An Honest Cry: Sermons from the Psalms in Honor of Prentice A. Meador, Jr.

By Bob Chisholm

The Book of Psalms has provided prayers and hymns for worship all through the history of the people of God. New Testament writers used the psalms to educate disciples about the nature of God's kingdom. For this reason, the psalms provide a vital resource for preaching in the church today.The psalms express the deepest and most heartfelt human emotions one will ever witness. They articulate the mountain peak experiences of praises to God. They plummet to the depths of human despair. They provide consolation. The psalmists stand completely honest before God and challenge preachers to do the same. This kind of honesty is what the people of God long to hear from the pulpit today.In An Honest Cry, twenty preachers share sermons from the whole range of the psalms -- psalms of distress, hatred, sorrow, frailty, trust, joy, and peace. They offer these sermons in memory and honor of their friend and fellow preacher Prentice Meador Jr. for whom the Book of Psalms was always a treasured resource.This book includes chapters from the late Prentice Meador and his son, Mark. Additional contributing writers include Royce Money, Jack Reese, Gary Holloway, Landon Saunders, Mike Cope, Chris Seidman, David Rubio, Scott Sager, Tom A. Jones, Collin Packer, Harold Hazelip, Jim Martin, Lynn Anderson, Rick Atchley, Jennings Davis, Ken Durham, John York and Tim Spivey, Randy Lowry, and Bob Chisholm.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Leafwood Publishers
• Release date: Jul 29, 2013
• ISBN: 9780891128854

Bob Chisholm

Bob Chisholm is Minister of Spiritual Formation at Prestoncrest Church of Christ in Dallas, Texas.

Book preview

Introduction

The twenty preachers who have contributed to this volume represent a far greater number of partners in ministry who would have gladly accepted the opportunity to honor Prentice A. Meador Jr. An Honest Cry is dedicated to the memory of our dear friend, who has reached the goal of his life. The title captures both the heart of his preaching and the emotion of the book of Psalms, which is the basis for all twenty essays.

Prentice had a broad range of interests. But his love for preaching was always at the top. This is why a book of sermons is such a fitting tribute. The idea became crystal clear on the day that hundreds of his family and friends gathered to celebrate his life. So many ministers were sharing how Prentice had impacted their preaching that a collection of sermons from some of them seemed to be the appropriate way to honor his life. Psalms was always close to the heart of this man of God. In fact, it was one of the last classes he taught in his role as professor at Lipscomb University.

And so, on the day we all gathered to celebrate his life, I took the idea to two close friends of Prentice, two Christian university presidents who were at the celebration, and asked for their thoughts. Randy Lowry and Royce Money immediately offered their support and help. Upon my return to Dallas I spoke with Kent and Jan Jackman, longtime friends of the Meadors, and with their help the volume moved from idea to reality. In addition to these friends, there are many others to thank. On behalf of the Meador family I express my sincere appreciation to Dave Bland my co-editor, to Sherry Jackson, close friend of the family who helped organize and proof the manuscript, and to Leonard Allen of Leafwood Publishers for his guidance along the way. Of course, the substance of this book comes from the twenty ministers and the Word of the Lord that they graciously offered. These men were Prentice's co-workers, fellow professors, colleagues, teachers, interns, students, and in every case, grateful friends. Mark Meador gives us an intimate picture of his father's life. And providentially, Prentice joins the list of preachers with a sermon he wrote on Psalm 150, discovered while this volume was being produced.

With God's guidance, all the pieces came together to create an honest cry from the hearts of men who loved what Prentice loved—preaching.

Bob Chisholm

Dallas, Texas

Preaching the Psalms

DAVE BLAND

The Centrality of the Psalms

Psalms served an essential role in ancient Israel's worship (e.g., 1 Chronicles 16:7-36). Scholarship often refers to the book of Psalms as the Hymnbook of the Second Temple. As one might also expect, psalms played an important role in the life and ministry of Jesus. Jesus used the Psalter more than any other book in Scripture. Singing psalms was the last thing on his mind as he and the disciples went out from the last supper together (Matthew 26:30). While Jesus hung on the cross, he quoted from the Psalter: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46). After his resurrection, as he converses with the two men on the road to Emmaus, Jesus confirms the centrality of the Psalms in Scripture, These are my words which I spoke to you, while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled (Luke 24:44). The early church carried on Jesus’ love for the Psalms and made them central in their life of faith and worship. When early Christians gathered in homes to worship, they sang psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all their heart (Ephesians 5:19). Psalms reflect the vibrant worship life of ancient Israel, Jesus, and the early church.

