Sermon (July 26) “A Psummer of Psalms - Psalm 105” by Rev. Robert McDowell

July 26, 2026

Beulah UMC

     Have you ever listened to a sermon that was way too long? Wait, don’t answer that.

     Actually, this is the question that first came to mind when I began reflecting on our psalm for this week, Psalm 105. It’s not just that this Psalm is one of the longer psalms we have. There are forty-five verses. We just read a small portion of those verses which I’ll get to later.

     It’s not only long with the number of verses, but it goes over things that many of us already know or have heard at some point in our lives. It tells story after story of Israel’s early history. You have to have a lot of patience to work through this whole Psalm since you already know about these stories.

     Psalm 105 would be like if I started my sermon by saying, “Let me begin by telling you about the day I was born.” And then I would tell the story of when our family went to Niagara Falls when I was two years old and I cried the entire trip. True story by the way. And I don’t know why I wouldn’t have liked going to Niagara Falls, but I didn’t.

     And from there, I tell you a story about my kindergarten graduation. My favorite childhood birthday party. And I would continue to tell you a string of these stories of my life.

     Penny likes to remind me of the watermelon approach to public speaking. When you give a talk, you don’t have to tell people about the whole watermelon. Maybe focus on just one seed out of the total 400 watermelon seeds.

     But the Psalmist of Psalm 105 wants to tell us about a lot of stories in just one psalm. We get all of the watermelon seeds with this psalmist. In this psalm, he recounts earlier biblical stories about Abraham, the person who God called to be the father of a great nation. Then he moves to the next story about Isaac and then he references Jacob.

     Which then leads to a story about how God formed Israel and that leads to a story about Joseph in the land of Egypt, and from there, we hear about how the Israelites became slaves in Egypt which leads to a story about Moses confronting Pharoah who finally let God’s people go. This leads to a story of how God guided Israel through the wilderness to get to the Promised Land.

     Every time the psalmist seems like he’s going to say, “And in conclusion” or “To make a long story short,” we get another story and another story.

     Normally, I would say that if this was a sermon, it would be considered “below average” because it doesn’t follow the watermelon seed approach. Too many stories.

     But actually, that’s the whole point this Psalmist is making. All of these stories of how God has helped his people to overcome all of these challenges and adversities over all those years remind us of how faithful God really is. The Psalmist even gives us a little warning that this is going to be a long prayer at the very beginning of the psalm when he says, “Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wonderful works.”

     “Tell of all his wonderful works.” Really? All his wonderful works? We’ll never get to the closing hymn and the benediction if we take that literally.

     But I love that line because the psalmist is reminding us that God has done many wonderful works. And he wants us to tell others about those wonderful works.

     The good news of our faith is that we don’t have a shortage of the wonderful things that God has done and is doing in our lives. Those stories are plentiful.

     So, this is what the Psalmist is doing. He is reminding us of all the things that God has done in the past. And we get this brief summary of stories of the biblical patriarchs. But it’s more than a history lesson where we need to take notes to pass an exam.

     This psalmist wants us to not just remember the details of these past wonderful deeds that God has done. He wants us to see how God has been faithful to his covenant. This is probably one of the reasons why this psalm is read on the first day of the Jewish holiday of Passover each year. It’s a great Psalm to reflect on the past history of our faith.

     We do something similar every time we celebrate the Sacrament of Holy Communion which is the Christian adaptation of the Passover meal. We have that long responsive prayer called “The Great Thanksgiving.”

     In that one prayer, we recite God’s mighty acts of salvation beginning with the creation story, then we hear about how God delivered the Israelites from slavery and led them into the promised land, how God formed a covenant with them, which then leads to the telling of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. This “Great Thanksgiving” prayer is celebrating God’s wonderful works like this Psalmist is doing.

     I love the name for this communion prayer, “The Great Thanksgiving.” What a great name for a prayer. And we share in this prayer every time we gather to receive the Sacrament.

     Stories are what help form us into a community of faith. I think this is why the Psalmist is calling on us to tell our stories of how God has been faithful.

     On one hand, we all share the same story of faith which comes to us from the scriptures. We all can share how God created us and formed us into his image. We can all share how God rescued the people of Israel and led them to the Promised Land. We can all share the highs and the lows of how God’s people sought to live out their covenant with God. And we can share the story of how God sent Jesus into the world to be our Lord and Savior. These are all of our shared stories of faith. What a great, great story of faith we have. The Bible is our family album, too!

