Psalm Meditation 620
Fifth Sunday of Easter
May 6, 2012
Psalm 108
1 My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make melody. Awake, my soul!
2 Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn.
3 I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples, and I will sing praises to you among the nations.
4 For your steadfast love is higher than the heavens, and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, and let your glory be over all the earth.
6 Give victory with your right hand, and answer me, so that those whom you love may be rescued.
7 God has promised in his sanctuary: "With exultation I will divide up Shechem, and portion out the Vale of Succoth.
8 Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine; Ephraim is my helmet; Judah is my scepter.
9 Moab is my washbasin; on Edom I hurl my shoe; over Philistia I shout in triumph."
10 Who will bring me to the fortified city? Who will lead me to Edom?
11 Have you not rejected us, O God? You do not go out, O God, with our armies.
12 O grant us help against the foe, for human help is worthless.
13 With God we shall do valiantly; it is he who will tread down our foes.
(NRSV)
The psalmist exerts a great deal of energy calling folks to sing praises to God. While, at first, it seems to be an enthusiastic call to celebration verse 11 lets us know that it is more a cry of desperation in the face of rejection by God in this current battle or series of battles. Perhaps if we call loudly enough or do enough of the good and right things we can rouse God to reclaim us.
I would be glad to say that our concept of God has changed. In our calmer moments perhaps it has. We now know that God is with us at all times. While God may not do what we want done at the time and in the manner in which we would like it, we know that God is with us. And like the psalmist we find ourselves wondering what we could do or say differently to get God on our side when things look bleak. We continue to act as if we can earn the love of God, especially in the face of calamity and danger.
That things are not going as we would like for them to go does not mean that we have been abandoned by God. It is likely that God is with us in a way we are not currently able to appreciate. What is important to us may be of little or no importance to God in this particular moment. Winning a game, an argument, a battle may not matter to God nearly as much as the attitude we display in our winning and our losing. God is with us in all times and places. Sometimes it is up to us to figure out what that means for us in a particular situation.
© April 30, 2012
Monday, April 30, 2012
Monday, April 23, 2012
Psalm Meditation 619
Fourth Sunday of Easter
April 29, 2012
Psalm 78:1-11,65-72
1 Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old,
3 things that we have heard and known, that our ancestors have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children; we will tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done.
5 He established a decree in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach to their children;
6 that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and rise up and tell them to their children,
7 so that they should set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments;
8 and that they should not be like their ancestors, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.
9 The Ephraimites, armed with the bow, turned back on the day of battle.
10 They did not keep God's covenant, but refused to walk according to his law.
11 They forgot what he had done, and the miracles that he had shown them.
65 Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a warrior shouting because of wine.
66 He put his adversaries to rout; he put them to everlasting disgrace.
67 He rejected the tent of Joseph, he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;
68 but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loves.
69 He built his sanctuary like the high heavens, like the earth, which he has founded forever.
70 He chose his servant David, and took him from the sheepfolds;
71 from tending the nursing ewes he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel, his inheritance.
72 With upright heart he tended them, and guided them with skillful hand.
(NRSV)
This is a psalm that celebrates the importance of heritage and the need to pass it on to current and future generations, with a touch of one-up thrown in for the sake of all those folks in that ‘other’ realm. The verses left out are a long list of ways in which this people of God had already forgotten the deeds and miracles done by God throughout the history of the relationship. Despite all the times they/we have forgotten and fallen away God continues to deliver us from our adversaries.
That is an important part of the story of God’s people; no matter how often and how far we move away from God, there will come that time in which God will rise up and deliver us from our foolishness and from those who stand against us. Even while the ancients believed that God walked away from them when they turned from the right path, they also believed that God would come to them in a time of need to save and deliver them. Modern folks believe that God is with us at all times, coaxing and cajoling us back to faithfulness in those times in which we wander away from God’s presence.
