Psalm Meditation 954
Proper 21
September 30, 2018
Psalm 92
1 It is good to give thanks to the LORD , to sing praises to your name, O Most High;
2 to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night,
3 to the music of the lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyre.
4 For you, O LORD , have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands I sing for joy.
5 How great are your works, O LORD! Your thoughts are very deep!
6 The dullard cannot know, the stupid cannot understand this:
7 though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever,
8 but you, O LORD, are on high forever.
9 For your enemies, O LORD, for your enemies shall perish; all evildoers shall be scattered.
10 But you have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox; you have poured over me fresh oil.
11 My eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies; my ears have heard the doom of my evil assailants.
12 The righteous flourish like the palm tree, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
13 They are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the courts of our God.
14 In old age they still produce fruit; they are always green and full of sap,
15 showing that the LORD is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.
(NRSV)
Sometimes it is good to spend some time thanking God, to go through the list of good things that have happened because the LORD is present among us. The psalmist has a list of things that God has done and is doing, from loving us to delivering us from the people and circumstances that have held us down. The psalmist includes a jab at those who can’t or won’t see that God is always at work doing great things with and for us.
We can each make our own list of good things that God causes and permits to go on in and around us. There is an accomplishment that to the untrained eye we have done by ourselves. We are able to thank God for giving us the strength, stamina, motivation, and willingness to complete. There is a conflict that has loomed before us that we have faced and brought to resolution by the help, grace, and presence of God. We have seen God at work around us in a way that lifts our spirits and makes us grateful. Our list can be small or large, and we give thanks to God.
Some have the eloquence and ability to rival the words and phrases of the psalmist, while others make a list of bullet points for which they are thankful. God knows our gifts. The important part is the list, the ability to see God at work in the ordinary as well as the extra-ordinary. “For you, O LORD , have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands I sing for joy.”
September 24, 2018
LCM
Monday, September 24, 2018
Monday, September 17, 2018
Psalm Meditation 953
Proper 20
September 23, 2018
Psalm 109
1 Do not be silent, O God of my praise.
2 For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues.
3 They beset me with words of hate, and attack me without cause.
4 In return for my love they accuse me, even while I make prayer for them.
5 So they reward me evil for good, and hatred for my love.
6 They say, “Appoint a wicked man against him; let an accuser stand on his right.
7 When he is tried, let him be found guilty; let his prayer be counted as sin.
8 May his days be few; may another seize his position.
9 May his children be orphans, and his wife a widow.
10 May his children wander about and beg; may they be driven out of the ruins they inhabit.
11 May the creditor seize all that he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil.
12 May there be no one to do him a kindness, nor anyone to pity his orphaned children.
13 May his posterity be cut off; may his name be blotted out in the second generation.
14 May the iniquity of his father be remembered before the LORD , and do not let the sin of his mother be blotted out.
15 Let them be before the LORD continually, and may his memory be cut off from the earth.
16 For he did not remember to show kindness, but pursued the poor and needy and the brokenhearted to their death.
17 He loved to curse; let curses come on him. He did not like blessing; may it be far from him.
18 He clothed himself with cursing as his coat, may it soak into his body like water, like oil into his bones.
19 May it be like a garment that he wraps around himself, like a belt that he wears every day.”
20 May that be the reward of my accusers from the LORD , of those who speak evil against my life.
21 But you, O Lord my Lord, act on my behalf for your name’s sake; because your steadfast love is good, deliver me.
22 For I am poor and needy, and my heart is pierced within me.
23 I am gone like a shadow at evening; I am shaken off like a locust.
24 My knees are weak through fasting; my body has become gaunt.
25 I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they shake their heads.
26 Help me, O LORD my God! Save me according to your steadfast love.
27 Let them know that this is your hand; you, O LORD , have done it.
28 Let them curse, but you will bless. Let my assailants be put to shame; may your servant be glad.
29 May my accusers be clothed with dishonor; may they be wrapped in their own shame as in a mantle.
30 With my mouth I will give great thanks to the LORD ; I will praise him in the midst of the throng.
31 For he stands at the right hand of the needy, to save them from those who would condemn them to death.
(NRSV)
It is easy to get into accusation matches, blaming those around us for the evil that comes to us. If we listen closely we discover that many of those same accusations are being used against us by the very people we are accusing. In some cases we are simply copying the charges that others level against us, in most cases both sides are mutually guilty. We have done and sad bad things about the other because ‘they started it.’ One side either starts out with more power or is able to shift the power dynamic by bringing in allies and supporters who believe that they are the wronged party.
