“A Sweet New Year” – Erev Rosh HaShanah 5784

0:01 For the, uh, past five years or so, there have been birds that nest underneath the canopy of our back patio at home and the parents fly in and out bringing back food to the nest and watching over their young. It is fascinating to see the way that the parents communicate with each other and to observe the baby birds opening their beaks wide in order to receive nourishment. After a few weeks of activity, we see the nestlings become fledglings and finally leave their nest behind. Do you have that picture, Joshua?

0:47 This evening begins Rosh Hashanah, the head of the year, also known as Yom Teruah, which is the day of blowing the shofar. North Americans celebrate the New Year on January 1st, Exodus 12 verses one through two mentions Peoc or Passover as the beginning of the year in that we were freed from slavery on that day. The Torah goes on to tell us to celebrate. Each month, each new moon is celebrated and it is known as Roche Kadesh, the head of the month numbers 10 10 refers to the beginning of month when the shofar is sounded in order

1:35 to remind us of the Lord. Thanks, Joshua. You could put that one away for now. So what are these connections between Rosh Hashanah, Pesak and Roosh Kadesh? I certainly do not intend to answer all of the questions that might converge around these themes, though perhaps I could pique your interest. However, what I would like to do is consider a psalm that is connected with all of them. Psalm 81. This Psalm reminds us to worship God at his moad. Were appointed times, it encourages us to remember our salvation. And lastly, it urges us to walk in covenant relationship with the Lord.

2:23 The title of my message is A Sweet New Year. It comes from Psalm 81 and I will be reading from the Tree of Life version. My outline can be found on the U version app and I will begin by reading Psalm 81 verses one through six for the musical director on the Tite liar of Assaf. Sing for joy to God our strength. Sing to the God of Jacob. Lift up a song and sound a tambourine, a sweet liar with a harp. Blow the shofar at the New Moon at the full moon for the day of our

3:10 festival. For it is a decree for Israel in ordinance of the God of Jacob. He set it up as a testimony in Joseph when he went throughout the land of Egypt. I heard a language I did not understand. We are to worship God at his Modi. To begin in verse one, this is a Psalm of Asaf who is Asaf. In one Chronicles chapter 16, verse four, king David appoints Asaf and some of the other Levites as ministers before the arc of Adonai to petition,

3:57 to thank and to praise Adonai, the God of Israel. Asaf was the chief and nine others were appointed to serve with him. They were to play harps and liars. Asaf was to sound the symbols and the Kohanim, Benay and Yael were to blow trumpets continually before the arc of the covenant of God. So we see that although the Psalm is attributed to Assaf, he had a great band as well as a conductor who initially received this psalm. This song especially features the Git Tite liar, a stringed instrument which Rashi says is manufactured in the town

4:44 of got. That is the Superscription that begins this psalm, not what Rashi said, but the on the Tite liar. What follows lines up very closely with the verse that we considered in First Chronicles. The people of Israel are encouraged to sing for joy to the God of their strength, to shout to the God of Jacob. Yeah. Do you know Yom UA is the day of shouting and hallelujah, and the shout is also the noise that we hear from the shofar and my wife's name, Rena in Hebrew means shout.

5:31 Not that she's ever shouted at me or anything, but where was I? This type of parallelism is common in biblical Hebrew poetry, the sing for joy to the God of their strength. Shout to the God of Jacob. Rabbinic writings connect this psalm with Rosh Hashanah. We will get into this in more detail in the coming verses. The idea of the God of Jacob being the God of our strength is closely connected to deliverance from Egypt. Isn't that a Passover connection? How are these feasts connected in our tradition and how do these feasts line up with this psalm again? In verse three,

6:20 there is further musical instruction concerning a tambourine, a sweet liar, and a harp. Asaf was the master of percussion. He did not want any superfluous tambourine to throw the band off of their rhythm. You can be sure that Asaf knew how to stay in the pocket. We also learned something here about the liar. If you must be a liar, be a sweet liar. Yes, that dress looks great. That is the cutest baby I've ever seen. No, it's not a problem at all. Joking aside, just as we can hear a sweet guitar solo today,

7:07 apparently the guitar liar could have a sweet sound to the ear back in the day. Verse four gets interesting in terms of how we apply it to our calendar below the shofar at the New Moon, at the full moon for the day of our festival. How confusing is this? Is it referring to the New Moon or the full moon? Those are opposites. Furthermore, which festival is it speaking to in tract Tate Rosh Hashanah? This topic is discussed to begin. The New Moon happens every month, obviously, and it is known as Roche Kadesh, the head of the month.

