Sing to God (Psalm 96)
WHO’D BE A TEACHER?
My wife is an English teacher at an independent Christian school in a beachside location south of Sydney (where I also was teaching for some time.) Along with other staff, she is allocated a day to give a brief morning devotion. These are important times as they set the tone for a busy day amongst all the dramas and issues that involve a thousand students many of whom do not profess faith.
As a former teacher with many years of experience, I know how quickly one can be wrapped up in the minutiae of planning and delivery of lessons, of marking and dealing with the needs of hundreds of children in a day and then getting to repeat this all over again, day by day. It is an exhausting profession, mentally and physically and yet a very rewarding one – when things go right (which is not always the case.)
For most people, work life is like that, particularly if they have a tribe of kids (to borrow the Australian vernacular.) In my case, for too many years I let this become all-consuming, an 18 hour-a-day job which took precedence over everything else. To be honest, it was hard not too, given the demands that were made upon my time and for success when parents were paying for this. I was far from alone in my work habits.
For many Christians, this will be a feeling with which they are all too familiar and it doesn’t just come from full-time, paid employment. Often the demands of friends or family, volunteering or a close person in need overwhelm with demands for sustained thought and interactions, leaving little time for self.
JESUS: A WORKAHOLIC?
Jesus wasn’t in paid employment – he might be considered part of the non-profit volunteer movement today but He certainly worked an 80-hour week, all without superannuation, annual holidays, sick leave or medical. In the press of constant demands, He would slip away to be by Himself and God. At these times, I can well imagine that the concepts of Psalm 96 (which He would have known well and in fact most likely could recite from memory) would have been one of His starting points.
These are the times and the ways in which we also reorient ourselves on God. As Christians, our value system is derived from God: the way we see the world and others is formed from God’s attitudes and there is no end of help when we read Bible authors and reform our world view from them.
PSALM 96: SEE THE WORLD A NEW WAY
In Psalm 96, King David affirms some really helpful values. Very specifically, he tells us that the only supernatural power which has any credence is God. The other gods are actually idols, objects that have less life than we do. We are given a special role to tell the world about God’s deeds and these are of such magnificence that we can’t but praise God while we list them. In fact, so overwhelming is God that that every part of the natural world resounds in praise to Him; the one who is qualified to be the only true judge of the earth and everything that is in it. What is remarkable is how prophetic this psalm is. It speaks of God giving salvation and the need for God’s nation to tell the world, a millennia before Jesus will die on the cross and apostles and deacons will be given the task of taking this message to the gentiles (and we in turn take it to the rest of the school – or the world.)
This is why a Christian school has a morning devotion: so all staff have a time – even if just a few moments – to reorient their values with God’s values; God’s ways, so that in the day to come they can respond in God’s way to all that happens: all the thousand little crises that occur. A reorientation sees all students as still being a child of God’s image, despite their flaws and their strengths and allows us to realise that good humour and friendliness may take precedence at times over the need to get through the content; that compassion and love allow us to see the value of fair and consistent discipline structures (which they really do want even if they kick against the traces) and that above all, that building a trusting relationship lays a platform for them to see that we are declaring God’s ways day to day as the Psalmist call us to.
Technical Notes
Psalm 96 was written by King David of Israel around 1000 B.C. This translation is by the composer and is performed by Dan Marko with backing vocals by Kim Chandler. The song is arranged and produced by Turn Around Music Studio at Taree. The clip images are by Jon Seccombe and Vaughn MacDonald. Dan is also the graphic artist for the image above & the album covers.