Psalm Meditation 998
Proper 13
August 4, 2019
Psalm 128
1 Happy is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways.
2 You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be happy, and it shall go well with you.
3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table.
4 Thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord.
5 The Lord bless you from Zion. May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life
6 May you see your children’s children. Peace be upon Israel!
(NRSV)
We can beat ourselves up pretty badly when we compare ourselves to the people around us. We use the wrong criteria for our judgments, we make assumptions about the success of the other, and we forget about one of the most important aspects of any life. When we start by looking at problematic information, we end with problematic conclusions.
One of the ways we compare ourselves to others is income. Do they make more than me? They must be better at what they do, or what they do is more important than what I do. We assume that the position the other is in is somehow better than mine for some arbitrary reason. We forget that being happy is way more important than a lot of the standards we use to judge our relative worth. We forget that high profile positions have more stresses than rewards. We forget that more money is a way to compensate people for more headaches and heartaches.
Of course, comparing ourselves to others is always a problem. Since we don’t do the exact same work in the exact same place, any comparison is faulty. Since we know what is in our own heart and head without knowing what is in the other person’s heart and head, we make bad judgments about our apples and their oranges. Am I happy where I am? Do I have healthy relationships with the people around me? Does the presence of God in each of our lives make a positive difference? “Thus shall the [person] be blessed who fears the Lord.”
July 29, 2019
LCM
Monday, July 29, 2019
Monday, July 22, 2019
Psalm Meditation 997
Proper 12
July 28, 2019
Psalm 28
1 To you, O Lord, I call; my rock, do not refuse to hear me, for if you are silent to me, I shall be like those who go down to the Pit.
2 Hear the voice of my supplication, as I cry to you for help, as I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary.
3 Do not drag me away with the wicked, with those who are workers of evil, who speak peace with their neighbors, while mischief is in their hearts.
4 Repay them according to their work, and according to the evil of their deeds; repay them according to the work of their hands; render them their due reward.
5 Because they do not regard the works of the Lord, or the work of his hands, he will break them down and build them up no more.
6 Blessed be the Lord, for he has heard the sound of my pleadings.
7 The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts; so I am helped, and my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.
8 The Lord is the strength of his people; he is the saving refuge of his anointed.
9 O save your people, and bless your heritage; be their shepherd, and carry them forever.
(NRSV)
We tend to judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their actions. When we mess up, we know what our intentions were, so the screw up does not seem so bad. When someone else messes up, we can only see the results, so we assume that their result is what they wanted to do all along. Because all we know is the visible part, we read their motives back into their actions. On top of all that, if we like them we assign them positive motives and if we don’t we assign them negative motivations.
The psalmist knows that those seen as wicked meant to do the things that did damage. At the same time the psalmists asks not to be dragged off with those wicked people because of the relationship the psalmist has with God. ‘We are such good buddies, you couldn’t possibly do the terrible things to me that I want you to do to ‘those’ people.’ We can only hope that the psalmist is correct in assessing who is good and who is wicked.
It is a good idea to be careful in our assessment of good and evil. What we think is good can be received by another as evil. What is good for us can have a disastrous consequence for someone who was not considered in our plan. We do our best to live up to our motives, to serve God to the best of our ability, and put ourselves and others at the mercy of God.
July 22, 2019
LCM
Proper 12
July 28, 2019
Psalm 28
1 To you, O Lord, I call; my rock, do not refuse to hear me, for if you are silent to me, I shall be like those who go down to the Pit.
2 Hear the voice of my supplication, as I cry to you for help, as I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary.
3 Do not drag me away with the wicked, with those who are workers of evil, who speak peace with their neighbors, while mischief is in their hearts.
4 Repay them according to their work, and according to the evil of their deeds; repay them according to the work of their hands; render them their due reward.
5 Because they do not regard the works of the Lord, or the work of his hands, he will break them down and build them up no more.
6 Blessed be the Lord, for he has heard the sound of my pleadings.
7 The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts; so I am helped, and my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.
8 The Lord is the strength of his people; he is the saving refuge of his anointed.
9 O save your people, and bless your heritage; be their shepherd, and carry them forever.
(NRSV)
We tend to judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their actions. When we mess up, we know what our intentions were, so the screw up does not seem so bad. When someone else messes up, we can only see the results, so we assume that their result is what they wanted to do all along. Because all we know is the visible part, we read their motives back into their actions. On top of all that, if we like them we assign them positive motives and if we don’t we assign them negative motivations.
