Psalm Meditation 802
Twenty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time
November 1, 2015
Psalm 21
1 In your strength the king rejoices, O LORD, and in your help how greatly he exults!
2 You have given him his heart’s desire, and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah
3 For you meet him with rich blessings; you set a crown of fine gold on his head.
4 He asked you for life; you gave it to him—length of days forever and ever.
5 His glory is great through your help; splendor and majesty you bestow on him.
6 You bestow on him blessings forever; you make him glad with the joy of your presence.
7 For the king trusts in the LORD, and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved.
8 Your hand will find out all your enemies; your right hand will find out those who hate you.
9 You will make them like a fiery furnace when you appear. The LORD will swallow them up in his wrath, and fire will consume them.
10 You will destroy their offspring from the earth, and their children from among humankind.
11 If they plan evil against you, if they devise mischief, they will not succeed.
12 For you will put them to flight; you will aim at their faces with your bows.
13 Be exalted, O LORD, in your strength! We will sing and praise your power.
(NRSV)
We do like our lives to be predictable and sensible. I have heard that those who claim to like change are most often talking about self-imposed, self-directed change. These folks are as upset as the rest of us by change that comes from a place outside their control, especially unpleasant change. We don’t like to discover that our fortunes have suddenly changed for the worse, that those we count as our enemies have taken the upper hand. In those situations even those who claim most loudly that they like variety and change are going to call on God to rescue us from this unwanted and unwelcome change.
The psalmist raises up the king as one who is, and always has been, unfailingly quick to praise and exult God for all the help directed toward the king. Because the king has been predictable, it would be good if God were to remain predictable as well. Since our enemies and God’s enemies overlap at this point it would be good if the skills of the king of God would come together to defeat this enemy in a convincing display of military precision. The psalmist is so sure that the aims of king and God are the same it seems that the two are being addressed simultaneously.
Change comes whether we like it or not. Sometimes change is good for us. When things go from bad to good we like that change. When we find ourselves challenged by the changing conditions of our lives we may come to see those challenges as having been good for us despite the pain caused by it. When things go from good to bad we can be disheartened by the changes even as we discover new connections between ourselves and others. And sometimes change is bad from every angle and we would not wish that kind of change on anyone. In all of these, God is with us. God rejoices with us, helps us discover ways to grow through changing circumstances, is present with us in our suffering and stays with us in the most calamitous of circumstances.
October 26, 2015
LCM
Monday, October 26, 2015
Monday, October 19, 2015
Psalm Meditation 801
Twenty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time
October 25, 2015
Psalm 131
1 O LORD, my heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.
2 But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.
3 O Israel, hope in the LORD from this time on and forevermore.
(NRSV)
Every now and again it is good to remind ourselves that we are not as important and impressive as we feel the need to appear. All of our compensations come to naught in the presence of God. Sometimes we compensate for a sense of inadequacy and make ourselves seem larger than we feel. Sometimes we deal with an overconfidence based on a misjudgment of our abilities in an area. Either way, we do well to stand in the presence of God aware that we are not our skills or lack thereof; we are beloved children of God.
In the presence of God we can rest easy; no bluster of ego or false modesty is required. We simply settle into the comfort of being in the presence of one who knows us completely and loves us as we are. This is no in-spite-of or because-of love. God loves us, pure and simple. In the awareness of that loving presence we relax into it with a quiet assurance.
In the midst of one of these moments, the psalmist wishes each one of us that kind of peace, rest and assurance found in the presence of God. The wish for us is not a moment of peace and contentment; the wish is that we feel this now and into the eternal future.
October 19, 2015
LCM
Twenty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time
October 25, 2015
Psalm 131
1 O LORD, my heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.
2 But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.
3 O Israel, hope in the LORD from this time on and forevermore.
(NRSV)
Every now and again it is good to remind ourselves that we are not as important and impressive as we feel the need to appear. All of our compensations come to naught in the presence of God. Sometimes we compensate for a sense of inadequacy and make ourselves seem larger than we feel. Sometimes we deal with an overconfidence based on a misjudgment of our abilities in an area. Either way, we do well to stand in the presence of God aware that we are not our skills or lack thereof; we are beloved children of God.
In the presence of God we can rest easy; no bluster of ego or false modesty is required. We simply settle into the comfort of being in the presence of one who knows us completely and loves us as we are. This is no in-spite-of or because-of love. God loves us, pure and simple. In the awareness of that loving presence we relax into it with a quiet assurance.
In the midst of one of these moments, the psalmist wishes each one of us that kind of peace, rest and assurance found in the presence of God. The wish for us is not a moment of peace and contentment; the wish is that we feel this now and into the eternal future.
October 19, 2015
LCM
Monday, October 12, 2015
Psalm Meditation 800
Twenty-first Sunday of Ordinary Time
October 18, 2015
Psalm 70
1 Be pleased, O God, to deliver me. O LORD, make haste to help me!
2 Let those be put to shame and confusion who seek my life. Let those be turned back and brought to dishonor who desire to hurt me.
3 Let those who say, “Aha, Aha!” turn back because of their shame.
4 Let all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Let those who love your salvation say evermore, “God is great!”
