Psalm Meditation 667
Easter
March 31, 2013
Psalm 28
1 To you, O LORD, I call; my rock, do not refuse to hear me, for if you are silent to me, I shall be like those who go down to the Pit.
2 Hear the voice of my supplication, as I cry to you for help, as I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary.
3 Do not drag me away with the wicked, with those who are workers of evil, who speak peace with their neighbors, while mischief is in their hearts.
4 Repay them according to their work, and according to the evil of their deeds; repay them according to the work of their hands; render them their due reward.
5 Because they do not regard the works of the LORD, or the work of his hands, he will break them down and build them up no more.
6 Blessed be the LORD, for he has heard the sound of my pleadings.
7 The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts; so I am helped, and my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.
8 The LORD is the strength of his people; he is the saving refuge of his anointed.
9 O save your people, and bless your heritage; be their shepherd, and carry them forever.
(NRSV)
It is interesting that, with the psalmist, we are quick to ask God to judge the wicked harshly. And the wicked includes anyone and everyone who crosses the group of which we are a part. For some, the cry to God is from a position of weakness in the relationship. Since we are unable to protect ourselves from those who oppress us we depend on God to be the one who brings an end to the oppression and a beginning of justice for us and for them. God is called upon to save us from those more powerful than ourselves.
For others, the cry to God is from a position of equal or greater power in the relationship. In those cases, it seems, we are calling on God to do our bidding as if we have the power to give commands to God that we then expect God to carry out for us. In this scenario God becomes one more weapon in our collection of powerful weapons.
It is good for us to remember that God is a loving presence rather than a weapon of conquest. As we come into God’s presence with our lists of requests we do well to ask ourselves whether we are asking God to be with us and to act with us in mind for the sake of God’s glory or if we are asking God to act as our agent for the sake of our own glory. God is with us. In all times and in all places God is with us. God seeks out a relationship based in steadfast love for us. When we seek out a relationship with God based in love we are able to see all the ways God is at work in our lives and the lives of those around us.
March 25, 2013
Monday, March 25, 2013
Monday, March 18, 2013
Psalm Meditation 666
Palm/Passion Sunday
March 24, 2013
Psalm 147
1 Praise the LORD! How good it is to sing praises to our God; for he is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting.
2 The LORD builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the outcasts of Israel.
3 He heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds.
4 He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names.
5 Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.
6 The LORD lifts up the downtrodden; he casts the wicked to the ground.
7 Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving; make melody to our God on the lyre.
8 He covers the heavens with clouds, prepares rain for the earth, makes grass grow on the hills.
9 He gives to the animals their food, and to the young ravens when they cry.
10 His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the speed of a runner;
11 but the LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.
12 Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion!
13 For he strengthens the bars of your gates; he blesses your children within you.
14 He grants peace within your borders; he fills you with the finest of wheat.
15 He sends out his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly.
16 He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes.
17 He hurls down hail like crumbs— who can stand before his cold?
18 He sends out his word, and melts them; he makes his wind blow, and the waters flow.
19 He declares his word to Jacob, his statutes and ordinances to Israel.
20 He has not dealt thus with any other nation; they do not know his ordinances. Praise the LORD!
(NRSV)
Praise the Lord. It is a simple three word sentence that could take all of our time and energy if we were to live out those three simple words. The psalmist gives many reasons to offer praise, the one that caught my eye this time, is that God lifts up the downtrodden and casts the wicked to the ground. It would be nice if the distinction between the downtrodden and the wicked were a simple matter of dividing people into those two groups so that one group could be lifted up and the other group could be taken down a peg. While we have our own lists of people who need to be lifted up and the ones we would like to seen taken down, it is probably not as simple as it looks.
Each of us has a place of insecurity, a place that could use a lift from God. It is the place where we hold our fears and doubts, a touch of anger at the way things have not gone according to our own plans and hopes. It is the place that holds us back from being the person we always hoped we would be. God offers to lift us up from that sense of being held down by both internal and external influences on our life plans.
