Beeson Podcast, Episode #609
Suzanne Simmons
July 5, 2022

>>Announcer: 


Welcome to the Beeson podcast, coming to you from Beeson Divinity School on the campus of Samford University. Now your hosts, Doug Sweeney and Kristen Padilla. 



>>Doug Sweeney:


Welcome to the Beeson Podcast. I’m your host, Doug Sweeney. We’re continuing our summer sermon series this week with a sermon by a Beeson alumna, Suzanne Simmons. Before I tell you about Suzanne and the sermon you’re about to hear, allow me to remind you that next week we’ll be at the EK Bailey Preaching Conference, that’s July 11-13. If you plan on being there find us at the conference or send an email to our director of admission and alumni relations, Kyle Young, at jyoung@samford.edu. 

As we’ve been telling you each week, our Preaching Institute and Samford’s Center for Worship and the Arts, is co-hosting a conference this fall. It’s called, “The Beauty of God: Preaching, Worship, and the Arts,” and will be held on October 24-25. If you’re a pastor, a worship leader, musician, visual artist, or a committed layperson who cares about preaching, worship, and the arts, we hope you will join us for this exciting time of learning, networking, and conversations. Learn more and register at www.BeesonDivinity.com/events.

Today’s sermon was given by Suzanne Simmons in Hodges Chapel on October 19, 2021 as part of our Fall 2021 Chapel Series, “Tokens of the Providence of God in Times of Trouble.” Her sermon was called, “Give Ear, O My People,” and is based on Psalm 78. Suzanne is a certified Chaplain for UAB hospital here in Birmingham. And is on track to becoming a CPE educator. She and her husband, Jacob, are both graduates of Beeson. Suzanne serves on the Advisory Board of our Center for Women in Ministry. Let’s go now to Hodges Chapel and listen to Suzanne’s sermon, “Give Ear, O My People.”


>>Reader:


A reading from Psalm 78.

Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;
  incline your ears to the words of my mouth!
2 I will open my mouth in a parable;
  I will utter dark sayings from of old,
3 things that we have heard and known,
  that our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children,
  but tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,
  and the wonders that he has done.
5 He established a testimony in Jacob
  and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers
  to teach to their children,
6 that the next generation might know them,
  the children yet unborn,
and arise and tell them to their children,
7   so that they should set their hope in God
and not forget the works of God,
  but keep his commandments;
8 and that they should not be like their fathers,
  a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart was not steadfast,
  whose spirit was not faithful to God.
9 The Ephraimites, armed with the bow,
  turned back on the day of battle.
10 They did not keep God's covenant,
  but refused to walk according to his law.
11 They forgot his works
  and the wonders that he had shown them.
12 In the sight of their fathers he performed wonders
  in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.
13 He divided the sea and let them pass through it,
  and made the waters stand like a heap.
14 In the daytime he led them with a cloud,
  and all the night with a fiery light.
15 He split rocks in the wilderness
  and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.
16 He made streams come out of the rock
  and caused waters to flow down like rivers.
17 Yet they sinned still more against him,
  rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
18 They tested God in their heart
  by demanding the food they craved.
19 They spoke against God, saying,
  “Can God spread a table in the wilderness?
20 He struck the rock so that water gushed out
  and streams overflowed.
Can he also give bread
  or provide meat for his people?”
21 Therefore, when the Lord heard, he was full of wrath;
  a fire was kindled against Jacob;
  his anger rose against Israel,
22 because they did not believe in God
  and did not trust his saving power.
23 Yet he commanded the skies above
  and opened the doors of heaven,
24 and he rained down on them manna to eat
  and gave them the grain of heaven.
25 Man ate of the bread of the angels;
  he sent them food in abundance.
26 He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens,
  and by his power he led out the south wind;
27 he rained meat on them like dust,
  winged birds like the sand of the seas;
28 he let them fall in the midst of their camp,
  all around their dwellings.
29 And they ate and were well filled,
  for he gave them what they craved.
30 But before they had satisfied their craving,
  while the food was still in their mouths,
31 the anger of God rose against them,
  and he killed the strongest of them
  and laid low the young men of Israel.
32 In spite of all this, they still sinned;
  despite his wonders, they did not believe.
33 So he made their days vanish like a breath,
  and their years in terror.
34 When he killed them, they sought him;
  they repented and sought God earnestly.
35 They remembered that God was their rock,
  the Most High God their redeemer.
36 But they flattered him with their mouths;
  they lied to him with their tongues.
37 Their heart was not steadfast toward him;
  they were not faithful to his covenant.
38 Yet he, being compassionate,
  atoned for their iniquity
  and did not destroy them;
he restrained his anger often
  and did not stir up all his wrath.
39 He remembered that they were but flesh,
  a wind that passes and comes not again.
40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness
  and grieved him in the desert!
41 They tested God again and again
  and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember his power
  or the day when he redeemed them from the foe,
43 when he performed his signs in Egypt
  and his marvels in the fields of Zoan.
44 He turned their rivers to blood,
  so that they could not drink of their streams.
45 He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them,
  and frogs, which destroyed them.
46 He gave their crops to the destroying locust
  and the fruit of their labor to the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail
  and their sycamores with frost.
48 He gave over their cattle to the hail
  and their flocks to thunderbolts.
49 He let loose on them his burning anger,
  wrath, indignation, and distress,
  a company of destroying angels.
50 He made a path for his anger;
  he did not spare them from death,
  but gave their lives over to the plague.
51 He struck down every firstborn in Egypt,
  the firstfruits of their strength in the tents of Ham.
52 Then he led out his people like sheep
  and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
53 He led them in safety, so that they were not afraid,
  but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
54 And he brought them to his holy land,
  to the mountain which his right hand had won.
55 He drove out nations before them;
  he apportioned them for a possession
  and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
56 Yet they tested and rebelled against the Most High God
  and did not keep his testimonies,
57 but turned away and acted treacherously like their fathers;
  they twisted like a deceitful bow.
58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places;
  they moved him to jealousy with their idols.
59 When God heard, he was full of wrath,
  and he utterly rejected Israel.
60 He forsook his dwelling at Shiloh,
  the tent where he dwelt among mankind,
61 and delivered his power to captivity,
  his glory to the hand of the foe.
62 He gave his people over to the sword
  and vented his wrath on his heritage.
63 Fire devoured their young men,
  and their young women had no marriage song.
64 Their priests fell by the sword,
  and their widows made no lamentation.
65 Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,
  like a strong man shouting because of wine.
66 And he put his adversaries to rout;
  he put them to everlasting shame.
67 He rejected the tent of Joseph;
  he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
68 but he chose the tribe of Judah,
  Mount Zion, which he loves.
69 He built his sanctuary like the high heavens,
  like the earth, which he has founded forever.
70 He chose David his servant
  and took him from the sheepfolds;
71 from following the nursing ewes he brought him
  to shepherd Jacob his people,
  Israel his inheritance.
72 With upright heart he shepherded them
  and guided them with his skillful hand.


This is the Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.


>>Simmons:


It’s good to be with you all this morning. It’s empty at a quarter. My dad became known in our family for this line. It’s empty at a quarter. Of course, referring to the gas tank. When we learned to drive, one of the things he reminded us of regularly was to never run out of gas. And the way to ensure this would not happen, he instructed was to fill up the tank when it was at a quarter full. And you’d never get stranded. To a naive 16 year old this seemed a bit extreme. But he was serious. So serious that if he got in the car after we had been driving to find the gas tank needle dangerously dipping below that quarter of a tank mark there might be consequences. For example, not being able to use the car that night. Or worse, for a poor 16 year old, having to fill it up on her own dime. 

One day when my hubris was flaring a bit I confidently informed my dad, “Dad, you know there is a light that comes on when the gas tank is low. It’s to remind you to get gas. And I’m pretty sure it definitely comes on after the needle goes below a quarter of a tank. It’s a built in feature so that you don’t run out of gas.” 

At this point he took the time to share a story about the one and only time he has ever run out of gas. He shared about the treacherous conditions he found himself in. Walking several miles in the wet, in the cold, at night, by himself with no one to call, no cell phones, no ride to hitchhike with. And he ended up hospitalized after this episode. “Oh.” I went on to hear that story many, many times in my life. And it was always attached to the phrase, “It’s empty at a quarter.”

