Psalm Meditation 1041
Pentecost
May 31, 2020
Psalm 60
1 O God, you have rejected us, broken our defenses; you have been angry; now restore us!
2 You have caused the land to quake; you have torn it open; repair the cracks in it, for it is tottering.
3 You have made your people suffer hard things; you have given us wine to drink that made us reel.
4 You have set up a banner for those who fear you, to rally to it out of bowshot. Selah
5 Give victory with your right hand, and answer us, so that those whom you love may be rescued.
6 God has promised in his sanctuary: “With exultation I will divide up Shechem, and portion out the Vale of Succoth.
7 Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine; Ephraim is my helmet; Judah is my scepter.
8 Moab is my washbasin; on Edom I hurl my shoe; over Philistia I shout in triumph.”
9 Who will bring me to the fortified city? Who will lead me to Edom?
10 Have you not rejected us, O God? You do not go out, O God, with our armies.
11 O grant us help against the foe, for human help is worthless.
12 With God we shall do valiantly; it is he who will tread down our foes.
(NRSV)
When things are not going our way, it is tempting to wander into despair; to wander off into negative thoughts and allow them to consume us. The psalmist is voicing this kind of despair. Everything is turning sour and we are caught in the middle of it. Not only is our army being defeated, we have to deal with earthquakes too. All the good things we expect from God are going the opposite way.
And then the psalmist remembers that it is not always this bad. God continues to offer us protection and safety even as we are being overrun by enemies and disasters. God has made promises to us that are being honored on a daily basis. God treats us well and all those ‘others’ are treated with serious disrespect. Things are not going well right now, however, God is with us and things will turn around shortly.
We have a choice in our lives; we can dwell on the negative, harping to God about all the things that are wrong in our lives and relationships, or we can dwell on the positive, thanking God for all the good things going on in our lives and relationships. It takes time and effort on our part to change our point of view and attitude. We will fall back into old patterns and have to remember what we are doing. And God will continue to be a refuge and strength.
May 25, 2020
LCM
Monday, May 25, 2020
Monday, May 18, 2020
Psalm Meditation 1040
Seventh Sunday of Easter
May 24, 2020
Psalm 135
1 Praise the Lord! Praise the name of the Lord; give praise, O servants of the Lord,
2 you that stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God.
3 Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good; sing to his name, for he is gracious.
4 For the Lord has chosen Jacob for himself, Israel as his own possession.
5 For I know that the Lord is great; our Lord is above all gods.
6 Whatever the Lord pleases he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.
7 He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth; he makes lightnings for the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses.
8 He it was who struck down the firstborn of Egypt, both human beings and animals;
9 he sent signs and wonders into your midst, O Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his servants.
10 He struck down many nations and killed mighty kings—
11 Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan—
12 and gave their land as a heritage, a heritage to his people Israel.
13 Your name, O Lord, endures forever, your renown, O Lord, throughout all ages.
14 For the Lord will vindicate his people, and have compassion on his servants.
15 The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands.
16 They have mouths, but they do not speak; they have eyes, but they do not see;
17 they have ears, but they do not hear, and there is no breath in their mouths.
18 Those who make them and all who trust them shall become like them.
19 O house of Israel, bless the Lord! O house of Aaron, bless the Lord!
20 O house of Levi, bless the Lord! You that fear the Lord, bless the Lord!
21 Blessed be the Lord from Zion, he who resides in Jerusalem. Praise the Lord!
(NRSV)
Sometimes you want to brag on those who make your life good, even possible. The psalmist chooses to brag on YHWH as the one who chose the people and nation of Israel to receive good things. With that brief introduction, the psalmist launches into praise for a variety of the good things YHWH does in the world. God makes clouds and lightning, wind and rain. In addition to the natural phenomena, God provides a place for this chosen people in a decisive way. And, our God is better than yours, because ours is alive and not lifeless silver and gold like the divinities of those other people.
The only paternal grandmother I knew was my dad’s stepmother. Dad said that sometimes she, Pearl, would brag on my dad and his brothers as well raised children, acknowledging the hard work of their parents. Other times she would claim the boys as her own. Dad would scold her for trying to have it both ways. She could not say what wonderful men these boys had turned out to be and then claim them as if she had helped them become these wonderful people. According to my dad, we can only brag on those over whom we had no influence. That seems a bit unrealistic, so let me add that we can brag on those who have surpassed any training and influence we may have contributed.
Another way to brag is by comparison. ‘My dad can beat up your dad; my mom can beat up your dad.’ Funny, but not necessary. Just because we brag like that as children, doesn’t mean it serves us well as we mature. In this season there are a lot of items that say my mom or my dad is the best. My sense is that two people can be wearing ‘World’s Best Mom’ shirts that are both accurate from the perception of the person who gave the present. Rather than bragging that my divinity can beat up your divinity we do better to say that YHWH is the God I need in my life. “Praise the Lord!”
