Psalm Meditation 851
Proper 23
October 9, 2016

Psalm 143
1 Hear my prayer, O LORD; give ear to my supplications in your faithfulness; answer me in your righteousness.
2 Do not enter into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you.
3 For the enemy has pursued me, crushing my life to the ground, making me sit in darkness like those long dead.
4 Therefore my spirit faints within me; my heart within me is appalled.
5 I remember the days of old, I think about all your deeds, I meditate on the works of your hands.
6 I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land .Selah
7 Answer me quickly, O LORD; my spirit fails. Do not hide your face from me, or I shall be like those who go down to the Pit.
8 Let me hear of your steadfast love in the morning, for in you I put my trust.
Teach me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.
9 Save me, O LORD, from my enemies; I have fled to you for refuge.
10 Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. Let your good spirit lead me on a level path.
11 For your name’s sake, O LORD, preserve my life. In your righteousness bring me out of trouble.
12 In your steadfast love cut off my enemies, and destroy all my adversaries, for I am your servant.
(NRSV)

When I first read this it seemed that the psalmist was bargaining with God for a favor, as if God could somehow owe us one. Most of us have attempted to strike a deal with God along the lines of, if you do this for me then I will do that for you. “If you get me out of this ditch, I will go to church every week for a year.” If we do get out of that ditch, and we do go to church every week for a year, we will feel as if we have somehow done our good deed and God is paid in full for getting us out of the mess in which we found ourselves. That was my thinking after the first reading.

After multiple readings I noticed that the psalmist is making these pleas in the name of God’s righteousness and faithfulness. There is full awareness on the psalmist’s part that “no one living is righteous before you.” We can’t do enough to qualify for any reciprocity on God’s part. There is not enough time, space or energy for any of us to be able to earn any favors from God. Like the psalmist, we are left to depend on the faithfulness and righteousness of God. The psalmist is not asking for deliverance from the crushing weight of an enemy or the judgment of God based on deserving it but on the basis of God’s promise and example of what is right and just.

Those who ask for God’s help and presence as a part of a reciprocal bargain, I do this, you do that, will get God’s help and presence. Those who ask for help and presence in dependence of God’s righteous and faithfulness will all receive help and presence. In both cases our help will come from the depths of God’s love for us. God does not and will not owe us any favors. No matter what deals we make, they will not be honored because we have fulfilled our side. God’s favor comes to us as an act of righteousness and faithfulness rising out of God’s steadfast love for us.

October 3, 2016
LCM