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