Each of us has a place of drive and ambition that encourages us to push people out of the way so that we can achieve our own goals, even if it means denying others the desires of their hearts. Our dreams may be fueled by the very fears that keep others from pursuing theirs. God offers to throw down the ambitions that do damage to others through a disregard of their needs and wants.
God lifts up the downtrodden pieces of our lives and gives them back to us filled with new sense of hope. God casts down the pieces of our lives that do damage to others and gives them back to us with a new sense of community. God is worthy of praise as the one who helps us sort out our lives in a way that builds up what needs building and tears down what needs to be reworked. With the psalmist, Praise the LORD!
March 18, 2013
LCM manifold@lightbound.com
http://psalmmeditations.blogspot.com/
Palm/Passion Sunday
March 24, 2013
Psalm 147
1 Praise the LORD! How good it is to sing praises to our God; for he is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting.
2 The LORD builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the outcasts of Israel.
3 He heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds.
4 He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names.
5 Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.
6 The LORD lifts up the downtrodden; he casts the wicked to the ground.
7 Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving; make melody to our God on the lyre.
8 He covers the heavens with clouds, prepares rain for the earth, makes grass grow on the hills.
9 He gives to the animals their food, and to the young ravens when they cry.
10 His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the speed of a runner;
11 but the LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.
12 Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion!
13 For he strengthens the bars of your gates; he blesses your children within you.
14 He grants peace within your borders; he fills you with the finest of wheat.
15 He sends out his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly.
16 He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes.
17 He hurls down hail like crumbs— who can stand before his cold?
18 He sends out his word, and melts them; he makes his wind blow, and the waters flow.
19 He declares his word to Jacob, his statutes and ordinances to Israel.
20 He has not dealt thus with any other nation; they do not know his ordinances. Praise the LORD!
(NRSV)
Praise the Lord. It is a simple three word sentence that could take all of our time and energy if we were to live out those three simple words. The psalmist gives many reasons to offer praise, the one that caught my eye this time, is that God lifts up the downtrodden and casts the wicked to the ground. It would be nice if the distinction between the downtrodden and the wicked were a simple matter of dividing people into those two groups so that one group could be lifted up and the other group could be taken down a peg. While we have our own lists of people who need to be lifted up and the ones we would like to seen taken down, it is probably not as simple as it looks.
Each of us has a place of insecurity, a place that could use a lift from God. It is the place where we hold our fears and doubts, a touch of anger at the way things have not gone according to our own plans and hopes. It is the place that holds us back from being the person we always hoped we would be. God offers to lift us up from that sense of being held down by both internal and external influences on our life plans.
Each of us has a place of drive and ambition that encourages us to push people out of the way so that we can achieve our own goals, even if it means denying others the desires of their hearts. Our dreams may be fueled by the very fears that keep others from pursuing theirs. God offers to throw down the ambitions that do damage to others through a disregard of their needs and wants.
God lifts up the downtrodden pieces of our lives and gives them back to us filled with new sense of hope. God casts down the pieces of our lives that do damage to others and gives them back to us with a new sense of community. God is worthy of praise as the one who helps us sort out our lives in a way that builds up what needs building and tears down what needs to be reworked. With the psalmist, Praise the LORD!
March 18, 2013
LCM manifold@lightbound.com
http://psalmmeditations.blogspot.com/
Monday, March 11, 2013
Psalm Meditation 665
Fifth Sunday in Lent
March 17, 2013
Psalm 117
1 Praise the LORD, all you nations! Extol him, all you peoples!
2 For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD!
(NRSV)
There are times it seems appropriate to indulge in huge piles of words to make a point and other times that a very few words is all that need be used. For this psalmist, in this moment, two verses says it all. When dealing with the subject of God’s love for us, gobs of people have used paragraphs and pages of words to attempt to describe the feeling and the meaning of the concept and reality of that love. All we need right here is the call to praise for the greatness of the love God has for us. Praise the LORD!
