The sermon began with the playing of a bagpipe version of “Amazing Grace.”
Somewhere, off in the distance, a bagpiper plays…this was the constant refrain from our family sabbatical five years ago in Scotland. We were living for a number of weeks in Edinburgh and Glasgow. We even got to the world “pipe festival” – which had nothing to do with smoking. Surrounded by thousands of bagpipers (and a lot of Amazing Grace), we were also surrounded by one of the very unique and compelling features of bagpipe music. It is called the drone note.
Did you notice that opening note, the low, steady, constant note that stays the same as the melody goes up and down? In musical terms, that is called a drone.
Usually it is either a low-pitched hum or buzz, or one of the fixed-pitch pipes on a bagpipe. It is a harmonic or monophonic effect or accompaniment where a note or chord is continuously sounded throughout most or all of a piece. In many cases, such as a sitar and a bagpipe, the tone is begun and can continue without the attention of the musician. It provides the constant theme around which or from which the melody is then played. The presence of a drone enhances the richness, or tonality of the sound, and provides a stable base over which the rest of the music can played/written.
The congregation was then invited to “hum” the drone note as the bagpipe music was played.
Could you feel that note in your bones? While I have felt and heard this effect in music for years, it was only early this week, as I watched a friend being taught the dulcimer, that I learned what it is, what it is called, and its purpose. I was immediately captivated by it, musically. Then when I read returned to today’s lectionary psalm, I realized that this prayer from our ancient prayer book could be seen as a “drone of prayer” or a “prayer drone.”
Psalm 130 is part of a collection of psalms (Psalms 120-134) identified within the Psalter as the Songs of Ascents.
• The name could be related to the use of the verb ‘to go up’, in regard to the exiles returning to Jerusalem (Ezra 2:1; 7:9).
• It could indicate that the collection is related to pilgrimage in general.
• Alternatively, the Mishnah [early Rabbinic commentary on the Torah/Hebrew Bible] implies a liturgical function seeing one psalm sung on each of the fifteen steps between the women’s court and the court of Israel in the Jerusalem temple complex.
• The collection has traditionally been used in the festival of Sukkot (Tabernacles) recalling the wilderness wanderings.
Regardless of the exact meaning of this phrase, Songs of Ascents, it is clear that this psalm was an ever present prayer of both pain and trust, one meant to be held in the back pocket, or more appropriately, in the heart. The availability and portability of the prayer, its constant use, and its bedrock belief that one can rely on Yahweh, seem have the same qualities in regard to our spiritual life that the drone has in music. A deep seated, ever-present, non changing, foundational faith (none in the bones of the psalmist) that regardless of what is happening in one’s life, God’s grace will “drone on.”
We’ll listen now to a shorter segment of DULCIMER MUSIC – and I invite you once again to see if you can hum that drone note, and feel it in your body….Dulcimer music was played.
If we step back from the way the psalm was used, however, and look at the actual language, we see that it is anything but monotonous. It is vivid.
The psalmist cries for help ‘out of the depths’ and ‘my soul waits.’
The Message translation reads, ‘The bottom has fallen out of my life!’
The Contemporary English translation reads, ‘from a sea of troubles, I call out to you.’
We don’t need to know exactly what the “depths” were for the psalmist, we all know our own depths – emotional, psychological, physical, social – our own pain or confusion or even overwhelming joy.
But no matter how deep this place is, the psalmist has a confidence that Yahweh can indeed hear.
Even such pits as we dig for ourselves, our iniquities as the psalmist puts it, are not deep enough to hide our cries from Yahweh’s ears because Yahweh is one who is not only powerful to redeem but whose nature is to forgive (v. 4) and to maintain steadfast love (drone)
The psalmist then speaks of ‘waiting’ for Yahweh.
In Hebrew, the word ‘to wait’ is also the one translated ‘to hope’. ‘Waiting’ is an intimate part of hope in this context. And this is what the psalmist also urges for Israel, the whole people of God. This God who is powerful to redeem is nevertheless not one to be manipulated, or coerced, or bribed. This is one who acts in their own time and for whom we must wait. But such waiting is not without confidence.
The psalmist compares their own waiting to that of the sentinel who watches for the morning (v. 6) and underlines this comparison by repetition of the line.
Maybe it is the town watchman who acts as guardian at night and tells of the coming of the dawn so that those who sleep can do so in safety and readiness for the new day and its chores.
Maybe it refers to a time of war when the sentinel keeps look out for the attack of the enemy as dawn approaches when there is sufficient light.
Regardless, the imagery is meant to evoke a sense of vigilance and care. Our hoping and waiting for the Holy One is not a time of inactivity, or just sitting around thinking nothing is happening right now. Our hope is active and positive.
Moreover, the image of the watcher for the morning underlines an element of certainty and confidence. Whatever the morning may bring in our imaginations, it will come. The psalmist suggests that hope in the Lord, waiting for the lord, is never in vain.
Paul Tillich, 20th century theologian, reminds us that faith without such waiting replaces the Holy One with our own creation or image of God. Tillich wrote words at least a generation ago that could easily be uttered today, “ I am convinced that much of the rebellion against Christianity is due to the overt or veiled claim of the Christians to possess God, and therefore, also, to the loss of this element of waiting, so decisive for the prophets and the apostles.
Faith, he reminds us is a recognition that we cannot possess God, we cannot grasp on to holiness. God, the psalmist reminds us, is ever present. God will hear our supplications on the road and in worship and all places in between.
The lived promise embodied by the psalm is that God will never abandon us. Not in our despair, not in our sin, not in our confusion or doubt. The psalmist knows what we know, however, it doesn’t always feel that way. We can’t always grasp the Spirit’s presence in our lives, few of us can say we have gone through life without asking the question, “where are you God?”
Could it be that the question of our faith is not whether or not God is there, but how are we living a life of hopeful waiting? Putting ourselves in a position to feel the droning love of God when it emerges into the forefront of our lives again?
Or could it be that in the busyness of our lives, we are hearing but understanding – as I was with the drone notes – that steady, constant, ever present reality of love and grace in our lives and in the world?
Could it be that the invitation of the psalm today is to wait in hope? Knowing that just as we felt the drone note in our body, we will also feel the presence of the Spirit in our bodies and know it is real – powerful, redeeming, uplifting, comforting.
If we don’t feel that presence today, could we wait and sing in hope with the psalmist 5we wait for the Lord, our soul waits, and in her word we hope; 6our soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for our e morning, more than those who watch for the morning. 7O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem.
Amen.
A organ piece by Bach was played featuring a drone note.
Psalm 130
1Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. 2Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications! 3If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand? 4But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered.
5I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; 6my soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning.
7O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem. 8It is he who will redeem Israel from all its iniquities.