The psalmist knows that those seen as wicked meant to do the things that did damage. At the same time the psalmists asks not to be dragged off with those wicked people because of the relationship the psalmist has with God. ‘We are such good buddies, you couldn’t possibly do the terrible things to me that I want you to do to ‘those’ people.’ We can only hope that the psalmist is correct in assessing who is good and who is wicked.
It is a good idea to be careful in our assessment of good and evil. What we think is good can be received by another as evil. What is good for us can have a disastrous consequence for someone who was not considered in our plan. We do our best to live up to our motives, to serve God to the best of our ability, and put ourselves and others at the mercy of God.
July 22, 2019
LCM
Monday, July 15, 2019
Psalm Meditation 996
Proper 11
July 21, 2019
Psalm 103
1 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits—
3 who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the Pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
5 who satisfies you with good as long as you live so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
6 The Lord works vindication and justice for all who are oppressed.
7 He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel.
8 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9 He will not always accuse, nor will he keep his anger forever.
10 He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us.
13 As a father has compassion for his children, so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him.
14 For he knows how we were made; he remembers that we are dust.
15 As for mortals, their days are like grass; they flourish like a flower of the field;
16 for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.
17 But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children,
18 to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. 19 The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.
20 Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, obedient to his spoken word.
21 Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers that do his will.
22 Bless the Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul.
(NRSV)
This is my favorite psalm: for what it says, and for the memories it holds for me. The psalmist reminds us to bless God, to acknowledge God’s holiness, for a variety of divine deeds that touch us directly and indirectly. All the blessings focus on the steadfast love of God; all the ways that love manifests itself in our lives, as well as the eternal character of the love God has for us. The psalmist ends by expanding the invitation to bless the Lord to all who have been touched by the steadfast love of God.
As far as the memories; my father would wake us up with the first two verses of the psalm on a regular basis, as I remember. His was a comforting, pleasant voice, so any words would have worked to awaken us. That it was this psalm melded both word and voice into a word of comfort. Then in high school, I was in a group that sang the music from Godspell. One of the songs is based on this psalm. It started out just for fun, and led to some life changing friendships and experiences. In college, I was in a production of the play. We travelled to churches in the state and beyond. All three groups, and the people in them, continue to hold a special place in my heart and memory.
Each of us has a favorite Scripture passage that means something beyond the words themselves. It will hold memories of the events and people who contributed to making the passage a favorite. For some of us it will be on the surface of our lives and memories. For others it will be covered with a layer or two of dust and detritus. Either way, I invite you to take it out, hold it in your hands and use it as an opportunity to: Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits—
July 15, 2019
LCM
Proper 11
July 21, 2019
Psalm 103
1 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits—
3 who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the Pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
5 who satisfies you with good as long as you live so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
6 The Lord works vindication and justice for all who are oppressed.
7 He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel.
8 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9 He will not always accuse, nor will he keep his anger forever.
10 He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us.
13 As a father has compassion for his children, so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him.
14 For he knows how we were made; he remembers that we are dust.
15 As for mortals, their days are like grass; they flourish like a flower of the field;
16 for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.
17 But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children,
18 to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. 19 The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.
20 Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, obedient to his spoken word.
21 Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers that do his will.
22 Bless the Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul.
(NRSV)
This is my favorite psalm: for what it says, and for the memories it holds for me. The psalmist reminds us to bless God, to acknowledge God’s holiness, for a variety of divine deeds that touch us directly and indirectly. All the blessings focus on the steadfast love of God; all the ways that love manifests itself in our lives, as well as the eternal character of the love God has for us. The psalmist ends by expanding the invitation to bless the Lord to all who have been touched by the steadfast love of God.
As far as the memories; my father would wake us up with the first two verses of the psalm on a regular basis, as I remember. His was a comforting, pleasant voice, so any words would have worked to awaken us. That it was this psalm melded both word and voice into a word of comfort. Then in high school, I was in a group that sang the music from Godspell. One of the songs is based on this psalm. It started out just for fun, and led to some life changing friendships and experiences. In college, I was in a production of the play. We travelled to churches in the state and beyond. All three groups, and the people in them, continue to hold a special place in my heart and memory.