The psalmist was likely from Judah and decided to twist the knife of memory into all those other Israelites with the reminder that David came from ‘our’ side of the family. In the midst of political bickering, from local to international we can be reminded that we are not the first or the last to participate. Ours may not even be the worst, even when it feels as if it is. Through it all God is with us, using our leaders at all levels to accomplish a variety of tasks as well as calling each of us and all of us into deeper, more holy and more loving relationships with God and each other.
© April 23, 2012
Fourth Sunday of Easter
April 29, 2012
Psalm 78:1-11,65-72
1 Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old,
3 things that we have heard and known, that our ancestors have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children; we will tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done.
5 He established a decree in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach to their children;
6 that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and rise up and tell them to their children,
7 so that they should set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments;
8 and that they should not be like their ancestors, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.
9 The Ephraimites, armed with the bow, turned back on the day of battle.
10 They did not keep God's covenant, but refused to walk according to his law.
11 They forgot what he had done, and the miracles that he had shown them.
65 Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a warrior shouting because of wine.
66 He put his adversaries to rout; he put them to everlasting disgrace.
67 He rejected the tent of Joseph, he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;
68 but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loves.
69 He built his sanctuary like the high heavens, like the earth, which he has founded forever.
70 He chose his servant David, and took him from the sheepfolds;
71 from tending the nursing ewes he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel, his inheritance.
72 With upright heart he tended them, and guided them with skillful hand.
(NRSV)
This is a psalm that celebrates the importance of heritage and the need to pass it on to current and future generations, with a touch of one-up thrown in for the sake of all those folks in that ‘other’ realm. The verses left out are a long list of ways in which this people of God had already forgotten the deeds and miracles done by God throughout the history of the relationship. Despite all the times they/we have forgotten and fallen away God continues to deliver us from our adversaries.
That is an important part of the story of God’s people; no matter how often and how far we move away from God, there will come that time in which God will rise up and deliver us from our foolishness and from those who stand against us. Even while the ancients believed that God walked away from them when they turned from the right path, they also believed that God would come to them in a time of need to save and deliver them. Modern folks believe that God is with us at all times, coaxing and cajoling us back to faithfulness in those times in which we wander away from God’s presence.
The psalmist was likely from Judah and decided to twist the knife of memory into all those other Israelites with the reminder that David came from ‘our’ side of the family. In the midst of political bickering, from local to international we can be reminded that we are not the first or the last to participate. Ours may not even be the worst, even when it feels as if it is. Through it all God is with us, using our leaders at all levels to accomplish a variety of tasks as well as calling each of us and all of us into deeper, more holy and more loving relationships with God and each other.
© April 23, 2012
Monday, April 16, 2012
Psalm Meditation 618
Third Sunday of Easter
April 22, 2012
Psalm 48
1 Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God. His holy mountain,
2 beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion, in the far north, the city of the great King.
3 Within its citadels God has shown himself a sure defense.
4 Then the kings assembled, they came on together.
5 As soon as they saw it, they were astounded; they were in panic, they took to flight;
6 trembling took hold of them there, pains as of a woman in labor,
7 as when an east wind shatters the ships of Tarshish.
8 As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God, which God establishes forever. (Selah)
9 We ponder your steadfast love, O God, in the midst of your temple.
10 Your name, O God, like your praise, reaches to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is filled with victory.
11 Let Mount Zion be glad, let the towns of Judah rejoice because of your judgments.
12 Walk about Zion, go all around it, count its towers,
13 consider well its ramparts; go through its citadels, that you may tell the next generation
14 that this is God, our God forever and ever. He will be our guide forever.
(NRSV)
For the folks in ancient cultures God was present with them when times were good. When they were able to keep armies from attacking them because of the natural defenses and impressive fortifications of their city, God was with them. When things did not go well for them, it was because God was angry with them. This is one of those times in which God must have been with them, because kings and armies were walking away sickened due to the near impossibility of breaching the defenses of the city and the mountain on which it was built.
