Monday, September 26, 2011
Psalm Meditation 589
World Communion Sunday
October 2, 2011
Psalm 72
1 Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to a king's son.
2 May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice.
3 May the mountains yield prosperity for the people, and the hills, in righteousness.
4 May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the needy, and crush the oppressor.
5 May he live while the sun endures, and as long as the moon, throughout all generations.
6 May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth.
7 In his days may righteousness flourish and peace abound, until the moon is no more.
8 May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.
9 May his foes bow down before him, and his enemies lick the dust.
10 May the kings of Tarshish and of the isles render him tribute, may the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts.
11 May all kings fall down before him, all nations give him service.
12 For he delivers the needy when they call, the poor and those who have no helper.
13 He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy.
14 From oppression and violence he redeems their life; and precious is their blood in his sight.
15 Long may he live! May gold of Sheba be given to him. May prayer be made for him continually, and blessings invoked for him all day long.
16 May there be abundance of grain in the land; may it wave on the tops of the mountains; may its fruit be like Lebanon; and may people blossom in the cities like the grass of the field.
17 May his name endure forever, his fame continue as long as the sun. May all nations be blessed in him; may they pronounce him happy.
18 Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things.
19 Blessed be his glorious name forever; may his glory fill the whole earth. Amen and Amen.
20 The prayers of David son of Jesse are ended.
(NRSV)
The beginning of something always holds such hope for us, especially the reign or term of a new leader. Let this be the one who is able to do everything for everybody without forgetting anybody. It is a pretty unachievable goal for any leader, up to and including the new king celebrated in this psalm, even though the king was seen as the agent of God. It is not through human agency alone that the needs of God’s people are met.
God chooses the king, by lot or by dynasty and gives that king authority to act in the name of God for the sake of the people, to bring justice and righteousness to the people being ruled. At best the justice and righteousness of the king expands to include all people, including those outside our borders. The difficulty lies in the part about co-laboring with God for the sake of all people. It does not take long for power and special interests to drive out the desire to serve all of God’s people.
The good thing is; we don’t give up. We continue to hope for and work toward finding the leader who can move us all in the direction of collaboration with God for the sake of justice and righteousness on a global scale. While the psalmist is content with the defeat and humiliation of the enemies of the nation, the arc of history continues to bend toward justice and righteousness for all of creation.
September 26, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
Psalm Meditation 588
Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
September 25, 2011
Psalm 42
1 As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?
3 My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me continually, "Where is your God?"
4 These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I went with the throng, and led them in procession to the house of God, with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help
6 and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep at the thunder of your cataracts; all your waves and your billows have gone over me.
8 By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God, my rock, "Why have you forgotten me? Why must I walk about mournfully because the enemy oppresses me?"
10 As with a deadly wound in my body, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me continually, "Where is your God?"
11 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God.
(NRSV)
“Where is your God?” is a devastating question in some circumstances. In the situations in which it already seems that God has moved away from us it can be the last straw for someone to taunt us with this question. If anyone can get the question to echo in our heads they have added a further difficulty to an already dark situation. When we are surrounded by a sense of loss, even asking the question about the presence of God can throw us into despair.
For the psalmist, and hopefully for each of us, there comes a moment in the midst of despair in which we realize that God has been, is and will be with us, no matter what. We may be self-absorbed and unable to see beyond our own skin and our own particular need. In those cases God is only one of many who seems to have abandoned us. God may have stepped back to let us learn something we would not have otherwise chosen to learn right now. In those cases God is waiting beside us even though we may not be aware of that presence. Eventually we look out and see that God has been with us the whole time and the question of where God is can be answered with confident assurance.
Whether we sense the presence of God or simply come far enough out of our despair to know that God is somewhere even if it is just beyond our reach we can join the psalmist in the tentative statement of hope in God for now. After the worst of the current situation passes we will actually sense the presence of God more closely and we can join again in praising God.
