Psalm Meditation 797
Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
September 27, 2015

Psalm 81
1 Sing aloud to God our strength; shout for joy to the God of Jacob.
2 Raise a song, sound the tambourine, the sweet lyre with the harp.
3 Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon, on our festal day.
4 For it is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
5 He made it a decree in Joseph, when he went out over the land of Egypt.
I hear a voice I had not known:
6 “I relieved your shoulder of the burden; your hands were freed from the basket.
7 In distress you called, and I rescued you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah
8 Hear, O my people, while I admonish you; O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
9 There shall be no strange god among you; you shall not bow down to a foreign god.
10 I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.
11 “But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me.
12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels.
13 O that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways!
14 Then I would quickly subdue their enemies, and turn my hand against their foes.
15 Those who hate the LORD would cringe before him, and their doom would last forever.
16 I would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”
(NRSV)

The first time I read verse 9 today I read it as a commandment, a word to the people that they were not to pick up the habits and religious observances of the people around them. It may seem easier to worship one whose demands are less stringent, whose feast days are filled with different activities than what they were used to doing. Somehow, new and different seems more compelling and exciting than the same old same old. For whatever reason they might choose to follow the ways of another religious culture, the God of Israel warns them against it.

The second time I read it as a promise. God says, “I am not going to let you be overrun by folks who will force a new and strange religion down your throats. I have delivered you in the past and I will continue to deliver you in the present and future. Open your mouth, your throat, your heart and I will fill you with great and wonderful things.” There are no commandments at this point, there is only the invitation to be open to all that God offers. Openness to the promise leads to its fulfillment.

The way we read the psalm, this one verse, may make all the difference in what we expect and what we receive from God. The words are the same either way. How we hear God said those words to us makes a world of difference. When we read and hear them as a command we experience God as a judge, asking that we follow the rules as they are set forth in the letter of the law. When we read and hear them as a promise we experience God as one who wants to give us good things if only we are open to those things. Yes, it is more of a sliding scale than a one or the other choice. The important question we face is, do we, do I, see God as more of a judge or as one who is ready to make and keep promises out of a deep love for us, for me?

September 21, 2015
LCM