Psalm Meditation 590 Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time October 9, 2011 Psalm 102:1-13,23-28 1 Hear my prayer, O LORD; let my cry come to you. 2 Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress. Incline your ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call. 3 For my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace. 4 My heart is stricken and withered like grass; I am too wasted to eat my bread. 5 Because of my loud groaning my bones cling to my skin. 6 I am like an owl of the wilderness, like a little owl of the waste places. 7 I lie awake; I am like a lonely bird on the housetop. 8 All day long my enemies taunt me; those who deride me use my name for a curse. 9 For I eat ashes like bread, and mingle tears with my drink, 10 because of your indignation and anger; for you have lifted me up and thrown me aside. 11 My days are like an evening shadow; I wither away like grass. 12 But you, O LORD, are enthroned forever; your name endures to all generations. 13 You will rise up and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to favor it; the appointed time has come. 23 He has broken my strength in midcourse; he has shortened my days. 24 "O my God," I say, "do not take me away at the mid-point of my life, you whose years endure throughout all generations." 25 Long ago you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. 26 They will perish, but you endure; they will all wear out like a garment. You change them like clothing, and they pass away; 27 but you are the same, and your years have no end. 28 The children of your servants shall live secure; their offspring shall be established in your presence. (NRSV) One of the issues with which we must wrestle is the awareness of our own mortality. Since we are aware that we will die at some point we find ourselves making deals with God about when that point might be. Since God is eternal, outside our conceptions of time, we keep hoping that God will somehow spare us a bit of extra time so that we can get through this or that episode of life. Especially when our lives seem to be teetering on the brink of existence we find ourselves bargaining over the time frame of our lives. If God does have our lives mapped out for us, we have no idea how that map looks. So, we can blame God for shortening our lives when times get tough or we can make the most of the lives we have. If we see ourselves as collaborators with God, co-laborers with God, we have some input into our lifespan in both length and breadth. Either way, the lives we live will end at some point. As we live our lives in the presence of God, we will be ready and willing to live each phase of life, death and new life in the presence of God. All of the things in our lives, including our bodies, will wear out and fade away. As we live and hope in the presence of God we will find that though it seems to ebb and flow, closer and farther away, the presence of God in our lives does not wear out or fade away. God is with us for the long haul; through our lives and beyond. October 3, 2011