Psalm Meditation 633
Tenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
August 5, 2012

Psalm 51
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.
5 Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.
6 You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.
15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.
17 The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem,
19 then you will delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
(NRSV)

Every now and then we get caught acting as if we know better than God. We jump to a conclusion about what God would want in this situation and we begin leap frogging from one conclusion to the next until we have gotten ourselves so far removed from God that we finally notice how far we have strayed from the actual ways of God. We can actually see the process happening when others do it, especially those with whom we disagree on some major or minor point of theology or practice. When we do it, we get so intent on what we are doing that we don’t look up to see whether or not God is anywhere near where we have decided God belongs.

When we do look up, assuming we will see God smiling down on us for having anticipated the next several divine moves, we discover that we are alone. When we discover where God has actually gone, and how far it is from where we expected, we crawl over to receive our punishment for wandering away from the path of God. In most cases God scoops us up into an embrace full of warmth and laughter, grateful for our attempt and entertained by our efforts to play God. Being in the presence of God restores us and renews the joy in our lives.

We do our best to pass on the knowledge and wisdom we have received by wandering off and being welcomed back into the fold of God. As we are able to mirror to others the patience we received from God we find that we are better able to return with them to the presence of God. At the same time we are teaching we find ourselves learning from those who have gone before us as well as from those who walk and work with us. In the presence of God we sing, rejoice and praise along with all those with whom we share the relationship of the deep and abiding love of God.

July 30, 2012