May 18, 2020
LCM
Seventh Sunday of Easter
May 24, 2020
Psalm 135
1 Praise the Lord! Praise the name of the Lord; give praise, O servants of the Lord,
2 you that stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God.
3 Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good; sing to his name, for he is gracious.
4 For the Lord has chosen Jacob for himself, Israel as his own possession.
5 For I know that the Lord is great; our Lord is above all gods.
6 Whatever the Lord pleases he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.
7 He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth; he makes lightnings for the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses.
8 He it was who struck down the firstborn of Egypt, both human beings and animals;
9 he sent signs and wonders into your midst, O Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his servants.
10 He struck down many nations and killed mighty kings—
11 Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan—
12 and gave their land as a heritage, a heritage to his people Israel.
13 Your name, O Lord, endures forever, your renown, O Lord, throughout all ages.
14 For the Lord will vindicate his people, and have compassion on his servants.
15 The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands.
16 They have mouths, but they do not speak; they have eyes, but they do not see;
17 they have ears, but they do not hear, and there is no breath in their mouths.
18 Those who make them and all who trust them shall become like them.
19 O house of Israel, bless the Lord! O house of Aaron, bless the Lord!
20 O house of Levi, bless the Lord! You that fear the Lord, bless the Lord!
21 Blessed be the Lord from Zion, he who resides in Jerusalem. Praise the Lord!
(NRSV)
Sometimes you want to brag on those who make your life good, even possible. The psalmist chooses to brag on YHWH as the one who chose the people and nation of Israel to receive good things. With that brief introduction, the psalmist launches into praise for a variety of the good things YHWH does in the world. God makes clouds and lightning, wind and rain. In addition to the natural phenomena, God provides a place for this chosen people in a decisive way. And, our God is better than yours, because ours is alive and not lifeless silver and gold like the divinities of those other people.
The only paternal grandmother I knew was my dad’s stepmother. Dad said that sometimes she, Pearl, would brag on my dad and his brothers as well raised children, acknowledging the hard work of their parents. Other times she would claim the boys as her own. Dad would scold her for trying to have it both ways. She could not say what wonderful men these boys had turned out to be and then claim them as if she had helped them become these wonderful people. According to my dad, we can only brag on those over whom we had no influence. That seems a bit unrealistic, so let me add that we can brag on those who have surpassed any training and influence we may have contributed.
Another way to brag is by comparison. ‘My dad can beat up your dad; my mom can beat up your dad.’ Funny, but not necessary. Just because we brag like that as children, doesn’t mean it serves us well as we mature. In this season there are a lot of items that say my mom or my dad is the best. My sense is that two people can be wearing ‘World’s Best Mom’ shirts that are both accurate from the perception of the person who gave the present. Rather than bragging that my divinity can beat up your divinity we do better to say that YHWH is the God I need in my life. “Praise the Lord!”
May 18, 2020
LCM
Monday, May 11, 2020
Psalm Meditation 1039
Sixth Sunday of Easter
May 17, 2020
Psalm 35
1 Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me!
2 Take hold of shield and buckler, and rise up to help me!
3 Draw the spear and javelin against my pursuers; say to my soul, “I am your salvation.”
4 Let them be put to shame and dishonor who seek after my life. Let them be turned back and confounded who devise evil against me.
5 Let them be like chaff before the wind, with the angel of the Lord driving them on.
6 Let their way be dark and slippery, with the angel of the Lord pursuing them.
7 For without cause they hid their net for me; without cause they dug a pit for my life.
8 Let ruin come on them unawares. And let the net that they hid ensnare them; let them fall in it—to their ruin.
9 Then my soul shall rejoice in the Lord, exulting in his deliverance.
10 All my bones shall say, “O Lord, who is like you? You deliver the weak from those too strong for them, the weak and needy from those who despoil them.”
11 Malicious witnesses rise up; they ask me about things I do not know.
12 They repay me evil for good; my soul is forlorn.
13 But as for me, when they were sick, I wore sackcloth; I afflicted myself with fasting. I prayed with head bowed on my bosom,
14 as though I grieved for a friend or a brother; I went about as one who laments for a mother, bowed down and in mourning.
15 But at my stumbling they gathered in glee, they gathered together against me; ruffians whom I did not know tore at me without ceasing;
16 they impiously mocked more and more, gnashing at me with their teeth.
