Psalm 16,5-11 5024
16. Trinitatis. Trinity XVI 63
Nicetas the Goth, Martyr 372
15. September 2024
1. ℣ Have mercy on me, O Yahweh:
℟ For I cry unto You all day long (Psalm 85,3 vul lxx mas).
Miserere mei Domine quoniam ad te calmabo tota die. lxx mas
O Gracious and Merciful God, we are ready according to Your holy will … to suffer trials and crosses. Help us to delight and be refreshed in You; be to us a quiet Retreat and a pleasant place of Repose from the storms we endure in our Christian life and faith Amen. (Stark 378; English 271-72 paraphrased).
2. »Yahweh is my chosen Portion and my Cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I have set Yahweh always before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol/Hades, or let Your Holy One see corruption. You make known to me the path of life; in Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.«
3. The imagery of a /the cup is used 2 ways in Holy Scripture. »For in the hand of Yahweh there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed, and He pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs« (Psalm 75,8). This is the cup of Yahweh’s judgement and wrath upon unrepentant wickedness. The Flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the destruction of Jerusalem are event when Yahweh made wicked people drink His judgement.
4. »You prepare a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; You anoint mine head with oil; my cup overflows« (Psalm 23,5). »Yahweh is my chosen Portion and my Cup; you hold my lot.« This is the cup of Yahweh’s mercy and blessing upon His people. Paul calls the blood of Christ we receive in the Lords’s Supper to be a cup of blessing (1. Corinthians 10,16).
5. We all deserve to drink from God’s cup of wrath. We’re all idolaters of our own desires. We want to drink and revel in wealth, the accolades of the world and earthly pleasures. We chase after success and our own righteousness at the expense of charity to our neighbors and fellowship with God. We think such things will please us and satisfy us. For a time they do, but the satisfaction is fleeting and our hearts and souls yearn to be filled once more. But what is missing, that emptiness, is communion with God, and only He can fill that longing.
6. We see throughout the pages of Scripture God drawing near to men and women. The tabernacle and the temple were ways in which Yahweh abided among His people. They knew where to find Him, and they went to Him for mercy and forgiveness. But that Sinai covenant revealed the presence of God in His raw, terrifying Glory. Sinful people cannot bear to stand in the presence of God’s Almightiness.
7. God the Father had a remedy for this: He would send His Son in human flesh to dwell among us. There were times when people would be struck with terror or awe in the presence of Jesus, but on a day to day interaction with Him people could be in the presence of God and not be overwhelmed by His Almighty Glory.
8. The Son of God became man to drink of the cup of His Father’s wrath. Sin must be judged; a sacrifice needs to be made; the cup needs to be drunk. Jesus was born to do this for fallen humanity. The wicked would not drink of this cup, but the Righteous One would, and in doing so He satisfied His Father’s judgment and wrath.
9. Jesus is the only one who could successfully drink the cup of His Father’s wrath, for in the drinking His Father’s wrath in full He exchanges the cup of wrath with a cup of blessing. Jesus gives us a new cup to drink, a cup of mercy and forgiveness. »In the same way also He took the cup after supper, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them saying: „Drink of it, all of you; this cup is the new testament in My ✠ blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.“«
10. This cup that Jesus instituted is a coup of overflowing mercy. Whereas Yahweh’s wrath is intense and brief, His mercy is abundant and everlasting. Christ has pardoned our iniquity and given us double for all our sins (Isaiah 40,2). Christ has more than enough grace to cover our sins. His forgiveness runneth over in our cup.
11. Christ is our Portion and our Cup. „By the Cross, … by Him who vouchsafed to hang upon the Cross, all things are restored, all things are blessed, all things are covered with the dew of heaven. But above all, the human soul, which was barren, bitter, insipid, is made by the advent of the Savior fertile and sweet, and is endued with the salt of wisdom“ (Peter Damian, Sermon 48; Medieval Preachers and Medieval Preaching 69 © 1856).
12. Jesus lives! Of this I’m sure,
Nothing can from Him divide,
No gloom, no power obscure,
No grandeur, nor pain can hide.
He gives strength for every fight;
This is my confidence and light.
(Jesus lebt, mit ihm auch ich elkg 458,5 2021 Christian Fürchtegott Gellert 1757).
This is most certainly true.
13. Et pax Dei, quæ exuperat omnem sensum, custodiat corda vestra, et intelligentias vestras in Christo Jesu. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4,7). Amen.
14. Let us pray. O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom every family in heaven and earth is named, grant unto our friends, to all members of this household and to all the members of our different families that according to the riches of Thy Glory we may be strengthened with might by Thy Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith; that we, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, length, depth, height and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that we may be filled with all the fullness of God. Amen. (Trinity XVI, 2nd Vespers Collect. The Daily Office).
To God alone be the Glory
Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm
✠
All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, Septuaginta, Vol. I and II 2. Revised Edition © 2006 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.
Evangelisch-Lutherisches Kirchengesangbuch. Copyright © 2021 Selbständige Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche, Hannover.
Starck, Johann. Tägliches Hand-Buch. Copyright © 1852 Enßlin & Laiblin.
Starck, Johann. Tägliches Handbuch. Franz Pieper, tr. Copyright © 19oo Concordia Publishing House.
Starck, Johann. Starck’s Prayer Book. Copyright © 2009 Concordia Publishing House.
The Daily Office. Copyright © 1965 Concordia Publishing House.
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