Psalm Meditation 1024
Fourth Sunday After Epiphany
February 2, 2020

Psalm 83
1 O God, do not keep silence; do not hold your peace or be still, O God!
2 Even now your enemies are in tumult; those who hate you have raised their heads.
3 They lay crafty plans against your people; they consult together against those you protect.
4 They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more.”
5 They conspire with one accord; against you they make a covenant—
6 the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagrites,
7 Gebal and Ammon and Amalek, Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre;
8 Assyria also has joined them; they are the strong arm of the children of Lot. Selah
9 Do to them as you did to Midian, as to Sisera and Jabin at the Wadi Kishon,
10 who were destroyed at En-dor, who became dung for the ground.
11 Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,
12 who said, “Let us take the pastures of God for our own possession.”
13 O my God, make them like whirling dust, like chaff before the wind.
14 As fire consumes the forest, as the flame sets the mountains ablaze,
15 so pursue them with your tempest and terrify them with your hurricane.
16 Fill their faces with shame, so that they may seek your name, O Lord.
17 Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever; let them perish in disgrace.
18 Let them know that you alone, whose name is the Lord, are the Most High over all the earth.
(NRSV)

In a time when each nation was thought to have their own local deity, it was easy to know that when our people and property were attacked it was an affront to our God. When all the surrounding nations have joined forces against us we can call on our God to protect us from those who are coming to get the people and property held as personal possession by YHWH. And while we are at it, we can tell our God how chase and chastise all these folks who see us as pushovers, thus insulting us and YHWH all at the same time.

It all gets more complicated when our concept of God broadens to a monotheistic view. There is only one God, and that one God created all things. God entrusted each one of us with the care of a portion of everything else in the created order. That being the case, it is harder to call on God to protect us from ’those people.’ When there are no people not created by YHWH, and all of creation falls under the power and protection of God, including those who do not acknowledge that power and protection, we can’t expect that our stuff is more important to God than anyone else’s. We can call on God for protection, but not because God cares more about us than those we see as other.

As monotheists we can’t assume that we are more valuable than any other person or group in creation. Our relationship with God may be more in line with what God asks from people, and maybe not. Either way, God does not love us more or less than another group. Recognizing that we are, each and all, in the family of God, needs to give us pause before we define a person or group as outside the love of God. “Let them [and us] know that you alone, whose name is the Lord, are the Most High over all the earth.”

January 27, 2020
LCM lcrsmanifold@att.net
http://psalmmeditations.blogspot.com/