Psalm Meditation 1068 Second Sunday of Advent December 6, 2020 Psalm 115 1 Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and our faithfulness. 2 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” 3 Our God is in the heavens; he does whatever he pleases. 4 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. 5 They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. 6 They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. 7 They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; they make no sound in their throats. 8 Those who make them are like them; so are all who trust in them. 9 O Israel, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield. 10 O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield. 11 You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield. 12 The Lord has been mindful of us; he will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron; 13 he will bless those who fear the Lord, both small and great. 14 May the Lord give you increase, both you and your children. 15 May you be blessed by the Lord, who made heaven and earth. 16 The heavens are the Lord’s heavens, but the earth he has given to human beings. 17 The dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any that go down into silence. 18 But we will bless the Lord from this time on and forevermore. Praise the Lord! (NRSV) There will always be those who believe differently from us. It is likely that each of us believes a slight variation of what those around us believe. It is the variety that makes for interesting discussion, raging arguments, and a variety of schools of thought within many religious groups. We are willing to give each other some leeway in beliefs as long as we agree on some fundamentals of the faith. Once we pass the threshold of tolerance we feel the need to part ways since ‘those’ people are so wrong that we can no longer stand to be in the same room with them. Once that split is made, ‘those’ people are no longer seen as different, they are seen as wrong. Since they are wrong they can be lumped together into large groups of evil, sinful people whose errors in faith, belief, and practice will doom them to an eternity of suffering, death, or total annihilation. The psalmist says it this way, “The dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any that go down into silence.” Since people are rarely hated or bullied into faithfulness, we would do well to practice our faith in such a way that we model a life of faith and trust in God. Salvation is not something we can earn for ourselves, or that we can give to others. Salvation is a gift that God gives. Perhaps our lives of faith will serve as an example for others. People are drawn more quickly to an example of blessing from God than from constant judgment from folks who claim to do so in the name of God. “May you be blessed by the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” November 30, 2020 LCM

Psalm Meditation 1067 First Sunday of Advent November 29, 2020 Psalm 15 1 O Lord, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill? 2 Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right, and speak the truth from their heart; 3 who do not slander with their tongue, and do no evil to their friends, nor take up a reproach against their neighbors; 4 in whose eyes the wicked are despised, but who honor those who fear the Lord; who stand by their oath even to their hurt; 5 who do not lend money at interest, and do not take a bribe against the innocent. Those who do these things shall never be moved. (NRSV) We like to know the rules and expectations when we are involved in an activity or game. We are especially intent on the rules when our lives are on the line, so this is one of the psalms we should each have memorized. My guess is that we have paid little attention to this psalm because these rules are hard. Each of three verses has three rules, with two rules in the last verse. In each verse there is at least one difficult rule. Chances are that the difficult rule is different from person to person. Most of us have found a way to justify our actions when we enforce the rules for everyone, except ourselves. We are perfectly content to have one set of rules for our people and a different set for ‘those’ people. In a lot of cases we may not even realize that we make things more difficult for those who are not like us. When we get called out on our inconsistencies we deny that we look at one group differently than another. And if we can point out ‘their’ inconsistencies easily, we are probably guilty of some of our own. If we have to keep all of these rules all the time in order to be welcomed into God’s tent on God’s holy hill, I imagine that it will be a small tent with very few people, if any, in it. We are left to hope that we have some way of paying for our infractions of these rules: a penalty box, a foul, a do-over of some kind that makes us responsible for our actions without having to toss us out of the game. Something like God’s steadfast love and forgiveness. November 23, 2020 LCM lcrsmanifold@att.net http://psalmmeditations.blogspot.com/

Psalm Meditation 1066 Reign of Christ November 22, 2020 Psalm 90 1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. 2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. 3 You turn us back to dust, and say, “Turn back, you mortals.” 4 For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past, or like a watch in the night. 5 You sweep them away; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning; 6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. 7 For we are consumed by your anger; by your wrath we are overwhelmed. 8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your countenance. 9 For all our days pass away under your wrath; our years come to an end like a sigh. 10 The days of our life are seventy years, or perhaps eighty, if we are strong; even then their span is only toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. 11 Who considers the power of your anger? Your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you. 12 So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart. 13 Turn, O Lord! How long? Have compassion on your servants! 14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. 15 Make us glad as many days as you have afflicted us, and as many years as we have seen evil. 16 Let your work be manifest to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. 17 Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and prosper for us the work of our hands—O prosper the work of our hands! (NRSV) One of my mentors defined anger as ‘a boat floating on a sea of fear, realize what you are afraid of and you don’t have to be so angry.’ So what is God afraid of that needs to be expressed as divine wrath? One possibility is that God is afraid for us. There are a lot of ways to move away from God and they each have a consequences. We see the glittery temptation dangling in front of us and move toward it. God’s wrath is kindled when the temptation shows its true colors and begins to do damage to us. God reacts out of fear for our safety. Some of us see God as angry and aloof as a default setting. God is always looking for reasons to be angry with us, and excuses to punish us. More accurately, God is looking for reasons to pass judgment on ‘those’ people, the ones who do all the things that we and God find annoying and sinful. Our task is to point out all the reasons that God is angry in order to force ‘them’ to do things the way they should; our way. God’s anger just happens to be directed at those with whom we disagree. The wrath of God is directed toward anything that moves someone away from the divine presence. When we emphasize the finger wagging judgment of God we are more likely to push someone away than draw them back. It is when we meet saints and sinners with the love of God that people are drawn into the divine presence and the communion of saints. It is through compassion and steadfast love that we rejoice and prosper in the presence of God. November 16, 2020 LCM lcrsmanifold@att.net http://psalmmeditations.blogspot.com/

