A Protest Song

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Would you bow your heads, please? God, source of all light. By your word we give light to the soul. Pour out upon us the spirit of wisdom and understanding that being taught by you in Holy Scripture, our hearts and minds may be opened to know the things that pertain to life and holiness through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. We have two scriptures this morning. The first one is from Psalms 82. You can find that on page 472 in your pew Bibles. God has taken his place in the divine council. In the midst of the gods, he holds judgment. How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Give justice to the weak and the orphan? Maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute? Rescue the weak and the needy? Deliver them from the hand of the wicked? They have neither knowledge nor understanding, nor they walk around in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken. I say, you are gods, children of the Most High, all of you. Nevertheless, you shall die like mortals and fall like any prince. Rise up, O God, judge the earth, for all the nations belong to you. Our second scripture is from Luke, chapter 18, verses 1 through 8, and it's on page 853. Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, in a city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, grant me justice against my opponent. For a while he refused, but later he said to himself, though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering, I will grant her justice so that she may not wear me out by continually coming. And the Lord said, listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. [00:03:24] Speaker B: If you're newer to Knox, it has been since August. Now that we've been in the midst of a sermon series on the Book of Psalms. This is sometimes called the prayer book book of Scripture. But since these prayers, 150 of them were originally set to music, I think it's appropriate to also call them songs. That this is the songbook of scripture we're getting to explore together. And one thing I love about music is how many different forms it can take. A week ago, Last Saturday, so many of us, more than 300, gathered to hear the Andy, Keith Lee and the True Blue Band play bluegrass music for that annual event. We've been doing that event since 2012. And I love hearing bluegrass music. That event actually inspired me some years ago to pick up the mandolin. But I've also loved attending different kinds of musical performances with many of you. I've gone with some of you to see classical performances featuring Joel and Carrie on violin or James Lent on piano as they performed classical pieces or. Or Motown or Sinatra tunes, or Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. I've gone with some of you to see rock shows like the Rolling Stones and David Gilmore, to see Americana or roots music shows like the Watkins family and Claire Holly. Back in college, a friend of mine even got me into country music for a time. I don't know how he actually, I do know how he did it. He introduced me to Lyle Lovett. He was from Tennessee, and he said, Lyle Lovett is kind of a gateway drug for those interested in getting into country music. There was a time in seminary where a neighbor of mine even got me into rap, introducing me to artists like Tupac Shakur. And a high school summer I spent at Berklee College of Music got me into jazz. Also, my mom happened to be a roommate in college at University of Michigan with Judy, a woman who would go on to be the wife of Bob James. And if you don't know it, Bob James is one of the most celebrated pianists in the jazz world. And I still remember, and Jill will, I'm sure, recall this as well. One evening in Michigan where my parents and Jill and I and Bob and Judy James were all gathered in our little cottage for an incredible evening that ended with a singing a cappella, spontaneous singing of Amazing Grace. I've gotten to see Bob James a number of time in concert, and it grabs me. Gospel, blues, show tunes, art, rock, folk, pop, edm, techno, punk, metal. So many different kinds of music to enjoy, and each with its own vocabulary and history to follow and get into. And given the great variety of forms that music can take, forms and flavors, it makes sense to me that the psalms, which represent ancient song lyrics, display a host of different forms and flavors. Last Sunday, Terry preached on Psalm 74. That's the Psalm that Terry noted is a psalm of ascent. That is, we understand it was a psalm that people might sing when they were traveling to Jerusalem for one of the festivals, or perhaps looking up at Jerusalem from wherever they were, a song of ascents. But he also noted it's A song of lament. You might call this an ancient form of the blues, crying out to God. We've looked at Psalm 1, which is called a psalm of instruction, lifting up the value and purpose of God's law. We've looked at Psalm 103, a Psalm of blessing, a psalm that essentially says, as so many of the psalms, do bless you God. Praise you, God. God, you are wonderful. We've looked at Psalm 8, a creation Psalm, a psalm that celebrates the heaven, heavens, and the earth and how they reveal the glory of God. In future weeks we'll look at comfort psalms, royal psalms, history psalms, confessional psalms. But one category of psalms we don't want to omit because it shows up so often, is the psalm we see today, a protest psalm. See many of the psalms, they look out on the world, and they praise what can be seen. They delight in the good they see. Think of Psalm 133, which begins, how good and blessed it is when sisters and brothers, when kindred, dwell together in unity. It's a wonderful thing, rich community in the family of faith. Or think of Psalm 8 that goes, O Lord, our sovereign, how majestic is your name and all the earth. That psalm basks in the wonders of what God has made. Or Psalm 100, which begins, Make a joyful note to the Lord, all the earth know that the Lord is God. It's God who made us, and we are the Lord's, the sheep of God's pasture. Sometimes the gift of human community fills the heart with delight. Sometimes the wonder of creation does it. Sometimes reflecting on God's