Psalm Meditation 741
Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time
August 31, 2014

Psalm 141
1 I call upon you, O LORD; come quickly to me; give ear to my voice when I call to you.
2 Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice.
3 Set a guard over my mouth, O LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips.
4 Do not turn my heart to any evil, to busy myself with wicked deeds in company with those who work iniquity; do not let me eat of their delicacies.
5 Let the righteous strike me; let the faithful correct me. Never let the oil of the wicked anoint my head, for my prayer is continually against their wicked deeds.
6 When they are given over to those who shall condemn them, then they shall learn that my words were pleasant.
7 Like a rock that one breaks apart and shatters on the land, so shall their bones be strewn at the mouth of Sheol.
8 But my eyes are turned toward you, O GOD, my Lord; in you I seek refuge; do not leave me defenseless.
9 Keep me from the trap that they have laid for me, and from the snares of evildoers.
10 Let the wicked fall into their own nets, while I alone escape.
(NRSV)

It is not always easy to tell good from bad, right from wrong, righteousness from sin. The psalmist is caught between following the practices and habits that lead to God and the temptation, from within or without, to take up a new set of habits that lead down a path to destruction. Despite our protests to the contrary, words do have the power to hurt and to heal, so the psalmist asks for God’s help in keeping hurtful words out of lips and heart. Even though the promise of hurtful words is that they will be sweet, for a moment, there is also the recognition that there is a price to pay for them. As with any sweet treat, there is the initial pleasure followed by the price that must be paid for the indulgence.

Once we get drawn in to a course of action, a group of practices, it becomes very hard to break free of whatever habits we may have formed for good or ill. While it may take discipline and vigilance to form good habits, it is possible to make and keep them without a lot of thought or effort once we have established our pattern. Bad habits may be easier to form since they take less effort from the beginning, however they take a much higher toll on us through the weeks, months and years.

As we join the psalmist in asking God’s help in avoiding evil practices and habits in the first place we do not have to fight to break the habits and still have the price to pay for them. As we are able to guard our lips, our hearts, our hands from the tempting evils in the first place the more readily we can turn to God with our whole hearts in every part of life.

August 25, 2014
LCM