Psalm Meditation 1007
Proper 22
October 6, 2019
Psalm 5
1 Give ear to my words, O Lord; give heed to my sighing.
2 Listen to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you I pray.
3 O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I plead my case to you, and watch.
4 For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil will not sojourn with you.
5 The boastful will not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers.
6 You destroy those who speak lies; the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful.
7 But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house, I will bow down toward your holy temple in awe of you.
8 Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies; make your way straight before me.
9 For there is no truth in their mouths; their hearts are destruction; their throats are open graves; they flatter with their tongues.
10 Make them bear their guilt, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; because of their many transgressions cast them out, for they have rebelled against you.
11 But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, so that those who love your name may exult in you.
12 For you bless the righteous, O Lord; you cover them with favor as with a shield.
(NRSV)
We are better at recognizing when those around us do things to earn their place in the presence of God. We might not be as good at seeing that at work in our lives. When we do something because we should, we are trying to earn someone else’s love and respect. One of my teachers said that ‘should, ought, must, and supposed to,’ rise from external influence. We do those things because someone else is driving our decision making. It could be family, friend, or boss who is pressing us to do what they want done. If we are acting because we feel as if God is pushing us, we are attempting to earn God’s love.
The other side of the expectation list is, ‘want, wish, hope, desire, and feel like’ doing things. This side of the list is from internal influence. We act because there is something within us drives our action. In between the two lists is, ‘need to, and have to.’ We ‘need to’ do something because of external influence, ‘should...’, or from something inside us, ‘want…’. On the ‘want’ side of the list we act from our own motivation. Gratitude rises from the ‘want’ side. In verse 7 of this psalm, the entering, bowing, and awe in the temple are responses to the steadfast love of God. The response is not demanded by God, it is the psalmist’s heartfelt desire in the experience of God’s love.
There are days in which we serve God and others out of sense of duty, because we can’t find the motivation within ourselves. Most days we serve God because there is something within us that is looking for a way to offer our joy and gratitude as a response to all that God does for us. The psalmist enters the temple in response to God’s steadfast love rather than out of a sense of obligation, as a way to earn the love of God. Worship and service done out of obligation leads to resentment and burn out. Worship and service done in response to God’s love leads to rejoicing, blessing, and awe.
September 30, 2019
LCM
Monday, September 30, 2019
Monday, September 23, 2019
Psalm Meditation 1006
Proper 21
September 29, 2019
Psalm 80
1 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock! You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth
2 before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh. Stir up your might, and come to save us!
3 Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved.
4 O Lord God of hosts, how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers?
5 You have fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in full measure.
6 You make us the scorn of our neighbors; our enemies laugh among themselves.
7 Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved.
8 You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it.
9 You cleared the ground for it; it took deep root and filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches;
11 it sent out its branches to the sea, and its shoots to the River.
12 Why then have you broken down its walls, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?
13 The boar from the forest ravages it, and all that move in the field feed on it.
14 Turn again, O God of hosts; look down from heaven, and see; have regard for this vine,
15 the stock that your right hand planted.
16 They have burned it with fire, they have cut it down; may they perish at the rebuke of your countenance.
17 But let your hand be upon the one at your right hand, the one whom you made strong for yourself.
18 Then we will never turn back from you; give us life, and we will call on your name.
19 Restore us, O Lord God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved.
(NRSV)
Out of this whole psalm, one sentence continues to jump out at me, “Then we will never turn back from you; give us life, and we will call on your name.” I too have said something like this and it has been as false for me as it was for the psalmist and the people of that time. When we are in a situation from which we see no easy way out, we call on God to help us. As a part of our request we make this deal, ‘if you get me out of this, I will do that for you for the rest of my life.’ Most of the time, our promises are sincere in the moment. Other times, we are aware that we are making a promise that we can’t possibly keep—and we make it anyway. Verse 18 strikes me as this kind of promise.
There is, by the time of the psalm, a long history of people making and breaking promises to each other and to God with varying degrees of sincerity. Without questioning the intent of the psalmist to keep this word, it seems a foolish promise to make for a whole nation and forever. I know I am reading my own guilt into this, remembering one particular bargaining session in which I made a promise I knew I was unable/unwilling to keep. In high school I promised God that I would go to church at least once a week for the rest of my life if God would get my brothers and me out of the ditch we were in. I was especially intent on God getting us out of this one because I had been partially responsible for getting us in there in the first place.
I have no doubt that God loves to hear from us, no matter what it going on in our lives. The celebrations, the intercessions, and laments are all connections we initiate with God to deepen the relationship God initiated with us. Because God knows us better than we know ourselves, I imagine that there is a certain amount of eye rolling on God’s part when we make promises that are sincere even though there is no way we can live out the promise. And more serious eye rolls when we make promises that we both know are disingenuous/insincere even as we make them. Fortunately, God is with us and loves us no matter what.
