Psalm Meditation 769
Fourth Sunday in Lent
March 15, 2015

Psalm 115
1 Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness.
2 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”
3 Our God is in the heavens; he does whatever he pleases.
4 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands.
5 They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see.
6 They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell.
7 They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; they make no sound in their throats.
8 Those who make them are like them; so are all who trust in them.
9 O Israel, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield.
10 O house of Aaron, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield.
11 You who fear the LORD, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield.
12 The LORD has been mindful of us; he will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron;
13 he will bless those who fear the LORD, both small and great.
14 May the LORD give you increase, both you and your children.
15 May you be blessed by the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
16 The heavens are the LORD’s heavens, but the earth he has given to human beings.
17 The dead do not praise the LORD, nor do any that go down into silence.
18 But we will bless the LORD from this time on and forevermore.
Praise the LORD!
(NRSV)

My guess is that as soon as anyone becomes aware that there is a religion besides their own, that other religion becomes a target of scorn and the followers of that religion are also discounted. We continue to spend lots of time and energy arguing the merits and demerits of ‘those’ people, so I won’t do that. It seems more important to concentrate on the other half of the psalm, the part that calls us to lives of trust.

There has been a time in which it seemed important for me to defend God from all the folks who had any question about God’s existence and presence. Then I became one of those folks who wondered if God exists. With help from lots of good people I found an assurance of God’s existence and presence. At about that same time I learned that it is more important to trust God than to try to defend God. Much like realizing that truth does not need to be defended, since it is true no matter what, I realized that I don’t really need to defend or prove the existence of God. I find myself trusting God.

The psalmist encourages us to trust God. As we are able to trust God we discover that God is our help and shield. That means that we don’t need to spend our energy defending God, we can use our energy trusting God. Some days it would be nice if we could trust God to pluck us out of the trouble spots in which we find ourselves. Most days it is good to trust that God is with us, no matter what hardships we may face.

March 9, 2015
LCM