by Russell Rathbun
Psalm Reading: Psalm 111
For Sunday, October 13, 2013—Lectionary 28
I don’t think liberals praise the Lord enough. I don’t mean to alienate anyone or divide folks into camps. I am just saying, I have been a conservative evangelical and am now a really liberal, liberal. And I don’t praise the Lord enough.
Praise Like Crazy
I thank the Lord—for my food, the natural world, the gift of the scientific method—I express gratitude to the Lord—mostly publically in the Prayers of the Community and mostly for creation and love and the crisp fall air or the spring rain, but I do not praise the Lord. It just feels uncomfortable to me.
I am sure it has to do with my time as an evangelical. Then I used to praise the Lord like crazy, all the time, tears flowing down my cheeks, Praise Baby.
Embarrassed?
I have always felt embarrassed when I think of that praising, worshiping, weeping, thank-you-jeezus me, but have never quite asked my self why I feel embarrassed.
I maybe have had some vague thoughts about how it wasn’t an authentic expression, that all that gesticulating and vocalizing was somehow manipulated, and who wouldn’t feel embarrassed about being emotionally manipulated? When I read Psalm 111, I realize the truth is probably a little bit darker.
Fear at 13
I memorized Psalm 111:10 when I was thirteen years old, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever. Yes, King James. That is how we did back then. When revisit this Psalm, I think I smell that taint on it. I was taught that somehow praise and fear were related. Fear the Lord, and you will have wisdom and you will understand things if you do his commandments and you will then praise him for-ever.
At thirteen it was just not the right message for me. Fear the Lord? Yeah, I did, I was also afraid of Jenny Kamorak, Debbie Lawinski, my dad, showering after P.E. and nuclear holocaust. And as for understanding things if I keep his commandments, well I tried, and thought I did pretty good, but I didn’t understand anything. I had no wisdom only fear—and yet I clenched my teeth and praised the Lord. I was supposed to do that forever?
The Hardest Question
Any Christian Hebrew scholar will tell you that, fear, doesn’t mean fear like we understand it, that a better translation is more like understanding the awesomeness of the love of God. So why does it continue to be translated as fear? Why doesn’t someone fix the translation?
Russell Rathbun is a preacher at House of Mercy in St. Paul, Minnesota, the author of Midrash on the Juanitos (Cathedral Hill Press, 2010) and the curator of The Hardest Question. Russell's researching his next book and has decided to let us in on the process. Check out the latest at: http://russellrathbun.com/