September 23, 2019
LCM
Proper 21
September 29, 2019
Psalm 80
1 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock! You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth
2 before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh. Stir up your might, and come to save us!
3 Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved.
4 O Lord God of hosts, how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers?
5 You have fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in full measure.
6 You make us the scorn of our neighbors; our enemies laugh among themselves.
7 Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved.
8 You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it.
9 You cleared the ground for it; it took deep root and filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches;
11 it sent out its branches to the sea, and its shoots to the River.
12 Why then have you broken down its walls, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?
13 The boar from the forest ravages it, and all that move in the field feed on it.
14 Turn again, O God of hosts; look down from heaven, and see; have regard for this vine,
15 the stock that your right hand planted.
16 They have burned it with fire, they have cut it down; may they perish at the rebuke of your countenance.
17 But let your hand be upon the one at your right hand, the one whom you made strong for yourself.
18 Then we will never turn back from you; give us life, and we will call on your name.
19 Restore us, O Lord God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved.
(NRSV)
Out of this whole psalm, one sentence continues to jump out at me, “Then we will never turn back from you; give us life, and we will call on your name.” I too have said something like this and it has been as false for me as it was for the psalmist and the people of that time. When we are in a situation from which we see no easy way out, we call on God to help us. As a part of our request we make this deal, ‘if you get me out of this, I will do that for you for the rest of my life.’ Most of the time, our promises are sincere in the moment. Other times, we are aware that we are making a promise that we can’t possibly keep—and we make it anyway. Verse 18 strikes me as this kind of promise.
There is, by the time of the psalm, a long history of people making and breaking promises to each other and to God with varying degrees of sincerity. Without questioning the intent of the psalmist to keep this word, it seems a foolish promise to make for a whole nation and forever. I know I am reading my own guilt into this, remembering one particular bargaining session in which I made a promise I knew I was unable/unwilling to keep. In high school I promised God that I would go to church at least once a week for the rest of my life if God would get my brothers and me out of the ditch we were in. I was especially intent on God getting us out of this one because I had been partially responsible for getting us in there in the first place.
I have no doubt that God loves to hear from us, no matter what it going on in our lives. The celebrations, the intercessions, and laments are all connections we initiate with God to deepen the relationship God initiated with us. Because God knows us better than we know ourselves, I imagine that there is a certain amount of eye rolling on God’s part when we make promises that are sincere even though there is no way we can live out the promise. And more serious eye rolls when we make promises that we both know are disingenuous/insincere even as we make them. Fortunately, God is with us and loves us no matter what.
September 23, 2019
LCM
Monday, September 16, 2019
Psalm Meditation 1005
Proper 20
September 22, 2019
Psalm 54
1 Save me, O God, by your name, and vindicate me by your might.
2 Hear my prayer, O God; give ear to the words of my mouth.
3 For the insolent have risen against me, the ruthless seek my life; they do not set God before them. Selah
4 But surely, God is my helper; the Lord is the upholder of my life.
5 He will repay my enemies for their evil. In your faithfulness, put an end to them.
6 With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you; I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good.
7 For he has delivered me from every trouble, and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies.
(NRSV)
Some days there is nothing better than to stick your thumbs in your ears, stick out your tongue, and do a victory dance in the face of those who have been picking on you. It is especially rich if you can do all that right behind your protector, so only your adversary can see you. Even knowing that it may start the cycle all over again as soon as the protector walks away, it seems worth it for right now.
Unless that protector sees your victory dance and invites you into a conversation about being a gracious winner. At best, it will be a quiet invitation out of view and earshot of the recently vanquished adversary. At worst, you will be called out right there in front of those folks, giving them fresh fuel for the next fire. The conversation will remind you that victory dances and gloating are neither helpful nor healthy. Even the inner gloating that lays the hint of a smirk on your face is not the way to treat anyone.
The psalmist calls on God to be the protector, as in times past, to beat the enemy out of existence. While we may interpret the actions of God as wrathful and destructive, the true path of God is to find a way to draw all of us together so that we can enter the realm of God as brothers and sisters (who still have our share of disagreements) rather than as armed camps of ‘us’ against ‘them.’
September 16, 2019
LCM lcrsmanifold@att.net
http://psalmmeditations.blogspot.com/
Proper 20
September 22, 2019
Psalm 54
1 Save me, O God, by your name, and vindicate me by your might.
2 Hear my prayer, O God; give ear to the words of my mouth.
3 For the insolent have risen against me, the ruthless seek my life; they do not set God before them. Selah
4 But surely, God is my helper; the Lord is the upholder of my life.
5 He will repay my enemies for their evil. In your faithfulness, put an end to them.
6 With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you; I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good.