Each of us has a favorite Scripture passage that means something beyond the words themselves. It will hold memories of the events and people who contributed to making the passage a favorite. For some of us it will be on the surface of our lives and memories. For others it will be covered with a layer or two of dust and detritus. Either way, I invite you to take it out, hold it in your hands and use it as an opportunity to: Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits—
July 15, 2019
LCM
Monday, July 8, 2019
Psalm Meditation 995
Proper 10
July 14, 2019
Psalm 3
1 O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me;
2 many are saying to me, “There is no help for you in God.” Selah
3 But you, O Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, and the one who lifts up my head.
4 I cry aloud to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy hill. Selah
5 I lie down and sleep; I wake again, for the Lord sustains me.
6 I am not afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.
7 Rise up, O Lord! Deliver me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked.
8 Deliverance belongs to the Lord; may your blessing be on your people! Selah
(NRSV)
There are people in the world who are victims. They did not choose to be victims; they do not announce it, they do not celebrate it, they do not want to be victims. Someone has decided that another person or group has a price to pay for a real or imagine fault or crime. One of the reasons a person becomes a victim is their relative powerlessness. There is someone more powerful who has decided to use their power advantage to demean, demoralize, and destroy their chosen victim. The psalmist cries out for those victims.
Despite the claims of the oppressor, “There is no help for you in God.” the psalmist acknowledges the presence of God as a shield and protector. The help the psalmist experiences may not be evident to those who stand over the victims, however the psalmist knows that God offers something richer and deeper than the oppressors themselves have. God offers presence, being with those who are victimized, that restores hope, dignity, and peace in the face of powerful foes.
For those whose victimhood is real, there is no other hope than in God. The situation is not going to go away, it is not going to get better on its own, the pendulum will not swing the other way making the current victim the victor. God’s presence does not deliver folks from destruction; God offers a presence that delivers victims from the demeaning and demoralizing parts of victimization. God is with us, leading us in the way that leads to hope, dignity, and peace for each of us, and for all of us.
July 8, 2019
LCM
Proper 10
July 14, 2019
Psalm 3
1 O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me;
2 many are saying to me, “There is no help for you in God.” Selah
3 But you, O Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, and the one who lifts up my head.
4 I cry aloud to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy hill. Selah
5 I lie down and sleep; I wake again, for the Lord sustains me.
6 I am not afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.
7 Rise up, O Lord! Deliver me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked.
8 Deliverance belongs to the Lord; may your blessing be on your people! Selah
(NRSV)
There are people in the world who are victims. They did not choose to be victims; they do not announce it, they do not celebrate it, they do not want to be victims. Someone has decided that another person or group has a price to pay for a real or imagine fault or crime. One of the reasons a person becomes a victim is their relative powerlessness. There is someone more powerful who has decided to use their power advantage to demean, demoralize, and destroy their chosen victim. The psalmist cries out for those victims.
Despite the claims of the oppressor, “There is no help for you in God.” the psalmist acknowledges the presence of God as a shield and protector. The help the psalmist experiences may not be evident to those who stand over the victims, however the psalmist knows that God offers something richer and deeper than the oppressors themselves have. God offers presence, being with those who are victimized, that restores hope, dignity, and peace in the face of powerful foes.
For those whose victimhood is real, there is no other hope than in God. The situation is not going to go away, it is not going to get better on its own, the pendulum will not swing the other way making the current victim the victor. God’s presence does not deliver folks from destruction; God offers a presence that delivers victims from the demeaning and demoralizing parts of victimization. God is with us, leading us in the way that leads to hope, dignity, and peace for each of us, and for all of us.
July 8, 2019
LCM
Monday, July 1, 2019
Psalm Meditation 994
Proper 9
July 7, 2019
Psalm 78:1-11,40-57,72
1 Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old,
3 things that we have heard and known, that our ancestors have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children; we will tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done.
5 He established a decree in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach to their children;
6 that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and rise up and tell them to their children,
7 so that they should set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments;
8 and that they should not be like their ancestors, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.
9 The Ephraimites, armed with the bow, turned back on the day of battle.
10 They did not keep God’s covenant, but refused to walk according to his law.
11 They forgot what he had done, and the miracles that he had shown them.
40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert!
41 They tested God again and again, and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not keep in mind his power, or the day when he redeemed them from the foe;
43 when he displayed his signs in Egypt, and his miracles in the fields of Zoan.
44 He turned their rivers to blood, so that they could not drink of their streams.
45 He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them.
46 He gave their crops to the caterpillar, and the fruit of their labor to the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamores with frost.
48 He gave over their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to thunderbolts.
49 He let loose on them his fierce anger, wrath, indignation, and distress, a company of destroying angels.
50 He made a path for his anger; he did not spare them from death, but gave their lives over to the plague.
51 He struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the first issue of their strength in the tents of Ham.
52 Then he led out his people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
53 He led them in safety, so that they were not afraid; but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
54 And he brought them to his holy hill, to the mountain that his right hand had won.
55 He drove out nations before them; he apportioned them for a possession and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
56 Yet they tested the Most High God, and rebelled against him. They did not observe his decrees,
57 but turned away and were faithless like their ancestors; they twisted like a treacherous bow.
