Psalm Meditation 632
Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time
July 29, 2012

Psalm 21
1 In your strength the king rejoices, O Lord, and in your help how greatly he exults!
2 You have given him his heart's desire, and have not withheld the request of his lips. (Selah)
3 For you meet him with rich blessings; you set a crown of fine gold on his head.
4 He asked you for life; you gave it to him— length of days forever and ever.
5 His glory is great through your help; splendor and majesty you bestow on him.
6 You bestow on him blessings forever; you make him glad with the joy of your presence.
7 For the king trusts in the Lord, and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved.
8 Your hand will find out all your enemies; your right hand will find out those who hate you.
9 You will make them like a fiery furnace when you appear. The Lord will swallow them up in his wrath, and fire will consume them.
10 You will destroy their offspring from the earth, and their children from among humankind.
11 If they plan evil against you, if they devise mischief, they will not succeed.
12 For you will put them to flight; you will aim at their faces with your bows.
13 Be exalted, O Lord, in your strength! We will sing and praise your power.
(NRSV)

Most of us don’t know what it is like to be ruled by a king and we certainly don’t know what it is like to be a king. We do know what it is to be blessed and to trust in God. Some of our blessings are things we can hold in our hands, like food, water, clothing and shelter. We may not have the best of any of those, however we do realize that they are gifts from God. The best blessings are the ones we can’t hold in our hands. The psalmist puts it, “you make him glad with the joy of your presence.” The greatest blessing in any of our lives is the knowledge that God is a very real presence with us. As we realize that God is with us, we become aware that God is the source of all of our blessings and we put our trust in God more and more.

That trust can be manipulative, especially at first. We say things like, “If you loved me you would…” and we ask God to do something or give something as a test on our part. As we experience the trustworthiness of God our requests become more direct. We ask for what we want, trusting that God will hear us, even when we don’t get the response for which we asked. There may even come at time in which we simply trust, without asking, that God will provide for us.

While the destruction of enemies is pretty graphic and uncomfortable, we do well to remember that not all of our enemies are human and many of them are not external. To know that God gives us the wherewithal to face those internal enemies deepens our trust in God and broadens our ability and willingness to lift God up in our lives in such a way that others know of our relationship with God.

July 23, 2012