The psalmist brings God into the mix. God has a way of sorting through the messy situations we find ourselves in. There is something fair and impartial about God, something that won’t let us take an accusation against another farther than it needs to go. An elementary teacher I know used to short circuit the tattling that runs rampant through elementary classes by asking the student doing the tattling how they had contributed to the situation. ‘What did you do to start or continue to the situation you are trying to get someone else in trouble for?’ Denial was the first response; when pressed they could let the teacher know what they had done to keep the conflict going to the point that someone needed to intervene to put a stop to it. God has a way of keeping an eye on each one of us, already knowing how we participated in the escalation of the conflict, and bringing us to repentance and forgiveness.
There are situations in which one party is singled out so that those in power can exercise their dominance over the people around them. Some people are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time and they get chosen as the target of the influential and powerful people around them. Other times we add fuel to a fire that would have gone out on its own if we had only let it. Either way it is good to bring God into the situation. Looking through the eyes of God we can see where we need to lean on God for the strength to face the evil tide in which we have been taken up, and where we need to offer those around us our own repentance for our evil acts and forgiveness for those evil done against us. Either way God, “stands at the right hand of the needy, to save them from those who would condemn them to death.”
September 17, 2018
LCM
Proper 20
September 23, 2018
Psalm 109
1 Do not be silent, O God of my praise.
2 For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues.
3 They beset me with words of hate, and attack me without cause.
4 In return for my love they accuse me, even while I make prayer for them.
5 So they reward me evil for good, and hatred for my love.
6 They say, “Appoint a wicked man against him; let an accuser stand on his right.
7 When he is tried, let him be found guilty; let his prayer be counted as sin.
8 May his days be few; may another seize his position.
9 May his children be orphans, and his wife a widow.
10 May his children wander about and beg; may they be driven out of the ruins they inhabit.
11 May the creditor seize all that he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil.
12 May there be no one to do him a kindness, nor anyone to pity his orphaned children.
13 May his posterity be cut off; may his name be blotted out in the second generation.
14 May the iniquity of his father be remembered before the LORD , and do not let the sin of his mother be blotted out.
15 Let them be before the LORD continually, and may his memory be cut off from the earth.
16 For he did not remember to show kindness, but pursued the poor and needy and the brokenhearted to their death.
17 He loved to curse; let curses come on him. He did not like blessing; may it be far from him.
18 He clothed himself with cursing as his coat, may it soak into his body like water, like oil into his bones.
19 May it be like a garment that he wraps around himself, like a belt that he wears every day.”
20 May that be the reward of my accusers from the LORD , of those who speak evil against my life.
21 But you, O Lord my Lord, act on my behalf for your name’s sake; because your steadfast love is good, deliver me.
22 For I am poor and needy, and my heart is pierced within me.
23 I am gone like a shadow at evening; I am shaken off like a locust.
24 My knees are weak through fasting; my body has become gaunt.
25 I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they shake their heads.
26 Help me, O LORD my God! Save me according to your steadfast love.
27 Let them know that this is your hand; you, O LORD , have done it.
28 Let them curse, but you will bless. Let my assailants be put to shame; may your servant be glad.
29 May my accusers be clothed with dishonor; may they be wrapped in their own shame as in a mantle.
30 With my mouth I will give great thanks to the LORD ; I will praise him in the midst of the throng.
31 For he stands at the right hand of the needy, to save them from those who would condemn them to death.
(NRSV)
It is easy to get into accusation matches, blaming those around us for the evil that comes to us. If we listen closely we discover that many of those same accusations are being used against us by the very people we are accusing. In some cases we are simply copying the charges that others level against us, in most cases both sides are mutually guilty. We have done and sad bad things about the other because ‘they started it.’ One side either starts out with more power or is able to shift the power dynamic by bringing in allies and supporters who believe that they are the wronged party.