To Preach or to Pray the Psalms?

The psalms have provided prayers and hymns for worship all through the centuries of the church. However, some current voices counsel against preaching the Psalms because they maintain that their original use was exclusively liturgical. For example, of the Psalms Donald Gowan claims, We ought to use them, certainly, but in their appropriate place; we ought to pray them and sing them rather than preach them.¹ David Buttrick also expresses reservation, Though I confess an odd notion that psalms are for singing and not, primarily, for preaching, nevertheless, the poetry of Israel is preached.²

An Instruction Book for the Early Church

Even though the book of Psalms did serve as Israel's hymn and prayer book, it fulfilled more than just that role. It was also their instruction book, their catechism. Though the Psalms are humans communicating to God through song and prayer, through the process of God's inspiration they are also Scripture. They have been faithfully transmitted as God's word to humans.³ So this book, the longest in the Bible, is also an instruction book.

Its catechetical quality is seen in the way the final form of the book has been edited. Psalms 1 and 2 serve as an introduction to the whole collection, which provides the interpretive frame for reading the book. Psalm 1 admonishes the reader to delight in the law of the Lord and on God's law meditate day and night (v. 2). In this context the word law is better translated in its more general sense of instruction. Readers are not just to use these psalms to pray and sing during a Sabbath worship but they are to meditate on them 24/7. The editors sprinkled Torah Psalms throughout the Psalter, which point to its purpose as an instruction book (see Psalm 19 and 119). Psalms 32:8-9 and 34:11 refer to the important role of instruction. In addition, it is not insignificant that the Psalter is divided into five books (Psalms 1-41, 42-72, 73-89, 90-106, 107-150) making an intentional analogy between the Law of Moses and the Psalms.

Not only was the book of Psalms Israel's catechism, the early church also used it in this way. Along with Isaiah, Psalms is the most quoted OldTestament book by New Testament writers. New Testament writers used the Psalms to educate disciples about the nature of God's kingdom. The book of Hebrews, an early Christian sermon, takes as one of its primary texts Psalm 110:1. So the Psalter is not only Israel's and the early church's hymnal and prayer book, it is also their instruction book. As such, psalms serve as a vital resource for preaching in the church today.

The Challenge of Preaching the Psalms

The Generic Nature of the Psalms

Psalms, however, are difficult to preach because they are often generic, detached from any specific historical context. In the past, when publishers of Bibles produced certain Bible versions with only the New Testament (Lord, forgive us!) publishers would sometimes include Psalms and Proverbs as a supplement in the appendix because they were less connected to a specific historical context than were other parts of the Old Testament. The generic nature of the Psalms does have its advantages. It has enabled them to speak to a variety of contexts and situations all through the centuries. Still the lack of a specific context for most of the Psalms creates its challenges for preachers. Walter Brueggemann makes the suggestion that preachers look to the Psalms that do have historical headings or superscriptions⁴ as a way of giving them specificity.⁵ Brueggemann maintains that the preacher's task is to re-narrate the psalm with a contemporary heading. For example, a preacher might put as the heading to Psalm 73, For First Church, during the difficult months of the economic recession. This would help to focus the psalm's message on a specific contemporary situation and provide instruction for how one might preach it.

The Genres of Psalms

Another important perspective to keep in mind as one approaches the Psalms for preaching is to understand the different psalm types. In coming to appreciate the different genres, a preacher will be better prepared to preach from the Psalter with greater breadth and depth. It is not uncommon for preachers to gravitate toward the more well-known psalms in choosing the ones they want to preach, such as Psalms 1, 8, 19, 23, 90, 121, and 139. While those are important psalms, it often results in preachers shying away from the lament and the imprecatory psalms, which also contain important messages for the church.

