The Rev. Frank Logue
King of Peace Episcopal Church
Kingsland, Georgia
June 16, 2002

I Am Part of Your World
Psalm 100 

Think of one of the Ten Commandments. [Significant pause] Do you have one of the Ten Commandments in mind? For most of us, the first thing we think of with the Ten Commandments is “Thou shalt not….” You may well have thought of “Thou shalt not murder.” Or “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” Or “Thou shalt not steal.”  

However, three of the Ten Commandments are positive—they tell us what we should do. You may have thought of the fourth commandment, “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.” Or, appropriate for Father’s Day, the fifth commandment, “Honor your father and your mother.” 

Then there is the first commandment, “You shall have no other gods but me.” That first commandment may be paired with the second, “You shall not make for yourself any idol.” Together they offer a positive and a negative statement. You shall have no other god but me, and you shall not make any idols. I want to take a harder look at these first two commandments. 

These first two commandments are easily forgotten in a world seemingly free from idol worship and in a country where most people of faith believe in monotheism—the idea that there is only one God. Yet, we too can easily replace the one true God with lesser gods or idols. Each of us has a “god spot” in our lives. The central portion of our lives is meant to be our relationship with God. That main thing in your life is supposed to be God, but we can give that god spot over to other people, things, or even ourselves. 

For some people, they themselves become God. Each of us is to some degree the center of our own universe. It is healthy to have good self-esteem. However, this can be taken to the extreme if your own view of yourself becomes blown out of proportion. This can sometimes be seen in mega stars from Elvis Presley to Michael Jackson whose lives have been distorted by the praise of others.  

The opposite side of the star getting an inflated sense of their own self worth is the fan who comes to worship Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Dale Earnhardt or some other celebrity. Some fans step over the line and become obsessed with a celebrity, creating shrines to the person in their home, and spending all their available time, energy and money on being a fan. 

You may also know someone who gives the “god spot” in their lives over to another person. It may be a boyfriend or girlfriend, a wife or husband, or their own child. When your whole life revolves around one other person, you get out of balance. The weight of the world rests on that person and eventually they will disappoint you. 

Here is a self-test. Where do you spend your time, energy and money? For each of us, the bulk of your time, energy and money are committed to the necessities of life. You have to earn money, buy the food, take care of the house, spend time with your family, have some time alone.  

What about that precious little bit of free time, spare energy and disposable income? Obviously some of your time, energy and money is committed to God. After all, you are here on a Sunday morning. But is there balance in your life? Or do you tend to give your extra resources to one person, one hobby, one thing?  

If your life is out of balance, if you have given the “god spot” in your life to another person, activity, or thing, then the psalm for today, psalm 100, offers an antidote. The Book of Common Prayer refers to Psalm 100 as the “Jubilate.” The name Jubilate is from the first word of the psalm in Latin, Jubilate meaning, “be joyful.”   

If you will open your bulletins to the Psalm, you can look at it with me. This psalm was written for use in the Temple in Jerusalem. The psalm opens telling the worshippers to come to worship joyfully,  

Be joyful in the Lord all you lands;
serve the Lord with gladness
and come before his presence with a song.

It is the second verse which offers the antidote for idol worship:

Know this: The Lord himself is God;
he himself has made us, and we are his;
we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.

This verse offers reasons not to break the first two commandments. Why worship other gods or idols? God himself made us. We are his. God himself is our shepherd who loves us and wants to care for us. 

The Psalm goes back to worship as the gates and courts mentioned in the psalm are the gates and courts of the Temple: 

Enter his gates with thanksgiving;
go into his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and call upon his Name.

For the Lord is good;
His mercy is everlasting;
And his faithfulness endures from age to age. 

For the psalmist, worship flows naturally from understanding who we are in relationship to God. Once we realize that God made us, we are God’s and God wants to care for us as a shepherd cares for his sheep, then worship becomes the next logical step. The antidote to a life out of balance is to put God back in the god spot in your life. 

We are to live our lives doxologically.[1] Doxology means words of praise. The Doxology is the song that was playing right before our service began. It sounds like this [sound person plays short clip of a group singing a rocking version of Praise God from whom all blessings flow]. 

OK, so it doesn’t always sound just like that. But the words are the same, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow, praise him all creatures here below, praise him above ye heavenly hosts, praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.”  

To live doxologically is to put God back in the god spot in your life. As the psalmist said,

Know this: The Lord himself is God;
he himself has made us, and we are his;
we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.

I read an interesting breakdown of this verse this week in the New Interpreter’s Bible. It pointed out the use of pronouns in this verse.  

In a rougher translation, closer to the Hebrew, the verse says, 

Know that Yahweh, he is God.
He, he made us and to him we are his people and sheep of his pasture.

The pattern is he, he, he, us, him, we, his, his. Who you are begins and ends with God. If you want to know yourself, put God back in the proper place in your life. Give God the god spot. God is not one more thing to do, one more responsibility or relationship among many. God is the ground of your very being.  

Let lesser things be lesser things. For who you are already begins and ends with God. God made you and you are his. Acknowledging that you are God’s own child and the sheep of his pasture is the way to keep your life in balance. 

I want to close with a short video meditation on the place of God in our lives.

[Play one-minute long clip from Youth Specialties showing pictures of people and places around the world while music plays. The only words are a haiku at the end saying, “Now I remember. You are not part of my world. I am part of yours.”]