Psalm Meditation 630
Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time
July 15, 2012

Psalm 110
1 The Lord says to my lord, "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool."
2 The Lord sends out from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your foes.
3 Your people will offer themselves willingly on the day you lead your forces on the holy mountains. From the womb of the morning, like dew, your youth will come to you.
4 The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, "You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek."
5 The Lord is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.
6 He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses; he will shatter heads over the wide earth.
7 He will drink from the stream by the path; therefore he will lift up his head.
(NRSV)

It is easy to be brave before a battle begins, and easier still when one will not be directly involved in the fighting. That seems to be the case here. There is no mention of ‘I’ or ‘we’ going out to battle, willingly offering our lives for the sake of the realm. While there may be no lack of soldiers going out behind those leading into battle, it does not seem that the psalmist will be one of them.

We can be quick to send others out to fight our battles. We tell our side of the story to the right person or group in just the right way that they take up arms in some form to rescue us from the evil that lies before us. We have been known to leave out parts of the story that would make us look a little less innocent or the other a little more guilty, so that others will become irate enough to charge into battle to defend our rights and honor. I know it has happened on an individual scale as well as on an international scale. We have each likely gone to battle without thinking at least once in our lives.

This does not mean that God is not with us as we go into battle. It may mean that God is not with us in the way we imagine. God may be the one who is attempting to talk us out of this battle until the moment it is joined and continually offering us ways to get out through the whole course of the conflict. In some form or another God is with us. We do well to find where and how it is that God is with us before we join so that we can be on the side and in the place where God is best found.

July 9, 2012