Psalm Meditation 1076 Fourth Sunday After the Epiphany January 31, 2021 Psalm 141 1 I call upon you, O Lord; come quickly to me; give ear to my voice when I call to you. 2 Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice. 3 Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips. 4 Do not turn my heart to any evil, to busy myself with wicked deeds in company with those who work iniquity; do not let me eat of their delicacies. 5 Let the righteous strike me; let the faithful correct me. Never let the oil of the wicked anoint my head, for my prayer is continually against their wicked deeds. 6 When they are given over to those who shall condemn them, then they shall learn that my words were pleasant. 7 Like a rock that one breaks apart and shatters on the land, so shall their bones be strewn at the mouth of Sheol. 8 But my eyes are turned toward you, O God, my Lord; in you I seek refuge; do not leave me defenseless. 9 Keep me from the trap that they have laid for me, and from the snares of evildoers. 10 Let the wicked fall into their own nets, while I alone escape. (NRSV) It is easy to confess the sins of others and to ask God to keep those other people from acting on their sinful plans. We have so little information about their motives that we can simply decide that their whole goal and desire is to make life difficult for us. It is, after all, all about us. The psalmist does do some mind reading, deciding that wicked people are aware that they are being wicked. For the most part, the psalmist is focused on personal responsibility. ‘God keep me from stepping in to the wicked acts I see others doing. Allow me to be punished and corrected by those I see as good and godly people. I have seen too many people destroyed by their own wickedness and don’t want to be one of them.’ How would our lives be different if we were more intent on keeping ourselves from falling in to sin as opposed to judging others on our perception of their sinfulness? What if we made covenants with people like us, people who share a set of values, so that we make a deal to correct each other before we get deeply ingrained in actions that we see as undesirable within ourselves? And, what if our focus was on God rather than on a set of impossible standards that we expect everyone to live up to? We would likely find out that the love of God makes a lot of our perfectionist goals unnecessary. January 25, 2021 LCM

Psalm Meditation 1075 Third Sunday After Epiphany January 24, 2021 Psalm 41 1 Happy are those who consider the poor; the Lord delivers them in the day of trouble. 2 The Lord protects them and keeps them alive; they are called happy in the land. You do not give them up to the will of their enemies. 3 The Lord sustains them on their sickbed; in their illness you heal all their infirmities. 4 As for me, I said, “O Lord, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against you.” 5 My enemies wonder in malice when I will die, and my name perish. 6 And when they come to see me, they utter empty words, while their hearts gather mischief; when they go out, they tell it abroad. 7 All who hate me whisper together about me; they imagine the worst for me. 8 They think that a deadly thing has fastened on me, that I will not rise again from where I lie. 9 Even my bosom friend in whom I trusted, who ate of my bread, has lifted the heel against me. 10 But you, O Lord, be gracious to me, and raise me up, that I may repay them. 11 By this I know that you are pleased with me; because my enemy has not triumphed over me. 12 But you have upheld me because of my integrity, and set me in your presence forever. 13 Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and Amen. (NRSV) I imagine it is exhausting to be singled out by a group of people for abuse and ridicule of every kind; to know that every move is seen, judged, and found wanting. There is no rest because of the need for constant vigilance against prying eyes and ears, waiting for the next move that will set off yet another attack. The only respite is in isolation, or a small group of close, trusted friends. The psalmist reminds us that even the group of friends can turn sour sometimes. An adversary can wheedle their way into the group of friends, or a friend can be won over to the adversarial side given the right promises, however empty they might be. That one pretends to be a friend in order to gather more intimate information that can then be used to inflict deeper damage to the soul of that one singled out for destruction. Once someone gets into the inner circle there is no defense strong enough to protect anyone. The psalmist turns to God as the only one who can offer help, hope, and redemption in these situations. God is the only one who can offer resources that can be used to rebuild a life. We may imagine that the psalmist ask for rescue from God in order to destroy the enemies. In many cases the best recourse for repayment is to succeed despite all the energy folks have put into the abuse and ridicule of those like the psalmist. “By this I know that you are pleased with me; because my enemy has not triumphed over me. But you have upheld me because of my integrity, and set me in your presence forever. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and Amen.” January 18, 2021 LCM

Psalm Meditation 1074 Second Sunday After Epiphany January 17, 2021 Psalm 116 1 I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my supplications. 2 Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. 3 The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish. 4 Then I called on the name of the Lord: “O Lord, I pray, save my life!” 5 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful. 6 The Lord protects the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me. 7 Return, O my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. 8 For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. 9 I walk before the Lord in the land of the living. 10 I kept my faith, even when I said, “I am greatly afflicted”; 11 I said in my consternation, “Everyone is a liar.” 12 What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me? 13 I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord, 14 I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people. 15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful ones. 16 O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the child of your serving girl. You have loosed my bonds. 17 I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice and call on the name of the Lord. 18 I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people, 19 in the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord! (NRSV) People who have been there for us in times of trial have a special place in our hearts for the rest of our lives. The one who offered that memorable word of encouragement, the one who stood up for us when it seemed no one else would, the one who showed up when no one else did, the one who treated us as if we mattered when we doubted that ourselves stand out among the memorable people in our lives. For the psalmist, and many of us, YHWH is chief among those who were supportive in times of trial. This psalm goes through a list of ways in which God supported the psalmist in times of need, and the list of responses the psalmist plans to offer up to God in gratitude for all the help that came when it was most needed. The list of responses from the psalmist will take a lifetime to perform for the lifesaving acts of God in a moment of need. If the psalmist is like many of us the sense of gratitude will last a lifetime. My own list of people for whom I am grateful includes folks who will never know how much their action touched my life. For them, it was a random act of kindness, for me, it was the right act at the right time offered for reasons of their own. Random acts of kindness are often generated by a sense of gratitude within the person offering the act. My guess is that after the psalmist performs the list of actions in the psalm a sense of generosity sprouted, grew and went beyond sacrifices to God and spread to touch others January 11, 2021 LCM

Psalm Meditation 1073 Baptism of the Lord January 10, 2021 Psalm 16 1 Protect me, O God, for in you I take refuge. 2 I say to the LORD, "You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you." 3 As for the holy ones in the land, they are the noble, in whom is all my delight. 4 Those who choose another god multiply their sorrows, their drink offereings of blood I will not pour out or take their names upon my lips. 5 The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. 6 the boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; I have a goodly heritage. 7 I bless the LORD who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. 8 I keep the LORD always before me; because he is at my rigfht hand, I shall not be moved. 9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my body also rest secure. 10 For you do not give me up to Sheol, or let your faithful one see the Pit. 11 You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (NRSV) How are our lives made different by the choices we have made? We won't get the chance to go back, make a new decision, see which one we like best and live that life from here on. In some cases, we will learn how we made a difference in someone's life by the way we live our own. Most of the time we do what seems right to us and hope that no one gets hurt by any of our choices, and that maybe we helped someone. We can second guess ourselves, however we can't go back to a moment in time to make a different choice. The psalmist is pleased with the way things have turned out so far. "The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; I have a goodly heritage." How does the psalmist know that a diffeerent choice wouldn't have led to an even better place, a richer heritage? There is no way to know. We get to make the gbest of what we have by making choices that will take us in the way the seems gest to us at the time. One set of choices my lead to wealth, fame, and power while another set leads to joy and contentment in whatever circumstance we find ourselves. We will make our choices according to what is important to us. Some folks make choices that will lead to wealth and power, believing that those will make them happy. Some make choices that will lead to happiness, peace, and contentment. The psalmist leans toward the happiness, rejoicing, and security that comes from a relationship with God. "You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore." January 4, 2021 LCM