     And then we also have our unique stories of faith that are born out of these shared biblical stories. God’s wonderful works didn’t end with these biblical stories. God continues to do wonderful works through each of us. We call these “God moments,” or as our psalmist likes to call them, “wonderful works” moments.

     Where do you see God at work in your life offering guidance, direction, comfort, assurance, encouragement, hope, new life? These are the wonderful works that continue to happen in our every day lives.

     Let me share one of these wonderful works of God moments that happened to me when Penny and I first moved to South Carolina. So, we moved here from Ohio because y’all have much better winter weather than up north.

     We didn’t have any friends or family down here, so it was really up to us to begin some friendships. During our 2nd summer here, I decided to play a round of golf one day. It’s not my favorite thing to golf alone because if you make a hole in one, you don’t have anyone to verify it. Actually, it’s because it’s just a whole lot more fun to golf with at least one other person.

     But it was a really nice day and even though it was our 2nd full summer down here, I still hadn’t played any golf, but for some reason, I just felt like playing anyway.

     So I go to this golf course. It’s just me and the worker at the clubhouse said that since it was just me, she could get me on the course ahead of two guys that were about to start their round. So I drive my cart down to the the 1st tee box and I can see these two guys in their cart.

     One of those guys yelled back at me to go ahead ahead of them since it was just me. And then he said, “You’re welcome to join the two of us if you’d like.” And I said, “sure!”

     So we started playing and since it was my first time on this course, they told me where best to aim and what to watch out for. And they were fun to talk to and we really enjoyed our round together.

     When we finished playing, one of them said, “hey, you’re actually a really nice guy. If you’d like to play another day, you’re more than welcome to join us.” Super nice of them to offer that so we exchanged phone numbers.

     And then one of them asked me what I do for a living and I told him that I was a retired United Methodist pastor but serving at a part-time appointment. And they just looked at each other and started laughing. And they said that they were United Methodist pastors as well, actually the one guy is Presbyterian, but he is a staff member at the conference office.

     It was in that moment, that I knew we were having a God moment. Out of all of the golf courses I could have played that day, I ended up playing that one and thanks to this God moment, we became good friends. And through their friendship, I was able to meet many more pastors and both Penny and I have become friends with them as well.

     That day on the golf course was a God moment for me. It was a “wonderful works” moment as Psalm 105 likes to call it.

      And I know there are some people who might say that it was all just a crazy coincidence, but to me, it was an answer to prayer. And I still smile when I think about it.

     Friends, this is just one example among many of God’s wonderful works that happen all around us in big and small ways. Psalm 105 encourages us to share these God moments with each other and tell of God’s wonderful works.

     When you have a bunch of people telling each other as well as the people you meet of how God is at work in our lives, in our community, and in our world, it always leads us to praise God even more. That’s why this psalm is known as a praise psalm.

     No wonder this Psalmist prayer is so long. He wants us to remember all of these stories of how God has been faithful. He’s describing all of the watermelon seeds because that’s how many wonderful works of God that we all have in common.

     God moment after God moment of how God is at work in our lives in surprising and mysterious ways. So many wonderful works of God that happen in our lives that lead us to say again and again and again, “Praise the Lord!”

Sunday (July 26) Pastoral Prayer

Beulah UMC

July 26, 2026

Lord, thank you for psalms like Psalm 105 that remind us of your many wonderful works from the past, like how you formed your people Israel, led Joseph to save your people from a famine, and raised up Moses to lead your people from slavery in Egypt and into the Promised Land.

 

Your wonderful works are many, so many that we often forget these stories of faith from the Old Testament and that would eventually lead to stories of you sending us Jesus to be our Savior and Lord. And your wonderful works continue to this day through the presence of your Holy Spirit at work in our lives. Help us to become even more aware of your many wonderful works that are happening all around us. May these holy moments that we experience lead us to say with today’s Psalmist, “praise the Lord!”

 

And since you are a God of wonderful works, we ask that you would offer your healing, guiding, comforting, and loving presence to the people on our prayer list as well as others who are on our hearts and minds this day. And may your wonderful works that are at work in each of these lives lead them to also say, “praise the Lord.”

