Psalm Meditation 1102 Tenth Sunday of Ordinary Time August 1, 2021 Psalm 96 1 O sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. 2 Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. 3 Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples. 4 For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; he is to be revered above all gods. 5 For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. 6 Honor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. 7 Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. 8 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts. 9 Worship the Lord in holy splendor; tremble before him, all the earth. 10 Say among the nations, “The Lord is king! The world is firmly established; it shall never be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity.” 11 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it; 12 let the field exult, and everything in it. Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy 13 before the Lord; for he is coming, for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with his truth. (NRSV) Most people don’t like new things unless they have some say in it, some power over initiating it, some sense of choice in whether or not they participate in it. So, we can be all gung-ho on reading this psalm with its call to newness, until someone tells us we are going to do something new that you have no say in. It doesn’t even have to be a big thing. Something as simple as singing an unfamiliar hymn in worship can ruin a person’s whole day, week, longer than that even. We like the comfortable and familiar. Every now and then something happens in our lives that requires a new song, a new way of expressing our experience of God. When our faith is challenged and we come out with a deeper, stronger faith, we need a new way to express that faith. When we find that what was once comfortable and fulfilling is now confining and narrow, we need a new expression of our now broader view of God and the world. We need a new song. Our new song may express a deeper sadness, while making room for a more expansive joy. As we expand our experience of God, we will discover that we are open to new ways of expressing the height and depth of the presence of God in our lives and the lives of those who are not like us. It may be an experience akin to watching what is thought of as a children’s show only to discover that there is are layers to the characters and story that escaped us in previous viewings. As we grow and mature in faith, we may discover that an old song takes on a new meaning, that it becomes a new song. “O sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth.” July 26, 2021 LCM

Psalm Meditation 1101 Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time July 25, 2021 Psalm 70 1 Be pleased, O God, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me! 2 Let those be put to shame and confusion who seek my life. Let those be turned back and brought to dishonor who desire to hurt me. 3 Let those who say, “Aha, Aha!” turn back because of their shame. 4 Let all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Let those who love your salvation say evermore, “God is great!” 5 But I am poor and needy; hasten to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O Lord, do not delay! (NRSV) Even though this psalm may not resonate with you doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter to you. If you are lucky enough not to be poor and needy, this psalm by one who is can teach us what at least one poor and needy person thinks and feels. They long for help from God and hope that any of us who may be guilty of doing the picking on and harassing will come to ruin with the help of God. We all feel picked on from time to time. Many of us have resources to help us get through those times. We have parents, spouses, children, friends, or combinations of these to give us support and comfort when others are miking our lives miserable. Direct intervention by God would be helpful, though much of the work of God will be done through family and friends. Instead of assuming that we are picked on as badly as the psalmist and those in the same boat, perhaps we can be an agent of God (an angel), by offering help and support that people like the psalmist do not have access to otherwise. We have each justified our lack of action by knowing that it is not our concern, that this other somehow deserves what is happening to them, leaving it to others closer to this other to support them, or worse yet, participating in the bullying oppression. For those who have no support network, we can look for ways to live out the presence of God for them, if even for a moment. “Let all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you.” July 20, 2021 LCM

