New to blogging but not to meditating on the psalms so we begin with 471 and go from here.
Psalm Meditation 471
Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time
July 5, 2009
Psalm 16
1 Protect me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
2 I say to the LORD, "You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you."
3 As for the holy ones in the land, they are the noble, in whom is all my delight.
4 Those who choose another god multiply their sorrows; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names upon my lips.
5 The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.
6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; I have a goodly heritage.
7 I bless the LORD who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me.
8 I keep the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my body also rests secure.
10 For you do not give me up to Sheol, or let your faithful one see the Pit.
11 You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
(NRSV)
Every time we make a decision we remove the possibility of some other choice or choices. Most of the time we don’t notice that we are doing that because the decision is so clear to us that we don’t consider the alternatives. There are however some life altering decisions on which we will agonize about making the decision and second guess ourselves once we have. We do wonder from time to time what would be different if we had made another choice about following God, Yahweh.
Every now and then I wonder how my life would have been different if I had not been introduced to and raised up in a relationship with God. What if my parents had been some of those who decided not to be active in church so that I could make my own decision later instead of those who decided to answer the upward call of God on their lives and to raise my brothers and me in the presence of God, knowing that we would each have to make our own decision later.
“Yahweh is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.” I would love to say that I have never seriously second guessed my choice. There have been times, when the way of God was more difficult than usual, that I have wondered what I was thinking when I made this decision to cast my lot with God. While there have been unpleasant times, the presence of God and the people of God continue to remind me in a number of ways how good it is to count myself among the people of God. It is not always smooth, and it doesn’t always live out in the way I would have wanted, however the presence of God and the people of God bring me and those around me a joy that others do not seem to have and I am grateful.
© June 29, 2009