The psalmist brings God into the mix. God has a way of sorting through the messy situations we find ourselves in. There is something fair and impartial about God, something that won’t let us take an accusation against another farther than it needs to go. An elementary teacher I know used to short circuit the tattling that runs rampant through elementary classes by asking the student doing the tattling how they had contributed to the situation. ‘What did you do to start or continue to the situation you are trying to get someone else in trouble for?’ Denial was the first response; when pressed they could let the teacher know what they had done to keep the conflict going to the point that someone needed to intervene to put a stop to it. God has a way of keeping an eye on each one of us, already knowing how we participated in the escalation of the conflict, and bringing us to repentance and forgiveness.
There are situations in which one party is singled out so that those in power can exercise their dominance over the people around them. Some people are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time and they get chosen as the target of the influential and powerful people around them. Other times we add fuel to a fire that would have gone out on its own if we had only let it. Either way it is good to bring God into the situation. Looking through the eyes of God we can see where we need to lean on God for the strength to face the evil tide in which we have been taken up, and where we need to offer those around us our own repentance for our evil acts and forgiveness for those evil done against us. Either way God, “stands at the right hand of the needy, to save them from those who would condemn them to death.”
September 17, 2018
LCM
Monday, September 10, 2018
Psalm Meditation 952
Proper 19
September 16, 2018
Psalm 42
1 As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?
3 My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me continually, “Where is your God?”
4 These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I went with the throng, and led them in procession to the house of God, with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help
6 and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep at the thunder of your cataracts; all your waves and your billows have gone over me.
8 By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I walk about mournfully because the enemy oppresses me?”
10 As with a deadly wound in my body, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me continually, “Where is your God?”
11 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God.
(NRSV)
“Where is your God?” is a question we each have to deal with at some point in our lives. Someone will ask us to prove the existence of the divine in some form or other. And when we can’t offer them satisfactory proof they will consider themselves successful in debunking our faith. Without objective, verifiable, repeatable evidence the existence of divinity fails the tests of the scientific method and is thereby proven false. Or worse, we go through a crisis and ask the question internally. When we can’t find the answer in a verifiable way we move away from our previous assurance.
The enlightenment helped us do great damage to faith. It was the beginning of the scientific method, asking questions, running experiments and coming to objective, verifiable, repeatable conclusions. Science was so much fun we began to subject everything to the scientific method. If it couldn’t be proven, it wasn’t real. Folks set out to prove that the Bible is true, literal, and straight from the hand of God. There is an amazing amount of gymnastics involved in the process, twisting words, meanings, and concepts to fit into science. There were other parts of the Bible that had to be downplayed or ignored to fit into the science of the enlightenment and beyond.
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. “ (Hebrews 11:1) Questions about God are not science questions, they are faith questions. In faith we are not looking for proof, we are looking for assurance. When we have faith, the world has not changed. The events of the world are the same, our actions in it are not that different than they were prior to coming to faith. The difference is a sense of assurance that we are not alone, that we do not have to do everything ourselves, that we do not suffer in isolation.
“Where is your God?” asks us to look for answers without looking for proof. If something can be proven there is no need for faith in order to believe. Faith questions are not about proof, they are about intuition, gut feeling, assurance, you know, faith.
September 10, 2018
LCM
Proper 19
September 16, 2018
Psalm 42
1 As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?
3 My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me continually, “Where is your God?”
4 These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I went with the throng, and led them in procession to the house of God, with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help
6 and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep at the thunder of your cataracts; all your waves and your billows have gone over me.
8 By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I walk about mournfully because the enemy oppresses me?”
10 As with a deadly wound in my body, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me continually, “Where is your God?”
11 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God.
(NRSV)
“Where is your God?” is a question we each have to deal with at some point in our lives. Someone will ask us to prove the existence of the divine in some form or other. And when we can’t offer them satisfactory proof they will consider themselves successful in debunking our faith. Without objective, verifiable, repeatable evidence the existence of divinity fails the tests of the scientific method and is thereby proven false. Or worse, we go through a crisis and ask the question internally. When we can’t find the answer in a verifiable way we move away from our previous assurance.