7:54 Although there is a connection between Roche Kadesh and the Shofar, the prominent connection made by the rabbis is to roosh Hashanah, the head of the year associated with Yom Teruah, the day of shouting or shofar blasts, which alludes to Joshua and the walls of Jericho. There is quite a complicated history as to how Yom Teruah and Rosh Hashanah became conflated within Judaism with this said tract, Tate Rosh Hashanah connects Psalm 81 with Rosh Hashanah as it is the only Jewish holiday that occurs on the New Moon rather than the full moon. If I have not already confused you enough,

8:39 there is further discussion concerning the New Moon and the full moon. There is much debate among the rabbis concerning this Hebrew root kasam hay. It can be rendered as full moon as you will find in certain translations, but it could also be related to something being concealed or covered, and the idea of a covered moon, of course, fits much better with this Rosh Hashanah connection. Ironically, this root also refers to covering or forgiving sin, but I'm not willing to bring up Yom Kippur just yet. There is further rabbinic commentary connecting this root to its

9:27 cognate, meaning a word that sounds the same. Kasic olive, which means throne in Hebrew while you Hebrew students. After all, Rosh Hashanah is the time when we ate the king. Some believe that the connection between Rosh Hashanah and the new year actually came during the time of the kings of Israel when they would be coronated and re inaugurated in the fall. In other words, it was the time when the Davidic son was once again proclaimed to be king. It is a decree for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob. Here we have the idea of a divine decree for a time when the

10:13 shofar will be sounded and God will sit over his people in judgment. He set it up as a testimony in Joseph when he went throughout the land of Egypt. I heard a language I did not understand. Here we see an allusion to Egypt, which we will pick up in the following section. Rashi says that it was on Rosh Hashanah when Joseph was released from prison and brought before Pharaoh to interpret his dreams and to warn him of his future. In the same way, Rosh Hashanah is the time when the king sits to judge his people and we are called to align our ways with the king. Although there are many interesting discussions and debates that may arise out

11:03 of these initial verses. In Psalm 81, 1 thing is clear, we are to worship God at his Modi, which are his appointed times. Psalm 81 verses seven through 10 read as follows. I relieved his shoulder of the burden, his hands were set free from the basket. You called out in trouble and I rescued you. I answered you from the hiding place of thunder. I tested you at the waters of MEbA Sah. Here are my people. I will admonish you if you would listen to me O Israel.

11:49 Let there be no foreign God among you and you shall not worship any alien. God, I am otai your God who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it. Remember your salvation. Oh, thank heaven for verses seven through 11. The character shifts at verse seven. Now we actually hear from the Lord himself. The discussion of Egypt continues. God reminds the hearers that they did not always have this freedom to worship God at his Modi. The people of Israel did not always have the freedom to make their own choices.

12:40 The people of Israel had been enslaved in Egypt. According to rabbinic tradition, it was Rosh Hashanah. When Israel was awakened in Egypt, they were no longer willing to serve Pharaoh. Although they had to wait six months for their liberation, the freedom began within their hearts and minds. Six years, three months, two weeks, one day and 10 hours. Perhaps you are familiar with the testimony of Marcus Raven. He had an encounter with the Lord and received a call into ministry. However, he had to pay the price for a past transgression.

13:30 Although he was imprisoned, his heart and mind remained free to the Lord. He didn't adopt the prison mentality. He escaped within his spirit. Every day he ministered to those that he was incarcerated with. He didn't wait to begin walking out the thing that he felt the Lord called him to do. For Marcus. Being free did not begin. When he was sent home, he realized that even though he was physically locked up, he would eventually be set free. He conducted himself in such a way that he would be ready when the time came. He waited for it six years, three months, two weeks, one day and 10 hours

14:21 last month. Marcus celebrated 20 years since his release from prison. God was calling Israel to remember the moment of salvation. Remember your vulnerability. Remember how the Lord carried you? Remember when you were set free from the burden? You called out and he rescued you. Remember when you called upon the name of the Lord? Did you lose that vulnerability? There is something powerful that happens when we realize that we are still those baby birds crying out.

