Psalm Meditation 475
Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time
August 2, 2009
Psalm 116
1 I love the LORD, because he has heard my voice and my supplications.
2 Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
3 The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish.
4 Then I called on the name of the LORD: "O LORD, I pray, save my life!"
5 Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; our God is merciful.
6 The LORD protects the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me.
7 Return, O my soul, to your rest, for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.
8 For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.
9 I walk before the LORD in the land of the living.
10 I kept my faith, even when I said, "I am greatly afflicted";
11 I said in my consternation, "Everyone is a liar."
12 What shall I return to the LORD for all his bounty to me?
13 I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD,
14 I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people.
15 Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his faithful ones.
16 O LORD, I am your servant; I am your servant, the child of your serving girl. You have loosed my bonds.
17 I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice and call on the name of the LORD.
18 I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people,
19 in the courts of the house of the LORD, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the LORD!
(NRSV)
There is always a reason for us to love God; our love is always a response to something God has done in our lives. It is, however, still a choice that we make. We do not love God because we are forced to do so, we have been given the choice to love God or not. In the situation of this psalm there was an illness, perhaps, from which the psalmist prayed to be saved. In other cases folks abandon God at the first sign of illness. Rather than ask to be delivered they simply choose to reject God and any relief or benefit that might come from depending on God’s presence in our lives.
If for no other reason our love for God is a response to God’s presence in our lives. As a parent can love a child before the child is aware of the presence of the parent so is God able to love us and be present with us in ways that are outside our ability to comprehend or match. Our children will grow up to be adults and will be able to give and take with us on a level plane. Because we are not on a level with God we cannot out love or out respond to God.
It is sometimes said that God does not need our thanks and praise. While in one sense I agree I also believe that God does appreciate and relish our responses of thanks and praise for all that God does in our lives. God is certainly self-sufficient, however that does not mean that God is so self-contained that there is no room for us to be in relationship with God. God has chosen to be in love with us and so has chosen to be touched by the ways we react to the loving presence God offers to us. While God does not need our praise, God deeply desires and is touched by each of our responses. Praise the LORD.
© July 27, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
Psalm Meditation 474
Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time
July 26, 2009
Psalm 91
1 You who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,
2 will say to the LORD, "My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust."
3 For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence;
4 he will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
5 You will not fear the terror of the night, or the arrow that flies by day,
6 or the pestilence that stalks in darkness, or the destruction that wastes at noonday.
7 A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.
8 You will only look with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.
9 Because you have made the LORD your refuge, the Most High your dwelling place,
10 no evil shall befall you, no scourge come near your tent.
11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.
12 On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.
13 You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent you will trample under foot.
14 Those who love me, I will deliver; I will protect those who know my name.
15 When they call to me, I will answer them; I will be with them in trouble, I will rescue them and honor them.
16 With long life I will satisfy them, and show them my salvation.
(NRSV)
Experience shows that those who live in the presence of God are at least as likely to suffer as those who avoid God. It may be because people of God tend to go intentionally into places in which there is suffering and pestilence in order to be of service to those who were in the midst of it from the beginning. In those situations it is likely that the people of God have little awareness of their personal danger because their focus is on others. They are in just as much danger, however the presence of God acts as a shield to their noticing the danger.
We know that good people and bad people suffer and die on a daily basis. We also know that those who live in the presence of God do not dwell on their mortality, living as if there is more to life than flesh and blood. Building relationships with others and building bridges of relationship between God and others is much more consuming than the preservation of one’s personal life. So, yes, we will suffer and die in numbers similar to those who do not live in an awareness of the presence of God. It will not be a chief consideration in anything that we do. Knowing that we have a relationship with God that goes beyond this life sets us free to charge in when others are suffering.
The presence of God in our lives calls us, leads us, invites us to go places and do things that others would not even consider. God does not seem to pull us out of harm’s way near as often as God gives us the wherewithal to go into situations with the needs of others foremost in our hearts and minds. Yes, we take care of ourselves and give thought to personal health and safety all while looking to the pressing needs of others. Through it all we carry with us an awareness of the overarching presence of God.