7 For he has delivered me from every trouble, and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies.
(NRSV)
Some days there is nothing better than to stick your thumbs in your ears, stick out your tongue, and do a victory dance in the face of those who have been picking on you. It is especially rich if you can do all that right behind your protector, so only your adversary can see you. Even knowing that it may start the cycle all over again as soon as the protector walks away, it seems worth it for right now.
Unless that protector sees your victory dance and invites you into a conversation about being a gracious winner. At best, it will be a quiet invitation out of view and earshot of the recently vanquished adversary. At worst, you will be called out right there in front of those folks, giving them fresh fuel for the next fire. The conversation will remind you that victory dances and gloating are neither helpful nor healthy. Even the inner gloating that lays the hint of a smirk on your face is not the way to treat anyone.
The psalmist calls on God to be the protector, as in times past, to beat the enemy out of existence. While we may interpret the actions of God as wrathful and destructive, the true path of God is to find a way to draw all of us together so that we can enter the realm of God as brothers and sisters (who still have our share of disagreements) rather than as armed camps of ‘us’ against ‘them.’
September 16, 2019
LCM lcrsmanifold@att.net
http://psalmmeditations.blogspot.com/
Monday, September 9, 2019
Psalm Meditation 1004
Proper 19
September 15, 2019
Psalm 129
1 “Often have they attacked me from my youth”—let Israel now say—
2 “often have they attacked me from my youth, yet they have not prevailed against me.
3 The plowers plowed on my back; they made their furrows long.”
4 The Lord is righteous; he has cut the cords of the wicked.
5 May all who hate Zion be put to shame and turned backward.
6 Let them be like the grass on the housetops that withers before it grows up,
7 with which reapers do not fill their hands or binders of sheaves their arms,
8 while those who pass by do not say, “The blessing of the Lord be upon you! We bless you in the name of the Lord!”
(NRSV)
The phrase that jumped out at me for today is, “yet they have not prevailed against me.” When we have been attacked, whether it be physically, spiritually, or emotionally, the temptation is to see ourselves as victims. We feel beaten down and defeated, as if we will never be able to survive another onslaught on that level. That may or may not be true. What is important for this time, for today, is that we survived. Our adversary has beaten us and is still standing, however, we are alive, we have not been completely defeated. We are able to be cared for, alone or with help, in a way that will get us back on our feet.
We are not unchanged or unscathed. We have been broken and defeated, “yet they have not prevailed against me.” We will need some time to heal, and to do that we will need support. One of the supports we can count on is the presence of God. While the psalmist says that God will deal with those who have hurt us, I believe it is more important to realize that God is with us. God becomes our chief supporter, holding on to us in the face of this attack. We will never see the world through the lens we once used, our innocence is gone, and our trust has a mature nuance to it. However, we feel the hand of God holding us as we move from innocence to maturity.
It is likely that we will join the psalmist in encouraging God to go get all the folks responsible for our pain and suffering. We will look on their destruction with a certain glee. And then we will discover that God does not work that way. God is not one we can call upon to destroy our enemies with fire and violence. If we could, how many of our adversaries would have called down fire and violence on us? Nope, God works through healing presence, through grace, through peace, through love. We can ask God to rain fire on our enemies, and it will not happen because God does not work that way. God will hold us closer and whisper the reminder, “yet they have not prevailed against me.”
September 9, 2019
LCM
Proper 19
September 15, 2019
Psalm 129
1 “Often have they attacked me from my youth”—let Israel now say—
2 “often have they attacked me from my youth, yet they have not prevailed against me.
3 The plowers plowed on my back; they made their furrows long.”
4 The Lord is righteous; he has cut the cords of the wicked.
5 May all who hate Zion be put to shame and turned backward.
6 Let them be like the grass on the housetops that withers before it grows up,
7 with which reapers do not fill their hands or binders of sheaves their arms,
8 while those who pass by do not say, “The blessing of the Lord be upon you! We bless you in the name of the Lord!”
(NRSV)
The phrase that jumped out at me for today is, “yet they have not prevailed against me.” When we have been attacked, whether it be physically, spiritually, or emotionally, the temptation is to see ourselves as victims. We feel beaten down and defeated, as if we will never be able to survive another onslaught on that level. That may or may not be true. What is important for this time, for today, is that we survived. Our adversary has beaten us and is still standing, however, we are alive, we have not been completely defeated. We are able to be cared for, alone or with help, in a way that will get us back on our feet.