The enlightenment helped us do great damage to faith. It was the beginning of the scientific method, asking questions, running experiments and coming to objective, verifiable, repeatable conclusions. Science was so much fun we began to subject everything to the scientific method. If it couldn’t be proven, it wasn’t real. Folks set out to prove that the Bible is true, literal, and straight from the hand of God. There is an amazing amount of gymnastics involved in the process, twisting words, meanings, and concepts to fit into science. There were other parts of the Bible that had to be downplayed or ignored to fit into the science of the enlightenment and beyond.
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. “ (Hebrews 11:1) Questions about God are not science questions, they are faith questions. In faith we are not looking for proof, we are looking for assurance. When we have faith, the world has not changed. The events of the world are the same, our actions in it are not that different than they were prior to coming to faith. The difference is a sense of assurance that we are not alone, that we do not have to do everything ourselves, that we do not suffer in isolation.
“Where is your God?” asks us to look for answers without looking for proof. If something can be proven there is no need for faith in order to believe. Faith questions are not about proof, they are about intuition, gut feeling, assurance, you know, faith.
September 10, 2018
LCM
Monday, September 3, 2018
Psalm Meditation 951
Proper 18
September 9, 2018
Psalm 11
1 In the LORD I take refuge; how can you say to me, “Flee like a bird to the mountains;
2 for look, the wicked bend the bow, they have fitted their arrow to the string, to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart.
3 If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
4 The LORD is in his holy temple; the LORD’s throne is in heaven. His eyes behold, his gaze examines humankind.
5 The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked, and his soul hates the lover of violence.
6 On the wicked he will rain coals of fire and sulfur; a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.
7 For the LORD is righteous; he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face.
(NRSV)
In a Bible study years ago, as we talked about our relationship with God, Margaret told us that she and her neighbor had each lost a son in war. The neighbor said, “If there was a God, my son would not have died.” Margaret said, “If it hadn’t been for God, I never would have made it through the death of my son.” Two people going through similar experiences coming to radically different conclusions. They each suffered a great loss and dealt with that loss in a different way.
The psalmist is being warned to flee from the prospect of suffering at the hands of the wicked. These are shots in the dark, taken to threaten and intimidate those toward whom the shots are loosed. ‘It isn’t personal.’ is what the archer will say. There was no aiming involved or a specific target in eye or mind. It was a shot in the dark. The psalmist is willing to take a chance, trusting in the presence of God.
As Margaret and her neighbor demonstrate, the presence of God is no guarantee that no one will be hurt. The presence of God guarantees only that God is with us no matter what. Whether we live or die, are injured or whole, righteous or wicked God is with us. God rains judgment on the wicked to purify them. God welcomes the upright into the place where God is met face to face.
September 3, 2018
LCM
Proper 18
September 9, 2018
Psalm 11
1 In the LORD I take refuge; how can you say to me, “Flee like a bird to the mountains;
2 for look, the wicked bend the bow, they have fitted their arrow to the string, to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart.
3 If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
4 The LORD is in his holy temple; the LORD’s throne is in heaven. His eyes behold, his gaze examines humankind.
5 The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked, and his soul hates the lover of violence.
6 On the wicked he will rain coals of fire and sulfur; a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.
7 For the LORD is righteous; he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face.
(NRSV)
In a Bible study years ago, as we talked about our relationship with God, Margaret told us that she and her neighbor had each lost a son in war. The neighbor said, “If there was a God, my son would not have died.” Margaret said, “If it hadn’t been for God, I never would have made it through the death of my son.” Two people going through similar experiences coming to radically different conclusions. They each suffered a great loss and dealt with that loss in a different way.
The psalmist is being warned to flee from the prospect of suffering at the hands of the wicked. These are shots in the dark, taken to threaten and intimidate those toward whom the shots are loosed. ‘It isn’t personal.’ is what the archer will say. There was no aiming involved or a specific target in eye or mind. It was a shot in the dark. The psalmist is willing to take a chance, trusting in the presence of God.
As Margaret and her neighbor demonstrate, the presence of God is no guarantee that no one will be hurt. The presence of God guarantees only that God is with us no matter what. Whether we live or die, are injured or whole, righteous or wicked God is with us. God rains judgment on the wicked to purify them. God welcomes the upright into the place where God is met face to face.
September 3, 2018
LCM
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