The lament psalms are the most prevalent type, numbering around sixty-six and making up almost half of the Psalter. These psalms are prayers to God. In more recent times, scholarship has come to better understand the valuable role they play in spiritual formation. The simplest example of a lament psalm is Psalm 13, from which David Rubio develops a quality sermon in this volume. The lament contains a complaint, followed by a petition to God to rescue, and ending with an affirmation of trust and praise. This is the fundamental structure of the lament. With a couple of exceptions (Psalms 37, 88), all the laments end on a note of trust and praise. Mike Cope provides an excellent example of demonstrating the value of not just the lament, but also the imprecatory psalm, those that curse one's enemies, in his sermon on Psalm 137.

Besides the lament psalms, there are two other main types of psalms. These include thanksgiving psalms and hymns of praise. Thanksgiving psalms are extensions of the lament. They look to the past and see how God has provided deliverance. The psalmist breaks forth in a song of thanksgiving to God for what God has done. The thanksgiving psalms, in a sense, take up where the lament psalms leave off. The lament psalms are offered in the context of suffering and loss. The thanksgiving psalms are offered after the storm has passed and move toward praise. John York's well-written sermon on Psalm 34 is one such sermon.

The third main type is the hymns of praise psalms, which number about twenty-eight in all. In contrast to lament psalms directed to God, praise psalms are directed to fellow humans and express utmost confidence in God's power as it is displayed in creation and in human lives (e.g. 103- 107; 146-150). The hymn of praise psalm generally consists of two parts, a call to praise and the reason for praise. Psalm 117, the shortest psalm, represents well these two parts and this category of psalms. The call to praise at the beginning (as well as sometimes at the end) is often stated in the phrase, Praise the Lord (146-150). Sometimes, however, it might be Bless the Lord (103, 104) or Shout to the Lord (100). The Psalter contains other types of psalms but these three, the lament, the thanksgiving psalm, and the hymn, make up the majority. Gary Holloway's sermon provides helpful instruction into the various types of psalms in the Psalter.

Psalms and the Seasons of Life

In thinking about psalm types and categories, another helpful suggestion for preaching them is to consider the three broad categories offered by Walter Brueggemann: psalms of orientation, disorientation, and new orientation.⁶ Both Psalms 22 and 30:6-12 embody all three movements within their structure and serve as a model for how the movement as a whole unfolds. As Brueggemann explains it, these three categories relate to the seasons of our own lives as God's people. Psalms of orientation include one season of life. These psalms are marked by orderliness, constancy, structure, and predictability. The psalm types related to this category include creation psalms (e.g.,8, 95, 104), torah psalms (e.g., 1, 15, 24, 119), wisdom psalms (e.g., 37, 49, 127, 128), and trust psalms (e.g., 11, 23, 62, 121, 131). They demonstrate the stability and orderliness God desires in the world.

Psalms of disorientation relate to the season of hurt, loss, suffering, and death. The large category of lament psalms makes up this season (e.g.,3-7, 9-10, 13-14, 16-17). Finally the Psalms of new orientation consist of the times in our lives when we are refreshed, renewed, and when the fever breaks. These are the hymns of praise and thanksgiving (e.g., 9, 27, 30, 93-99, 145-150). Jack Reese's sermon on Psalm 89 uses that particular psalm and its location in the Psalter as a good opportunity to unfold the canonical movement of the book that progresses from lament to praise, from disorientation to new orientation.

While Brueggemann's three categories are helpful in planning and organizing a series of sermons, the preacher needs to keep in mind that each psalm is unique. Even though a psalm may possess some family resemblance to other psalm types (lament, thanksgiving, praise), as William Brown observes, just like snowflakes, no two psalms are identical.⁷ Preachers, therefore, must treat each psalm on its own terms probing its structural and spiritual depths and discovering unique insights into our relationship with God and with others.

Resources for Preaching Psalms

The following are important resources one should consider as one approaches the Psalms for preaching:

Bland, Dave, and Fleer, David. Eds. Performing the Psalms. St Louis: Chalice Press, 2005.

Brown, William P. Psalms, Book of. In The New Interpreter's Book of the Bible. Vol 4 (Nashville: Abingdon, 2009), 661-680.

Brown, William P. Seeing the Psalms: A Theology of Metaphor. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2002.

Brueggemann, Walter. The Message of the Psalms. Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1984.

Brueggemann, Walter. Spirituality of the Psalms. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2002.

Marrs, Rick. Psalms. In The Transforming Word: One-Volume Commentary on the Bible. Ed. Mark Hamilton. Abilene: ACU Press, 2009. Pp. 445-504.

