Confess Yahweh, because he is good,

            because his commitment is permanent.

Yisrael is pleased to say,

            “His commitment is permanent”…

Open the faithful gateways to me;

            when I come through them, I shall confess Yahweh.

This is Yahweh’s gateway;

            faithful people come through it.

I will confess you because you answered me

            and became deliverance for me.

The stone that the builders spurned

            became the head cornerstone.

This came about from Yahweh;

            it’s been extraordinary in our eyes.

This was the day that Yahweh made;

            so that we would celebrate and rejoice in it.

Oh, Yahweh, will you deliver us, please?

            oh, Yahweh enable us to succeed, please.

Blessed be the one who comes in Yahweh’s name;

            we are blessing you from Yahweh’s house.

Yahweh is God; he has shone light to us

– tie the festal offering with cords to the horns of the altar.

You are my God and I will confess you;

            my God, I will exalt you.

Confess Yahweh, because he is good,

            because his commitment is permanent.

(The First Testament, A New Translation by John Goldingay)

This psalm is the last of the Hallel (praise) psalms (Psalms 113-118) used at the Passover meal. It includes a summons for the entire community to praise God; an individual thanksgiving to the Lord; and a communal speech.

The Call to Confession

We are invited and called upon to recognize and confess Yahweh’s enduring steadfast love, which is a lasting and permanent commitment toward God’s people. Why? Because it is through a tenacious love that never gives up that brings healing, wholeness, and health to the community. Our relatedness to God makes all the difference in life.

“The unrelated human being lacks wholeness, for he can achieve wholeness only through the soul, and the soul cannot exist without its other side, which is always found in a ‘You.’ Wholeness is a combination of I and You, and these show themselves to be parts of a transcendent unity.”

Carl Jung, The Psychology of Transference

When it comes to healing – whether it be physical, emotional, or spiritual – love must be involved. The need for healing implies brokenness. And love is relational. Therefore, in order to experience the wholeness of healing, there needs to be another.

Love extended to one who requires mercy creates the opportunity to see light in the other, and to feel it in your own. And that energy brings the healing wholeness of both body and soul.

Every divine/human encounter, and each gracious intervention of God to people, is the chance to bring wholeness through the power of love by means of relationship. Communal worship affords us the opportunity to experience the steadfast love and commitment of God – as well as to steward that love well, for others who need it.

The Call to Thanksgiving

Everyone is on board for thanksgiving, right? Well, not so much. Like most things, it’s complicated. On the one hand, we have those persons who seem to never express gratitude for anything; it appears they are only capable of cynicism and sarcasm. And, on the other hand, are those who are incessantly positive, always thankful, no matter the circumstance; for them, it seems they are never living in the reality of a messed up world.

A reflexive response of gratitude to everything is merely a cheap thanksgiving. And a constant stream of ingratitude is simply taking the easy road of complaint. Thanksgiving ought to be thoughtful and well-placed. Gratitude is really a spiritual discipline that requires constant practice until it becomes a solid life skill.

The psalmist pictures the king, David, leading a procession of worshipers as they approach Yahweh. It’s as if the king is teaching the people how to go about entering God’s presence, and what role thanksgiving has in this relationship between God and humanity.

Central to that relationship are offerings of praise and thanksgiving for divine deliverance. Specifically, it is acknowledging gratitude from the place of a spiritual cornerstone. This is the foundation from which an individual’s and an entire community’s faith is rested upon.

The New Testament locates this vital cornerstone as Christ. Jesus is,

“‘the stone you builders rejected,
    which has become the cornerstone.’

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:11-12, NIV)

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. (Ephesians 2:19-20, NIV)

The Call to Commitment

The permanence of God’s steadfast love and loyalty toward people demands a response. In Christianity, because of the Lord’s commitment to us – through the person and work of Jesus Christ – there is opportunity for a reciprocal response of commitment to God in Christ through the Spirit.

This response of genuine worship and thanksgiving avoids the crush of the constant critic, on the one hand, and on the other hand, steers clear of ignoring suffering.

As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says:

“See, I lay a stone in Zion,
    a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
    will never be put to shame.”

Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,

“The stone the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone,”

and,

“A stone that causes people to stumble
    and a rock that makes them fall.”

They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:4-10, NIV)

Holy Week is nearly upon us. The celebration and praise of Palm Sunday is coming, along with the suffering and death of Good Friday. This all sets the scene for a victorious resurrection which solidifies the Christian’s faith with the mortar of God’s steadfast love in Christ.

As we enter the Week, let us be open to the full range of thoughts and emotions that arise because of God’s loyal and loving commitment to us, and our reciprocal commitment to Christ. Let us be receptive to the call of love.

God of compassion and love, you know our faults and yet you call us to forgiveness instead of leveling judgment upon us. Keep us in your gracious presence, and give us your wisdom. Open our hearts to gratitude and commitment, and restore to us the joy of our salvation. Amen.