September 19, 2011
Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
September 25, 2011
Psalm 42
1 As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?
3 My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me continually, "Where is your God?"
4 These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I went with the throng, and led them in procession to the house of God, with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help
6 and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep at the thunder of your cataracts; all your waves and your billows have gone over me.
8 By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God, my rock, "Why have you forgotten me? Why must I walk about mournfully because the enemy oppresses me?"
10 As with a deadly wound in my body, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me continually, "Where is your God?"
11 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God.
(NRSV)
“Where is your God?” is a devastating question in some circumstances. In the situations in which it already seems that God has moved away from us it can be the last straw for someone to taunt us with this question. If anyone can get the question to echo in our heads they have added a further difficulty to an already dark situation. When we are surrounded by a sense of loss, even asking the question about the presence of God can throw us into despair.
For the psalmist, and hopefully for each of us, there comes a moment in the midst of despair in which we realize that God has been, is and will be with us, no matter what. We may be self-absorbed and unable to see beyond our own skin and our own particular need. In those cases God is only one of many who seems to have abandoned us. God may have stepped back to let us learn something we would not have otherwise chosen to learn right now. In those cases God is waiting beside us even though we may not be aware of that presence. Eventually we look out and see that God has been with us the whole time and the question of where God is can be answered with confident assurance.
Whether we sense the presence of God or simply come far enough out of our despair to know that God is somewhere even if it is just beyond our reach we can join the psalmist in the tentative statement of hope in God for now. After the worst of the current situation passes we will actually sense the presence of God more closely and we can join again in praising God.
September 19, 2011
Monday, September 12, 2011
Psalm Meditation 587
Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
September 18, 2011
Psalm 12
1 Help, O LORD, for there is no longer anyone who is godly; the faithful have disappeared from humankind.
2 They utter lies to each other; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.
3 May the LORD cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that makes great boasts,
4 those who say, "With our tongues we will prevail; our lips are our own--who is our master?"
5 "Because the poor are despoiled, because the needy groan, I will now rise up," says the LORD; "I will place them in the safety for which they long."
6 The promises of the LORD are promises that are pure, silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times.
7 You, O LORD, will protect us; you will guard us from this generation forever.
8 On every side the wicked prowl, as vileness is exalted among humankind.
(NRSV)
I have discovered through the years that the crowd of which I am a part is made up of people like me, whether I like it or not. I couldn’t understand how I kept attracting friends with a particular mindset until someone used that same term to describe me. If the psalmist was not one of the folks being described in the first part of the psalm there was at least a strong temptation to be like that. It is possible that this group is keeping the psalmist as a mascot or pet; the one of whom they make fun for the quaint ways of faithfulness.
It is just as possible that while the psalmist denies the lying and flattering personally while seeing it in the rest of the group that it is just as visible to everyone else in the psalmist. If, as in this case, one has become adept at lying and flattering it is just as possible to lie to and flatter oneself as anyone else. At the same time the psalmist is aware that this is not the way people of God are supposed to act. If God were to destroy all these flattering, lying people none of us would have to be subjected to this type of behavior ever again.
Fortunately for us, God is not one to destroy enemies in a cloud of atomic particles. God usually works more slowly, prodding and cajoling us out of our current behaviors and into more helpful and faithful ways of behaving and thinking. When we grow weary of our hurtful, harmful ways we find ways to withdraw from one circle of influence so that we can be more easily drawn into a new circle of friends who fit our new choices and convictions. And through it all God is with us, offering us safety and protection from people like we used to be as we become the people we find ourselves wanting to be.
September 12, 2011
Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
September 18, 2011
Psalm 12
1 Help, O LORD, for there is no longer anyone who is godly; the faithful have disappeared from humankind.
2 They utter lies to each other; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.
3 May the LORD cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that makes great boasts,
4 those who say, "With our tongues we will prevail; our lips are our own--who is our master?"
5 "Because the poor are despoiled, because the needy groan, I will now rise up," says the LORD; "I will place them in the safety for which they long."
