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