Psalm Meditation 653
Fourth Sunday of Advent
December 23, 2012

Psalm 55
1 Give ear to my prayer, O God; do not hide yourself from my supplication.
2 Attend to me, and answer me; I am troubled in my complaint. I am distraught
3 by the noise of the enemy, because of the clamor of the wicked. For they bring trouble upon me, and in anger they cherish enmity against me.
4 My heart is in anguish within me, the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
5 Fear and trembling come upon me, and horror overwhelms me.
6 And I say, "O that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest;
7 truly, I would flee far away; I would lodge in the wilderness; (Selah)
8 I would hurry to find a shelter for myself from the raging wind and tempest."
9 Confuse, O Lord, confound their speech; for I see violence and strife in the city.
10 Day and night they go around it on its walls, and iniquity and trouble are within it;
11 ruin is in its midst; oppression and fraud do not depart from its marketplace.
12 It is not enemies who taunt me— I could bear that; it is not adversaries who deal insolently with me— I could hide from them.
13 But it is you, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend,
14 with whom I kept pleasant company; we walked in the house of God with the throng.
15 Let death come upon them; let them go down alive to Sheol; for evil is in their homes and in their hearts.
16 But I call upon God, and the LORD will save me.
17 Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he will hear my voice.
18 He will redeem me unharmed from the battle that I wage, for many are arrayed against me.
19 God, who is enthroned from of old, (Selah) will hear, and will humble them— because they do not change, and do not fear God.
20 My companion laid hands on a friend and violated a covenant with me
21 with speech smoother than butter, but with a heart set on war; with words that were softer than oil, but in fact were drawn swords.
22 Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.
23 But you, O God, will cast them down into the lowest pit; the bloodthirsty and treacherous shall not live out half their days. But I will trust in you.
(NRSV)

I used the phrase ‘unspeakable evil’ to describe recent events. At some point it dawned on me that the concept in the phrase may be a part of the problem, and has been since the time of the psalms. When we refuse to speak of evil, it has free reign in our hearts and lives. When we refuse to acknowledge the possibility that we, that I, have the capacity for evil, we find and make ways to justify our own actions so that others can be blamed. As long as we can find a way to see ourselves as not guilty we can justify thoughts and actions beyond what would otherwise be our limits. We blame guns, we blame a violent, impersonalized society, we blame the behavior and thinking of others. We rarely include ourselves among the guilty and complicit in perpetuating evil.

The psalmist blames this current evil on outside forces. At the same time, the psalmist is aware that evil is as close as worship companions. Evil does not visit; it lives with and within us. We can inflict evil on outsiders by depersonalizing them. We can inflict evil on our companions because we know where they are vulnerable. We can inflict evil on ourselves by denying our capacity for evil.

As we place ourselves in the hands of God for protection, it is important to place our whole selves into God’s hands. Even as we are injured by the actions of adversaries and companions, we do well to give God our own capacity for violence and evil. As we give ourselves to God we can be sustained, saved and healed in God’s presence.

December 17, 2012