17 How long, O Lord, will you look on? Rescue me from their ravages, my life from the lions!
18 Then I will thank you in the great congregation; in the mighty throng I will praise you.
19 Do not let my treacherous enemies rejoice over me, or those who hate me without cause wink the eye.
20 For they do not speak peace, but they conceive deceitful words against those who are quiet in the land.
21 They open wide their mouths against me; they say, “Aha, Aha, our eyes have seen it.”
22 You have seen, O Lord; do not be silent! O Lord, do not be far from me!
23 Wake up! Bestir yourself for my defense, for my cause, my God and my Lord!
24 Vindicate me, O Lord, my God, according to your righteousness, and do not let them rejoice over me.
25 Do not let them say to themselves, “Aha, we have our heart’s desire.” Do not let them say, “We have swallowed you up.”
26 Let all those who rejoice at my calamity be put to shame and confusion; let those who exalt themselves against me be clothed with shame and dishonor.
27 Let those who desire my vindication shout for joy and be glad, and say evermore, “Great is the Lord, who delights in the welfare of his servant.”
28 Then my tongue shall tell of your righteousness and of your praise all day long.
(NRSV)
Recognizing that the Bible is a mirror, and that we get out of it what we have to put into it, this psalm strikes me as the words of a whiner. ‘Everybody is picking on me, even after all the wonderful things I did for them. And God, if you loved me you would put all those big meanies in their place.’ Here in the middle of a pandemic, it is easy to get whiny and to expect that God will make it all right by changing all those other people and giving me a smooth route from here on.
Rarely is the fault all on one side. My wife was a much sought after substitute teacher when our children were in school. Her rule on tattling was that you had to start with what you had done to start or escalate the situation. Once students realized that they could not get someone else in trouble without getting themselves in some as well, it ruined tattling for most of them. As we begin to moan and whine to God about all the big meanies picking on us, it is a good idea to look to ourselves to see what we may have done to contribute to the problem, even how our actions may have been taken in a way we did mean them.
And God has this way of dealing with us calmly, despite our desire for the violent end to all who have wronged us most recently. And sometimes the very calmness of God can set us off again because we want violence to rain down on those people who ruined my life, or at least my day. Eventually, we do see some sense in the ways of God and we can say, ““Great is the Lord, who delights in the welfare of his servant.” Then my tongue shall tell of your righteousness and of your praise all day long.”
May 11, 2020
LCM lcrsmanifold@att.net
http://psalmmeditations.blogspot.com/
Sixth Sunday of Easter
May 17, 2020
Psalm 35
1 Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me!
2 Take hold of shield and buckler, and rise up to help me!
3 Draw the spear and javelin against my pursuers; say to my soul, “I am your salvation.”
4 Let them be put to shame and dishonor who seek after my life. Let them be turned back and confounded who devise evil against me.
5 Let them be like chaff before the wind, with the angel of the Lord driving them on.
6 Let their way be dark and slippery, with the angel of the Lord pursuing them.
7 For without cause they hid their net for me; without cause they dug a pit for my life.
8 Let ruin come on them unawares. And let the net that they hid ensnare them; let them fall in it—to their ruin.
9 Then my soul shall rejoice in the Lord, exulting in his deliverance.
10 All my bones shall say, “O Lord, who is like you? You deliver the weak from those too strong for them, the weak and needy from those who despoil them.”
11 Malicious witnesses rise up; they ask me about things I do not know.
12 They repay me evil for good; my soul is forlorn.
13 But as for me, when they were sick, I wore sackcloth; I afflicted myself with fasting. I prayed with head bowed on my bosom,
14 as though I grieved for a friend or a brother; I went about as one who laments for a mother, bowed down and in mourning.
15 But at my stumbling they gathered in glee, they gathered together against me; ruffians whom I did not know tore at me without ceasing;
16 they impiously mocked more and more, gnashing at me with their teeth.
17 How long, O Lord, will you look on? Rescue me from their ravages, my life from the lions!
18 Then I will thank you in the great congregation; in the mighty throng I will praise you.
19 Do not let my treacherous enemies rejoice over me, or those who hate me without cause wink the eye.
20 For they do not speak peace, but they conceive deceitful words against those who are quiet in the land.
21 They open wide their mouths against me; they say, “Aha, Aha, our eyes have seen it.”
22 You have seen, O Lord; do not be silent! O Lord, do not be far from me!
23 Wake up! Bestir yourself for my defense, for my cause, my God and my Lord!
24 Vindicate me, O Lord, my God, according to your righteousness, and do not let them rejoice over me.
25 Do not let them say to themselves, “Aha, we have our heart’s desire.” Do not let them say, “We have swallowed you up.”
26 Let all those who rejoice at my calamity be put to shame and confusion; let those who exalt themselves against me be clothed with shame and dishonor.
27 Let those who desire my vindication shout for joy and be glad, and say evermore, “Great is the Lord, who delights in the welfare of his servant.”