rule, God's care, God's love, God's forgiveness. It just overwhelms us with joy. But other times we look out in the world and we don't like what we see. Or we look at ourselves and we don't like what we see. And that's the kind of psalm we see in Psalm 82, this kind of psalm that reminds us as we look out in the world or look at ourselves, we see not just good, but oftentimes we see the the wrong. We see what needs changing, and our voices rise not in praise but in protest. Today's Psalm number 82 decries how the wicked are too often given special privileges and allowed to get away with all manner of evil. Justice is denied to the weak and the orphan. The rights of the lowly and destitute are trampled upon, we read. And the weak and needy are preyed upon by unscrupulous persons in power. If our to give these lyrics a Kind of modern form and flavor. I would say, oh, this is a protest song. That's what it is. I was struck by hearing a protest song this past April. I went up to visit my brother Chris in the Bay Area. And we went to see Bruce Springsteen perform at the Golden State warriors arena in San Francisco. And Springsteen opened his set not with one of his love songs, nor his stripped down folk tunes, nor one of his rock classics like Born to Run or Thunder Road. He opened with a protest song. The song Springsteen chose dates back to actually 1969. It was written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong. And was first recorded by the Temptations on this album, Psychedelic Shack. The Temptations is a band that our sound engineer, by the way, Shea Wright, has worked very closely with for years. It was a song protesting the Vietnam War, and it was simply entitled War. The lyrics went, war I despise because it means destruction of innocent lives. War means tears to thousands of mothers eyes when their sons go out to fight and lose their lives. It's not a song praising God or praising a loved one. That's a song that names the wrong like 82. Now I've learned. That song was so controversial on the album that when the Temptations received a bunch of letters to release it as a single back in the day, that was how a song got a much wider release. The Temptations were open to it, but Motown, their label, thought it might hurt the Temptation's image. And so instead they have a different artist. Motown did release it. That artist was Edwin Starr. Re recorded the song by the Temptations. And this new version, released soon after, went on to become a huge hit. It's a soul classic, a pop song and a protest song. Bruce Springsteen opened with it, giving the song a contemporary relevance in regard to the current war between the US and and Iran. Springsteen was joined that night by guitarist Tom Morello from the band Rage against the Machine, a fellow I had the chance to meet on a couple occasions. And that rap metal band Rage against the Machine, is famous for their protest songs. But here's the thing. You'll find protest music not just in rock and not just in soul. You'll find it not just in bands like Rage against the Machine. It's all over the place. You'll find it in albums of the great soul singer Sam Cooke, who recorded A Change Is Gonna Come, a song that spoke about the evils of racism in the rock world. The band U2. Their first big hit was a protest song from their 1983 album War. That song was Sunday Bloody Sunday about the troubles in Northern Ireland. In folk music, you've got Woody Guthrie's this land is your land and Bob Dylan's A hard rain's gonn. You've got Pete Seeger and Joan Baez singing we shall overcome. In the genre of jazz and blues, you have strange fruit, recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939, that song was a powerful protest against the lynchings of African Americans in the southern United States. Some historians argue this song was the start of the civil rights movement. It started with a protest song. You like punk rock? You're Presbyterians. Of course you do. There's London calling by the Clash, American idiot by Green Day, or Rebel girl by bikini kill. Is rap your thing? There are protest songs aplenty, like public enemies fight the power. You like classic rock? Who can forget Ohio by Crosby, Stills and Nash protesting the Kent state University shootings back in 1970. You'll even find it on albums of contemporary bluegrass artists like the punch Brothers, giving those protest songs a particular satirical flavor. Look deep in any genre of music with lyrics and you will find protest songs. Why? Surely, because music is a human art. Music is given to us by God as a way to express our thoughts and our emotions. In one of the ways we humans experience the world and interact with it is not just by observing the good and delighting in that. We humans also see the wrong. Protest songs give voice to that wrong we see and sometimes we experience firsthand. And since the psalms represent the prayers and songs of God's people, it makes sense that in addition to praise, we would also find protest, especially when these songs arise from a people who famously knew a situation of bondage in Egypt under the pharaoh and cried out in protest for their condition. Today's Psalm number 82 creatively voices its protest by casting a vision. Often the prophets do this. Here we see a psalm. Doing it. The psalmist imagines, invites those listening to this song to envision a divine council, a heavenly gathering of the powers that be. And like the prophets, Isaiah, the psalmist pictures this kind of royal court, not of the earthly variety, but the heavenly kind, with beings that hold tremendous sway over the affairs of earth. This kind of celestial council was prominent in many religions of the ancient Near East. People like the Canaanites, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Egyptians. They envisioned a pantheon of gods, often with one in the assembly, occupying a kind of highest position, a main monarch role. Think of Assur in the Syrian religion, or El among the Canaanites. And yet, in today's passage, which comes from The Songbook of ancient Israel. A vision that begins with the portrait of a council of God ends with just one God on the stage. That one God is the very God Israel called the one true ruler of heaven and earth, the