Psalm Meditation 661
First Sunday in Lent
February 17, 2013

Psalm 146
1 Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD, O my soul!
2 I will praise the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God all my life long.
3 Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals, in whom there is no help.
4 When their breath departs, they return to the earth; on that very day their plans perish.
5 Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD their God,
6 who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps faith forever;
7 who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets the prisoners free;
8 the LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down; the LORD loves the righteous.
9 The LORD watches over the strangers; he upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
10 The LORD will reign forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the LORD!
(NRSV)

Given the choice between a known and an unknown we tend to be more comfortable with who and what we know. Even in times of disgust with an elected body we re-elect our own person, expecting that everyone else will vote theirs out. We would rather vote for a person whose voting record is familiar, while not always in our favor, instead of voting for an unknown person who promises to be more to our liking. From a distance, it is much easier to see the flaws of those who are supposed to represent others and to see why they should not be re-elected. We want to trust the person whose work and voting record we know even as we know we need a change in the body of which they are a part. What we want, is for everyone else to change.

When it comes to trusting God we can be the same as in an election. We want to trust God and we continue to behave in ways that display our trust in what we see and what we have always known. Our familiar ways of thinking and acting kick in and we do what we have always done despite our desire to make the choice that moves us toward God. The psalmist reminds us that it is never too late to turn to God in praise and trust. Rather than trusting the folks who make promises that change according to the political climate, the psalmist encourages us to put our trust in the one whose promises are constant.

‘Princes,’ politicians, meet the needs of the majority, those with the most power, money, influence, etc. God meets the needs of those who are oppressed by those political systems. God looks to raise up those who have no power or voice so that they can stand side by side with everyone else. As we stand together we see that lifting one another up is more fulfilling than living as if those not like us don’t matter. As we work side by side with God to lift up the fallen and to free those who are oppressed we discover that we are not diminished, we are enhanced by the lives of those raised up. As people of God we find new hope in bringing the hope and trust of God to others.

February 11, 2013