 

For our health, our homes, and our loved ones, we say, “praise the Lord.” For answers to prayers and guiding us through difficult decisions, we say, “praise the Lord.” For those unexpected holy moments when you are made present to us at just the right time and when we need it the most, we say, “praise the Lord!” For your gift of salvation and your many blessings in our lives, we say, “praise the Lord!”

 

This is our story, this is our song, praising our Savior who taught us to pray together…

 

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Sermon (July 19) “A Psummer of Psalms - Psalm 17” by Rev. Robert McDowell

July 19, 2026

Beulah UMC

     If you have ever felt that you have been treated unfairly and you need to vent, wow, do I have the psalm for you!

     Our Psalm for today is Psalm 17. Of the five categories of psalms, this psalm fits into the “psalms of lament” category because the psalmist is lamenting at being treated unjustly.

     Now, this topic of being treated unjustly can be a little tricky because it’s prone to subjectivity. We can easily get bent out of shape over what we consider to be someone’s unjust treatment toward us when in reality, it might just be that we have misunderstood the situation or that we are too quick to judge someone.

     For example, and I can’t believe I tell you these stories of things that I have done of which I am embarrassed, but here it goes.

     This round-about chart helps us to see how these things are supposed to work with a little humor thrown in. 

     Let’s start with car “A” at the top of the round-about. This car is yielding properly. If it enters now, it will cause an accident. Car “A” is doing this correctly.

     Next is car “B” located at the bottom of the round-about. This car is entering properly. There is no car coming, so no reason to yield.

     Next is car “C,” the red car located on the left of the round-about. This car is yielding to nobody for no reason because it thinks it has to yield if ANY car is in the circle ANYWHERE. Don’t be car “C.”

     And finally, there is car “D” which is also on the left of the round-about. And this car hates car “C.”

 

     I know that roundabouts are not everyone’s favorite way of dealing with intersections. I actually don’t mind them because I think that it keeps traffic flowing. If you have questions about how to use a roundabout, I think Penny has the best answer.

    All you need to remember is once you’re in the circle, you’re in. When you’re in, you’re in. You have the right-a-way. And you can drive around that circle as long as you like. When you’re in, you’re in.

     But once in a while, and I’m sure this has happened to you, you are in the roundabout driving behind a car who doesn’t understand how this works, and they end up slowing down at each entry point to let people into the roundabout.

     This is not how roundabouts work. Once you’re in, you’re in. Usually when someone ahead of me stops to let people in, I don’t beep at them, but one day I did.

     I got in a roundabout one day, and the car ahead of me in the circle all of the sudden completely stopped to let a car enter into the circle. I thought to myself, “Buddy! Really?”

     And I don’t know why this annoyed me, but I decided to lay on my horn. I also mouthed the words, “Keep it moving!” Don’t worry, I didn’t say any bad words. I’m not that guy!

     But in that moment, I was upset. This guy in front of me was slowing me down. I had places to go. People to see! And c’mon, learn how to drive through a roundabout. These out-of-towners! I’m tell’n ya! Probably from up north.

     I was venting and employing some of this Psalm 17 language. “Rise up, O Lord, and confront them!”

     As I was getting worked up about this and feeling that I had been treated unjustly, that’s when I realized that the car in front of me had stopped in that roundabout for a very good reason. It was because he was letting a funeral procession enter into the circle.

     When I saw that, I realized that I was being a “you know what” for laying on my horn. I felt absolutely terrible! I waved my hand at the person in front of me to indicate that I was sorry.

     Now as a pastor, I have been the passenger of that funeral procession lead car many times and I have often complained how cars can be disrespectful when it comes to funeral processions, and here I was being “that guy.”

     In that situation, Psalm 17 did not fit the situation. I was not being treated unfairly. I was just plain wrong.

     So, let’s be clear as we look at using Psalm 17 in our own prayer lives. This psalm is assuming that we aren’t being “that guy.” It’s assuming that we have taken the time to reflect on if we have truly been treated unfairly or if we have maybe misunderstood the situation.

     This is why the Psalmist begins by saying, “let your eyes see the right” and “try my heart” to see if there are any transgressions in me because I may be wrong about this.