© July 20, 2009
Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time
July 26, 2009
Psalm 91
1 You who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,
2 will say to the LORD, "My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust."
3 For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence;
4 he will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
5 You will not fear the terror of the night, or the arrow that flies by day,
6 or the pestilence that stalks in darkness, or the destruction that wastes at noonday.
7 A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.
8 You will only look with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.
9 Because you have made the LORD your refuge, the Most High your dwelling place,
10 no evil shall befall you, no scourge come near your tent.
11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.
12 On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.
13 You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent you will trample under foot.
14 Those who love me, I will deliver; I will protect those who know my name.
15 When they call to me, I will answer them; I will be with them in trouble, I will rescue them and honor them.
16 With long life I will satisfy them, and show them my salvation.
(NRSV)
Experience shows that those who live in the presence of God are at least as likely to suffer as those who avoid God. It may be because people of God tend to go intentionally into places in which there is suffering and pestilence in order to be of service to those who were in the midst of it from the beginning. In those situations it is likely that the people of God have little awareness of their personal danger because their focus is on others. They are in just as much danger, however the presence of God acts as a shield to their noticing the danger.
We know that good people and bad people suffer and die on a daily basis. We also know that those who live in the presence of God do not dwell on their mortality, living as if there is more to life than flesh and blood. Building relationships with others and building bridges of relationship between God and others is much more consuming than the preservation of one’s personal life. So, yes, we will suffer and die in numbers similar to those who do not live in an awareness of the presence of God. It will not be a chief consideration in anything that we do. Knowing that we have a relationship with God that goes beyond this life sets us free to charge in when others are suffering.
The presence of God in our lives calls us, leads us, invites us to go places and do things that others would not even consider. God does not seem to pull us out of harm’s way near as often as God gives us the wherewithal to go into situations with the needs of others foremost in our hearts and minds. Yes, we take care of ourselves and give thought to personal health and safety all while looking to the pressing needs of others. Through it all we carry with us an awareness of the overarching presence of God.
© July 20, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Psalm Meditation 473
Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time
July 19, 2009
Psalm 66
1 Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth;
2 sing the glory of his name; give to him glorious praise.
3 Say to God, "How awesome are your deeds! Because of your great power, your enemies cringe before you.
4 All the earth worships you; they sing praises to you, sing praises to your name." Selah
5 Come and see what God has done: he is awesome in his deeds among mortals.
6 He turned the sea into dry land; they passed through the river on foot. There we rejoiced in him,
7 who rules by his might forever, whose eyes keep watch on the nations-- let the rebellious not exalt themselves. Selah
8 Bless our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard,
9 who has kept us among the living, and has not let our feet slip.
10 For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried.
11 You brought us into the net; you laid burdens on our backs;
12 you let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a spacious place.
13 I will come into your house with burnt offerings; I will pay you my vows,
14 those that my lips uttered and my mouth promised when I was in trouble.
15 I will offer to you burnt offerings of fatlings, with the smoke of the sacrifice of rams; I will make an offering of bulls and goats. Selah
16 Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for me.
17 I cried aloud to him, and he was extolled with my tongue.
18 If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
19 But truly God has listened; he has given heed to the words of my prayer.
20 Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me.
(NRSV)
Everything we do is a response to God’s gifts. At our best we give God praise and glory with heart and voice and life. Whether we are grateful or not God continues to give gifts because it is the nature of God to give beyond our ability to comprehend. While God appreciates our thanks and praise it does not influence the number or quality of gifts so much as it opens our awareness to all that God does among us.
God delivers us from some calamities and either leads us into or does not stop us from running headlong into others. In the midst of those calamites we discover that there is a lesson to be learned and strength to be gained if we allow ourselves to remain open to God in the midst of trial and hurt. Much as we may have dreaded tests in our formal education process the intent was to discover how well we had learned and to remind us that there is always more to know and to learn. If nothing else we learn that God is with us in even the most brutal circumstances.
