28 January 2018, an on-line homily by Captain Michael Ramsay
Psalm 147:10: “His pleasure is not
in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of a man.” I thought
this was an appropriate passage to look at on Robbie Burns Day. For Christmas
one year Susan bought me some Bible Commentaries on Psalms. In one of these
books, Peter C. Craigie, from Scotland, writes:
….
It was the custom in Scotland for boys to wear the kilt to church on Sunday; to
this day I can recall singing the words of Psalm 147:10 ‘Neither delighteth he
in any man’s legs’. I pondered at that time the question of whether scripture
condemned the kilt.[1]
When I read Peter Craigie’s quote I
knew immediately what I should preach on while I am wearing my kilt for Robbie
Burns Day. Do we know who Robbie Burns is? Robert Burns (1759-1796) was an 18th
Century Scottish poet and songwriter who wrote hundreds of lasting tributes to
Scottish life in both song and poetry.
Robert Burns is a poet; he is not
to be confused with Scotland’s patron saint, who is St. Andrew from the Bible.
St. Andrew’s Day is the 30th of November and it is a national holiday in
Scotland. Robert Burns Day is the 25th of January and this is a good time for
people of Scottish heritage in this country here to get together, wear the
kilt, eat haggis, and listen to the bard’s poetry, bag pipes, and try some
highland or Scottish country dancing.
In our text, in the NIV, Verse 10
reads: “His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in
the legs of the warrior [or 'man' in place of 'warrior' depending on the year
published];” the rest of this sentence is contained in Verse 11: “the LORD
delights in those who fear Him, who put their hope in His unfailing love.”
This sentence tells us something
very straightforward. It tells us what God does not what he does delight in.
Psalm 147:10 is not talking about wearing a kilt, bathing suit, or shorts when
it says that God doesn’t delight in a warrior’s legs. This passage is not
addressing Christian modesty. It is telling us that if we put our faith in
people – in this example the passage by referencing ‘horse’ and ‘warrior’ is
specifically referring to putting our faith in the army – if we put our faith
in people, we will not impress God, who is the creator, preserver, and governor
of all things
The prophet Samuel warned the
people that if they were a unified country under a single political leader that
the leader would press their children into military service (1 Sam 8:1-22).
King Solomon and his heirs and his descendants did just this and more as they
ignored this advice of Psalm 147 and put their faith in themselves, their
military, their legs, and their horses until God finally has enough and puts an
end to all of their reigns (2 Chr 36:17-21).
Who do we trust? Do we ever fall
into this same trap? We know that putting faith in anything other than God is
basically a rejection of Him and His Kingdom. A New Testament equivalent to
this warning about putting our faith in horses and men’s legs would be from
Matthew 6:24-27. I know you’ll recognize it as I read it:
No
one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or
you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God
and money. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will
eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than
food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not
sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a
single hour to your life?
How about us here today? Do we ever
fall into this trap? Do we sometimes put our faith in money, the strength of
the horse or the legs of a man? Do we ever put our faith in something other
than God? I think we can be tempted to do this in a number of different ways. I
think we do this whenever we do not believe that God will look after our needs.
Most people acknowledge that we should give God at least a tenth of the money
He gives us through our jobs, our pensions, our businesses, our disability
cheques, or whatever. I think we fall into the trap of Psalm 147:10’s sin of
putting our faith in the horse and the legs of a man when we don’t try to at
least tithe our income. I think also when we try to solve our problems with our
own thoughts and abilities instead of asking God through prayer when we have
decisions to make, we are showing God we don’t have faith in God. I think
whenever we know what is right to do in a given circumstance but give into peer
or a colleague’s pressure, it shows that we are putting our faith in the
majority instead of putting our faith in God. I think that when we make our
decisions as to what we should do with our time and our abilities based on our
wallets rather than on revelation from God - which comes from praying and
reading the Bible - then we are committing the sin of our text today of putting
our faith in the strength of the horse or the legs of the man.
So today I charge us all, if we
have been intentionally withholding any of our time from God by not reading our
Bibles; if we have been withholding any of our time from God by not praying to
Him but rather have been spending all of our so-called ‘free time’ watching television,
playing video games or gossiping with friends; if we trust more in Oprah or Dr.
Phil, Law and Order or
your cousin Fred’s advice than we do in God; if we have not been tithing
because bills are tight; then indeed we are putting our faith in horse and the
legs of men. If there is anyone or anything in our life that we are tempted to
put our trust in ahead of God than that is the naked knee in our life that we
must cover up (cf. 1 Corinthians 8-9). Today I trust that none of us will be
distracted by the naked knees of life but that we will all instead trust in the
merciful love of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
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