While we have a sense of that today, that God punishes people for their individual and corporate sins, we tend to emphasize the steadfast love of God. The steadfast love of God is always with us. God does not walk away and leave us helpless and hopeless at the first sign of sin. The steadfast love of God does not get stripped away because we have acted in a way that God does not approve. God loves us, cares for us and calls us into ever deeper and ever renewing relationship at all times and places in our lives. God does not single out groups or individuals for particularly hateful treatment, God loves us and desires a relationship with us. God does not force us into a relationship; it is simply held out as an offer in which we may participate. The love of God is the same no matter what.
Whether we are protected from our enemies and adversaries by a strong citadel or completely exposed to the forces arrayed against us, the love of God stands with us. In the midst of the most devastating forces, in the midst of the most peaceful scene one can imagine, and all the times and places in between God is with us to protect us and comfort us from generation to generation.
© April 16, 2012
Third Sunday of Easter
April 22, 2012
Psalm 48
1 Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God. His holy mountain,
2 beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion, in the far north, the city of the great King.
3 Within its citadels God has shown himself a sure defense.
4 Then the kings assembled, they came on together.
5 As soon as they saw it, they were astounded; they were in panic, they took to flight;
6 trembling took hold of them there, pains as of a woman in labor,
7 as when an east wind shatters the ships of Tarshish.
8 As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God, which God establishes forever. (Selah)
9 We ponder your steadfast love, O God, in the midst of your temple.
10 Your name, O God, like your praise, reaches to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is filled with victory.
11 Let Mount Zion be glad, let the towns of Judah rejoice because of your judgments.
12 Walk about Zion, go all around it, count its towers,
13 consider well its ramparts; go through its citadels, that you may tell the next generation
14 that this is God, our God forever and ever. He will be our guide forever.
(NRSV)
For the folks in ancient cultures God was present with them when times were good. When they were able to keep armies from attacking them because of the natural defenses and impressive fortifications of their city, God was with them. When things did not go well for them, it was because God was angry with them. This is one of those times in which God must have been with them, because kings and armies were walking away sickened due to the near impossibility of breaching the defenses of the city and the mountain on which it was built.
While we have a sense of that today, that God punishes people for their individual and corporate sins, we tend to emphasize the steadfast love of God. The steadfast love of God is always with us. God does not walk away and leave us helpless and hopeless at the first sign of sin. The steadfast love of God does not get stripped away because we have acted in a way that God does not approve. God loves us, cares for us and calls us into ever deeper and ever renewing relationship at all times and places in our lives. God does not single out groups or individuals for particularly hateful treatment, God loves us and desires a relationship with us. God does not force us into a relationship; it is simply held out as an offer in which we may participate. The love of God is the same no matter what.
Whether we are protected from our enemies and adversaries by a strong citadel or completely exposed to the forces arrayed against us, the love of God stands with us. In the midst of the most devastating forces, in the midst of the most peaceful scene one can imagine, and all the times and places in between God is with us to protect us and comfort us from generation to generation.
© April 16, 2012
Monday, April 9, 2012
Psalm Meditation 617
Second Sunday of Easter
April 15, 2012
Psalm 18 (selected verses)
1 I love you, O Lord, my strength.
2 The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
3 I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, so I shall be saved from my enemies.
25 With the loyal you show yourself loyal; with the blameless you show yourself blameless;
26 with the pure you show yourself pure; and with the crooked you show yourself perverse.
27 For you deliver a humble people, but the haughty eyes you bring down.
28 It is you who light my lamp; the Lord, my God, lights up my darkness.
29 By you I can crush a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall.
30 This God—his way is perfect; the promise of the Lord proves true; he is a shield for all who take refuge in him.
43 You delivered me from strife with the peoples; you made me head of the nations; people whom I had not known served me.
