| Thursday, October 27, 2011 |
| 1 Samuel 2:1-10 - The Essence of Praise. |
I remember sitting in the hospital room with them. Two parents, their first and only child, facing an unthinkable diagnosis. The doctors had done everything they can, said it every different way, to explain that their lives were not going to be anything like what they thought when they had found out she was pregnant. The dreams had been changed by the reality of their son's condition.
There are times in life when you don't know what to say. That was one of those times for me. I felt like I should say something...should say words of comfort. After all, I am their pastor. That is what I am supposed to do. However, I couldn't help but feel that the air had been sucked out of the room and a lack of oxygen left me speechless, unable to think of what words would comfort...or even what comfort felt like. Presence was the only gift I could give.
But it didn't remain silent for long. The new mother had brought her Bible and she began reading Psalms. Not having an idea of where to begin or where to end she flipped open the book with less of a purpose and more of a desperate need. A need to hear something. She began reading with a cracked voice, almost muscling through at first, coming across as more of an exercise than something she wanted to do. But as she read, psalm after psalm, something happened. Reality didn't change. The doctors didn't come in and give different more hopeful news. Not even the tears stopped flowing...but something definitely changed.
It was in reading those passages, those psalms, filled with verses that told of who God was and what he is like, that I realized something. This mom was praising God in the midst of her unbelievable crisis. She wasn't praising God for the almost certain death sentence given for her son by his physicians. She wasn't praising him for the undoubtedly difficult days and nights ahead. She was praising God to remind herself of who He is. I learned something from her that day. The center of praise is to remember who God is.
Hannah knew this. A new mother, having struggled for so long with infertility, only to follow through on her promise to give her first and only son to the service of God, she must have had a mix of thankfulness and grief. Yet we see that after giving Samuel to God, leaving the son she had waited for so long for at the temple, her response to the unimaginable sadness she must have had, she sang a song...a song of praise and a song of remembrance.
Sometimes when we read scripture and the stories of the characters of scripture, we can unduly make them into heroes. Don't get me wrong, there were many heroes in the Bible, and many we can learn from. However, we have to see that they were just humans like us, struggling to get through life with all of its turmoil and pain. When we remind ourselves of this with Hannah, seeing the context of her situation, the song she sings is not one of a super-human saint that can sing praise songs in the midst of turmoil, but a song of necessity. She is singing for her life. She is singing to remind herself, in the midst of heart crushing pain, of a God that she needs to believe is true. A God that is in control of her life, her son's life, and this world. She is singing because if she doesn't she will be overcome with feelings of despair. She is singing to ground herself in the memory of who God is.
Is this not the essence of praise? These two women, the mother in the hospital room, and Hannah remind us of what praise really is. It is reminding ourselves of who God is, no matter the situation. |
posted by Unknown @ 10:15 AM   |
|
|
|
