Psalm Meditation 489
Twenty Second Sunday of Ordinary Time
November 1, 2009

Psalm 143
1 Hear my prayer, O LORD; give ear to my supplications in your faithfulness; answer me in your righteousness.
2 Do not enter into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you.
3 For the enemy has pursued me, crushing my life to the ground, making me sit in darkness like those long dead.
4 Therefore my spirit faints within me; my heart within me is appalled.
5 I remember the days of old, I think about all your deeds, I meditate on the works of your hands.
6 I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land. Selah
7 Answer me quickly, O LORD; my spirit fails. Do not hide your face from me, or I shall be like those who go down to the Pit.
8 Let me hear of your steadfast love in the morning, for in you I put my trust. Teach me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.
9 Save me, O LORD, from my enemies; I have fled to you for refuge.
10 Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. Let your good spirit lead me on a level path.
11 For your name's sake, O LORD, preserve my life. In your righteousness bring me out of trouble.
12 In your steadfast love cut off my enemies, and destroy all my adversaries, for I am your servant.
(NRSV)

For most of us negative is easier than positive. So when bad things begin to happen to us we start to see everything in the same bad light. The downward spiral begins with long sweeping curves that we barely notice are moving deeper into negative space. As the spiral tightens and picks up speed we may feel that we have lost control and that the only way we can possibly go is further and faster down. The psalmist reminds us that we have the option of reaching up to God to drag us out of the spiral of negativity.

It is not so much that God drags us out as God gives us an anchor point on which to tie our flagging sense of hope. There is some effort on both ends. God will not be our anchor point unless and until we reach out of the downward spiral. Negativity breeds and feeds on negativity and it is by some combination of faith and will that we are able to recognize the danger and begin the process of moving toward positive.

It will always be easier to fall down than it will be to build up. Falling takes no effort at all; building takes resources outside ourselves. To build well usually requires relationship so that we can work together to shape and lift elements into place and then climb what we have built so that we can work on the next level together. Sometimes we build with God alone. Most of the time we build with God and those around us for the mutual lifting of bodies and souls.

© October 26, 2009