God of all nations, the King of kings, Lord of lords, the sole creator of all that exists in heaven and on earth. And the reason given for this change from the many to the one. The factor that shifts the vision from a council of gods to a single God is a single word, justice. Justice. We read in Psalm 82 of how these various gods who are not the one true God, fail in one crucial aspect of living out the divine identity and call these lesser gods, if you will, these powers that have and exercise authority over the affairs of people. They fail to honor that call repeatedly and incessantly emerging in the law. And the prophets defend the widow, the orphan and the immigrant, pursue justice for the poor and the oppressed. That call can sound like a broken record sometimes when you read the Hebrew Scriptures, and maybe that's because God was so concerned God's people weren't given getting it, that it comes up again and again. And in today's psalm, it is that standard, that index that distinguishes the true God from other principalities and powers at work in the world. Well, back in the late 15th and 16th century, when the Protestant Reformers read Psalm 82 and sought to interpret, they saw a clear critique in this passage of rulers, of royal councils, of magistrates in their time, and in particular for the failure to do justice for the vulnerable in their communities, failure to defend the weak and the orphan. Conrad Pelikan was a Protestant theologian and scholar of ancient languages like Hebrew and Greek. Back in the late 15th and early 16th century, he became the first Christian, many would argue, to publish a full grammar of the Hebrew language. He got that deep into Hebrew. And when he studied this passage with his exceptional Hebrew knowledge, he observed how princes and judges in his time did have tremendous sway over the lives or deaths of their subjects. A kind of godlike power, he observed. And so, Psalm 82, he argued, is justified in calling the these other powers gods. However, he notes, such rulers tended to act as if they were not subject to a higher authority and could rule their subjects however they pleased. No, Pelikan noted, not according to Psalm 82. God is present among them, this theologian argued, and God will ensure they are judged for their violence. God is, as Pelikan put it, their index, their judge, their higher authority. And that role God plays in today's passage, it makes Psalm 82 not just a protest song. It makes Psalm 82 a promise song. Also in Psalm 82, we read not just of what is wrong. We read of a day God will make things right. We read of a God who lifts up the poor and oppressed, as God did for God's people when they were held in bondage in Egypt. God defends the cause of the widow, the orphan and the immigrant. And it's that very God Jesus points to in today's passage in Luke. And Jesus does it by contrast. He tells the story of how a widow sought justice and she goes to an unjust judge, a judge that does not fear God, nor fear this particular judge's neighbor. And yet, even with this unjust judge, when the widow relentlessly argues, persists in seeking out defense of her case, the judge relents, so she'll just stop bothering him. Jesus uses that picture as a contrast, saying, when God so cares about God's children, when God so cares about what is just and right, will not God be so quick to answer your prayers when you cry out to God? And we read at the beginning of that passage, it is a story about prayer. Prayer is a key part of the equation. As Christians, we believe we saw that very promise, that prayer for a new day, how it came true in the very person who told of that widow, Jesus Christ, in his teaching, in his healing, in his protest work against what was wrong. We saw the love and justice of God at work. Not some far off day, but right then and there. We saw it in the flesh and in his death and resurrection. We saw God's power to overcome any evil or injustice the powers of the world can wield. There is a higher power, a higher judge, a higher index. We see it in Psalm 82, and we saw it in the flesh, in Jesus Christ, confident of that God at work. Now, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we don't just protest, we pray. We pray God will teach us the just and the right. We pray that God will give us the strength and the direction as we seek the good and to know the good. And we pray that God's reign will ultimately come in full. That rain we saw at work in Christ. Psalm 82 ends, you notice, with a prayer, a prayer for that new world to come and come soon. Following that heavenly vision of a divine council finally replaced by one true, just and righteous God ruling over all things. The psalmist ends with this. Rise up, O God, judge the earth, for all the nations belong to you. And you might call this the now and not yet of faith, the now God rules all nations. God promises to make things right. The not yet. We cry out for that rule to come in full, for God's justice to be done as we have seen it. Faith is not simply protest. Faith is confidence in God's promises, like those articulated in Psalm 84 or 82 rather. And faith is a prayer for that promised day to come. There are protest songs that cry out against the wrong, and they have power. But then there are songs like Psalm 82 that articulate the wrong and hold up as well the promises of God. Psalm 82, like Jesus in the story of the Unjust Judge, offers this counsel. Don't simply protest. Do that. But don't simply note what is wrong. Do that, because it's part of being human and honest and faithful. But pray too. That is, keep leaning on God in all things. Lean on God when you delight in all the good in the world, and lean on God when you see the wrong and it breaks your heart. Hearts lean on God when you work and by God's direction and with God's strength to bring about positive change in the world and trust in God for what is not yet accomplished to finally come to be. May our song friends not just be one of protest. May it also be a song too, of promise. And may it be a prayer that those promises that have been been fulfilled in part will come to full fruition. Let's continue in protest, promise and prayer. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Amen.