I Shall Walk in Freedom

9th Sunday Pentecost             July 21, 2024

The texts for this sermon are Psalms 32:8; 86:11; 119:selected verses and  John 8:31-36
for convenience here are the verses from the Psalms:

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.

Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness;
give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.

How can young people keep their way pure?
By guarding it according to your word.
I delight in the way of your decrees as much as in all riches.
I reflect upon your precepts, and fix my eyes on your ways.
Make me understand the way of your precepts,
and I will reflect on your wondrous works.
Put false ways far from me;
and graciously teach me your Tora.
I have chosen the way of faithfulness;
I set your ordinances before me.
I run the way of your commandments, 
for you enlarge my understanding.
Teach me, God, the way of your statutes and I will observe it to the end.
Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it.
I shall walk in freedom, for I have sought your precepts.
I hold back my feet from every evil way in order to keep your word.
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Hear these words from poet John Donne:

Though truth and falsehood be
near twins, yet truth a little elder is:
Be busy to seek her; believe me this,
He’s not none, nor worst, that seeks the best.
To adore, or scorn an image, or protest,
May all be bad; doubt wisely; in strange way
to stand inquiring right, is not to stray;
to sleep, or run wrong, is.

John Donne   Satire III, Kind Pity Chokes my Spleen

Now to these words from the Psalms:
How fortunate are those who seek Refuge in God  (Ps 2:12b)
How fortunate are those who walk in the Tora of YHWH  (Ps 119:1)

Last week we began our venture into the metaphors of the Psalms by looking first at one of the framing threads of the Psalter: the idea of Refuge: God as our Refuge, our Rescuer, our Shelter.

In the Psalter, the imagery associated with the idea of Refuge includes fortress, rock, crag, nest, wing, sanctuary, presence; the kind of refuge that delivers, protects, shelters, frees.

This metaphor leads us to the question: How do we come to experience this Refuge?
So today, we’re going to consider another framing thread of the Psalter: the idea of 
the Way: the course of life to that safe, secure protected place; the Path* to that sanctuary of peace and wellbeing.

Psalm 119 helps us here.

First of all, Psalm 119 links the idea of Refuge with God’s Word or Torah**, what the Psalmists (and all ancient Hebrews) thought of as The True Way (the righteous way of being, of living).

The Psalmist tells us that God’s Tora contains decrees, precepts, ordinances, commandments, statutes, testimonies. When we hear these words what often comes to our mind is legislation--sometimes heavy and onerous legislation, rules and constrictions. 

But the Psalmist says these expressions of God’s Torah (or Word) induce delight, reflection, instruction, the observance of which is described as choosing, running, walking, keeping.

How fortunate are those who WALK in the TORAH of God: who delight in, reflect upon, take instruction from, observe God’s Word. Who engage with it in an animated, dynamic way: choosing it, running toward it, walking in its light, keeping it.
I delight in the way of Your decrees (Ps 119:14)
I reflect on Your precepts (v 37)
Teach me (v 33)
I have chosen the Way (v 30)

This animated posture engages with the reliable foundational reality of God’s Word, God’s Way. But we must understand that Torah, or God’s Word or God’s Way is not a static legislative list of dos and don’ts.  Rather, it is a dynamic, pulsing way of Being and it speaks to both 
Destination : God’s Refuge, and
Journey : pilgrimage, walking with purpose in the Way of God’s Word

God offers Refuge through God’s faithful, sure Word. Humankind offers a response either by ignoring or refuting God’s Word or by engaging with it: seeking after it; observing it; imbuing it. Those who heed God’s Word and seek God’s Way are rewarded with Refuge: that place that is true and trustworthy, a place of solid grounded-ness and surety and wellbeing. 

The Way of God’s Word speaks to the idea of Path. Following the Path God lights before us is multi-faceted. it speaks of
Observance:  Oh that my ways may be established to keep your statutes (Ps 119:5)
Heartfelt response: How blessed are those who observe God’s testimonies.
Who seek God with all their heart (vs 2)
Enlightened understanding : I shall run the way of Your commandments
for You will enlarge my heart (v 32)

The Psalter tells us that the path we choose determines our destiny. Those who choose to peruse paths askew of God’s Word are called unfaithful. They are those who do not respect or heed God’s Word; who mistrust and wander and thus cannot appropriate the promises and rewards inherent in God’s Word: those promises of rescue, deliverance, settled-ness, guidance, wellbeing, peace.

