[AI translation] I just want to talk about this last verse of Psalm 92, because I feel that we are here together to proclaim that "the Lord is righteous, ...our rock, ...there is no unrighteousness in him!" When a congregation gathers in church for the last service at the end of a year, they come not only to hear God's Word again, but above all to give glory to God. So let the essence of our gathering together now be that by our mere being together, and by remembering the past year, and by everything that happens here: let us proclaim to one another, let us let the world know, let us proclaim to everyone how good and just God our rock is, and that there is nothing unrighteous or unjust in Him! In other words, let us give glory to God!In fact, the most beautiful New Year's Eve service would be if we could all sing hymns and psalms of praise and thanksgiving to God with all our hearts. Many, for a whole evening, one after the other. If our hearts were so full of praising God, of proclaiming his holy name, that we could hardly get enough of it. But could we truly, so joyfully and sincerely praise Him? After all, so much has happened in the past year to make our throats hang with joyful praise! To think back on the sufferings and pains we have experienced might very well muffle the voice of joy on our lips. Or would not the remembrance of that dear person who is so much missed in the home, raise in our hearts the sounds of painful lamentation rather than of happy thanksgiving? And do not the troubles that have accompanied us through this year to this day prevent us from ending this year with great, joyful gratitude? Now, at this very time, when so little of God's glory is seen in this world, when the storm clouds are gathering so darkly over the heads of the nations, when the powers of sin, sickness, evil and death are so threateningly felt in this world, shall we proclaim God's praise to this world? Shall our mouths be filled with joyful praise now, when our hearts may be filled with sorrow and dread?
And yet I say, yes, we have come together to proclaim the praises of God! That is the most beautiful task of His church, and that task is independent of the circumstances in which His church lives. Indeed, it is in whether it can joyfully give glory to its Lord that it becomes evident that that congregation looks at life and the world from above, from the perspective of eternity, from God's perspective, in heavenly light, and therefore, perhaps in spite of circumstances, can rejoice in God and can end a bloody year by joyfully proclaiming the glory of the Lord God! So what do we proclaim? It is not that everything was fine and good in the past year, and that everything happened as we hoped, wished and wished. Not that nothing in 1957 has dimmed the light of God's goodness shining on us. Not that nothing went wrong, no pain, no disaster! Oh, no! God does not want untruths from His children! He does not wish us to forget the difficulties we have, the problems we have, and least of all to ignore His lightning flashes that flicker up and down in the darkness. In fact, God wants us to see His judgments and not to give glory to His name as if there were nothing wrong in the world, as if times were not so serious. Nor should we forget our own pain, nor deny our tears! Rather, this psalm-verse encourages us to proclaim what the Lord means to us in all these different experiences, events and memories. Two things in particular: that God is just, and that He is a rock! Let me begin with the latter, because the former also comes from the latter.
It is very common in the Bible to compare God to a rock. In their mountainous and valley regions, the writers of the Bible often encountered boulders of rock that rose solid and immovable to the sky above the rolling desert sands, or the gentle lines of hills and valleys. They saw these huge granite blocks in their massive strength, their immovability defying time, and these boulders reminded them again and again of the solid immutability of the eternal God. That everything, everything is changing in this world, but there is One who is unchanging and eternal, who is always the same: the living God! They proclaimed that God is my rock! And for other reasons too. From the rock comes water, the water of the spring that is the nourishment of life. In the shade of the rock, the traveler finds shelter, protection from the heat of the sun or the fury of the storm. Under the shelter of a rock, you can feel safe, the rock is a lifesaver, safety, protection, victory! Well, such a rock is God!
Especially now, in the last hours of a passing year, but it is good for the one who can truly testify from the heart in this way: My rock! For this day in itself speaks in a very solemn voice of the transience of all things on earth. On this day the great futility of all life on earth is felt all the more keenly, and on this night every hour is a monotonous song of transience and death. The universe grows old like a threadbare garment, the world and its desires pass away, our life is like a flower of grass, it sprouts and blooms in the morning, and withers and withers in the evening. That is the mood of the last evening of the Old Year, and it is even more depressing now, because the great tension, which has not diminished or even increased in the past year, makes the whole idea of passing away almost more threateningly real. It is so frighteningly true what Jesus says: "Heaven and earth will pass away! There is nothing solid to hold on to in this world! Everything will change, everything will break, everything will crumble, everything will fall apart! Whatever you get hold of, everything lets you down. Wealth? From one hour to the next it can become nothing, gold can melt faster than snow in the grip of a hand. Health? No more variable value than that! A happy, strong family life? A great gift, but also very time-bound. Oh, how suddenly it can end! Time takes you away, submerged in the stream of time.
