Psalm Meditation 576
Third Sunday of Ordinary Time
July 3, 2011

Psalm 129
1 "Often have they attacked me from my youth" --let Israel now say- -
2 "often have they attacked me from my youth, yet they have not prevailed against me.
3 The plowers plowed on my back; they made their furrows long."
4 The LORD is righteous; he has cut the cords of the wicked.
5 May all who hate Zion be put to shame and turned backward.
6 Let them be like the grass on the housetops that withers before it grows up,
7 with which reapers do not fill their hands or binders of sheaves their arms,
8 while those who pass by do not say, "The blessing of the LORD be upon you! We bless you in the name of the LORD!"
(NRSV)

Many of us have an unresolved issue or two that has been with us for as long as we remember. It takes very little to bounce us back to the days of the original childhood event. It was traumatic at the time and anything that sparks that memory brings the original feelings right back to the surface. No matter how we brace ourselves against our reaction the terror of the original event comes rushing back and we are helpless children once again, if only for a moment.

The trauma of this psalm is national in scope. Once the original event has happened any other attacks can be much less severe to bring up the same reaction as the original onslaught. Each nation and perhaps each generation has an event that any hint of it’s repetition brings back the original reaction to the event.

The good thing, the psalmist reminds us, is that God is with us and has been with us since before the original event. An awareness of God’s presence in our lives does much to lessen the sense of panic that rises as we are willing to give our reactions over to God. The event does not disappear from our lives as a nation or as individuals. Our reaction to any triggering event will be the same though the severity of it will lessen as we allow ourselves to be comforted by the presence of God.

As we take comfort in God’s presence we will find ourselves less and less willing to withhold the blessing of God from even the most violent of our enemies and adversaries. While not everyone will be willing/able to receive the blessing of God’s presence we will find ourselves more and more willing to give the blessing because of our relationship within the overwhelming love of God.

June 28, 2011