Psalm Meditation 646
Twenty third Sunday of Ordinary Time All Saints Sunday
November 4, 2012

Psalm 143
1 Hear my prayer, O LORD; give ear to my supplications in your faithfulness; answer me in your righteousness.
2 Do not enter into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you.
3 For the enemy has pursued me, crushing my life to the ground, making me sit in darkness like those long dead.
4 Therefore my spirit faints within me; my heart within me is appalled.
5 I remember the days of old, I think about all your deeds, I meditate on the works of your hands.
6 I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land. (Selah)
7 Answer me quickly, O LORD; my spirit fails. Do not hide your face from me, or I shall be like those who go down to the Pit.
8 Let me hear of your steadfast love in the morning, for in you I put my trust. Teach me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.
9 Save me, O LORD, from my enemies; I have fled to you for refuge.
10 Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. Let your good spirit lead me on a level path.
11 For your name's sake, O LORD, preserve my life. In your righteousness bring me out of trouble.
12 In your steadfast love cut off my enemies, and destroy all my adversaries, for I am your servant.
(NRSV)

For those who are held as hostages or prisoners, one of the important distinctions between them is the sense of hope or meaning they are able to maintain during their captivity. The folks who hold onto something fare much better than those who lapse into a sense of helplessness, hopelessness and worthlessness. The psalmist begins to feel the crushing weight of this situation and cries out to God for deliverance. The awareness that there is one on whom we can lean, lightens the burden considerably. When we can call on one who is both outside the current situation and bigger than the current situation we have found a source of comfort and deliverance.

The comfort comes in knowing that we are not alone. When forced by circumstance to bear a burden alone, the solitariness adds to the weight as negative thoughts compound on each other. Sharing a burden makes it lighter. Having a companion as we bear a burden makes the whole situation brighter as we bear it together. As we work together the better we are able to solve the problems that come with our burdens. The crushing weight is eased by the presence of another.

The deliverance comes from knowing that we are not wholly defined by what is going on around us. We are more than our problems and difficulties. We are more than the burdens we bear. We are more than the negatives heaped on us by the people and events that would weigh us down. In the presence of God we remember that we are people of sacred worth, loved by God and by those whose lives are intertwined with ours. We are higher and deeper and broader than any momentary affliction that weighs us down.

The psalmist is burdened by the weight of an adversary and calls on God for comfort. We are reminded that we are not the first to face enemies and adversities and will not likely be the last. We do well to join the psalmist in putting ourselves into the hands of God for companionship and deliverance.

October 29, 2012