Those who choose to pursue God’s Path, Torah’s Way through their observance, heartfelt response, teachable spirit are those who are gifted with God’s refuge.
I hold back my feet from every evil way in order to keep Your word (Ps 119:101)
I shall walk in freedom for I have sought your precepts (vs 45)

This is where the metaphor of Path and the metaphor of Way meet
Path or Pathway brings together the idea of conduct and the idea of destiny
Do we conduct our lives according to the Light of God’s Word? or do we not?

This is a fork in the road.

Now, this is not to say that the Path lit by God through God’s Word is wide and smooth and always clear of fog. Even a cursory reading of the Psalms tells us that life is full of failures, disappointments, longings, losses, doubts, distress, laments, dark nights of the soul, wrestlings with dark emotions and eruptions desiring vengeance.

But reading deeper we discover that these rocky, unsettled interludes do not mean we have left or fallen off the Path. Conducting ourselves in keeping with Torah or the Way does not make us immune to hard times or tragic things. But Torah or the Way leads us to the instructive value of difficulties.

Giving up on the journey, aborting the pilgrimage, is how we run awry or astray of it and rob ourselves of Torah’s gifts. God’s gifts.

Whether we feel good about life or not. Whether we feel God sheltering us with God’s wing or not is not the measure of our faithfulness or God’s. It is whether we remain committed to the journey, whether we stay engaged in conversation with God, even arguing with God. The story of Job describes this very thing. Job, struck with multiple tragedies, takes God to court if you will, rails at God; demands answers, wants God to tell him why he’s been struck. But Job stayed engaged with God even through God’s silence. He stayed connected to Torah and was led to peace and restoration.

As John Donne wisely observes in the poem I read at the beginning:
doubt wisely; in strange way
to stand inquiring right, is not to stray;
to sleep, or run wrong, is.

The writer of Psalm 116, says it this way:
I walk before God in the lands of the living.
I have kept faith, even when I said, “I am greatly afflicted.” (Psalm 116:9-10)

Remaining committed to this journey, keeping steady on the path, gives God opportunity
to teach us
Teach me Your way, O Lord
And lead me in a level path  (Ps 27:11)

to fortify our resolve
I will give heed to the blameless way (Ps 101:2)

to position us for revelation
You will make known to me the path of life (Ps 16:11)

This path we walk asks that we walk through our difficulties, not away from them, for the Way of Torah leads us through them to the other side.
Ye, though I walk through the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. (Ps 23)

Blessed are those whose strength is in You
Who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.
As they pass through the Valley of Sorrow, 
they make it a place of springs--they go from strength to strength (Ps 84:5-7)

Walking this Path leads us to worship. The act of walking in this way: seeking God’s way, God’s light and life is in its very nature an act of worship.

This path -- this way of being -- does not unfold in a passive, wishful-thinking way. It unfolds through purposeful, intentional engagement with God: a robust seeking after God, a hungry eagerness for concourse with the Holy. It unfolds through an animated, disciplined habit of worship, praise, prayer, study, meditation, communion and works of justice. These habits, these avenues of grace as John Wesley called them, these pavers on the Path representing our right response to God’s initiative, God’s love and grace leads us to God’s Habitation. Leads us to our Destiny as it were: to the soul’s place of refuge -- to a wide and open plain of freedom; to the unassailable shelter of God’s enveloping, enclosing, fortifying Spirit, who is our companion through thick and thin as we follow the Way of God’s Word.

L. Quanstrom

*I capitalize “Path” only for emphasis. It is not meant to be understood as proper noun.

** In the Hebrew Scriptures Torah is the Word of God as revealed in the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures. For the Psalmist Torah and Word of God are the same thing and so it is in this sermon. Christians expand the Word of God to include the New Testament but the Torah and all of the Old Testament apply to Christians just as much as to Jews.