See, prior to hearing this story I had no frame of reference for what it would be like to run out of gas. My experience was limited where my dad’s was not. His experience served as a warning to me. And because of that he had something to offer me. A catchphrase that we continue to mock him for to this day because who fills up the gas tank at a quarter? (laughs) But his poor judgment many years prior was shared with the hopes that I would vicariously learn from him, and choose a different way for myself.

He wanted me to be kept safe and well, like most parents do. He said, “I’ve gone before you, I know what’s ahead. If you trust me, things might go better for you.” Our Psalm today follows a similar logic. Psalm 78 is an historical Psalm, likely incorporated in worship, either following a time when the history was rehearsed in worship or used to do so on its own. It’s a lengthy text you may have noticed. The second longest in scripture next to Psalm 119.

So, if I preach exegetically like I was taught how to do in this fine institution we’ll all be home by dinner, right? I kid. For the sake of our time we’re in luck because the meaning of this text is plain. And more than that the content is a familiar history of the nation of Israel from the time of the exodus to the establishing of King David. As we heard it read by my good friend, you likely sensed the reoccurring behaviors. The faithfulness of God. The people’s rebellion. God’s discipline. The people’s repentance. Followed again by the faithfulness of God. The people’s rebellion. And so on and so forth.

And yes, it might be familiar because you’re in Old Testament with Dr. House, or maybe you’ve had Psalms with Dr. Ross. But moreso than that it’s familiar because it’s the human story. So, 72 verses repeating a portion of Israel’s history, the good, the bad, the ugly. And to be sung in worship no less. Why? The verses that open the Psalm explain for the congregation. Let’s look at verses 1-8. 

“Give ear, O my people, to my teaching” – listen up. I have something to say, the Psalmist writes. Imagine this being sung corporately, each person reminding the other to listen up, singing the words one to another as this audio visual reminder that we all must take heed to this instruction. Incline your ears to this. Lean in. He says this multiple times. And as a parent to toddlers, I feel this repetition on a deep level. (laughs) I don’t question for a moment why he had to say the same thing with different words to make his point. 

Listen. “I will open my mouth in parable. I will utter dark sayings from old. Things you know and have heard.” This might be old news but it certainly is worth repeating, he’s saying. Who among us is not guilty of tuning out when we are hearing a story we’ve heard before? Our family narratives. The ones you’ve heard over and over again can be lost on us. Because of their familiarity. I had to laugh, actually, last night when I called my dad to one last time fact check that intro story. 

And he told me the story all over again. (laughs) And I thought, “I’ve got to practice this. I’ve got to go!” And then I realized, “No, Suzanne, just listen.” Like many stories that get repeated this one had something to offer the audience. If they would but lean in. Hidden in this story are the heavy, weighty things. They are being invited to revisit, review, and even rehearse their history as a reminder for themselves and the ones coming behind them of who they are and who they worship. 

This story about the past just may have the power to impact the future. Imagine for a moment history put to song to address the present and warn against the consequences if repeated. The Psalmist knew what Lynn Manuel Miranda also came to know. If we want the people to be moved by the history it had better be put to music. 

And so the Psalmist goes on. These weighty and heavy things are not just to be shared one with another here in the congregation, but they are to be passed down to the coming generations. Here, the Psalmist captures the urgency of the message. This is not an option. But rather their responsibility. As reiterated in verse 5 God established a testimony with Jacob and a law in Israel and the command at the time was to tell the children all the coming generations and tell their children’s children. And for effect the children yet unborn. All the children are to know this story.

They should know this story before they are old enough or aware enough to know they know this story. Speak it to the pregnant women, the Psalmist says. It’s that important. In other words, this story should not be forgotten. The stakes are too high. What stories have made this journey in your family? Is it the stories of heroism, success, failure, defeat? One stands out in my family narrative. My grandfather who once delivered groceries in horse and buggy, working hard as a young teenager to support his family following his father’s death, later came to own the company and go on to grow it as a thriving family business for over 50 years.

