Psalm Meditation 594
Twenty first Sunday of Ordinary Time
November 1, 2011

Psalm 73
1 Truly God is good to the upright, to those who are pure in heart.
2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped.
3 For I was envious of the arrogant; I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4 For they have no pain; their bodies are sound and sleek.
5 They are not in trouble as others are; they are not plagued like other people.
6 Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them like a garment.
7 Their eyes swell out with fatness; their hearts overflow with follies.
8 They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression.
9 They set their mouths against heaven, and their tongues range over the earth.
10 Therefore the people turn and praise them, and find no fault in them.
11 And they say, "How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?"
12 Such are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches.
13 All in vain I have kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.
14 For all day long I have been plagued, and am punished every morning.
15 If I had said, "I will talk on in this way," I would have been untrue to the circle of your children.
16 But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task,
17 until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I perceived their end.
18 Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin.
19 How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors!
20 They are like a dream when one awakes; on awaking you despise their phantoms.
21 When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart,
22 I was stupid and ignorant; I was like a brute beast toward you.
23 Nevertheless I am continually with you; you hold my right hand.
24 You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me with honor.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire other than you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
27 Indeed, those who are far from you will perish; you put an end to those who are false to you.
28 But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, to tell of all your works.
(NRSV)

It is much easier to see ‘those folks’ as being better off than ourselves because with others we can filter their experience through our own and see them as having all the things we lack and for which we long. We think the lives of children are so much easier than our own since they don’t have to pay bills and worry our worries. We forget how scary it can be to be small and dependent on others. The poor look at the rich and see that they have no financial worries because they can afford all they want. The rich look at the poor and see they have no financial worries because they can take care of all their money on their own without having to deal with all those money managers looking out for their own interests. It is easy to see others as having something to envy when we are in the mood to do so.

Each of us has plenty about which to worry and the ability to make our own worries bigger and more pressing than the worries of other people. “...until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I perceived their end.” In the light of God we find the ability to put our worries in perspective and perhaps the ability to see the worries of others in a new light as well. We discover that with a set of advantages comes a set of worries and difficulties that are different and just as perplexing as the worries over which we currently fret. We may discover that as we envy others less our own situation becomes more bearable.

The task is to do our best with what we have, using our benefits to overcome the current set of liabilities, and perhaps even moving ourselves into a different set of challenges and opportunities. The poor can rise to a new level of wealth or fall into deeper poverty. The rich can fall into debt and lose everything or amass even more wealth. As people of God, we find ourselves less concerned with monetary worth and more concerned with a relationship with God for ourselves and for others. While it might be nice to be wealthy and worry free, it is so much better to be aware of the presence of God and the relationship of justice and righteousness to which God calls each one of us.

© October 31, 2010