28 Then my tongue shall tell of your righteousness and of your praise all day long.
(NRSV)
Recognizing that the Bible is a mirror, and that we get out of it what we have to put into it, this psalm strikes me as the words of a whiner. ‘Everybody is picking on me, even after all the wonderful things I did for them. And God, if you loved me you would put all those big meanies in their place.’ Here in the middle of a pandemic, it is easy to get whiny and to expect that God will make it all right by changing all those other people and giving me a smooth route from here on.
Rarely is the fault all on one side. My wife was a much sought after substitute teacher when our children were in school. Her rule on tattling was that you had to start with what you had done to start or escalate the situation. Once students realized that they could not get someone else in trouble without getting themselves in some as well, it ruined tattling for most of them. As we begin to moan and whine to God about all the big meanies picking on us, it is a good idea to look to ourselves to see what we may have done to contribute to the problem, even how our actions may have been taken in a way we did mean them.
And God has this way of dealing with us calmly, despite our desire for the violent end to all who have wronged us most recently. And sometimes the very calmness of God can set us off again because we want violence to rain down on those people who ruined my life, or at least my day. Eventually, we do see some sense in the ways of God and we can say, ““Great is the Lord, who delights in the welfare of his servant.” Then my tongue shall tell of your righteousness and of your praise all day long.”
May 11, 2020
LCM lcrsmanifold@att.net
http://psalmmeditations.blogspot.com/
Monday, May 4, 2020
Psalm Meditation 1038
Fifth of Sunday Easter
May 10, 2020
Psalm 110
1 The Lord says to my lord, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.”
2 The Lord sends out from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your foes.
3 Your people will offer themselves willingly on the day you lead your forces on the holy mountains. From the womb of the morning, like dew, your youth will come to you.
4 The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”
5 The Lord is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.
6 He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses; he will shatter heads over the wide earth.
7 He will drink from the stream by the path; therefore he will lift up his head.
(NRSV)
Most of us have no experience with crowning a new ruler, and if you consider royalty who hold absolute power over subjects, we have even less. This enthronement psalm wishes all the best to a new ruler ascending the throne. The rulers of Israel were seen as agents of and on a footing with God. While God made the enemies of the monarch a footstool for the ruler, the ruler led the people out to war. Since we have so little experience with coronation, let alone being rulers ourselves, what does this psalm have to do with us?
Sometimes God willingly takes the lead in our lives, preparing us and those around us for the next big thing. Amazing things go on all around us and we have no control and no say in what is happening. We simply stand awestruck and watch as the world changes all around us. Other times God steps back so that we can use the gifts and skills we have at our disposal to make the world a better place. We give it our all, freely offering ourselves to the task that lies before us. While it may seem that God is doing nothing, God is watching, supervising, standing by as a loving parent, allowing us to do our best and ready to step in if necessary.
None of us is going to be crowned ruler of anything any time soon. That does not mean that God is absent. God continues to love us, to act on our behalf sometimes and to encourage our actions at others. We have been known to rush in to help God out when it is not needed and we have been guilty of sitting on the sidelines when it is our turn to shine. It can be hard to know which time is which. The important thing to know is that God is with us and is actively working for good in our lives.
May 4, 2020
LCM
Fifth of Sunday Easter
May 10, 2020
Psalm 110
1 The Lord says to my lord, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.”
2 The Lord sends out from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your foes.
3 Your people will offer themselves willingly on the day you lead your forces on the holy mountains. From the womb of the morning, like dew, your youth will come to you.
4 The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”
5 The Lord is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.
6 He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses; he will shatter heads over the wide earth.
7 He will drink from the stream by the path; therefore he will lift up his head.
(NRSV)
Most of us have no experience with crowning a new ruler, and if you consider royalty who hold absolute power over subjects, we have even less. This enthronement psalm wishes all the best to a new ruler ascending the throne. The rulers of Israel were seen as agents of and on a footing with God. While God made the enemies of the monarch a footstool for the ruler, the ruler led the people out to war. Since we have so little experience with coronation, let alone being rulers ourselves, what does this psalm have to do with us?
Sometimes God willingly takes the lead in our lives, preparing us and those around us for the next big thing. Amazing things go on all around us and we have no control and no say in what is happening. We simply stand awestruck and watch as the world changes all around us. Other times God steps back so that we can use the gifts and skills we have at our disposal to make the world a better place. We give it our all, freely offering ourselves to the task that lies before us. While it may seem that God is doing nothing, God is watching, supervising, standing by as a loving parent, allowing us to do our best and ready to step in if necessary.
None of us is going to be crowned ruler of anything any time soon. That does not mean that God is absent. God continues to love us, to act on our behalf sometimes and to encourage our actions at others. We have been known to rush in to help God out when it is not needed and we have been guilty of sitting on the sidelines when it is our turn to shine. It can be hard to know which time is which. The important thing to know is that God is with us and is actively working for good in our lives.
May 4, 2020
LCM
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