Another one I heard of often was about my great grandparents who I never had the chance to meet. They managed their family farm in Georgia during the Great Depression. And they were known in the community as a safe place and a refuge. A place where people could count on getting food when times were lean. 

Whatever your family narratives might include they give insight to who we are and how we see the world. For Israel there was one story that was to be repeated. In verse 4, “The story of the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might and the wonders he had done.” Like many of our senior saints the elder generation knew some things. They had lived it. They have seen the consequences of disobedience. But what’s more? They have seen the faithfulness of God. 

One of my favorite things about my work as a hospital chaplain is getting to sit and visit with people who have lived a few more decades than I have. Often, with elderly patients who share in the Christian faith, I find such assurance that even after 70 and 80, 90 years on this earth their faith remains intact. 

What I’ve noticed is that faith for that long has its fair share of hardships. They’ve experienced the faithfulness of God precisely because they walked through the wilderness a time or two. From these older wiser individuals I’ve observed that wisdom and faith over a lifetime don’t come easily. They speak with confidence in God and his faithfulness because they have faced their own limitations and experienced God to be enough every time. 

This was true for Israel. They were a people intimately familiar with the presence of God. The rescuing, delivering, providing, generous hand of God. The Psalmist spends the remaining 60+ versus re-telling the story, as I mentioned above. God’s faithfulness. The rebellion. God’s discipline. His mercy. Their repentance. Can you imagine the elders telling the children of God’s deeds and wonders and his might? For example, how excited they would be to talk about how in the land of Egypt he divided the sea and let them pass through it. And made the water stand like a heap. In the daytime he led them with the cloud and all the night with a fiery light. He gave them drink abundantly from the deep. He made streams come out of a rock and caused waters to flow down like rivers. And later he commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven and rained down on them manna to eat. The bread of heaven. 

But then they would also have to share the less exciting portion of the story. Israel’s response. They sinned still more against him, rebelling against the most high in the desert. They tested God in their heart by demanding the food they craved. And later they remembered God was their rock, but they flattered him with their mouths. They lied to him with their tongues. They were offering their words, but their affection and their worship was hollow. 

If I’m honest, they respond how I respond. I forget. But more than that i want control. And I want answers. And when it comes to God I want security. So, when that gets threatened or my control gets taken away my human nature is to go find it for myself. And in technical terms that looks like pitching a hissy fit. 

The elders needed to warn the coming generations, “This is our history. This is your story.” But even more, this is in your nature to turn inward when you should look upward. Not a typical children’s bestseller, is it? Not like a story that we reach for to read to our children before bed at night. No, this isn’t a story you tell because it feels great. It’s a story you tell because the stakes are high. The consequence was grave. The consequence was the grave.

“Before they had satisfied their craving,” the Psalmist writes, “while the food was still in their mouths the anger of God rose against them. And he killed the strongest of them and laid low the young men of Israel. So, he made their days vanish like a breath and their years in terror.” God’s discipline for sin was swift and decisive. Just like he warned it would be. But in addition to God’s might, Israel experienced God’s mercy. Being compassionate, it says, he atoned for their inequity and did not destroy them. He restrained his anger often and did not stir up all his wrath. He remembered that they were but flesh. A wind that passes and comes not again. Yet they tested and rebelled against the Most High God and did not keep his testimonies. But turned away and acted treacherously, like their fathers, they twisted like a deceitful bow.

When would they learn? When will things be different? The elders wanted more for their children. Their only hope was that their story could keep their offspring from doing as they did. We’ve gone before you. We know what’s ahead. If you trust us things might go better for you. So, as verse 7 indicates, they continued telling the story so that they should set their hope in God and not forget his works, and they should not be like their fathers. A stubborn and rebellious generation. 

Part of the work we do in clinical pastoral education, the training program for chaplaincy, is reflecting on our heritage. In exploring our family, our faith heritage, we learn a lot about who we are and why we do what we do. And also in the process, if we so choose, we have access to new ways of being. As opposed to just simply repeating history. Retelling the story exposes the why and how and invites the future generations to try a different behavior. Which certainly could have proven beneficial. However, if the elders simply told the children to try harder, and do better, history shows they would offer little hope. The elders needed to attach this instruction to something, someone, whose nature is not so inconsistent. 

