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