One of the things I did on my Sabbatical in August was read through all 150 psalms.
What surprised me the most was how many of the psalms deal with emotions and situations that we just don’t talk about much in church. They’re raw, they’re real, and they reach into the deepest parts of the human experience.
Which means it’s not all smiles and joy.
The psalmists who wrote these psalms were dealing with some difficult, personal issues. Self-doubt. Depression. Disillusionment.
And in some of the psalms, the reason for this is the insults, attacks, and slander of those around them.
In today’s media, you often see people attacking others. They are quick to apply labels - labels that are often lies - labels that are derogatory. President Trump is particularly fond of doing this, but many others do it to, people representing all different viewpoints.
And this seems like a modern issue, but apparently, based on my readings of the psalms, it’s an issue that goes back thousands of years.
Here’s an example, from Psalm 35:
“How long, my Lord, will you watch this happen? Rescue me from their attacks; rescue my precious life from these predatory lions! Then I will thank you in the great assembly; I will praise you in a huge crowd of people. Don’t let those who are my enemies without cause celebrate over me; don’t let those who hate me for no reason wink at my demise. They don’t speak the truth; instead, they plot false accusations against innocent people in the land. They speak out against me, saying, ‘Yes! Oh, yes! We’ve seen it with our own eyes!’ But you’ve seen it too, Lord.” [Psalm 35.17-22 CEB]
Did you have any idea that the psalmists had to deal with this? With people labelling them like that?
Here’s another example, from Psalm 41:
“My enemies speak maliciously about me: ‘When will he die and his name disappear?’ Whenever they come to visit, they say nothing of value. Their hearts collect evil gossip; once they leave, they tell it to everybody.” [Psalm 41.5-6]
I could share many more examples, but I’ll share just one more, from Psalm 69:
“Insults have broken my heart. I’m sick about it. I hoped for sympathy, but there wasn’t any. I hoped for comforters, but couldn’t find any. They gave me poison for food. To quench my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” [Psalm 69.20-21]
There is a lot of poison and vinegar going around today, much of it on social media. Some people on twitter feel it’s their duty to spew venom. Many of them are good people, but they don’t know how to react to injustice with love, so they react with anger. When insulted, they insult back. When ridiculed, they find something to ridicule in return.
But we don’t need to be on twitter to have had negative labels attached to us. All our lives, those labels have been thrown at us, and some of them have stuck. From the time we were very young, just learning to walk and talk, others have insulted us, called us names, bullied us, and labelled us.
And some of those labels weren’t true then, but became so as we came to believe them. We’ve allowed those negative labels to attach themselves to us like an alien symbiote from a Marvel movie.
But God has God’s own labels for us. And how God describes us should have some bearing on how we feel about ourselves, since God knows us better than anyone.
Another Psalm - Psalm 139 - explains just how well God knows us. In Psalm 139, the psalmist writes:
“Lord, you have examined me. You know me.
You know when I sit down and when I stand up. Even from far away, you comprehend my plans. You study my traveling and resting.
You are thoroughly familiar with all my ways.
There isn’t a word on my tongue, Lord, that you don’t already know completely.”
God knows you. The people who know you best know a lot about you, but even their knowledge isn’t complete. And all those who don’t really know you at all - why do you let their negative labels remain firmly attached to you and embedded in you?
Since God knows you best, it’s a good idea to listen to what God says about you, how God describes you.
First of all, know that God created you in God’s own image. The image of God dwells in you.
In ancient times, the Roman emperor wanted to make it seem like he was everywhere, but of course that was impossible, even for a man who claimed to be divine. So the emperor had his image placed everywhere: on buildings, and on statues in the center of town, and on all Roman currency. Everywhere you looked, you’d see the emperor, and you’d know that everything belonged to the emperor, because the emperor’s image was everywhere.
Well, God did that too. Sort of.
God didn’t place God’s image on statues or coins, but in you. So that wherever you were, people would see the image of God.
The unfortunate thing is that people don’t often recognize the image of God when they see it. But that doesn’t change the fact that God’s image is in you. And wherever you go, God goes.
God also says this about you:
“You are precious in my eyes,
you are honored,
and I love you.”
That’s from Isaiah 43.
Precious.
Honored.
Loved.
In God’s eyes, you are beautiful.
Now, if you find that other, less-affirming labels have attached themselves to you or embedded themselves in you, what are you going to do? Which labels are you going to allow to remain? Which ones will you allow to stick, and which ones will you allow to fall off?
It’s not easy. People struggle with this all the time. Actor Billy Porter’s father told everyone that Billy’s mother was a witch, then he abandoned his family. Then Billy’s stepfather told Billy he wasn’t right, and he sexually abused Billy.
And the labels Billy’s stepfather flung at him stuck for twenty years.
But then those labels began to fall off.
At the Emmy Awards last Sunday, during his acceptance speech, Billy Porter said “It took many years of vomiting up all the filth I’d been taught about myself, and half-believed, before I was able to walk on the earth as though I had a right to be here.”
I heard that he was sort-of quoting James Baldwin when he said that, and if so, it just proves that a lot of people find it hard to peel off the lies and labels that society has stuck to us. In fact, it reminds me of a story that Fred Craddock once told, about a boy born to an unwed mother in Tennessee a long time ago.
This boy had a hard time growing up, because every place he went, he was always asked the same question, “Hey boy, Who’s your daddy?” Whether he was at school, in the grocery store or drug store, people would ask the same question, “Who’s your daddy?” It was their way of labelling him as a worthless, illegitimate child.
This boy did like going to church, but he would always arrive at the last possible moment, and leave as quickly as he could, to avoid having to answer that question.
But one Sunday some people queued up in the aisle before he could sneak out. The minister put his hand on the boy’s shoulder, and the boy trembled in fear.
The minister turned his face around so he could see the boy, and seemed to be staring for a little while. The boy knew what the minister was doing. He was going to make a guess as to who his father was.
A moment later the minister said, “Well, boy, you’re a child of…” and he paused for just a moment, then said, “Boy, you’re a child of God. I see a striking resemblance. Now, you go claim your inheritance.”
And as the story goes, that made such a positive impact in that boy’s life, that he grew up to become the governor of Tennessee.
And, according to snopes, that story is mostly true.
The labels applied to us matter! So today, remember the labels God gives you. Remember who you are in God’s eyes. Precious. Honored. Beautiful. Loved.
And filled with the power of the Spirit of Love that enables you to accomplish far more than you can ask or even imagine.
One last thing...
Amanda Garber is the pastor of RISE church in Harrisonburg Virginia. And every week, she says the same thing to her congregation. And what she says to them, I now say to you:
"Please remember that your life is a gift from God. You are made in God's image. You matter to this world and to us. We do not take you for granted. There are so many places you could be right now and you are here. We also want to challenge you and us to go and be a gift to a world that needs you. Open your gift, if you will, and remember how much you matter. We say it every week but there are some things in life that need to be said every week."
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