44 As soon as they heard of me they obeyed me; foreigners came cringing to me.
45 Foreigners lost heart, and came trembling out of their strongholds.
46 The Lord lives! Blessed be my rock, and exalted be the God of my salvation,
47 the God who gave me vengeance and subdued peoples under me;
48 who delivered me from my enemies; indeed, you exalted me above my adversaries; you delivered me from the violent.
49 For this I will extol you, O Lord, among the nations, and sing praises to your name.
50 Great triumphs he gives to his king, and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his descendants forever. (NRSV)
Is God so malleable that we can make God in our image or is God so beyond our comprehension that we can see whoever we are mirrored back to us in our image of God? My guess is that we see who we are reflected back to us in our image of God. It is rare that a gentle and loving person will see God as violent and angry. It is also rare for a an angry person to see God as gentle and forgiving. It is often the case that we see ourselves reflected back to us in our relationships with God as well as with others.
Humble folks recognize their need for help from God and from those around them. Once the need is recognized, these folks will have no difficulty asking for the help they need. And since most of us are willing to help those in need we are quick to offer the help we are able to provide. Secure in the knowledge that they are not alone, humble folks seem able to do great things.
Haughty folks, on the other hand, don’t feel the need or desire to get help from anyone. They end up muddling through by force of will and they skills they possess on their own. When a personally insurmountable situation arises they have nowhere to turn and they are brought down by their insistence on doing it on their own strength. It is not that God and others are not willing and available, it is that the haughty do not recognize either their need for help or the willingness of others to offer the help they need.
God is present with us and offers us what we are willing and able to expect. It is possible and even probable that God is at work in our lives doing things of which we are not aware. It is not that God can’t act beyond our ability to ask and receive so much as it is that we can’t notice the activity of God beyond our ability to comprehend God’s presence and activity.
© April 9, 2012
Second Sunday of Easter
April 15, 2012
Psalm 18 (selected verses)
1 I love you, O Lord, my strength.
2 The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
3 I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, so I shall be saved from my enemies.
25 With the loyal you show yourself loyal; with the blameless you show yourself blameless;
26 with the pure you show yourself pure; and with the crooked you show yourself perverse.
27 For you deliver a humble people, but the haughty eyes you bring down.
28 It is you who light my lamp; the Lord, my God, lights up my darkness.
29 By you I can crush a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall.
30 This God—his way is perfect; the promise of the Lord proves true; he is a shield for all who take refuge in him.
43 You delivered me from strife with the peoples; you made me head of the nations; people whom I had not known served me.
44 As soon as they heard of me they obeyed me; foreigners came cringing to me.
45 Foreigners lost heart, and came trembling out of their strongholds.
46 The Lord lives! Blessed be my rock, and exalted be the God of my salvation,
47 the God who gave me vengeance and subdued peoples under me;
48 who delivered me from my enemies; indeed, you exalted me above my adversaries; you delivered me from the violent.
49 For this I will extol you, O Lord, among the nations, and sing praises to your name.
50 Great triumphs he gives to his king, and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his descendants forever. (NRSV)
Is God so malleable that we can make God in our image or is God so beyond our comprehension that we can see whoever we are mirrored back to us in our image of God? My guess is that we see who we are reflected back to us in our image of God. It is rare that a gentle and loving person will see God as violent and angry. It is also rare for a an angry person to see God as gentle and forgiving. It is often the case that we see ourselves reflected back to us in our relationships with God as well as with others.
Humble folks recognize their need for help from God and from those around them. Once the need is recognized, these folks will have no difficulty asking for the help they need. And since most of us are willing to help those in need we are quick to offer the help we are able to provide. Secure in the knowledge that they are not alone, humble folks seem able to do great things.
Haughty folks, on the other hand, don’t feel the need or desire to get help from anyone. They end up muddling through by force of will and they skills they possess on their own. When a personally insurmountable situation arises they have nowhere to turn and they are brought down by their insistence on doing it on their own strength. It is not that God and others are not willing and available, it is that the haughty do not recognize either their need for help or the willingness of others to offer the help they need.
