Psalm Meditation 756
Third Sunday of Advent
December 14, 2014

Psalm 38
1 O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger, or discipline me in your wrath.
2 For your arrows have sunk into me, and your hand has come down on me.
3 There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation; there is no health in my bones because of my sin.
4 For my iniquities have gone over my head; they weigh like a burden too heavy for me.
5 My wounds grow foul and fester because of my foolishness;
6 I am utterly bowed down and prostrate; all day long I go around mourning.
7 For my loins are filled with burning, and there is no soundness in my flesh.
8 I am utterly spent and crushed; I groan because of the tumult of my heart.
9 O Lord, all my longing is known to you; my sighing is not hidden from you.
10 My heart throbs, my strength fails me; as for the light of my eyes—it also has gone from me.
11 My friends and companions stand aloof from my affliction, and my neighbors stand far off.
12 Those who seek my life lay their snares; those who seek to hurt me speak of ruin, and meditate treachery all day long.
13 But I am like the deaf, I do not hear; like the mute, who cannot speak.
14 Truly, I am like one who does not hear, and in whose mouth is no retort.
15 But it is for you, O LORD, that I wait; it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer.
16 For I pray, “Only do not let them rejoice over me, those who boast against me when my foot slips.”
17 For I am ready to fall, and my pain is ever with me.
18 I confess my iniquity; I am sorry for my sin.
19 Those who are my foes without cause are mighty, and many are those who hate me wrongfully.
20 Those who render me evil for good are my adversaries because I follow after good.
21 Do not forsake me, O LORD; O my God, do not be far from me;
22 make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation.
(NRSV)

With a worldview in which God is a despotic ruler, every action has a cost and promise as a direct response from God. If we do well, God gives a reward, a promise. If we do badly, God punishes us, a cost. Here the psalmist is reeling from the effects of a bad course of action. To exact the cost God conscripts others to add to the physical and emotional toll the psalmist must pay. Even friends are wise enough to stay out of the way of the execution of God’s justice. As is often the case, the psalmist claims that this high a price is not in line with the sin being punished. When God is in charge with no room for negotiation there is no choice but to throw ourselves on the mercy of God for our sins.

If, instead, God has given the opportunity for each of us to make our own choices and reap the cost and promise of those actions our view of God can change. In this worldview we are not so much punished for our sin as we are punished by our sin. It is not God who exacts the punishment. God neither causes the reaction to our activity nor protects us from our actions or the actions of others. This frees God to be with us in all times and places. God can rejoice with us and ache with us. It is not God who has changed; our view of the world colors how we experience the presence of God.

Some are reluctant to believe that God is present in any other way than that expressed in Scripture. For them God will always be a distant judge waiting for us to do something that warrants either extra favors or extra punishments. God is one of whom to be afraid. Others are willing to allow our views of God to change as our worldview changes. God continues to be God and we find new and meaningful ways to relate as our perception of what it means to be people of God ebbs and flows.

December 8, 2014
LCM