Psalm Meditation 764
Fifth Sunday After Epiphany
February 8, 2015

Psalm 64
1 Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint; preserve my life from the dread enemy.
2 Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked, from the scheming of evildoers,
3 who whet their tongues like swords, who aim bitter words like arrows,
4 shooting from ambush at the blameless; they shoot suddenly and without fear.
5 They hold fast to their evil purpose; they talk of laying snares secretly,
thinking, “Who can see us?
6 Who can search out our crimes? We have thought out a cunningly conceived plot.” For the human heart and mind are deep.
7 But God will shoot his arrow at them; they will be wounded suddenly.
8 Because of their tongue he will bring them to ruin; all who see them will shake with horror.
9 Then everyone will fear; they will tell what God has brought about, and ponder what he has done.
10 Let the righteous rejoice in the LORD and take refuge in him. Let all the upright in heart glory.
(NRSV)

I am sure we are neither the first nor the last group of people who are quick to draw the lines in the sand that set the boundary between ‘us’ and ‘them.’ We are quick to defend those on our side of the line, simply because they are on this side. We are quick to discount those on the other side because of where they stand, rather than for what they stand. It is as if only we can be correct about anything, and whatever ‘those people’ say has to be wrong simply because they say it. It is usually the case that there is truth and falsehood in both camps.

The psalmist reminds us that God sees falsehood wherever it is and aims to point it out so that we are able to see it for ourselves. God sees the subtle shadings used on all sides of a question that we use to make our arguments true and convincing and their arguments false and misleading. Once we are sure that our arguments are true we stop looking at any others, assuming that theirs must be false since they are not in lockstep agreement with our own. It only takes a few charismatic voices to convince us that ours is the correct viewpoint making all others wrong and probably evil. It is also easy to convince ourselves that we are open to see truth wherever it may be; it just so happens that it is only in our own viewpoint.

God picks out the truth from every side and lifts it up for those who have eyes to see. It can be a subtle point or a more substantial set of facts and truth. God aims to pluck out the cunningly conceived plots and lift up the truth. It is up to us to look to God to see the truth in its full depth and width.

February 2, 2015
LCM