     So, there is humility in the way this psalmist begins the prayer. “I’m really upset with what this person has done to me, but Lord, let me know if there is something not right within my own heart.” That’s my wording, but this sounds like the intent of how the psalmist begins Psalm 17.

    Now, that’s a sign of spiritual maturity when you can start complaining about how you are being treated unfairly, and at the same time admit that maybe you are not seeing the big picture.

    Maybe I’m part of the problem. So, it is with this spirit of humility that the Psalmist continues to vent to God about what has been done against him.

     Psalm 17, along with the many other psalms of lament that we find in the Book of Psalms, gives you and me the permission to vent our frustrations to God. Long before modern day psychology, these psalms help us to process our frustrations, our anger, our rage, and our disappointments and let God know how we really feel.

     We all can probably name several unhealthy ways for us to vent these feelings. We can take it out on those closest to us. We can use passive-aggressive behavior. We can let these feelings bottle up but that only lasts so long. They will come out in some way.

     This psalmist is giving us permission to let God know how we have been treated unjustly. Sharing our feelings with God in prayer is a very healthy way for us to process those feelings.

     This is the only time during the three-year lectionary cycle of Sunday scripture readings that Psalm 17 appears. It’s not a long Psalm, but the lectionary only offers us a portion of this Psalm to read in worship. Notice that it leaves out verses 13 and 14.

     These are verses in which the Psalmist tells the Lord to rise up and put these slanderers in their place. It tells the Lord to punish their accuser’s children, and their children as well. This is not the Psalm that any of us probably learned when we were children in Sunday School.

     But think of it this way. Is it better to vent your feelings of vengeance in a prayer, or to take matters in our own hands? The answer is to vent your feelings through prayer.

     Unfortunately, many of us, myself included have been taught to keep our feelings inside, especially our feelings of anger and disappointment. But that’s just not healthy and it’s unrealistic.

     I had a theology professor in seminary tell our class that God is big enough to take on any question or frustration that we might be dealing with in our lives. God wants us to be our authentic selves and how we are feeling in any given moment.

     That was such a freeing thing for me to hear my seminary professor make this point. God is big enough to take on any question or frustration that we might be dealing with in our lives.

     The Psalmist of Psalm 17 reminds us that it’s OK. It’s not like he was holding back. But again, as long as we vent to God in a spirit of humility and knowing that our hearts need to be examined as well, this Psalm can help us to become even stronger in our faith and in our trust in God.

     This Psalm is paired with our Old Testament reading from the Book of Genesis. It’s the story of Jacob who wrestles all night with a messenger sent from God. Jacob has been on the run from his brother, Esau who has been his adversary since childhood.

     This night of wrestling serves as a turning point in Jacob’s life. Jacob ends up winning the wrestling match and, in the morning, the Lord blesses Jacob with a new name. No longer will he be known as Jacob.

     His new name will be Israel. In a similar way, like Jacob, this psalmist in Psalm 17 invites God to test his heart that night, with the hope that when morning comes, he will be satisfied and behold God’s likeness.

     If you have ever had a restless night where you are struggling with unresolved issues, a complicated relationship, and the emotions of fear and uncertainty feel overwhelming, this Psalm invites us to let all of that go and know that God is our refuge.

    So many times, we forget that it’s OK to complain to God. It’s OK to wrestle with God. It’s OK to let God know how we truly feel about a situation we may be facing.

     There is something very freeing about offering our laments to God. The Psalmist knows that God will answer him and he will receive God’s steadfast love.

     But I want you to know that like the Psalmist in our Psalm for today prayed, we too, can have the same confidence that God will guide us through those times when we just need to vent our feelings. The psalmist knew that God would see him through that time of anguish and anger that he was feeling.

     He knew that it was ok for him to pray honestly and openly which is why he was able to say, “I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God; incline your ear to me, hear my words.”    

     We need these psalms of lament like Psalm 17 that are raw, honest, unbridled, and unfiltered. We need to be able tell God when we feel that we have been unfairly judged. It’s not healthy to keep our anger and our frustrations all bottled up inside us.

     And as we offer these raw and honest prayers to God, like the Psalmist, and like Jacob who wrestled with God all night long, the good news is that by releasing all of that anger and frustration and giving it over to God, we just may find joy in the morning.