Do Not Forsake The Work Of Your Hands!

This is the sermon for February 9, 2025, reflecting on Psalm 138.

Oh No!

Last Sunday, Pastor Elmer was officiating communion with me when he received his "star word." When he saw it, I noticed his expression of surprise. I couldn't help but wonder what word he had received, and from his reaction, it seemed to have something to do with joy or happiness. When I looked at mine, I also smiled, though somewhat ironically—my word was "laughter."

I think both of us were caught off guard by the random word we picked because, at least for me, there isn’t much to laugh about these days. The world feels like it’s in a constant state of flux, with changes coming fast and hard. The anxiety that comes with change becomes even more overwhelming when you're not happy or when you disagree with many of the things happening in the United States or in different parts of the world.

How can I laugh when I feel like crying? How can I find joy when what I see around me brings distress to people I care about? It’s daunting to think about enjoying anything in life while friends and loved ones are suffering. And yet, living in a constant state of worry and anxiety is not good for our emotional and physical well-being.

So, how do we rediscover our ability to laugh amid all of this?

A Call During Difficult Times

Maybe we need to remember that the God who created us and called us knows that creation and calling often emerge from chaos.

The Bible tells us in Genesis 1 that “when God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep” (En el principio creó Dios los cielos y la tierra. Y la tierra estaba sin orden y vacía. Había tinieblas sobre la faz del océano).

James Weldon Johnson describes this interplay of chaos and order in a profoundly creative way:

"And God stepped out on space

And he looked around and said:

I’m lonely—

I’ll make me a world.

And far as the eye of God could see

Darkness covered everything,

Blacker than a hundred midnights

Down in a cypress swamp.

Then God smiled,

And the light broke,

And the darkness rolled up on one side,

And the light stood shining on the other,

And God said: 'That’s good!'"

And God smiled! And in the darkness, light broke forth. Creation happens in the very midst of chaos!

One of today’s lectionary passages reminds us of the call of the disciples in Luke. Jesus tells Peter to “put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” But Peter hesitates, remembering that they have toiled all night without success. It has been a long, difficult night, and they have nothing to feed their families or sustain themselves.

Still, the call to cast the nets remains. And Peter, despite his doubts, chooses to obey. To his amazement, he finds himself celebrating and laughing as his boat—and others around him—overflow with fish, so much so that they begin to sink!

But before the laughter, there are tears and uncertainty.

Singing is a Form of Personal Submission

The psalm we read today is a psalm of thanksgiving, traditionally attributed to David. It is structured in three parts: an introduction expressing gratitude—offered, in this case, in the presence of other gods (vv. 1–3); a call to praise, directed toward the kings of the earth (vv. 4–6); and a declaration of confidence in God despite the psalmist’s enemies (vv. 7–8).

The psalmist gives thanks to God, yet he does so in the midst of nations that worship other gods. His gratitude becomes an act of witness—he acknowledges that, even in the presence of other deities, he will offer thanks to the one true God. Not only are there other gods, but there are also other nations and kings. And yet, even they will recognize God’s words and offer praise.

The psalmist also acknowledges that he has enemies—he walks amid trouble (camina en medio de la angustia). But despite these hardships, he continues to praise because God preserves him from the wrath of his enemies, stretches out His hand, and delivers him with His right hand:

"Against the wrath of my enemies, You will stretch out Your hand, and Your right hand will save me."

The psalmist, created and called by God, remains thankful even in the face of sorrow. In doing so, he embraces his identity and submits to God as his Creator. Laughter and tears coexist, both testifying that they belong to God.

Rebecca Blair Young beautifully describes this tension:

The psalmist begins the hymn with an expression of thanksgiving to God … the act of thanksgiving itself is a form of submission to God. To reinforce this understanding of thanksgiving as subjugation to God, the psalmist states that all the other lesser gods will be witness to the psalmist’s act of praise.

And about singing, something that brings me a sense of joy and happiness, she says:

Singing is a form of personal submission to God. Spoken words of praise can be repeated by rote without much feeling. Singing, however, requires an outpouring of one’s breath, one’s spirit, and one’s wind (ruach) in a deeply felt form of adoration.

As she says this, she invites us to share in the psalmist’s hope—that all the kings of the earth will sing of the ways of the Lord because they will come to understand that God watches over the lowly, but the proud God perceives from afar: (Que todos los reyes de la tierra cantarán acerca de los caminos del Señor, porque realmente entenderán que el Señor mira al humilde; pero al altivo lo reconoce desde lejos).

And so, the psalmist sings, because he knows that “God is on the side of the common person.” And even if human leaders do not understand this, his hope sings, because he knows what God’s agenda is: it is to look on the humble. Or as Young states: “God wants nothing to do with people who exalt themselves for their own sake.” This is the word of the Lord!

Singing is an act of personal submission to God. Laughter is an act of personal submission to God. Joy is an act of personal submission to God.

But laughter is also an act of rebellion. We refuse to let the powers and principalities of this world take away what God has created in us and called us to do and to be.

So we will sing! We will laugh! We will embrace joy! Because even in the midst of sorrow, we were created to laugh, to sing, and to rejoice.

And for that, we say: Thank you, God!

Do Not Forsake The Work Of Your Hands

At the end of the psalm, the psalmist offers a final plea: "Do not forsake the work of your hands." (No desampares la obra de tus manos).

In his sermon on Creation, James Weldon Johnson describes the second day of creation in this way:

"Then God reached out and took the light in His hands,

And God rolled the light around in His hands

Until He made the sun;

And He set that sun a-blazing in the heavens.

And the light that was left from making the sun,

God gathered it up in a shining ball

And flung it against the darkness,

Spangling the night with the moon and stars.

Then, down between

The darkness and the light,

He hurled the world;

And God said: 'That’s good!'"!

This is the work of God’s hands. You and I are the work of God’s hands. All of creation is the work of God’s hands.

And so, when the world feels overcome by darkness, we cling to the psalmist’s plea:

Do not forsake us in this time of great need. Help your creation to sing, to laugh, and to feel joy—even in the midst of our anxiety and fear for the present and the future.

Do not forsake the work of your hands, O God. Strengthen us to resist the forces that seek to steal our power to laugh, for laughter is a powerful witness that we are your children.

Help us to praise. Help us to give thanks. Help us to sing. Help us to laugh.

Do not forsake your creation, O Lord.

In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.

Notes

Rebecca Blair Young, “Theological Perspective on Psalm 138,” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year C, ed. David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, vol. 1 (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), 320.

Johnson, James Weldon. God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse (p. 16). Rare Treasure Editions. Kindle Edition.