72 With upright heart he tended them, and guided them with skillful hand.
(NRSV)
When your teenagers tell you, “I hate you.” experts advise accepting their words without judgment, and showing them how loved they are in return. It is tempting to make it a competition, however the intent is to let them know that their hateful words do not determine your reaction and do not define your relationship. It is not up to a person in the midst of a developmental rush of hormones and independence to make the rules of parent / child interactions.
The psalmist reminds the nation that they have a long history of having God interact with them in a way that lets them know that they are loved and cared for in a special way, only to wander away from God. The selected verses tell of the plagues visited on the Egyptians in order to convince them to let the people of God go on their way to their homeland. After all of the plagues, and the release of the people from bondage, they go out into the wilderness and complain that God does not care about them. With gobs of evidence to the contrary, the people believe that God does not love them. They become convinced that God is out to get them, because they are hungry and thirsty for a moment. The people of God want to know, not that God loves them, but that God will cater to their every whim.
When we begin to wonder if God loves us, if God has abandoned us because of a set of trials we are experiencing, we can look to this psalm as a reminder. Not only does God love and care for us, God loves and cares for us even when we have wandered off on our own path. We may wonder why God has not followed us down the path we have chosen. This psalm reminds us to turn around, to see if God is motioning for us to come back before we get to the danger we did not see, or if God is standing back letting us make our choices so that we learn that there are consequences to what we do and where we go. In either case, it is important to look back so that we know, no matter what, we are loved.
July 1, 2019
LCM
Proper 9
July 7, 2019
Psalm 78:1-11,40-57,72
1 Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old,
3 things that we have heard and known, that our ancestors have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children; we will tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done.
5 He established a decree in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach to their children;
6 that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and rise up and tell them to their children,
7 so that they should set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments;
8 and that they should not be like their ancestors, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.
9 The Ephraimites, armed with the bow, turned back on the day of battle.
10 They did not keep God’s covenant, but refused to walk according to his law.
11 They forgot what he had done, and the miracles that he had shown them.
40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert!
41 They tested God again and again, and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not keep in mind his power, or the day when he redeemed them from the foe;
43 when he displayed his signs in Egypt, and his miracles in the fields of Zoan.
44 He turned their rivers to blood, so that they could not drink of their streams.
45 He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them.
46 He gave their crops to the caterpillar, and the fruit of their labor to the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamores with frost.
48 He gave over their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to thunderbolts.
49 He let loose on them his fierce anger, wrath, indignation, and distress, a company of destroying angels.
50 He made a path for his anger; he did not spare them from death, but gave their lives over to the plague.
51 He struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the first issue of their strength in the tents of Ham.
52 Then he led out his people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
53 He led them in safety, so that they were not afraid; but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
54 And he brought them to his holy hill, to the mountain that his right hand had won.
55 He drove out nations before them; he apportioned them for a possession and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
56 Yet they tested the Most High God, and rebelled against him. They did not observe his decrees,
57 but turned away and were faithless like their ancestors; they twisted like a treacherous bow.
72 With upright heart he tended them, and guided them with skillful hand.
(NRSV)
When your teenagers tell you, “I hate you.” experts advise accepting their words without judgment, and showing them how loved they are in return. It is tempting to make it a competition, however the intent is to let them know that their hateful words do not determine your reaction and do not define your relationship. It is not up to a person in the midst of a developmental rush of hormones and independence to make the rules of parent / child interactions.
The psalmist reminds the nation that they have a long history of having God interact with them in a way that lets them know that they are loved and cared for in a special way, only to wander away from God. The selected verses tell of the plagues visited on the Egyptians in order to convince them to let the people of God go on their way to their homeland. After all of the plagues, and the release of the people from bondage, they go out into the wilderness and complain that God does not care about them. With gobs of evidence to the contrary, the people believe that God does not love them. They become convinced that God is out to get them, because they are hungry and thirsty for a moment. The people of God want to know, not that God loves them, but that God will cater to their every whim.
When we begin to wonder if God loves us, if God has abandoned us because of a set of trials we are experiencing, we can look to this psalm as a reminder. Not only does God love and care for us, God loves and cares for us even when we have wandered off on our own path. We may wonder why God has not followed us down the path we have chosen. This psalm reminds us to turn around, to see if God is motioning for us to come back before we get to the danger we did not see, or if God is standing back letting us make our choices so that we learn that there are consequences to what we do and where we go. In either case, it is important to look back so that we know, no matter what, we are loved.
July 1, 2019
LCM
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