God is present with us and offers us what we are willing and able to expect. It is possible and even probable that God is at work in our lives doing things of which we are not aware. It is not that God can’t act beyond our ability to ask and receive so much as it is that we can’t notice the activity of God beyond our ability to comprehend God’s presence and activity.
© April 9, 2012
Monday, April 2, 2012
Psalm Meditation 616
Easter
April 8, 2012
Psalm 137
1 By the rivers of Babylon— there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion.
2 On the willows there we hung up our harps.
3 For there our captors asked us for songs, and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"
4 How could we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither!
6 Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy.
7 Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem's fall, how they said, "Tear it down! Tear it down! Down to its foundations!"
8 O daughter Babylon, you devastator! Happy shall they be who pay you back what you have done to us!
9 Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock! (NRSV)
Verse 9 is a pretty gruesome image. At the same time, civilized as we claim to be, it is an image that crosses our minds when a wound is still fresh. The desire for revenge burns just as hot today as it ever has. It is easiest when we can see the object of our revenge as totally ‘other,’ one with whom we have absolutely nothing in common. And since the desire for revenge is so strong in us, we will find and perhaps even make ways to see our enemy as non-person. Even though the desire for revenge is present, it doesn’t mean we have to act on it.
With the desire for revenge bubbling just below the surface, the psalmist and the rest of the community are asked to put on a joyful performance for their captors. The Babylonians see the Israelites through the same non-person filter as the Israelites see them. They are not aware of anything but their own desire to be entertained. "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!" is a way to rub Israelite faces in their defeat, asking them to sing happy songs even as they reel from the trauma of being in exile from their homes.
It would be great if we did not have to deal with this type of adversity, on personal or national scale. It seems there will be those who are willing to ignore the personhood of those with whom they disagree for the foreseeable future. There will be those who see just about everything as a conflict between ‘us’ and ‘them.’ ‘Those people’ will be made to look and feel as if they are wrong on every point of disagreement with ‘us.’ God reminds us that, despite our thoughts to the contrary, we are all made in the image of God and the love of God for each of us knows no bounds.
© April 2, 2012
Easter
April 8, 2012
Psalm 137
1 By the rivers of Babylon— there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion.
2 On the willows there we hung up our harps.
3 For there our captors asked us for songs, and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"
4 How could we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither!
6 Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy.
7 Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem's fall, how they said, "Tear it down! Tear it down! Down to its foundations!"
8 O daughter Babylon, you devastator! Happy shall they be who pay you back what you have done to us!
9 Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock! (NRSV)
Verse 9 is a pretty gruesome image. At the same time, civilized as we claim to be, it is an image that crosses our minds when a wound is still fresh. The desire for revenge burns just as hot today as it ever has. It is easiest when we can see the object of our revenge as totally ‘other,’ one with whom we have absolutely nothing in common. And since the desire for revenge is so strong in us, we will find and perhaps even make ways to see our enemy as non-person. Even though the desire for revenge is present, it doesn’t mean we have to act on it.
With the desire for revenge bubbling just below the surface, the psalmist and the rest of the community are asked to put on a joyful performance for their captors. The Babylonians see the Israelites through the same non-person filter as the Israelites see them. They are not aware of anything but their own desire to be entertained. "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!" is a way to rub Israelite faces in their defeat, asking them to sing happy songs even as they reel from the trauma of being in exile from their homes.
It would be great if we did not have to deal with this type of adversity, on personal or national scale. It seems there will be those who are willing to ignore the personhood of those with whom they disagree for the foreseeable future. There will be those who see just about everything as a conflict between ‘us’ and ‘them.’ ‘Those people’ will be made to look and feel as if they are wrong on every point of disagreement with ‘us.’ God reminds us that, despite our thoughts to the contrary, we are all made in the image of God and the love of God for each of us knows no bounds.
© April 2, 2012
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