March 11, 2013
Fifth Sunday in Lent
March 17, 2013
Psalm 117
1 Praise the LORD, all you nations! Extol him, all you peoples!
2 For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD!
(NRSV)
There are times it seems appropriate to indulge in huge piles of words to make a point and other times that a very few words is all that need be used. For this psalmist, in this moment, two verses says it all. When dealing with the subject of God’s love for us, gobs of people have used paragraphs and pages of words to attempt to describe the feeling and the meaning of the concept and reality of that love. All we need right here is the call to praise for the greatness of the love God has for us. Praise the LORD!
March 11, 2013
Monday, March 4, 2013
Psalm Meditation 664
Fourth Sunday in Lent
March 10, 2013
Psalm 87
1 On the holy mount stands the city he founded;
2 the LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.
3 Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God. (Selah)
4 Among those who know me I mention Rahab and Babylon; Philistia too, and Tyre, with Ethiopia — "This one was born there," they say.
5 And of Zion it shall be said, "This one and that one were born in it"; for the Most High himself will establish it.
6 The LORD records, as he registers the peoples, "This one was born there." (Selah)
7 Singers and dancers alike say, "All my springs are in you."
(NRSV)
Many of us have a list of favorite places that include a favorite place to live and a favorite place to visit. For a few people, the same place is at the top of each list, they love where they live and have no desire to go or be anywhere else. For the rest of us, there are cities and places which are a part of lives because we go there often enough that they feel like home. At the same time we have an awareness that part of the attraction is that it is not home and if we were to move there it would lose some of its appeal. As we fell into habits and routines in this favorite place it would lose some of the exotic sense that keeps us going back with regularity.
Another reason a place becomes special is the people who live there. The place where grandparents live loses its attraction when those grandparents move out. Without the special people in that place there is no reason to go. In truth it is not the place that is special, it is the person or people who make the place special by their presence.
The psalmist reminds us that Zion is special because the presence of God makes it special. Anywhere that includes a life changing experience of the presence of God becomes a special place for us. It may be a very specific place, a particular seat, bench or rock where we were sitting when we felt the touch of God. It may be a larger area that renews our sense of the presence of God. It may be that the place we meet God is in our hearts, even though the way to get there is to remember a geographic spot. To experience the presence of God makes that place one of our favorites. It is not the place, it is the encounter with God that makes it special. It is not the locale, it is the memories and feelings the place evokes in our hearts and lives that gets us to sing, “All my springs are in you.”
March 3, 2013
Fourth Sunday in Lent
March 10, 2013
Psalm 87
1 On the holy mount stands the city he founded;
2 the LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.
3 Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God. (Selah)
4 Among those who know me I mention Rahab and Babylon; Philistia too, and Tyre, with Ethiopia — "This one was born there," they say.
5 And of Zion it shall be said, "This one and that one were born in it"; for the Most High himself will establish it.
6 The LORD records, as he registers the peoples, "This one was born there." (Selah)
7 Singers and dancers alike say, "All my springs are in you."
(NRSV)
Many of us have a list of favorite places that include a favorite place to live and a favorite place to visit. For a few people, the same place is at the top of each list, they love where they live and have no desire to go or be anywhere else. For the rest of us, there are cities and places which are a part of lives because we go there often enough that they feel like home. At the same time we have an awareness that part of the attraction is that it is not home and if we were to move there it would lose some of its appeal. As we fell into habits and routines in this favorite place it would lose some of the exotic sense that keeps us going back with regularity.
Another reason a place becomes special is the people who live there. The place where grandparents live loses its attraction when those grandparents move out. Without the special people in that place there is no reason to go. In truth it is not the place that is special, it is the person or people who make the place special by their presence.
The psalmist reminds us that Zion is special because the presence of God makes it special. Anywhere that includes a life changing experience of the presence of God becomes a special place for us. It may be a very specific place, a particular seat, bench or rock where we were sitting when we felt the touch of God. It may be a larger area that renews our sense of the presence of God. It may be that the place we meet God is in our hearts, even though the way to get there is to remember a geographic spot. To experience the presence of God makes that place one of our favorites. It is not the place, it is the encounter with God that makes it special. It is not the locale, it is the memories and feelings the place evokes in our hearts and lives that gets us to sing, “All my springs are in you.”
March 3, 2013
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