Psalm Meditation 572
Seventh Sunday of Easter
June 5, 2011

Psalm 9
1 I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.
2 I will be glad and exult in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.
3 When my enemies turned back, they stumbled and perished before you.
4 For you have maintained my just cause; you have sat on the throne giving righteous judgment.
5 You have rebuked the nations, you have destroyed the wicked; you have blotted out their name forever and ever.
6 The enemies have vanished in everlasting ruins; their cities you have rooted out; the very memory of them has perished.
7 But the LORD sits enthroned forever, he has established his throne for judgment.
8 He judges the world with righteousness; he judges the peoples with equity.
9 The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.
10 And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.
11 Sing praises to the LORD, who dwells in Zion. Declare his deeds among the peoples.
12 For he who avenges blood is mindful of them; he does not forget the cry of the afflicted.
13 Be gracious to me, O LORD. See what I suffer from those who hate me; you are the one who lifts me up from the gates of death,
14 so that I may recount all your praises, and, in the gates of daughter Zion, rejoice in your deliverance.
15 The nations have sunk in the pit that they made; in the net that they hid has their own foot been caught.
16 The LORD has made himself known, he has executed judgment; the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. Higgaion. Selah
17 The wicked shall depart to Sheol, all the nations that forget God.
18 For the needy shall not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the poor perish forever.
19 Rise up, O LORD! Do not let mortals prevail; let the nations be judged before you.
20 Put them in fear, O LORD; let the nations know that they are only human. Selah
(NRSV)

There is tremendous comfort in knowing we are not alone in almost any circumstance. To know that there are those who agree with us, who share our joy as well as our pain, who stand with us in the face of unrelenting forces, who call us to account, can be a great source of peace for us. There is a sense of trepidation in cases in which we may feel ourselves called to be that source of comfort and peace for those who do not have the power to speak for themselves. God leans toward those who are oppressed and invites us to do what we can to ease the oppression they feel.

We do go about remembering the needy in different ways. Some want to pull everyone up from the top of the economy while others work to a middle ground for all and still others work to push the most needy up to a level that allows them to meet their own needs. The important part is to give hope to those who have no hope and to serve to remind ourselves and others that God wants each of us to have a sense of abundance in our lives that is based in relationship rather than in stuff.

In all of this we are not alone. We are surrounded by those who have more and those who have less than we have ourselves. Even when we get to the point of the needy being remembered and the poor having hope there will be those who have more and those who have less in any number of categories. The psalmist invites us to lean toward remembrance and hope for each other and to move in the ways that lead us, each and all, closer to the ways of God.

May 30, 2011