Truly there is no other sustainer, no other support for life than God in Jesus Christ. I can also understand that one who does not have God as his rock, who does not know the only Eternal in impermanence, the only unchangeable in this constant change, I can understand if he flees into the intoxication of alcohol on this night, for one cannot endure it soberly when one is forced to realize that all is in vain! But we can bear witness to it, we can proclaim to each other and to the world: God is our rock! Even if everything falters, even if everything passes away, He remains! He keeps us! And we lean on Him now as this year bids us farewell, as with this passing year another part of our lives passes irrevocably away. Now, when the passing of time takes with it faces, memories, sounds, colours, laughter, tears: a piece of life that will never come back - now it is truly a joy that He remains. He, the dear, the steadfast Rock, God!
He has been all year: A rock! For me, the happiest experience of this year has been that no matter how much my life has changed at times, no matter how different my external circumstances have become, God has remained the same, unchanged, just as close, just as close to me, just as faithful, just as loving a Father, just as my Saviour, as ever. I could call on Him just as much, find Him just as much, and hear His voice just as much. But He was your refuge, too, because it was not to crumble under the burden, it was to endure this year, it was to escape from many troubles, from many sorrows, it was to be comforted in pain that felt inconsolable: all this was possible because Someone, with His majestic calm, with His unchangeableness of security, protected you, strengthened you, saved you from perils, from temptations which you did not know were threatening you!
Men were left behind you, the Lord remained by your side. You were faithless, and He remained faithful. Perhaps you were like Peter, who shamefully betrayed and disowned his Master: the faithful, zealous disciple in the unbelieving environment, there in the courtyard of the high priest, in a few hours, oh, how much he changed! And when his eyes met those of Jesus, those sad, loving, forgiving eyes beamed to him that He had not changed, that He loved him still! He still loves me! He still loves you in spite of everything! Yes, you too may have become distant, unfaithful, turned your back, and then suddenly you realize that Jesus is just as close to you as ever. You have grown older, weaker, your love has faded: he loves you just as much now as he did in the days of the first love! At the first meeting! Perhaps you let go of His hand, He never let go of yours! You may have given Him up, He never gave you up! You may have forsaken Him, He never renounced the covenant He made with you! You always strayed from His path, He always led you back again. Is that not so? Of course He did, for the Lord is Rock! You too can now bid farewell to this passing year with the humble but happy confession of faith that the Lord is our Rock! Give glory to His holy name and proclaim with His people everywhere that the Lord is indeed my Rock!
The other thing we proclaim about the Lord today is that He is righteous, there is no unrighteousness, that is, there is no unrighteousness in Him. Of course, if the past year has brought many good things to someone: exaltation, joy, happiness, success, then it is not difficult to praise the Lord now because He is just! But when one's heart is full of bitterness, pain, complaint, grief, a bleeding wound, it is so infinitely difficult to do right by God! Then so quickly a quiet reproach creeps into the heart that God is treating me unjustly. Well, then, in order to rejoice in God's justice, we must first see something else clearly: our own greatest misery. Which is not that time is passing - which this passing year is a warning of, that life is waning - but that every minute of passing time is a witness against me before God, that the days of the past year have only multiplied my sins, have burdened my account. For I have done so many unspeakable things wrong, done them wrong, missed them. I could justly be consumed by the fire of God's judgment.
Oh, Brethren, bitterly, terribly true is what we say to the first Communion question: We cannot stand before the judgment seat of God, and deserve punishment, death and damnation. And what does a condemned sinner need most? A glass of water, paper, a few seconds, a few hours? No: mercy! And God gives it! The greatest! He loves not to the extent of a glass of water, not to the extent of a few years of life extension, not to the extent of a good job, not to the extent of a hypodermic needle, but to the extent of the fullness of grace, to the extent of eternal life! To the point of injustice, that the punishment, death and damnation that I deserved, he makes someone else suffer it for me: Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ has already taken it over from me, suffered it for me! Only if you first grasp by faith the strange, unjust judgment that befell Jesus on the cross, will God's justice shine before you in all its full light!
And then you will be able to praise His justice from the heart, even if He has led you to fearful depths this past year, even if He has led you down paths that made no sense to you, even if His will was quite different from yours, and even if injustice seemed to have triumphed over justice. Even if many, many painful questions remained unresolved. For I no longer see the justice of God's works according to what I deserved - if God's justice depended on it, I would have been damned long ago! - but all God's works are proved to be just according to what I believe, know, even if I cannot see that they are for my good! That it is for good, that it matures me for eternity, that it draws me closer to itself!
In order to end this year with the praise of God's holy name, with the proclamation of His grace, goodness and justice, we must kneel in spirit at the foot of the cross. There our hearts will be filled with the joyful assurance that the Lord, my rock, is just, and that there is nothing unrighteous in Him! There our mouths are opened in true praise:
My whole heart praises you,
My God,
I proclaim your name.
I praise you above gods
I praise you,
For you deserve it.
And in your holy church
Praying
I honour your name,
Your blessing I am ready,
I give thanks
to you, my God.
(Canto 138, verse 1)
Amen
Date: 31 December 1957 (New Year's Eve afternoon).