Trinity Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Sermons 

Twenty-five years ago, a young band of Irish musicians, who called themselves "U2," was recording an album at the Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin, Ireland. They had recorded nine tracks, and needed just one more song to complete their work. But the long night was turning into morning, with another band waiting in the hallway to begin the next recording session at 7:00 a.m. The band’s lead vocalist, a 22-year old known simply as Bono, realized that the band was in need of a miracle.

He sought inspiration in his Bible, opening it to the Psalms, where his eyes fell upon Psalm 40. With the words of the psalmist in his head, the last track – known simply as "40" – was created. Ten minutes for the lyrics, ten minutes for the music, ten minutes for the band to record it, and ten minutes to mix it – and the miracle song was completed.

And thus was completed their album titled "War." It was their third album, but the first to go "gold" in the U.S – eventually selling more than 4 million copies. Over the past twenty-five years, "40" has become one U2’s most famous songs, often used to close their concerts and send the crowds home with a new song in their hearts and minds.

This morning we shared some of the words of Psalm 40 in our "Call to Worship" and – to the tune "St. Christopher" – we sang Michael Morgan’s setting of Psalm 40. Now, I ask you to listen to a different version of the psalm, the version by Bono and known simply as "40":

I waited patiently for the lord

He inclined and heard my cry

he brought me up out of the pit

Out of the miry clay.

 

I will sing, sing a new song.

 

He set my feet upon a rock

And made my footsteps firm

Many will see

Many will see and fear

 

How long to sing this song?

How long, how long

How long, how long to sing this song?

The message of the album "War" and its closing track "40" was overtly political. U2 and Bono expressed their outrage about the conflict then raging in Northern Ireland and decried the prospects that the political leaders of the superpowers would bring nuclear war on all our heads. But, like the psalmist, in the midst of their despair they urged solidarity among the world’s people, and in "40" closed with a call for peace and understanding – urging all of us to sing a new song.

"40" reminds me very much of the words of the prophet Isaiah. Remember the famous words of his call to the prophecy in Isaiah 6:8: "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I; send me!" Fewer of us recall the words from the following verses 9-12, where the Lord explains his charge to Isaiah:

And he said, "Go and say to this people: 'Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking, but do not understand.' Make the mind of this people dull, and stop their ears, and shut their eyes, so that they may not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and comprehend with their minds, and turn and be healed." Then I said, "How long, O Lord?" And he said: "Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is utterly desolate; until the LORD sends everyone far away, and vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land.

What a strange command! What a bizarre way to call a prophet into the Lord’s service! To proclaim a new word, to sing a new song in the name of the Lord, and to keep doing so until "vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land." In sum, to never give up proclaiming God’s truth.

In a similar "desolate pit and miry bog," the psalmist cried out to the Lord, who -- in response -- set the psalmist’s "feet upon a rock" and made his "footsteps firm." And the Lord "put a new song" in his mouth, a song of praise to God. As a consequence, the psalmist is assured that "many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord."

Inspired by Psalm 40, the question posed by Bono and U2 combines the charge to Isaiah and the faith of the psalmist:

"How long to sing this [new] song? How long?"

Times have changed since the ancient days of the psalmist and the prophet Isaiah, and even since the early 1980s when U2 and Bono wrote "40." Or have they?

The twenty-first century has not proven to be a new utopia. Far from it! Our times are filled with new fears and new terrors. Wars and rumors of war are everywhere. Young men and women die to no good purpose, and the lessons of the past seem to be lost on leaders oblivious to the unintended consequences of their policies.

"How long to sing this [new] song? How long?"

Human rights are ignored and abused, not just by evil dictators in real countries whose names resemble the fictional "Bezerkistan" of the Doonesbury comic strip. Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and waterboarding have become part of our public debates in ways that none of us could have anticipated. As a result, people around the world have begun to doubt that we Americans really believe in our own Constitutional and Christian values. In their eyes, America has ceased to be a superpower committed to "truth, justice and the American way."

"How long to sing this [new] song? How long?"

Here at home, liberty, freedom, and civil rights suffer in the name of security, and privacy gives way to surveillance. For the first time in our history, a "Department of Homeland Security" over-rules the land, and the Executive Branch of the government claims immunity against the Legislative and Judicial Branches. But do we feel more secure than we used to?

"How long to sing this [new] song? How long?"

And what of us, sitting here in this sanctuary, members of this congregation and visitors alike ? Listen again to the psalmist, who says to the Lord in 40:7-10,

"Here I am; in the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart." I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; see, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O LORD. I have not hidden your saving help within my heart, I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation; I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation.

Let us join the psalmist and look beyond this sanctuary, beyond this "little congregation," beyond ourselves. Let us go out into "the great congregation," into the world, and proclaim the "glad news of deliverance." Let us proclaim the Lord’s "steadfast love and faithfulness." And let us proclaim this eternal truth all the days of our lives. Let this be our new song. Amen.

© 2008 Van Kemper (e-mail: rkemper@trinitypresdallas.org)