Psalm 138: With All My Heart

"1 I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart; before the gods I sing your praise;
2 I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness; for you have exalted your name and your word above everything.
3 On the day I called, you answered me, you increased my strength of soul.
4 All the kings of the earth shall praise you, O Lord, for they have heard the words of your mouth.
5 They shall sing of the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord.
6 For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly; but the haughty he perceives from far away.
7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve me against the wrath of my enemies; you stretch out your hand, and your right hand delivers me.
8 The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands."

I. Introduction

My general approach to the Psalms, and Ps. 138 is a good example to illustrate this approach, is that they are more concerned with our "orientation" or "heart-direction" in life than they are with unfolding new dimensions of theology for Israel and for us. They are hymns that should help us "tune our hearts" to God. Thus, our focus in studying the Psalms should be to determine which emotions and which attitudes the Psalmist wants to stimulate in us. Sometimes, for example, the Psalmist wants to narrate the great acts of God in history (Ps. 107) in order to stimulate hope; on other occasions the Psalmist sings the glory of the law of God, in order to stimulate the heart to (re)commitment to God.

The Psalm for today is a Psalm of thanksgiving or praise. Unlike other Psalms, no specific deliverance is narrated. We don't know if the Psalmist has escaped a physical illness or whether the community to which he writes has emerged from some trial. It is spoken in general-enough terms to reach to us in the 21st century, but it is specific enough in its affirmations to encourage us to stop and consider the individual words, just as a botanist will carefully and lovingly caress the leaves of a plant s/he is trying to identify.

The three sections of the Psalm are easy to identify: (1) vv. 1-3 praise God for help; (2) vv. 4-6 depict the majesty and grace of God among the kings of the earth; and (3) vv. 7-8 express the author's trust in God. In this essay I will briefly examine three arresting phrases from the Psalm: (a) "with my whole heart" (v. 1); (b) exalting name/word (v. 2); and (c) God's regard for the lowly (v. 6).

II. "With All My Heart" (v. 1)

The familiar Christian hymn "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" continues, in its first line, "Tune my heart to sing thy praise." Both the Psalmist and the hymn author recognize that the key to our spiritual rootedness and strength is our ability to celebrate God "with all my heart." We know what it is like to put our heart fully into something-- a task, a love, a relationship. The Psalmist declares this same kind of "all-heartedness" needs to be directed towards God.

This theme of loving or giving ourselves to God with our whole heart is a familiar theme from Ps. 119 and Deuteronomy.

"Happy are those who keep his decrees,
who seek him with their whole heart.." (Ps. 119:2)

Or, from Deuteronomy:

"From there (i.e., exile) you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find him if you search after him with all your heart and soul" (4:29).

"Hear , O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might" (6:5-6).

If you took your "spiritual temperature," would it show that you were loving God with all your heart?

II. Your Word and Your Name (v. 2)

The translation of v. 2 is confusing. The NRSV has it: "for you have exalted your name and your word above everything." But, the literal translation is "you have exalted your word above all your name." I want to "play" with that latter reading for a moment, because those are the Hebrew words that come down to us. It suggests perhaps that God's word might at times extend even further than God's name. Recall from Handel's Messiah: "Their sound is gone out into all lands, and their words unto the end of the world..." Perhaps we can see in this verse from the Psalm an awareness that the Word of God, the message, the influence of the true God sometimes reaches farther than the knowledge of God's name. We have a parallel thought in Eph. 3, where the writer praises God who "is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.." (Eph. 3:20). That is, the "word" or "deeds" of God go forth even beyond human imagining. If it exceeds human comprehension, it also exceeds our ability to put a "name" on it. In any case, the Psalmist is singing the glory of God, who is the one whose glory reaches far beyond the covenant community.

III. God Regards the Lowly (v. 6)

A special favorite of mine is the contrast in v. 6:

"For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly; but the haughty he perceives from far away."

We might be forgiven for thinking it is the other way around. After all, the world recognizes the mighty. We give them honors; we name buildings after them; we celebrate their gifts to charity. But this verse says the opposite. God regards the lowly. This is the message of the Gospel of Luke, from which many of our Year C Gospel lessons are derived. Mary says:

"My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant..." (1:48)

Or, a few verses later,

"He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,/ and lifted up the lowly (1:52)."

Conclusion

This Psalm allows us both to tune our hearts to God by devoting our whole heart to God, and it also encourages us to think of the special ways that this God is worthy of that "all-heartedness." The Lord will fulfill the divine purpose for me. That is the comforting and final thought, and a good thought for this week.

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