15:07 There is a peculiar phrase in verse eight. The second section, the Tree of Life version says, I answered you from the hiding place of thunder. Perhaps here there is some illusion to Sinai. The sages speak of the shofar with one end being small and narrow, yet the other end is wide and the voice of the shofar emerges like thunder. Again, we see this idea of being hidden or concealed. My friend Joe also informed me that this Hebrew word for thunder rah is an if I only had a more thunderous voice,

15:54 you would all be frightened. We also see the idea of being tested by the Lord. In what ways has the Lord tested you? What tests are you going through right now as you enter this new year? I encourage you to escape the victim mentality. You might feel like you are in an unfortunate situation. However, what if you were to view your situation differently? What if God in his infinite wisdom had crafted a specific spiritual curriculum just for you? Everyone gets a different spiritual curriculum as God writes a unique story in

16:39 each one of our lives. What has the Lord placed on your spiritual curriculum and how will you respond to it? God assures us that if we are attentive to his voice, he will lead us in the way of salvation. It won't be easy and it won't always seem to make sense to us. He will even reprove us say no to us and sometimes we might even become angry with him, but if we seek his face and his voice in spite of our own feelings, he will care for us. He will hear our cry like the vulnerable birds in the nest. He will provide all that we need. When was the last time that you cried out to the Lord for help?

17:29 God wants us to remember the appointed times and he wants us to remember our salvation. These two are connected At Peoc, we are encouraged to retell the story of our delivery from bondage as if we ourselves had been personally freed from Egypt. Even at Rosh Hashanah, when we hear the voice of the shofar, we are reminded that we did not always have this liberty to worship the Lord. We were entangled in bondage and servitude to other deities. When did you experience liberation from bondage? Are you free today? If you hear his voice? Today is the day of salvation.

18:17 Psalm 81 verses 12 through 17 read as follows, but my people did not listen to my voice. Israel was not willing to be mine, so I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart to walk in their own councils. Oh, that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways. I would soon subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes. Those who hate Otto Nai would cringe before him. Their time of doom would be forever, but you would be fed with the finest wheat with honey out of a rock. Would I satisfy you?

19:07 Walk in covenant relationship with the Lord. In this final section of the Psalm, the perspective of the Lord continues. God who delivered his people offers up a sweet lament. If only the people of God would listen to his voice, what would God be willing to do? He would subdue the enemies of his people and nurture his people, Israel with the finest wheat, satisfying them with honey from the rock. Perhaps you're thinking if he is the Lord, couldn't he do those things anyway? Why does he require our participation?

19:53 God is concerned about the glory of his name. Is he self-centered? Does he need to be padded on the back? That's not what I'm talking about. The name of God is more than just a title. The name of God is his character. God is holy when we walk in our own ways. We cannot represent him. We separate ourselves against his will. God is in relationship with all nations. Yet he has a distinct relationship with Israel. He has a spiritual curriculum for Israel, but he also has a spiritual curriculum for every nation, each tribe and every person that was made in his image.

20:42 For instance, in Reem in Deuteronomy, we see that God tells Israel to take a particular piece of land. However, they were not free to take any other lands. God had given those lands to other people in the same way that there were people who were displaced for the sake of Israel. God also displaced people for other nations. Israel was not permitted to take what did not belong to them. What I'm saying is that God desires covenant relationship. Israel was called to a particular covenantal code. There are conditions to this code.

21:30 Israel had to choose between the blessing and the curse. The God of Israel is also the God of the nations. All people have the opportunity to walk with the Lord and both individually and collectively. We can walk in a way that pleases him and brings Him honor or we can walk in a way that fails to heeded his voice. One of the reasons that honoring parents is important is that it reflects the extent to which we can honor the Lord. The Hebrew term au from which we get the concepts of honor and glory refers to weightiness. Honoring the name of the Lord is not just about what name we call him.

22:17 It is about whether we take him seriously, whether we give him the appropriate place or weight in our lives. It is about how much place we give him within ourselves, how much we allow him to speak into our lives. It is about whether we are open to advice or whether we've already heard this one before. In Hebrew, hearing implies taking it to heart and changing our actions accordingly. So how is your heart doing? Is it stubborn and difficult to change or is it pliable? Is it a heart of stone or a heart of flesh? The new covenant is not a new concept. The prophet spoke of the need to be vulnerable before the Lord and submissive

23:06 to his direction in our lives. There is a place where stone is helpful, but it's not helpful in our heart. It's not helpful in our kidneys either. Paradoxically, if we become pliable before the Lord, he becomes the rock that follows after us and smashes our enemies. Furthermore, the rock of Israel is not like other rocks. Has anyone ever been to Israel? Yeah. Show of hands. Did you take pictures? Did you ever go back and look at these pictures years later? It's probably difficult to remember what the significance of each picture was.

