In March 2002, I was almost 45 years old when an Associated Press photographer took this photograph at the American Air Force Base in Ramstein, Germany from five hundred feet away of two American Army chaplains standing behind the flag-draped remains of some of the first American military personnel killed in Afghanistan. One Chaplain wipes his eyes as another Chaplain reads his Bible and honor guard personnel on the ground below wait to take part in the ceremony. I was the Chaplain reading his Bible. My fellow Chaplain and I were not aware that our picture was being taken. I participated in many such ceremonies that spring and always read the same two passages as I followed the honor guard who carried an American serviceman off the plane – Psalms 23 and 24. I chose Psalm 23 for its language about the Lord as "my shepherd" and about his presence even when I travel through the "valley of the shadow of death." Psalm 24 begins by proclaiming the Lord God as Creator of our world. The Psalmist says,
"The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters" (Psalm 24:1-2).
The Psalmist then asks and answers a question,
"Who may ascend the mountain of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false God" (Psalm 24:3-4)
Psalm 24 then celebrates the entry of the "King of glory" into his throneroom: "Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle…Who is he, this King of glory? The Lord Almighty – he is the king of glory." Psalm 24 foreshadows the coming of the One who truly had clean hands and a pure heart, who believed God the Father wholeheartedly, and who spoke truth. That Messiah, Jesus, is the one who can ascend into God's holy place. Psalm 24 ties together the Lordship of Jesus with his ascension into heaven, accompanied by the resonance of courage in battle and the suffering that often accompanies battle. Psalm 24 infuses memorial grief with hope.
This Memorial Day, as you remember heroes who died on our behalf while you eat your hamburgers, hot dogs, and potato salad, remember and pray for their families and friends, the ones who survived when they perished, who still may be scarred by their loss. As an Army Chaplain, I had the shared responsibility with other selected soldiers to inform wives, children, and parents that someone they loved deeply had died. On one of those occasions, the soldier was someone whom I had known, for whom I had been his chaplain. His father, a combat veteran himself, grieved that his son was not coming home like he had. People who grieve need someone to listen, to hear their sorrow and their pain. For me, that is part of having a heart for the world, being a sign of God's love.
Psalm 24 challenges us as worshipers of God, as the Psalmist challenged his first readers, to live lives that praise God with our ethics, our morals, our truth-telling, and our devotion to our Creator. As the psalm depicts the entry of the Lord into his sanctuary, its words also urge us to open the gates of our hearts to the Lord. When I was an Army Chaplain, I prayed prayers of gratitude and grief for military personnel and contractors who had died in combat zones, I also prayed for the parents, spouses, children, siblings, and friends who survive, that their lives might speak well for their deceased love one's memory and that they might find peace by serving faithfully their Creator. I encourage you to pray in similar fashion this Memorial Day and to dedicate yourselves to being people who have clean hands and a pure heart, who do not trust in idols or swear falsely. Pray hard, my friends.
- Quotes from the Bible are from the New International Version. Parts of this blog post are adapted from a sermon that I preached on Sunday, May 26, 2024, at Heartland Church of Christ in Kansas City, Missouri.
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