Mays, James L. Preaching and Teaching the Psalms. Patrick D. Miller and Gene M. Tucker, Editors. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006.

McCann, J. Clinton, Jr. A Theological Introduction to the Book of Psalms: The Psalms as Torah. Nashville: Abingdon, 1993.

McCann, J. Clinton, Jr. and Howell, James C. Preaching the Psalms. Nashville: Abingdon, 2001.

An Honest Cry

The psalms express some of the deepest and most heartfelt human emotions one will ever witness. They articulate the mountain peak experiences of praises to God: Clap your hands, all you peoples; shout to God with loud songs of joy (47:1). They plummet to the depths of human despair: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (22:1). They provide consolation: The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want (23:1). They offer reprimand as God pronounces judgment on the inequities of the gods: How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? (82:2). The psalmists stand completely honest before God and challenge preachers to do the same.

The psalms express genuine and heartfelt faith to God. That kind of language and posture is what the people of God long to hear from the pulpit today. The psalms enable preachers to stand before their congregations with authenticity and share words of faith, hope and love.

The psalms provide an opportunity for introspection, acting as mirrors in reflecting back to us what it means to be human. They also offer an opportunity to consider the nature of God and who we are before the creator of the world. The psalms continue to serve as the instruction book of the church and therefore a vital resource for preaching.

DAVE BLAND is professor of preaching at Harding University Graduate School of Religion in Memphis, Tennessee where he has taught for sixteen years and where he directs the Doctor of Ministry program. He serves as a section editor for the journal Homiletic. For the past eleven years Dave has co-edited a series on preaching with David Fleer published by ACU Press and Chalice Press. One of his academic fields of interest is Wisdom Literature and he has written a commentary on Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs in the College Press niv Dave also serves as one of the preaching ministers at the White Station in Memphis. He and his wife Nancy have

A Man of God

1 GOD's CHANGEAGENT

MARK MEADOR

As I sit here in my Dad's office on the campus of Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee, I am surrounded by memories of him. From the autographs, family photos, and diplomas on the wall to the unending rows of books, including an extensive collection of his favorite author, C. S. Lewis, to the meticulous filing cabinets containing sermon outlines from the past forty years—all represent facets from the life of the man I was proud to call my father.

In the past couple of weeks, as I have been looking through each file and reading all of the correspondence he kept, I have learned three things: Dad did not throw anything away; he was more intelligent than I ever realized; and I truly had no understanding of how many lives he touched in the name of Jesus.

Communicating who Dad was and what he represented in a couple of pages seems almost overwhelming. I am completely humbled by the task, but thankful for the opportunity to share with you a synopsis of a life lived completely and passionately for God.

Dad was born on February 8, 1938, in the house of his great-grandmother, Granny Staggs, in Fountain Head, Tennessee, north of Nashville. The women in his life instilled a deep love of education. Granny taught forty years in a one-room schoolhouse in Crossroads, Tennessee. His own mother, Margaret Staggs Meador, began teaching at age sixteen and taught two generations of students at David Lipscomb Elementary School.In Dad's own words, Mother believed strongly in God, Christ, right and wrong, obeying the Lord, and having good manners. She was passionate about life and very enthusiastic.

His dad's parents, Megga and Papa, were farmers and lived in Portland, Tennessee. I think Dad's ability to influence others began at a very young age. As he recalled, My Granddad Meador was not a Christian. When I was ten, I asked him, ‘Papa, do you just want to go to hell?’ The next Sunday he was baptized. That is what I call persuasive.

My grandfather, Prentice Meador Sr., worked for the U.S. Post Office for thirty-five years and served as an elder at the Hillsboro Church of Christ in Nashville for almost as long. He loved to hunt and fish and was a man of very strong convictions. Both of Dad's parents inspired him to begin preaching at the age of fifteen. In a letter to one of my sons, Dad wrote, My first sermon was at Marrowbone Creek Church of Christ. It was about twelve minutes in length. Mother thought it was ‘perfect’ and Dad thought it was ‘too long.’ If you knew my grandparents, that about sums it up.

A Nashville native, Dad received his B.A. from Lipscomb University in 1960. He then went on to complete his M.A. and Ph.D. and graduate with the highest honors