Psalm Meditation 1100 Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time July 18, 2021 Psalm 145 1 I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. 2 Every day I will bless you, and praise your name forever and ever. 3 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; his greatness is unsearchable. 4 One generation shall laud your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts. 5 On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate. 6 The might of your awesome deeds shall be proclaimed, and I will declare your greatness. 7 They shall celebrate the fame of your abundant goodness, and shall sing aloud of your righteousness. 8 The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. 9 The Lord is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made. 10 All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your faithful shall bless you. 11 They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom, and tell of your power, 12 to make known to all people your mighty deeds, and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. 13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. The Lord is faithful in all his words, and gracious in all his deeds. 14 The Lord upholds all who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down. 15 The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. 16 You open your hand, satisfying the desire of every living thing. 17 The Lord is just in all his ways, and kind in all his doings. 18 The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. 19 He fulfills the desire of all who fear him; he also hears their cry, and saves them. 20 The Lord watches over all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy. 21 My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, and all flesh will bless his holy name forever and ever. (NRSV) Giving thanks to God is an interesting consideration. We would think that it is easiest to give thanks when things are going well for us. However, in many cases when things are going very well for us we have a tendency to believe that it is because we have done something to deserve this good fortune. Either God has decided to reward us for our faithfulness, or we forget about God and believe that we have done this with our own hard work and good looks. When things turn sour, we ask God what we have done to deserve such bad treatment. As people in God’s favor, we deserve all the good stuff and we question and complain when things turn bad. The folks who seem to have little for which to be thankful, are the ones who will give God thanks most readily. There is gratitude for the smallest consideration all the way up to the greatest gift they might receive. It is not about earning or deserving so much as receiving all that comes their way. As a part of thankfulness they will bless God for all that comes their way. Both paragraphs above are painted with a broad brush since there are always exceptions: well to do folks who know it is all from God, and those without who blame everyone for everything that goes wrong with them, including God. The psalmist still tells us, “The Lord is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made. All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your faithful shall bless you.” July 12, 2021 LCM

Psalm Meditation 1099 Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time July 11, 2021 Psalm 45 1 My heart overflows with a goodly theme; I address my verses to the king; my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe. 2 You are the most handsome of men; grace is poured upon your lips; therefore God has blessed you forever. 3 Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, in your glory and majesty. 4 In your majesty ride on victoriously for the cause of truth and to defend the right; let your right hand teach you dread deeds. 5 Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; the peoples fall under you. 6 Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever. Your royal scepter is a scepter of equity; 7 you love righteousness and hate wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions; 8 your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia. From ivory palaces stringed instruments make you glad; 9 daughters of kings are among your ladies of honor; at your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir. 10 Hear, O daughter, consider and incline your ear; forget your people and your father’s house, 11 and the king will desire your beauty. Since he is your lord, bow to him; 12 the people of Tyre will seek your favor with gifts, the richest of the people 13 with all kinds of wealth. The princess is decked in her chamber with gold-woven robes; 14 in many-colored robes she is led to the king; behind her the virgins, her companions, follow. 15 With joy and gladness they are led along as they enter the palace of the king. 16 In the place of ancestors you, O king, shall have sons; you will make them princes in all the earth. 17 I will cause your name to be celebrated in all generations; therefore the peoples will praise you forever and ever. (NRSV) This may be a totally random thought sparked by verse 13 of this marriage psalm. I hope it is helpful despite or because of its focus. In early preaching, the habit was to read a verse of Scripture, expound on it, move to the next verse and repeat the process. I believe that the chapters and verses of the Bible are divisions for preaching. The chapters are a text for a given week and the verses are the places to stop in order to expound on that bit of Scripture. To add to the possibility of confusion, early Hebrew was written without punctuation or even spaces between words. Dividing a text as has been done with verse 13 raises an interesting question. In the NRSV there is not even a comma to separate verse 12 from 13; the verse picks up in the middle of a sentence. Chances are, that at one time people read the sentence as if the princess were decked with all kinds of wealth, and now it makes more sense for the people of Tyre to be the ones with all kinds of wealth as wedding gifts for the king. The punctuation has changed but not the versification. Either way, the reading does not have any effect on our salvation—this time. So, all of this to remind us that it is important to be careful how we read and comprehend Scripture. Am I correct about how Scripture was divided into chapters and verses? I have never seen any explanation of any kind; so maybe yes, maybe no. Have I seen and heard people take the same verse of Scripture to prove opposing points of view by putting emphasis on the part that proves their point? Yep, I have. As we read Scripture, especially if we are reading to prove ourselves right about something, and ‘those people’ wrong, we do well to keep an eye to God instead of proving our own point of view with Scripture. July 5, 2021 LCM