Psalm Meditation 523
Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time
June 27, 2010

Psalm 99
1 The LORD is king; let the peoples tremble! He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!
2 The LORD is great in Zion; he is exalted over all the peoples.
3 Let them praise your great and awesome name. Holy is he!
4 Mighty King, lover of justice, you have established equity; you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.
5 Extol the LORD our God; worship at his footstool. Holy is he!
6 Moses and Aaron were among his priests, Samuel also was among those who called on his name. They cried to the LORD, and he answered them.
7 He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud; they kept his decrees, and the statutes that he gave them.
8 O LORD our God, you answered them; you were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their wrongdoings.
9 Extol the LORD our God, and worship at his holy mountain; for the LORD our God is holy.
(NRSV)

We do things for lots of reasons. Some things we do out of fear; some things we do out of a sense of duty or obligation; some things we do for pleasure; some things because it is the right thing to do. Each of us has a reason or set of reasons for our worship and honor of God. For the psalmist there are nine verses worth of reasons for folk to worship God not least of which is the holiness of God.

In Greek, Roman and Norse religious lore divine beings do not worry about morality and ethics in their actions because they are not bound by those kinds of human concerns. The ends justify the means and selfish concerns are as good a reason to act as any other. Human motives also function as divine motives In contrast, Yahweh calls humans to live by a standard that includes ethics and morality. Yahweh models a way of being in which actions have the same consequences for people in the farms and marketplaces as they do for people in palaces and temples.

It is the holiness of Yahweh that is attractive. God calls us to a holiness that is engaged in the activities of Creation. We are not simply on our own separate path to God, we are a part of a community with gifts to offer and gifts to receive. In a community of faith we receive the call of God to a life of holiness based in our love for God and a love for each other. As we find ourselves in a closer relationship with God we find ourselves drawn closer to the people of God.

© June 21, 2010