5 But I am poor and needy; hasten to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O LORD, do not delay!
(NRSV)
Being one of the low folks in the pecking order of a group can be a problem. It leads to being picked on and taken advantage of as a daily circumstance. The consolation is that one is still a member of the group. When an outside threat arises there are at least some members of the group who will come to the defense of anyone who is part of the group. It may not be the alpha members, however, someone will stand with any member of ‘our’ people.
Social groups do not confine themselves to picking on and taking advantage of their own, they branch out to pick on folks of other folks of lower standing then the omega member of their own group. The higher the social standing of this group the more likely at least one member of the group will reach down to pick on someone from another grouping. The greater the social distance between the groups the more likely the interactions will be dangerously abusive as the abuser discounts the personhood of the one being abused.
God does not reach down to rescue folks from the abuse; a relationship with God gives a person of even the lowest social standing a sense of worth as a child of God. When we feel loved and cared for by God and the community of God’s people we are better able to withstand the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” to use Shakespeare’s phrasing. As people of God those who heap us with abuse do not get the last word. We may be hurt, even killed and we will remain in the presence of God as a person of sacred worth.
October 12, 2015
LCM
Twenty-first Sunday of Ordinary Time
October 18, 2015
Psalm 70
1 Be pleased, O God, to deliver me. O LORD, make haste to help me!
2 Let those be put to shame and confusion who seek my life. Let those be turned back and brought to dishonor who desire to hurt me.
3 Let those who say, “Aha, Aha!” turn back because of their shame.
4 Let all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Let those who love your salvation say evermore, “God is great!”
5 But I am poor and needy; hasten to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O LORD, do not delay!
(NRSV)
Being one of the low folks in the pecking order of a group can be a problem. It leads to being picked on and taken advantage of as a daily circumstance. The consolation is that one is still a member of the group. When an outside threat arises there are at least some members of the group who will come to the defense of anyone who is part of the group. It may not be the alpha members, however, someone will stand with any member of ‘our’ people.
Social groups do not confine themselves to picking on and taking advantage of their own, they branch out to pick on folks of other folks of lower standing then the omega member of their own group. The higher the social standing of this group the more likely at least one member of the group will reach down to pick on someone from another grouping. The greater the social distance between the groups the more likely the interactions will be dangerously abusive as the abuser discounts the personhood of the one being abused.
God does not reach down to rescue folks from the abuse; a relationship with God gives a person of even the lowest social standing a sense of worth as a child of God. When we feel loved and cared for by God and the community of God’s people we are better able to withstand the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” to use Shakespeare’s phrasing. As people of God those who heap us with abuse do not get the last word. We may be hurt, even killed and we will remain in the presence of God as a person of sacred worth.
October 12, 2015
LCM
Monday, October 5, 2015
Psalm Meditation 799
Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time
October 11, 2015
Psalm 120
1 In my distress I cry to the LORD, that he may answer me:
2 “Deliver me, O LORD, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue.”
3 What shall be given to you? And what more shall be done to you, you deceitful tongue?
4 A warrior’s sharp arrows, with glowing coals of the broom tree!
5 Woe is me, that I am an alien in Meshech, that I must live among the tents of Kedar.
6 Too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace.
7 I am for peace; but when I speak, they are for war.
(NRSV)
I don’t know what the psalmist means with these verses, however the last two speak to me of being in a minority on an important topic. For the psalmist, it is being for peace in a time of war. Once talk of war begins the voice of peace is a very unpopular one; even if it is the more sensible course it is drowned out by the sabre rattling of those who want war. War and peace is one of several topics in which it is difficult to be in the minority, especially when it feels as if it is a minority of one.
In some cases the lone voice need only speak out to discover that there are others who agree and kept silent out of fear. Those others were so sure that they were alone it was easier to go along than to speak out. Two or three may still be a minority, however a dissenting group of two or three is stronger than a solo voice and stronger still than one suffering in silence.
The voice of God rarely booms with the authority of the majority. The way of God is rarely the easy way.
October 5, 2015
LCM
Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time
October 11, 2015
Psalm 120
1 In my distress I cry to the LORD, that he may answer me:
2 “Deliver me, O LORD, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue.”
3 What shall be given to you? And what more shall be done to you, you deceitful tongue?
4 A warrior’s sharp arrows, with glowing coals of the broom tree!
5 Woe is me, that I am an alien in Meshech, that I must live among the tents of Kedar.
6 Too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace.
7 I am for peace; but when I speak, they are for war.
(NRSV)
I don’t know what the psalmist means with these verses, however the last two speak to me of being in a minority on an important topic. For the psalmist, it is being for peace in a time of war. Once talk of war begins the voice of peace is a very unpopular one; even if it is the more sensible course it is drowned out by the sabre rattling of those who want war. War and peace is one of several topics in which it is difficult to be in the minority, especially when it feels as if it is a minority of one.
In some cases the lone voice need only speak out to discover that there are others who agree and kept silent out of fear. Those others were so sure that they were alone it was easier to go along than to speak out. Two or three may still be a minority, however a dissenting group of two or three is stronger than a solo voice and stronger still than one suffering in silence.
The voice of God rarely booms with the authority of the majority. The way of God is rarely the easy way.
October 5, 2015
LCM
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