's word to us as well. And it fits. If reading it one way reminds us of our responsibility to share our knowledge of God with God's people, then the other (or reverse) way of looking at it reminds us of how vital it is that we do live faithful lives that bear witness to God, because God will find ways to make us known. We are going to be seen as representatives of God to the world. That's why God has called the church into being. So it's important that we be a true rather than a false witness, living responsible and faithful and even holy lives. Not pious or self-righteous - but just lives that reflect God's love for the world and that offer God's love to the world in our words and our actions. How better to be encouraged and equipped to do that than by gathering together with God's people regularly to praise the God who calls us.