In good times and in bad times God is active in our lives. We may not notice all the ways God touches us and surrounds us, however that does not mean that God is not present. God invites us into an ever increasing awareness of God’s presence in our lives. We may notice God in nature, in other people, in situations and events. As we become more aware of the ways in which God is now working in our lives we may also notice that God has always been present in that way and we have missed it until now.
God works in our lives because God finds joy in our company. We offer our uniqueness to God in our relationship and that is a source of great joy to God to see how we take God’s good gifts and use them to deepen our relationship with God and with others.
© July 13, 2009
Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time
July 19, 2009
Psalm 66
1 Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth;
2 sing the glory of his name; give to him glorious praise.
3 Say to God, "How awesome are your deeds! Because of your great power, your enemies cringe before you.
4 All the earth worships you; they sing praises to you, sing praises to your name." Selah
5 Come and see what God has done: he is awesome in his deeds among mortals.
6 He turned the sea into dry land; they passed through the river on foot. There we rejoiced in him,
7 who rules by his might forever, whose eyes keep watch on the nations-- let the rebellious not exalt themselves. Selah
8 Bless our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard,
9 who has kept us among the living, and has not let our feet slip.
10 For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried.
11 You brought us into the net; you laid burdens on our backs;
12 you let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a spacious place.
13 I will come into your house with burnt offerings; I will pay you my vows,
14 those that my lips uttered and my mouth promised when I was in trouble.
15 I will offer to you burnt offerings of fatlings, with the smoke of the sacrifice of rams; I will make an offering of bulls and goats. Selah
16 Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for me.
17 I cried aloud to him, and he was extolled with my tongue.
18 If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
19 But truly God has listened; he has given heed to the words of my prayer.
20 Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me.
(NRSV)
Everything we do is a response to God’s gifts. At our best we give God praise and glory with heart and voice and life. Whether we are grateful or not God continues to give gifts because it is the nature of God to give beyond our ability to comprehend. While God appreciates our thanks and praise it does not influence the number or quality of gifts so much as it opens our awareness to all that God does among us.
God delivers us from some calamities and either leads us into or does not stop us from running headlong into others. In the midst of those calamites we discover that there is a lesson to be learned and strength to be gained if we allow ourselves to remain open to God in the midst of trial and hurt. Much as we may have dreaded tests in our formal education process the intent was to discover how well we had learned and to remind us that there is always more to know and to learn. If nothing else we learn that God is with us in even the most brutal circumstances.
In good times and in bad times God is active in our lives. We may not notice all the ways God touches us and surrounds us, however that does not mean that God is not present. God invites us into an ever increasing awareness of God’s presence in our lives. We may notice God in nature, in other people, in situations and events. As we become more aware of the ways in which God is now working in our lives we may also notice that God has always been present in that way and we have missed it until now.
God works in our lives because God finds joy in our company. We offer our uniqueness to God in our relationship and that is a source of great joy to God to see how we take God’s good gifts and use them to deepen our relationship with God and with others.
© July 13, 2009
Monday, July 6, 2009
Psalm Meditation 472
Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time
July 12, 2009
Psalm 41
1 Happy are those who consider the poor; the LORD delivers them in the day of trouble.
2 The LORD protects them and keeps them alive; they are called happy in the land. You do not give them up to the will of their enemies.
3 The LORD sustains them on their sickbed; in their illness you heal all their infirmities.
4 As for me, I said, "O LORD, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against you."
5 My enemies wonder in malice when I will die, and my name perish.
6 And when they come to see me, they utter empty words, while their hearts gather mischief; when they go out, they tell it abroad.