6 The promises of the LORD are promises that are pure, silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times.
7 You, O LORD, will protect us; you will guard us from this generation forever.
8 On every side the wicked prowl, as vileness is exalted among humankind.
(NRSV)
I have discovered through the years that the crowd of which I am a part is made up of people like me, whether I like it or not. I couldn’t understand how I kept attracting friends with a particular mindset until someone used that same term to describe me. If the psalmist was not one of the folks being described in the first part of the psalm there was at least a strong temptation to be like that. It is possible that this group is keeping the psalmist as a mascot or pet; the one of whom they make fun for the quaint ways of faithfulness.
It is just as possible that while the psalmist denies the lying and flattering personally while seeing it in the rest of the group that it is just as visible to everyone else in the psalmist. If, as in this case, one has become adept at lying and flattering it is just as possible to lie to and flatter oneself as anyone else. At the same time the psalmist is aware that this is not the way people of God are supposed to act. If God were to destroy all these flattering, lying people none of us would have to be subjected to this type of behavior ever again.
Fortunately for us, God is not one to destroy enemies in a cloud of atomic particles. God usually works more slowly, prodding and cajoling us out of our current behaviors and into more helpful and faithful ways of behaving and thinking. When we grow weary of our hurtful, harmful ways we find ways to withdraw from one circle of influence so that we can be more easily drawn into a new circle of friends who fit our new choices and convictions. And through it all God is with us, offering us safety and protection from people like we used to be as we become the people we find ourselves wanting to be.
September 12, 2011
Monday, September 5, 2011
Psalm Meditation 586
Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
September 11, 2011
Psalm 131
1 O LORD, my heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.
2 But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.
3 O Israel, hope in the LORD from this time on and forevermore.
(NRSV)
Having gone through a terrible experience, the greatest fear is that it will happen again if the circumstances are even close to the what they were for the original event. In some cases we broaden our sense of fear to the point of being uncomfortable in our own skin. This holds true for individuals and communities all the way up to nations and probably beyond that. We get to the point at which we feel that everything we do leads us right back to that original traumatic event.
The psalmist reminds us to climb up into the lap of God and curl up into the security, love and warmth that can only be found in that holy place. From that vantage point the largest looming fear is made less and together we can face that fear even if it leads to death and destruction. In the presence of God we are reminded that the death of a mortal body is not the end of our life in God. While we do not seek death, we also do not fear it.
In the lap of God we move from victims to survivors. Yes, we were traumatized by one event whose fear broadens to touch many other aspects of our lives. As people of God we do not dwell on the trauma, we deal with it as a part of who we are and move through it by the power of a gracious love that sustains us with hope for the future, despite or perhaps because of the trauma of the past.
September 5, 2011
Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
September 11, 2011
Psalm 131
1 O LORD, my heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.
2 But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.
3 O Israel, hope in the LORD from this time on and forevermore.
(NRSV)
Having gone through a terrible experience, the greatest fear is that it will happen again if the circumstances are even close to the what they were for the original event. In some cases we broaden our sense of fear to the point of being uncomfortable in our own skin. This holds true for individuals and communities all the way up to nations and probably beyond that. We get to the point at which we feel that everything we do leads us right back to that original traumatic event.
The psalmist reminds us to climb up into the lap of God and curl up into the security, love and warmth that can only be found in that holy place. From that vantage point the largest looming fear is made less and together we can face that fear even if it leads to death and destruction. In the presence of God we are reminded that the death of a mortal body is not the end of our life in God. While we do not seek death, we also do not fear it.
In the lap of God we move from victims to survivors. Yes, we were traumatized by one event whose fear broadens to touch many other aspects of our lives. As people of God we do not dwell on the trauma, we deal with it as a part of who we are and move through it by the power of a gracious love that sustains us with hope for the future, despite or perhaps because of the trauma of the past.
September 5, 2011
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