June 14, 2026
Beulah UMC & Oak Grove UMC
I love the psalms and thought it would be good for us to make this a Psummer of Psalms where we incorporate them more into our daily lives and in our walk with God.
The book of Psalms has served as the hymnal for people of faith since the time of King Solomon which would have been around 950 BC. Most bible scholars believe that the 150 Psalms we have were developed from the time of Solomon all the way to around 350 BC, which is a span of six hundred years. That’s a long time to put a hymn book together.
So here is one of our hymnals that we keep in our pews. One thing that is really noticeable is the weight of this book because it is filled with about 700 hymns of faith. Now, imagine if we didn’t have access to this book to help us in worship. Imagine listening to me preach even longer each Sunday if we didn’t do any congregational singing.
This is why the Psalms are so important in our bible. These Psalms make up the hymn book of the Bible and are what have sustained and spiritually fed God’s people again and again from generation to generation. And just like our hymnal, there are a variety of psalms from which to choose.
There are basically five types of Psalms. There are psalms of praise, psalms of lament, psalms of thanksgiving, royal psalms, and wisdom psalms.
These five types of Psalms cover just about every imaginable human emotion that we face in our lives. Emotions like happiness, sadness, grief, fear, gratitude, longing, discouragement, anger, disappointment. You name the emotion; you can probably find it somewhere in these 150 Psalms.
Think of the Psalms like the hymns in our hymnal as a spiritual aid to express what you are feeling in any given moment but don’t know how to put it into words. The Psalms are here to help you do that.
Also worth noting is that for every Sunday worship service, there are appointed scripture readings for us to use, called the lectionary. The lectionary always includes four scripture readings. We usually read two of those readings depending on the worship theme that is selected. And I will often include the Psalm as part of our Call to Worship at the beginning of our service.
Two of the four appointed lectionary readings are always an Old Testament reading and a Psalm. And the theme and emotion of the appointed Psalm is always connected in some way to the appointed Old Testament reading. So, for example, today’s appointed Psalm which is Psalm 116 has a thematic connection with the Genesis scripture reading about Abraham and Sarah.
The other quick thing that I want to say about this summer of Psalms is that I hope it will lead us to appreciate the Psalms even more as a valuable part of our faith experience. And I hope this series leads all of us to reclaim the treasure that these prayers and hymns of faith offer us.
So, let’s get started. Psalm 116.
I mentioned the lectionary of appointed scripture readings for each Sunday. This Psalm, Psalm 116 appears three times during the three-year cycle. It shows up today, but it also was the appointed Psalm a couple of months ago. It’s so popular that it is always the Psalm that is used during Holy Week for Maundy Thursday services, the night of Jesus’ Last Supper.
And the reason it is the Psalm for today is because of the connection it has with the story of Abraham and Sarah in our Genesis scripture reading. We heard that reading. It’s the story of when the Lord appeared to Abraham when he was in his tent one day.
The Lord sends three men, and Abraham offers them hospitality by providing them a meal. And as they were eating, the men ask Abraham where his wife Sarah is. And then drops this bombshell on Abraham when they inform him that the Lord will return to them in “due season,” which is pregnancy/due date language, and says that Sarah will give birth to a son.
Abraham and Sarah who are now old enough to be great-grandparents, let alone new parents of a baby, respond as you might expect they would. They laughed!
That’s right. They laughed at the Lord! At these messengers!
Let’s stop there for a moment. Have you ever laughed at the Lord? If we think that’s too disrespectful or improper, we might want to think again because laughter is a sign that God is about to do the impossible. Laughter is that first step in getting us to the point where we can start looking beyond what we think is impossible to what is possible with God.
So let me fast forward the story. Sarah does end up getting pregnant and she has a son in their old age as the scripture tells us, and they named their son… are you ready for this? This is the perfect name. They name their son, “Laughter.” What a great name!
In Hebrew, the name is actually, “Isaac.” Abraham and Sarah have a sense of humor. They had remembered how they had laughed at the Lord when he told them that they would be proud parents in due time, so what better name for their new baby than, “Laughter?”
And I love what Sarah says after Isaac is born. She says, “God has brought laughter to me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.”
Can’t you hear little Isaac when he was around five or so asking mom and dad why they named him “Laughter?” What a fun story! Just hearing the name, “Isaac” reminds us of how God is more than able to do the impossible. With God, all things are possible.
Now, how does Psalm 116 fit into this theme? Both Sarah and the Psalmist point out that it’s when we are really listening to God that we can be open to the impossible becoming possible. This is why being a good listener to God’s voice can often lead to laughter. Sarah listened and laughed. The Psalmist also listens and ends up being blessed by God.
The impossible thing that Sarah was facing was becoming pregnant in her advanced years. And the impossible thing that this Psalmist had faced was distress and anguish. It sounds like the Psalmist was facing a life and death situation where there was no hope.
The Psalmist listened to the Lord, and the Lord saved him. Sarah and this Psalmist are great examples of what it means to listen to the Lord, to be open to the impossible becoming possible, and then expressing our praise for what the Lord has done. This praise is why Psalm 116 is known as a Psalm of praise.
This Psalm and the story of Abraham and Sarah point us to the importance of listening, both in our listening for God’s voice, but also in how God listens to our deepest needs. I feel like I’m not the best person to be talking about the importance of listening, since I really struggle to do it well and with any kind of consistency.
Maybe that’s the whole point in focusing on the psalms this summer. They teach us what it means to listen to the Lord, and they remind us that the Lord listens as well.
Listening is a wonderful skill to have not only in our interpersonal relationships, but also in our relationship with God. How do we listen for God’s voice?
For this, I turn to our two westies, Blu and Tipsy. Yes, they teach me how to be a good listener. They are terriers, which means that they are always listening for the squirrel in our back yard who might be making its way down a tree. Heaven forbid that the squirrel will make even the faintest scratching sound, because Blu and Tipsy will totally stop what they are doing, and they will frantically run to the door and go into the backyard.
We have hardwood floors so it’s always fun to watch them frantically slip and slide all their way to the door.
Even if the TV is at a high volume, they still are able to hear even the slightest noise. When Penny is away and I’m with them, they will rush to the door to greet her when she gets home. They can tell when her car makes it to our driveway, even before the garage door goes up. I can’t hear a thing! But they can.
I am so glad that we invested in our westie home security system. This system gets great reviews. I highly recommend them. Our westies are phenomenal, phenomenal listeners.
What if we would train ourselves to hear even the slightest whisper from God? What if we would become alert to those moments when God is trying to get our attention?
Like the Psalmist in our Psalm for today, it might be a personal challenge we are facing that will lead us to seek God for help, healing, and guidance. When we are going through a difficult time, that’s when it’s always good to be even more attentive to what God might be saying to us.
And like Sarah in our Genesis reading, if what God is telling us seems too good to be true, keep listening, keep an open mind, because this God is known to work miracles. We might laugh at the thought of God doing the impossible, but God is the one who has the last laugh.
And last but not least, when God sees you through what seemed to be a dead end, like Sarah and the Psalmist, remember to praise God and offer yourself anew to God. Notice that after God rescues the Psalmist, the Psalmist ends up praising God with an offering in the presence of God’s people. The psalmist even offers a toast to God for what God has done.
Listen to The Message Translation of this toast. “What can I give back to God for the blessings he’s poured out on me? I’ll lift high the cup of salvation – a toast to God!”
Being a good listener to God’s voice always leads to becoming more generous, more grateful, and more willing to share our newfound joy with others.
Whenever God pulls off the impossible, there might not be a better way to end our prayer like we find in Psalm 116.
All we can really say is, “Praise the Lord!”