23:51 If you didn't write it down, you'll probably just be looking at a lot of rocks. However, this rock that follows Israel is not just another rock. At the end of verse eight, just before the rest Sah, it mentions the waters of MEbA. How is this Psalm bringing in Roosh, Kadesh, Roosh, Hashanah, Pesach and now the testing in the wilderness. It's a rich psalm, isn't it? If you remember the account in numbers chapter 20, during the time of testing, the people of Israel had no water. They grumbled to Moses and Aaron. They forgot the day of their salvation and wished to become slaves again

24:41 rather to be free and face such harsh conditions. Moses and Aaron got on their faces before the Lord and received clear instruction from on high. Speak to the rock in the midst of the people and it will yield its water. So Moses and Aaron face the people again. They clearly knew exactly which rock the Lord was speaking about. Isn't that something? However, something happened that day. Perhaps it has happened to you at some point. It was stressful. The people were complaining Moses was bitter. There were too many services happening within a given time and he just couldn't

25:27 keep up. No, I'm kidding. No. He remembered the peoples complaining and his temper got the best of him. He spoke harshly to the people and he struck the rock. Now, let me tell you something about the rock of Israel. This rock can handle being struck. In fact, when the when this rock was struck, living water came forth in abundance. Perhaps this rock was the hiding place of thunder and the waters rushed forth. All the people and animals drank and were satisfied. I don't know that it rushed forth in that way. I'm just using my imagination.

26:15 However, the rock didn't forget what happened. There was a heavy consequence for Moses outburst and the striking of the rock. Moses would lead the people to their land, but he himself would not be permitted to enter. It was at MEbA that the Lord showed himself Holy. We have an opportunity today to speak to the rock of Israel. This same rock that followed Israel through the wilderness is present today. The Lord tells us that if we listen to his voice, he will walk with us and he will satisfy us with honey out of the rock. Have you ever smashed rocks?

27:05 Raise your hand if you've smashed rocks before. Just quick poll. Okay? Have you ever found honey inside? Just keep your hand up. If you smashed the rock, there was honey that came out. Wow. Okay, that sounds crazy, but I'll, I'll go with it. In fact, when I want some honey tonight in which to dip my apples, I doubt that I will be breaking rocks open. In order to find it, I'll probably open the cupboard instead. Opening rocks to find honey seems preposterous, but you know what also seemed crazy? How about speaking to a rock that then responds with flowing water that satisfies all who are present? That sounds crazy too, right?

27:51 That doesn't seem quite logical, does it? The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. We have a choice to be crushed by the stone or to build our lives upon the stone. The rock is an unlikely place to find water. The rock is also an unlikely place to find honey to return for a second to this hidden concept, we can be hidden from calamity in the cleft of the rock. Perhaps you've heard the Paul Wil Wilber song. Although the rock does not seem to be the likely place to go to find

28:36 sustenance, God is happy to smash our expectations into pieces and to surprise us in a way in which he brings forth salvation. Growing up, the one thing that I knew I couldn't do besides drugs and a few other things. I know my mom's listening, so I gotta do justice. She told me not to do more than one thing, but one of the chief things that I couldn't do was put my faith in Yeshua. Don't become one of those crazy Jews for Jesus. Now, you might think that because I was instructed not to do something, that this was the first thing that I would want to do. However,

29:22 I had no desire to know Yeshua and the cultural stigma of Jewish believers in Yeshua pushed me even farther from it. It wasn't until I was in college that I had an encounter with Yeshua that changed my life just like Marcus. It's been 20 years since I was set free, though he heard the shofar six years earlier. Yeshuas seems like the least likely candidate to be the rock of Israel. He is the one who has been like a lightning rod within Judaism for over two millennia. But what if this Yeshua is the same hiding place of thunder referred to in verse eight?

30:11 What if he is the rock that was struck? What if he is God's promise? Messiah, who would live according to the Torah, suffer on our behalf for our transgressions and atone for our inequities? What if he was actually the first fruits from the dead to experience resurrected life, ascend to the right hand of the Father and to continually intercede on our behalf? What if Yeshua was the one prophesied about in Daniel seven, the son of man who will return with all power and dominion? Would you receive him or would you harden your heart? Would you listen to the grumbling of the people or would you speak to the

30:58 rock? During these days of awe, when the books are opened and the king judges from upon his throne, I challenge you to consider the condition of your heart. Do you hear his voice? Do you hear the voice of the shofar? Give honor and glory to his name. If you have dishonored the Lord by stubbornness, or if you have dishonored him in the way that you have treated someone else, someone who is created in the very image of God, this is the time to seek forgiveness and reconciliation. While we cannot control the response of others,

31:44 we can walk in self-control and we have everything that we need to live in a way that pleases the Lord. This Rosh Hashanah. May you find unexpected sweetness. May you find honey in the rock and maybe some apples too worship God at his appointed times. Remember your salvation and where the Lord brought you from. Walk in covenant relationship with the Lord. He knows how to care for his people. May the Lord grant you a sweet New Year and Shabbat shalom

33:09 in the name of our Messiah, Yeshua. Amen.