7 All who hate me whisper together about me; they imagine the worst for me.
8 They think that a deadly thing has fastened on me, that I will not rise again from where I lie.
9 Even my bosom friend in whom I trusted, who ate of my bread, has lifted the heel against me.
10 But you, O LORD, be gracious to me, and raise me up, that I may repay them.
11 By this I know that you are pleased with me; because my enemy has not triumphed over me.
12 But you have upheld me because of my integrity, and set me in your presence forever.
13 Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and Amen.
(NRSV)
Having been scammed numerous times by folks who are abusing the system of church safety nets I find myself pretty cynical when folks come to ask for help. Fortunately there are folks around me who are good enough to remind me that even folks who play the system are children of God. They also remind me that even if most of the people who come through asking for help are as cynical on their side as I am on mine, every now and then someone really is in need of the help we have to offer. Even in my cynicism I know that it is important to consider the poor; those who ask for help and those who suffer silently not knowing where to turn.
Most of the time it is easier to consider the poor as a group than it is to deal with individuals in poverty. That is not a bad thing. If we find ourselves working toward changes in the system that will move people out of poverty we have done something for the individuals as well. If we help folks one at a time the systemic causes of that poverty still exist. Will we ever alleviate poverty completely? No. There will always be someone with less of something than others. Does that mean we give up and simply grab all we can so that we never become one of the poor? No. We do well to keep helping the individuals as best we can as well as working for changes in the system that will make poverty less of a threat to more and more people.
The history of salvation reminds us that God is always on the side of the poor, the oppressed and the downtrodden. For us to ignore those in poverty is to ignore the people closest to God’s own heart. It is important to find the way that works for each of us. It is not necessarily the easy way so much as the one that gives the feeling of having acted out of a relationship with God in building a more healthy and whole place for all to live
© July 6, 2009
Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time
July 12, 2009
Psalm 41
1 Happy are those who consider the poor; the LORD delivers them in the day of trouble.
2 The LORD protects them and keeps them alive; they are called happy in the land. You do not give them up to the will of their enemies.
3 The LORD sustains them on their sickbed; in their illness you heal all their infirmities.
4 As for me, I said, "O LORD, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against you."
5 My enemies wonder in malice when I will die, and my name perish.
6 And when they come to see me, they utter empty words, while their hearts gather mischief; when they go out, they tell it abroad.
7 All who hate me whisper together about me; they imagine the worst for me.
8 They think that a deadly thing has fastened on me, that I will not rise again from where I lie.
9 Even my bosom friend in whom I trusted, who ate of my bread, has lifted the heel against me.
10 But you, O LORD, be gracious to me, and raise me up, that I may repay them.
11 By this I know that you are pleased with me; because my enemy has not triumphed over me.
12 But you have upheld me because of my integrity, and set me in your presence forever.
13 Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and Amen.
(NRSV)
Having been scammed numerous times by folks who are abusing the system of church safety nets I find myself pretty cynical when folks come to ask for help. Fortunately there are folks around me who are good enough to remind me that even folks who play the system are children of God. They also remind me that even if most of the people who come through asking for help are as cynical on their side as I am on mine, every now and then someone really is in need of the help we have to offer. Even in my cynicism I know that it is important to consider the poor; those who ask for help and those who suffer silently not knowing where to turn.
Most of the time it is easier to consider the poor as a group than it is to deal with individuals in poverty. That is not a bad thing. If we find ourselves working toward changes in the system that will move people out of poverty we have done something for the individuals as well. If we help folks one at a time the systemic causes of that poverty still exist. Will we ever alleviate poverty completely? No. There will always be someone with less of something than others. Does that mean we give up and simply grab all we can so that we never become one of the poor? No. We do well to keep helping the individuals as best we can as well as working for changes in the system that will make poverty less of a threat to more and more people.
The history of salvation reminds us that God is always on the side of the poor, the oppressed and the downtrodden. For us to ignore those in poverty is to ignore the people closest to God’s own heart. It is important to find the way that works for each of us. It is not necessarily the easy way so much as the one that gives the feeling of having acted out of a relationship with God in building a more healthy and whole place for all to live
© July 6, 2009
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