This Psalmist includes the most tragic loss up to this point. Toward the end of the Psalm when he writes about the rampant idolatry among the nation. Once they enter the Promised Land they continued testing and rebelling, provoking God to anger. Israel lost the battle with the Philistines resulting in the ark of the covenant being taken into captivity. The Philistines devastated the site of worship in Shilo. In verse 59 we see what seems like the final blow to the nation. God utterly rejected Israel.

The Psalm describes scene as a fiery bloody massacre which seems an apt description of the absence of God’s presence. Turning away from their true identity in Yahweh led to their demise. We’ve seen this, haven’t we? All around us. When God’s creatures forsake their true identity in him and it leads to their own demise. Have you come face to face with your own humanity? Only to be left wondering, “Has God grown silent in dealing with me?” The Israelites found themselves in this moment, again and again, and they were left with what must have felt like silence. 

But thankfully, fortunately, we cannot tell of God’s glorious deeds, his might, and his wonders without telling about how he brings life out of death. You see? Even though he rejected the tent of Joseph he did not abandon his people forever. No, he found a way to remain with them and establish his presence with them under new terms. The Psalm says that he chose the tribe of Judah in Mt. Zion as his new dwelling place because God will always offer a way for his people to commune with him. 

What seemed like a dead end was God making a new path forward. And from the tribe of Judah would come a good king, a shepherd. His servant David. God chose a good king albeit with his own flaws but a man who loved God and was able to lead the nation with an upright heart and guide them with a skillful hand. Important to the story that gets passed down to the children is this: God does not let the darkness have the final word.

God will not leave us to make things better on our own. He will not give his children over to their own shame. His discipline is momentary. But his delight is eternal. The tabernacle may have been destroyed but God would continue to dwell with his people. Next it would be the temple under Solomon’s reign, but there was a day to come in the not so distant future when God would dwell with his people not within brick and stone but in the very flesh and blood he created himself.

To relate as a human relates. A true and better David was coming. Who would lead his people with the most upright heart and the most skillful hands. The Good Shepherd. Jesus would come. Because the story of Israel, the human story, the forgetting and the rebelling, and the repenting, it needed a permanent resolution. That resolution came in the form of a Savior. Who would not just teach us with his words and remind us with his stories, but would secure our salvation through his death and resurrection. 

Knowing full well that the law could only continue pointing out our sin and try as we might we will continue following the path of our elders. And so in the divine exchange he took our mistakes, our brokenness, our history, and endured the ultimate consequence of sin – separation from God. He now is the one saying, “I’ve gone before you. And I know what’s ahead. Trust in me. I have and will make things better.”

This changes the story, doesn’t it? Praise God. The story is good news. The challenge, however, remains the same. Tell the coming generation. Teach their children and the children yet unborn of the ways in which our past is riddled with pain. Yes. But even more, tell the coming generations of the glorious deeds and might and works of God. How he has made a new way in Jesus so that we can set our hope in God and not forget his works. 

We tell this story now with confidence and assurance, because of the empty tomb and through the Holy Spirit. That one day God will return and bring us to dwell with him face to face. While we continue to live with the nature of our father Adam and mother Eve at war with the Spirit we anticipate the day when our creation and all its creatures are at peace one with another and with the creator once and for all. 

We anticipate the day when we don’t see the residue of the fall in our midst. When the injustices that seem to keep coming are finally vindicated. When death and sickness and pain and suffering is silenced once and for all. When we don’t have to be reminded of God’s glorious deeds, his might, and his wonders, because we will be with him. Safe and well with our father. Until then, friends, keep telling the story. Tell the whole story. While we were still a long way off in our rebellion Christ had mercy and brought us home. And he will do it again. Because he cannot forget us. Until then, hold fast. Amen.



>>Kristen Padilla:


You’ve been listening to the Beeson podcast. Our theme music is written and performed by Advent Birmingham of the Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham, Alabama. Our engineer is Rob Willis. Our announcer is Mike Pasquarello. Our co-hosts are Doug Sweeney and, myself, Kristen Padilla. Please subscribe to the Beeson podcast at www.BeesonDivinity.com/podcast or on iTunes.