We are not unchanged or unscathed. We have been broken and defeated, “yet they have not prevailed against me.” We will need some time to heal, and to do that we will need support. One of the supports we can count on is the presence of God. While the psalmist says that God will deal with those who have hurt us, I believe it is more important to realize that God is with us. God becomes our chief supporter, holding on to us in the face of this attack. We will never see the world through the lens we once used, our innocence is gone, and our trust has a mature nuance to it. However, we feel the hand of God holding us as we move from innocence to maturity.
It is likely that we will join the psalmist in encouraging God to go get all the folks responsible for our pain and suffering. We will look on their destruction with a certain glee. And then we will discover that God does not work that way. God is not one we can call upon to destroy our enemies with fire and violence. If we could, how many of our adversaries would have called down fire and violence on us? Nope, God works through healing presence, through grace, through peace, through love. We can ask God to rain fire on our enemies, and it will not happen because God does not work that way. God will hold us closer and whisper the reminder, “yet they have not prevailed against me.”
September 9, 2019
LCM
Monday, September 2, 2019
Psalm Meditation 1003
Proper 18
September 8, 2019
Psalm 29
1 Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
2 Ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name; worship the Lord in holy splendor.
3 The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over mighty waters.
4 The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.
5 The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
6 He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox.
7 The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire.
8 The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness; the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
9 The voice of the Lord causes the oaks to whirl, and strips the forest bare; and in his temple all say, “Glory!”
10 The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord sits enthroned as king forever.
11 May the Lord give strength to his people! May the Lord bless his people with peace!
(NRSV)
Some voices command attention. It has very little to do with the volume of the voice, it is a quality of the sound that makes us want to listen. The person behind the voice has a way of using it that is both compelling and soothing. God has one of those voices. There is enough power in the voice of God to break a cedar tree, there is a gentleness in God’s voice that brings peace and encouragement to those who hear it. While the voice of God can bring about scary events, That same voice can bring us calm in the midst of storms and trials.
There are those whose attempts at imitating the voice of God include volume and frightening words. If they can get us to tremble and react with fear they feel as if they have copied the voice of God. They bring no comfort because their interest is in power and control. To them, the voice of God is the voice power, the voice that grabs people at their more fearful, their most vulnerable and tells them that their fears are justified. If only they will listen and follow, we will destroy our enemies. Sadly, once one enemy is destroyed, we are told that there is a new enemy who is at least as great a threat as the previous.
There are others who imitate the voice of God with words and tone of comfort. In the face of evil threat it is their voice that offers words of calm so that we can face any enemy or adversary with the full use of our rationality and companion strengths. They draw us in to a world view of meeting challenges in a way that brings out our best. The psalmist sees God in this light. Within the power to break things with a word, the voice of God leads us to the peace of confidence in God. We are blessed in the glorious presence of God.
September 2, 2019
LCM
Proper 18
September 8, 2019
Psalm 29
1 Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
2 Ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name; worship the Lord in holy splendor.
3 The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over mighty waters.
4 The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.
5 The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
6 He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox.
7 The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire.
8 The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness; the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
9 The voice of the Lord causes the oaks to whirl, and strips the forest bare; and in his temple all say, “Glory!”
10 The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord sits enthroned as king forever.
11 May the Lord give strength to his people! May the Lord bless his people with peace!
(NRSV)
Some voices command attention. It has very little to do with the volume of the voice, it is a quality of the sound that makes us want to listen. The person behind the voice has a way of using it that is both compelling and soothing. God has one of those voices. There is enough power in the voice of God to break a cedar tree, there is a gentleness in God’s voice that brings peace and encouragement to those who hear it. While the voice of God can bring about scary events, That same voice can bring us calm in the midst of storms and trials.
There are those whose attempts at imitating the voice of God include volume and frightening words. If they can get us to tremble and react with fear they feel as if they have copied the voice of God. They bring no comfort because their interest is in power and control. To them, the voice of God is the voice power, the voice that grabs people at their more fearful, their most vulnerable and tells them that their fears are justified. If only they will listen and follow, we will destroy our enemies. Sadly, once one enemy is destroyed, we are told that there is a new enemy who is at least as great a threat as the previous.
There are others who imitate the voice of God with words and tone of comfort. In the face of evil threat it is their voice that offers words of calm so that we can face any enemy or adversary with the full use of our rationality and companion strengths. They draw us in to a world view of meeting challenges in a way that brings out our best. The psalmist sees God in this light. Within the power to break things with a word, the voice of God leads us to the peace of confidence in God. We are blessed in the glorious presence of God.
September 2, 2019
LCM
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