Psalm Meditation 506
Second Sunday in Lent
February 28, 2010

Psalm 121
1 I lift up my eyes to the hills-- from where will my help come?
2 My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.
4 He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade at your right hand.
6 The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
7 The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
8 The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forevermore.
(NRSV)

There is no guarantee in this psalm that life will be easy, simply that God will be with us and that things will work out for us as we are faithful and open to the presence and leading of God. This doesn’t mean that things will work out the way we might want them to according to some plan we may have for our lives, only that it will work out. God will continue to be with no matter what choices we make and will continue to offer us the highest and the best possibilities available to us.

It is not God who will let our feet be moved so much as we will waver in our effort and resolve to be faithful people. We will make choices between the easy way and the faithful way on a regular basis. They will both be attractive choices for their own reasons. Our easy way choices will erode the foundations of our faithfulness and we will slip. God will call us, invite us to make the faithful choice the next time. God will always have a heart tuned toward relationship with us and wants us to desire that relationship as well.

In the midst of all the temptations that will come our way on a daily basis God is with us. We may wander into dangerous territory and God will offer us a way that leads away from evil and that leads toward wholeness and abundance of life. God’s way leads us into some interesting, delightful, evil and dangerous places so that we can find wholeness, bring it to others and receive it from their hands all at the same time.

© February 22, 2010