Psalm Meditation 1154 ¶Proper 13 ¶July 31, 2022 ¶Psalm 32 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+32&version=NRSVUE (NRSV) ¶When my brothers and I had established homes of our own, we began to tell stories of our teenage indiscretions at a family meal. After each story, mom would respond with some form of, “I know.” We had tried so hard to act normal, and yet she knew. I am sure she did not know all of our indiscretions, however she knew enough. I imagine that most of us were not as sneaky as we thought, and at least one parent was not as clueless as we hoped. These confessions did not reveal our sin so much as put them out in the open for discussion, and perhaps, forgiveness. ¶The psalmist believes that God is unaware of our transgressions until we acknowledge and confess them to God. The silence of the psalmist does not keep the knowledge of the sin away from God so much as it drives a wedge of secrecy between us and God. While we may think we are keeping secrets from God we are only walling off that portion of ourselves from God’s steadfast and forgiving love. It wreaks more havoc on our bodies, minds, and spirits than even remotely keeping it from God. ¶As we confess our indiscretions and sins to God, we open ourselves to the abundant stores of love and forgiveness that God has for us. While we pretend that we are perfect and have no need of forgiveness, there is a wall of our own construction that keeps us from receiving the fullness of God. As long as we attempt to hide the harshness we carry inside toward ourselves and others, we keep it from being placed in God’s hands where it can dissipate and disappear from our lives in the steadfastness of God’s love for us. ¶July 26, 2022 ¶LCM

Psalm Meditation 1153 ¶Proper 12 ¶July 24, 2022 ¶Psalm 25 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+25&version=NRSVUE Please follow this link to read the psalm first. (NRSV) ¶The adage, “Never meet your heroes, you will always be disappointed,” is good advice. We usually discover that they have some habit, tic, or quirk that is extremely annoying to us. We may also discover that they do not behave or believe what we would have expected from our limited exposure to them. It may appear super easy to learn from them or to get to know them until we actually get the opportunity to do so. ¶The psalmist wants to grow closer to God, and the same warnings apply. The God we think we know, may not be the God we will meet as we delve into prayer, study, and experience. The way of God is difficult, as it requires humility, love, and faithfulness. God points us in the direction of loving those who do not deserve it, and need it desperately. God also asks us to look to ourselves, to see our faults as well as our strengths so that we can correct our faults and build on strengths for the building up of the realm of God. ¶Feel free to meet heroes, knowing that they may be very different from what we expect them to be. Know too, that you are likely someone’s hero and they are or will be disappointed that you do not live up to their expectations. Feel free, as well to meet God for the sake of learning to live in love and faithfulness. It is hard work that is worth the effort to live into the covenant God offers to us. ¶July 18, 2022 ¶LCM

Psalm Meditation 1152 ¶Proper 11 ¶July 17, 2022 ¶Psalm 18 ¶https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+18&version=NRSVUE ¶This long psalm is as good a time as any to post a link instead of the psalm. I continue to encourage you to read the psalm first. ¶I once met someone who treated me as if I were the only person in the room. As I watched him greet other people at the event, I noticed he treated each of them with the same singular focus. I saw it and still see it as an enviable people skill. As David praises God in this psalm, it seems to be for that same focus on his need for deliverance. With everything else that demands God’s attention, there is time and energy to meet David in his time of great need. ¶It is easy, in times of stress and peril, to believe that we are alone. We imagine ourselves abandoned by any source of help on which we normally lean. If we do think to call on God, it is likely that we will not include the introductory praise of this psalm. It is also possible that the ascription of praise was not how David began his prayer in his darkest hour. It was an addition put in as the psalm was written down after the fact. ¶The important thing is to cry out to God when there is a need. It does not have to be ‘right,’ it does not have to be in formal biblical language, it doesn’t need language at all. The necessary part is to call on and rely on God for presence with us, no matter what. We may get the answer we were expecting, with all the T-s crossed and I-s dotted. We may get something radically different from what we asked for and expected God to do. Either way, we know that God is with us. ¶July 11, 2022 ¶LCM

Psalm Meditation 1151 ¶Proper 10 ¶July 10, 2022 ¶Psalm 12 1 Help, O LORD, for there is no longer anyone who is godly; the faithful have disappeared from humankind. 2 They utter lies to each other; with flattering lips and a deceitful heart they speak. 3 May the LORD cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that makes great boasts, 4 those who say, “With our tongues we will prevail; our lips are our own—who is our master?” 5 “Because the poor are despoiled, because the needy groan, I will now rise up,” says the LORD; “I will place them in the safety for which they long.” 6 The promises of the LORD are promises that are pure, silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times. 7 You, O LORD, will protect us; you will guard us from this generation forever. 8 On every side the wicked prowl, as vileness is exalted among humankind. (NRSV) ¶I take a cold comfort in realizing that this psalm is thousands of years old, and we have yet to be overrun by evil people, even when it feels as if we have been. I have a strong memory of my dad, in one of his sermons, quoting Socrates, “The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise.” Both of these remind us that, though we feel as if we are living in the worst of times, we probably are not. ¶We do need to take evil seriously as it continually sprouts and festers among us, including in each one of us. People continue to lie, flatter, and say and do things for personal advantage with no thought to those outside the personal ‘in group.’ And while it is easy and tempting to see, to judge, the evil in others, we really can’t change their behavior. The ones we can change are ourselves. Rather than judging others from the outside, we do well to deal with ourselves from the inside. ¶In all of this, God will always be on the side of the poor and needy, the oppressed and downtrodden. While we like to put ourselves in that position, so that we have favored status with God, the truth is that many reading, and certainly the one writing, this are guilty of despoiling the poor, keeping the needy in want, and participating in the oppression of others. Because God looks out for those who cannot take care of themselves, we do well to be ready to receive discipline, to learn new ways of living in the world, so that we can join God in keeping folks safe, and free, from oppression. ¶July 4, 2022 ¶LCM