Psalm Meditation 1065 Proper 28 November 15, 2020 Psalm 64 1 Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint; preserve my life from the dread enemy. 2 Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked, from the scheming of evildoers, 3 who whet their tongues like swords, who aim bitter words like arrows, 4 shooting from ambush at the blameless; they shoot suddenly and without fear. 5 They hold fast to their evil purpose; they talk of laying snares secretly, thinking, “Who can see us? 6 Who can search out our crimes? We have thought out a cunningly conceived plot.” For the human heart and mind are deep. 7 But God will shoot his arrow at them; they will be wounded suddenly. 8 Because of their tongue he will bring them to ruin; all who see them will shake with horror. 9 Then everyone will fear; they will tell what God has brought about, and ponder what he has done. 10 Let the righteous rejoice in the Lord and take refuge in him. Let all the upright in heart glory. (NRSV) The tongue is a symbol of what we can do with our thoughts and words. We can use them for helping and healing, or as in this psalm, to do great damage. We can inflict deep wounds from a great distance with a few words. Sometimes our words are carefully chosen to do maximum damage, other times the damage is done because we do not consider our words before we speak them. Some of the deadliest wounds are inflicted by poisoning others against the actual target of our words. One well phrased rumor can do immense damage if enough people spread it widely enough. The psalmist asks to be delivered from those who have planned and plotted to do damage to another with their words. A part of the plot is the rationale and excuses that words only hurt if they are true. Experience teaches that anything heard often enough becomes true in the minds of the hearers. The plots and plans can arise organically. One person starts a rumor, another person finds it juicy and passes it on. It takes on a life of its own and becomes true among those who spread it even if there is no evidence to back it up. The psalmist doesn’t even have to ask for help as God begins to take aim at those who speak with malice and in hopes of doing great damage to another. The arrows of God may not save the current target of the malicious group, however they do pay a price eventually. The ones who consistently spread damaging words will be seen as folks who cannot be trusted. People will stop talking to them for fear that anything and everything will be used to fuel the rumor mill. Through it all God will be with us, offering us refuge from those who are out to hurt us and to lead us away from any inclination to hurt others. November 9, 2020 LCM

Psalm Meditation 1064 Proper 27 November 8, 2020 Psalm 139 1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me. 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. 3 You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely. 5 You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it. 7 Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. 9 If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, 10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,” 12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you. 13 For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed. 17 How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 I try to count them—they are more than the sand; I come to the end—I am still with you. 19 O that you would kill the wicked, O God, and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me— 20 those who speak of you maliciously, and lift themselves up against you for evil! 21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? 22 I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies. 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. 24 See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (NRSV) Even in times we wish we could disappear, one of our great fears is that we are invisible, that we don’t matter to anyone. The psalmist goes through a list of the ways that God not only sees us, but seeks us out. Especially when we are feeling sad and sorry for ourselves it is a source of great comfort to discover that someone is thinking about us enough to seek us out, to go out of their way to look for us until we are found. The psalmist goes through a list of possible hiding places, and notices that God can find us there. Whether we go to the highest height, the lowest depth, or the darkest darkness God will find us to be with us. Once we have been sought and found we develop a fierce loyalty toward that person. The psalmist goes through the list of actions that contribute to that sense of loyalty. God knows us well enough to know where to look for us. God gathers us into a comforting embrace we need that. God makes words unnecessary and lets us decide if and when to speak. God helps us pull ourselves back together so we can face anything arm in arm. God helps us discover the difference between our revenge fantasies and what course of action will actually be helpful. God lets us know that the loyalty we feel toward God is felt by God toward us. God willingly seeks us out when we wander off. Sometimes God strides in to scoop us up, to let us know we are not alone as we face whatever we are facing. Sometimes God stands back watching and waiting for us to recognize our need and ask for help. Either way, God is present in the way that works in our lives. God is not there to fix things or change things, God is there to be with us, to demonstrate the love and loyalty God directs our way. November 2, 2020 LCM